It pays to fully read the mission description

Decided to drop back into a system I use to call home, it always had some good missions available and I was right, quite a few decent paying massacre missions, all again a neighbouring faction I am already hostile with. First mission went like clockwork, lots of pirates from the naughty faction dropping into the Nav Beacon, so many I didn't have to leave there. Got the required number, cashed in the bounties and returned to the station to collect the handsome reward.

Saw another mission, 15 pirates from the same hostile faction for a reward of a little over 2m CR. Easy peasy I thought, clicked accept and off I went to the applicable systems Nav Beacon. Lots of wanted appearing from that faction but none marked Mission Target. Flew to a RES sites, lots of wanted from the faction but again none marked as a Mission Target. Off to another RES, same thing, off to another, rinse and repeat. Getting lots of bounties but zero mission targets. Same with dropping into a few USSs.

Getting kind of frustrated as you can guess, so as a whim, rechecked the mission on the contract screen. Oh look, I have to kill 15 smugglers, not pirates. And since I didn't pack the necessary modules to intercept smugglers I was kinda stuffed! Abandoned the mission with my ego bruised.

Mental note to myself, ALWAYS FULLY READ THE MISSION prior to accepting.
 
Same with when I took a Covert Ops mission.....only to discover it involved murdering innocent civilians. Yeah, NAH!!!!!
 

Jenner

I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
Lol, yeah. Had things like that happen to me, too!

Related: One of the best new additions to the game recently is the mission board feature where it tells you how far you have to travel from the drop-in point for delivery missions. :) Saves me those aggravating missions where I take a cargo run to some god-forsaken outpost about 15 minutes flight away from the primary.
 
I don´t want to sound arrogant or Mr. Über-Smart, but reading through the mission description and preparing accordingly is actually a very fun part of the game. So far i see many CMDRs just running into the target, guns blazing. This game has a lot more to offer if you really prepare, do not stack missions and really fly them like a mission, not like a number to work off from your list that keeps you from cash... make use of silent running, try different approaches like fitting your ship with cool running or very light systems instead of the most combat efficient. Don´t fly directly to that ground base... go in low, a few kilometers off the grid... sneak through canyons... The game is still fun after almost 3 years and really playing it keeps away the grind for me...
If Elite was a Fantasy game, currently most players would run around with glowing magic swords and full plate armor... where are the archers, the thieves and the adventurers?
 
Since 2.4, on several occasions I've come this >< close to accepting a "generous" data courier mission for the superpower rep before realising the destination is out in Colonia. You do develop a sort of muscle memory with this game, and changes can catch you unawares.
 
Same with when I took a Covert Ops mission.....only to discover it involved murdering innocent civilians. Yeah, NAH!!!!!

I always avoid those missions with a description that says "Go to [insert system here] and we'll provide more details when you arrive"

They always seem to end up requiring me to kill civilians, politicians or deserters and I'm afraid I just flat-out don't shoot at anybody who doesn't shoot at me first.
 
Be careful with passenger missions as well. Some of the criminal passengers aren't well labeled. The last thing you want is to have your ship destroyed upon scan.
 
Be careful with passenger missions as well. Some of the criminal passengers aren't well labeled. The last thing you want is to have your ship destroyed upon scan.

I got caught out with this a long time ago which made me double check every passenger mission. Then when I was ranking up for my Corvette I got one which I swear never mentioned anything about illegal/wanted in some systems and so got a huge surprise when I got scanned leaving a hub and immediately attacked by station security. If I hadn't had engineered shields in my Anaconda I wouldn't have made it out at all. I dumped the p***k in the next system but still got a wanted tag and had to avoid missions to that system for the next week. During that ranking up process I also encountered a bug where I would get a few million credits to transport a General who would wait until I was entering the destination station and declare that he was leaving for something or other and I wouldn't get paid. No idea what that was about as I never got scanned at all, although I think I did tell him to get lost when he wanted to divert to a war zone to check his troops for a measly 20kcr bonus. I got this around 3 or 4 times before I absolutely refused to transport Generals anywhere. Never got a problem with any other sort of passenger, just Generals which is why I reckoned it must be a bug!!.
 
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