how to board a big ship? Albion Prelude.

[aleks2098]

I read all this topic

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=249534

i found... abandoned mamooth in my game (or rather "bugged" mamooth which stopped and doesnt fly)

I have a skiron and 8 very poor marines. But mamooth is empty and floating. anyway - it starts to move when attacked...

When im close and when im lowering mamooth's shields near 0 im trying to use "piracy" comand - but i cannot "launch" marines - i can only set "board ship" - and in such situation my skiron starts to fly around mammoth, mamooth starts to fly also and nothing happens.

what should i do? i can lower ship's shields and mammoth is still at speed "0" - but when im activating "board" command it tries to run away.

Or maybe my poor marines who dont have any "stars" in mechanical skills are just to weak to undersrand what is going on and they just cannot by used until i will train them?

My problem is that i just cannot use any command like "launch" marines - as its not available (i dont see such command)

[Girlinhat]

Regular ship boarding is tossing them out the airlock. They float as "Astronaut (Marine)" and make their way towards the target ship at about 20 m/s.

M7M can be fitted with boarding pods. Each pod fits 5 marines (though when you give the piracy order, it actually fits 4 per pod, apparently). It launches the pods at ~500 m/s and gives them a boost to help them cut through the hull.

It sounds like you're tossing the marines out the airlock. When given the command, the autopilot will try to bring the ship close and deploy the marines in a convenient position. It rarely works.

It adds the *MODIFIED* tag, but there's a script that gives you a hotkey. The hotkey will toss the marines out the airlock the second you hit the button. It's extremely convenient.

[DrBullwinkle]

i found... abandoned mamooth in my game (or rather "bugged" mamooth which stopped and doesnt fly)

Eight marines on a Skiron suggests that you are playing AP. I have a couple of Mammoth's in my AP game that cannot be boarded or captured by any vanilla means; nor can they be captured by the Salvage Command Software script. They have no pilots.

So it is possible that your Mammoth is truly bugged.

The script that Girlinhat suggests is Improved Boarding. Among other things, it gives you hotkeys to make boarding easier.

A common issue with spacewalk boarding is getting too close to the target ship before launching marines. AI collision-avoidance then causes the marines to scatter -- sometimes far away. So be sure to give them a little room to fly to the target.

But it sounds like a bugged Mammoth. Try another ship; perhaps a civilian ship with a pilot, or maybe one from a Return Ship mission.

[Girlinhat]

Eight marines on a Skiron suggests that you are playing AP.

The thread title suggests this as well.

[DrBullwinkle]

The thread title suggests this as well.

You're pretty smart... for a girl.

• (OK, OK... pretty smart in general, I suppose. )

And I don't mean just this thread... you've been doing a great job recently. It's nice to run into people who know what trackballs are for.

[aleks2098]

My mammoth indeed have no pilot. I didnt "shoot" him - he didnt have a pilot - and it rather wasnt because of some fight - as i found him in around 2nd minute of game because of some mod "salvage manager" or something like this.

i cant board him - even that he has no pilot. but when i start to shoot - he starts to move... Ghost ship

Anyway - i can take over control over him by this "salvage manager" and this mod provides me information that this is "Derelict Ship"

i found... abandoned mamooth in my game (or rather "bugged" mamooth which stopped and doesnt fly)

Eight marines on a Skiron suggests that you are playing AP. I have a couple of Mammoth's in my AP game that cannot be boarded or captured by any vanilla means; nor can they be captured by the Salvage Command Software script. They have no pilots.

So it is possible that your Mammoth is truly bugged.

The script that Girlinhat suggests is Improved Boarding. Among other things, it gives you hotkeys to make boarding easier.

A common issue with spacewalk boarding is getting too close to the target ship before launching marines. AI collision-avoidance then causes the marines to scatter -- sometimes far away. So be sure to give them a little room to fly to the target.

But it sounds like a bugged Mammoth. Try another ship; perhaps a civilian ship with a pilot, or maybe one from a Return Ship mission.

[Alan Phipps]

So, are you asking how to board NPC piloted big ships in vanilla X3AP, or are you asking how to solve the issue of capturing derelict big ships resulting from your modded game? I suspect that if it is the latter then you should know that you are in the wrong forum and should be asking in the relevant mod thread on the S&M forum (where I expect you will be told to use the takeover shortcut you already found which is not good for game immersion IMO).

Abandoned no-pilot Mammoths (the default ship type inserted when an unknown/undefined/corrupt ship type/model is encountered by the game) usually means a bad game installation, incorrect or incomplete gamefile mods or edits, or a clash between mods and/or vanilla gamefiles. I think I recall X3AP RRF briefly having such an issue that was later updated out.

[Lelouch]

Abandoned no-pilot Mammoths (the default ship type inserted when an unknown/undefined/corrupt ship type/model is encountered by the game) usually means a [...]

X3:TC: Or a deliver mission in Yaki space which needs a deliver target. After the mission expires the target ships stays.

[DrBullwinkle]

X3:TC: Or a deliver mission in Yaki space which needs a deliver target. After the mission expires the target ships stays.

Yeah, that could be it (at least in my case... my bugged Mammoths are in Oracoke's Storm).

If that is the cause, then it happens in AP, as well.

[Alan Phipps]

Interesting. In my X3TC games those 'go fetch special ware' mission ships in no-suitable-station sectors that hung around after the mission were all TSs/TPs with names like 'Boron Dolphin' etc that all had race Pilots.

Perhaps AP changed that to no-pilot so that the Yaki would not attack the mission TLs? I haven't seen that happen myself yet.

[DrBullwinkle]

I have not discovered the cause, but the only ships I have ever seen that match the description are two Mammoths, without pilots, in Yaki space. They cannot be boarded or captured in any vanilla way. They just sit there... adrift.

I have seen Lelouch's suggestion of an incomplete ending to a mission in Yaki space before. And I have done several missions for the shipyard and stock exchange in Oracoke's Storm, so that fits, as well.

It is not a bad mod in my case. That's all I know for sure.

[aleks2098]

My ship was floating near Jupiter . What was funny - it was absolutely far away stations in this system - it was somewhere 20, 35, -76 or something. It was even some "accident" caused by mod that i detected this ship - it was detected by mod and normally wasnt visible on map. I wrote down coordinates and i was right - as when i came back for him after many hours it wasnt detected again - so i had to set course to these coordinates to find him again (but indeed - because it was so big it was visible "by eye" when i set coordinates).

now i know that i have to use mod features to claim it - it cannot be boarded...

[Lelouch]

My Mammoth's were in X3TC, at most patch 3.1. (Haven't paid attention later on.) I used them to show the Yaki what a nice fellow I am and turned them into spacedust. (The mammoth's, not the Yaki. (Although I _did_ blow up one of their IBL factories.))

[DrBullwinkle]

Ooh... that's a great idea, Lelouch. Easy rep-builder, even when your rep is too low to get a mission from the Yaki.