My ship is gone after repair?

[xant]

So I was repairing a damaged Cerberus at my HQ. Once that was done after a few hours I was dismayed that I couldn't find it anywhere. It wasn't docked at my HQ, it wasn't in any of my ship lists, it wasn't even listed that I owned a Cerberus (it was my only one) at all! It is gone, it just vanished from existence!

Is there something I don't know about repairing ships at the PHQ? And no, I didn't scrap or reverse engineered it. And I also didn't get any messages that my property was under attack in any way.

If that feature is somehow broken, then my Cobra is next in line to dissolve, since I repair it at my HQ right now.

What is it that I overlooked here? Please tell me it's still there in some way. I'm new to X3 and that ship is... well, was my flag ship, with expensive equipment and all.

[Fulgrymm]

How did you acquire the Cerberus? Did you buy it or was it swiped from a return ship mission? Ships taken via return ship missions will go poof in PHQs when you try to repair them.

[xant]

Well, I stole it in a return ship mission, yes. I thought it was a good idea... I mean, Cerberus and Cobra for free. So there's a catch beyond the police trying to destroy it.

That brings me to my next question: Is there any way to cancel a ship repair before it is finished? I wouldn't mind losing a few minutes of progress over the whole ship.

[Snafu_X3]

Which game are you playing? Modified or unmodified?

I've never heard of this (ship disappearing with no log) happening in TC; AP I'm unable to comment upon

There _are_ a few minor glitches with some scripts not being reset (but not 'return ship' missions), but these leave a pilot's log trace (Your ship <name> was destroyed/attacked in sector <sector> (& if undocked) by <enemy ship> <registration code>)

[xant]

Unmodified AP, but it seems to be normal for stolen ships to disappear after being repaired at PHQ. That was a costly lesson.

[JackKiller2266]

you might have Reverse Engineered it they two things are right near each other, so your best bet is that you RE'ed it and thought you repaired it

[Sabrina Bergin]

If you reversed engineered it you will see its blueprint listed at your PHQ

[xant]

As I said, I didn't reverse engineer it. There are three reasons why I'm sure of it: a) The blueprint of a Cerberus isn't there and b) I reverse engineered something else at the same time and c) I had to pay credits and ressources for repairing it.

[Snafu_X3]

Unmodified AP, but it seems to be normal for stolen ships to disappear after being repaired at PHQ. That was a costly lesson.

While I can't be certain WRT AP I find that extremely surprising WRT 'return ship' 'stolen' items

I can understand it from the dev/programmer PoV WRT capped/boarded ships in other missions, but not this one.. unless it's been changed fore 'balance' reasons

[xant]

In the end I replaced the Cerberus by buying one and equipping it once again. I don't have the fabs, so I had to jump all over the universe to get everything back. Then I looked up how much money I spent on this plus the money for the Cerberus itself, got some Nividium and exploited said amount of credits with the Stock Exchange to balance out my losses. Thankfully nothing but some time was lost... and I learned to sell stolen ships in the future instead of using them for myself.

[JackKiller2266]

or if u don't have the blueprints RE it, or scrap it for some resources

[Lelouch]

While I can't be certain WRT AP I find that extremely surprising WRT 'return ship' 'stolen' items

After you repaired the ship there's a short moment were it is ownerless until you get ownership again. At this point the original mission script triggers and deletes the ship, since the mission timed out by then.

Probably totally unintended. But I wouldn't put it past Egosoft to chuckle heartily each time someone trips on that and posts to the forum. At least I would. No risk no gain and all that. ;)

[Snafu_X3]

After you repaired the ship there's a short moment were it is ownerless until you get ownership again. At this point the original mission script triggers and deletes the ship, since the mission timed out by then.

Fairynuff; I've not repaired ships with the PHQ very often

However, 'return ship' missions should be immune to this as a) they're docked, b) they're already player property (to get them to the PHQ in the first place) & c) they're destroyed by police squads, which don't attack docked ships & should leave a pilot log message in other cases

All IMO of course..

[VincentTH]

While I can't be certain WRT AP I find that extremely surprising WRT 'return ship' 'stolen' items

After you repaired the ship there's a short moment were it is ownerless until you get ownership again. At this point the original mission script triggers and deletes the ship, since the mission timed out by then.

