X3: how to ditch the police

[Jimmy C]

If the have the requisite item, the most effective method is the Unfocused Jump Drive. If the police are already hounding you, board that ship and engage the UFJD. Once in the UFJD sector, move and wait for them to show up. When they appear, jump back to known space. And the police will never bother you again over that ship.

Personally, I recommend not bothering with retrieve ship missions unless they're M6 or M7. Those give you a chance to level up your marines on boarding actions.

[Solomon Short]

If you have a TM with Jumpdrive & Jump-capable fighter(s) loaded, Retrieve Abandoned Ship missions are some of the easiest rep grind in the game...

And you need to grind your rep to get to the point where M6-M7M appear on the retrieval lists.

[Nanook]

If the have the requisite item, the most effective method is the Unfocused Jump Drive. If the police are already hounding you, board that ship and engage the UFJD. Once in the UFJD sector, move and wait for them to show up. When they appear, jump back to known space. And the police will never bother you again over that ship.....

That won't work. The police can't jump into UFJD space. What does work is jumping into UFJD space before they spawn and then wait for them to spawn there. Then jump out. Since the police can't jump into or out of UFJD space normally (they don't actually have a UFJD), they're now stuck.

[Jimmy C]

Right, why did I write "if the police are already hounding you"?

[cheetahhawk]

ive goten away before in that situation as well, i just sent the retrieved ship to dock at a station in sector in that situation while they where chasing me.
then i jumped out and do stuff elsewhere, eventualy they gave up on me after some time out of sight.
i dont intentionaly steal the ship but, just failed the mission, it will lose its stolen tag after some time as well.
thus free ship at least that is the way it worked for me in the past

if i saw i wasnt going to make it back in time i ditched it at a station to keep it from being blown up.

another thing i found in getting them back to their owner on time, is having them dock at an m6 or ST station builder ship depending on its size, then jumping to the station to turn it in.

[jlehtone]

another thing i found in getting them back to their owner on time, is having them dock at an m6 or ST station builder ship depending on its size, then jumping to the station to turn it in.

There are not many M6 that can carry a ship. Those that can, are limited to M3/4/5 ships and so are the TL ships, which are big. There is TM-class for carrying M3/4/5 ships. Fast, small, cheap.

Couple M7 ships can carry one TS/TP. Couple M2 can carry M3/4/5/6/8 and TS/TP/TM. Goner Aran can carry any ship, but it is really slow.

What works for almost everything is a TM with a small ship, both equipped with JumpDrive (JD). All retrievals that cannot dock into the TM can loan JD from the small ship.

In the rare case that jumping is not enough, a tow ship with Tractor Beam saves the day. Towing is limited to 80m/s, i.e. clearly faster than retrieved big ships can manage alone.

[Bill Huntington]

cheetahhawk, some good points. It shows some of the great things about this game. We see something like that happen as we play and observe a new thing. We even report it here and everyone learns about it.

There's some dangers with parking in the station. Sometimes the police will just blow up the station! Your idea can still work but choose a big station. The police are stronger as you gain in rank. I'd guess it's trade rank, since that controls the size of the Return Ship.

I observed the change in police from red to blue a few times, while I was In Sector. Once it was because the Sector owners attacked them. Perhaps that changed their target, to my benefit. I'm not positive of the reason, but it happened again and red pirates were close by. I was doing something else and didn't observe the assumed interaction, just the possible result.

My point? I'm not sure the police ever forget. It could be that there's an interaction with other forces that does it.

Have other pilots studied the question?

[AleksMain]

...
My point? I'm not sure the police ever forget. It could be that there's an interaction with other forces that does it.

Have other pilots studied the question?

My pilot had sold dozens abandoned ships from such missions (to Shipyards).

He never had any problems with police.


And ... if he could not deliver it to Shipyard on time, then he could abort mission.

Here is quote from the X3 wiki for Return Ship mission:

Note that failing to deliver it back on time (whether voluntarily or involuntarily) after claiming the ship causes some sector police to spawn dedicated to destroying it. They will continue to try until the ship is somehow destroyed ...

[Jimmy C]

My pilot had sold dozens abandoned ships from such missions (to Shipyards).

He never had any problems with police.


And ... if he could not deliver it to Shipyard on time, then he could abort mission.

