Okay, that's a new weirdness

[Timsup2nothin]

With all the time I have spent playing X3, various iterations, sometimes I think I must have seen it all. Even the glitchy "hey I flew right through a gate" or "hey, there's a shot from a laser just hanging there in space" stuff, while rare and entertaining, hasn't been new for a long time. But just when you think there is nothing new under the many suns...

I saved my game by ducking into a station in Cardinal's Domain. When I got back to it I continued my easily sidetracked pursuit of better relations with the Paranid. Before I even open the map to look for mission markers, I see some fireworks over by a gate that isn't very far off, and figure I'll head over to see what's what...especially since I did pop the map and there's an ion disruptor over there just begging to be salvaged, along with some other goodies...and given the fireworks there's likely to be more.

So as I get closer I find a Paranid military Ariadne getting scortched by a couple of Terracorp Escort Novas. Lots of oddities there, but nothing totally unheard of. I figure maybe the Terracorp guys were fending off some pirates or whatnot, got a little wild with the PBGs and flamed the gate, something like that. Interesting, fun to watch (I mean, who can resist the sight of scorched Paranids, really?), and profitable, at least to the sale price of an Ion D.

With the 'nids dispatched and the Terracorpers getting on their way through the gate I collect the goods, and in the process I see even more fireworks over by the north gate. Related? Some sort of general Paranid paranoia setting in? Whatever, probably entertaining and what the heck, maybe another Ion D or something.

I head over there and identify a Nemesis...and another Nemesis...and an Argon Military Titan slugging it out. Plus a Centaur and the inevitable Nova blasting away with PBGs. I settle at a safe distance, figuring this won't take long. Quick check of the map shows there are already some good salvage prizes, and either Nemesis might drop something good. Sure enough, there goes one, then the other, and I'm ready to move in for the cleanup...

But the fireworks don't stop. I can't even see what they are shooting at, but the Argons are still going to town. I check the map, and over there in the middle of them is a Paranid Police Pegasus. I figure this guy must be doing some pretty fancy flying, and even though it will be quick I should take a look, so I put him on monitor.

This guy is getting totally cheesed. The monitor whites out with the PBG fire more than once, and the Titan has nothing better to do any more so it is steady streaming what looks like IBL fire. You'd think this guy is dead a dozen times over, but he's spinning and diving around...and the Pegasus has zero shields, and zero hull.

[SirNukes]

For me, iirc, it was a Boron police Mako in Spires of Elusion getting blasted by Xenon.

To get rid of it, I pull up the cheat menu and select to destroy the Mako... no effect. I force the Mako to bail, take it over, and then try to destroy it (by shooting it and through the script)... no effect. I repair its hull up to 100%, shoot it back down to 0%, and still it won't die.

Okay...

I dock the Mako on another ship, destroy that ship... and the Mako still exists in the game, being tracked in my upper-left-corner window, but with no active model. Same for docking at a station and destroying it.

So, now the Mako is parked in some fringe sector way above the ecliptic, set as unowned.

[Timsup2nothin]

For me, iirc, it was a Boron police Mako in Spires of Elusion getting blasted by Xenon.

To get rid of it, I pull up the cheat menu and select to destroy the Mako... no effect. I force the Mako to bail, take it over, and then try to destroy it (by shooting it and through the script)... no effect. I repair its hull up to 100%, shoot it back down to 0%, and still it won't die.

Okay...

I dock the Mako on another ship, destroy that ship... and the Mako still exists in the game, being tracked in my upper-left-corner window, but with no active model. Same for docking at a station and destroying it.

So, now the Mako is parked in some fringe sector way above the ecliptic, set as unowned.

I considered forcing it to bail, just on a whim after a save when I was quitting anyway, but I got scorched out by the crossfire after some amount of blasting but not enough to get it to bail.

Considered scripting it out but had not tried that yet. I also thought about scripting out the various Argons it is fighting with and seeing if it would fly away somewhere and meet some normal end of script fate, but I don't really think that it will...especially since you tried repairing and redestroying.

[Alan Phipps]

This is how I try (and usually manage) to capture an invulnerable small ship under constant attack (vanilla X3TC/AP). Rather an exploit though.

[Timsup2nothin]

This is how I try (and usually manage) to capture an invulnerable small ship under constant attack (vanilla X3TC/AP). Rather an exploit though.

When what you are up against is a bug, there's no such thing as an exploit.

[JJRSC]

Hmmmmm... I'll remember that the next time I play through Operation Final Fury.

[Timsup2nothin]

Hmmmmm... I'll remember that the next time I play through Operation Final Fury.

LOL...not the kind of "bug" I was referring to, but that was hilarious.

[Sovereign01]

I suppose if you can take it over you can try selling the ship instead.

[Sinxar]

ohh a lag generator . If you don't mind going modified, you might want to destroy it if you can't capture it. I had one go invulnerable in one of my AP games and it had at least 50 ships attacking it. The giant battle made the game unplayable and I had to abandon it. Since it was an achievement run, simply destroying it wasn't an option sadly.

[Timsup2nothin]

ohh a lag generator . If you don't mind going modified, you might want to destroy it if you can't capture it. I had one go invulnerable in one of my AP games and it had at least 50 ships attacking it. The giant battle made the game unplayable and I had to abandon it. Since it was an achievement run, simply destroying it wasn't an option sadly.

Well, the first person to reply indicated that even the MSCI couldn't get rid of it for him. I didn't try, even though my game is already modded. I gave it some thought, balancing the inconvenience of how far back the necessary save was against the effort involved in a 'capture and stash out of the way' solution. The save won, because I wasn't that excited about the stash plan and the capture while getting blazed away at by a destroyer and a bunch of PBGs was just too hard.

If I ever see it again I'm looking hard at the idea of selling it to a shipyard and letting them destroy it, so if anyone verifies that that works I'd appreciate knowing.

[Alan Phipps]

@ Tim: I vaguely recall selling a ship (or maybe returning one in a return mission or the plot - not sure which) that I had jokingly renamed for some reason, and then much later on in the game I saw the same ship flying around as an NPC trader or escort or something still with the silly name I had given it. (Thinking more deeply on it, this was probably some sort of plot or station-given return ship mission.)

I am mentioning this because selling it might just possibly see it come back again to haunt you, and it still be invulnerable.

Hmm, surely recycling it at the PHQ should have some lasting effect on it? (Or just break the PHQ!)

[Timsup2nothin]

@ Tim: I vaguely recall selling a ship (or maybe returning one in a return mission or the plot - not sure which) that I had jokingly renamed for some reason, and then much later on in the game I saw the same ship flying around as an NPC trader or escort or something still with the silly name I had given it. (Thinking more deeply on it, this was probably some sort of plot or station-given return ship mission.)

I am mentioning this because selling it might just possibly see it come back again to haunt you, and it still be invulnerable.

Hmm, surely recycling it at the PHQ should have some lasting effect on it? (Or just break the PHQ!)

I'm guessing that was a return ship mission, because I've done that too. Had a ship flying around Argon Prime territory named "returning to wheat farm." I'd see it now and then, and then I didn't any more. Must have met a bad end.

If you steal a ship on a ship return and sell it to a shipyard before the timer runs out you immediately get notified with "you destroyed the ship," so I actually think selling it to a shipyard might work, unless it's so borked that it can't be found in whatever table the shipyard is trying to update and that borks the shipyard.