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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
Just one of those days...
I'm hunting Xenon in 'Black Hole Sun' on the very outer reaches of civilisation with a Xenon sector just through the East gate. It's a visually spectacular sector and for some reason I feel different on the frontier - life is just that little bit dangerous.
I had a little time to play yesterday and racked up four Xenon L's with 25mw shields in tact and couple of smaller M's. An innocent Nova got sprayed by my overly enthusiastic Ion D fire and got a little upset. Waving a "Sorry! My mistake..." hand out the window an evil thought crossed my mind...no one would notice out here, would they...? Two minutes later a Nova was added to the trophy list for the day.
Flushed with success I cleared my Saturday afternoon for a really good hunting session. Launching my fully armed Nova, I spotted two Xenon L's straight off. For some reason I decided to get a little closer than usual before opening fire. A flurry a deadly green orbs, a quick turn and *BANG!*, the L disintegrated against my shields with hardly a mark.
Meh. I lined up the second and blasted his shields down in 1 second. Quickly changing weapons I fired a volley of IRE fire to gently carress the valuable hull down to the right level- Bugger! That was the Beta HEPT! I watch resigned as the volley of green orbs slammed home and the L vapourised.
Oh well. Plenty more where that came from. This time the Ion D fire caught a passing Paranid freighter. Despite my apologies and promising a full confession at the feet of the Priest Duke, he just would let the issue go...one dead Paranid pilot but the Xenon L got caught in the crossfire and vanished in a stream of protoplasm.
Sigh. Next.
Five hours later - the longest play session I've had in weeks, I had caught one ship. ONE!! And ticked off the Paranid...
I really should have checked the books and done that stocktake at Kingdom End Power Co the foreman there keeps bugging me about...
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Sat Mar 13, 2004 9:22 am |
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Ican
Captain of the Guard
Joined: 16 Feb 2003
Posts: 185
Location: UK |
quote:
An innocent Nova got sprayed by my overly enthusiastic Ion D fire and got a little upset. Waving a "Sorry! My mistake..." hand out the window an evil thought crossed my mind...no one would notice out here, would they...? Two minutes later a Nova was added to the trophy list for the day.
Runs back to Argon Prime to report Dhruin . May Argon one love you forever  |
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Sat Mar 13, 2004 11:47 am |
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corwin
On the Razorblade of Life
Joined: 10 Jun 2002
Posts: 8376
Location: Australia |
Naughty Dhruin!! I see Xen's having a bad effect on you again!!!!
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If God said it, then that settles it!
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Sat Mar 13, 2004 1:45 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I've barely captured a thing since the patch. I've switched to ion D + beta PAC ... but they're too slow to actually hit anything. Very irritating so I've taken a more militant stand on the matter. I shoot you until you surrender or die.
Capturing is now incidental, but my military rank is up to Ace, 2nd rank. 
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Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:16 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
I saw an "official" explanation from Brucebia (beta tester) on capturing in 1.3. Seems it was tweaked so that a pilot will not bail under Ion D shield damage only. In other words, having got a hull down to 87% a pilot may bail straight off (small chance, of course) BUT if he doesn't, the old technique of backing off and then dropping his shields with Ion D's won't work - he's not scared of losing his life from nothing but shield damage.
You need to drop his shields and cause more hull damage - making it much more difficult. I don't know if the old 87% rule still stands.
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Sun Mar 14, 2004 10:46 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I know. That's why I've got a PAC pounding away while the lightning arc keeps their shields 0. Hasn't worked well so far.
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Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Mon Mar 15, 2004 3:33 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
Bugger. Think I'll do a big capturing spree and then update to 1.3.
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Mon Mar 15, 2004 9:27 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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I have no more need for capturing. It's just funny money to me now.
I'll remember fondly the 5 Orinocco that got my empire going, though. Their sacrifice was not in vain.
Still, raiding a Xenon sector with my M6 I managed to capture 50 ships from incidental damage due to the PSG fallout. 14 of them even made it to a station without being blown to bits by their irritated brethren.
Do you know the price for a 1% Orinocco? It's 12,000 credits. After the patch I'm all too familiar with it. 
