Newcomer / Intro Instant death in 3.0

[Dallas Sukerkin]

A kindly offer indeed, 777Driver :bows:. I have a friend who has been an Elite fan since the first time round and he has offered to come babysit me in his Anaconda and see what is happening but I appreciate your extended hand nonetheless.

I can only hope that this is some form of anomaly (such as a glitch in the Rep matrix wherein the attackers treat me as some form of Faction 'enemy') otherwise I am reduced to running data missions and I'll retire from real world work before I ever earn enough to buy the Corvette I've got my eye on .

As to the dumbing down of play ... surely there should be a viable mode for folk like me who don't want/need a massively frustrating 'challenge' in a game? I design control systems for the National Grid for a living ... more than enough stress and complexity in my working life :grins:.

 

[Eccles]

Ive encountered the same thing on a salvage mission, 5 or 6 pirates drop in and instantly attack with overwhelming force. theres a bug thread here - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/410547-Pirate-behavior?p=6462997#post6462997

This isnt a case of wanting the AI dumbed down, there does seem to be something wrong. i wonder if this is a wing mission template that isnt being flagged as one on the mission board, as a wing mission it would make sense.

 

[777Driver]

Hazardous substance? Caustic missiles? This is getting juicy. I definitely want to see some video now!

I'll try to run some in an in modded ship and see if I get the same result.

This is reminding me of the old Gold traps that briefly entered the game when wings launched. Difference being it was designed for high ranked cmdrs in a wing.

 

[aRJay]

A kindly offer indeed, 777Driver :bows:. I have a friend who has been an Elite fan since the first time round and he has offered to come babysit me in his Anaconda and see what is happening but I appreciate your extended hand nonetheless.

I can only hope that this is some form of anomaly (such as a glitch in the Rep matrix wherein the attackers treat me as some form of Faction 'enemy') otherwise I am reduced to running data missions and I'll retire from real world work before I ever earn enough to buy the Corvette I've got my eye on .

As to the dumbing down of play ... surely there should be a viable mode for folk like me who don't want/need a massively frustrating 'challenge' in a game? I design control systems for the National Grid for a living ... more than enough stress and complexity in my working life :grins:.

The nearest to a low frustration mode in this game to my mind is to not bother with missions just trade or find things or shoot stuff as you choose that way NPC encounters are scaled to your rankings not scripted into the mission. Pretty much all I use the mission board is for the Community Goals which don't come with the scripted hassles of missions.

 

[Oldric]

Would be good to see a video of what is happening. These 'striped my shields in seconds' stories normally turn out to be pretty clear cut.

video or bug report now for me. I think the sensible explanations have been explored. We have been shepherding a new player and not seen anything unusual in these missions as yet.

 

[HurstLlama]

The nearest to a low frustration mode in this game to my mind is to not bother with missions just trade or find things or shoot stuff as you choose that way NPC encounters are scaled to your rankings not scripted into the mission. Pretty much all I use the mission board is for the Community Goals which don't come with the scripted hassles of missions.

This is the best advice, I think. The salvage missions seem to be screwed up for now, FD will sort them in due course, they always do sort out the bugs that appear after every upgrade. Meanwhile, perhaps Cmdr Sukerkin might like to try another activity for a while; might even find one that increases his "Next Ship" fund faster. They are not my thing but I don't recall salvage missions being particularly profitable. Can probably make more money just doing some trading or exploring (the water worlds circuit is a big earner, I am told) in the same amount of time, or maybe even just stacking short haul boom delivery missions (if you can stand the tedium).

 

[Para Handy]

This is reminding me of the old Gold traps that briefly entered the game when wings launched. Difference being it was designed for high ranked cmdrs in a wing.

"I can't believe that worked!"


Good thing though was that it worked in reverse, carrying 10t of gold always seemed to produce pirate interdictions. (Then my combat rank crept up and the AI got better and I had to admit I sucked at combat so don't even try any more... )

 

[Gizoux]

This is the best advice, I think. The salvage missions seem to be screwed up for now, FD will sort them in due course, they always do sort out the bugs that appear after every upgrade. Meanwhile, perhaps Cmdr Sukerkin might like to try another activity for a while; might even find one that increases his "Next Ship" fund faster. They are not my thing but I don't recall salvage missions being particularly profitable. Can probably make more money just doing some trading or exploring (the water worlds circuit is a big earner, I am told) in the same amount of time, or maybe even just stacking short haul boom delivery missions (if you can stand the tedium).

