[x3tc] "Follow target" mission

[steelwing_2]

So, I'm in Black Hole Sun, and I've got a mission to tail someone and "obtain meeting details". The mission's listed as difficulty "Very Hard", but the hardest part so far seems to be waiting for this guy to actually go anywhere. He's just meandering aimlessly about the sector, never stopping at any station or traveling through a gate. It's been about 20 minutes in game since I arrived in the sector. I've managed to stay between 11 and 15 km of him the whole time. Anyone else seen one of these missions take a similarly long time to get anywhere?

[RainerPrem]

Hi,

So, I'm in Black Hole Sun, and I've got a mission to tail someone and "obtain meeting details". The mission's listed as difficulty "Very Hard", but the hardest part so far seems to be waiting for this guy to actually go anywhere. He's just meandering aimlessly about the sector, never stopping at any station or traveling through a gate. It's been about 20 minutes in game since I arrived in the sector. I've managed to stay between 11 and 15 km of him the whole time. Anyone else seen one of these missions take a similarly long time to get anywhere?

sometimes these missions are broken. Sometimes the game just says "failed mission" at the start, sometimes the guys steer directly into the next obstacle. If you still have a savegame from before taking the mission, you should reload.

cu
Rainer

[steelwing_2]

So either wait for this guy indefinitely or reload? Lovely.

[ancienthighway]

Try flying a bit closer to see if that triggers the mission start.

[NOO3TASTIC]

Move closer to the target ship. Around 12-15Km should trigger it and then you will have to keep your distance from that ship and follow it. 15Km will be OK though. Ship will go to some station some sectors away. You can target it and press i on keyboard to bring up its information pop up menu and it should list its destination sector. That will help you to know the approximate duration of that mission. Also note that if the ship goes through a xenon sector it wont survive unless its a very fast M5 class ship so if it gets killed while in transit mission might fail.

Also saving right before accepting this missions does help in cases like these. Saving while docked on stations doesnt consume salvage insurance.

[steelwing_2]

No, the mission's triggered. I'm in the "follow that ship" phase now, and he's just swanning around randomly changing directions every so often. The few times I've drifted a bit too close, I've gotten the message warning me off.

[Nanook]

Check the target ship and see if he has a destination set. Chances are the destination, commonly a pirate base, has been destroyed since you accepted the mission, and the target has nowhere to go. That's the most common cause of these problems. And if that's the case, just abort the mission and write it off as one of those things that happen in the X Universe.

[steelwing_2]

Where do I even see whether a destination has been set for someone in x3tc? It doesn't seem to appear in the info window for any given target ship.

[Nanook]

It should be in the info screen for the target ship. If it's not there, then the destination has been removed/destroyed. For example, almost all freighters will have a destination you can see by looking at their info screen.