Is boarding harder in AP then TC?

[Orion1632]

I haven't boarded anything yet in AP, but just looking at ships.. e.g. a casino.... it had firewall and polarized hull, and internal sentry lasers.

Hmmm

that's a lot of anti boarding stuff! Don't remember ships in TC having that much protection.

So.... are ships harder to board in AP vs TC?

[Sinxar]

It is my understanding that it is significantly easier. Especially spacewalk boarding.

I just had a quick look at the stuff floating around in my TC game, the civilian TLs are all decked out with that stuff as well.

Here is a good thread about AP boarding, I think it is mostly spacewalk boarding though but does have some good content in there.

AP boarding ops -- first impressions - by Vim Razz

[Orion1632]

how many marines to board a TL?

is there a good boarding guide for AP?

[Nanook]

I boarded an Orca with 8 moderately skilled marines from my M6. TM's, which were a nightmare to board in TC, are by far the easiest in AP, even without frying off all the weapons. I've boarded dozens successfully without a single marine loss, and again, those were mostly mediocre marines. So as far as spacewalk boarding is concerned, it's much easier in AP, in no small part due to the marines being more capable of attaching themselves to the target ship, unlike the frustrations in TC.

However, I think pod boarding is harder just because the missile defenses on target ships are generally a lot tougher. You get a lot more pods shot down in AP. At least, that's been my experience.

[Orion1632]

thanks, I think I'll look over some TL's look for one without much defences and hire it and drag it off somewhere and board it.

[Nanook]

I like to use a Hydra for this. It's got a good cargo bay, good shielding, and most importantly, can mount Ion Disruptors. ID's are the weapon of choice to remove troublesome equipment from a target.

[ajax34i]

They lowered the marine skills required for quite a few of the ships, but on the other hand the empires are more likely to come to the aid of the ship, and that may include M8 bombers missile spamming you.

So, I guess, be careful where you do it.

[Orion1632]

yeah I've noticed that,

in TC when I first played it, the M7M's cruised around empty.. i.e. with no missles.

[Ebany]

I've tried a couple of times but still find it abysmal.

[Nanook]

What do you find abysmal?

Playing AP, I recently boarded a Minotaur with just the 8, admittedly high level, marines in my Hydra. Of course, the Minotaur was headed back to base for a load of missiles and it was empty, but still ......

[Ebany]

I lose every-time, or the cost outweighs the gains.

My X-Playing is sporadic at best as time is never something I have an abundance of, an I tend to lose heaps of hours from re-loading games due to death from some stupid AI error (like an Orca dying when attempting to undock).

After a while my love for the game is outweighed by my frustration over time wastage so I leave it for something less stressful.

Effective boarders really need to be a regular players and have spent hours perfecting their boarding techniques, otherwise it's not fun but frustration. My guess is it's not designed to be fun though, like end level instances in MMO's it's designed for those players who need some extra end game content to keep them interested.

I will admit to only recently having updated my game with patches and bonus content. I think this Boarding Thread from 2011 was the last time I was trying to hone my skills.

But I'll try again. I'm currently messing with some save games trying to kill a Xenon J, and have also cut loose a Xenon PX by itself. I have about 20 fully trained (no combat xp though) merc's one (1) sector south so I might give it a go.

[Nanook]

If you want to increase your frustration level to the breaking point, you'll try to board a Xenon ship, any Xenon ship. By design, they're extremely hard to board, and will take 30 to 40 maxed out marines to succeed, in general. Go after some simple targets, like civilian TL's (Arenas, Casinos, Hospital Ships), and if you're playing AP, TM's are very easy for even 8 mediocre marines. Xenon boarding is the true 'endgame' content for a lot of players.

[Karmaticdamage]

In AP you can't continuously reload in between deck clears as the marines progress through like you could in TC. The entire capture is calculated at the beginning unlike in TC where you could save at each deck clear and could take a xenon cap without losses by reloading until you get the desired result.

[Nanook]

In AP you can't continuously reload in between deck clears as the marines progress through like you could in TC. The entire capture is calculated at the beginning unlike in TC where you could save at each deck clear and could take a xenon cap without losses by reloading until you get the desired result.

You can still reload until you get the desired result. You just have to start at the beginning each time. My understanding is that it doesn't become set until the marines breach the hull. So you just need to save before that happens.

[Ebany]

I used to save/reload in TC for a better result, though normally to get different gear on the ship left intact. My usual haunt was the Teladi area just east of Grand Exchange where I would steal their Arena's (TL's).

I tried capping once but kept having my boarding pods shot down and, after spending prodigious amounts of time and money training these guys, I gave up the idea as ...... boring with some frustration added, a touch of stress on-top. So what's it take (marines) to cap a PX? When you say 30-40 fully trained marines, is that for their K's & J's or does that include PX's?

[Solomon Short]

In TC I used to reload (from marine launch) whenever my marines blew up their target, but that got irritating...

So what I prefer to do is train my marines to 3 stars in the relevant skill (having just restarted the other day, I'm going to have to look up which one this is, 'engineering' I think) before doing anything with them.

On the one hand it does mean I don't start boarding until later, but on the other hand it means I don't as much time making coffee.

(Edit note: Gah, I need to learn to proof-read. typo correction)

[Orion1632]

I've been roaming the universe picking up hard marines and training them up, and also scanning potential targets, boarding ops will start soon.

[DrBullwinkle]

So what's it take (marines) to [board] a PX? When you say 30-40 fully trained marines, is that for their K's & J's or does that include PX's?

Funny story about PX's... the first ship that I ever tried to board was a PX. I figured it was a Xenon so I would not have to worry about reputation, and it was the smallest Xenon ship so should be easy, right? Ha! After two days of trying to board it on my own, I finally came here, to the forum, to find out why it was so difficult.

It turns out that a PX is one of the most difficult-to-board ships in the entire game. . (That goes double in TC.)

There is no fixed number of required marines, but I would not attempt to board a PX without an M7M and at least 20 marines trained to 100 in fight skill.

I find boarding to be the single most fun thing to do in any space sim. Ever. Boarding is incredibly deep and well-balanced. You have to know a lot to be able to capture the most challenging ships, and that is exactly the way it should be.

is there a good boarding guide for AP?

Boarding is basically the same in AP versus TC, so the TC guides are still relevant. The main "trick" is that AP has better missile defense turrets, so you will have to be extra careful about that.

One technique that works well is to suppress the target's shields from the player ship (a Deimos with ISR's and EBCG's in the front guns is the ideal pirate ship). Remotely command your M7M to board from a distance (10-15km or more). The M7M will not launch pods until you get the target's shields down.

The reason this trick works is that the enemy's turrets will prioritize *your* ship rather than the incoming boarding pods.

While not a guide, I have answered many of the most frequently-asked questions about boarding in this post: Marine Tips

[Orion1632]

Very nice mate, good info there,I used to be a real boarding master.... But it has been years since I played TC and i am struggling to remember

[Ebany]

Well that explains why I keep losing so many marines in pod's.

I don't remember a "piracy' mode in TC, i just remember ejecting the marines. has been a while though.