The low ranked ones were about 100k. Some of those missions were worth over 1MCr with Allied factions. But I'll agree that for now, just pick something else to do for the time being. Some of my pirate lord assassination missions offer me 500+kCr for a Mostly Harmless target, but I'm Allied with those factions.

 

[Fenrah]

Adding to this as well, my friend is encountering the same problems above. He's flying a Imperial Courier, and has been able to mooch off these missions for quite a while. How they used to work before (according to him):

you go in, encounter a very large (3-5 ship) wing consisting of no less than an Anaconda/Fer-de-Lance, with an escort of 2-4 small ships (Eagles/Cobras/Sidewinders). They are considered wanted, and will scan you upon entering the USS. They will not aggress you unless you have the artwork in your hold (they don't even care about regular cargo). If they find nothing they act like any other pirate scanning an empty hold would; cry and moan about finding a useless sap with no cargo.

Now they seem to work like this:

when you go in, they will eventually warp in and immediately attack you, no questions/scans asked. Judging by the number of posts stated here, it's probably the same wing composition, a Conda/FDL escorted by 3 or more small ships. Even as a combat mission, this is almost impossible to do solo (unless you yourself are flying a conda). This mission is being given to players as mid-high tier exploration missions. Exploration missions don't involve combat with Anacondas.

 

[Mad Parrot]

It's good to know I wasn't just whining....

My current strategy is based on the premise that all salvage missions are potential severe ambush situations.

So as soon as I jump into a system I set a route out to a nearby system in the galaxy map. Often it'll be back to the planet from which the mission was given.

I'll set 4 pips to shieids and 2 to engines.

I'll then go to the salvage area, find the salvage, open the cargo bay doors, deploy the hardpoints for controlling the retrieval drones and start work.

IMMEDIATELY another ship appears on my scanner I hit the pre-programmed "bail-out" button on my HOTAS. This closes the doors, closes the hardpoints, targets the nearby system and engages frameship drive to it. So long as the system isn't obscured by clouds...er... by a planet or star I then just have to survive for four seconds or so... which I can usually do. I don't bother going back for a second attempt as I know that it'll be another ambush.

 

[Reiken Janos]

You’re not alone

You’re not imagining things. I’ve been farming hazrez, CZ’s, and compromised nav beacons for a few weeks now and since 3.0 I’ve neatly lost my Corvette a few times. Previously I could hang out in a high-intensity CZ until I basically got bored but for the past two days I’ve had small pirate wings of 3 small/med ships absolutely wreck me.

Last night an eagle, vulture, and a FAS stripped my vette’s shields and had me down to 40% hull before I was able to take out a single ship (and that’s with my deadly Taipan for backup). It appears to me that my legacy mods were below the new baseline (perhaps that’s how they will be “phased out”?). It also seemed that the NPCs were using engineered weapons or something. I thought that it may have just been a “bad night” but it happened again after a repair, too.

I spent the rest of the night re-engineering my ship. We’ll see how it goes tonight. In either case, at least I’ll die from enemies rather than from boredom.

 

[PegasusRider]

I, too, am finding a serious difficulty disparity in these missions. As described by the OP and others.

No fun at all was had.

At least I now know to just dump them until there is a fix.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

It's good to know I wasn't just whining....

My current strategy is based on the premise that all salvage missions are potential severe ambush situations

As much as I am sure that the uber pirates are unintentional and will be dialed back, THAT's how you should be approaching this game - everything is a potentially deadly situation until you are sure that it's not. Always have an escape plan. This mentality will help you in PvP situations, too.

Good job. Makes the galaxy sound wonderfully "dangerous", doesn't it?

 

[Bartacus]

FYI, not sure if this helps, but it seems that black box salvage missions are the ones I get roasted on. I've been able to do several rare artwork salvages without the ambush, but that's not exactly conclusive. Maybe I just haven't done enough of them yet.