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Tue Mar 16, 2004 2:21 pm |
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Dhruin
Stranger In A Strange Land
Joined: 20 May 2002
Posts: 1825
Location: Sydney, Australia |
Well, I upgraded to 1.3 and I miss the capturing.  It's not big money compared to my 10x facts but it's fun.
I gave up on flying a Corvette. The Dragon looks simply gorgeous and is nice and fast but just isn't flexible enough for me to fly. Although it has 5x weap mounts, only 2x are going to be firing at any one time and the main forward gun doesn't get much use because despite their speed, they're too slow to turn. I experimented with taking on single Orinoccos on autopilot in a Dragon and it took several minutes - in fact the Orinoccos shields kept recovering from the G HEPT fire - it was the Mass Driver that finally did it.
They're great as sector defence - primarily because of the shields and no doubt a pile of them are great raiding (can't afford a bunch of them).
So I'm flying a TL as a poor-man's carrier (Paranid Hercules). It's got as many shields as a destroyer (5x 125mw) and with a hangar bay capacity of 27 ships I've got a couple of transports, a wing of Novas/Perseus, a mining ship and a Pegasus M5. Great to fly to a pirate base and take them out in my Nova with my wingman support while a TP stocks up on e-cells for the TL and another collects the Wares left over from battle - missiles and so on.
Ahem. Back to the point. Anyway, I launched an attack on a pirate base yesterday -- total carnage -- but with v1.3 I only captured one ship. ONE!! At least he only has to travel 3km to hop into the TL hangar...
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Fri Mar 19, 2004 11:17 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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That's what TL are good for... mobile star bases.
I'm playing a pirate this time through (aarrrr!) and capturing would be nice. Transports drop their freight pretty easy... better than nothing.
Oh, a pirate's life is a rough one.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Sat Mar 20, 2004 5:44 am |
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dteowner
Shoegazer
Joined: 21 Mar 2002
Posts: 7570
Location: Third Hero of Erathia |
"This time through"??????
You mean to tell me you've won and started over? Geez, now I really feel like a slowpoke.
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=Proud Member of the Non-Flamers Guild=
=Benevolent Dictator, X2/X3 and Morrowind/Oblivion Forums=
Sorry. No pearls of wisdom in this oyster.
RIP Red Wings How 'Bout Dem Cowboys! |
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Sat Mar 20, 2004 2:27 pm |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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Hmmm? Yeah, I beat the last mission. Real pain in the ass... requires top notch piloting skills. Anyone used to just letting the autopilot handle things is in for a rude multiple death explosions good time.
I had a net worth of about 200 million with 28 million in the bank. It's really not so much compared to some psychos I've seen online so that save game is a work in progress. I fully intend to make an Empire, after all. I've marked the first six sectors of it out. And of course I plan on having military bases in each Xenon and Unknown sector. I will bring peace to the universe... even if I have to conquer it to do so (thinking about taking out the Split Dynasty after I get a few of their 'split only' factories up and running. In preparation I took out a few M2s. Split capital ships look awesome but suck so badly.).
The pirate is a side project... someone said it couldn't be done and well... you know how I am when I hear someone say something can't be done.
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Sat Mar 20, 2004 7:22 pm |
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MoonDragon
High Emperor
Joined: 25 May 2002
Posts: 1254
Location: Waterloo, Canada |
Well, this may be a dead thread by now, but since I recently started to play this game, I'm resurrecting it.
To start off with, I have to say that I've never played with anything but 1.3. I've read about people have much luck capturing prior to 1.3, but that's soemthing I'm not familiar with. I've read a nice guide on capturing on the official boards and that got me interested to at least give it a shot.
A little bit of background for any newbies that may read this in the future... My first run at the game got me strugling on the 4th or 5th story mission (scanning the old gate) and Xenon were spreading everywhere and making my life miserable. So I restarted the game and hijacked the TS I was given for the second mission (Boron scientists). I did quite a bit of trading and have managed to accumulate approximately 100-120k credits. I really hate manual trading with a ship that I don't want to deck out since it's not mine. I was saving up for a factory so I can start making some automatic money, but it seemed very far off. So, at this point, I read up about capturing and it got me curious.
