Boarding Split is impossible.

[Mondgnomes]

Capture some Yaki M Ships, i got several prisoners that where able to convert to marines and some where hightly trained 4 stars. Only works when the pilotr is leaving the ship before the crew

[grapedog]

How do you gain access to those missions, which type are they ?.

They're just one of the standard guild mission chains from factions which are involved in a war (e.g. ARG, HOP, PAR, TER). Think they become available when you have +10 rep with one of those factions. This is an example:
https://www.dropbox.com/s/arql91eno7v4m ... 1.jpg?dl=0

I'm now a bit over 300 ingame hours worth of playtime in X4 and had access to a variety of guilds for the majority of it and have **NEVER** come across a mission with such a reward. What I see is a bunch of low quality modding materials (mission chain for 1x Nividium Oxide, yay), 2-star seminars, rarely a 3-star seminar and once or twice I've seen a 4-star seminar, plus the usual credits. Even the big missions where you build a station and supply an entire fleet of ships only comes with credits (a LOT, granted, but just credits all the same).

Do you need specific requirements to get these kinds of payout missions, like doing/finishing some of the plots (Hatikvah, Split, Paranid, Terran) first in order to get better rewarded missions or something?

From what i have seen, only HoP, ARG, and PAR offer ship rewards from missions. I've probably got a solid 15-20 L miners from missions in my current save. I don't know the trigger for them though, they just appear randomly from time to time. Not rare though i feel. Though i also get lots of mission offers for 3 star seminars and exceptional mod components... not sure where the difference is.

Probably tied to something like trade and/or fight ranks.

[Maebius]

Do you need specific requirements to get these kinds of payout missions, like doing/finishing some of the plots (Hatikvah, Split, Paranid, Terran) first in order to get better rewarded missions or something?

I've gotten several Hokkaidos and Magnetars by doing Hard missions for Terran / Argon vs Xenon campaigns. (The only war campaigns I have active now)

They usually come with 2500 nvidium and sometimes a nice crew. (Could be wrong, but they always have crew, even though it might not be listed as a reward)
https://www.dropbox.com/s/z7b5gqy2z3zui ... e.JPG?dl=0

I'm also "pretty sure" I've gotten one from a station building mission for HAT, which is also "hard" difficulty, so I suppose many Hard missions can have those?

(I never have any hard missions from Trade Leagues, don't know if I should have)

[Ezarkal]

How does one convert 200 Service Crew into Marines?

From the map, load your ship's info panel and go to the crew tab.
You'll see somewhere the total number of crew on each assignments. These numbers are actually sliders, and you can use them to quickly reassign service crews to marine and vice-versa.
Meaning, you could have kick-ass marines that board a ship, then reassign them into kick-ass repair crew to fix the ship in record time, then transfer/reassign them back.

[jlehtone]

These numbers are actually sliders

Why do they hide GUI in plain sight?

[Ezarkal]

These numbers are actually sliders

Why do they hide GUI in plain sight?

I know, right?
I found it by pure accident. Literally misclicked and hit the arrow and I was all "what the hell did I just... ooohhhhh!"

[NightmareNight91]

If you have seta and a falx or similiar ship that can hold 15 marines or so. You can sit in a blind spot of any destroyer with seta on and let the turrets shoot the target untill the entire crew except the captain bails. Very easy boarding cheese this way.

[Dreez]

If you have a defense station, they generate 2 / 3 star marines when you teleport on it.

Easy to get veteran marines that way. I've captured rattlesnakes easily with those.

Typically, boarding resistance of a free families rattlesnake is around 1,100 ~ 1,300. You need around 30 ~ 40 veteran marines to cap it. Or you can grind it down to lower the bar.

I have 4 Defense stations and i docked/teleported to all of them, not a single highranked marine, infact, no marines at all .

There really needs to be a RELIABLE way to get marines trained up. Considering how much resistance some ships put up.

[al_dude]

I have 4 Defense stations and i docked/teleported to all of them, not a single highranked marine, infact, no marines at all .

There really needs to be a RELIABLE way to get marines trained up. Considering how much resistance some ships put up.

There is a trick. When you enter an area, it will generate NPCs in 10 seconds or so. When they pop up, there are always 3 ~ 6 veteran marines but they move to elevators and leave. You need to catch some of them before they leave.

[grapedog]

If you have a defense station, they generate 2 / 3 star marines when you teleport on it.

Easy to get veteran marines that way. I've captured rattlesnakes easily with those.

