Nothing to Do...

[emacinnes]

You can't shoot in SC. I'm not shooting feds. Not my thing. I guess I'm old school.

You interdict in SC and then shoot them once they're brought into local space, so you need to use an internal module for the frame shift drive interdictor. Line up behind the target in SC, close to < 100Ls (or nearer, depends how good your interdictor is), and then rip them out of SC, if you can keep it lined up long enough.

Assassination missions go for system authority vessels and pirate vessels, just pick the one you prefer, it's not exclusively authority. Those are just easier as they're more pricey to offset the absence of bounty claims, which would otherwise need handing in.

 

[Vurosia]

Fun>Balance, to a degree of course. The game was much better when Piraconda's spawned in RES's . Now I have no motivation to go to a RES and trading after a few hours bores me to tears. They definitely need to fix RES or make NAV Beacons worthy of our time again.

 

[Schmack]

Fun>Balance, to a degree of course. The game was much better when Piraconda's spawned in RES's . Now I have no motivation to go to a RES and trading after a few hours bores me to tears. They definitely need to fix RES or make NAV Beacons worthy of our time again.

I never found anything good at Nav beacons, but judging by the YT videos and comments here, they were the hangout for big game in the day.

 

[Moosegun]

Weirdly I am finding a lot more to do since 1.3, just want to go through a few things;

- You say that CZ are broken, in what way? The credit return is pretty solid (not exceptional), the only problem I have with them is they could do with higher ranking ships to help my ranking progression.
- Have you tried focusing on pirate / wanted assassinations these will not give you any criminal record and can give good returns. I havent had any issue with finding targets, assassination I will look for USS until the target appears on screen. The great thing with these missions is that you get the reward + the bounty, single missions can often return 500-600k. With pirate missions the best place to look is SSS, if you can pick up pirate missions with 6+ targets, you can often find groups of 6 in one go, these offer a tricky fight.
- For PP transport missions, something I do is run normal trade at the same time, so I find things to trade between the two locations and run that trade route until the PP goods are ready, then I include them in the route. So I earn credits and dont have to wait 20-30 for the good to refresh

To me it sounds likes you are basically a RES farmer who is struggling now doesnt feel anything else is worth their time. I have no issue with people who liked RES (although I still think this is purely profit driven) but personally I prefer my bounty hunting now that I have to go out into the wilderness and actually look for my targets. If they are going to 'fix' RES and return them to the level of pirates they had before I hope they make them a lot harder, more pirate wings and a lot less police.

 

[Schmack]

You interdict in SC and then shoot them once they're brought into local space, so you need to use an internal module for the frame shift drive interdictor. Line up behind the target in SC, close to < 100Ls (or nearer, depends how good your interdictor is), and then rip them out of SC, if you can keep it lined up long enough.

Assassination missions go for system authority vessels and pirate vessels, just pick the one you prefer, it's not exclusively authority. Those are just easier as they're more pricey to offset the absence of bounty claims, which would otherwise need handing in.

What you're describing is a aspect of the game that still works. It's great that it still works, and it seems like a viable answer to the OP's dilemma (Me of course). However the underlying theme is that there are dead ends at every turn so the motivation to embark on anything is tempered with memories of the latest frustrations of immersion killing bugs and just plain stupidity in the game.

 

[Schmack]

Weirdly I am finding a lot more to do since 1.3, just want to go through a few things;

- You say that CZ are broken, in what way? The credit return is pretty solid (not exceptional), the only problem I have with them is they could do with higher ranking ships to help my ranking progression.
- Have you tried focusing on pirate / wanted assassinations these will not give you any criminal record and can give good returns. I havent had any issue with finding targets, assassination I will look for USS until the target appears on screen. The great thing with these missions is that you get the reward + the bounty, single missions can often return 500-600k. With pirate missions the best place to look is SSS, if you can pick up pirate missions with 6+ targets, you can often find groups of 6 in one go, these offer a tricky fight.
- For PP transport missions, something I do is run normal trade at the same time, so I find things to trade between the two locations and run that trade route until the PP goods are ready, then I include them in the route. So I earn credits and dont have to wait 20-30 for the good to refresh

To me it sounds likes you are basically a RES farmer who is struggling now doesnt feel anything else is worth their time. I have no issue with people who liked RES (although I still think this is purely profit driven) but personally I prefer my bounty hunting now that I have to go out into the wilderness and actually look for my targets. If they are going to 'fix' RES and return them to the level of pirates they had before I hope they make them a lot harder, more pirate wings and a lot less police.

