Just tried my first 3.03 skimmer mission

Blacksky

Blacksky
After the debacle I had with unlocking engineers (station lockdowns and mind-bendingly tedious and difficult material scavenging) I too decided to have a go at the old skimmer missions for a change.

I did my first one in Laksak system, only for about 300K CR but it was only 3 skimmers I had to kill at a +base. It went OK, bit slow and I killed them with my SRV and had to clear my wanted status afterwards, bit of a pita.

So I then picked up another mission, this time at a ++base, for 500k CR, good stuff I thought.

Got to the base and unshipped my SRV and headed out to kill 4 skimmers.

I think 'geez, there's a lot of skimmers here and the turrets hit like a brick'. It took me a good 10 mins of backing and forthing, replenishing shields, but I finally downed them.

I head back to pick up my Cobra III, but now I have to travel over 2k before I can recall it, but I finally reach what I think is a safe distance from the base and I finally recall it and proceed to reboard.

I am immediately under attack, even though I am over 2 clicks away from the base. I try desperately to escape, but my thrusters are blasted away. Within 10 seconds of boarding, I'm blown to smithereens.

Now, I'm at an age where patience long since departed from my body. I'm still very new to this game and I do realise they recently 'nerfed' these missions, but seriously, why would a 'modern' game design feature such god-awful NPC power?

I'm rapidly running out of ideas what to try next. Can I sell this game on for a few quid or what?
 
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CMDR ANCALAGON

C
I am just in stunned disbelief of how many have a problem with doing surface assault missions in an SRV, or think that doing so is too difficult.

I used to stay outside the bases and take out the defenses before rushing in, but now I just straight to the center of the base, find cover, and take out skimmers. Usually, base defenses don't have good line of sight to all interior locations, and the higher security bases have structures that provide coverge from overhead threats.

I've done dozens of these at a time and have only lost a couple of SRVs. At the larger bases, it can offer game play of equal pace, higher challenge, and less risk than a CZ.

Amazing how much people will complain about aspects that provide actual game play.
 

Blacksky

Blacksky
CMDR ANCALAGON said:
I am just in stunned disbelief of how many have a problem with doing surface assault missions in an SRV, or think that doing so is too difficult.

I used to stay outside the bases and take out the defenses before rushing in, but now I just straight to the center of the base, find cover, and take out skimmers. Usually, base defenses don't have good line of sight to all interior locations, and the higher security bases have structures that provide coverge from overhead threats.

I've done dozens of these at a time and have only lost a couple of SRVs. At the larger bases, it can offer game play of equal pace, higher challenge, and less risk than a CZ.

Amazing how much people will complain about aspects that provide actual game play.
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Just remember, I'm only Novice combat level so the number of missions available to me are very limited, as are the rewards. I could only pick up TWO missions at the station and one of these involved a 340,000ls flight. Just not worth the effort.

Depends how you define 'close' to a base. I was well over 2k distance, but the defence turrets still were able to hit my ship.
 

Frenotx

Frenotx
Frenotx said:
I don't think you necessarily have to drive far at all. I wanted to scan the data terminals, so I was avoiding the trespass zone with my ship. If you want to just complete the mission (which you'll get a bounty for anyway), just land in the middle of the base, deploy your SRV, then put it back in the ship. You might not have to even touch the throttle.
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Aashenfox said:
I'll definitely give it a try, just to see how disgusted I am. lol. The trespass zone seemed a lot larger than usual though. I'm used to skimmer mission trespass zones to be in the region of 800m. Or was that a feature of this base type?

Since I've got you on the line, how come the patrolling ships weren't attacking you in the video?
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The touch'n'go method in action! Things got a little dicey when I couldn't find where the last few skimmers went, but it show it can be done without ever touching your SRV's throttle:
[video=youtube;4QeTkTG795w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QeTkTG795w[/video]
 

JesusOnEez

JesusOnEez
I've not read all of this thread, so forgive me if it's already come up, but is it feasible to land in the compound, lower your SRV to the ground to trigger the drones, get straight back in your ship and then kill them with dumb fires?

Note: not done any skimmer missions...
 

lecorsobreton

L
Frenotx said:
The touch'n'go method in action! Things got a little dicey when I couldn't find where the last few skimmers went, but it show it can be done without ever touching your SRV's throttle:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QeTkTG795w
Click to expand...

Nice. How many skimmers did you have to take down?

JesusOnEez said:
I've not read all of this thread, so forgive me if it's already come up, but is it feasible to land in the compound, lower your SRV to the ground to trigger the drones, get straight back in your ship and then kill them with dumb fires?

Note: not done any skimmer missions...
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That's exactly what Frenotx did. Pretty cool video too.
 

Frenotx

Frenotx
lecorsobreton said:
Nice. How many skimmers did you have to take down?
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I think that one was actually only 3. Got one with that first salvo, but the rest weren't in any of their usual places. Was just slinging missiles in all the places I'd seen them congregate before until I finally found them at the end there.
 

