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Your Very First Boarding (Page 3 of 3)
Written by Rive
Action!
The next step is to deploy the drones. Target the ship and eject the drones. Usually I eject 13 of them - nothing special, just that's my favorite number.
Command them one by one to 'Attack Shields' of your target. It's easier if you practice some with the keyboard.
SAVE, SAVE, SAVE! Always save if anything is done!
Your drones will start to chew the shields. It's important that there should be no hull damage! If its hull is dropping then something is wrong - you have to sort out the problem and reload. You can speed up the process with a salvo of Dragonflyes.
Your time is coming! When the shield has dropped below 10% accelerate to full speed and head for the target. When you are close then match the speed - you have to be the faster, however: 15-25 m/s difference will be OK. Then switch to classic fight mode and call up your ship's command menu with the keyboard. Additional ship commands slots are your friends, and choose 'Board Ship' but wait before you hit the final enter. Save.
Till you are on classic mode you are still able to control your ship with the mouse and the strafe keys. The menu in front of you is transparent - get used to see through it! Your goal is to reach a position right in front of the target, where it WILL BE AFTER A FEW SECONDS.
When you are close to the right place, hit the final enter. If the target's shields are below 10% then the marines will be deployed immediately. Some incoming fire is expected in this phase. You have 75MJ of shielding and the strafe keys for that.
Here is a short (and awful) vid about this part of the process:
A not so awful footage:
This is the most boring part of the process. Don't be upset, for me this stage was around twenty or more reloads for the first time. The target is turning, moving aside, trying to avoid the drones and maybe trying to shoot you. It's really hard. The vid is here only to prove that it's far from impossible: you will need lot of practicing to do it so easily for the first charge.
If you did it all right then the marines are away. Accelerate and run for safety. Call up the property menu and check the 'Personnel' tab. You will see the state of your marines. If they reached the target then 'Cutting hull' will appear for all of them. It's very important that all of them have to reach the target within the same timeframe! So if they are all on target then save here. If the target managed to flee, or just two or three marines can reach the target then reload and try again.
Most of the job is done. Your marines will cut through the hull - if they failed then reload till they are succeed. Then save. If they cleared a deck then save again. If there is too much casualties then reload. It's not a DiD stuff here, you know...
If they reached the central computer then SAVE immediately! The remaining onboard equipment is random. You can reload this last stage to get more loot.
Then your marines will hack the Core and grant access for it. The ship is yours.
Clean up the mess
The job is still NOT done! There can be problems.
So head for your new ship and get transporter distance to it. Transfer some ecells and the jumpdrive and order it to jump to a nearby friendly sector IMMEDIATELY. Some military ships can launch missiles from huge distances, and if one such missile hits in then all is lost. So send it to safety. Your marines are still on board: you have to collect them later.
M6 ships can hold only five marines, so the sixth one - if survived - will float somewhere around. Save him.
When your new ship is sent to safety command the drones to stand down and collect them too.
If it was a Defend Station mission then the other pirates can be still there. You have to clean them away to avoid rep loss from the failed mission. Send the drones after them. A dozen drones can neutralize anything. So eject them again - their lifetime will be renewed - and command them to hunt. Then you can start to collect the loot. When the drones are finished you can collect them too. The station will call you and you get the reward.
If it was in race sectors then you have to check the local military/police if they are turned to hostile, and apologize for the mess if necessary. If you can turn all of them to neutral then it's OK.
I think you will have your own ideas for your new ship - I'm finished here. Congratulations!
If you are interested in more advanced tactics, then check here:
- Capping, stealing, boarding and carjacking ships in X3 Terran Confict - THE HOWTO
Some common questions and answers:
Q: Why an Osprey? They are near to useless!
A: Maybe, but they are slow, so easier to catch: and they have more hull so they can tolerate more of your greenhorns - remember the Engineering skills! A Centaur or the rare Dragon is much harder to board.
Q: Why MKII drones? MKI drones are cheaper!
That's true, but you will need much more of them, and it's a bit boring to command twenty-some drones one by one.
Q: I have some inbound missiles, which kills me. What should I do?
A: If you don't have active Mosquito Missile Defense then turn your back to them and let your tailgun to take care of the missiles. It's not a good idea to headbutt any missile Wink
Q: Three of marines go stargazing instead of joining the other 2 as a team so the boarding fails. Any tip for this?
A: After the 2.5 patch it's common with this type of boarding tactics. The target's way should lead between the groups so they can catch it in the same time. This is why this part costs so much reloads. There is no real solution for this. You have to guess where the target will be - but that's close to random.
Q: Can I remotely tell an M6 to board?
A: While you are IS then yes, you can. But the autopilot is sooooo stupid that your marines will never reach the target :(
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