Probably totally unintended. But I wouldn't put it past Egosoft to chuckle heartily each time someone trips on that and posts to the forum. At least I would. No risk no gain and all that.

There are 2 issues here:

- If you own the ship when the mission expires, and the last police has been killed, I see no reason for the mission script to delete it, be it in repair or not.

- Now if the mission is still running when you submit the ship for repair, then what Lelouch said above may be what has happened.

[xant]

I still don't know what exactly was the issue there. The mission was over for at least a few hours by then and I have no idea what happened to the police ships in the meantime.

Right now I scrap/RE/sell all stolen ships so that I don't get such a surprise anymore.

[Lelouch]

I still don't know what exactly was the issue there.

There was a script attached to your ship which was part of the original mission. It won't trigger as long as a) the mission timer hasn't expired b) the mission timer has expired and the ship belongs to the player. By reparing the ship it did not belong to the player for a moment and that's why it got removed.

This 'hidden script issue' is not much different to using a M6 as a Universal Trader and later repurposing it as a combat vessel. Each time it engages some other ship the MK3 escape routine triggers and your ship emergency-jumps away. The only way to 'reset' these scripts is to reverse engineer and rebuild the ship.

Don't repair stolen 'Return mission' ships. Don't use combat vessels as MK3 traders.

[VincentTH]

I still don't know what exactly was the issue there. The mission was over for at least a few hours by then and I have no idea what happened to the police ships in the meantime.

Right now I scrap/RE/sell all stolen ships so that I don't get such a surprise anymore.

The colored quote is key here. As long as the police ships are alive, the mission script is still running (and there is NO time limit for how long it continues to run), and it would delete the ship if you don't own it any more. I would guess, the police is still alive and active when you Repair the ship, and the script removes the ship (and the police) as it terminates, because you were no longer the active owner of it.

If you somehow get the police killed after the mission expires, AND you have not repaired the ship, then you would not lose the ship during repair, since the script would have been terminated with the last police killed.

THis is similar but different than the other case Lelouch mentioned (Mk3 ship). Mk3 script is attached to the pilot, and if the ship still has the Mk3 pilot, the script is still running. In the Stolen ship mission case, the script ends when the last police die, or the ship is destroyed.

[xant]

Now that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation, I will just sell them in the future and avoid all problems attached with it.

[VincentTH]

Now that makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the explanation, I will just sell them in the future and avoid all problems attached with it.

Good idea. But if it is a ship you want to keep, make sure that you (or the Xenons) kill the police first, before repairing the ship.
On the other hand, if you reach the top rep level of the race offering the mission, there is no penalty rep-wise when you abort/fail returned ship missions or sell the ship.

Good luck!

[Nanook]

I still don't know what exactly was the issue there. The mission was over for at least a few hours by then and I have no idea what happened to the police ships in the meantime.

Right now I scrap/RE/sell all stolen ships so that I don't get such a surprise anymore.

The colored quote is key here. As long as the police ships are alive, the mission script is still running (and there is NO time limit for how long it continues to run), and it would delete the ship if you don't own it any more. I would guess, the police is still alive and active when you Repair the ship, and the script removes the ship (and the police) as it terminates, because you were no longer the active owner of it....

No. No. No. As has been stated a couple of times by Lelouch, if you steal a ship in a return ship mission and then repair it at your PHQ, IT WILL DISAPPEAR. Police ships have nothing to do with it. The problem is that the script to make it disappear after the timeout does not get removed properly when ownership is transferred to the player.

You can test this on any stolen 'return ship' mission ship by simply using the Cheat Pack to take ownership away from the player. Shortly after you do that, that ship will disappear. It's happened often enough to many players, and was well documented a couple of years ago. It has never been fixed, to my knowledge.

As for the police, if you don't know what happened to them, they've undoubtedly been killed by flying through hostile territory, generally Xenon sectors. Otherwise, they would've turned up at the PHQ while the ship was being repaired. They're pretty persistent like that.

Bottom line, never repair such ships at the PHQ. Use the Repair Laser (maybe with SETA) or pay for it at a shipyard. Doing the latter is still cheaper than selling the damaged hulk and buying a new one, generally speaking.