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[Dunamisdeos]

I have a joystick/keyboard, and also my good friend/voice pack Celeste.

[Il Palazzo]

God damnit, it got in my head that the computer says 'friendship drive' instead of 'frame shift drive', and now I can't stop thinking I'm flying a rainbow-farting MLP.

[Sergius]

God damnit, it got in my head that the computer says 'friendship drive' instead of 'frame shift drive', and now I can't stop thinking I'm flying a rainbow-farting MLP.

[Rolan7]

Aww, lovely Sidewinder-kun.

So I had some fun with this last week, mostly shipping refugees until I realized sightseeingtrips were more common and lucrative.  I manually scanned some systems at first, before learning about the FSS   The game's pretty slow, but not in a bad way.

So, questions:
I switched to Open once I pledged, because it doesn't feel fair to do power-play things in solo.  However, I don't think I actually saw any other players in the few hours I played Open.  I'm probably just in a quiet area, but it did seem like a Power Play border.  Is everyone off doing the mining thing and saving refugees from Thargoids?  I tried mining exactly once, and couldn't stand it - I much prefer exploring.

I bought an Eagle and kitted it out as best I could, to take a Harmless "massacre ships" mission.  A pulse laser, an autocannon (both gimballed) and a missile launcher.  All low-grade, though, since that's all that was available.  The low-intensity combat zone had my allies fighting against these, I think "system defense ships" (belonging to some corp) which seemed ridiculously tanky, but slow and large-profile.  Their shields went down fine, but each of my missiles only seemed to do about 10% hull damage or less.  I was having to retreat to the dock (around a different planet) after each kill, just to rearm.  I was also quite fragile of course.
Was I just unlucky to face such ships?  I feel like I was facing gunboats with a fighter.

Particularly nice moment - I lost my thrusters as I was boosting away one time, and was left spinning in space on a course towards the planet.  With mere days before impact, I putzed around with the interface, and found the option to run emergency repairs.  Waiting for the ship to boot back up is pretty neat, reminds me of Mechwarrior's emergency heat shutdowns.

[Il Palazzo]

As far as I could tell, the Massacre missions always have the most dangerous enemies, regardless how low level the pay (i.e. even if it's to kill just 1 ship). At least in the combat regions. Low intensity I think only means less total ships, not easier baddies.
You're always facing the best outfitted ships there are. Even the smaller ones have huge hit point pool - i.e. the best bulkheads is already +250% HP, then maybe some hull reinforcement modules on top of that. Then there's the ship-innate armour hardness, which reduces damage you do if your weapon has low piercing and the target is large and military-oriented.
So in an Eagle, where you're limited to class 1 weapons, it can take ages to dent the hull. 
I think I once spent spent 10 minutes killing a 3/4ths damaged heavy ship (one of those Alliance somethings) that was just flying away clumsily.
So you're pretty much limited to lucky finishing shots on smaller ships, while dying to the first guy that has you in their crosshairs.
Don't do Massacre missions, is what I'm saying.



Myself, I'm taking a gal to Colonia in a 25 ly-range Asp Explorer. At first I was like 'yeah that's a lot of jumps, but a deadline of four weeks real-life time is a bit too much. I'll make a point of scanning every system I jump to while I refuel.'
Now I'm half way through in some nebula that might even have a name, and am calculating how many hours per day, minimum, I have to commit to jumping-scooping-scanning in order to make it. It's good I'm enjoying the monotony.
The 22 million pay wouldn't justify the time spent. All the planets I'm scanning should solve my money problems forever, though. Unless I crash the ship before I can sell the data.

[Rolan7]

Keep in mind that all that data will give you a reputation boost!  With the controlling faction of whatever port you sell at, if I understand correctly.  It might also boost the faction's influence, I don't really know.

