M7 bails on Stolen Ship Mission!

[Bill Huntington]

I’ve started to get my marines back from training, 3 x 100. So I’m doing fight training with Return Ship and Stolen Ship missions. I like to cruise NJY’s Deception because it’s a small sector with a lot of stations, so faster and easier to get missions.

So I get a Stolen Ship mission for a Thresher (M7) in Menelaus Paradise. I bring in the Tiger to lower his shields, and it gets into the hull. And the pilot bails and gives me the ship. An M7 bails!

I reload because I need to cap it for training purposes. I’ve got anti - Xenon defenses in the sector which include blocks of 50 Lasertowers. So the Thresher spawned close to it and by the time I closed with him, he was next to the LTs. When the marines boarded, the Thresher turned red, and got into it with the LTs. Gone! and with my Marines!

On the next reload, everything went okay, and I capped the Thresher. I lost 5 low value marines, and all of my 3x100 marines came through. I returned the Thresher, collected my fee … and capped him again! Since I returned the ship outside the station (an M7 can’t dock), and I returned it without shields, it was pretty easy. As soon as I relinquished control of the Thresher, it started to move. But I was ready with my finger on the manual trigger, and launched pods immediately. Cap, transfer JD, Energy, shields and lasers. Then Unfocused Jump, and I’ve got another Thresher.

[Flozem]

yes they do indeed - had the same happen to me recently when I inadvertently accepted on such mission. The M6 bailed on me after I decided to destroy it....

Have been looking into these missions more now, but so far I haven't seen any capital ships to be reclaimed.

[Seleucius]

M7 is the largest those and abandoned ship missions go. "You forgot your Thresher over in Spaceweed Grove, hmm? Oh, yeah, no problem, I'll be right back, you just wait patiently right there..."

Edit: In my experience. YMMV.

[Triaxx2]

They are often rare indeed, but M7's are the top you'll experience.

[StarSword]

M7 is the largest those and abandoned ship missions go. "You forgot your Thresher over in Spaceweed Grove, hmm? Oh, yeah, no problem, I'll be right back, you just wait patiently right there..."

Edit: In my experience. YMMV.

More like, "Yeah, you just wait patiently while I use your ship for boarding practice, then keep it for myself."


I think we're all agreed though: Stolen Ship missions are broken. I've said it before and I'll say it again: bailing is random, and Egosoft should not have made a mission wherein success is entirely based on pure dumb luck.

[Triaxx2]

Only until you're after M6's is it luck based. Then it's just a matter of marines.