I talked about many different aspects of the game I've tried to embark upon that are broken. How does that indicate I am a res farmer? If you trade, are you a trade farmer? If you explore, are you an exploring farmer?

I didn't just stop after Res sites went the way of the dodo bird. I tried the other things, and one by one they just didn't work. The paths to them were roadblocked by glitches and other mind numbing things. I've mentioned all these in the OP, not just Res sites. Being a BH by trade seems to put you on the most hated list here, but it's a game and we do what we do. Still, I am willing to try other things. I ran some merit stuff, but then it's overdone in my system already. I'm beating a dead horse and making it deader. I looked for ways to assist with things but it eventually comes down to having fun, and courier tasks are not fun for me. I'd rather mine and I've never even outfitted for it yet after having read how pointless it is to even try.

When you find a game that you like, you like it for a reason. When that reason goes away, you hope it comes back. If it doesn't, them's the breaks. It has nothing to do with profit. It has everything to do with gameplay. I don't like being in SC, don't care for the aspect of chasing Tinkerbell around and eventually being in the exact same situation as a Res site or Nav beacon... just taking longer to get to that point. So you chase ships around and somehow that makes a more worthy opponent. I prefer to protect miners from pirates. When that T9 head away from the rocks and he's being pursued by 3 ships, I get involved and let him get back to his work. That's the aspect I like. I don't care about the Cr other than what it costs to play the game which is quite a bit if you want to experience what it has to offer. Why people make Cr chasing a sin I have no idea, unless you're in a Sidey with fixed beams you likely upgraded somehow. It doesn't mean you farm Cr.

 

[zeq]

You don't actually need an interdictor for hunting ships in SC. Just tail them around and they will jump out eventually for something. If it is a pirate you are hunting, chances are they will jump out to interdict some helpless trader, and you can get the added bonus of saving the poor sod. If you really want the bounty hunting experience, try KWS scanning station traffic, and tailing any interesting finds, until you find a nice secluded space to mete out justice. I can't say how well that would work, as I haven't tried it myself, but I think I will soon.

 

[emacinnes]

You don't actually need an interdictor for hunting ships in SC. Just tail them around and they will jump out eventually for something. If it is a pirate you are hunting, chances are they will jump out to interdict some helpless trader, and you can get the added bonus of saving the poor sod. If you really want the bounty hunting experience, try KWS scanning station traffic, and tailing any interesting finds, until you find a nice secluded space to mete out justice. I can't say how well that would work, as I haven't tried it myself, but I think I will soon.

I prefer to be "proactive", gimme the interdictor thank you! Note that you may also want some storage space, as sometimes Pirate targets can drop gold and palladium and so on. So the pirate becomes the pirated, and karma is restored. Sadly no option to return the cargo to the original owner for additional karma, so I selflessly drop this off at the nearest available black market. It will find it's way back

 

[Moosegun]

I talked about many different aspects of the game I've tried to embark upon that are broken. How does that indicate I am a res farmer? If you trade, are you a trade farmer? If you explore, are you an exploring farmer?

I didn't just stop after Res sites went the way of the dodo bird. I tried the other things, and one by one they just didn't work. The paths to them were roadblocked by glitches and other mind numbing things. I've mentioned all these in the OP, not just Res sites. Being a BH by trade seems to put you on the most hated list here, but it's a game and we do what we do. Still, I am willing to try other things. I ran some merit stuff, but then it's overdone in my system already. I'm beating a dead horse and making it deader. I looked for ways to assist with things but it eventually comes down to having fun, and courier tasks are not fun for me. I'd rather mine and I've never even outfitted for it yet after having read how pointless it is to even try.

When you find a game that you like, you like it for a reason. When that reason goes away, you hope it comes back. If it doesn't, them's the breaks. It has nothing to do with profit. It has everything to do with gameplay. I don't like being in SC, don't care for the aspect of chasing Tinkerbell around and eventually being in the exact same situation as a Res site or Nav beacon... just taking longer to get to that point. So you chase ships around and somehow that makes a more worthy opponent. I prefer to protect miners from pirates. When that T9 head away from the rocks and he's being pursued by 3 ships, I get involved and let him get back to his work. That's the aspect I like. I don't care about the Cr other than what it costs to play the game which is quite a bit if you want to experience what it has to offer. Why people make Cr chasing a sin I have no idea, unless you're in a Sidey with fixed beams you likely upgraded somehow. It doesn't mean you farm Cr.

