Capturing ships?

imladrain · Post by **imladrain** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 4:39 pm

Is capturing enemy ships in space an option in the game?
I'm pretty new to this game, and maybe this is obvious or has been discussed in many other topics, but if it has I haven't found it.
Thank you in advance

Solon Halwinder · Post by **Solon Halwinder** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 7:54 pm

Yes, it is possible. You need a ship with at least 1,000 cargo capacity (the cargo size of the smallest ships) and a tractor beam, preferably autotracked. Ships that fit the bill:

Drayman - 5,000 Cargo (Purchasable after completing Oxford missions)
Paradigm - 100,000 Cargo (Purchasable after completing Privateer campaign)

imladrain · Post by **imladrain** » Wed Oct 11, 2006 8:08 pm

OK, thanks for the info.

micheal_andreas_stahl · Thu Oct 12, 2006 9:10 am

Or the kirathi one

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 1:16 pm

Solon Halwinder wrote:Yes, it is possible. You need a ship with at least 1,000 cargo capacity (the cargo size of the smallest ships) and a tractor beam, preferably autotracked.

How do you capture it though? I assume you have to somehow get the pilot to bail before tractoring in the ship? How do you get it to bail?

Post by **loki1950** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 3:10 pm

you take the pilot to and you can sell him as well

Enjoy the Choice

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 6:12 pm

No need to convince your foe (or friend) to get into your cargo bay. Just point your tractor beam onto the desired ship. If you have enough space, it will be "captured". The difference is: you don't board it, so there's no need for the white flag.

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:02 pm

So what do you do with the captured ship if you can't board it? Can you strip out the equipment in a captured ship? And where/how can I get info on ship sizes?

Zool · Post by **Zool** » Wed Jan 03, 2007 10:37 pm

I tried ship capturing a couple of ways. First I modified the cargo hold on my centurion to 75000 (YES!! Very BIG but with reason)just to see what I could scoop up.(Tried a Kamekh but died very fast)

Managed most of the smaller ships but could not get a Gothri no matter how I tried.

Secondly, spend the last week and a half playing to get enough money ( and find one) to buy a Drayman CVL (so I didn't have to cheat). Got one, equipped it and took it out. Eventually managed to find a Gothri but still couldnot tractor it in. (I need one for my collection. Got just about one of everything, fully decked out BUT I WANT A GOTHRI!!!

please!!

Anyone got any ideas??

Is There any way to get a Kamekh too??

micheal_andreas_stahl · Thu Jan 04, 2007 2:49 am

i think you have to edit the size of the ship you are in to tractor a cap ship.

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 5:13 am

Ok, I managed to capture a ship (a Diralthi)! I checked it and it's worth 1.3 mil at the commodity exchange place! (I'll have to get back into the game to make sure I didn't read an extra digit into the number, hehe.)

Is there anyway to check how much room I have left in my cargo bay? Either that or how much the space the ship is taking up in my cargo bay?

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:24 am

Shoot wrote:Ok, I managed to capture a ship (a Diralthi)! I checked it and it's worth 1.3 mil at the commodity exchange place! (I'll have to get back into the game to make sure I didn't read an extra digit into the number, hehe.)

Is there anyway to check how much room I have left in my cargo bay? Either that or how much the space the ship is taking up in my cargo bay?

Ok, just to update, it's worth 1.4 mil!

And I figured out how much room I have left. It was displayed in the commodity exchange place.

I just capped a 2nd ship. But I'm wondering if capping is all random. Or is there a criteria to capping. Some ships I can't cap and some are capped instantly even though they're all the same model of ship. I don't notice any difference in what I do between the sucessful caps versus the nonsucessful ones.

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 7:35 am

Zool wrote:Got just about one of everything, fully decked out BUT I WANT A GOTHRI!!!

How were you able to keep multiple ships and how were you able to deck them out? I managed to cap 2 ships, but all I could do is trade them in for money at the Commodity Exchange.

Don't you have to be the pilot of the ship (ie. your boardable personal ship) to change equipment at a ship yard?? Did you figure out a way to actually use the capped ship as your own personal ship?

Zool · Post by **Zool** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 8:55 am

@ Shoot

If you want to own and fly a ship that you have captured just land where there is a commodity exchange AND a ship dealer. Sell the captured ship at the commodity exchange then go to the ship dealer (make sure you have LOTS of money), go into the upgrades and up the top click on the ships button, then you should see the ship you just sold available for sale, you might have to click on some lists to expand them ( I think it's under the heading "Deprecated".....just buy it, deck it out and have fun.

The other way is when you are in space you can launch ships from your cargo bay (SEE MANUAL) and press the "[" key to transfer to that ship and your other ship acts like a wingman.

Enjoy!!

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:45 am

Thanks for reply! But I still don't quite understand yet.

I know you can cap and store multiple ships on your "carrier" ship if cargo space allows, but I can't see how you can deck out any capped ship without losing everything else including your "carrier" ship.

If I were to sell a capped ship and buy it back as you suggest, I would lose my original "carrier" ship. So I can deck out this the new ship but I lost my original and am still down to one ship.

