Why some smugglers are getting ticked off.

[goemon]

There are a few bugs still needing ironing out, like what's been happening to me:

- scan complete before interdiction finished, even with submit

that is clearly a bug (or probably a buggy networking issue). raise a bug report, best with video.

- failed mission due to scan from NON authority. Hell, pirate scan made me lose 15 mil
- failed mission due to just having the mission scanned. I had no cargo, which I was going to pick up at a nearby station. Just having the mission scanned can cause a fail

those are no bugs imho.

- first of all, a cargo scanner always triggers a fine, even if a cmdr use it on another cmdr with illegal goods, if "report crimes" is turned on. you can check it on one of the famous slave smuggling routes "and make some friends".

- missiontext give a reason, why you shouldn't be scanned, mostly something with "intel". i even read one clearly stating that you never know who those agents of the other faction are. you are picking up missions that require not getting scanned all the time. its like spies. a spy wouldn't argue "i was just on my way to pick up the data, when they saw me..." where is the problem?

- NPC running into you - not even looking out for traffic

well, that bug is not only happening with smuggling.

 

[Roobarb]

Aside from some of the strange AI behaviour and blatant cheating, smuggling has the right amount of thrill factor.

I managed to complete a 50mil run in under 3 hours, and it was mental from the very first jump.

Got too close to the star, dropped out, and was instantly surrounded by about a dozen ships... I hit 135% heat trying to escape... Thought I was a goner...

I later realised I was still in open mode, 10 jumps in (I swear I had a player tailing me for a few jumps too) with 84t of slaves and 50% hull.. Man, it was stressful. I chickened out and relogged solo!

Nearly lost it all 3 jumps from the end too, when a rozzer dropped in behind me as I was docking at an outpost, got the "scan" message as I almost touched down... escaped with my contracts (and a very tight sphincter) after a bit of nifty flying through the outpost, and boosted away as fast as I could... I EARNED my horrible, dirty, slaver credits on that run. But man, it was worth it.


I still think the AI cheats, though.

 

[Soothsayer]

Smuggling generally isn't bad if both a pirate and an authority vessel aren't trying to interdict you at the same time. I tend to find that authority vessels spawn directly in front of me if I'm interdicted by a pirate, which often results in a successful scan attempt. It's extremely difficult to get away, since authority vessels pretty much immediately go full throttle just to keep up with you.

 

[goemon]

Smuggling generally isn't bad if both a pirate and an authority vessel aren't trying to interdict you at the same time. I tend to find that authority vessels spawn directly in front of me if I'm interdicted by a pirate, which often results in a successful scan attempt. It's extremely difficult to get away, since authority vessels pretty much immediately go full throttle just to keep up with you.

... take a cobra ...

 

[Kristov]

I smuggle in a Python, used to do it in a Clipper, if you know what you are about, it works just fine. I even use a docking computer while I'm smuggling, and I've not been successfully scanned while smuggling in a very long time.

I did 10 smuggling runs saturday, 5 of them no-scans, all 10 were successfully completed and I made a nice bit of coin for them all. Fly directly out of the mailslot and boost, boost, boost straight out until you are clear of the station and security patrols, do NOT turn to the side/up/down, fly directly away from the station until you can jump. If your jump target is 'behind' you, use FAOff to spin around, get lined up, hit the jump and full throttle/boost, you'll be good.

When coming in, do NOT come in from the side of the station, fly away from it, at least 8km away, and position yourself in front of the slot from that far or further out. Line yourself up for the slot and head in. Request permission at 7.5km, and boost, boost, 5km out got silent(if you really feel the need, I rarely bother) and boost until you are 1km out. I tend to go throttle wide open until I'm about to cross the toaster rack, drop landing gear and throttle to 0, which lets my DC take over and put me gently on my pad, and keeps me from smacking off the rear of the station. Outposts, for my Python, easy, I know where my pad will be, I line it up from 10km out, haul ass in, request permission at 7.5km and let the DC take over at 1km out. So far, no scans have been successful. I don't tend to get interdicted a lot, not sure why, maybe it's because I'm in a Python, but if I do, submit and boost, boost, boost and HW to another system straight away. Don't try to keep running for the station if the system authorities are on your tail, that's just plain stupid, leave the system immediately. Come back after a minute or two, much easier that way, cops are usually not looking for you again.

Or keep on doing what you are doing and not being successful, some people seem to enjoy beating their heads against the wall instead of just looking for the door, whatever floats their boat right?

 

[Apos]

Aside from the spawn of NPCs that will interdict you being clearly scripted instead of left to chance, I agree.

Smuggling is not supposed to be safe, mining is. It's not too late to make a career change.

Sincerely, a miner.

 

[shambles1980]

Smuggling isn't broken. The tools smugglers use are inconsistent and in need of a revamp.

I don't mind your stealing my thread title from my original post, but you could have done us the courtesy of actually reading what we said instead of blindly dismissing several pages of well thought out player opinion.

i participated in it a bit if you check

 

[Chaz]

a) shooting stops security system vessels effectively scannning. it gives you a bounty, which turns into a fine, if you highwake out.

b) it sounds as if you didn't simply left the system and came back later. turn around, come back later. ingame: think like a smuggler. you wouldn't try to sneak into a military ground, while the police is chasing you, would you? not ingame: you get a new spawn.

c) have the right ship if you want to suceed every time. if you take a python or Asp, you will suceed 9 of 10 times. i don't think that you should be able to smuggle "safetly" in bigger ships like Asp or python.

if you fly a dedicated smuggling cobra, you will not be able to stack 8 missions at once, but you can get every mission done. with speed, silent running, heatsink (heat sinks are now working in sc and drop your heat under 20%, so an interdictor can't lock on you before you boost away or hit silent running, if you stay out of auto-resolve distance...)