For me there is a big difference between RES farming and other activities such and pirate missions, assassinations and CZ. If you do pirate missions using SSS you often find yourself on your own vrs several sometimes highly powered ships, they can be difficult, get it wrong and you are bugging out. Most of the time it is just you vrs the opponent. CZ is the same, yes there are multiple ships on each side but it is a much more intensive fight, with improved return since 1.3. RES site pre 1.3 were IHMO ridiculously easy for the return, I know, I farmed tons of credits there (and yes I was credit farming when doing so). The enemies show up in small groups, always outnumbered due to the massive amount of police support. I never once had to leave an RES, never once felt even close to being under pressure, it was just shooting fish in a barrel to pick up the easy credits. I am sure that there are other like you who did it to protect the miners but I am sure that if most people are honest with themselves they are just upset because they are missing out on the easy loot.

And the reason why my original post focused on RES was that it is the only negative effect of 1.3 on bounty hunters / PvE combat pilots, since there are now more missions, higher mission payouts, higher returns from CZs. The only nerf is RES so just presumed that was the thing which effected your gameplay.

 

[emacinnes]

I prefer to protect miners from pirates. .

In real world terms this is technically Vigilantism, not bounty farming (called farming because there's no need to hunt anything at a RES, there's no need for stealth or moving around, the targets come to the player), and it's an aspect of the game that's missing, alongside distress calls (see that horse over there? that's dead that is). I remain eternally optimistic that they'll turn up at some point in 1.5 CareerPlay (I'm making this up before anybody gets too excited). The T9 doesn't even say thank you for the rescue, or go all emo and "why did you do that? I wanted the bounty!", or go Gangsta$$$ and try to kill you for making him look weak in front of his crew.

 

[PhazonAran]

The enemies show up in small groups, always outnumbered due to the massive amount of police support. I never once had to leave an RES, never once felt even close to be under pressure, it was just shooting fish in a barrel to pick up the easy credits. I am sure that there are other like you who did it to protect the miners but I am sure that if most people are honest with themselves they are just upset because they are missing out on the easy loot.

Or this was the only way to have fun in a fight somewhere else than a random location in deep space. High intensity RES are supposed to have little to no police, so powerful pirates could come and not being bothered, MB confirmed that the spawns weren't working as intended in his Dev update.

CZ are fun because the NPCs are well equipped (and the new AI is a killer), but it's just a pointless fight in a random location. Put objectives in CZ and I'll spend my life in there.

 

[emacinnes]

Or this was the only way to have fun in a fight somewhere else than a random location in deep space. High intensity RES are supposed to have little to no police, so powerful pirates could come and not being bothered, MB confirmed that the spawns weren't working as intended in his Dev update.

CZ are fun because the NPCs are well equipped (and the new AI is a killer), but it's just a pointless fight in a random location. Put objectives in CZ and I'll spend my life in there.

at least make CZ's break down into multiple smaller skirmishes that have a beginning and end, so there's always some individual fights going on in a general area, but it's not the same fight all the time, the trenches will move over time.

 

[Moosegun]

Or this was the only way to have fun in a fight somewhere else than a random location in deep space. High intensity RES are supposed to have little to no police, so powerful pirates could come and not being bothered, MB confirmed that the spawns weren't working as intended in his Dev update.

CZ are fun because the NPCs are well equipped (and the new AI is a killer), but it's just a pointless fight in a random location. Put objectives in CZ and I'll spend my life in there.

And if high intensity res did have no police and spawned groups of powerful pirates I think that would be great. Still not sure I am buying that fact that everyone who does RES is there for the location, not the easy money. If they fix RES but also made CZ payouts much higher you would soon see empty RES.

 

[emacinnes]

And if high intensity res did have no police and spawned groups of powerful pirates I think that would be great. Still not sure I am buying that fact that everyone who does RES is there for the location, not the easy money. If they fix RES but also made CZ payouts much higher you would soon see empty RES.

The dev diary states this, High res is supposed to be high rate of pirates, with harder skills, and less police. Low is supposed to be high police, poor quality pirates.

 

[Han Brannigan]

There's no decent bounty hunting,

stopped reading here. OP obviously didn't even try.

 

[PhazonAran]

And if high intensity res did have no police and spawned groups of powerful pirates I think that would be great. Still not sure I am buying that fact that everyone who does RES is there for the location, not the easy money. If they fix RES but also made CZ payouts much higher you would soon see empty RES.

And that would actually make sense. Risk vs reward, CZ's NPCs are much more dangerous IMO.

stopped reading here. OP obviously didn't even try.

