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FIRST boarding - a Titurel! UPDATED FOR 4.0x Release
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Here's a brief FIRST EVER BOARDING (in your game) method for Tits. I've chosen a Tit because they're less fragile than Rahanas, require less BA than Sanahars & they're relatively easy to find.. plus they can transport /any/ cargo in their huge cargo bay! It's a bit time consuming (10-20mins playtime) & the numbers may vary depending upon how many marines you have & what experience (level) they & your MO have, but it works for me:
Thanks to XenonSurf for his followup from my original post, I've decided to update this guide now v4.00 is out. [edit] XenonSurf's link to much better boarding explanations here . [/edit] THIS IS STILL A WORK IN PROGRESS!
BR = Boarding Resistance; BA = Boarding Attack; cURV = Constructor URV
Assignment: Boarding a Titurel
Assets required:: 50 rookie marines & a reasonably decent Marine Officer (MO): 4/4/3 (this was mine: hunt with smalltalk until you find a decent one*). Skunk has Mk2 weapons except for Mining Laser (/not/ Heavy Laser) which we can discount for obvious reasons. A targeting computer, preferably Mk2, is essential & cheap enough to equip in the early game. I'll not use missiles in this boarding as it's a waste of money at this point (still early game) IMO but if you wish, feel free to use them. Have any Captain** (purely to enable drone transfer) & a /good/ (4-5*) Engineer ready to deploy.
[I've done this with Mk1 weps; it takes a bit longer but the result is the same. Missiles (Sunstalkers or their lighter versions) are good at taking out turret clusters due to splash damage, but it takes a fair bit of skill & the results are variable, so not recommended for a first capping attempt.. plus splash damage (AoE) may take out active cURVs, which you want to keep alive]
* Marine officers' boarding stat will rise by (I reckon) 2%-10% per successful boarding, (on a bell curve for those stats ppl here). If you don't intend boarding a /lot/ of ships to raise that stat (the most important!), find a MO with 5* boarding & use training lessons (available from smalltalk or other rewards) to skill them up
** If you have the choice, pick a Captain with good (3-5*) Leadership & excellent (4-5*) Navigation. Navigation will help your new lumbering beast to manoeuvre a little quicker, & Leadership will help all around
If you're confident using a hacker (Trojan) drone (ie playing the minigame), go ahead; if you're not [below 15fps gamers need not apply IME!] I suggest you sell the drone(s) to a friendly dealer nearby to prevent Yisha from telling you to use it. REMEMBER that hacker drones may be targeted by an enemy's PD (point defence), so if you don't have the cash to spare or the techniques to avoid PD fire, sell it off!
[A successful hacker drone mission set (5 successes) will disable capship shields & weps for a short time (5mins?) if used prior to commencing boarding; THIS DOES NOT mean Yisha's interference will do the same!]
Preparation:
Find a Tit a fair distance out from any stations & their patrols to avoid ‘helpful’ interference. With decent radar coverage you should be able to find one at around 20-35Km away from any station, with its command 'Patrol'. This is ideal! Remember any ships squadded to you will automatically move & fire on the Tit as soon as it lands a hit on you, so send them away as soon as you find your target
Good hunting places in Albion: Dominant Bear, Big Empty. Cuspid Splint would be good but for its ferocious defence, so any hostile you find there is likely to be destroyed (or flee (jump/boost away) before you can board it
Method:
1. Knock out <target's> JD as quickly as possible (to prevent a 'flee jump'), then engines. The latter will give you a safe place to hide (in v4.0x & above watch out for engine wash damage!) You'll be coming back to knock out repaired engines probably at least once. This also prevents <target> from coming within range of other ships who may call on their local patrols or stations to help to destroy the hostile (see 'Flee' below)
[You could use a Traitor drone's mines to do this, but you may have to be very careful to avoid the Tit's PD HIT/MA fire. Not worth the time IMO]
When under fire from the Tit's PD, DON'T PANIC! In this case, with only a single capship against the Skunk, you are bound to win IF YOU STAY within the destroyed engines' area, or at least only move/strafe slowly! If there are other target-allied hostiles in the area, take out the Tit's comms array (the forward radar dish; you won't be able to target it) so it can't call for help
At this point you make a decision: do you want a hulk (ie marine training/cash value only)? Or do you want a working ship? Either result is possible but time constraints & lack of resources may make you choose..
If all you desire is a hulk or marine training then simply destroy every surface element on the ship (Yisha will not irritate you if there are no targets to destroy, unless you have a hacker drone onboard) & proceed to point (4); HOWEVER if you're after a working ship ASAP read on..
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2. From the engine area work your way /down/ to the 'keel' of the ship. Take out the JD first as it's an accessible target & will reduce the shields for the easy 3 HIT/MA turrets next to it (you can avoid their fire fairly easily if you strafe slightly to the other side of the ship), then start by taking out the nearest turrets (/not/ shields! - EXCEPTION: the shield gen immediately 'above' the engines covers those nearest 6 HIT/MA turrets, & it's easily killable if you /don't/ select it for autotarget: (just manually aim). Use the Apache helicopter method: pop up, disable/destroy a few turrets that are shooting at you, then pop down again to recharge shields. Proceed forward to starboard (right). Continue using the above method until you've disabled/destroyed all turrets (check in <target's> details screen). Reduce Plasma Cannons (within your/their firing range) first: they hurt!*
*It's not necessary to completely destroy turrets: if when selected they show <25% Hull they won't shoot at all (<~66% reduces fire rate). This gives Yisha more random surface elements to choose other than the Drone Bay
3. Now it's a matter of time & patience. Check the target's boarding resistance in its details screen; for the boarding loadout I've suggested at the top of this post you'll want it below 40, preferably around 25 or so, [currently BA at 10+ above <target's BR> means no casualties provided you complete Yisha's directives, if any]. You may notice some hostile drones flying around; with luck these are the Tit's own cURVs, repairing it. LEAVE THEM ALONE (qv). Any hostile drones that shoot at you, take out ASAP ofc
ATM any /equipped/ drones on board add to the target's BR: in other words the more drones it has equipped (even cURVs or Cargolifters) take the BR up by quite a bit Therefore for a first boarding with your minimal assets you can destroy the drone bay if absolutely necessary, but it’s always better to take a ship wth an intact drone bay.
