X REBIRTH SHIP MANAGEMENT

[oceanway]

Subtopic #28: TRACKING SHIPS

Pirate freighters are funny and unpredictable. As soon as you spot and boost your way to them, they jump before you get to them. Another is while you're subduing and
capturing them by firing their turrets and force field projectors, they disappear right before your eyes. You say to yourself: 'Damn, I had them!' Well, there's a way to still capture them after they disappear into space.

The Secondary Target System that was mentioned in the previous subtopic can be used as a tracking system. It's how ships are found in 'I missed my ride!' plot missions,
but only slightly different. You would have to select them and turn them into Generic Mission ships before they jump. Here's how to do it:

While you are subduing and capturing a pirate freighter, you noticed a blue-green glow under it indicating it's about to jump. This is where you must quickly move a
few kilometers away from it, select it by single clicking on it on the CDR (Camera Drone Radar), press #4 (Details), then #3 (Plot Course) and then #1 (Guidance) keys
to make it a mission to track it in the Generic Mission list. Once it jumped, your ancient Teladi fighter known as Albion Pride will track it and all you have to do is autopilot to or manually follow it.

The captain on their assigned ship will also follow the target while you use the highway system if you're not on it. You would command the captain to follow it if you
choose to dock onto it by opening the CDR and then press #2 key for systems. You would see the yellow highlighted sector indicating that the target has jumped to the
zone where the jump beacon is located in that sector. Tell the captain either to take you to the zone by pressing 'C' for comm on CDR or right-click on the captain to talk', select #2 for 'New Order', #1 for 'Fly To' and #4 for 'Fly to Position'; then move the drone in the CDR by pressing and holding down the left button on the mouse and move the mouse to the target located, zoom in on the target by scrolling the wheel on the mouse, left-click crosshair on the target and then confirm it to take you directly to the target within the zone rather than 'to' the zone. Also, if the target boosts instead of jumping, you can move closer to it, left-click target for primary target indicator, press autopilot (Shift + A) and ride along with it rather than follow it.

When you have reached your target, the STS will turn off automatically after you are close to it. You can then continue to finish subduing and capturing your pirate freighter.

Good hunting.