Abandoned/Derelict ships and locations

[RainerPrem]

M+ you send a marine. If you send a marine, fly away and wait for it to board. If you sit there and watch, which I've done for 5 minutes, nothing happens.

Just a note: You don't need a marine for M ships. You scan it, you don your space suit, find a data leak and fix it. Then you can enter. No damage.

Claiming destroys shields and some of the weapons.

[Halodrian]

I'm sure the Cerberus doesn't normally spawn either. I went through a brand-new game start save and it isn't there.

Hello all,
it looks to me that some abandoned ships will spawn once you get a certain rank of a faction and / or join a Guild.

For example: A Cerberus will spawn close to the Faction Headquater in Antigone Memorial once you get the second Rank of the Antigone Faction and then join the local Traders Guild. It will be surrounded by mines most of the times but i had it spawn without mines as well.

However the order you accept the Ranks seems to influence what Ships are spawning. If you join the Traders Guild first and then talk to the Faction Leader to get the Faction Rank, up to 4 Trade Ships to take over will spawn insead of the Cerberus.

When it comes to Boarding abandoned ships you do not need anything but your Spacesuite. Scann your target to 100 % and sneak up to the Signal.
For Marine Boarding them make sure you set all to max in the Boarding Menue. Set Ship Beahvior to Keep Distance, set condition strong/very strong in all three Boarding stages to begin. This way your new ship will not get scratch while beeing boarded.


Cheers Hal'

[ADMNtek]

found a osprey sentinel in grand exchange I

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[oli4uk]

RE> Capping, if it's an abandoned ship you just have to get in to your spacesuit, turn on scan mode, and search for the red flashing dataleak style thing (usually near the ships spacesuit docking port, you claim the ship as soon as scanning is completed.

[RealIcer]

I found a "Tern Sentinal" Freighter?(yes spelled correctly) it says origin unknown? in system Memory of profit IX just south of the jumpgate to Bright promise, surrounded by yellow mines (can shoot them).

It looks like Terran. Anyone else found this?

[Snafu_X3]

I found a "Tern Sentinal" Freighter?(yes spelled correctly) it says origin unknown? in system Memory of profit IX just south of the jumpgate to Bright promise, surrounded by yellow mines (can shoot them).

Tern is a Teladi ship (look in their shipyards or encyclopaedia etc for the design - hint: it's a seabird)

You can shoot the mines: first tip is to use LRS; this may show up a bunch of ? spots that you can select on HUD radar (doesn't always happen, & the markers aren't necessarily persistant (maybe they''ll show up better from long range?; haven't tested as yet). SRS appears to be useless for mine detection currently

According to others, yellow mines are FoF, blue are <something> (I forget - poss track mk 1?) & red are tracking, so yellow mines are the least threat. Either way, for this particular mission type you're only likely to have a patience problem: the other two are targetable (IME). Check mine blast (AoE) radius in the encyclopaedia, likewise track range. It may be currently inacurrate but it'll at least give you an idea. I've had no problems with yellow mines at approx 1-2km range, blues at 2-3km & red trackers at 3-4km. Bear in mind that several mines may be set off if you hit a group, so try to alternate shots between closest to <target> & far away, to allow <target's'> shield to recover

Tip 2: if you fly close enough (in your ship ofc, not the suit!) to the mines you may see a tiny grey dot at the centre of the glow: this is what you shoot at. Don't get too close!

Tip 3: You can try 'spray & pray' tactics from a minimal distance, but that frequently doesn't help much. However, if you're within shooting range of the mine(s) you can use /very careful/ /tiny/ aim adjustments to identify where the 'hit dot' will land. It takes patience & skill, but the gimbal tracker will eventually lock on to a valid target (ie mine) rather than bouncing around, even if it's only 1 out of however many guns you have

Tip 4: for those 'recover ship' missions you don't need to destroy all mines, only those required for you to board the ship & fly it out of the 'field & back to its station safely. IMO it's best if you clean up the junk completely tho

IME the 'retrieve ship' missions (when you have to dock the pilotless, mine-surrounded ship back at a station) tend to spawn these 'untargetable' mines: expect to see several more of these missions appearing as you do (at least) the Teladi trade mission chain (unless it's patched out ofc )

Now added to wiki

[Goobers]

I'm sure the Cerberus doesn't normally spawn either. I went through a brand-new game start save and it isn't there.

Hello all,
it looks to me that some abandoned ships will spawn once you get a certain rank of a faction and / or join a Guild.

For example: A Cerberus will spawn close to the Faction Headquater in Antigone Memorial once you get the second Rank of the Antigone Faction and then join the local Traders Guild. It will be surrounded by mines most of the times but i had it spawn without mines as well.

