Retrieve an M7 for abandoned ship mission?

[Sarcolemma]

A strange thing happened while I was playing. I picked up a retrieve abandoned mission in one of the Paranid core sectors and it sent me to retrieve a Thresher.

I didn't think I'd be able to cap it without marines but surprisingly enough it let me claim it like any other ship. So of course rather than bringing it back I took it for my own but even if I did want to bring it back to complete the mission it wanted me to dock it to a normal sized station that can't dock M7's in the first place.

Has this sort of thing happened to anyone with these missions? I've never seen an abandoned ship mission where it wanted me to pick up a capital ship. My trade rank is Master Broker and my fight rank is Warrior if it might be relevant to this.

Oh I'm also playing AP. I have some mods but none of them that effect missions.

[ajax34i]

Yes, the type of ship that you have to retrieve depends on your ranks (trading and combat), and yes I have been asked to return M6's and M7's.

The reward is too small for the value of the ship, so I typically steal and sell them. You can dock them at shipyards to sell.

If you want to complete the mission, you have to get the ship close to the station where the mission is, then take your items out of it, then eject from it. If it's close enough the mission should complete.

[Alan Phipps]

Those capital recoveries are actually easier than you think. You don't have to dock them at a station that cannot take their size, you just have to bring them near to the station and the mission completes.

The good news is that after the mission is over, the ship hangs around the station for a while in a sort of neutral state with a pilot. You can now easily (if necessarily quickly) board again a ship with no weapons, shields or defences (this time at least using your marines) and without any rep loss with any race. So you get paid for the mission, get one or more easy boarding practices, and get the ship - all with only a positive for race rep. A bit of an exploit really.

[Triaxx2]

Size of the ship you're asked to retrieve relies on race ranks, rather than trade or fight ranks. So you can be Harmless, and get to be asked to retrieve an M7, as long as the race likes you enough.

[Sarcolemma]

Ah okay, thanks for the replies! I didn't know it was possible to complete the mission and still claim the ship or that is was a common occurence. I guess I've been pretty unlucky in that its the first time I've seen a capital retrieve mission despite having gone through an extensive playthrough on my previous game.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

The chance of an M7 is still quite small because you still have all the other ships in the list that can be claimed. But generally it is still worth selling the M7/M7Ms as you will make more selling them than you would delivering them and there is no rep loss for failing those missions either.

[Nanook]

...
The good news is that after the mission is over, the ship hangs around the station for a while in a sort of neutral state with a pilot. You can now easily (if necessarily quickly) board again a ship with no weapons, shields or defences (this time at least using your marines) and without any rep loss with any race. So you get paid for the mission, get one or more easy boarding practices, and get the ship - all with only a positive for race rep. A bit of an exploit really.

In my experience, as soon as the mission completes, the returned ship becomes owned by the race of the person issuing the mission. And if you then try to take it back, you do lose rep with that race, and you can also be attacked by the local cops.

[Alan Phipps]

Yes the usual pursuit force may still turn up, but often they are blue to you rather than hostile and usually will not attack anything of yours apart from maybe the reclaimed ship - if even that. So there is no need to attack them and lose rep that way, or to use hostile sectors to lose them. (They tend to just hang around the sector aimlessly until you sell or RE the target ship.)

Also I have not noticed any race rep loss just reboarding the target - if there is any then it is really minor because you don't ever need to shoot at the target (no shields). Mind you, I was on really good terms with the races I did this to!

[Nanook]

You don't have to shoot at the target to lose rep. As your marines fight onboard, you lose some rep, usually a little with each deck. At least, that's how it works when I'm doing 'normal' boarding. But you're right, if your rep is high enough at the start, then you don't lose too much.

[Timsup2nothin]

Also, the returned ship reverts to the race of whoever gave you the mission...which may not be the race of the local sector. If you are particularly lucky you will get a race BOOST with the locals when you board, if you got the mission from a Paranid in an Argon sector f'rinstance.

[Vyrebird]

In TC, the post-turnin boardings didn't appear to have race-rep repercussions to me. The ship did not have a race flag in its ID (was simply blank in front of the ship class). Police would sometimes still spawn, but they'd just destroy the re-captured ship and leave, or go away soon enough if the re-captured ship was sold. If you kept your other ships away from the police, there was no faction loss involved (or it was so small it wasn't noticeable - I never used the script console to explicitly check).

In AP, it seems to behave differently - the ships usually jump into non-existence for me not long after mission turnin (taking my marines with it ), and I think I remember race-rep hits from the partial boardings.

So in TC you could typically get 2 boardings, while in AP you can only easily get 1, in my experience. Still, quite handy.

[Sovereign01]

The best thing about retrieving M6/M7 missions is that you can also use marines to capture the target ship itself, it's the ideal way to train them in fight skill. With an M7 you can train 21 of them on a ship that literally has no resistance

Last mission where I did that I had to retrieve a Thresher... for the Paranid