Non combat ship travel safety tips:

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Agree with the OP. Stop running traders, when your predator obviously outclass you in both speed and fire power or perhaps just ship number, don't take that chance.

As for bounty hunters, stop complaining about us running away. First of all, you are there to kill us. Second of all, don't hold us up to some imaginary honor or morality that tells us to stay for the fight if our title hasn't revealed that to you already. Third of all, we have instincts, too, we run when we are outclassed or harassed. Since unlike traders, stopping when outclassed is equivalent to asking for the insurance claim page.
 
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My number one concern here is trying to save players a Rebuy. A few tons of cargo is way cheaper than a rebuy in most cases. Use your head, make a friend maybe instead of letting your pride get you blown up is all im trying to say.
Tbh I value my pride more than a few tons of cargo. Thanks anyway.
 
What pride? it's a game. When you win, you're not exactly going to go around bragging about it, are you? You're just being spiteful.

Like it or not it's still fine though, if the player wants to take the financial loss, hop in their escape pod and give the middle fingers as it warps back to base then that's how they want to play it.

It's like a bounty hunter getting angry when a pirate runs. The pirate is within their right to run, the trader is within their right to self destruct. It's all legit.
 
Special attention to all the new and/or financially challenged players, I have seen one to many a trader or explorer needlessly be destroyed when dealing with player pirates or otherwise hostile CMDRs. These are a few tips to hopefully increase your chances of surviving an encounter with a hostile CMDR.

1: If you are trading, especially in an obvious trade ship (I.E. T6, T7, or T9) and are successfully interdicted by a player; IMMEDIATELY STOP YOUR ENGINES, DO NOT TRY TO RUN. If you run from a pirate you will almost certainly be shot at. Trade ships usually are not fast and do not have the defensive capability to withstand being shot at. Many pirates will try to disable your drives if you run, which if they are not able to do will most likely end in your death.
2: RESPOND/TALK to the CMDR(s) who interdicted you. All to often a trader is interdicted by a pirate and remains silent when the pirate makes his demands; bad idea. Most pirates are not pirates by necessity. If you talk you can get a bit of player interaction, and it lets the pirate know you are at least willing to hear them out. Remaining silent may lead the hostile CMDR to believe that you are planning to run, which increases the likelihood of them using you as target practice.
3: Be respectful, courteous. As I stated before, most pirates do it for fun. You can increase your chances of survival by playing along. Explain your situation to them, you may get off having to give even less cargo than what they initially demanded.

All this stated; some hostile CMDR(s) will blow you up just for the fun of it. A player like this may start shooting at you immediately after interdiction without making any demands. Talking to a player like this may still diffuse the situation however. Use your best judgment and always equip shields when traveling through systems with lots of players.

It's a bit disingenuous to label the post 'travel safety tips when actually its just another post lauding one pirates 'code' of impromptu rules he would like to see other players to adhere to.
 
Best tip to annoy pirates: Cobra with A-class thrusters and A-class power distributor, makes you close to untouchable ;) Cobra and Asp are my two favourite ships for trading in atm. because nobody thinks you're a trader (they probably assume you're a pirate unless they check your modules and notice the lack of FSD interdictor), and having a KWS with a half-decent weapons loadout means you can earn money from the NPC pirates at the same time.

If FD didn't want piracy in the game, they wouldn't have given us the ability to eject cargo, communicate with each other, or have hatch breakers & limpets. Complaining that "pirates are all psycho scum" is like saying that explorers/miners/bounty hunters are weird freaks and everyone should just get back to space trucking. It's part of the game, learn to live with it, put yourself in their shoes and try to work out what they want and how much damage they are actually doing to your profits (especially if you are hauling rares) and whether it's worth the insurance to just blow yourself up - if you do, they won't even get a bounty for your destruction (which would actually hurt them more). Even if you do give up cargo, they still have to make it to a port with a black market without being intercepted and scanned, which would render their haul useless.

TBH I'm still waiting for cargo insurance & for interdiction to be a crime / a "declare piracy" action which incurs a more permanent bounty - both of which would help greatly. Self destructing when your modules are not damaged / you're not out of fuel / your ship is perfectly flyable should IMO void your insurance - if I were you're assessor I'd ask "so why didn't you just give up your cargo?!" and rip up your claim, leaving you with 100% rebuy cost.
 
It's a bit disingenuous to label the post 'travel safety tips when actually its just another post lauding one pirates 'code' of impromptu rules he would like to see other players to adhere to.

I don't see how it is disingenuous when the tips secure the highest possible survival chance for non-combat vessels logically.

If a pirate asks you to stop and obviously outclass you in speed, and firepower, perhaps even number, why the hell would you run unless you want to die or have backup?
 
