"Drone Hunting" mission - stuck!

[Grubbo]

It tells me to go get snatch a surveillance drone, but I have no idea where to get one. Any ideas?

[ChinBurton]

not to far into it but is it showing up in the shipyard list in your map?

[Grubbo]

Yeah, if you want to buy them. What the mission wants me to do is go find a disabled surveillance drone and steal it. But I have no idea how to find them. I've never even SEEN a surveillance drone. And there are no mission pointers.

[mzahniser]

If you travel around the Dirt Belt, you should occasionally see Republic capital ships that jump into the system, launch a few drones, then jump out, leaving the drones behind. Those drones are what you're supposed to steal from, but you'll need to disable one yourself.

[Grubbo]

Thanks, man. I'll give it a shot.

[IvanMartin]

Originally posted by mzahniser:

If you travel around the Dirt Belt, you should occasionally see Republic capital ships that jump into the system, launch a few drones, then jump out, leaving the drones behind.

Not going to lie, unless you wanted this mission to take some people two hours, you may want to tweak the escorts' AI so they leave with the capital ships. I finally ended up completing it, but yeah... that was a bit rough, even after decking my ship out with five shield generators...

[Hexarobi]

I see disabled drones left hanging around all the time after the Republic cruisers get into fights with the local pirates in the Mora system (Northern tip of The Dirt Belt). Just press the B key.

[Aurelia]

Originally posted by IvanMartin:

Originally posted by mzahniser:

If you travel around the Dirt Belt, you should occasionally see Republic capital ships that jump into the system, launch a few drones, then jump out, leaving the drones behind.

Not going to lie, unless you wanted this mission to take some people two hours, you may want to tweak the escorts' AI so they leave with the capital ships. I finally ended up completing it, but yeah... that was a bit rough, even after decking my ship out with five shield generators...

This simply means you're going about it in a very difficult way...

Originally posted by Hexarobi:

I see disabled drones left hanging around all the time after the Republic cruisers get into fights with the local pirates in the Mora system (Northern tip of The Dirt Belt). Just press the B key.

^This.
They do tell you in the mission to wait for when no cruisers are around. Board a survaillance drone, pirate the scanner, and warp out of the system, and you're clean. Disabled survaillance drones are very easy to find in the right places, and quite honestly miffed me quite a bit, when i was trying to board disabled ships and didn't know how to switch to the next ship.. Too many disabled survaillance drones..

[Grubbo]

Well, I just tried to board a disabled surveillance drone. My ship pulled right up on top, stopped... and reactivated the drone immediately, causing the drone to re-engage in battle and be destroyed. And it was the one time I even got a chance, because they're constantly surrounded by friendly ships no matter what who always get them back into action. Turns out my ship does the exact same thing.

I've been stuck on this bloody mission for days. I wish I could just cheat my way out of this.

EDIT: I've boarded 4 or 5 more surveillance drones, all of them automatically reactivated and sent off without retrieving anything vital to my mission.

[Aurelia]

Originally posted by The Doctor:

Well, I just tried to board a disabled surveillance drone. My ship pulled right up on top, stopped... and reactivated the drone immediately, causing the drone to re-engage in battle and be destroyed. And it was the one time I even got a chance, because they're constantly surrounded by friendly ships no matter what who always get them back into action. Turns out my ship does the exact same thing.

I've been stuck on this bloody mission for days. I wish I could just cheat my way out of this.

Ahhh.. a minor detail. You cannot salvage something that is not considered an enemy. So in order to actually salvage it, rather than repair it, you need to tap it with a weapon. preferably a light laser, or a blaster pellet to mark it as an "enemy". Just make sure you do this quickly, and while no other republic units are around, or you may be in for a hard time. Take the survailence scanner (make sure you have some cargo space available!) and then warp out as quick as you can. Don't worry about all the planets being yellow. After warping, all aggression will be removed.

