My personal nemesis...

[Rive]

... is a Cerberus.

I dunno what's this between that ship and me If I jump out of my Scorpion to repair anything then it becomes red and starts to chase me.

Apologizing is not working. The captain says 'Affirmative', oh, yes. But the ship is still red and coming for me.

Ten apologizing is exactly as good as one.

All other ships remains green, except a lonely Gladiator, which belongs to the Cerberus.



The Cerberus is patrolling/sneaking around my favorite hunting grounds, and some unexpected CIG shots while one repairs the capped ships are really inconvenient. Of course as soon as I can get some nukes I will put that ship to past tense, but can anybody tell me what's this all about

[Alan Phipps]

This is a guess. Maybe your Scorpion is set 'Enemy if enemy to me = no' and your suit is set to yes. The Cerberus is probably your enemy all along but you just didn't know it yet. Often the military can be mad at the ship you captured due to its previous criminal activities prior to capture and that hostility transfers to you when you take ownership of the miscreant. You can normally get round this and make the military friends again by getting the captured ship out of sector. Apologising does not work while the culprit is still around.

[Rive]

It sounds reasonable... But I don't want to rebuild my fleet just because a mad Carberus

So I see a lot of nukes at the end of this story

Thanks

[TTD]

Have you also tried apologizing to the Gladiator captain?
Sometimes it not always the biggest ship you need to apologize to.

Yaki sectors comes to mind. Sometimes it a Susanowa you have to befriend before the Shuri.

[Rive]

Have you also tried apologizing to the Gladiator captain?
Sometimes it not always the biggest ship you need to apologize to.

Yaki sectors comes to mind. Sometimes it a Susanowa you have to befriend before the Shuri.

The Cerberus is the first to go red: the Gladiator is just the second. I tried both of them, no success

[Alan Phipps]

No need for the nukes, just get the capture out of sector. If the military then go blue to you, you are fine and can get the ship back in again if you want with all past issues forgotten. A trick I use (after the Goner plot) is to transfer myself and a jump drive and fuel into the capture causing offense, UFJD out, wait a bit, jump back to same spot and all is normally friendly again. All for a very few e-cells.

[Rive]

As I do: after the empty ship is captured I send it immediately to AP TS. When I have some free time for micromanagement I strip them and order them to a peaceful, empty position of AP and start with the repairs.

Last time - with a hour after the last save - I noticed some CIG shots around...

After the reload I've checked the situation and found that a Cerberus arrives from HoL, become red and starts chase me.

I had similar problems with that particular Cerberus, but - I thought - those were solved with a fallback to an earlier save.


In the glorious old days there was a Centaur which tried to molest my Hype the same way, but now this is a Cerberus, against a Scorpion... It's not funny, it's disturbing

[Alan Phipps]

Hmm. It seems that Cerberus is seriously bent on destroying one of your captures for some reason and you are in its way. I suggest that you do a salvage insurance save and then destroy the captures one by one yourself until the approaching Cerberus goes blue again. Now after a reload you will know which to sacrifice, or quickly repair and sell-off first.

[TTD]

Logic prevails once again.
I would not have thought of that.
Let us know if it works.
I can then add it to my knowledge for future reference .

[Rive]

Erm... There will be further investigations, but for now I have other, more important tasks I've lost contact with the Cerberus.

I'm quite sure it will be somewhere around when the next repair party begins

[Rive]

I'm quite sure it will be somewhere around when the next repair party begins

Well, it's in HoL and I'm heading for AP... We will see

I've tested the Cerberus with my Scorpy in HoL - jumped out of the sip and fired the repair laser - but no effect.

[EmperorJon]

Had this a long time ago.

[Rive]

OK, it seems it's over... The Cerberus crossed AP during the repair party, but no harm this time.

[Rive]

This time a Colossus

The sequence as usual: I order a bigger ship to move to position. The other ships are ordered to follow the first one. When I have some time for repairs I visit the sector and start the repairs on one of the 'follower' ships.

The something comes. Never the local military/police: something on a multi-sector patrol. It becomes red. Accepts apologizing but remains red. Then blows me to pieces.

[NeverSnake]

This time a Colossus

The sequence as usual: I order a bigger ship to move to position. The other ships are ordered to follow the first one. When I have some time for repairs I visit the sector and start the repairs on one of the 'follower' ships.

The something comes. Never the local military/police: something on a multi-sector patrol. It becomes red. Accepts apologizing but remains red. Then blows me to pieces.

Three Argon ships eh? Do you happen to have any illegal factories in Argon space?

[Rive]

Do you happen to have any illegal factories in Argon space?

Nope

[Alan Phipps]

Possible brainwave! You are not repairing the ships before you have claimed them all are you? If so, and since use of the repair laser counts as an attack with a negative damage laser, you are effectively attacking a neutral ship in host race (Argon) protected space. Hence the local military will quite possibly respond accordingly.

[Nanook]

If that were the case, a simple apology should turn them blue again. But the OP says they acknowledge but stay red and blow him up anyway. Unless we aren't getting the whole story.

[Rive]

You are not repairing the ships before you have claimed them all are you?

Nope. All ships are mine. (Unclaimed empty ships are fleeing immediately.)

This negative attack thing...

The ships are set to 'Follow' mode to a stationary 'leader'. The ship info says they are 'escorting'. Maybe to 'attack' the escort signals the 'attacked' message to the whole group which then triggers the patrol?

I will make some tests on
- a lone ship
- the group leader
- an escort
with a PBE and with my RepLas.

Ps.: any volunteers for a counter-test ?

[Rive]

Tsk-tsk-tsk.

It seems that the reapir laser part of the story is just coincidence. This time I have some earlier saves and a sat network so I could track down the affected Colossus. Its homebase is Elena's Fortune Military Base. As it arrives to Red Light it become red and start to chase some of my ships. Even if I'm OOS. My sat in the sector is not attacked.

If I order my ships in Red Light to dock then the Colossus remains red and keep position. If I enter the sector it's starting to chase me. Funny: as it launches the fighters, the fighters remains neutral.

I've tried to mess up the situation and hided behind the local military Colossus (which was neutral all the time )
But the local military don't want to interfere. Even if their shields are gone they are just turning, fleeing...
No civil war

Some more tests coming. I wanna check what happens if my ships are all docked when the Colossus arrives: even IS and OOS.




IIRC there was some 'helper ships' for some kind of missions? Maybe this Colossus is a misguided 'helper'?