egosoft.com

I've been trying to work out the factors that govern the appearance of the 2nd Hand M6/TM. My results have been somewhat hit and miss and they've been coming like busses - none for ages then a couple come along very close together and from the same race.
My observations are that they always appear docked at shipyards, come with CLS and jumpdrive and 4 marines, at least one of which is four stars or better.

Last summer I picked up the 2nd Hand chain hypothesis from the forums though Carlo has thrown that one out as being a trick of the RNG.

Weapons and shields are random, some have CIGs and a 200 MJ, others have IREs and a couple of 1 MJ shields.
I've never come across a cheap one and selling them always loses money.

Does anyone else have anything on them that might show a way to increasing their appearance?

not sure if this has any bearing on your data, but I recently picked up a Boa at Patriarch's Conclusion that came with like 5 crappy marines. I think they had a a total of 4 stars between them. I remember that the purchase price wasn't absurdly high, so that may have something to do with it, I think I only paid around a million for it.

Was that 'Overall' stars or 'Fighting" stars?

Wouldn't have been the current version, but I have more than once bought M6's and immediately sold them for profit. Before anyone had suggested that you could get marines on board (so I didn't check...). Possibly before that was introduced (don't remember it being mentioned till about v2.5).

Tim

They don't always come with marines, it's pretty much random I think.

I found a Teladi Osprey in PTNI for 480,000. It also had 4 sucky marines and 200 MJ shield at about 68% hull. It is the only M6 I have ever seen for sale 2nd hand. Usually I only find TS's and M5, 4, and 3's. Is it fight rank that determines what is offered?

I few minutes ago I bought a Helios (Paranid TM) from a Paranid Shipyard for a little over 3 millions. Came with 100% hull, a Jumpdrive, SETA, 12 fighter drones, 4 FBL, full shields (2x200) and 3 marines (no CLS though). One marine has no stars, another has only 1 star in fighting and the other has 5 stars in Engineering and 3 in everything else (4 overall).

Hope it helps.

Marines aboard and no CLS? Is that possible?

It had to have CLS or there would be no marines.

Remember CLS can mean Cargo Logistics System (or summat) and also Cargobay Life Support

Tim

CLS Mk1 and CLS Mk2 = Commody Logistics Software (Bonus Pack script)

CLS = Cargo Lifesupport System

Ripskar wrote:Was that 'Overall' stars or 'Fighting" stars?

No they were really bad, I think they each had 1 star in something except one who didn't have any. I ended up training them up some since I already owned them, and will use them as fodder and see if they survive in upcoming boarding missions.

Something I've noticed, but may or may not be a factor.

Purchased used Falcon Sentinel ... suddenly got offers for Mambe & Harrier Sentinels.

Purchased a couple of Skirons ... suddenly was offered a used Centaur, and a used Hydra shortly after that. The Centaur was mostly bare without marines, however the Hydra had some Boron marines in it, but only 1 with multiple stars.

So there may be a correlation between recent purchases & used ship offers.

Not to be rude, but I'm getting a serious "looking for patterns that aren't there" vibe from this thread.

Used ship offers are dictated by the Mission Director, right? Then all we have to do is look into the code and we'll have all of our answers without this lengthy experimentation.

Look guys it's all down to the RNG, you just looking for something that just isn't there.

There is actually a bit of a pattern to it, but not what you think. It seems the RNG can get stuck on generating a lot of the same mission types at the same time. I've gone into multiple sectors where almost every 'lightbulb' mission was a covert ops, for example. Lot's and lot's of the same mission type. So if you've seen more return ship missions after taking one, that's because the game has created a bunch all at once.

I see this kind of thing all the time. I'm looking for station defense missions but every combat mission in the sectors I'm checking is an assassination, for example. So don't be surprised at seeing all those return ship missions at once. It has nothing to do with you taking one and then the game giving you more. It's just how they're generated when you entered the sector.

Nanook wrote:There is actually a bit of a pattern to it, but not what you think. It seems the RNG can get stuck on generating a lot of the same mission types at the same time. I've gone into multiple sectors where almost every 'lightbulb' mission was a covert ops, for example. Lot's and lot's of the same mission type. So if you've seen more return ship missions after taking one, that's because the game has created a bunch all at once.

I see this kind of thing all the time. I'm looking for station defense missions but every combat mission in the sectors I'm checking is an assassination, for example. So don't be surprised at seeing all those return ship missions at once. It has nothing to do with you taking one and then the game giving you more. It's just how they're generated when you entered the sector.

Even so there is pretty much no point in going looking for a pattern that isn't likely to show all the time. As already mentioned it's random.

That'll explain the 2 2nd hand centaurs with similar marines and kit I found in Legend's Home, one at the Argon Yard, one at OTAS...

SIMON POPPLEWELL wrote:

Nanook wrote:There is actually a bit of a pattern to it, but not what you think. It seems the RNG can get stuck on generating a lot of the same mission types at the same time. I've gone into multiple sectors where almost every 'lightbulb' mission was a covert ops, for example. Lot's and lot's of the same mission type. So if you've seen more return ship missions after taking one, that's because the game has created a bunch all at once.

I see this kind of thing all the time. I'm looking for station defense missions but every combat mission in the sectors I'm checking is an assassination, for example. So don't be surprised at seeing all those return ship missions at once. It has nothing to do with you taking one and then the game giving you more. It's just how they're generated when you entered the sector.

Even so there is pretty much no point in going looking for a pattern that isn't likely to show all the time. As already mentioned it's random.

Not quite. The point is, if you find one such mission, you're likely to find several more in short order, at least until those missions expire and new ones are generated. Don't go looking for a different pattern, but if you do find one such mission, do go looking for more.

You known you could go crazy looking....