More on crippled ships

[BP]

Okay, I had the problem before where I beat some ships in combat, ended up killing their crews but then the battle ended - I couldn't target the non-crewed ships (no assault pods) - dang! So, later in the same game I now have a ship with assault pods and find a ship, crewless, in a system and STILL can't target it. WTF? If I want to destroy the buggers or even better, pilot the ship home as a prize why can't I? Once again, I think there should be a mission "target xxx ship"...

[BP]

I ended up patrolling the system FOREVER until my ship with assault pods came close enough to the derelict that I finally got a mission choice "rescue xxx ship". Thank God, it took long enough.

[Raife]

Crippled ships are tricky. Sometimes I'll want to rescue an allied ship, but the 'rescue' order always returns it to one of my planets.

I have to manually route the rescuing ship to an ally's world, manually re-engage the tractor beam, and hope it doesn't cut out before I get there (about 50-50). You have to watch it like a hawk because if it does cut out, you need to head directly back to the system you came from, stop when you approach the ship (at high speeds in the middle of nowhere, heh), and re-finagle the rescue.

Ultimately, the ship will come to life as soon as it crosses the threshold of the ally's planet and re-crews.

I've done this maybe four or five times, and it's rough going. It's worth it to me, though. Especially when I see that ship out patrolling, or joining in an assault.

It would be tres cool if things were tweaked to allow for allied rescue orders.

I tend to try to just be allies until I'm forced to form a federation... either by finding new races, or an impending brutal war. Heh, I've got enough problems running my worlds/ships not to have to worry about a bunch of new ones.