I tried to search for this but couldn't find anything :(
I also have XRM installed, not sure if that's relevant.
My question is how do I get "Shield Attack" to work? My understanding is that when you order your ships to "Shield Attack" they bring down the target's shield and stops shooting (so you can board), however whenever I order my ships to do this, they bring down the shields... and they happily blast away at it, usually blowing the ship up... :?
Is there something I'm missing? It kind of makes pack hunting (ie my pack of M6s trying to board a lone M7) hard, since I have to order all my ships to jump out of sector ("Idle" and "Standby" doesn't seem to work, they keep shooting), then me alone trying to move into position, then launch marines... a lot of button presses for something that should be fairly easy :(
Help?
Thanks
Question re "Shield Attack" & boarding (New to X3)
Moderator: Moderators for English X Forum
You want to use a small wing of ships with fast guns for this command. Four Falcon Haulers with 2 PACs each work pretty well for a lot of targets.
The ships with the command won't stop shooting until ~after~ the target's shields are down, so any bullets in the air will go ahead and hit the target. So basically, if you're using anything bigger & slower than a few PACs on your shield suppression crew... then yeah... they'll tear things to pieces pretty quick...
The ships with the command won't stop shooting until ~after~ the target's shields are down, so any bullets in the air will go ahead and hit the target. So basically, if you're using anything bigger & slower than a few PACs on your shield suppression crew... then yeah... they'll tear things to pieces pretty quick...
I don't think that's the problem. It's not that they stop firing and a few errant shots still hit the target, it's they just keep blasting away at it...
I think it might have something to do with them just defending themselves? Since the enemy ship keeps shooting at them. What order can I give to them my ships to cease fire? I tried "Idle" and "Standby" but those don't seem to work :?
I think it might have something to do with them just defending themselves? Since the enemy ship keeps shooting at them. What order can I give to them my ships to cease fire? I tried "Idle" and "Standby" but those don't seem to work :?
A few things could be happening:
1. XRM could actually be an issue causing the ships to keep shooting into hull damage instead of stopping after the shields. XRM is a mod that alters combat behavior, so it could alter the turret and weapon scripts that the "attack shields of" command uses.
2. The target could be launching missiles, which your ships would try to shoot down to protect themselves, resulting in the missiles exploding too close to the target and blowing it up.
3. If you're trying to capture a ship during a plot mission, there could be plot scripting that forces that ship to be destroyed. For example, scripted plot M8 bomber appears in sector and shoots missiles from 40 km away (you don't even see them in the heat of combat - it just looks like suddenly boom).
4. IMO some ships are hard-coded "not for boarding" meaning that even though you tell them to just target shields, they will on purpose blow the target up. Don't know why, but I believe that some of the M6 ships are in this category, like the OTAS M6's.
As a "try one last time" recommendation, use M3 fighters for the "attach shields of" command instead of the M6 corvettes. I don't know about XRM, but in Vanilla game I can personally confirm that M3 fighters stop when the shields are gone and just keep the shields at 0 without going too much into hull damage.
1. XRM could actually be an issue causing the ships to keep shooting into hull damage instead of stopping after the shields. XRM is a mod that alters combat behavior, so it could alter the turret and weapon scripts that the "attack shields of" command uses.
2. The target could be launching missiles, which your ships would try to shoot down to protect themselves, resulting in the missiles exploding too close to the target and blowing it up.
3. If you're trying to capture a ship during a plot mission, there could be plot scripting that forces that ship to be destroyed. For example, scripted plot M8 bomber appears in sector and shoots missiles from 40 km away (you don't even see them in the heat of combat - it just looks like suddenly boom).
4. IMO some ships are hard-coded "not for boarding" meaning that even though you tell them to just target shields, they will on purpose blow the target up. Don't know why, but I believe that some of the M6 ships are in this category, like the OTAS M6's.
As a "try one last time" recommendation, use M3 fighters for the "attach shields of" command instead of the M6 corvettes. I don't know about XRM, but in Vanilla game I can personally confirm that M3 fighters stop when the shields are gone and just keep the shields at 0 without going too much into hull damage.