Capturing Stations

[Urza]

I've found this to be extremely difficult. But not because of the station; I could utterly annihilate almost any station with little effort. The trick is getting it to emit an SOS. This entails getting it very low, then shooting it one shot at a time.

Here's the problem: My ship's just too darned powerful. That last 10% IOD shot blows the thing to smithereens. I tried letting the PTA do it, but it's difficult to get one shot at a time with that thing. I even resorted cutting power to all turret arrays except for the primary one. Even then, it was too much.

Complicating the problem is I noticed that there's a delay between the shot being fired, and the damage actually being registered on my bridgeviewer. Once it gets to a critical level, I switch off the weapons, but then the last ones hit their mark, blowing it up.

Any help or general information would be appreciated.

[Guest Melanie650]

Had the same problem you were. But what I do is I switched my weapons to 10% once the hull level reaches 3000 or below. Make sure you don't get too close to the station cause I found out the problem was not with me, but the crafts attacking my ship. They'd miss their shots and hit their own stations lol. Next thing you know BOOM! Station is gone. Try not getting too close to the station.

[Soback]

Also the delay you are talking about when you fire and then the damage you see regestering on the bridgeviewer. It takes time for the shot to travel through space and hit the station, so don't shoot off a million shots and then peck the station, wait about 30 seconds after you get it's hull pretty low, make sure that ALL of the shots you fired have hit before proceding with the low intensity fire.

[Urza]

The low intensity fire doesn't work. It isn't low enough!

[Menchise]

Unless the SC has made the stations twice as fragile as they were in the E2 demo (and why would he do that?), the IOD is low enough. When the integrity gets very low, fire one shot at a time if you have to. You could even let the station's shields go up a bit to reduce the hull damage.

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Menchise ]

[Urza]

I have a Firestorm, and my IOD is pretty darn powerful. But Melanie may be right. They may be shooting their own station, as that would explain why I don't even get the standard fare EP for destroying it.

quote:

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You could even let the station's shields go up a bit to reduce the hull damage.

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Hmm, I haven't thought of that. Unfortuately, by the time it's that low, the shields are probably wrecked.

[Nesborn]

I've managed to capture a few by getting them really low on armor, and repeatedly turning my PTA from off to 10% power in quick bursts. I generally do just enough damage done for an SoS to get sent out.

[Guest Melanie650]

I turn off the PTA. It's hard enough hitting the station just enough to get it to SOS without destroying it. Also the manual says that once you capture the station, the enemies leave the space and the station can't be captured for 10 minutes. But on more than one occasion, i've captured a station, and undocked and it was immediatly destroyed by the enemy due to it's reduced hull.

[Cmdr Nova]

Heh. If you have the PAD artifact, tapping the trigger lightly works really well.

But yes, the foolish enemies end up killing their own station.....

"Ter/Ins Destiny destroyed by Ter/Ins Raven"...... And I was already on my way to pressing Alt-D.........

If you do an attack, try to get it down as fast as you can, then wait until you're around 1500 HP of Armor, then slowly lower your IOD power using the ";" hotkey. You should be at 10% power by the time it hits 500-600, if it lasts that long. (I've had it blow up at 1300..... Their stupid fighters missed with their missiles. )

If you've got the PAD, then do what I said. It's so much easier than having to guess and see how much power you should blast it with.

[Guest Melanie650]

Just leave some distance between you and the station. Instead of trying to attack the inner area of the station, attack the outer area of the station and be sure to leave some space between you and the outer area.

[Gallion]

Several different solutions noted in this thread work wrt station capture.

Patience is the most important skill that any player must have when attempting to capture any star station. Lose patience and station goes BOOM!

TTFN

[Hector Socas Navarro]

Once you get its integrity low enough, exit your ship in first person and shoot with your riffle until you capture it

LOL!

[Sadistic]

Did you try getting into a fighter plane and shooting it with lasers? I've never tried to capture a star station myself, but that just makes sense.

[Urza]

Yes, I sucessfuly captured another station. Unfortunately, the game CTDs minutes afterward. I already posted about this in general issues and am awaiting the results of SC's analysis. Until then, I can't play that career anymore.

[Sgt Khan]

Easiest way to capture a station...

1: Send Marine Expeditionary Unit (Spec ops) to the command center and capture all officers above the rank of LT, dispose of the others

2: Hold ZS-10 to station commanders head and give him a big smile, ordering his total and complete surrender of the station in question

3: After station commander surrenders station control turn on automated security and dispose of all personel with a uniform and most without

4: After station in cleaned of infestation, have your command ship transport you back, but not before dropping a few granades and blasting the door lock controls

5: Inhabit station

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Urza:

Yes, I sucessfuly captured another station. Unfortunately, the game CTDs minutes afterward. I already posted about this in general issues and am awaiting the results of SC's analysis. Until then, I can't play that career anymore.

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Let me see if I get this : any time you capture a station, the game will crash thereafter?

If so, have you tried this with a new game?

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Sgt Khan:

Easiest way to capture a station...

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LOL!!! Yep, I can just see that happening in multiplayer

[Urza]

No, this happened the second time. The first time, it worked perfectly. I already posted about this in the tech support thread, and sent you the save in question, for your analysis. The game was played exclusively under 1.0.01. I recently upgraded to the beta, but now it won't load at all. (as opposed to loading, then crashing)

[Supreme Cmdr]

quote:

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Originally posted by Urza:

No, this happened the second time. The first time, it worked perfectly. I already posted about this in the tech support thread, and sent you the save in question, for your analysis. The game was played exclusively under 1.0.01. I recently upgraded to the beta, but now it won't load at all. (as opposed to loading, then crashing)

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I got the file and I can't load it either. Looks prety screwed up. You didn't use any cheats (e.g. playmod) in that game did you? And that is from 1.0.01 final, not the Beta ?

[Urza]

No, I didn't cheat, and yes, it's 1.0.01 final. I didn't start that game until I already had that patch. I have some other ones of the same game, if you want them.

If I have to start over, so be it. I'm not gonna lose any sleep over it. I'm just concerned there may be some issues with the station capture routine. I appreciate your help.

Oh, and you caught that alt-E mineral bug. Good show, SC!

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Urza ]

[Supreme Cmdr]

Start a new 1.0.02 game and see if you have the same problem.

If the saved game is corrupt, there's nothing that I can do about it.