The X3 Capturing Guide

blackfire83 · Post by **blackfire83** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 14:24

Be sure you have a police license for the race that you are scanning, else they may turn HOSTILE and killing them WILL result in a rep hit...

Example: If you do NOT have a Paranid Police License, and you scan a Paranid ship, they may get ticked off at you and go HOSTILE. Killing/Capturing this ship WILL hurt your rep with the Paranid... Just a little heads up...

As for capping: as far as my experience and what I've read the "tickling with Ion D's" trick does NOT work anymore. Hard and fast truly seems to be the way to go...

-blackfire83

andrwrwn · Post by **andrwrwn** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 15:17

Spektre wrote:
X-it wrote:
Spektre wrote:So if you scan, say, an Argon Mercury freighter, and he turns red, and you commence attaking, does it not affect your race standing?
Yes, it goes up! Pirate freighters are actually traveling inkognito in X3 compared to X2. They look like any neutral freigters, but when scanned they sometimes 'reveal' themselves. Their ship's name changes from for example "Argon Mercury frozen goods transport" to "Pirate Mercury frozen goods transport", and you are free to attack it, and get a reward if you have a police badge.

.
This is such a cool feature. It always seemed a bit lame that the pirate freighters made sitting ducks of themselves by appearing as bright red blips on your map. Not exactly what you would call smuggling.

Right, I'm off to clear the galaxy of pirate smugglers!

Are these under-cover pirates quite rare? I've been sitting in Elena's Fortune scanning anything that moves (well over 100 freighters) and have yet to find one.

Protrader · Post by **Protrader** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 15:27

They really arnt exactly that rare, use your freight scanner on ships that dock with the space fuel distilery in the sector north of argon prime. I have hit on quite a few smugglers there.

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 15:59

blackfire83 wrote:Be sure you have a police license for the race that you are scanning, else they may turn HOSTILE and killing them WILL result in a rep hit...

Example: If you do NOT have a Paranid Police License, and you scan a Paranid ship, they may get ticked off at you and go HOSTILE. Killing/Capturing this ship WILL hurt your rep with the Paranid... Just a little heads up...

My experience is you can scan any ship if you are in a sector owned by a race that you have a police license with. I have no Paranid license, but I've scanned lots of Paranid ships in other races' sectors (I have the license for all other races) without getting a rep. hit.

But I was down in a Paranid sector recently (and forgot I was there) and scanned an Argon ship. I got the 'illegal scan reported' message immediately.

Makes sense. If you are a local police officer you should be able to scan any ships in 'your' territory.

Also in pirate sectors etc. you can scan any ships without having a license.

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 16:07

andrwrwn wrote:Are these under-cover pirates quite rare? I've been sitting in Elena's Fortune scanning anything that moves (well over 100 freighters) and have yet to find one.

I didn't think they were. Since I got this tip yesterday I scanned about 20 ships last night (also in Elena's Fortune and the surrounding sectors), and 4 of them were pirates. Today I've scanned lots as well (20-30), but this was while exploring up in the north-eastern area of the X-universe. None of them were pirates.

Like mentioned above, keep a watch on pirate bases and factories that produce illegal goods, and scan the ships that trade there. Also a good tip is to scan 'frozen goods'-transporters. Seems to be popular pirate ships.

spaceweedaddict · Post by **spaceweedaddict** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 17:03

"M6- A Xenon P if you can get it, but if not, a Hydra, Ions and PBE's, have fun"

how on earth did you get a P?!

AL: We still expect you to write one

Al · Post by Al » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 21:08

I need to get in some serious X3 time first and unfortunately real life has been taking over since I got it.

I'll try and write something but then if the others cover everything there wont be much point.

Al

spaceweedaddict · Post by **spaceweedaddict** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 21:13

I’m sure it'll be worth the wait. Your X2 guide was the only reason I diden't give up, X2.

