Planetary Scan Jobs - where have you been all my life?

[DullingWine]

I was a lonely data broker, ploughing the shipping lanes between Aditi's 2 Coriolis space stations and the 2 spaceports of Diamond Vision and Dolgov point, trying to curry favour with the Empire. Life was good for a time, I was gaining rank and heavy demand for biowaste was boosting my rank and my wallet....so much so I actually became an Elite trader. Yes, I become Elite at shoveling manure.

But then in a strange case of art imitating life, elections were held and disaster struck...the missions dried up, while i was still only a lowly Viscount.

But I could never be satisfied with merely cruising around Summerland in an Imperial Clipper.

In a moment of despair, a name conjured from the recesses of my fever-struck mind (well, what do you expect from hauling biowaste and data packets all day long?)..Fehu. Where had I heard that name before? I punched it in - incredibly just a short 120LY hop away. So I bid Adieu to Aditi - don't get me wrong: I was grateful as well as stuffed to the gills with Exquisite Focus Crystals and Biotech Conductors but i wanted more. And so, it was hello to Fehu...

My first stop - Thomson-Keen Asylum was bedlam, but no missions. So I stopped at Frigschneck's Resort with no real hope, but instead, salvation:

Board After Board of Planetary Scan Jobs....all for in-system. I stacked them frenzily and honked my discovery scanner. Fehu 6B was my target, less than 2400 LS away. I landed, deployed my SRV and moved with trepidation towards the base. To my surprise, the hosts were mild-mannered, allowing me to take my time scanning the data point. I retreated to the ship without incident. 7 minutes later, back in the Resort, i was 15 million richer.

And so it continued, run after run between Figschneck's Resort, 15-20 minutes round trip. Very soon I switched from my Python to my Vulture. After all no biowaste ferrying here, just pure hard cash.

And so here we are tonight, several hundred millions and several hundred missions later...a Duke!

Long live the Empire! Long Live Fehu! Long Live Planetary Scan Jobs!

 

[Ouberos]

Doing the same for the filthy Feds. I hate myself but needs must.

So boring. Why don't they shoot at me?

Edit: I also have a 50k bounty on me which is admittedly a bit exciting at times.

 

[Susanna]

Doing the same for the filthy Feds. I hate myself but needs must.

So boring. Why don't they shoot at me?

Edit: I also have a 50k bounty on me which is admittedly a bit exciting at times.

Which system are you doing this in for fed rank?

- - - Updated - - -

I was a lonely data broker, ploughing the shipping lanes between Aditi's 2 Coriolis space stations and the 2 spaceports of Diamond Vision and Dolgov point, trying to curry favour with the Empire. Life was good for a time, I was gaining rank and heavy demand for biowaste was boosting my rank and my wallet....so much so I actually became an Elite trader. Yes, I become Elite at shoveling manure.

But then in a strange case of art imitating life, elections were held and disaster struck...the missions dried up, while i was still only a lowly Viscount.

But I could never be satisfied with merely cruising around Summerland in an Imperial Clipper.

In a moment of despair, a name conjured from the recesses of my fever-struck mind (well, what do you expect from hauling biowaste and data packets all day long?)..Fehu. Where had I heard that name before? I punched it in - incredibly just a short 120LY hop away. So I bid Adieu to Aditi - don't get me wrong: I was grateful as well as stuffed to the gills with Exquisite Focus Crystals and Biotech Conductors but i wanted more. And so, it was hello to Fehu...

My first stop - Thomson-Keen Asylum was bedlam, but no missions. So I stopped at Frigschneck's Resort with no real hope, but instead, salvation:

Board After Board of Planetary Scan Jobs....all for in-system. I stacked them frenzily and honked my discovery scanner. Fehu 6B was my target, less than 2400 LS away. I landed, deployed my SRV and moved with trepidation towards the base. To my surprise, the hosts were mild-mannered, allowing me to take my time scanning the data point. I retreated to the ship without incident. 7 minutes later, back in the Resort, i was 15 million richer.

