Board the erlking without destroyed erlking and drag vigor syndicate reputation down?

[Humble]

What is best way to board erlking without destroy erlking and not to drag Vigor Syndicate reputation down? I know you could reseaching erlking if it destroyed, but I want to unlock those in budget custem game so I can't had erlking destroyed it on first try. Vigor Syndicate is something like 17 or 18 relations. I don't want drag that down since it's not easy to improve Vigor Syndicate, I had not done with northriver plot (I'm not sure once Vigor Syndicate become enemies for little while while destroy their one station when not taking side of Northriver then it's harm to my vigor syndicate once paid off, is it go back way my relations as before or worse?

What is best ship to board for this erlking? Do you had to be in IS yet not closer to that keepsafe station or something like that? I tried to google but not see a good answer at latest patch version, 6.0?
Do a.i. Erlking had working turret to fire at ship, or not? I know it's lore said no turret and had to find data for that, but not sure a.i Erlking in the game had working turrets or not?

[Set-115689]

Maybe try flyby boarding?

If you support the Min Wharf/Shipyard they attack Vigor which might increase Vig trade opportunities?

[blackphoenixx]

The first time you fly too close to Keepsafe you lose 30 rep with the station and its assigned defense fleet.
That means if your VIG rep is +6 or higher they won't start shooting if you're in a civilian ship and at +16 or higher they won't go hostile to you at all.
Neither they nor the Erlking itself go hostile when you board it either, as long as you don't shoot it.

So you can just load a ship with high crew capacity like Shuyaku full of marines, board with target hull and defense set to "very strong" so you don't need to destroy turrets or damage hull and then fly away and wait 20-30 minutes until the boarding op finishes,

Either you win without losing any permanent rep, getting shot at or firing a single shot yourself or you go buy a fresh load of marines and try again (the Erlking does not replenish crew between attempts, so you're guaranteed to win eventually even with rookies).

[trooperrob]

flyby boarding. Dump the marines on the ship without firing. (edit and run away)
You will need a lot of marines, and prob at least half vets if you can.
Don't fire. set all turrets to missile defence or off.
The station may not like you but nobody else will be that bothered.
Once you have the ship, assign captain and (have earlking ) run, although I don't think it will be hostile.
can be done from aux, large freighter etc....
you may or may not be fired upon,. but if you run in fast and run out fast and haven't picked a ship with no shield you will be fine

edit 2 - remember earlking is rubbish before you have xl shipyard and its plans. can work as a tank, but rubbish weapons.

[ArcticISAF]

Since I just went through this myself (again) recently a few days ago, I found there's an easy way. Keep OOS. I bought a shuyaku vanguard with 225 recruits, moved it into the system, travel drive path so it passes over the ship (just to get it there faster). Once it's going over it, pause so you can cancel order and it stops. I've had it drift a bit away and then it had to fly back to do the boarding. Nothing happened. Anyway, select it and do the boarding - Very strong to all. Send them all to their death. Restock your crew with more marines. Do it again. Possibly have to do it a third time but this will whittle them down.

Then once you capture it, keep OOS as you fly it out (meh). I teleported to it to fly it home once it was somewhat close to the jumpgate and they gave me all the warnings about approaching and staying away even though I was miles away. Oh well, nothing happened, even though it sounded like it would.

I should have tested what would happen if you approach the Erlking 'lazily' as in just waited for it to get into position. I don't think anything as the ship literally hangs in the area during boarding and then slowly leaves to get more recruits without any shenanigans but yeah. Should be all good, let me know if there's any issues.

[Humble]

Thank you Everyone,

What I understand correctly?

"Keep OOS?", do you mean command shuyaku out of sectors, "not personal fly" shuyaku, disable turrets, then command it to fly and board erlking? I do understand command Erlking to move out by doing OOS, not IS, after won board erlking correctly?

[trooperrob]

oos means that you personally are not in sector.
I flew in personally, launched marines. I teleport out when the marines are very close because sometimes marines can get stuck on your ship or terrain etc.
you might want to command the boarding ship personally to point it away from the EK to stop it panicking and fleeing in the wrong direction. Don't think os or is that important for this job.

