[X3:AP] Effective means of capturing TPs?

[Jimmy C]

From reading various posts here, I've been able to work out how to capture fighters, corvettes and capital ships.
I haven't worked out how to best capture a TP yet. I tried once for a Stolen Ship mission and couldn't force a bail with IDs or board with pods.
So, what's the best means for capturing TPs? Flaks, like fighters?

[ajax34i]

This guide is old but has all the basics.

TP's are captured like M3-M5 fighters; you get the shields to 0, then switch to a rapid fire / minimal hull damage weapon like Pulse Beam Emitter or Phased Repeater Gun, and shoot the hull down to 80% -> 2% until the pilot bails out of the ship. Sometimes the pilot refuses to bail; there's a hidden "morale" setting that affects the chance, and it's low for pirates but quite high for military-affiliated ships.

I've never bothered to capture TP's; the ones I prefer to use (fastest ones) are sold at shipyards, are cheap, and don't require a lot of standings, so I just buy them. Typically I'm more worried about having a ship to store my marines as soon as possible, and less worried about saving the few hundred K that a TP costs.

[ancienthighway]

I think the stolen ship missions are all programmed to fail.

TS and TPs are cheap enough I never think of forcing a bail to capture it, no matter what the reason I'm after them. If pilots do bail, I hope I notice in time to cease fire, but if not... oh, well.

[Jimmy C]

The thing is, I heard the old "shoot them till they bail" approach is not as effective as the "hit them with flak" approach in AP. Indeed, flak was how I managed to get most of my fighter bails. I get quite a few bails from Flail shots too, but it's usually too late for the fighters by then.
There's one TP I don't think is sold at any Shipyard, the Boron Angel. Not the best performance wise, but unique, so I'm interested in getting my hands on it.

[ancienthighway]

The Angel is sold in only one shipyard in TC. I would assume that's true in AP also. Being the only TP that can carry XL cargo, and having the largest cargo hold of all the TPs, I like to keep a couple around for special missions.

While TPs are cheap, the TP+, to include the Angel, are not. Good luck capturing it.

[pjknibbs]

The thing is, I heard the old "shoot them till they bail" approach is not as effective as the "hit them with flak" approach in AP.

They're the same thing. The only difference with flak is that they'll take down the fighter's shields faster, but I'm really not sure that makes any difference to the actual bail rate--it'll certainly mean you get finished with one fighter more quickly and can move on to the next, which is why you get more bails that way!

[DiArmada]

the TP class ships which aren't for sale at shipyards are sometimes sold by individual pilots.
look out for ships which have the dollar sign, just like the stations.

[Threesixtyci]

You can find the Angel at Queen's Retribution
http://x3ap.e0b.eu/en/?station=140601

Though it's gonna cost you about 3 million to fully outfit it.