And so it continued, run after run between Figschneck's Resort, 15-20 minutes round trip. Very soon I switched from my Python to my Vulture. After all no biowaste ferrying here, just pure hard cash.

And so here we are tonight, several hundred millions and several hundred missions later...a Duke!

Long live the Empire! Long Live Fehu! Long Live Planetary Scan Jobs!

So having attained the lofty rank of Duke, will we be seeing you flying around in a Cutter in the near future?

 

[Flavourless]

...Long live the Empire! Long Live Fehu! Long Live Planetary Scan Jobs!

And long live the continuing mission stacking exploit. LOL.
I ranked up all the way from Serf to Duke in Aditi. That was easy enough for my taste.

 

[Phazon Xenomorph]

Where are yall getting the Empire rank up missions? I had one from my station that I'm using way outside the bubble, but it took me into the bubble and when I ranked I had enough ranking for another rank... but I can't find any stations to reliably give me rank up missions. I feel like I'm wasting time, I wanted to get that second rankup so I could hopefully proc better paying missions but I'm coming up dry here for promotion missions.

 

[Ouberos]

@Susanna : New Yembo. There was a war there until yesterday. It is currently over and has a few days cool off. I imagine there will be another one along soon after that. Keep your eyes on the system status.

 

[Armankessilon]

Doing the same for the filthy Feds. I hate myself but needs must.

So boring. Why don't they shoot at me?

Edit: I also have a 50k bounty on me which is admittedly a bit exciting at times.

Where do you do it for feds?) Are we talking about planetary scans or conflict zones?

 

[Furinkazan]

The thing i love about these, especially as an Xbox CMDR without Live (which means no Solo/Open relog) is that the more lucrative the mission, the longer i get to do it. Up to 5 days now. Hammering them at the minute cos i can see these getting the nerfhammer when 2.3 drops.

 

[777Driver]

Does this exploit still exist? To sum up how rediculous it is -

Flew to Fehu on a long range transport run about a month ago, noticed the station was offering lots of Scan data jobs (had never even noticed those missions before) Loaded up with around ten of them expecting to fly around to various settlements and see some new sights..

Drop in at the first settlement in my Cutter, I see a cmdr in an IEagle already at the base, next thing I see all of my missions are now showing successful. The Eagle then self destructed, I can only assume to fast track back to main starport and collect his reward :-/

 

[DullingWine]

The thing i love about these, especially as an Xbox CMDR without Live (which means no Solo/Open relog) is that the more lucrative the mission, the longer i get to do it. Up to 5 days now. Hammering them at the minute cos i can see these getting the nerfhammer when 2.3 drops.

Ha! Yes, I noticed that anomaly too. You actually get over 6 days for a 1.5 million scan job.

@Susanna Yes a cutter will soon be joining my fleet. I want to do some real trading! But i think i'll actually keep going at this for a while longer. You need a lot of money to outfit one of those!

Phazon So don't sweat the rank up missions. Firstly, payment of missions is correlated with Faction reputation above all else so get allied. There are three empire factions in the Fehu system, so those are the ones you want to care about. What i didn't mention in my report above is that there's a healthy sprinkling of donation missions too, so take them for accelerated rep gain. When you reach 100% in a particular ranking, you don't need to off and find a rank up mission, just keep going, nothing will be lost. Eventually an Imperial Covert Transportation mission will show up and you can take that to reset your rank.

Ship-wise i did my missions in a Python then a Vulture. A vulture because it was quick and i could tangle with the few pirates who dared to distract me. I then swapped to an Asp when i needed to do my rank up mission (which typically means a quick dropoff 300+ LY away)

Other observations:

1. About one in every 5 missions you get an outpost with no skimmers. You can then scan every data point to gain extra Intel packages etc.

2. One of the engineers requires 50 Classified Scan banks if I recall - doing these missions you will collect those as a beneficial side effect.

3. Keep a watch on your data/material counts they will rise quickly! I kept trimmng my focus crystal/biotech conductors

4. The first scan in the outputs are for free. If you want to scan again (to try and gain some material) then you'll get a small fine and the skimmers will start shooting. They are easily shot down / evaded, but you'll then have to make sure you dock at the Resort without getting scanned.

