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And now I think my game is just taunting me. I switched to an Iguana and took 50+ jumps and nothing. Tried a dozen in the Truelight (no marines aboard) and nothing. Jumped into my Blastclaw Proto and about 4 jumps later there it was. So it will only show up if I'm in a ship that I can't use to capture it.

Ah, that will be the PAD software extension at work!

Most likely.


I'm quite sure I did the hunt in Cobra, because you want to be able to take it if you see it.

That is hindsight. In X3AP I had untrained marines; they did damage to hull then had to abort.
So, I did find the Aran time and again (chance to find it in X3AP could be different than in X3TC),
went to board, bailed, and left -- without the marines learning anything. Eventually, I did train
them enough to get the job done.

Alan Phipps wrote: ↑

Thu, 16. Mar 23, 12:31

Ah, that will be the PAD software extension at work!

Thank you Alan. I needed a good laugh. Gonna take my blood pressure meds and try again.

good news: I found one and attempted to board
bad news: my marines weren't strong enough

At least now I know my game doesn't just outright hate me

TerranJedi wrote: ↑

Sat, 18. Mar 23, 20:14

good news: I found one and attempted to board
bad news: my marines weren't strong enough

At least now I know my game doesn't just outright hate me

I never start hunting the Aran, before ALL my marines are at 100% engineering. And you DO need to repair the Aran for half an hour or so before boarding.

X3TC was easier, because 100% engineering meant no damage at all.

RainerPrem wrote: ↑

Thu, 30. Mar 23, 12:37

TerranJedi wrote: ↑

Sat, 18. Mar 23, 20:14

good news: I found one and attempted to board
bad news: my marines weren't strong enough

At least now I know my game doesn't just outright hate me

I never start hunting the Aran, before ALL my marines are at 100% engineering. And you DO need to repair the Aran for half an hour or so before boarding.

X3TC was easier, because 100% engineering meant no damage at all.

so in TC you can repair the Aran before you even board? I know you have to hit it with the laser to turn in "red", but does the repair laser not do damage to enemies? I didn't think it was possible to repair a ship you didn't control, but if I'm wrong then I'll gladly spend the half hour or so repairing the thing if it means I get to take it home the next time I find one.
The one I found I was able to get to around the 3rd level before the ship buckled. Trained up my marines and went hunting again and the next one I found they bailed as soon as they started fighting. Haven't been able to find another one since (that was at least 50-60 jumps ago)

In TC you can repair ships you don't own with your repair laser.

Well in that case, if you'll excuse me, I have a saved game I need to load and a ctrl key to weigh down.

This is so frustrating!
I found the Aran but I can not send my marines! Why? I tried for weeks now. Even managed to get a hold of a Sirokos. I have boarding pods and slightly trained marines. I find the aran. I exit and use the repair laser until the battle music starts. I select the Sirokos, go to command/piracy/board ship. But in the next step it asks to select a ship! Which I cannot, because Aran. If I board the Sirokos first and then try the board ship command, it is still the same. When using the "lauch all marines"-Command, it also asks to select a target. If I try to launch the boarding pods manually by selecting them and pressing "l" It says "no target for missile selected".
Could this be one of my mods? I had the aran captured in TC before. And there I had basically the same mods running, Mainly Codea, Bailing addon and Cycrows Salvage claim software+Community plugin+ Ware manager.

Help!

Edit: If I use a TP (Express) to find and board the aran, I can select "next ship: Aran" in the boarding menu. Why? WHY?
Well. Better than no chance of getting the Aran I guess. So I'll have to train my marines to the max now and try to find one without any xenon nearby...

"If I try to launch the boarding pods manually by selecting them and pressing "l" ..." That's what I used to do (or maybe m then l ? - a long time ago for me) just by getting the boarding ship close to the Aran and pointing straight at it such that you cannot miss, and then manually launching pods.

I don't know if either some specific layout aspect of the Sirokos or maybe your mods may have affected that.

Dunno.
I have just started a new attempt on capturing. But it is cursed.
Last time I was in an Express, was able to push the marines towards the Aran, but they were too weak, weren't able to push though the hull. So no dice.

This time I went in with a Zephir and with 8 fully trained Marines. No boarding menu at all. Crap. Reload. Transfer all the stuff into an Express. Jump x times to find a non Xenon infested Aran -> No "board next ship" available.

Is it maybe the Aran hull being too low for boarding operation? Is there even a condition like that?

I'm now going in with a Katana. equipped with full bank of repair lasers. (Thats a mod, I think?) Wish me luck.