From Jonathan's Reference Pages
In Thiima52's K240 playthrough video against the Tylarans, I was surprised to see the Imperial Transporter hit by a Static Inducer. This raised a good question: Can the Imperial Transporter be destroyed?
The Imperial Transporter in K240 is a trade ship which warps in periodically and stays for several days to purchase ore. When it warps out, you are paid for the ore you loaded onto it. You can't control the Imperial Transporter, nor can you check its remaining armour value. The ship will stay around even during an enemy attack, and is believed by some to be invulnerable to attack.
What I wanted to know was, can it really be killed, and if so, how?
I created a save state in WinUAE in which the Imperial Transporter had arrived at one of my asteroids. From this save position I tested various permutations of nuclear missile attack on the colony. It's known that nuclear missiles can damage ships in orbit.
Result: Success! A nuclear missile barrage was successful at destroying the Imperial Transporter, in some cases.
In one test, the ship survived three nuclear missile strikes at the asteroid, while in another it was destroyed after one hit. All other surviving ships were at full armour. It therefore appears that a nuclear missile doesn't deal normal damage to ships, but has a random chance of destroying each ship in orbit, including the Imperial Transporter.
However, it's possible that the Imperial Transporter is still invulnerable to enemy ships. There are two possibilities. One is that the enemy ships are coded not to target the Imperial Transporter. Another is that they deal no damage. I have yet to test for this case.
Interestingly, the game has not prepared for the Imperial Transporter's destruction. The ship still warps out with the green effect, and you still receive payment for ore. K240 still gives you the five day warning to finish loading ore. This still occurs even if the asteroid is destroyed with a Mega missile.
Page created: 29th April 2011. Last updated: 29th April 2011.
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