5. The output missions are ALWAYS at Fehu-6B, so don't waste time looking at the missions messages. Just exit the station, honk your discovery scanner, boost and cruise

6. Scan missions range from <100,000 to >1,500,000. Average payoff per run is about 15 million i would say. If you were a more discerning (i.e. prioritising profit over mission count) then you could probably do 20 million.

7. Missions are normally plentiful. 1 board flip is all it takes. Many times i didn't do any because i was 'doing other stuff' and just went back into the mission board periodically.

 

[Pville_Piper]

The Eagle then self destructed, I can only assume to fast track back to main starport and collect his reward :-/

What's the point of playing the game if you are going to do that?

 

[kdjac]

FYI if its a popular spot like Quince and when you arrive another player has scanned the outpost, if you scan him it completes all your missions.

Happened to me twice yesterday, will upload a video shortly.

 

[777Driver]

What's the point of playing the game if you are going to do that?

Considering he was already exploiting, I doubt he cared. Gotta have dat Cutter & Credits ;-)

 

[Ouberos]

Where do you do it for feds?) Are we talking about planetary scans or conflict zones?

Wartime planetary scan missions. The board at New Yembo offered both massacre missions and those. The massacre missions were crazy money for massive kill counts of around 84 ships in 24 hrs.
I had arrived in a Piracy rigged Python so combat wasn't an option. Also outfitting is very limited. When the war ended suddenly I chatted to CMDRS who still had kills to make but no CZ's to do it in.

I don't normally stack missions or mode switch to refresh boards and was still able to pick up stacks of 8 or 9 missions pulling in 4/5 million. Likely you could do more if you have no issues with such.

As others have said the missions are stupid simple and contain no entertainment value at all. Doing it repeatedly makes me want to vomit. I have been playing for nearly two years and avoided pointless grind but now find myself at a point where I need access to certain ships and also am not as wealthy as I want to be.

It seems my options are either quit or put up with the vomit.

 

[DullingWine]

Considering he was already exploiting, I doubt he cared. Gotta have dat Cutter & Credits ;-)

Yeah, one time i didn't even have to land, I just flew over the base and all my missions updated. At the time i put it down to a glitch, but i guess it could have been some interaction with another CMDR.

Personally I never suicided my way back to the base - i do have certain morals and i want to keep my death count as low as possible. You're only saving about seven minutes anyway.

 

[Strangepork]

I was a lonely data broker, ploughing the shipping lanes between Aditi's 2 Coriolis space stations and the 2 spaceports of Diamond Vision and Dolgov point, trying to curry favour with the Empire. Life was good for a time, I was gaining rank and heavy demand for biowaste was boosting my rank and my wallet....so much so I actually became an Elite trader. Yes, I become Elite at shoveling manure.

But then in a strange case of art imitating life, elections were held and disaster struck...the missions dried up, while i was still only a lowly Viscount.

But I could never be satisfied with merely cruising around Summerland in an Imperial Clipper.

In a moment of despair, a name conjured from the recesses of my fever-struck mind (well, what do you expect from hauling biowaste and data packets all day long?)..Fehu. Where had I heard that name before? I punched it in - incredibly just a short 120LY hop away. So I bid Adieu to Aditi - don't get me wrong: I was grateful as well as stuffed to the gills with Exquisite Focus Crystals and Biotech Conductors but i wanted more. And so, it was hello to Fehu...

My first stop - Thomson-Keen Asylum was bedlam, but no missions. So I stopped at Frigschneck's Resort with no real hope, but instead, salvation:

Board After Board of Planetary Scan Jobs....all for in-system. I stacked them frenzily and honked my discovery scanner. Fehu 6B was my target, less than 2400 LS away. I landed, deployed my SRV and moved with trepidation towards the base. To my surprise, the hosts were mild-mannered, allowing me to take my time scanning the data point. I retreated to the ship without incident. 7 minutes later, back in the Resort, i was 15 million richer.