That's because the police only comes out after the mission is timed out, aborted or completed.

If you sold the ship before the mission timed out and without aborting the mission, you're in the clear.

[Timsup2nothin]

That's because the police only comes out after the mission is timed out, aborted or completed.

Just to keep things clear:

If the mission is completed there won't be any police.

If the mission is aborted the police still don't show up until the time is elapsed, I don't think. I have said "okay, I'm in a good spot for the police, let me abort this mission" and it didn't work. Now I wait until the timer is just about out before I hit the abort button so that I don't have to wait around for the cops.

[RAVEN.myst]

Cops... *sigh* Never there when you need them, always there when you don't...

[jlehtone]

Cops... *sigh* Never there when you need them, always there when you don't...

One must learn to worship the Almighty Random Number Generator appropriately.

Make it clear to everyone that you don't need nor want the cops. Then they will show up according to your plan. Deception can make you the Emperor, (but don't forget the ventilation).

[RAVEN.myst]

Cops... *sigh* Never there when you need them, always there when you don't...

One must learn to worship the Almighty Random Number Generator appropriately.

Make it clear to everyone that you don't need nor want the cops. Then they will show up according to your plan. Deception can make you the Emperor, (but don't forget the ventilation).

Hahahah! Nice But I've always found that when I try to double-bluff fate/the universe/whatever, it always calls me on it Maybe what I really need to w*rk on is my cosmic poker face...

[Jimmy C]

If the mission is completed there won't be any police.

That depends. If you cannot recapture the ship after completing the misson, then yes, the police won't show up.

But, there is a situation where you can recapture the ship after turning it over and completing the mission.

If you get an M7 Return Ship mission (be it abandoned or stolen) from a regular station that doesn't have capital docks, you obviously can't dock the ship to the station to complete the mission. Instead, you just get it close enough to the station to trigger turnover and mission complete.

However, after turnover, the ship just wanders around a bit. Unless you forgot to remove the jumpdrive you put onboard. In which case, it would just jump out. WIthout a JD, it will eventually travel to a Gate and vanish. Or just disappear after you leave the sector.

The best part is, it has no faction affiliation! Meaning you can capture it a second time without losing rep! But if you do, the police will show up in a few minutes to attack it. This is where the UFJD comes in handy.

[Timsup2nothin]

If the mission is completed there won't be any police.

That depends. If you cannot recapture the ship after completing the misson, then yes, the police won't show up.

But, there is a situation where you can recapture the ship after turning it over and completing the mission.

If you get an M7 Return Ship mission (be it abandoned or stolen) from a regular station that doesn't have capital docks, you obviously can't dock the ship to the station to complete the mission. Instead, you just get it close enough to the station to trigger turnover and mission complete.

However, after turnover, the ship just wanders around a bit. Unless you forgot to remove the jumpdrive you put onboard. In which case, it would just jump out. WIthout a JD, it will eventually travel to a Gate and vanish. Or just disappear after you leave the sector.

The best part is, it has no faction affiliation! Meaning you can capture it a second time without losing rep! But if you do, the police will show up in a few minutes to attack it. This is where the UFJD comes in handy.

Ah. Even though you have turned the ship over, from a script standpoint the mission doesn't 'complete' until the ship vanishes. It would be interesting to know whether these cops that show up and attack it show up some fixed amount of time after you capture it, or at the end of the original mission timer.

I suspect they show up at the end of the timer, when some sort of 'check if the player still has the ship' function is triggered...but that's speculation with no foundation at all. Some experimentation is in order here.

[Jimmy C]

It would be interesting to know whether these cops that show up and attack it show up some fixed amount of time after you capture it, or at the end of the original mission timer.

I already tried that. In one of the first times I went after a ship I returned, I deliberately waited until it was well after the mission timer would have expired before going after it again.

It still took the police a few minutes to show up. Which is why I don't wait to recapture anymore.

[Timsup2nothin]

It would be interesting to know whether these cops that show up and attack it show up some fixed amount of time after you capture it, or at the end of the original mission timer.

I already tried that. In one of the first times I went after a ship I returned, I deliberately waited until it was well after the mission timer would have expired before going after it again.

It still took the police a few minutes to show up. Which is why I don't wait to recapture anymore.

Good to know.