 

[bicarbon8]

I've had several wanted NPC's open fire on me straight away after I've dropped into a USS. Last night I dropped into a Threat 0 Degraded Emissions and as I was lining up to scoop some of the materials I was opened fire upon by a sidewinder (he didn't even show up on my scanner until I was being hit). His message of "I can't believe that worked" showed up in the Comms windows after he'd already started firing on me. I was in my Keelback so I deployed my SLF and finished off collecting the currently targeted material before I took him out and then resumed my collecting.

I actually like this more than how things were prior to 3.0 as it adds more threat of danger to the process of collecting materials (which I found a bit boring previously), but I can understand how some mightn't like it if they weren't in a ship capable of handling the threat or were expecting a Threat 0 USS to actually be a 0 threat.

 

[Rock Hunter]

I've just lost two viper MkIV's trying to retrieve Rare Artworks. Both times I've scanned, checked contacts, had four pips in systems. Once the mission objective has come up I've locked on, rechecked the contacts with nothing coming up so come out of supercruise, deployed hardpoints and checked my contacts again (I've been reading this thread so despite being utterly Harmless wanted to be ready)...the moment the cargo scoop is deployed three swoop in and I'm stripped of shields before my chaff has even deployed (I'm using VA so whether this actually takes slightly longer or not I don't know.)

I did manage to get one targeted but was in a burning ship before that was of even the slightest use.

As I say, I'm not a combat pilot - Harmless - so bug, buff or whatever may be going on I'm out until either it changes or I do. I do need to get off my backside and learn to fight but with all the various shield types, hull types, weapon types and just simple old ship types it is possibly the biggest learning wall I'm up against as a new Cmdr.

The tutorial beckons.....again (is there a sheepish emoji?)

 

[aRJay]

I've just lost two viper MkIV's trying to retrieve Rare Artworks. Both times I've scanned, checked contacts, had four pips in systems. Once the mission objective has come up I've locked on, rechecked the contacts with nothing coming up so come out of supercruise, deployed hardpoints and checked my contacts again (I've been reading this thread so despite being utterly Harmless wanted to be ready)...the moment the cargo scoop is deployed three swoop in and I'm stripped of shields before my chaff has even deployed (I'm using VA so whether this actually takes slightly longer or not I don't know.)

I did manage to get one targeted but was in a burning ship before that was of even the slightest use.

As I say, I'm not a combat pilot - Harmless - so bug, buff or whatever may be going on I'm out until either it changes or I do. I do need to get off my backside and learn to fight but with all the various shield types, hull types, weapon types and just simple old ship types it is possibly the biggest learning wall I'm up against as a new Cmdr.

The tutorial beckons.....again (is there a sheepish emoji?)

Chaff only works against gimballed and turreted weapons so may not be of any benefit.

If they are leaving you alone until the scoop is deployed then if using collectors fire at the target then open the hatch when the collector has returned close the hatch and boost. If scooping then if left alone approach right up to the targeted item then again open the cargo hatch just long enough to scoop.
I would also see if using heat sinks would delay the opposition.
If you have one using a ship with a fighter might help.

As for the emoji Baaa.

 

[Bender R]

Same here, just getting blown up with no chance of ever winning the scenario is just not fun, just frustrating. Turned my machine off and walked away.

 

[Para Handy]

Same here, just getting blown up with no chance of ever winning the scenario is just not fun, just frustrating. Turned my machine off and walked away.

So, what, your version of the game only has this activity? Do other stuff until the bugs are fixed.

 

[Rock Hunter]

Chaff only works against gimballed and turreted weapons so may not be of any benefit.

If they are leaving you alone until the scoop is deployed then if using collectors fire at the target then open the hatch when the collector has returned close the hatch and boost. If scooping then if left alone approach right up to the targeted item then again open the cargo hatch just long enough to scoop.
I would also see if using heat sinks would delay the opposition.
If you have one using a ship with a fighter might help.

As for the emoji Baaa.

Great suggestions aRJay, thanks.

Last minute scooping is probably an obvious tactic but up until now I’ve been crawling towards canisters at the 15-20km/s mark to ensure they don’t bounce off me as so many have before. I also need to get into the habit of outfitting in a mission specific manner.

Fighters, totally unknown to me but I recently bought and stored an Anaconda which I’m slowly upgrading so I’ll be able to use them in that without feeling I’m losing too many of my ‘must have’ modules.