[If you destroy the drone bay the drones not in use are all lost, meaning <target> won't repair quickly after boarding (cURV loss) & will lose efficiency & profitsss (excess cargolifter sale loss - no longer relevant for Tits [v3.5+] & Sanahars [v4.0x+] but still applicable to other ships..). Once successfully boarded, <Ship> will no longer be able to use drones for mining, repair, defence/attack, or cargo transfer (including ship-to-ship 'transfer') until the drone bay is repaired.. which may take quite a while - it's last on the Engineer's list! ]
3a Take out both the capship shield generators. Although they're potential Yisha targets, their loss will reduce shields by 50%, making the next stage far less time-consuming..
I can say that destroying a capship shield gen (Tit has 2) takes quite a while without special weapons, & may be a little too long to do without help (from missiles or other ships). You may well come up with a better solution, such as taking them out before starting the final boarding command. This will reduce the number of options Yisha has to give you (ie greater chance she gives you drone bay to destroy), but it'll make the operation quicker to complete; your choice! You may like to consider taking them down before the board command, as it's the capship shields that take the time (& screw Yisha's timing if she gives them as an option).. whatever..
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4. Take the Tit's Hull down to around 20% (by all means use other ships here to back you up if you're sure you can stop them /instantly/: shots in flight & drones take a few seconds to respond! Yes I know that's a boring 10min of playtime, especially when I've told you not to shoot at shields, but the reward!..
[Teladi DLC explorers NOTE: if you're using the Pulse Maser Mk3 its accuracy, range & DPS vs Hull is remarkable & persists for about 10s after you take your finger off the trigger, so don't go overboard on approach to the target!]
5: Check <target's> BR. If it's above 36 expect to fail (with the above assets). Take the hull down some more (but /not/ below 5%, just in case..). If below 36 take out repaired engines/JD again. If it's still too tough you may need to destroy the Drone Bay or some turrets to ensure success
Last check for active (repaired) turrets & to make sure you've got all squadded ships ignoring you (run from battle, fly elsewhere, whatever)
**SAVE** - no point in losing a 20 min preparation to a whim..
6. BOARD option! Since you've disabled/destroyed all turrets the boarding pods should be safe in transit. No losses there.. unless you have 'friendly' local ships helping you & they manage to destroy a pod in flight (once landed the podded marines may complain, but they're invulnerable to external attacks)
7. NOW it gets interesting. Since you've disabled/destroyed all turrets, Yisha's 5 directives will be to destroy surface targets on the ship. Hopefully that will /not/ include the Drone Bay (qv), but we'll have to go with what the game randomly selects:( [you can quicksave at each Yisha mission completion to produce a different target upon reload] There is a time limit on how long you take to accomplish each of Yisha's tasks: 60s for 'easy' tasks (eg destroying a gun turret); 120s for 'hard' tasks (eg destroying capship shied gen).. but check XenonSurf's post at the bottom of this screed for details.. Of course, if you've destroyed /everything/ Yisha won't have a task for you, so all you have to do is wait...
If you accomplish all Yisha's tasks you'll take minimal casualties. Marine strength has nothing to do with casualty rates atm [citation needed - I'll get back to that for a link]. Failing Yisha's tasks means you'll take a guaranteed drop in marines [20% per task IIRC] (with a commensurate drop in BP /during the op/, possibly leading to failure of the op depending upon how far along you were), leading to a commensurate drop in cash (for marine replacements)
8. RESULT!: You have a not-so-shiny Tit to add to your fleet. Enter the backroom FIRST & tell your spare engineer & captain to work elsewhere, then (after a few seconds) join them on the Tit to congratulate them & retrieve your MO. You will have lost around 11 marine greenies (depending on BR & how well you did with Yisha's games); another 11 may have levelled up to Vet, & the rest.. well you know the drill now
- Your MO will be unavailable for further boarding ops until they’re retrieved to the Skunk. While you can retrieve them remotely via comms, I find it's more convenient to land & do a brief check around to make sure all necessary crewmembers are onboard & working appropriately. Losing a highly-trained MO (you only need 1 for the entire game) is an accident to be avoided!
- If you use the ‘remote recall’ option you /still/ need to access the Skunk backroom to tell the MO to ‘work onboard’ for some reason only known to DEVs, so best to combine the action for efficiency
- This is early game - loot those ship boxes, lockers & cases for cash & tradeables!
All (previously marked hostile) cURVs will still be repairing your new prize.. & they will eventually be assigned to you! If Yisha didn't order you to destroy the drone bay you got lucky & (once your prize has a new captain) you can now transfer drones to/from another ship for whatever purpose if necessary: if the drone bay was destroyed you can't do this until it's repaired
[edit] Updated for v4 Release 15/03/2016 [/edit]
[edit] Updated 07/03/2017 for Wiki [/edit]
References: JoeTheDestroyer's boarding calculations For more general background see CBJ's comment on skills and may also be useful for general officer calculations, plus another dev's post (CBJ? Benrd)?) explaining how the new boarding works..