Frenotx

Frenotx
Evoflash said:
Damn that looks like good fun.
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It was pretty amusing. Still probably shouldn't be the way to kill skimmers, but I'd love for FDev to add some missions where the design intent was ship vs. ground targets. "Waste the base", if you will. Destroy X turrets, perhaps.
 

lecorsobreton

L
Frenotx said:
I think that one was actually only 3. Got one with that first salvo, but the rest weren't in any of their usual places. Was just slinging missiles in all the places I'd seen them congregate before until I finally found them at the end there.
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OK. I couldn't see the skimmers and since it's a video I couldn't tell if I missed them or not. Cool approach. It takes a bit of guts. I think I'll try a similar approach but I'll stay in the srv instead and dismiss the ship. It will probably end badly.
 

Frenotx

Frenotx
lecorsobreton said:
OK. I couldn't see the skimmers and since it's a video I couldn't tell if I missed them or not. Cool approach. It takes a bit of guts. I think I'll try a similar approach but I'll stay in the srv instead and dismiss the ship. It will probably end badly.
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Yeah, those skimmers are hard to see. Thankfully dumbfires have a very large splash radius. ;3

As for your attempt to kill the skimmers actually using the SRV like FDev wants, good luck! Those base defenses get pretty scary. It's fun ducking and weaving while trying to find safe blind spots to recharge your shield in. Just watch out if they call in air support of their own! Nothing quite as terrifying as having rail and PA shots slamming into the ground all around you!
 

Artemis257

Artemis257
I stacked 6 of these missions last night (same board, same target station, no board flipping performed/required (which was awesome, btw).
I dropped in on said target and dropped my SRV 3k out. I got told I was in a trespass zone at 2.5k in my ship (again, awesome).
Rolled up to the base and whacked a ground turret, then deployed into the SRV turret. (same as pre-exploit fix).
skimmer city! waves of 5.

5 waves wasted without so much as moving an inch with plenty of time to synthesize repair/reload in between waves.

Great target practice with just enough challenge to keep it interesting. well done Fdevs!

For all you whiners out there, if you took the 5 minutes to set your turret controls up and actually figured out how to use it/drive your SRV while turreted you *might* find skimmers to be hilarious fun. oh wait, seems the main whiners are the dumbfire missle bunnies who watch Yamik's garbage channel on how to exploit...
 

Aashenfox

Aashenfox
Artemis257 said:
I stacked 6 of these missions last night (same board, same target station, no board flipping performed/required (which was awesome, btw).
I dropped in on said target and dropped my SRV 3k out. I got told I was in a trespass zone at 2.5k in my ship (again, awesome).
Rolled up to the base and whacked a ground turret, then deployed into the SRV turret. (same as pre-exploit fix).
skimmer city! waves of 5.

5 waves wasted without so much as moving an inch with plenty of time to synthesize repair/reload in between waves.

Great target practice with just enough challenge to keep it interesting. well done Fdevs!

For all you whiners out there, if you took the 5 minutes to set your turret controls up and actually figured out how to use it/drive your SRV while turreted you *might* find skimmers to be hilarious fun. oh wait, seems the main whiners are the dumbfire missle bunnies who watch Yamik's garbage channel on how to exploit...
Click to expand...

Started so well, then lost all respect with unnecessary and pointless ad hominem attack on anyone who doesn't share your idea of 'fun'. Shame, cos the technical aspect of your post is spot on. I will certainly try this method, despite apparently being one of the 'whiners' of which you speak who simply finds it more fun doing it from the ship, while taking out patrol craft and base defenses, taking more risk and getting higher bounties than using your method. Oh wait, look at that, there was no need for this poorly considered fix, cos it was still challenging and fun before. As long as you didn't go to a no security base (which were like 1 in 1000). Yeh, this is all absolutely fine and appropriate. ;) Aside, thanks for the idea of the method, there's no venom in my post, just pragmatism. :)
 

VR andysonofbob

VR andysonofbob
d8veh said:
No, no, no. I'm never going to play again. My only joy in the game was the fizz of the dumbfire, that glorious pop of the skimmer and the chink of cash rolling into my bank account. There's nowhere else you could get such satisfaction from the game. There was plenty of challenge in those missions in trying to find the right place and expertise in the way you logged to get the right missions to spawn.

Can we have SRVs that launch dumfires, so that I can carry on playing?
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Actually I can really sympathise with this.

I found pounding the skimmers with dumfires surprisingly cathartic. I will miss it.
 

ilo

ilo
Blacksky said:
Just remember, I'm only Novice combat level so the number of missions available to me are very limited, as are the rewards. I could only pick up TWO missions at the station and one of these involved a 340,000ls flight. Just not worth the effort.

Depends how you define 'close' to a base. I was well over 2k distance, but the defence turrets still were able to hit my ship.
Click to expand...

You ship can also hit the base at that distance. 2.5k minimum, make it 3 for safety. we are talking about large weapons here.
 
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