He's actually right, what we can do is no "real" bounty hunting. If OP meant that there's no money to be made by fighting though, then yes he didn't try.

 

[Ralf Gabriel]

...I prefer to protect miners from pirates. When that T9 head away from the rocks and he's being pursued by 3 ships, I get involved and let him get back to his work. That's the aspect I like...

This. What would be nice, would be that when you are for example flying around RES sites, you hear a distress call form a miner (is this the "All I was doing, was mining!"). You should be able to send some predefined message to the miner and shuttle to help the defenseless miner and try to whack the pirates. After the battle is over, the miner says in local "Thank you commander <name>, that was a close call"

The mining itself, well I tried that yesterday. Equipped my Python with the stuff, refinery, prospect & collector limpets and was ready for huge pile of minerals. I find myself after 3 hrs of mining in "metallic rings" with bugged limpets and 3 asteroids to mine. I got 8 tons of minerals,metals. I thought, ok I'll try a RES site because there are lots of asteroids to mine. Well, yes there is but approx every time you have the minerals floating around, you get scanned by a pirate and because you have some refined metals in your cargo, they shout to you "hahaa mother lode, I'll take that 1t of Osmium from you!" soo, kill the pirate and then your collectors are expired, shoot new ones blabla I should blame myself of course that by choosing a RES site, you additionally choose that there will be pirates. A lot. But I'm a bit puzzled that huge star systems have an "asteroid belt" where you go, and there is like 5 asteroids I'd say that is not an "asteroid belt"

Personally I think that the huge income profit from killing random pirates at RES sites has ruined the economy of the game. Of course there is the aspect of danger involved, but hey with 6-8 local authorities, danger really does not exist. You can still pewpew with sidewinder the ships down with the help from police forces. But if you only think about this from the profit-wise viewpoint, in one hour you make credits as bounty hunter more than one can make with mining in about a week. Not even mentioning the exploring as I see the exploring has nothing to do with credits but is far more "I like to go alone to the stars for a RL weeks" -thing. Not done much trading but it seems to pay quite ok. And if you solo trade, there are only NPC pirates to worry about. Balance is tricky business in this genre of games.

I'm really glad that they introduced much more and more variety missions in the 1.3 patch, I find far more interesting times and really bought an interdictor, before 1.3 the only reason for interdictor was to interdict fellow players. And if one sticks into the "kill pirate x" and "kill n+1 pirates" -missions, no fines or personal bounties will be applied. Plus there are the "smuggle this to there" and "deliver this cargo" -missions still

PP I have no idea, haven't got the time yet to pledge. I understand the mechanics though. Reading comments and posts somehow tell me that it's the Diablo 3 -stylish grind hell.

Maybe to much off-topic, sorry about that.

Safe Journeys Commanders.

 

[Han Brannigan]

He's actually right, what we can do is no "real" bounty hunting.

As of 1.3 you can actually make money with sth I would call real bounty hunting - assasination missions for ppl with a bounty on their heads ...

 

[PhazonAran]

Personally I think that the huge income profit from killing random pirates at RES sites has ruined the economy of the game. Of course there is the aspect of danger involved, but hey with 6-8 local authorities, danger really does not exist. You can still pewpew with sidewinder the ships down with the help from police forces.

That's why high intensity RES were introduced, wings of powerful pirates and no authority. Well, that was the intention.

As of 1.3 you can actually make money with sth I would call real bounty hunting - assasination missions for ppl with a bounty on their heads ...

Some of them don't even have bounties, and the time you spend hunting (rather waiting for your target to appear in your contact list of for an USS to spawn) depends of the amount of virgins you sacrificed to the RNGod.

 

[Moosegun]

That's why high intensity RES were introduced, wings of powerful pirates and no authority. Well, that was the intention.

Yes I am aware of the plan, hopefully we will be seeing 'High RES sites are to hard' threads on the forum when they get it right

Some of them don't even have bounties, and the time you spend hunting (rather waiting for your target to appear in your contact list of for an USS to spawn) depends of the amount of virgins you sacrificed to the RNGod.

The key is if you want bounty targets only take the ones who are wanted - terrorist leaders, pirates, criminals etc. Not pop stars, military leaders. Personally I will take both but I only take non bounty targets if they are in a system which I dont mind getting a bounty in and I have other missions to do there. I tend to find the targets pretty quickly though, just slowly SC to a point whilst checking contacts / locations for USS. Again though I often try to have multiple missions on the go, so will also be going to SSS for pirates, have multiple kill targets etc.