Typically, boarding resistance of a free families rattlesnake is around 1,100 ~ 1,300. You need around 30 ~ 40 veteran marines to cap it. Or you can grind it down to lower the bar.

I have 4 Defense stations and i docked/teleported to all of them, not a single highranked marine, infact, no marines at all .

There really needs to be a RELIABLE way to get marines trained up. Considering how much resistance some ships put up.

When you teleport to a defense station, all the NPCs are generated. Including 3-5 marines... the marines as soon as they are generated start walking toward various elevators/doorways... you got to go get em before they find hidden bars you can't get to. The marines should also be the only ones walking around right off the bat If you have a defense station with 2 docks, you can move back and forth between docks and find new marines each time.

TP to the defense station, and immediately look for people walking around. Check their stats... mine are in the 1.5 to 3 star range normally.

And when i say nornally, i can do this 100% of the time without fail on any defense station i own.

[al_dude]

It is also the most reliable way to find Teladi with yellow goggles. I love that variant and usually keep them as ship traders and captains of destroyers I value.

[Tamina]

I think the most crucial advice is missing in this thread: Marines bought from Split-shipyards/docks are very often Veterans! And they only cost 10k Cr!
Which is also the reason why Split ships always have good marines. Every race has its chances to roll higher specific skills when spawned.

(Besides that, I don't understand the struggle to just train your marines at lower defended ships (not split) and then just transfer them back with a single click. At the end you get a rattlesnake, would be a shame if this game handed it to you for free)

[al_dude]

I say about 40% of them start off veterans.

To capture a FAF rattlesnake, you need at least 30 veterans. That's with lucky enough to find one with only half of crew.

[Driltan]

Never had any trouble boarding any rattlesnake with a rattlesnake (with full marines, only marines, around 90), turn off your turrets, destroy the engines, destroy the turrets hitting you (you should be behind your target), launch the marines with "very high" & "very high" settings, go 10km away (if you are too close, some boarding pods bug and so, some marines never enter), put SETA On and enjoy.

[grapedog]

Never had any trouble boarding any rattlesnake with a rattlesnake (with full marines, only marines, around 90), turn off your turrets, destroy the engines, destroy the turrets hitting you (you should be behind your target), launch the marines with "very high" & "very high" settings, go 10km away (if you are too close, some boarding pods bug and so, some marines never enter), put SETA On and enjoy.

Some people don't like to cheese the boarding mechanic like that.

[Driltan]

Never had any trouble boarding any rattlesnake with a rattlesnake (with full marines, only marines, around 90), turn off your turrets, destroy the engines, destroy the turrets hitting you (you should be behind your target), launch the marines with "very high" & "very high" settings, go 10km away (if you are too close, some boarding pods bug and so, some marines never enter), put SETA On and enjoy.

Some people don't like to cheese the boarding mechanic like that.

Well, as soon as the boarding pods stay stuck in your own ship or never enter the enemy ship, I tend to think it's bugged rather than it's cheesing. Anyway there are more challenging things to do in this galaxy. Being stuck against 1 pirate ship can be frustrating before you understand what is wrong. You don't need 200+ marines to take a ship with 93 people neither full elite marines, I just share my experience from X3TC to X4 CoH

[al_dude]

Well, I try to cap with Cobra most of time. It carries 20 marines. Most of them are veteran, a few elites. Can do it with that setup but personally I don't cap FAF rattlesnakes anymore after finding out that they tend to use my shipyard and wharf to repair as long as the rep remains at -5. They pay good money to repair.

So, in my eyes, they are my customers.

[Driltan]

Well, I try to cap with Cobra most of time. It carries 20 marines. Most of them are veteran, a few elites. Can do it with that setup but personally I don't cap FAF rattlesnakes anymore after finding out that they tend to use my shipyard and wharf to repair as long as the rep remains at -5. They pay good money to repair.

So, in my eyes, they are my customers.

They are a real pain, I personnaly block the shipyards where L/M/S are made with powerful fleets (defend position 15km) so they don't destroy my lower destroyers, I have FAF at -30

[Tamina]

I say about 40% of them start off veterans.

To capture a FAF rattlesnake, you need at least 30 veterans. That's with lucky enough to find one with only half of crew.

Buy marines, sell the rest, buy. Or use multiple ships, buy marines, only send the veterans of each ship.

[Raptor34]

I just dump 92 or whatever the limit is rookie marines on them.
Seems to work just fine.