. Complaining that "pirates are all psycho scum" is like saying that explorers/miners/bounty hunters are weird freaks and everyone should just get back to space trucking. It's part of the game, learn to live with it, put yourself in their shoes and try to work out what they want and how much damage they are actually doing to your profits


Let me be clear, I have not and never said pirates should be they should be banned. They are part of the game, for the very reasons you said so.
But they fill one of the lowest rungs in the social order of the game. and their in-game characters ARE scum, by definition. There's NOTHING honorable about taking cargo from someone to line your own pocket. I do think it's ironic when pirates whine about how hard their lives are, and how people keep destructing rather than dump cargo. That's what SHOULD happen. Pirates are allowed in this game in the same way transporting waste is allowed-- its just part of the in game life.
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So don't complaint pirates when people shoot first and don't engage in your swash-buckling fantasies. This ain't Disney. It's Elite. And its dangerous. And you've chosen to take my hard earned cargo. See how you like it with your face fried off with an a7 plasma heavy. And if that doesn't work.. if you're better then me, well, then, you can pick up my cargo after it's been scattered by auto destruct.

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I don't see how it is disingenuous when the tips secure the highest possible survival chance for non-combat vessels logically.

If a pirate asks you to stop and obviously outclass you in speed, and firepower, perhaps even number, why the hell would you run unless you want to die or have backup?

The same reason the U.S. doesn't negotiate with terrorists.
If pirates knew the only thing that would happen during in interdiction was (a) fight or (b) their target self destructs, then pirates wouldn't be a problem anymore.
 
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I totally disagree with this.
Pirates are scum, most are homicidal inbread sociopaths with Mommy issues.
If you're interdicted, assume you're going to get shot at. Of course they're going to tell you to stop, that makes you an easier target.
My advice? turn directly towards them, burn, and shoot. Sheilds your powerplant, and gives your FSD time to cool off. If you're in a big enough ship, you just need time to jump.
Most pirates are cowards anyway, and I've found several times when interdicted that the sight of what they thought was a 'trade conda unfurling hot plasma death from every port on the ship made them run. Even if you don't have a 'conda and are outclassed, at least you'll die with honor.

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I'm sorry, but there is no "roleplaying" a sadist. people that play sadists on here have something deeply crooked inside of them, but are just well-adjusted enough to not show it in RL.In fact, I think the way people play a game like this is more of an indication of their true personality than in real life. Take away societal pressures, rules, and social norms, and you'll see what kind of a person someone truly is.

Absolutely this. Would give rep but am mobile right now.
 
Another cmdr interdicting you could be a genuine pirate or it could be a psycho or cheater out for cheap laughs at your expense. I always assume the latter. Apologies to genuine role-playing pirates but that's the way it is - blame the psycho players (and cheaters) infecting this game and the currently ineffective crime and punishment game mechanics.
If interdicted, submit, turn to face them (if there's time), boost, put 4 pips to shields, and get back into SC if possible. Immediately drop back into normal space, boost again in case they somehow manage to jump into your wake. If mass-locked and unable to get back into SC, always have another system targeted on your nav. panel and jump into that. When jumping into a new system always have a look at who else is in there, quickly scan them (check weapon and shield loadouts) to evaluate potential threats and plan ahead. If you think you can take them on then feel free to fight back but if you come across a cheater running hacks then the best of luck to you.
 
I totally disagree with this.
Pirates are scum, most are homicidal inbread sociopaths with Mommy issues.
If you're interdicted, assume you're going to get shot at. Of course they're going to tell you to stop, that makes you an easier target.
My advice? turn directly towards them, burn, and shoot. Sheilds your powerplant, and gives your FSD time to cool off. If you're in a big enough ship, you just need time to jump.
Most pirates are cowards anyway, and I've found several times when interdicted that the sight of what they thought was a 'trade conda unfurling hot plasma death from every port on the ship made them run. Even if you don't have a 'conda and are outclassed, at least you'll die with honor.

Well without resorting to name calling I have noticed that most pirates will run from a fight, hence the reason so many of them are now rocking Clippers and FDL's. I cannot blame them, most of the times I jumped in to entervene I had superior number or firepower on the pirates. Logic and strategy say to run in that situation.

What bothers me though is this (for those pirates that this does not apply then ignore. For every situation there is an exception to the rule):

I see a lot if pirates get mad when a trader uses whatever is at his disposal to flee a similar situation. Is it not the same thing as when the pirates ran from me and my mates? The trade ship is out numbered / out gunned. Does not strategy and logic state to flee that situation?

I suppose the hypocrisy of it is what bothers me the most.

Side note: "when a trader uses whatever is at his disposal". I am not implying or encouraging combat logging. That is an exploit and also dishonorable. Don't Combat Log!
 
Tell them to get well and truly bent and fight them to the death. Make sure they don't get a single penny from you. Die with some dignity.
 
