New to Pirating and Limpets - Clear fail

[Magnusvermagnussen]

So I've not really engaged in any form of pirating, but I figured that I'd give the Low Temperature Diamonds in Agricultural Boom systems pirating a try.

So, I fits out my Cutter with more collector limpet controllers than you can shake a stick at and a hatchbreaker limpet controller, and throw 100 or so limpets into my hold and goes off a-huntin.

After about 45 minutes across 2 Agricultural boom state systems (not exaggerating for effect here - it took me that long for the RNG gods to produce one for me), I finally found and successfullly interdicted a T7 loaded with low temperature diamonds.

So, I follow him to an Anarchy system, tag him with a few Multicannon shots, and then start launching my limpets as fast as my fingers could pull the trigger. After a minute or so, I realized I needed to open my cargo hatch (duh ...), and do so, holding position and waiting for the limpets to do their thing. The T7 spewed out Low Temperature diamonds like a ... well like me in the head this am after too much Super Bowl chili last night frankly ... but all of my collector limpets were destroyed and I was left with a grand total of 1 ton of Low Temperature Diamonds. That is to say, about 50,000Cr for an hour of frustration invested.

Could a T7 with a couple of Point Defence utility points really kill off all my collector limpets? I must've put out at least 70 or 80 out of the 100 or so limpets I was carrying via my 4 collector limpet controllers.

If a T7 could do this, what hope do I have against a T9?

Is there something to the strategy behind this I'm missing? What should I try doing next time to improve my collection odds?

 

[Clifra Jones]

Limpets have a limited lifetime. If your hatch was closed for most of their lifetime then they would not have enough time to get back.

But, at that time you could have scooped them up manually.

 

[rrobes]

I believe OP was alluding to the T-7 killing off his limpets by the dozens, not to the limpet life span.

One tactic is to destroy the power plant or the point defense systems, however, a T-7 is fragile and could detonate before you can take them out.

Pirating is hard work.

 

[Clifra Jones]

I believe OP was alluding to the T-7 killing off his limpets by the dozens, not to the limpet life span.

One tactic is to destroy the power plant or the point defense systems, however, a T-7 is fragile and could detonate before you can take them out.

Pirating is hard work.

Hmm, I've been attacked by hatch breaker limpets and my PD did not seem to fire on them. But you could be right.

Yes, fragile ship.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Yeah, point defense kills limpets. It's easiest just to choose targets that don't have PD equipped.

 

[Enrogue]

Also if you move and fight while trying to collect it's fairly easy for them little buddies and/or the loot to get destroyed.

Pack missiles, first target after shields go down usually thrusters, then power plant if necessary for them point defenses (if you spam your limpets in an appropriate rhythm you should still be able to empty a T-7 more or less though, even with them up). Sometimes it's tricky pirating and accidents do happen plying that trade more than with many others, but working along these common lines I managed what I dare say many a successful foray.

Be polite and communicate with your "customers" if pirating other commanders. Works wonders and might even make new friends. Well, acquaintances at least. And can make for some memorable and at times hilarious encounters.

It really isn't all that hard but there are some sort of new mechanisms in play that you're going to have to familiarize yourself with in the beginning.

P.S: Oh, and avoid killing other commanders to the very end. Only if they insist upon it. Otherwise you'll get seriously hampered pirating due to the bounty system.

 

[FurtivePygmy]

Primarily pirate player here,

Not totally sure what happened to you here, but definitely point defense turrets can easily destroy limpets. Also keep in mind that having a particular object selected (like a floating diamond) when launching your collectors will cause them to only collect that item and then self-destruct (so make sure *nothing* is targeted when you launch collectors). Not sure about you, but I make this mistake too frequently by accidentally having something selected...lol

As a general suggestion though (and the way I usually deal with things), equip some guided missiles on your ship and then target drives with your missiles as soon as their shields go down. Missiles are super op against drives and any external modules (including PDs) but not too bad against squishy hulls, and usually only take a couple or few hits to destroy. In my experience PDs have a hard time keeping up with 2-4 missiles fired at once, and often just by targeting and blowing out their drives, the splash damage from the missiles will also kill any PDs on the rear part of the ship (which is often where they are). Two birds with one missile

Then once they're disabled and don't have any PDs left you can hatchbreak for days and collect your spoils without losing any limpets.

BUT, as has been said, piracy is tough and doesn't usually have nearly the $ return rate of other activities. Personally, I pirate for fun, and trade or do missions for money as needed. The galaxy needs more pirates though IMO, so keep up the good work!

P.S: Oh, and avoid killing other commanders to the very end. Only if they insist upon it. Otherwise you'll get seriously hampered pirating due to the bounty system.

Also this, try to stay unwanted for as long as you can to avoid dealing with pesky security ships/bounty hunters. Most players respond to politeness in kind. But if they do go out of their way to call you a no good son of a yellow-bellied platypus buggerer, then I say don't be afraid to space 'em just for karmic resolution

 

[Deleted member 115407]

P.S. Though you didn't hear it from me - for PvP, even for the CMDRs who do have point defense, many of them often have it in the wrong place

Ssh...

 

[FurtivePygmy]

P.S. Though you didn't hear it from me - for PvP, even for the CMDRs who do have point defense, many of them often have it in the wrong place

Ssh...

Agreed [Whistles nonchalantly] :x

 

[SharkBiscuit]

all of my collector limpets were destroyed and I was left with a grand total of 1 ton of Low Temperature Diamonds.

Could a T7 with a couple of Point Defence utility points really kill off all my collector limpets? I must've put out at least 70 or 80 out of the 100 or so limpets I was carrying via my 4 collector limpet controllers.

