A little Khaaks capturing guide

b-b-q · Post by **b-b-q** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 16:02

I'll share my experience on capturing Khaak fighters with you folks. Clearly, there are many ways to approach this so my way isn't the only way. Thus far I have 20 KM3, 20 KM4, 50 KM5 all fully equipped after several days of capturing. I'll explain what I did and depends on your budget you can modify my approach to suit your style and purse :

Equip an Ody with 6 B-PSGs, set ONE (no more than 1) B-PSG on each of the six sides. Don't use G-PSG they are too powerful and tend to kill your new ships. This leaves 12 empty weapon slots. Don't worry you won't need them.

Jump the Ody to a Khaak sector of your choice. Fly straight up off of the ecliptic plane. 100km due "up" is fine. The point is to get far away so you won't have chance encounters with the Khaak capital ships. You are here to capture, not to raise your combat rank.

Come to a dead stop when you are sufficiently far away off the center. You probably have a string of Khaak fighters running after you. Don't worry 6 B-PSGs will be sufficient to keep you alive. Out of several days of doing this, the shields of my Ody had reached as low as 20%, but only just once. Most of the time it stays between 80-60%.

Now, press "." to open up the sector map. Place your "cursor" on your ship and get ready. You'll need a quick finger and fast reflex. The existing Khaaks plus an endless spawning of M3/4/5 will continue to charge toward you to commit suicide. Watch your map, and AS SOON AS you get a green ship (indicating a surrender), train yourself to hit this combo as quickly as possible : <Down Arrow> (To select the new ship) + <C> (bring up control console) + <Enter> (Select Navigation) + <2> (Select Dock At) + <Enter> (Select current map) + <Enter> (Select your Ody).

Unlike a Carrier or a TL, docked ships are "hung under" a M2. This means there is no long wait time for the silly docking port to open. There is no long wait time for incoming ships to line up to dock. Yes, an Ody can only hold 4 ships at a time (will talk about this later), but this "hung under" arrangement allows ships to dock extremely quickly! This means you can quickly scoop up a new ship before it gets attacked or your own B-PSG vaporizes it.

Now, note that MOST of the time newly surrendered ships will be destroyed. I average about being able to save 1 ship in 6-8 surrenders. Most of the time, even with just 1 B-PSG each side firing, M5's are so fragile that they simply don't last. And the Khaaks will have no problem of targeting your newly acquired price. However, since new enemies will continuously spawn around you, you can afford the 1:6-8 ratio. The sheer amount of enemies means that they WILL surrender, and it is a matter of quick reflex and pure luck for you to scoop one up.

Now, I mentioned that an Ody can only hold 4 ships, so unless you don't mind jumping back out once you have captured 4 ships, you have two options. First, if you have a carrier you can jump that in. Arm it well with HEPTs or PSGs and send it at your direction. You want your M2 to be even further off the ecliptic plane than you, and at least 10-15km away from your Ody so the random spawns around your ship don't go after the carrier. Once your carrier is in position high off the plane, it will RARELY get attacked. Whenever your Ody is full, simply send 4 ships as a batch to the carrier. As soon as you send them off, MOVE AS FAST AS POSSIBLE AWAY FROM THE CONVOY. Move 10 km away from your convoy until they all dock, then return to your previous position. I would save the game first before sending them off because the spawning frequency is totally random. Khaaks will spawn around YOU (the player), and your prize are likely slow, damaged and unshielded so they are easy targets. As long as you are far away enough they will never spawn around your carrier or the convoy.

However, after a while you will have way more Khaak ships than you can equip, so I end up doing this : Forget the carrier. Do your capturing and quick-docking as usual, but once you have a ship docked, transferred the guns and any missles to your Ody and set the ship loose. It will get destroyed but hey, B-Kyons and good missiles are quite frankly a lot harder to find than the ships themselves. You can just keep the KM3 and dump the KM4 and 5 after a while.

Alternatively, if you have a transporter device you can beam any missiles and weapons off and don't even bother with docking, but the key strokes for beaming cargoes is a lot more complex than the quick-dock method I posted above so the longer your ship is out there, the more chance it will get whacked. Because of the ratio of enemy ships, you will end up with a ton of M5's and M4's and lots of A-Kyons. The real prizes are the B-Kyons...and missiles. 1.4 causes the Khaaks to be extremely missile-happy so it is rare that you will find many high end ones.

Finally, know that MOST of the surrendered ships will get destroyed, either by the Khaaks or by your PSGs. My success rate varies a great deal, I could be sitting around and not able to scoop up a single ship in 15 minutes, or I will get 3-4 surrenders out of one swarm. So be prepared and don't be bothered when your ships die. They will, and frequently. The upside is that there is an endless stream of incoming ships and with perseverance you will get way more Khaak ships than you could use.

When you have enough, try flying a KM3 yourself and have 8 others in X formation around you. Go watch how quickly your little dead squad can shred M6's and M1's in assassination missions without friendly fire (but lots of lag).

(PS: I had MAJOR CTD problems when I was in the Khaak sectors so be warned or you might end up pulling your hair.)

Charlie Whiskey · Post by **Charlie Whiskey** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 16:59

b-b-q wrote:When you have enough, try flying a KM3 yourself and have 8 others in X formation around you. Go watch how quickly your little dead squad can shred M6's and M1's in assassination missions without friendly fire (but lots of lag).

You got me drooling...

simonnance · Post by **simonnance** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:05

howzabout a Zeus instead of a Oddy? it can carry BPSG and you only need one per direction.

also it has a much larger hangar bay.

a good guide, shame i am still strugling to buy my first M6, let alone a M2!

ive tried B/APSG with my Perseus, ID/PAC with my Nova, and just plain shooting them up. none of these have a great success rate.

b-b-q · Post by **b-b-q** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:11

simonnance wrote:howzabout a Zeus instead of a Oddy? it can carry BPSG and you only need one per direction.

