[X3: AP] Pirate M4 just wont die! (bug)

[Artean]

A couple of hours into my Humble Merchant game, there's a Pirate Pericles Raider attracting some serious fire power from the Argon system defence in Elena's fortune. They are able to shot him down to almost 0 % hp (no visible hp bars), but he just wont die.

Obviously I've tried to help my fellow Argons with my vicious IRE's, but even they could not land a final bullet.

Is this some secret new pirate defence technology I'm experiencing? Any idea how to get rid of this M4?

[Alan Phipps]

Happens in vanilla TC too with all sorts of ships where the remove script was interrupted by something else. Your best bet to remove it is to use the repair laser to repair some hull and then shoot/ram it to try to get it to bail. You can then claim it and have an indestructable ship - not that much use as it can still take hull damage down to 0%, lose all onboard stuff and slow to a crawl.

Moving to Universe forum.

[tanner1ie]

Your best bet to remove it is to use the repair laser to repair some hull and then shoot/ram it to try to get it to bail.

That be difficult as, a far as i'm aware the only repair laser, in vanilla is on your spacesuit .
So chasing after an M5, even a damaged one, in a spacesuit that only goes 12m/s and will die with one weapon hit or collision with another ship, doesn't seem like the best idea.

Also, can you even repair an enemy ship, before it bails - assuming you can hit it at all? .

[glenmcd]

So chasing after an M5, even a damaged one, in a spacesuit that only goes 12m/s and will die with one weapon hit or collision with another ship, doesn't seem like the best idea.

Also, can you even repair an enemy ship, before it bails - assuming you can hit it at all? .

With strafing a spacesuit has a max speed of 98 m/sec, or 116 m/sec if you buy a few engine tunings for it.
The repair laser has a range greater than most lasers fitted to M5s. If the ship hull is below 10% then its max speed is a third normal. So unless it's already got lots of engine tunings and/or raider variant, there's a good chance that your spacesuit will be able to outrun it. A highly damaged Pegasus Sentinel for example has a top speed just over 70. The repair laser will repair ships and stations regardless of who owns them. So while it is definately possible to attempt a cap this way I wouldn't expect it to be easy at all. I once had a return ship mission in which I was having problems completing in time. I ended up commanding the ship to fly to station, and while it was flying I strafed along side it in spacesuit and repaired the hull. It wasn't all that hard, but then it was my ship and so made no attempt to shoot back.

Are these invincible ships solid? Or can you fly straight through them? I noticed that with capital ships, if you save game while they are exploding but before the hull disappears, that when you reload the ship is still there but you can fly through it. I assumed that nothing could be done with it and didn't try repairs etc. It didn't move at all.

[Sir Warwick]

I had a minotaur that lost its collision detection - it was a right pain the in bacvside as my missiles would just fly right through it without exploding and other weeapons had no efffect.

Meanwhile the damn thing was still spamming missiles until it ran out of ammo - unkillable M7M is a nightmare! - grrrr.

Scripted a destruct for it in the end.

[Alan Phipps]

Three different issues may be being confused here.

1. Ships that go to 0% hull/shield but do not die on further hits. They can be hit but not killed. They can be repaired when blue and then damaged again to cause to bail (if appropriate ship) but that can be difficult if under constant NPC fire. The only good news is that at 0% hull and under constant NPC fire they usually are not going anywhere soon. Possibly caused by an interrupted remove script.

2. Image left behind from an exploding ship. These are intangible, do absolutely nothing, cannot be collided with or hit but are great for making wierd screenshots if you pose your ships around them. Possibly caused by an interrupted explosion and removal script. Similar to bullet images left behind after battles.

3. Loss of apparent collision detection by an otherwise active and normal target ship. Generally caused by low fps and made worse by saving and then reloading while multiple missiles and bullets are already on the way towards it but the effects also apply for attacks made after that too. Possibly caused by apparent loss of accurate target aimpoint and collision boundary framework during save/reload process.

Then there are invulnerable plot ships too that will not go below about 93% hull.

[Virtualaughing]

Are these invincible ships solid? Or can you fly straight through them? I noticed that with capital ships, if you save game while they are exploding but before the hull disappears, that when you reload the ship is still there but you can fly through it. I assumed that nothing could be done with it and didn't try repairs etc. It didn't move at all.

That is just a bug.... In huge offensives against Xenos i like to play "save often" but always counting the seconds of the explosions. Once you leave then go back to the sector it may dissapear....