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Actually why i would ever submit? If i do, i still have a good chance to be destroyed, and will encourage pirate to continue doing his "job".
Against single attacker most ships can defend themselves long enough to hyperdrive away. You just need to sacrifice some "efficiency" (jump range, cargo capacity).
T9 for example can use 5A shield + 4 boosters, which will give it shields comparable to vulture, + a pair of small (3A) SCB-s, which allows to escape from player-controlled python reliably enough. Just submit, 4 pips to shields, charge hyperdrive and pop SCB-s as fast as you can.
And it will probably be fun for a pirate too, because some challenge instead of just defenceless trucks is always good...
 
To be honest, I really don't like the personality that pirating gets on these forums.

The mechanics of a game are in a sad, sad state when a pirate actually bothers to come here and outline instructions on "how to get pirated", which so many of these threads boil down to. Most of what I refer to with this are the mechanical workarounds and "codes of honor" that are more or less based upon those.

Someone after your cargo should get stolen goods, period. They are, after all, stolen, whether they where extorted or outright taken. There should not be a way to circumvent the bounty system. This whole "stop so we can have a tea part, and by the way also I take your stuff with no consequences" concept is, uh, pretty lame.

A mechanical way to do this is simply to have any goods picked up be stolen.....you know, the way ALL other goods in the game are, even if you hop into a spot with no ship in it. An even better way would be to "signature" every single piece of cargo in the game, and any living ship retains its signature, and it lingers on the cargo if that ship is destroyed by something else. This opens the door for all the other cargo floating around out there to be marked as salvage and open up another actual, legitimate profession when a person runs across actual space salvage, which is out there everywhere anyway.

Note that this would not, in any way, prevent a player from dropping cargo to appease a pirate and attempt to buy their life. It would simply remove the mechanical workaround in place to let that pirate be unidentifiable as such due to his lack of bounty, which brings up...bounties.

Why on earth can you pirate in a clipper, mash a sidewinder into a wall, then pirate away in a clipper again? I disagree about cancelling insurance, this is an in game concept created to make the games death penalty the level desired within the game and isn't centered around any particular facet of a reality.

A bounty gained in one ship should really not be clearable by being destroyed in a cheaper ship, and certainly no bounty worth more than the ship(or the ships rebuy, at least) should be clearable in this manner. It creates a system without consequence, and promotes yet another system of working around game mechanics(you don't try to not die, you try to not die in your expensive pirating ship but have every intention of dying in a cheaper one if the heat is more than you can handle). If you're meeting a pirate that suggests that "it's a hard profession", they should probably be in a sidewinder, not in a pimped out anaconda or Fer-De-Lance, which makes about as much sense as the guy riding in the back of a Rolls Royce claiming he makes a meager living(and yes, I know you can earn the money in one profession then use the ship in another, that's quite beside the point).

A pirate with an illegal load of cargo and a price on his head should have to be discreet to enter regulated stations. Part of the skillset, and ship choice, should include the planning aspect related to getting that stuff in to be sold without being caught.

And with that, smuggling should be given a long, hard look. It's silly that a person with illegal slaves or battle weapons has to sell them low on the black market in a system in which they are prohibited. Stuff like this should be worth a fortune in these systems, it's only logical. Stolen "normal" wares may be worth a touch less, and a stolen tonne container of turds should probably be just plain useless, because seriously.....just, yeah. Similarly, in a system that is starving, stolen food might fetch a handsome price but in a system that isn't directly short on food, people probably shouldn't be interested in contraband pop-tarts. A little logic on the black market prices would really have to be set(and should be anyway), since this is yet another reason that a pirate will want to circumvent the mechanic of his stolen goods actually being stolen.

Incidentally, if you're a pirate and into the idea of attempting a peaceful resolution to mugging people(regardless of whether or not you agree with anything else), when you catch wind of someone that prefers to shoot first it's probably worth your time to hand them a few rebuys. Like, enough rebuys that they leave the system. Nobody in their right mind kills the engines and waits to see if the other guy is hostile in an open PvP internet environment because the odds that he's a chatty Kathy rather than a deranged psychopath are pretty small. Those guys are pretty much guaranteeing that there is no real reason for a person to try peaceful first, and anybody that has ever seen open world PvP on the internet knows that.
 
I got interdicted a couple of times. I had a number of occasions with role playing pirates. This is really fine with me, if there is some communication and the usual "drop your cargo and off you go". My worst loss was about 17 tons of rares in that scenario, the cargo is usually less worth than your ship.

On the other hand, I have also encountered psychos, that start shooting immediately with no communication and on top of that with the biggest possible ship against the smallest, or firing a large number of dumbfire missile racks simultaneously for insta-kill™. That is simply poor sportmanship.

Anyway, there is no definitive answer to proper guidelines of behavior as the interdicted player. In PVE I can usually run successfully, in PVP it's the question if your opponent communicates or not.

In Open Play my strategy is typically to drop some cargo (or some mines, or both :D) and make a run for it. I would never self-destruct, but would go for some ramming.

P.S. If I have a new ship and/or I am close to my insurance fee I play only Solo mode.
 
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