However the order you accept the Ranks seems to influence what Ships are spawning. If you join the Traders Guild first and then talk to the Faction Leader to get the Faction Rank, up to 4 Trade Ships to take over will spawn insead of the Cerberus.

When it comes to Boarding abandoned ships you do not need anything but your Spacesuite. Scann your target to 100 % and sneak up to the Signal.
For Marine Boarding them make sure you set all to max in the Boarding Menue. Set Ship Beahvior to Keep Distance, set condition strong/very strong in all three Boarding stages to begin. This way your new ship will not get scratch while beeing boarded.


Cheers Hal'

After my post, I searched around the map and found a few miner ships and a transport, that appear to follow the "after rank up appearance"...

But I got the Cerberus in ANT Mem with ANT +17, which means only one rank up, not two. I'm not sure what the local trader's guild is.. I only recall joining one somewhere in Teladi space (and its the only one with "Free Traders' Association Membership"). If you're talking about the subscription, then I have none of them (too pricey).

As for boarding... I didn't have to leave the area for the marine to actually board... but I ended up in a crippled ship (weapons were instantly destroyed).

[Halodrian]

@Goobers
Not entirely sure about Rank up, but yeah I think it was around +12 to +15 standing with the Antigone faction in my current play.
Looks like there are differences as well in how quick you get the rank up with a faction and the conditions i.e. via cleaning sectors of enemies (at +8 to +10) or by trading only (at +12 to +15). Need to check that part with a new Gamestart tho.

In regards to using marines to board abandoned ships - yeah I’m to lazy to do it myself with the suit -, I had no issues so far with the described boarding settings. Guns and shields of the boarded vessels where fine and working unless you told the Team or their transport ship to attack the target.

[ADMNtek]

RE> Capping, if it's an abandoned ship you just have to get in to your spacesuit, turn on scan mode, and search for the red flashing dataleak style thing (usually near the ships spacesuit docking port, you claim the ship as soon as scanning is completed.

you don't really have to scan it hitting it with your repair laser is enough.

[ranykt]

M+ you send a marine. If you send a marine, fly away and wait for it to board. If you sit there and watch, which I've done for 5 minutes, nothing happens.

Just a note: You don't need a marine for M ships. You scan it, you don your space suit, find a data leak and fix it. Then you can enter. No damage.

Claiming destroys shields and some of the weapons.

Really now, did they change that? I spent 2 hours trying to claim an M ship and that was the only solution.

[RainerPrem]

M+ you send a marine. If you send a marine, fly away and wait for it to board. If you sit there and watch, which I've done for 5 minutes, nothing happens.

Just a note: You don't need a marine for M ships. You scan it, you don your space suit, find a data leak and fix it. Then you can enter. No damage.

Claiming destroys shields and some of the weapons.

Really now, did they change that? I spent 2 hours trying to claim an M ship and that was the only solution.

It worked that way already three or four fixes ago. The tricky part can be to find the hatch/data leak on a ship type you haven't used before.

[RealIcer]

I found a "Tern Sentinal" Freighter?(yes spelled correctly) it says origin unknown? in system Memory of profit IX just south of the jumpgate to Bright promise, surrounded by yellow mines (can shoot them).

Tern is a Teladi ship (look in their shipyards or encyclopaedia etc for the design - hint: it's a seabird)

You can shoot the mines: first tip is to use LRS; this may show up a bunch of ? spots that you can select on HUD radar (doesn't always happen, & the markers aren't necessarily persistant (maybe they''ll show up better from long range?; haven't tested as yet). SRS appears to be useless for mine detection currently

According to others, yellow mines are FoF, blue are <something> (I forget - poss track mk 1?) & red are tracking, so yellow mines are the least threat. Either way, for this particular mission type you're only likely to have a patience problem: the other two are targetable (IME). Check mine blast (AoE) radius in the encyclopaedia, likewise track range. It may be currently inacurrate but it'll at least give you an idea. I've had no problems with yellow mines at approx 1-2km range, blues at 2-3km & red trackers at 3-4km. Bear in mind that several mines may be set off if you hit a group, so try to alternate shots between closest to <target> & far away, to allow <target's'> shield to recover

Tip 2: if you fly close enough (in your ship ofc, not the suit!) to the mines you may see a tiny grey dot at the centre of the glow: this is what you shoot at. Don't get too close!

