XRM Newbie Boarding Guide?

[Ariki]

So, i'm pretty much a newbie when it comes to X3 AP. I've played and just finished X rebirth's main plot pretty recently, and that may be the Reason why i'm picking up the game faster than most newbies can. I installed XRM in hope that it will somehow rebalance the game, because rather favor gameplay than graphic, and because i have heard that the ingame vanilla ships have this problem with "paper thin" hull armor, so yeah.

While in XR you can get much boarding all by yourself pretty easily (after a decent amount of training and cursing and time wasting and more cursing and self discipline of course) and i've gotten myself a lot of those infinitely-respawning great transporter used by the pirate frolicking around in the secluded terran sector i've discovered since forever, i've come to realise that it wasnt that simple when it comes to getting free ships in X3 when compared to XR. There are really tons of things that i don't really understand. (I plan to get back to XR only AFTER i've established myself in X3, and i haven't really tried myself the new teladi sector addon thingie because of life. And slow internet connection. If only hyperbolic time chamber really exists.... *drolls)

SO for starter, i've gotten myself 200.000.000 credits in my wallet right now. I am using XRM with the OTAS female pilot thingie for the start. I've blasted through pirates, teladi, and split sector and i've established myself a pretty decent amount of complexes throughout the argon sector (throughout many tears and blood and tears of blood). i've made some money through selling wares, Assassination jobs (by spamming missiles on my target. with my sirokos and her cargo bay full of heavy duty missiles, i could pretty much blast everything i want that easily), and the stock exchange thingie (i've just read about the usefulness of the stock just recently as well, so yeah i am pretty much a newbie when it comes to stock too). i've read about few guides for boarding in XRM, BUT they're only for you high end users and alikes, not for a lowly newbs like me, So i wanna ask for some advice.

the fiirst is, what kind of ship should i get for myself with these 200mil i've gotten on my hand? can i just use my sirokos to board those shiny pirates ship on the middle sector? by myself? (I have to turn myself into a fearless rambo if that would be the case!!!!) or should i get myself a full party of sirokos'es loaded with marines and ion blaster thingie, and try my luck in getting a shiny and free new capital ships? what kind of ship should i aim for a start? Is there a calculation i need to do before attempting to board? What should i do? what to do? what is this? why am i here...? who am i...?

[Ariki]

Oh, by the way, i also do have a handy albatross transporter with maxed out speed and cargo i am using for station building jobs, and if i am to sell her i could get myself another 100mil in under one second. considering that, i actually have 300mil in hand, and i plan to spend them all because i really want to try boarding that piece of art pirate brigantine i've seen somewhere in a pirate sector. I heard that she's a great battleship as well, and she could mount the gauss cannon, the deadly long range weapon of the teladi profit guild. Considering that the biggest battleship i currently have in my hand is only this one sirokos i'm driving in, i feel pretty pathetic, battle-strength wise.

[FDru]

What do you mean by "XR"? Rebirth?

And are you familiar with boarding at all in X3?

[Ariki]

yep. XR > X Rebirth. and nope, not at all. I have said that i am a complete newbie in X3, therefore i want some advice on how i should be doing this. Because i have read that there were huge differences of stats of the ships in XRM and Vanilla AP, i don't want to rely on those vanilla guides because i fear that... i might screw up really badly. i don't wanna be doing something which i'm not 100% sure i could be accomplishing.

And yet when i searched for the boarding guide for XRM... i was overwhelmed. i don't even understand half of it. i've only played this game for 36+ hours (I dunno, my library listed it as 36 hours of playing time but maybe that counter was bugged), i'm not that knowledgeable.

[lock]

Time will always be on your side if you save your game before attempting a daring feat of muscle....

[Ariki]

Yeah, saving the game is really important...
I've became desperate, i was doing all of this without thinking.
At first, i've tried to take on a centaur escort in the sector bala gi's joy (was that name right?) with 2 sirokos'es. i fished the centaur away from the brigantine it was escorting, i've depleted it's shield, throws my marines out and
i failed to do it right, my marines were obliterated (i've bought the most expensive marines and have trained them as well, yet they still failed me.)
then i bought an OTAS M7M and a boreas, then i got tempted to take on that brigantine i've always got my eyes on. I spammed hammerhead and hornet heavy missiles on it until it's shield depletes, i asked my boreas to stop its shield from regenerating. I screwed up, i reload until it is right, then i launched the pods, and
it failed
twice
i don't have enough guts to try it again o<-<
*reloads the game and pretends all of that did never happen

[lock]

I know that you need to be in front of the ship to be able to have your marines board it, and the right timing is everything......