Some missions are impossible

[MiKye200]

Just had a "Return ship" mission.
The ship to be returned was four sectors away and had a top speed of 37.
I was in my Discoverer Vanguard with full speed and turn upgrades, top speed 360, so was there very quickly.
Immediately claimed ship and sent it back with no time wasted.
No way to upgrade its speed anywhere nearby.
It had no Jump capability.

The ship to be returned had progressed one sector on the return journey when I got the "Mission failed and police have been informed that ship is stolen" message.
The mission was described as "Very Hard", but I was not warned that it was impossible.

Wth!?
Did they even test these missions?

[Harrison]

A lot of times those ships are damaged and just need some repairs. You can eject from you ship and slap it a few times with a repair laser, which will increase its top speed.

Alternatively, if the target is small enough (M3, M4, M5) you can buy a TM, like the argon Magnetar, fitted with a jump drive and buy yourself all sorts of time for completing those types of missions by skipping much of the travel.

[MiKye200]

Originally posted by Harrison:

A lot of times those ships are damaged and just need some repairs. You can eject from you ship and slap it a few times with a repair laser, which will increase its top speed.

Alternatively, if the target is small enough (M3, M4, M5) you can buy a TM, like the argon Magnetar, fitted with a jump drive and buy yourself all sorts of time for completing those types of missions by skipping much of the travel.

No amount of repairs would have made the Toucan fast enough to travel four sectors in 15 minutes. The repairs would have taken 5 minutes.

Is there a way of knowing beofore accepting such a mission, what the target ship size is?
So we can put smaller ships inside ships like the Magnetar and then jump?
Didn't know that.

[Harrison]

Originally posted by MiKye200:

Originally posted by Harrison:

A lot of times those ships are damaged and just need some repairs. You can eject from you ship and slap it a few times with a repair laser, which will increase its top speed.

Alternatively, if the target is small enough (M3, M4, M5) you can buy a TM, like the argon Magnetar, fitted with a jump drive and buy yourself all sorts of time for completing those types of missions by skipping much of the travel.

No amount of repairs would have made the Toucan fast enough to travel four sectors in 15 minutes. The repairs would have taken 5 minutes.

Is there a way of knowing beofore accepting such a mission, what the target ship size is?
So we can put smaller ships inside ships like the Magnetar and then jump?
Didn't know that.

There’s always away.

That’s were the “Think” portion of the x4 comes in.

A ship like a Magnetar could carry a cheap ship or two with jump drives, leaving slots open to pick up other return ships. Then with a transporter on the Magnetar you can transfer a jump drive to the toucan and some energy cells and jump it to the target.

You may have to play musical chairs with the jump drives. Just remember to remove it from the toucan (it other target ship) before turning it in.

Of course, this all assumes you can actually interact with the cargo of these mission ships. I think you can but it’s been a really long time since I did one of these missions in the vanilla game so I could be mistaken.

[[XU]Cycrow]

If its a ship that cant be docked onto a carrier (like a TM) then the best way is to have a fast ship with a jumpdrive and transporter device. Use the transporter to transfer the jumpdrive and energy sells to the toucan, and jump it to the target sector. Then in your fast ship, you can then fly to the sector, and transfer the jumpdrive back, before the ship docks

[Grumpy]

Always jump claimed ship to the gate closest to the station. This will reduce your travel time.
Buy a fast ship like Kestrel. Give it Jumpdrive, Transporter device and fill it with energy cells. Now also purchase TM ship like Split Boa. Equip it with everything you need. Dock your Kestrel at Boa and use Boa to do these missions. When you accept a mission, jump to the sector where the ship will be, use Kestrel to fly to it quick. Claim the ship and transfer the Jumpdrive and Energy cells to it. Give command to the claimed ship to dock at the stations where the mission was given but first enable autojump on that ship. Fly back to Boa and dock. Now command your Boa to follow the ship you just claimed. Boa will jump and follow the ship you claimed. When you are in the sector switch back to Kestrel and follow the claimed ship. When close enough transfer back the Jumpdrive. Dock back at Boa and leave the sector asap. Let the claimed ship dock. Mission complete.

As you progress you want to set up different ships for different missions. For example a quick TP ship is great to make money giving people rides.

[MiKye200]

Originally posted by zanosg:

Always jump claimed ship to the gate closest to the station. This will reduce your travel time.
Buy a fast ship like Kestrel. Give it Jumpdrive, Transporter device and fill it with energy cells. Now also purchase TM ship like Split Boa. Equip it with everything you need. Dock your Kestrel at Boa and use Boa to do these missions. When you accept a mission, jump to the sector where the ship will be, use Kestrel to fly to it quick. Claim the ship and transfer the Jumpdrive and Energy cells to it. Give command to the claimed ship to dock at the stations where the mission was given but first enable autojump on that ship. Fly back to Boa and dock. Now command your Boa to follow the ship you just claimed. Boa will jump and follow the ship you claimed. When you are in the sector switch back to Kestrel and follow the claimed ship. When close enough transfer back the Jumpdrive. Dock back at Boa and leave the sector asap. Let the claimed ship dock. Mission complete.

As you progress you want to set up different ships for different missions. For example a quick TP ship is great to make money giving people rides.

