Contraband Bug (?) and Two Questions (1) Real Fuel and (2) Pilot Skill

[SLB1]

I am level 32, just installed Watchtower and just encountered the Unknown Vessel that zapped me. Read several forum posts and:

• Contraband Bug (?) - after recovering from the zap, I added the Unknown Vessel to my ship inventory (I have several mods to facilitate adding ships, but did not have the skill to pilot the ship) and collected the space wreckage that included Contraband. The Contraband is not listed on the ship or my personal inventory. Traveled to Jemison and verified that I did have contraband onboard. Should it be listed?
• Real Fuel - I have installed the Nexus Real Fuel mod. Does this mod effect the ships in my fleet?
• Piloting Skills - does the piloting skill of the Companion/NPC that I assign to my fleet ships effect the ship's capabilities?

Thanks again to KG and the gang.

 

[twolargepepperoni]

Hi there!

The contraband issue you mention is a result of the mod used to capture this ship. This ship is not intended to be captured (and in fact, detonates once the player undocks), so there is likely to be oddities encountered when using something that overrides this.

Unfortunately I can't answer the second question as I'm unfamiliar with this mod, but hopefully someone else can chime in here if they use it.

Lastly, no, piloting skill doesn't matter - you can assign any crew to your fleet ships, and any of them can be pilots regardless of if they have the skill or not.

 

[SLB1]

Thanks for the fast response.

I disabled the mod, Add Spaceship to your fleet, by bledingue (Nexus #10343), replayed from jumping into the system and that generally worked. After waking up in the pilot's seat, the option to board the Unknown Vessel was present, but I undocked and the ship did blow up. Also, the contraband now shows up in my resources inventory and not a separate contraband inventory.

 

[UrzaPlaneswalker]

Thanks for the fast response.

I disabled the mod, Add Spaceship to your fleet, by bledingue (Nexus #10343), replayed from jumping into the system and that generally worked. After waking up in the pilot's seat, the option to board the Unknown Vessel was present, but I undocked and the ship did blow up. Also, the contraband now shows up in my resources inventory and not a separate contraband inventory.

This is just speculation, and correct me if I’m wrong: I think that the contraband Watchtower components showing up as a resource, as opposed to being strictly contraband, is intentional. It would be too easy to use a mod that zeroes out the weight of the components, run around with them in your ship’s inventory, and evade system scans if they were solely flagged as contraband. Having shielded cargo and scan jammers does help with lowering the risk of detection, but it doesn’t fully eliminate the possibility of being flagged as trying to smuggle them. (End of speculation)

My current ship has a high shielded cargo capacity and I minimize the amount of cargo that I carry so that it never exceeds 5-10% of the shielded capacity/total cargo capacity. I still get flagged from time to time of carrying contraband (probably 20/80 split between caught/evade)

 

[SLB1]

After disabling the mod and loading a save before the Unknown Vessel, I completed the Watchtower quest (Port in a Storm) and finished talking to Gren/Harper (The Stars Have Eyes). During the first quest, I acquired 31 pieces of Watchtower components, 1 piece of mech parts and 2 piece of Sentient AI Adapters contraband. The Watchtower contraband was listed under Resources and the other 3 pieces under Contraband. In my Pianz IVa Outpost, I placed all the contraband in a storage crate. After setting course to Jemison, I was notified that I had contraband on my ship when I did not.

To try to fix this, I uninstalled/removed the mod, closed/restarted Nexus Vortex/Steam/Starfield, and traveled to the Den where I sold 1 piece of Watchtower, the mech parts and the AI adapters. These steps fixed the issue of contraband on my ship. Because the mod provides ship capture benefits, I reinstalled the mod and, at the moment, I can travel to Jemison with no onboard contraband and no notifications.

The Watchtower contraband was always listed in the Resources inventory.

PS: Using other mods, all my main ships have large cargo volumes and rarely do I pickup/travel with/sell contraband.

 

[SLB1]

Hi there!

The contraband ..... use it.

Lastly, no, piloting skill doesn't matter - you can assign any crew to your fleet ships, and any of them can be pilots regardless of if they have the skill or not.

And, while I am on a roll - I assume only a pilot is needed for a fleet ship. So other crew with skills that are beneficial should remain on the players ship because they provide no benefit to a fleet ship.

 

[twolargepepperoni]

And, while I am on a roll - I assume only a pilot is needed for a fleet ship. So other crew with skills that are beneficial should remain on the players ship because they provide no benefit to a fleet ship.

Hello - yes, you only technically need one person per fleet ship if you would like. However if you utilize cyberamps, all assigned crew will offer benefit to the ship they are on.