If I were to go in space and switch into a capped ship, as soon as I dock to deck out the capped ship, my original "carrier" ship is gone, so I'm still down to one ship.

What am I missing here?

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 1:51 pm

Okay, slowly guys.

As you described, it is possible to suck up ships, but not every ship takes the same cargo space. A drayman offers 5000 units, a talon "costs" 1000 units, so 5 talons are able to be held in your cargo space. A Gothri takes 4000 units, that doesn't leave too much space.

You can sell the ships and buy them back, but if you land your captured ship while your "carrier" is still in space, it is lost. This can be considered as a bug, still I think the whole carrier principe is full of bigger discrepancies. Capturing ships is
- A good way to make profits, still cargo missions in a drayman pay higher
- A good way of "killing" mission enemies without killing them at all (keeps relations happy)
- A way to aquire equipment from those ships.

Note you can have multiple craft in your "MyFleet". With selling and rebuying always at the same price, you can dismantle e.g. a Tachyon gun and the ship won't sell for lower fee (at least for not too much).

Having a carrier is only useful when you fly a paradigm, which has 100000 of cargo hold offering space for a real bunch of fighters.

The kamekh is not aquirable, make this no more (it was possible in PR1.1).

Shoot · Post by **Shoot** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 3:11 pm

Dilloh wrote: Note you can have multiple craft in your "MyFleet". With selling and rebuying always at the same price, you can dismantle e.g. a Tachyon gun and the ship won't sell for lower fee (at least for not too much).

EDIT:
Ok, finally figured it out. It appears "MyFleet" is created when I but from the upgrades/ship menu and my own ship gets transfered into there. Cool!

Zool · Post by **Zool** » Thu Jan 04, 2007 11:26 pm

You can sell the ships and buy them back, but if you land your captured ship while your "carrier" is still in space, it is lost

Not lost!!

........I tried an experiment a few weeks ago. I modded my Centurion to fit a Demon in the hold, then launched, launched the Demon and took control of it, leaving my Centurion heading off into the wild multicoloured yonder.

I landed in the Demon, went to the shipyard and maxed it out, equipment wise, relaunched and was then able to transfer back to the Centurion and then scoop up the Demon again, though it was 200,000 klicks away so I had to fly back to the planet and chase the Demon to get it into comms range and tell it to "Form Up". I played a few missions using the Demon as a wingman to get the feel of the idea of using them. COOL!!!

When launched the Demon retained the upgraded equipment but only until I quit playing for the day.When I reloaded my savegame the next day the Demon was "stock". (So I'd lost the equipment and the money I'd spent on it, but it was a good experiment.)

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Fri Jan 05, 2007 9:13 am

Okay, I stand corrected. Just one more point: If you land as a wingman, save and load, then the carrier is lost.

Starship_Gunner · Post by **Starship_Gunner** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 4:53 am

First you need a REALLY BIG ship. (A Paradigm or a Drayman is best, though a Galaxy Modded with 15000tonne cargo hold works )
The important part to remember is a ship can only tractor in another ship that is below its weight class.

I used a modified Galaxy to capture talons and dralthis and other light fighters, selling them off at the commodities exchange. Once sold you can buy these ships at the shipyard menu.

once i saved up a ton of creds and the paradigm became available(last confed mission with the steltek drone before RF kicks in.)i bought the starship and started gobbling up gothris and heavier ships. Good times, good times.

You can also turn the captured ships into your wingmen,(pilots pressed into service by neural bolts in the brain.) launching them by ctrl+x.

micheal_andreas_stahl · Sat Mar 10, 2007 11:36 am

Dilloh wrote:- A good way of "killing" mission enemies without killing them at all (keeps relations happy)

Except on the one of the PR missions. I tractor him up and i could not finish the game because i could not kill him.

Zool · Post by **Zool** » Sat Mar 10, 2007 9:51 pm

Dilloh wrote: A good way of "killing" mission enemies without killing them at all (keeps relations happy)

I dont think it does, I actually did a test with a modified cargo ship (a huge hold) and went after dralthis in New Detroit with the tractor beam. Before I began my rep was at +100% happy with the Kilrathi, after I had scooped up two or three my rep was down to about +65%, collected a couple more and it had dropped again and then added a few more to them hold and I was in the red, so you can actually make enemies by tractoring in friendly ships.

OnyxPaladin · Post by **OnyxPaladin** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 2:55 am

I wouldn't be very happy if someone tractored me and my ship into their cargo hold when all i did was fly past them.

Dilloh · Post by **Dilloh** » Sun Mar 11, 2007 8:45 pm

Really? So I didn't look at my relations too exactly. I made the Goodin missions as capturings, took the Dralthis on board and released them as wingmen so that I had my space back to capture the next DralthiX. Maybe it was because I gave them their freedom back by not seeling them, or tractoring decreases your relation fewer than killing.

elShoggotho · Post by **elShoggotho** » Fri Mar 23, 2007 11:13 pm

It's a bit of a sport, trying to finish the missions in a Paradigm. I collect enemy ships for my own fleet. I don't see the sense of wingmen while flying in a crate of mutual assured destruction like the Paradigm. Accelerates and turns like a cow on a diet of cabbage and beans though...

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