Hmmm, this is an interesting one.

Are you certain it was the point defense killing the limpets? I guess it's possible, but I've only ever seen point defense shoot down incoming Hatchbreakers, never collectors. Also, if the point defense was doing such a good job, hatchbreakers would have struggled to loosen the loot in the first place.

From your description, it doesn't sound like you immobilized the T7? (taking it's power plant to 0%)
This would mean the loot would be spread far and wide. Collectors hover under your ship until close enough to the loot (a bit over 1km I believe). Did you actually see them running around picking up?

The most likely issues I can think of from you description are:

• firing too many limpets at once. Your limpet controller(s) can only allow a certain number of active limpets at one time. Depending on the module size and class. For instance, my one only allows a maximum 3 at any one time. If I launch 3, then launch a fourth, the oldest one will self destruct. So if i were to spam limpets would ultimately leave me with just 3 alive ones.
• targeted limpets vs roaming ones. A common mistake is to have a piece of loot targeted when you launch your collector(s). Limpets have 2 modes. When you have loot targeted and launch a limpet, it will pick up ONLY that one piece of loot - return to the ship - then SELF DESTRUCT. Single use only.
  When you have NOTHING targeted and launch a limpet, it will roam around picking up whatever comes in range, until it eventually expires. (limited lifetime)
• the loot itself has a limited lifetime and expires too. Perhaps you figured out the limpets/opened cargo hatch a little late and they were all expiring?
• are you sure you were stopped? (or at most 5 m/s). If the loot was scattered far and wide, then I can imagine you'd have to move around a bit to come within collector range. if moving too fast or erratically (> 5 m/s) they tend to take too much damage entering the scoop and the loot explode. Also, once they are off fetching some loot, you have to make sure you don't move out of their range, or the collectors will fail.

Hope this helps. A youtuber WiggyB has some great NPC Piracy videos. [VIDEO=youtube;W2kVDfy35SE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W2kVDfy35SE[/VIDEO]

 

[CMDR KRITIKOSK8]

Greetings fellow pirates. I just got my shiny new clipper , and want to test it on piracy. But c'mon black markets need A HUGE adjustment. The difficulty to make $$$ against NPC bring me so down. Cause I want to some day get a cutter and hope to have the money to. But I know I will never have it piracing.

 

[SharkBiscuit]

Greetings fellow pirates. I just got my shiny new clipper , and want to test it on piracy. But c'mon black markets need A HUGE adjustment. The difficulty to make $$$ against NPC bring me so down. Cause I want to some day get a cutter and hope to have the money to. But I know I will never have it piracing.

On a good run (python, 112 cargo) i make ~6 million in an hour. That's plenty!
But yes, it does depend on the Black Market rate at the time. Low temp diamonds fluctuate. 40-50k each usually.

 

[Ouberos]

*shakes head*
Cutter pilots. All the gear and no idea.

My guess is point defence and moving too fast. Alos, Cmdr Furtivepygmy, you might want to check just how much damage missiles do to drives these days. Im under the impression drives now count as an internal module so a penetrating weapon like a cannon is probably best.

Missiles will definitely ruin a point defence and anything on the outside of the ship like hardpoints though. If you have powered the ship down correctly however you wont have that problem.

 

[FurtivePygmy]

*shakes head*
Cutter pilots. All the gear and no idea.

My guess is point defence and moving too fast. Alos, Cmdr Furtivepygmy, you might want to check just how much damage missiles do to drives these days. Im under the impression drives now count as an internal module so a penetrating weapon like a cannon is probably best.

Missiles will definitely ruin a point defence and anything on the outside of the ship like hardpoints though. If you have powered the ship down correctly however you wont have that problem.

Well, I was just out at the CG last night with my usual setup and didn't seem to have any problems blowing out drives. You might be right about how engines are classified, but in my experience it is still really easy to take them down with a few missiles (and mine aren't even engineered).

EDIT: That said, cannons do also work pretty well as long as you can hit accurately with them. I find with spinning and dodging targets, missiles are just a bit easier.

 

[Ian Skippy]

PDT are a pain against limpets. On the bright side, they are very fragile so you can generally completely strip them with one or two missiles. They'll kill utilities/hardpoints, but dont do too much damage against a T7/T9 to fear killing them by accident.

 

[lemon cup]

I haven’t seen anyone mention ECMs yet. When an ECM is activated and fully charged, it will destroy any limpets that come in range. So maybe how it played out is, you launched the hatch-breaker, he didn’t have time to react until the limpet was latched on, but once privy he charged the ECM and got lucky enough to fry your whole swarm?

 

[Ktonos]

Regarding not finding many merchant ships hauling diamonds you must check each potential target while in supercruise. If they have mining lasers and mining equipment in general, they will most likely carry diamonds. If not, check next target.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

I haven’t seen anyone mention ECMs yet. When an ECM is activated and fully charged, it will destroy any limpets that come in range.

Really?

Hmmm... learn something new every day.

 

[CMDR KRITIKOSK8]

On a good run (python, 112 cargo) i make ~6 million in an hour. That's plenty!
But yes, it does depend on the Black Market rate at the time. Low temp diamonds fluctuate. 40-50k each usually.

you where right!!! now o learned how to. check that( BTW, go for the clipper... dont think, just go)

 

[Clicker]

Just started trying this out myself.

Fully A-Rated and engineered Cobra-III ... https://eddp.co/u/TUtKc8wR

So it only has 32T cargo space, but boy is it fun.

I can keep up with any T6, T7 or T9 flying above and perpendicular using Up-Thrust, whilst sniping its Power Plant.

A lot of fun.

Cheers
Clicker