Elite Dangerous Horizons 3.0 Stealth piracy in high sec systems [PvE]

[Julio Montega]

Ahoy lads,
some of you think that the powerplant at 0% on NPCs should shut them down,
and that the current situation is existant due to a NPC behaviour bug.
I say it is a blessing, improves NPC threat and lessens the impression of
shooting fish in a barrel.

Piracy surely got more time intensive, but whoever rated piracy as an "easy" task clearly never pirated himself,
except for being in an impenetrable shield tank.
Here is proof, that piracy enables to use more than just hitpoint inflation tactics to be possible.

Enjoy (several scenes accelerated to skip waiting time):
[video=youtube;n5roNWhi21k]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5roNWhi21k[/video]

 

[Decaf]

Ahoy lads,
some of you think that the powerplant at 0% on NPCs should shut them down,
and that the current situation is existant due to a NPC behaviour bug.
I say it is a blessing, improves NPC threat and lessens the impression of
shooting fish in a barrel.

Piracy surely got more time intensive, but whoever rated piracy as an "easy" task clearly never pirated himself,
except for being in an impenetrable shield tank.
Here is proof, that piracy enables to use more than just hitpoint inflation tactics to be possible.

Enjoy (several scenes accelerated to skip waiting time):

Question: what does using a ship with comparable mass to the target accomplish

 

[Julio Montega]

Question: what does using a ship with comparable mass to the target accomplish

When you have a mass comparable to the target, you will be less pushed when it "crashes" into you
and have an easier time to slow it down.
When stopping a T9 with a Chieftain it was pretty clear to me, that the T9 required me to actively thrust
even in FA:On to better counter it's momentum and mass.
When stopping a T7 with the alliance Chieftain, i didn't need to do that, as we both had a comparable empty hullmass.

 

[Julio Montega]

I sincerely hope to see some more demanding piracy missions,
the latest galnet post on the rare art theft is something to hope for.

The state of the game piracy wise currently is very weird.
The following options are currently used:

1. Have a shield tank and just suck the target dry
ignoring the damage the police and the npcs deliver,
using flight patterns of npcs to your advantage.
-> boring hitpoint inflation

2. Use speed and stealth in small ships stealing low amounts of cargo and
then run for it. -> immersive and cool, sadly missions hardly ask for small amounts of cargo and require larger ships

3. Do the stealth as shown above and think a bit, using sensor ranges and silent running to your advantage.
-> cool, but takes time and drifting targets can be pretty hard to stop

4. Stalk the target into anarchy and bleed it dry.
-> Shield tank required, due to pp at 0% no longer shutting down targets

So currently it is either speed and stealth, or shield tanking.
I welcome a better presentation of the lifestyle of crime,
involving more mechanics that are intertwined, having specialized tools
and allowing to communicate with NPCs and Players alike sending demands,
the target can follow (easing/anulling the fine) or fleeing, where current combat ties in again.

We need criminal reputation direly, adding piracy related stuff is a nice refresher (megaships/couriers),
but it does not address the underlying problem of basic not connected game mechanics.

 

[Cmdr Kurnek]

Fantastic video and workaround. If the credit rewards were even remotely balanced to this style of gameplay we would be on to a great thing.

As for the powerplant not stopping NPCs thing, if it is intended rather than a bug, giving us some kind of 'tugboat' limpets that could bring targets to a halt if their thrusters aren't working would be a great complement to this sort of gameplay, and should bring the time required down significantly.

Maybe consolidate all limpet controller types into one module as more and more are being added, but otherwise this looks like engaging gameplay. By accident essentially, as I really don't see FD doing this on purpose.

Seriously though, a few tweaks and we have engaging piracy gameplay. Maybe make high sec spawn the best cargo? so we either have to chase it to low sec/anarchy, or do what you did here if that isn't an option...

 

[Shiro Akai]

Ahoy lads,
some of you think that the powerplant at 0% on NPCs should shut them down,
and that the current situation is existant due to a NPC behaviour bug.

Um, quick question then: what happens to YOUR power plant when it reaches 0% under NPC fire?

I would like to try some pirating but due to inconsistent behavior I'm staying away from it for a while. Plus I don't know how to treat pirating under new C&P system. What pirate goes to IF to pay off fines and bounties after a raid?

 

[Julio Montega]

Um, quick question then: what happens to YOUR power plant when it reaches 0% under NPC fire?

I would like to try some pirating but due to inconsistent behavior I'm staying away from it for a while. Plus I don't know how to treat pirating under new C&P system. What pirate goes to IF to pay off fines and bounties after a raid?

The powerplant when malfunctioning or shot out, produces less power, thus power priorities are needed for that case.
NPCs do not play by these rules, they still have all their weapons and modules operational, even if the pp is down.
If you hit it after dropping the pp to 0% there is a chance of destroying the ship.

Before 3.0 0% pp made the NPCs shutdown, due to power failure and messed up priorities
(fly anything with more power needed on deploying hardpoints, all modules on prio 1 and you see what i mean).
They however used reboot and repair, depending on rating of the npc and restored the pp to 1% after some time.
Even NPCs below that rating used a bug and without repair and reboot activated their weapons and shot you.

Fantastic video and workaround. If the credit rewards were even remotely balanced to this style of gameplay we would be on to a great thing.

As for the powerplant not stopping NPCs thing, if it is intended rather than a bug, giving us some kind of 'tugboat' limpets that could bring targets to a halt if their thrusters aren't working would be a great complement to this sort of gameplay, and should bring the time required down significantly.

Maybe consolidate all limpet controller types into one module as more and more are being added, but otherwise this looks like engaging gameplay. By accident essentially, as I really don't see FD doing this on purpose.

Seriously though, a few tweaks and we have engaging piracy gameplay. Maybe make high sec spawn the best cargo? so we either have to chase it to low sec/anarchy, or do what you did here if that isn't an option...

Even with the time increase LTD piracy still will earn significant funds.
However i'd love to see a statistic on how many tons of stolen diamonds have been sold.
It is wrong to have piracy only reflect bulk theft of cargo, i enjoy the role of stealing special items
way more than just generally stopping any tradeship and hope for luck, or actively restrict my
hunt to LTDs.

We need missions to cater towards that aspect more, as i wrote in the Feedback Missions Thread.

 

[Cmdr Kurnek]

Even with the time increase LTD piracy still will earn significant funds.
However i'd love to see a statistic on how many tons of stolen diamonds have been sold.
It is wrong to have piracy only reflect bulk theft of cargo, i enjoy the role of stealing special items
way more than just generally stopping any tradeship and hope for luck, or actively restrict my
hunt to LTDs.

We need missions to cater towards that aspect more, as i wrote in the Feedback Missions Thread.

I honestly think that perhaps LTDs and other high price commodities should be restricted to high or at least Med sec systems, while the loot in lower sec systems is made up more reliably of things that might be worth stealing (ie: not biowaste or cheap stuff), but not quite as great a price as the LTDs etc. Make piracy in high sec systems a challenging but rewarding experience.

But I'll wait and see what they have planned after Q4, I have much more hope than I used to after the mining and exploration reveals. Tempered hope maybe, but hope.