Tip 3: You can try 'spray & pray' tactics from a minimal distance, but that frequently doesn't help much. However, if you're within shooting range of the mine(s) you can use /very careful/ /tiny/ aim adjustments to identify where the 'hit dot' will land. It takes patience & skill, but the gimbal tracker will eventually lock on to a valid target (ie mine) rather than bouncing around, even if it's only 1 out of however many guns you have

Tip 4: for those 'recover ship' missions you don't need to destroy all mines, only those required for you to board the ship & fly it out of the 'field & back to its station safely. IMO it's best if you clean up the junk completely tho

IME the 'retrieve ship' missions (when you have to dock the pilotless, mine-surrounded ship back at a station) tend to spawn these 'untargetable' mines: expect to see several more of these missions appearing as you do (at least) the Teladi trade mission chain (unless it's patched out ofc )

Now added to wiki

Thanx for your extensive reply I already got the ship when I posted this. I just couldn't find the Tern ship in my encyclopedia or shipwarf. Guess I ddin't look to well .

[nemhook]

I've been searching for the Perseus Vanguard in Silent Witness XII for the past hour or so without luck. My station locations are not even in the same spots as your screenshots indicate, so I believe it must be random. Thanks for the idea though! I was excited to find some free ships floating in space!

Out of curiosity though, what is your strategy for finding these floating ships in space? Are you using long range scan (shift+F3 and then R after holding) followed my short range scan mode (shift+F2) and then simply flying slowly through space while watching your 3D radar on the bottom center of your screen? It seems like it'd take ages for that to work, so I'm guessing you have a more effective strategy if you found 5 ships already!

What's your strategy?

if you fly around north west from the gate you'll find zen bases and ships, head east from there you'll find a data station its south of that, drop a few satellites, you'll pick it up.

you can't use marines to claim it though, as there are way too many tracker mines, although they are friendly to you, your marine still tries to avoid them and never reaches the ship. gonna have to use your suit and fly it on your own.

[mr.WHO]

Has anyone found the OP Cerberus in Black Hole sun? I'm trying, but no sucess - might it be random derelict instead of static?

[ADMNtek]

Has anyone found the OP Cerberus in Black Hole sun? I'm trying, but no sucess - might it be random derelict instead of static?

i have it. it usually shows up during the HQ plot when you have to help escort a freighter. it should be right in your flight path.

[RainerPrem]

Has anyone found the OP Cerberus in Black Hole sun? I'm trying, but no sucess - might it be random derelict instead of static?

i have it. it usually shows up during the HQ plot when you have to help escort a freighter. it should be right in your flight path.

That's not always a Cerberus. I got a Gorgo at that spot.

[Dirk-Jan]

There is also a S elite vanguard (same as starting ship) near (few hundred clicks west) the anomaly/PHQ location in Grand Exchange I.

[Ghalador]

Regarding the "Ships are scripted thing: Did you also have ships disappearing on you?
I've noticed 2 or 3 empty little mine fields. I always thought the darn thing might have exploded in there since Xenon seem to attack mines. But then i had an M6 vanish into thin space after a reload.
Before the reload i had it marked and afterwards there was an empty mine field. I've found the exact type of ship one sector further in later - without mines.
Is there some wonky script at work?

[RainerPrem]

Regarding the "Ships are scripted thing: Did you also have ships disappearing on you?
I've noticed 2 or 3 empty little mine fields. I always thought the darn thing might have exploded in there since Xenon seem to attack mines. But then i had an M6 vanish into thin space after a reload.
Before the reload i had it marked and afterwards there was an empty mine field. I've found the exact type of ship one sector further in later - without mines.
Is there some wonky script at work?

I *think* some scenery is prepared as soon as a mission appears, even if you don't accept it. So the empty minefields are remnants of "rescue me" missions minus the trapped ship. The patch note for 1.5 say that they fixed something about that.

[Ghalador]

Regarding the "Ships are scripted thing: Did you also have ships disappearing on you?
I've noticed 2 or 3 empty little mine fields. I always thought the darn thing might have exploded in there since Xenon seem to attack mines. But then i had an M6 vanish into thin space after a reload.
Before the reload i had it marked and afterwards there was an empty mine field. I've found the exact type of ship one sector further in later - without mines.
Is there some wonky script at work?

I *think* some scenery is prepared as soon as a mission appears, even if you don't accept it. So the empty minefields are remnants of "rescue me" missions minus the trapped ship. The patch note for 1.5 say that they fixed something about that.

Nope, they are not. I did like 5 missions so far, not more and one was a mine mission and i finished it. Never abandoned a mission in X4 so far.
I was WAY too absorbed with them bloody cretins of universal traders to care for missions! Sodding imbeciles, the lot of them!