Side Missions, Can't Complete Them

[drseuss620]

Hi All,

I played X2 and X3:R quite a bit in the past so I am no stranger to this game. I just recently bought X3:TC and have been trying to complete side missions for money but I can't seem to complete any of them. Here are the 3 most recent scenarios.

Mission 1: Fly to x Sector and Kill guy A. I start flying to the sector and before I get there I get a message that says someone else killed him before me. Mission Failed.

Mission 2: Scan ships in X Sector for contraband and get a percentage of all contraband found. I scanned every ship that sailed through, even losing rep with certain guys when I did. I found one that was a pirate who went hostile as soon as I scanned him but he had no contraband. Finally the mission ended and I didn't find anything. No Contraband, No Money, Mission Failed.

Mission 3: A ship was left in X Sector, go get it and bring it back. I fly out there, claim it, repair it, and start bringing it back. I have 10 minutes left on the timer when the ship starts to dock with the required station. Before the ship docks I get a message saying the ship has been reported stolen and the authorities have been alerted. Mission Failed. I'm not sure what the problem was cause I had 10 min left. The ship I collected still shows in my list of owned ships so it wasn't a total loss but I did take a rep hit.

For whatever reason I can't seem to complete any missions because of stuff like this happening over and over again. Has anyone else had this happen or am I just having a completely r******* string of bad luck?

[pjknibbs]

Not sure why you posted this in Tech Support, will move when I've finished typing.

Anyway, 1) and 2) are perfectly normal. If you don't find any ships with contraband you don't get paid for a scan mission. However, if you scan enough ships you should get a pass rather than a fail--try a faster scanning ship. As for your mark getting killed before you get there, that's entirely possible--they're generally pirates, after all, and the local sector defence will take an interest in what they're doing! When you say "start flying to the sector", though, it sounds like you're not using a jumpdrive--JD is pretty much mandatory if you want any chance at all of completing these missions within the allotted time limit, even if your mark isn't killed by someone else!

As for (3), many people have reported this so I think it could be classed as a known bug.

[whosrdaddy]

for Mission 3 you must fly the ship yourself (ie you must be in the ship when you enter the sector)

/Daddy

[NUKLEAR-SLUG]

Mission 1: There's a lot more in the way of defence forces in TC and they'll quickly jump any criminals that show up. In order to get to your target before someone else does you'ld ideally need to get yourself a jumpdrive from Terracorp HQ.

Mission 2: This is a hard one as to complete it you'ld actually need to find someone with illegal goods. If the local freighter traffic is behaving itself then you won't find any. It's a failed mission for you even tho you did as you were told. The reason you're finding you are losing rep when you do it is that you must have a police licence for the race sector you are scanning in otherwise your scans are illegal. Pick one up from the nearest Trading station.

Mission 3: This is a bugged mission, sometimes the timer lies. Nothing you can do about it at present except deal with it. It's not very often it gets you tho and you can still make good money doing them.

[ClearSky]

okey dokey,

Mission 3: People say it is bugged?

I have been trying to get my Terran Rating up a bit by doing missions in Terran Space, and believe me doing this on a P4 with an OC'd Nvidia 5200FX (sob, my time will come) is not at lot of fun.

I am using a maxed out Kestrel and, in between taxi missions, I have done 3 recover ship jobs. I can faithfully report that a)no bugs were experienced (thus far) and b) I didn't fly those ships back myself!

I repaired the ships (they were all rapiers incidentally) and remoted them to their destinations. Admittedly there was some big time limits, one was just over 3 hours for a 3 sector jaunt!

When they docked I got a message asking to release control of said ships. Did that, got reward.

Maybe I have just been lucky.

Incidentally that Kestral is amazing for the taxi missions. Pity it hasn't got a slightly bigger hold for more passengers.

Icky

[wolverine005]

I'm having a problem with taxi missions. I collect the passengers, I have Life Support etc. They seem to board because the mission guidance tells me to dock at x station. Once I dock there nothing happens, until the timer runs out, and the mission fails. This is extremely frustrating as I am trying to increase my reputation with the Terran's to that I can buy a SpringBlossom, and these seem to be the only missions the Terran's offer...

Edit: I found a solution for it. I was in an M5 before, and apparently you need a ship that can hold M class cargo, and that has at least 60 free units.

[Kapakio]

for Mission 3 you must fly the ship yourself (ie you must be in the ship when you enter the sector)

/Daddy

Simply not true

Mission 3: People say it is bugged?

Never bugged to me either, but many people have reported it. So there may be a trigger for this to bug, haven't found it myself

Edit: I found a solution for it. I was in an M5 before, and apparently you need a ship that can hold M class cargo, and that has at least 60 free units.

Well, you actually need a ship that can hold M class cargo and 6 free units per people.

[The Happy Trucker]

Mission Three

This seemed bugged to me too and in fact the missions expired a couple of times when there was still time on the clock.

What I was doing was flying to the target flat out in a Kestrel, hopping out, repairing the ship and ordering it home. It often worked but sometimes it didnt.

What works every time is this

Jump to the ship you need to pick up in a fast M4 or bigger (but still fast), transfer the jumpdrive and some energy cells, get in the new ship and jump back to the station, obviously having ordered your M4 (or bigger) to dock there too.

The Happy Trucker

PS Discovery works well for this task too

[jams]

Or even better solution, jump a TM in, claim, dock, and jump it back to where it needs to be delivered.

[The Happy Trucker]

Yep, that works too as long as the ship is dockable.

It's a pity that we don't get to see what type of ship we are being asked to return before we decide to return it.

It's like 'I am going to tell you exactly where the ship is, exactly how much I am going to pay you, and exactly what time you need to return it by, but I am not, under any circumstances, going to tell you what it is yet...'

I find that shouting at my computer doesnt help much at this point.

[drseuss620]

Cool, thanks for the tips. I just started out so I pretty much don't have a jump drive yet. Lately I have been accepting base defense missions... Those have been pretty easy. Managed to cap a few ships from them too.

[mr_laurie]

Mission 3 is bugged - I've not had the other problems folk have reported, but I haven't came across a return ship mission this morning which was rather amusing is probably the best word.

Picked up the mission from a medium shield prod facility to go and collect a Thresher - slight problem, said ship can't dock at the facility so can't complete the mission

Ah well. Onward and upwards!