What happens if I board a TM with fighters still docked?

[The_Final_Stand]

Pretty much as title. If I was to, say, start hunting Zephyrus' with some marines, but it didn't launch all its fighters, what would happen when the marines take it over? Would it autolaunch all of them? Would such a situation ever even come up?

[Playbahnosh]

huh... that's actually a great question. I never thought about this, since every TM I attacked launched all it's fighters and they didn't let let up until I destroyed them, so this might be interesting to know.

[Alan Phipps]

In an early patch of X3TC, you could board a hostile M1 in assassination missions and find a whole load of fighters left on board that were 'neutral' to you and of 'unknown' or 'no' pilot. There were several jigs you could dance using ship position, station docking, carrier command and system override software, etc in order to take possession of them. Then a patch fixed that particular issue.

Since then, any fighters now rarely left on board captured carriers are always enemy to you with hostile pilots and will attack you and the captured ship if IS and they launch (or will just disappear if OOS), one of which they eventually will do if left to it. I believe that is still the case in X3TC/X3AP now.

[Ripskar]

It happens with larger carriers every so often.
If you capture the carrier with fighters still aboard they aren't automatically yours. You can force them to launch, and then try to get them to bail at the usual %.
There is also a script that changes them to no-pilot and can then be claimed.

[Triaxx2]

If they aren't enemy, such as if you're a Federation Guardian and steal a Titan, they'll launch and go to a nearby 'friendly' station.

However, if you get to a shipyard before the launch you will get some cash for them.

[Sinxar]

The same thing happens when it has a ship homebased to the carrier that cant dock with it, usually an M8 or two. Boarded a Deimos not too long ago in TC and all the fighters launched and docked at a nearby shipyard. The bombers jumped with the Deimos to Argon Prime but after the Deimos docked the bombers went back to Paranid Prime and their homebase was cleared when they docked at the shipyard there.