I'm pledged to Felicia Winters, by the way.  If anyone has a minor faction which isn't hostile to that, I wouldn't mind running missions for said faction.  Probably more transport/tourism, heh, though I'm sure I'll try the combat again.  Thanks for the advice!

[Dunamisdeos]

Actually anything that sends you against system defense forces is going to be difficult. That's basically the local police (or at least on the same level, could be some organized crime) and they tend to be well armed and tough.

If you want my 2 cents, take the missions that want you to take out pirate lords. I'm in a Krait II so maybe this is some higher-level stuff, but they started offering me 1-5 million to fly somewhere and blow up one guy. It'll be less since you're in an eagle, but I found that to be the best payout for the time it takes.

[Il Palazzo]

I don't know. I've had offers of 1.5 mil just to haul some 30-70 units of cargo over relatively short distances. Sometimes even in the same system.

[Rolan7]

Heh, "pirate lord" sounded so threatening.  I'll give them a try!
I'm looking more for variety than for extra income.  Hauling/exploring seems to give plenty of money, but sometimes I want to aid a faction and they don't need my services.  Even if I check the passenger lobby.  Speaking of, I was seeing a lot of requests to go about 20,000 light years "clockwise", far out of the inhabited zone.  I'm almost tempted, even though the jobs were only offering like 1-3 million or something.  Ludicrous.

Oh, and the missions where you have to find and buy commodities were very frustrating at first because the star map is... unhelpful for finding resources.  It gives hints I guess, with the trade route lines and types like "refinery" or "agricultural", but it's kinda stupid even after you pay for trade data.  I just use this now.  It's presumably useful for finding a place to sell, too, though I mostly stick to missions (maybe filling the rest of my hold with the commodity in question, since the existence of the mission usually indicates a profit).

I like that I got a mission to deliver 3 gallium or something, and one of the rewards was 4 of that very resource.

[Dunamisdeos]

If you do Pirate Lords, couple things that will help to keep in mind.

They often hang out at the nav beacon. If you scan the nav beacon, they will often show up out of nowhere if you hang around for 60s. Sometimes, they will jump you, so be aware of that.

But most importantly, turn on "Report attacks against me" in the right-hand-side panel options. The space cops will pop in and kick the everliving tar out of him, and so long as you tagged him... I think within 10s of his death? It's probably more, but 10s is safe. Once he's on the police just pop him once every so often and they will do all of the work. This used to result in not getting credit, or getting reduced credit, but this is no longer the case. I financed my A-grade Krait with mods in less than a week doing this.

[marples]

Pirate lords can also come in heavily engineered ships. Whilst they may not fly as well as players, they can use affects that mess up hull and shields. At higher ranks they will often be supported by one or two wingmen of similar strength, and dogfight tactics that used to work will lead to a rebuy screen. Sometimes it comes fown to boosting in a direction, then turreting with flight assist off. (not actually equipping turret weapons)

[Il Palazzo]

Just arrived at Colonia. In case somebody thinks of doing long-range exploration:
Approx 22k ly, ~1000 jumps with pretty consistently done detailed scanning of all terraformable, water, ammonia and earthlike worlds netted 540 million in total. There's some blurb at Jaques Station that they're paying extra for exploration data, but I don't know how much of an effect that was.
Took me about a week and felt just like my job in more ways than one. Normally I'd unwind playing mindless games, so now I'm in a bit of pickle.

Oh, and I still need to get back


(btw: does anyone understand what's codex all about?)

[Il Palazzo]

Why am I 'hostile' in some systems? I think it started after I pledged to Arissa, but I'm not seeing anything in powerplay info about it involving antagonising other factions.
I haven't done any unsavoury activities that could otherwise warrant it, as far as I know.

[Rolan7]

That happened to me too, when I pledged, so that probably is the cause.  I seem able to dock at stations just fine though, so I assume it's a warning that other players might consider us "trespassing".

[Dunamisdeos]

I guess some factions can maybe be at war? Utter speculation I've never pledged to anyone.