[ArcticISAF]

Yeah, just be in a different sector and command it from the map. Position the shuyaku directly above the Erlking (minimize distance for marines to travel), right click for it to board, all settings to very strong. Marines will fly in, Erlking will fire on the marines but not the ship for whichever reason, at least that I could tell. Should be straight forward and that's what worked for me... I was a bit unsure on how it would go at first but as time went on it was pretty simple. Make a good save beforehand just in case of course. And yeah just use the map to get it to fly out after you get it. Edit: I don't know if I disabled the turrets on the shayaku or not... I guess shouldn't matter if disabled.

[trooperrob]

I disable turrets (or set to missile defence) because if you are fired on, you will fire back. That just drops your rep.

[Humble]

Ok, I did set up and had 3 Shuyaku Vanguard, disable all sort of weapon, then board full number on Eriking OOS, I think it's total 675 marines vs their 298, after nearly lost 675 lost/killed, it's only down 282 after, It's work, no Vigor Syndicate reputation down, and station/ship didn't turn red, that is good, but bad new, that is lot of lost life to take over board, I still working on it and will take it but wow, how many crew to take, I thought 3 Shuyaku Vanguard 675 would winning due high number, but it's seem little effort, I don't know how to get training marines in early game, late game is not option (where terraforming is a late game, I wish there is option to train marines in early game, not that late game), I would like this ship in early so ship is useful, more or less.

Ah, time to get other marines to overcome and take over Erlking, no matter how many marines it is take but that is sad, lot of crew life is lost, Any hint to win erlking in early game without heavy lost marines?

Other bad new is that this game i am already playing 9 day, I cover whole sat in windfall and Avarice nearly full, only find 2 data vault for erlking, now i'm starting worry, my last game I able to find all 5 like that but now, sat cover map to map, only 2 found. I hopeful it's not off the map or something, that is painful to look after drop ton of sat on map, someone said set explorer but I don't like to keep watch like that, it's bored my mind like that, I just drop sat common here to there then busy somewhere ect, but now sat is almost full, only 2 data, I wish egosoft don't do this design like that off map or sector, that is not very reasonable to put data vaults off the screen sector map.

(I don't use mod and I prefer not to use cheat)

[Humble]

I discover I could get some Veteran marines from Vigor Syndicate shipyard, hopeful that would help.

[ArcticISAF]

Oh yeah I did hear that Vigor gives good marines. I didn't use them as at the time both the shipyard and wharf had no crew onboard to give, although looking now they both have good amounts of crew. AFAIK there is no getting around the casualties with boarding, besides the 'lower their morale by weakening their ship, causing them to flee'. But since that can't be done here, just have to slog them down. Good to put pirates vs pirates I suppose for crew.

The data vaults are a massive pain to find... sometimes anyway. They're a bit different from regular vaults in that you need your own ship vision or satellite vision to 'see' the vaults, so you can't just go 'explore' with ships and then see them in the void. They can appear anywhere in the 6 sectors. My current ones are Windfall I and IV, Avarice IV and I x2. The two ways I'd done it is either fly around at high speed in a good fighter (e.g. moreya +10 km/s) looking for data vault icons to pop up. Sometimes this works, I don't think it's bad overall. Second is spam adv. satellites in a bit tighter fashion - I once had the location of the data vault below the plane, in the center of three adv. satellites... that was annoying to say the least lol.

[Humble]

Oh, yes, very painful to find data vault, I find 3rd one, 2 more to go, but yikes, all 6 sector already nearly coverage of sats, something like over 400 sat maybe? I lost count.

I finaly board Erlking and take to dock, veterans do make a difference! Odd Green Marines faster at sage 2 enter the ship than veterans do?

Thank you everyone! I got a achievement and should be unlock in buget gamestart.

[ArcticISAF]

Congrats :D

[Set-115689]

Veterans are worth a lot more points than recruits. Elites slaughter crazy amounts of crew.

[Humble]

Originally posted by ArcticISAF:

Congrats :D

Thank you!

Originally posted by Set-115689:

Veterans are worth a lot more points than recruits. Elites slaughter crazy amounts of crew.

Yikes, I can't image it, I'm glad Erlking do not had Elites! I'm petty sure mostly it's mix veterans and recruits, more or less, but I can't tell detail, thought. It's didn't said whatever crew are recruits, veterans or Elites, it's show number of crew, not much beyond than that.