I saved the game into a separate slot and spent most of that 100k decking out my M5 (Argon Discovery you start the game with). I put in max shields, max lasers (Gamma IREs), got bunch of Wasp missles, maxed out (or close to it) speed and manouverability, bought bunch of upgrades like double scanners, etc. All decked out like this, I went looking for pirates. The guide I read said something about taking on Pirate Mandaleys and Pirate Bayamons. After quite some time searching, I ran into an Orinocco. Ah well, I ran into a station to save. Flew out and started firing missles at the Orinocco. Needless to say, I didn't fair very well. After I ran out of missles, I would shoot at it with my gamme IREs and would watch the shields regenerate faster than I can shoot them down. :/
Lesson 1: don't take on Orinoccos with an M5. It just doesn't work. Perhaps you could take them on completely with Wasp missles, but that is not very feasible.
After a while, I gave up the Orinocco, but have noticed that a Pirate Ship comes to the sector shortly after I come out of the station. Switching my focus, I wrestled with this ship for quite some time. Some important lessons were learned during this time, culminating in a capture! Yes, my first capture under 1.3 was a 'Pirate Ship', with an M5. Needless to say, I was quite pleased with myself. Not so much though when I found out I get only 60k for it. Ah well, it payed for some more Wasps and for some hull repairs. And it got my spirits up.
Lesson 2: if you're taking on a Pirate Ship in your Discovery, make sure you have lots of Wasp missles. 5 Wasps in rapid succession strip away its shields. Another wasp brings it close to 87% hull damage. The problem comes from the ship's turret that will start firing on your missles the moment the first missle hits. But, for as long as the turret is shooting at the missles, it is not shooting at you.
Eventually, I ran into a small convoy in Ore Belt. Having timed my assault properly, I let all but one ship jump through the gate and then I took my first Bayamon on, by itself.
Lesson 3: if you want to isolate ships from a convoy, wait for all but one ship to jump through and then attack the last one. It will stay and the fight will turn from impossible to quite manageable.
After a bit, I got my Bayamon captured. This first one was sold for about 100k. The second I managed to capture had its shields still on board and so was kept, repaired and decked out. This ship now became my main raider. I still stick with Wasp missles, mainly. Two Wasps strip away Bayamon shields. One Wasp gets a Manadeley ready for taking and 5 Wasps still work on a Pirate Ship. I took on a lone Orinocco once and 6 Dragonfly missles and 20 Wasp missles later it was space dust. At least I know I can take them on if needed.
Lesson 4: during early game hours, forget about fancy shield busting cannons and rely upon the true, tried and tested method of... missles. It takes some time to figure out the quirks (e.g. so you don't keep blowing up your fired Dragonflies with newly released Dragonflies).
Lesson 5 (maybe): this is a conjecture on my part, but I think pirates are more likely to give up if they are alone. If you separate a ship from the convoy, it is more likely to surrender than if you attack it with additional ships around.
Finally, my base of operations right now is Cloudbase South-East. This sector has a Warf (for selling ships) and an Equipment Dock (for restocking on Wasp missles). One hop to the West is Ore Belt with a working Pirate Base and this sector seems to be the highway for all the pirate ships from Ore Belt going towards the pirate owned space. If ever there happens to not be a pirate ship in my sector, I just need to hop to Ore Belt and get a fresh supply.
I think capturing is a great way to start the game up. It takes some practice and a lot of saving and reloading. At the end of the day, I'm probably not making my credits any faster than by trading in a single lone trader ship, but at least it's infinitely less boring. With a starting investment of 100k (could be done with less) one can start working on their empire.
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Mon May 31, 2004 1:29 am |
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EverythingXen
Arch-villain
Joined: 01 Feb 2002
Posts: 4342
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The fastest early game money comes from factory inspection missions ... if you're on a roll you can fly south a bit to paranid space, blow up a pirate or two so you can dock, and get yourself a Pegasus M5. With a top speed of 1000 sectors fly by and you never miss the deadlines (until they give you an impossible one, like five sectors in two minutes).
_________________
Estuans interius, Ira vehementi
"The old world dies and with it the old ways. We will rebuild it as it should be, MUST be... Immortal!"
=Member of the Nonflamers Guild=
=Worshipper of the Written Word= |
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Mon May 31, 2004 7:05 am |
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