:O
I had no idea such things are possible.
Was wondering how to do all the different variety of missions.
So, lots of different ships for different missions, with Jumpdrive to get there fast.
And Jumpdrive, TM ship with small fast Jump-capable ship inside, and Transporter device are key for the "Return ship" mission.
Thanks guys; will need to think about this and try a few things out.

[Grumpy]

All ships are geared for different things. For example TL ships are for station building or you can use them for storage. So if you accept build station mission you will need TL ship or you can hire one. Keep in mind that hired ships dont jump. You hire it by flying to it and comming the captain. Whats great about this game is that it makes you think. There is always a way to get things done, you just have to be willing to learn. My brother never wanted to have anything to do with it because he just wanted to get out there and pew pew pew. As long as you are willing to learn you will like the game. I read some of the bad reviews and most of them are people who never took their time to learn the game.

[Jack5h1t]

I've never come across an impossible mission in X3TC. I've seen (and failed) many really difficult missions, but none are impossible. There's always a way to do it. You may not have the means at the time, but there's always a way.

[insolent1]

Originally posted by Jack5h1t:

I've never come across an impossible mission in X3TC. I've seen (and failed) many really difficult missions, but none are impossible. There's always a way to do it. You may not have the means at the time, but there's always a way.

There is impossible missions, no matter what kind of resources you have at your disposal.
The deliver x amount of wares missions become impossible once you get a high trade rank, an example would be deliver 30k ore in 15mins, even if you have that amount of ore available and the amount of TS's required to ship it in, you will be facing in sector docking issues with your freighters and that most factories only have 4 docking slots while you might be required to bring in +5 freighters and worst of all you need to be present on the ship to offload the cargo.

There is also convoy escort missions and the enemies are based off your combat rank so if its medium or high the mission becomes impossible due to the amount of enemies and how weak TS's are.

Most return stolen ship missions are impossible as you have to rely on the RNG on whether or not the pilot will bail.

[mystikmind2005]

Originally posted by Brew:

Originally posted by Jack5h1t:

I've never come across an impossible mission in X3TC. I've seen (and failed) many really difficult missions, but none are impossible. There's always a way to do it. You may not have the means at the time, but there's always a way.

There is impossible missions, no matter what kind of resources you have at your disposal.
The deliver x amount of wares missions become impossible once you get a high trade rank, an example would be deliver 30k ore in 15mins, even if you have that amount of ore available and the amount of TS's required to ship it in, you will be facing in sector docking issues with your freighters and that most factories only have 4 docking slots while you might be required to bring in +5 freighters and worst of all you need to be present on the ship to offload the cargo.

There is also convoy escort missions and the enemies are based off your combat rank so if its medium or high the mission becomes impossible due to the amount of enemies and how weak TS's are.

Most return stolen ship missions are impossible as you have to rely on the RNG on whether or not the pilot will bail.

Well thats what makes the difference between the foolhardy and a hero isnt it - LUCK

[g.millam]

Originally posted by MiKye200:

Just had a "Return ship" mission.
The ship to be returned was four sectors away and had a top speed of 37.
I was in my Discoverer Vanguard with full speed and turn upgrades, top speed 360, so was there very quickly.
Immediately claimed ship and sent it back with no time wasted.
No way to upgrade its speed anywhere nearby.
It had no Jump capability.

The ship to be returned had progressed one sector on the return journey when I got the "Mission failed and police have been informed that ship is stolen" message.
The mission was described as "Very Hard", but I was not warned that it was impossible.

Wth!?
Did they even test these missions?

There is only one version of these mission that is impossible. Those are the ones where the ships are too large (M7's, M2's, etc.) to dock at the station that gave you the mission. (That's just dumb that it allows those ships to show up in the list of potentials.)

This reply is for anyone playing the game nowadays who runs into the problem of the original poster. These missions are really like puzzles.

In order to get a ship that is too far away to fly to the station to complete the mission to actually complete the mission, you need:

- 2 ships, each with jump drives, one that is really fast on its own, and one that has a good amount of energy cells on it
- Both ships should also have transporter devices (get jump drives and transporter devices at Terracorp HQ in Home of Light for all of your important ships)
- Jump both of the ships (you should be in one) into the system at the nearest gate to the ship (assuming you have a satellite in the system and can see the ship)
- Have the ship you aren't flying follow the target ship. You fly your own ship close to the target (60 m or so) and eject. Fly yourself over to the other ship within 30 m, target it, and use the Claim under the Target menu to claim it.
- Transfer the Jumpdrive from the really fast ship to the target ship. Send the fast ship immediately near the station the target is going back to. This is so you can recover your jumpdrive before the target ship docks.
- Transfer cells from your other ship into the target. Get in the other ship if you haven't already. Tell the target to jump to the nearest gate to the target station. Tell it to move very close to that target station.
- Jump yourself to that same gate and follow the target ship. Watch the timer and wait for your fast ship to arrive and follow the target. When its close enough, transfer the jumpdrive and unused energy back to your ships.
- Now you should have a ship close to the target station with plenty of time for it to slowly dock and complete the mission. Tell it to dock, and look for the message asking for you to give up ownership of the ship. Spend the money wisely.