Space truckin' the most dangerous occupation in ED

[zergling_]

It's pretty sad that the most dangerous thing to a trader is the trader himself.

The original elite had pirates and brigands openly attack you in Anarchy systems and you actually had to DEFEND your cargo. Now all the baddies hang out in a RES or Unknown Signal Source and as long as you stay out of there, you can waltz into any system whistling in the dark. The only thing dangerous to a trader anymore is either another player or the trader himself.

Like in the original Dark Wheel Novel, the space just outside a station should be "a wretched hive of scum and villiany" Here's where someone can scan your cargo, track your wake and ambush you at your destination system while you wait for a REAL FSD cooldown instead of being able to just supercruise away....

Not entirely true, several days ago a player succesfully interdicted me in an Anarchy system. I tried to fight back but was almost destroyed. When I offer my cargo he stopped his attack. I quickly jettisoned my cargoes and jumped away.

Now I havent played the original elite so I can't make the comparison in terms of frequency of such attack, but my experience is enough to make me feel that pirate threat is real out there

 

[Iskariot]

It's pretty sad that the most dangerous thing to a trader is the trader himself.

The original elite had pirates and brigands openly attack you in Anarchy systems and you actually had to DEFEND your cargo. Now all the baddies hang out in a RES or Unknown Signal Source and as long as you stay out of there, you can waltz into any system whistling in the dark. The only thing dangerous to a trader anymore is either another player or the trader himself.

Like in the original Dark Wheel Novel, the space just outside a station should be "a wretched hive of scum and villiany" Here's where someone can scan your cargo, track your wake and ambush you at your destination system while you wait for a REAL FSD cooldown instead of being able to just supercruise away....

I do not really understand your point.
Pirates still attack you. Not just in Anarchy systems, but also in established Imperial and Federal systems.
Like Zergling already mentioned... do not forget about the interdictions.
In my T9 I get interdicted on a regular basis and that is great fun.
I just obliterated a wing of overconfident Sidewinder pirates.
If they had attacked me a few days earlier I would have had to flee, but my newly fitted beam turrets and other defensive modules performed admirably.

 

[Jackie Silver]

4 days to a Viper. I must have spent weeks to get there. They sure have upped the income.

It took me about an hour earlier today to go from starter "E" Sidewinder to basic "E" Viper - currently on approximately a "C" Viper after about two hours and I'm not pushing it 'cause I'm fighting at a CZ for bonds instead of picking up higher bounties at a RES.

I thought I'd check how long it would take me to get back on my feet just in case, and at least for combat the answer is "no time at all" - getting together the credits for an ADS + DSS for exploration would take a little longer but it's all fun.

 

[p.opus]

I do not really understand your point.
Pirates still attack you. Not just in Anarchy systems, but also in established Imperial and Federal systems.
Like Zergling already mentioned... do not forget about the interdictions.
In my T9 I get interdicted on a regular basis and that is great fun.
I just obliterated a wing of overconfident Sidewinder pirates.
If they had attacked me a few days earlier I would have had to flee, but my newly fitted beam turrets and other defensive modules performed admirably.

I just know that I have been doing the silk road in my Cobra with 32T of cargo, and rarely if ever get interdicted. And when I do, I can jump back out if I submit and rejump. The "no penalty" for submitting to an interdiction basically nullifys the need to fight interdiction at all.

If I fight interdiction and win. I escape.
If I don't fight interdiction and submit, I only have to wait 5 seconds until I can jump again.
If I fight interdiction and lose, I am in a world of hurt.

This makes the risk/reward for fighting interdiction too high. If I submit, I can easily jump back quickly, and it's basically an automatic win. If I fight, and win, bully for me, BUT if I fight interdiction and lose, I am at a REAL big disadvantage, especially towards a well armed opponent. Makes more sense to submit, see who I'm up against and if he's too big, then turn tail and run.

For me, if I submit to interdiction it's the same as surrender, and I should have the same FSD penalty as if I fought and lost. In any case, I lost both times, either voluntarily or involuntarily.

