Fastest way to getting an alien/ai ship from start?

[Pluton, King of the Underworld]

I got this game hoping to fly those sweet sweet alien/ai ships. But I'm wondering what the fastest way towards getting one would be?

[jafdy]

Capture you way up. Start with a shuttle and capture increasingly large ships until you have enough to capture the ship you want.
Of course the actual fastest way is just to go to Hai space and capture something there, but I don't think that's what you wanted.

[hellminister]

for the ai ship (korath's automata) get yourself a starling or its freigther equivalent in remnant space first, they got cloaking abilities

[Goose]

a good but not necessarily as fast method is to go to remnant space after acquiring a few million credits, get a quantum keystone from hai space, then go to terminus system, then navigate your way to remnant space and do a few missions for them, get a license and buy whatever ship you want. just my personal method though

[Pluton, King of the Underworld]

Originally posted by jafdy:

Capture you way up. Start with a shuttle and capture increasingly large ships until you have enough to capture the ship you want.
Of course the actual fastest way is just to go to Hai space and capture something there, but I don't think that's what you wanted.

Actually I ended up doing trading to build up 7 mil and I went and bought the lightning bug from hai space. It's a nice starter alien ship for me. Thanks though!

Originally posted by hellminister:

for the ai ship (korath's automata) get yourself a starling or its freigther equivalent in remnant space first, they got cloaking abilities

Would I have to build up a big combat fleet first to be able to fight and disable them?

[Terin]

Originally posted by Pluton, King of the Underworld:

Would I have to build up a big combat fleet first to be able to fight and disable them?

Search for Mesuket, two factions will fight each other enough to leave plenty of ships disabled. You'll need a lot to actually capture one, though.

[hellminister]

at mesuket they disable each other by themselves, just be sure to have a lot of fuel and ramscoop (they sell some of the best in that area) to be able to stay indefinetly cloaked

just 1 of the ship i said will be enough to capture, but you need a lot of luck to capture the automatas, but the big ones are worth it

[Pluton, King of the Underworld]

Originally posted by hellminister:

at mesuket they disable each other by themselves, just be sure to have a lot of fuel and ramscoop (they sell some of the best in that area) to be able to stay indefinetly cloaked

just 1 of the ship i said will be enough to capture, but you need a lot of luck to capture the automatas, but the big ones are worth it

I see. I just got a shield beetle and 51 extra crew with laser rifles, hopefully that'll be enough. Or will I NEED to cloak?

[Terin]

Cloak helps a ton, but you don't NEED it, just need to be extra careful, and wait for the fight to move away from disabled ships. You can even do it in a shuttle!

[Timerlane]

Crew aren't actually used in this kind of boarding(vs automata); there's just a very small chance of it actually succeeding. Think of it as something more like a 'hacking' attempt, than an actual boarding attempt.

Just be ready to run if/when the dialog mentions 'self-destruct'; the Met Par Tek 53s(the smallest of the brown ships) in particular, explode very quickly, and can absolutely one-shot smaller ships if you're close-by when they go up.

[Pluton, King of the Underworld]

Originally posted by Timerlane:

Crew aren't actually used in this kind of boarding(vs automata); there's just a very small chance of it actually succeeding. Think of it as something more like a 'hacking' attempt, than an actual boarding attempt.

Just be ready to run if/when the dialog mentions 'self-destruct'; the Met Par Tek 53s(the smallest of the brown ships) in particular, explode very quickly, and can absolutely one-shot smaller ships if you're close-by when they go up.

Oh yeah. I forgot they're unmanned!
Once I capture it they will follow me back correct? And then for the player to pilot they need a command center?

[Timerlane]

Yes to all of the above. Note that, of course, you'll need a second Jump Drive to put in any new ship(or be willing to temporarily abandon your current one), if you want to bring it all the back 'home'. Automata only 'come with' standard hyperdrives.

To maximize the chances of getting your prize back safely, remember that nothing bad happens to any escort ships unless you're in-system at the time, so if there's any chance the automata might be close enough to turn on you once the allegiance of the ship changes, be ready to jump out immediately.

I like to enter and leave Mesuket by jumping from/to Sabriset. It's usually a quiet system, so you can top off your hyperspace fuel with ramscoops in peace before you jump in to Mesuket, and you're stationary right after capping, so the jump can execute immediately whenever you want to escape(particularly relevant if you like to have both Jump and hyperdrive installed on your ship at the same time).

[Pluton, King of the Underworld]

Originally posted by Timerlane:

Yes to all of the above. Note that, of course, you'll need a second Jump Drive to put in any new ship(or be willing to temporarily abandon your current one), if you want to bring it all the back 'home'. Automata only 'come with' standard hyperdrives.

To maximize the chances of getting your prize back safely, remember that nothing bad happens to any escort ships unless you're in-system at the time, so if there's any chance the automata might be close enough to turn on you once the allegiance of the ship changes, be ready to jump out immediately.

I like to enter and leave Mesuket by jumping from/to Sabriset. It's usually a quiet system, so you can top off your hyperspace fuel with ramscoops in peace before you jump in to Mesuket, and you're stationary right after capping, so the jump can execute immediately whenever you want to escape(particularly relevant if you like to have both Jump and hyperdrive installed on your ship at the same time).

I managed to get the 349 & Par Tek 53! Thanks to all of you for the advice!
And I got 3 jump drives from raiding Korath Raiders so i was able to get them back to the Human systems safely.