Discovered colony ship (maybe spoilers?) question

[ogredpowell]

Found a derelict colony ship, had a constructor repair it, and it LOOKS like there are people inside it when clicking on the ship (under the unit card there is a picture of an alien with a population number, as well as climate preference).

However, unlike relic ships I've found and repaired, I cannot seem to refuel, scuttle it or command it. Was hoping to use it to colonize a world my pops can't. What am I missing? Ive noticed in the past if I can't do something it means i'm missing some sort of tech or ability.

I am a new player, so ive tried to control right click with both construction ships and fuel tankers. Would a tractor beam help? Or is this environment building?

[MatBailie]

If it's fully repaired, it should work just like a normal coloniser.

Zip and attach your save game?

[OrnluWolfjarl]

I assume you have acquired the ship and is not abandoned.

Hover over the ship's health and in the pop-up check to see if it still has any damaged components, particularly engines, hyperdrive, reactor or fuel tank.

Click on its design name (under the ship's name on its card) and make sure the design has the above components included.

If none of the above, then it sounds like it's bugged and in that case, you should report it.

You could use the game editor (from the main in-game menu button on the top right) to turn it back to Abandoned (when you click it, its window should have a drop-down list with who it belongs to. Then send a ship to reacquire it.

Or reload the game to an earlier save, and see if investigating and acquiring it again will fix the issue.

[ogredpowell]

Thank you! Will look tonight at y’all’s suggestions!

[ogredpowell]

Some follow up-

Ship was abandoned, and for some reason I was able to repair it without investigating it. The button to investigate and repair was grayed out in the exploration menu.

However when I manually moved a fuel tanker next to the colony ship, it ‘investigated’ and turned to my color, and was able to command it.

Thanks all