My mindset after submission should be
A. Let's rumble, I'm not scared of you
B. Here, have my cargo, please don't hurt me.

Point is, most people can submit and can boost about for the short time it takes to re-jump. This is especially true if you have some shield boosters you can drop while your drive is charging.

A trader can effectively trade ANYWHERE without mounting a single weapon and that just doesn't seem right. How many times have you flown into an Anarchy system, approach a Pirate outpost, that's displaying a skull and crossbones, for crying out loud, and no one looks at you twice? What type of pirates are these?

Perhaps T9's and bigger craft get interdicted more, but my experience is that if I trade, I rarely get pulled into a fight, even in an anarchy system. In the original Elite trading in an anarchy was like having to fly through a RES to get to the station. You can be there was at least one guy who was gonna fight you and often times you had to defeat 3 to 5 guys before you hit station space. It made trading in an anarchy both exciting, rewarding (anarchy's always had the best prices). Now trading in an anarchy is 'meh' It's not particularly dangerous and there is no buff for trading in a lawless system. In fact the only thing an anarchy is good for is for the player to pirate other players or NPC's since your own crimes aren't reported. It just seems in Elite Dangerous, most NPC pirates hang out in a RES just serving themselves up to patrol craft or RES farmers like me....

 

[Ben Ryder]

Little funny story of my misfortune this evening. Hop ya'll get a chuckle out of it!

Day 1- Spent most of it bouncing my 'sidey off of stations and trying to make sense of how to find the door on the rotating multi-faceted death star thing.
Day 2- Got an eagle, found a RES started raking in those CR! had a few close calls but 'twas all good.
day 4- Another upgrade Got the viper AWESOME SHIP!
from this point on I've been almost purely a bounty hunter aside for taking a few missions to progress major faction rank.

now.. a month an a half later I decide to spend the night plying the trucker's trade. I load up the T6 with 104T (sorry guys i like shields!). 1.8m Profits for the evening thus far.. I even got pretty good at speed docking and shooting the letterbox in boost

On my umpteenth run of the night i must have gotten a bit complacent. I failed to do my normal 'free look' scan before moving off my pad. I line up the letter box, pull in my gear, 4 pips to engines, set full power, and hit the boosters... suddenly impact! in my haste to speed up my turn around time at stations i failed to notice the T9 lifting off from the next pad. glancing off the top of it and doing a perfect 10point face plant into the wall just above the slot. Hull integrity compromised! Eject! Eject! Eject!

From tutorial till now. this is my first fatality. not even died to PvP Yet (tho did retreat from most fights after getting outclassed)

Add some smuggling to the mix and you'll be up for more space trucking hazards and fun

 

[Stahll Amatin]

It's pretty sad that the most dangerous thing to a trader is the trader himself.

The original elite had pirates and brigands openly attack you in Anarchy systems and you actually had to DEFEND your cargo. Now all the baddies hang out in a RES or Unknown Signal Source and as long as you stay out of there, you can waltz into any system whistling in the dark. The only thing dangerous to a trader anymore is either another player or the trader himself.

Like in the original Dark Wheel Novel, the space just outside a station should be "a wretched hive of scum and villiany" Here's where someone can scan your cargo, track your wake and ambush you at your destination system while you wait for a REAL FSD cooldown instead of being able to just supercruise away....

I do wish anarchy actually meant something.. they could at least ratchet up the level/difficulty of baddies there.. maybe even have you get interdicted/jumped by NPC pirate 'wings' of 2-5. Honestly i get harassed more in 'controlled' space.

 

[Moonface]

I have a worthy entry in this thread!: In voice attack i had mapped the boost function to the word "go" (i need to say it a lot and i found this to be the least annoying.) In the station i was taking off in my brand spanking new anaconda, filled with 452t gold. My son was talking about his schoolday, and while hanging above my platform i said "oh?" to something he said. Voice attack heard "go"...... My mind took waaaay too long to register i was actually boosting annie inside a space station, i started to say nonononononono....and met the wall. Thank the lord for being kitted out with a bunch of shield boosters. One very transparent shieldring left, i went into voice attack and changed the command to "turbo"....much safer