And so it continued, run after run between Figschneck's Resort, 15-20 minutes round trip. Very soon I switched from my Python to my Vulture. After all no biowaste ferrying here, just pure hard cash.

And so here we are tonight, several hundred millions and several hundred missions later...a Duke!

Long live the Empire! Long Live Fehu! Long Live Planetary Scan Jobs!

Never has such a painfully limited diversity of available missions been heralded with such tribulation!

 

[William H. Bonney]

i did the fehu 6b mission as well, the first time the place was empty and i got loads of data, the 2nd run however, the place was swarming with skimmers, the shooty-rocket-flying things, proper all-out defences, add to that various armed-to-the-teeth ships such as cutters, pythons, several cobra's (some parked right underneath the cutter) and i was destroyed several times! how do you stop the things attacking you?

as soon as i approach the red keep out box, they're all over me! do you take them out? i'm talking 15 - 20 skimmers, 10ish shooty-rocket things, turrets, etc. i did try this approach and noticed if i stayed out the red box they rarely came out or attacked me. the ships however, they don't seem particularly happy with me destroying them and together, they generally make light work of me. i'm not skilled enough to take on multiple big ships at once, the cutter i "handled" but the others overpower me eventually.

Any help greatly appreciated

 

[baudelier]

Currently working on getting the last 75% I need for rear admiral. I'm working in Tun and can grab 2 to 4 planetary scan missions every time I load up on Courier runs.

There is around 6 to 7 different systems these missions point to so if you like doing planetary scan missions and don't want to feel like your exploiting the game, this is a nice way to do it.

 

[Ouberos]

the place was swarming with skimmers, the shooty-rocket-flying things, proper all-out defences, add to that various armed-to-the-teeth ships such as cutters, pythons, several cobra's (some parked right underneath the cutter) and i was destroyed several times! how do you stop the things attacking you

I wish they would! I'm only seeing the fed side of things and New Yembo gives me the same planet every time with no protection zone. The Sentinels are all wanted too so I got a bounty for each kill. I've also seen a Corvette mounting a Gunship which made my Python blush.

I would say that dumb fires are good for killing ground targets in large numbers. I've used a DBx before now for the Apache feel. As for dealing with the air support I don't think there is a method other than Wing mates.

I dream of being able to hack the air defenses but until that happens you are stuck with the option of SRV suicide or trying to outrun them and circle back before they respawn.

- - - Updated - - -

On a related note, I can scan Skimmers with my SRV and get the circle with a line through it but what does this do?

It seems to have no effect regarding their hostility.

 

[DullingWine]

i did the fehu 6b mission as well, the first time the place was empty and i got loads of data, the 2nd run however, the place was swarming with skimmers, the shooty-rocket-flying things, proper all-out defences, add to that various armed-to-the-teeth ships such as cutters, pythons, several cobra's (some parked right underneath the cutter) and i was destroyed several times! how do you stop the things attacking you?

as soon as i approach the red keep out box, they're all over me! do you take them out? i'm talking 15 - 20 skimmers, 10ish shooty-rocket things, turrets, etc. i did try this approach and noticed if i stayed out the red box they rarely came out or attacked me. the ships however, they don't seem particularly happy with me destroying them and together, they generally make light work of me. i'm not skilled enough to take on multiple big ships at once, the cutter i "handled" but the others overpower me eventually.

Any help greatly appreciated

Your first scan is free - as long as you don't take too much time, and you only need one scan.

here's my technique:

1. Land as close as possible to base. Land facing away so your SRV won't even need to turn around. Land also on the side of the outpost with the data pillars

2. Deploy your SRV and race toward one of the pillars. You will get a bunch of warnings, but nobody will fire.

3. Switch into turret mode and select the data point - you may need to move the turret upwards a bit.

4. Scan it

5. When complete, reverse out of there ASAP. Nobody will attack you unless you enter a second time and scan a second point.

The unmanned ones are pretty good - if you have time then make sure to scan all of the data points, there's a half-decent chance of getting some good data types.