[Grubbo]

Originally posted by Lumi:

Originally posted by The Doctor:

Well, I just tried to board a disabled surveillance drone. My ship pulled right up on top, stopped... and reactivated the drone immediately, causing the drone to re-engage in battle and be destroyed. And it was the one time I even got a chance, because they're constantly surrounded by friendly ships no matter what who always get them back into action. Turns out my ship does the exact same thing.

I've been stuck on this bloody mission for days. I wish I could just cheat my way out of this.

Ahhh.. a minor detail. You cannot salvage something that is not considered an enemy. So in order to actually salvage it, rather than repair it, you need to tap it with a weapon. preferably a light laser, or a blaster pellet to mark it as an "enemy". Just make sure you do this quickly, and while no other republic units are around, or you may be in for a hard time. Take the survailence scanner (make sure you have some cargo space available!) and then warp out as quick as you can. Don't worry about all the planets being yellow. After warping, all aggression will be removed.

Ah, thanks. I wish this was actually an option in the boarding menu.

[Usaros]

And watch out for the Sell All button in the menu (do not use it), when you trade on your way back, it will not only sell the resources but also every outfit you have in cargo (incl survailence scanner)!

[PyroTheManiac]

Originally posted by mzahniser:

If you travel around the Dirt Belt, you should occasionally see Republic capital ships that jump into the system, launch a few drones, then jump out, leaving the drones behind. Those drones are what you're supposed to steal from, but you'll need to disable one yourself.

I have two of the items in question and I have tried submitting the quest I have refreshed rained Spaceport so many times I've lost over 2 million credits

[MeniliteZ]

Originally posted by PyroTheManiac:

Originally posted by mzahniser:

If you travel around the Dirt Belt, you should occasionally see Republic capital ships that jump into the system, launch a few drones, then jump out, leaving the drones behind. Those drones are what you're supposed to steal from, but you'll need to disable one yourself.

I have two of the items in question and I have tried submitting the quest I have refreshed rained Spaceport so many times I've lost over 2 million credits

There's a specific outfit you have to steal from the drone. The mission should complete when you land, I believe. If the blue pointer isn't brightly lit, you took the wrong outfit or somesuch.

Could having 2 of them cause some bug? I doubt it but maybe try storing 1 at a different planet's outfitters and come back with only 1 and see.

Only other thing I can think of is make sure you're really on the mission, and its not marked as failed.


PS. Wow, I thought mzahniser himself replied! This is quite an old thread.

[PyroTheManiac]

Originally posted by MeniliteZ:

Originally posted by PyroTheManiac:

I have two of the items in question and I have tried submitting the quest I have refreshed rained Spaceport so many times I've lost over 2 million credits

There's a specific outfit you have to steal from the drone. The mission should complete when you land, I believe. If the blue pointer isn't brightly lit, you took the wrong outfit or somesuch.

Could having 2 of them cause some bug? I doubt it but maybe try storing 1 at a different planet's outfitters and come back with only 1 and see.

Only other thing I can think of is make sure you're really on the mission, and its not marked as failed.


PS. Wow, I thought mzahniser himself replied! This is quite an old thread.

Yeah its an old one i wound up just starting a new game and totally restarting the quest and im just getting back to where i was im one ship away from the fleet i had originally that is 2x protectors 2x leviathans 2x vanguards 2x falcons 2x behemoths and one centipede im only missing a behemoth now and ill be caught up to where i was fleetwise

[Ryvaken Tadrya]

Because of how it is coded, it is possible, if you already have the surveilance pod you opportunist you, to:

Land on Rand
On landing, mission starts.
Reload save.
Mission detects pod, completes, dialog tells you to go to spaceport.
Because you didn't qualify for the next mission when you landed, the next mission is not in the spaceport.
Take off. Land on Rand. The next mission is now loaded in the spaceport, but there's no dialog box or any other indicator to tell you to click the spaceport button.

Same thing can happen with other "get these outfits" missions.