... so, yes, there are ways.

train smuggling at military outposts, too.

Chaff doesn't work, silent running is unlikely to work. In other words the only thing you can really do right now to give the police the slip during a case is to high wake out and reset the instance and try again and hope that they're not triggered a second time.

It's not good is it? It's the in game equivalent of logging off and back on again. In fact I may as well save myself the extra travelling and do just that as it's essentially achieving the same thing.

There needs to be some viable means of out running and evading police chases. Perhaps going silent and dropping heat sinks in SC before dropping down to normal space to mask your wake trail, or having access to some sort of one shot super cruise booster to let you put some distance between them. Being able to fly round the other side of planets to break target lock and hide.

Edit: And being able to smuggle successfully should not be limited to just owning one ship ie an A rated Cobra Mk3.

 

[Marra Morgan]

There needs to be some viable means of out running and evading police chases. Perhaps going silent and dropping heat sinks in SC before dropping down to normal space to mask your wake trail, or having access to some sort of one shot super cruise booster to let you put some distance between them. Being able to fly round the other side of planets to break target lock and hide.

Deploy hardpoints and shoot them in the face

 

[Theodrid]

Deploy hardpoints and shoot them in the face

I feel for your other half sometimes Marra, please, send him my very best wishes!

 

[EUS]

I ran the Robiga smuggle-game last night for the first time. I used a Python.
I usually use the Python for short-run smuggling from Tamar, making a fair bit of coin.
I came away with a couple of impressions; 1) the game uses very different rules that are either based on how many jumps you make, or the starting station, which tremendously increases all NPC instancing, and 2) don't long distance smuggle in a heavily armed Python, because even though the cargo size is great, there are just too many jumps.
I lost 2 missions due to a successful scan, was so close to high jumping out, missed it by a fraction of a second. Ah well, easy come, easy go.
Tonight I un-mothball the Asp, do the buckyball run, then go back to Robigo and try again. I should half (at least) the amount of jumps required.

My only complaint is when I lost a security ship and hi-waked out, and when I entered the next system, it was there, and interdicted me even before the "fuzziness" of the jump had stopped.

 

[Necronaught]

I lost 40 mill of Missions, due to being scanned, as I was about to land. I was even on silent running. The ai cheats.

 

[fruitbat]

I lost 40 mill of Missions, due to being scanned, as I was about to land. I was even on silent running. The ai cheats.

ah didums.

 

[Necronaught]

ah didums.

You want some noob?

 

[GilliganTX]

There are a few bugs still needing ironing out, like what's been happening to me:

1 scan complete before interdiction finished, even with submit
2 failed mission due to scan from NON authority. Hell, pirate scan made me lose 15 mil
2 failed mission due to just having the mission scanned. I had no cargo, which I was going to pick up at a nearby station. Just having the mission scanned can cause a fail
2 NPC running into you - not even looking out for traffic

1. Sounds like a network issue or bug. That is a legitimate problem. File a report, include video if you can.
2. The mission brief says DO NOT GET SCANNED OR YOU WILL FAIL. Not, Do not get scanned by police. No problem.
3. See 2. There are no stipulations about cargo. You get scanned, you fail, period.
4. That's a a game wide issue and is not exclusive to smuggling. Keep moving and you're less likely to get rammed.

I lost 40 mill of Missions, due to being scanned, as I was about to land. I was even on silent running. The ai cheats.

I completed a 17Million run last night taking fire from a pirate, docking at an outpost. He interdicted me, I submitted and jumped. He did the magic appear at the station trick to I shot at him to keep him from scanning, chaffed my way to the outpost, 4pips to Sys, and docked quickly. I was almost out of shield, but pulled it off. I don't know how any times it's been said, target the ship, and deploy hard points. It will stop the scan.

Completed a total of two runs last night for about 30 Million - good night. Lots of close calls, like the one above. Beat about 75% of my interdiction mini-games. The others I just target the belligerent craft, deploy hard points and keep scooting. A few times a pirate spawned into a security interdiction, and vice versa. Same strategy. Lock, fire a couple wild shots off and keep boosting. One time I had 3 interdictions in a row trying to jump out of a system. I beat the first two, lost the third. No biggie, Boost, just lock, deploy, boost, jump.

Someone started to scan me on my last stop at a coriolis station. I knew I was taking too long, I had a bad feeling and thought I should turn around and jump out and try again (I did a poor job lining up on the drop from SC and was nearly behind the station). But I heard the scan message, and decided I was close enough to boost into the station. Lost a ring on the shield scraping the toaster on my way in, but was able to break LOS and complete the delivery.


A great night of smuggling.

 

[fruitbat]

You want some noob?

If you got scanned, you're the noob. Smuggling is incredibly easy, never been scanned successfully once in the last 200 million odd I've made in 5 runs of 10 missions each.

If you can't follow some very simple do's and don'ts, which are covered extensively on these forums at the moment, who's fault is that?