Can you tow other spaceships?

[another_dave_b]

I came across a stationary, apparantly dead, Python ship.

It showed white on the radar and the targetting computer didn't give any criminal status.

I tried to dock with it using shift C, but got a 'target is not capable of AP docking' message.

Frustrating to leave a 200,000cr ship behind. What should I have done?

[jtarheel]

Blow it up!

[Wolfwood]

As far as I remember, the option to tow abandoned spacecraft is one of the features that is on the "to do" list. But we are not quite there yet...

[Jinx999]

Towing would be tricky to do, I feel.

However, you could have a "missile" that acts as a salvage claim beacon on a dead ship.

I think it would break the game if it got you full value of the ship, however.

[Selezen]

Cost of new Python: 200,000 Cr (guess)

Code: Select all

Cost of salvage claim missile: 1500 Cr
Cost of salvage team to reclaim ship: 3 man team at 150 Cr each.
Cost of haulage back to station: 1000Cr per tonne of hull mass
Cost of maintenance to make salvaged ship spaceworthy: 10% of ship worth (5% variance up or down depending on sustained damage).
Maximum award for salvage: 25% of ship worth

See? the bills all mount up...

[Jinx999]

A new python is 200,000.

I'd give the salvage claim value 10% or so. That's still 20,000, which is a LOT of money, but not a gamebreaker.

[Selezen]

Fixed - and added a bit more too.

[aegidian]

My "design-in-mind" is to have a one-shot (expensive) missile you can fire that attaches itself to such an abandoned ship, extrudes an antenna, and then overrides the ship's autopilot to head at best speed to dock with the system space station.

If the salvaged ship not destroyed en-route, and you dock with the same station then you get salvage value for the ship (and possibly the option to trade in your own ship and switch to the salvaged vessel).

(Yes, this forces the player to accompany the crippled ship back to dock - fun, in an anarchy!).

[Star Gazer]

Mmmm... that's interesting - could there be a variation on this to rescue the crew of a helpless ship, take it to a local shipyard , and get a fat reward?
+kudos as well, of course!!

[jonnycuba]

Would it be possible to tow multiple ships, having say a Hognose tugging 3 or 4 along like a train? This could tie in beautifully with escort duties...

[Rxke]

Would it be possible to tow multiple ships,

Not easily satisfied, are we?

BTW, another_dave_b, these abandoned ships, you'll see them often after battles, esp. Pythons seem prone to this. What happens is they are getting shot at, the shields go down etc. Pilot panicks, and ejects from his ship.

Result: abandoned ship.

If you yourself attack a Python, the chances are quite big you can see this happening before your own eyes....

I often wonder why it is esp. the Pyton-pilots ejecting so readily, compared to other ships...

[Ramirez]

There does need to be quite a bit of risk involved with this otherwise it will just be easy money. The idea of salvaging a ship from the depths of an anarchy and escaping with it in one piece seems like a good challenge. It wouldn't really be as feasible in safer systems as there I'd expect stricken ships to be picked up fairly soon by passing GalCop patrols.

An obvious step on from this would be to apply it to piracy, allowing you to capture vessels and take them as a prize. A problem with this though is that even with the expense of the salvage missiles, you could quite easily jump into a stable system, shoot up a number of ships, then safely make your way to the space station to receive a rather undeserved reward. I'm not quite sure how to get around this though - how do you tell the difference between an honest salvage merchant and a pirate?

[Murgh]

Would it be possible to tow multiple ships, having say a Hognose tugging 3 or 4 along like a train? This could tie in beautifully with escort duties...

you mean a different type of towing then? not collecting a surrendered ship, but as an NPC event? I think a train of them wouldn't look so nice or believeable because of the very fixed nature of the subEntity. just towing 1 ship is OK, but a on chain of 3-4, a turn showing no bend looks very odd.

but maybe the anticipated Remora code that would make it possible for an AI entity to affix itself to a ship's hull, could open up some new possibilities? a linkEntity or something?

[Cmdr. Wombat]

I'm not quite sure how to get around this though - how do you tell the difference between an honest salvage merchant and a pirate?

One way is to have salvage yards in corporate states etc. only accept salvaged ships from pilots with clean ratings. Anarchies would be less picky. Actually a sliding scale from requiring "clean" in corporate states down to "anything goes" in anarchies would work. That way piracy would only pay in systems where piracy is tolerated anyway.

[another_dave_b]

My "design-in-mind" is to have a one-shot (expensive) missile you can fire that attaches itself to such an abandoned ship, extrudes an antenna, and then overrides the ship's autopilot to head at best speed to dock with the system space station.

Given that an abandoned ship is likely to have fried electrics, couldn't you just have a bastardized escape pod attach to the abandoned ship, which you then follow home.

Same effect, different backstory.