Scan THIS you scummy pirates!

[Timsup2nothin]

So I've been playing X for a long time, and have done the Terran plotline more times than I can remember...but this is new.

The pirate base has spawned pretty much dead centered on the location coordinates. I have come at it from every angle. I've squeezed my ship into every nook and cranny, including squirming between the louvers over the docking ports and flying around inside the docking bay. I cannot get closer than about 700 meters without hitting the model.

Any good ideas?

Things I thought of just now and will be trying...

If I blow the sucker up will it respawn, hopefully in a more scan accessible orientation?

If I leave the sector for a while and come back might it shift slightly?

If I ram it with a TL will it move a bit?

[Lea Flamma]

Ihad a problem scaning the station, but when you fly around it it's "check box" will jump and your range to it will decrease. I once noticed a 500m decrease which was enough to start scaning.

[Morkonan]

If you destroy the station, it should respawn. However, if you destroy it while you're on the mission that includes it, it might bug the mission. I don't have any evidence for that, other than likening it to having the quest-giver killed in a corporate quest and the station respawning without them. (Not that there's a quest giver in the station in question, but there may be some sort of unique identifier or something that could get wiped.)

It's worth a shot, though.

Did you d'load this from Steam? As always, have it verify your files, just to be sure they're fine.

No mods, right? You're not running "Bounce" or any of those sorts of mods that deal with collision boxes?

I don't think you can bump a station around with a TL. The shields probably wouldn't hold long enough. An Osaka, maybe, but even then I think the size difference would make the engine choose the station as the immovable object in that scenario.

What size is your ship? Did you try something tiny, like a Kestral?

Do the "blow up the station thing", after saving, and see if that helps. Maybe the game will have to redraw the collision box and do it right, this time.

[Alan Phipps]

I don't think you can destroy plot-essential ships and stations, if properly coded they are invincible and never drop below about 93% hull.

[Morkonan]

I don't think you can destroy plot-essential ships and stations, if properly coded they are invincible and never drop below about 93% hull.

Good point for Main Story Plot stations. Corps and the like can get destroyed, as we know, though.

It'd be worth trying, just to see if it can be destroyed. If so, and if it's true that they shouldn't be able to be destroyed, then something's bugged with it for sure.

[Triaxx2]

There should be a dip in the station model near the middle of the bottom. If you're in a small ship, you should be in position to scan it there.

[Timsup2nothin]

As I said, I went at it from every angle, most of them more than once, and hit every crevice.

For the big anti-climax, when I went back into the game to try blowing it up I could see from four km out that the box was in a different place on the model. I flew right up and scanned it. Apparently exiting the game and reentering was sufficient to jostle it.

For the record, you can't blow it up...at least until after you scan it.

[Rapier]

Are you sure it's the right one? I vaguely recall having this problem once, only to discover that there were two pirate bases in the sector (a normal one and the plot one) and I was scanning the wrong one.

[Triaxx2]

There are almost always two bases there, but the one you need to scan launches pirates when you get close even if it's marked friendly.

Of course if you're in a big enough ship to survive that, it's hard to get close enough to scan.

[Timsup2nothin]

I survived handily in a sabre...admittedly with two matching sabres for wingmen that I called in to help with the Kea...and saved at the friendly pirate base before crashing repeatedly into the unfriendly one. All's well that ends well, but it was really strange.

[kgkosio]

There is a spot on the station that is near the bottom of the station and is on the opposite side from the gate. You will see what appears to be a small tunnel, it is big enough for a M5 to fit in. If you are near this tunnel, you should be able to scan the station.

I have scanned the station 20 or 30 times in a M3 (bad DiD player). I fly under the station on the right hand side (looking at the station as you enter the sector) and then fly towards the other end of the station, looking for the tunnel.

[cattafett]

the thing about this mission is the point you have to get near to scan is not the point that you target (and gets brackets)
its a pain till you work that out

[Timsup2nothin]

Funny. I've done this mission at least half a dozen times before and never had a problem. It wasn't always easy, but there was always an angle that worked. When I went back to my game after crying about it there was also no problem. I flew right up and scanned it, coming at it from the exact same place I had come at it from at least five times. I can't explain why I couldn't get close enough, but trust me, I tried everything.

I learned some new things along the way. I never squeezed through the shutters on a closed docking bay before. Wish I had known that was possible when the pirates were chasing me, just for the entertainment value of watching them blast away at their own station while I sat safe inside.