Holywhippet · Post by **Holywhippet** » Sun, 4. Dec 05, 23:33

Spare-Flair wrote:Everytime I try to capture something, it ends up with no cargo or weapons or anything installed, even if I hardly scratch the hull. I guess that's something to live with for getting the price of the ship.

I believe that's to stop you getting too much money too quickly. You have likely noticed that weapons and shields are very expensive in X2 (I still don't have X3 yet). Generally a weapon or shield on a captured ship is worth more than the actual ship. The game actually destroys equipment itself just after the pirate bailed. In X2, if you were quick, you could quickly scan a ship just after the pilot bails and see the equipment still on board. Wait a second and most or all of it will suddently vanish.

Kitsuken · Post by **Kitsuken** » Wed, 14. Dec 05, 16:38

Sorry if this seems like a dumb question, but how do you pick up bailed pirates anyway? I tried opening my airlock like I would with cargo, but as far as I can tell the guy just got splattered across the windscreen

Caergoth · Post by **Caergoth** » Wed, 14. Dec 05, 20:46

1) You have to have room in your cargo hold.

2) You have to be going slow enough to pick him up. I try to stay below 30km to be on the safe side. Slower is safer.

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Wed, 14. Dec 05, 20:51

You also need to have the lifesupport system installed on your ship. Buy from all pirate bases (ironically enough...

).

I'm not sure if it's not possible to scoop them if you don't have it though, but probably not...?

Inacurate · Post by **Inacurate** » Sat, 17. Dec 05, 15:02

X-it wrote:You also need to have the lifesupport system installed on your ship. Buy from all pirate bases (ironically enough... ).

I'm not sure if it's not possible to scoop them if you don't have it though, but probably not...?

I grabbed one, but he disappeared on me, no life support system installed. I was hoping to get some silly little message like "Life signs in cargo hull now gone." or something when they die, lol.

Question though, wouldn't they stay in their space suit if they got picked up by an unknown ship....??

Inac

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Sat, 17. Dec 05, 16:00

Good point.

I remember in First Encounter, if you tried to transport live animals or something without having the life support system installed, they were transformed into rubbish, which you actually had to pay to get rid of (legally).

lt_wentoncha · Post by **lt_wentoncha** » Sun, 25. Dec 05, 06:24

Ackgh, ya'll make is sound so easy. So if i can get a ships shields down, and the pilot doesn't bail, what should I do so that he does? I chased a harrier for a good ten mins in my buster with shields down and hull dmg, bastich wouldn't abandond ship. Hmmmmm, I can't afford ion weapons either as I'm playing early plot game. Thanks.

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Sun, 25. Dec 05, 16:07

A good tactic is to let the target's shields recharge to almost max again, and then go in for a new run: down the shields as quickly as possible and some of the hull. If he doesn't bail then, repeat.

But then again I think some one simply will not bail no matter what you do.

Also remember in 1.3 there is also a Com option where you can ask him to surrender. It hasn't worked for me yet, but then again I haven't had time to play much lately.

Donziboy2 · Post by **Donziboy2** » Sun, 25. Dec 05, 17:55

Seems as if they dont bail as ofter anymore since the patch.

random50 · Post by **random50** » Wed, 28. Dec 05, 18:43

You can target the weapons quite easily. (Oh, and BTW, try turning the laser guiding off. It makes it much harder to hit the ship obviously but you can target the weapons more effectively)

But can you target the shields? I've not been able to find the shield generator locations on the ships!

Guysmiley · Post by **Guysmiley** » Wed, 28. Dec 05, 18:56

I think I agree Donziboy2, 1.3 I think seriously reduced the amout of surrenders. And as posted in another thread, I'm getting the "I give up" messages, but they don't eject.

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Wed, 28. Dec 05, 21:11

I'm getting plenty of "I give up, take the ship"-messages, and they eject. But remember they also say "shields are down, request assistance" or similar, but they don't ejct when they're saying this.

Since 1.3, I've only had one pilot eject instantly without saying anything. Seems the trigger for the surrender message is timed, so wait a while after each time they speak before firing at them again.

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The X3 Capturing Guide