How to capture ships?

[Kexin]

I'm starting a new game, I'm level 3. What is the best way to go about capturing ships and making money? I found the entire process hit or miss since even when boarding 12 troopers my 22 man squad would frequently fail. What are the tactics to ensure success?

[WWDragon]

It's always hit or miss against something equal or larger size.

Ok so first off, the engineer skill that supresses life support is a big help.
You can get a ship icon crewmemer to increase crew effectiveness.
You can also get a circuit board crew memeber to increase transporter amount.
Finally, you can get a tranporter enhancement that increases number of crew transfered.

All these things help.
However, the simplest way to be sure to get it is to just board stuff directly outside a station, so you can dock and get more troops, then drop back out and board it immediatly once again. :-)

[zanos]

Use the Taurus (noob ship) and try to find an officer with a +% of troop strength. You can also perk into 'fleet commander', which raises troop strength. Also try to upgrade your transporter with an enhancement that lets you transport more troops over. It doesn't always work, but this will hopefully give you an edge.

[Zenoslaf]

Hi Kexin,

1. Don't attack ships that are bigger then yours.

2. Find and hire an officer that has either trooper strenght bonus or trooper capacity bonus

3. Buy enhancement for your transporter unit that has capacity bonus.


What does that mean? More capacity means more troopers can be board at once. If you can board majority of them you will zerg the poor enemy.

Also try to capture ships that are closer to stations and planets cause you have to tow them and you cannot tow big ships with full speed but 3/4 or 1/2 speed. If you captured a ship 15000 km from station it will be one long haul. :)

[Zenoslaf]

Ok, those are some fast responses... Slow down guys, Kexin will now make perfect captures on lvl 3 and become rich too fast!!!

[Kexin]

Thanks for all the advice folks. But regarding caps near stations...how do I do this really? There are rarely pirates near friendly stations and when there are, they get vaporized before I can board them.

[Zenoslaf]

You have to be really fast, that's true, (Power to Engines and everything tospeed on ship schematic), but I didn't mean like 500 m from the station, just not in the middle of nowhere. :)

I sometimes tow for 6 minutes, it's not a problem, but some people may find that tiresome or boring. :)

[Lich Lord]

Don't bother with the lazy capture, just cruise out to 5k or so, there is alot of action...takes some time to tow them in but starting out it is worth it. 70k to 1mill depending on the ships you capture early on...I actually made a whole new game as an engineer for capturing ships, my hope is to level my skills then just use a ship with a cloak and decent crew to ride around and cap ships, turn into pirates for coin....but for now i have to play nice with people cause im level 5.

My gunner is level 42, they level too fast in my opinion, pure dps, just wrecks everything.

[Zenoslaf]

Originally posted by Admiral Dyroi:

I actually made a whole new game as an engineer for capturing ships, my hope is to level my skills then just use a ship with a cloak and decent crew to ride around and cap ships, turn into pirates for coin

And that is the beauty of the game. You have choices. You can be good guy that saves the universe, neutral trader that earn on market fluctuation or a criminal scumbag Dyroi wants. :D

[WWDragon]

Originally posted by Kexin:

Thanks for all the advice folks. But regarding caps near stations...how do I do this really? There are rarely pirates near friendly stations and when there are, they get vaporized before I can board them.

Welcome.

Basically you find stations on the boarder of enemy territory.
Those tend to have both friendlies and enemies nearby.

Do not shoot the enemies, but rather pick one that is not being shot and just start boarding.
Keep clicking the Green arrow on the right side where the boarding progress is until your troops are out.
Dock at the station and fill up on troops, undock, select that same ship again and select board once more.
After two times, even a ship two sizes larger usually falls to you. ;-)

[Tal Maru]

you can use PTE mode while towing now as of last update.

[Zenoslaf]

Originally posted by WWDragon:

Do not shoot the enemies, but rather pick one that is not being shot and just start boarding.

Forgot to mention that. Good advice. :)

[Zenoslaf]

Originally posted by Tal Maru:

you can use PTE mode while towing now as of last update.

Even I didn't know that. And there I am, speeding like an old turtle... :D

[WWDragon]

Originally posted by zzokalj - SPG2 Vice Admiral:

Originally posted by Tal Maru:

you can use PTE mode while towing now as of last update.

Even I didn't know that. And there I am, speeding like an old turtle... :D

Heh :-)

There is a balance to that too.
A ship can tow anything equal size or smaller by default.
Tractors that say Overload tend to be better, both for towing at warp to prevent loss of ship on initial speedup and to help tow bigger stuff, faster.
More range also helps.

[Lich Lord]

ill have to find some upgrades then, mine keep breaking when i get into PTE for same size ships due to range issues.

[WWDragon]

Originally posted by Admiral Dyroi:

ill have to find some upgrades then, mine keep breaking when i get into PTE for same size ships due to range issues.

I find a grappler range of 500+ is ideal.