I tried a Zeus, but it has a regular docking port so your prizes can't "zip in" like an Ody unfortunately.

Bishop149 · Post by **Bishop149** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:13

Good little guide, I will give this a go . . . even if it means I have to buy the uglest ship in the game. . . mutter grumble. . . I guess I'd have to have got one eventually if I want one of every ship. . .

fchopin · Post by **fchopin** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:18

simonnance wrote:ive tried B/APSG with my Perseus, ID/PAC with my Nova, and just plain shooting them up. none of these have a great success rate.

I have caped a few Khaak M3s and M5s with the Perseus.
I used 2 APSGs and 1 BPSG. You do not have to wait dill the Khaak are in range to fire.
Start your fire before in range and then stop firing before you destroy the Khaak.
It is very easy.

Holliday · Post by **Holliday** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:19

Why does it take 1000 words to explain how to capture a Khaak.
Shoot at them until one of them gives up. Use a ship you can survive in. I use a Nova.
Man, talk about intentional obfuscation.

fchopin · Post by **fchopin** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:24

Holliday wrote:Why does it take 1000 words to explain how to capture a Khaak.

It is not so easy the first time you do something new Holliday.

Zeon42 · Post by **Zeon42** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:25

couple of points :-

you can just get a condor to jump in and unload the caps-it can handle clusters that get close-switch off PSGs on ody though.

sadly I found that the Ray has docking issues with Khaak M3's - so I got a phonix instead which is fine-anyone know if Titan has issues?

1 other point -keep M4's even without lasers-you can use ones from the M5's-they are good wingmen for iggy.

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 17:29

Thanks for the guide! It is a great idea.

i tried it out but no khaak caps

(spent 30 minutes shooting khaak)

i checked my log and no destroyed caps

i think there is a bug.

Circumcisor · Post by **Circumcisor** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 19:40

It's been mentioned that capturing Khaak may depend on combat rank. I only started getting good success once I got to Commodore, although I had a few before that.

My method is just to take alpha PSG's to a cluster - you can use a Perseus, Osprey, Falcon or Pericles, depending how rich you are. Lone M3's are easy, if you can spot one. Just tap away slightly, let their shields recharge a bit, tap away again. You can get lots of shots in damaging their hull just a tiny bit before they are destroyed.

I've had a lot less success with Ion's - but that could just be because I'm useless. And those I've got with Ions often have no equipment. PSG's seem to leave a lot more behind.

Adonne · Post by **Adonne** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 20:22

great guide.

however i am seriously considering ditching my game it must be defective

i spent 1 hour in khaak space diligently following this guide and not one bailler

seriously not 1 not even accidently destroyed captures NOT ONE BAIL the messege log is clean can it be that random that one person gets 5-6 a minute and another person gets zip.

come on devs spill the beans or do i need to do a re-install

help

Kakarot · Post by **Kakarot** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 20:27

adonne

im having the same problem. i posted a topic in the tech support thread.

let them know you are having the same problem.

gsl · Post by **gsl** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 20:38

If you buy the khaak infos, you need a high rank to caputre khaak (the same to capture K's IIRC). The BUG in the game is that you can cap them without the infos - but hey, I LIKE this bug

A KM3 in the beginning of the game is very good for these Assasination Missions.

Tasis · Post by **Tasis** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 21:29

Ultimate guide for everything.

Circumcisor · Post by **Circumcisor** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 21:54

AN IMPORTANT POINT REGARDING KHAAK CAPTURING

I've just spent an hour, in my old game, trying to capture one Khaak M3 and couldn't. In my new 1.4 game, I can get one to bail in a few minutes. I just realised why.

The one I was trying to capture had a flight time of 100 hours, i.e it had spawned before I upgraded to 1.4 and so wasn't "set" as capturable. Once I found a newly spawned M3 it was business as usual.

Make sure the Khaak you're trying to capture is not one which was already flying around in your 1.3 game before you patched it.

Maybe a dev or mod can verify this.

VincentTH · Post by **VincentTH** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 21:58

SOmeone brought this point up, and it makes sense IMHO. That explain why I have not been lucky in capturing a KM3, - not until Sat night -, as I swept thru the pirate sectors a second time (came up empty the first round). THe KM3 that I fought in the first round must be left over from 1.3.

Brodie · Post by **Brodie** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 22:27

If you have the Khaak Weapon specs you can no longer capture Khaak Ships, crap hey!!! This is a bug, Its been reported and confirmed by CBJ

I know there aren't gonna be any more patches, but i really really hope this gets fixed.

For more info: http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=56801
Brodie

pjknibbs · Post by **pjknibbs** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 22:30

Brodie wrote:If you have the Khaak Weapon specs you can no longer capture Khaak Ships, crap hey!!!

That's not quite true. You can still cap Khaak when you have the specs, but you have to be Combat Ace 2nd Grade or higher to do it.

Adonne · Post by **Adonne** » Mon, 26. Jul 04, 22:32

pjknibbs wrote:
Brodie wrote:If you have the Khaak Weapon specs you can no longer capture Khaak Ships, crap hey!!!
That's not quite true. You can still cap Khaak when you have the specs, but you have to be Combat Ace 2nd Grade or higher to do it.

thats not quite true either i am CA2 and still cant capture Khaak

A little Khaaks capturing guide

A little Khaaks capturing guide

Re: A little Khaaks capturing guide