Advice - i want to change of gaming style to transporting illegals

[moid101]

Hi I have done some exploring, and combat and done ok at it. But its time for a change, im thinking of doing some transporting of illegal goods (slaves etc) and wish to get some do's and dont's advice from you.

One question i have is how do you avoid being scanned when taking them to their destination?

Regards
MoiD101

 

[Lunchmoney]

You will only getting scanned by the rozzers, so outposts are safe to deliver to.
If you are going to a full station you will need to learn to "fly under the radar". There are several methods for this including using Silent Running to reduce your heat signature and therefore reduce the chance of 50 seeing and scanning you or, my personal favourite way of doing it - line up with the mailslot from 10k away and speed through, requesting docking permission once passed 7.5k. Just make sure your aim is true and no one is in your way.

 

[Ozmodion]

go to youtube and search for AdoredTV. he does a lot of E videos and one line he is doing at the moment is making money illegally, especially transporting illicit goods.

 

[bamber]

small inconspicuous ships have an advantage as do lower heat signatures

If you have an A rated sidewinder and go about your business quietly you will have a lot of success as a Smuggler
.
If you boost around the station in a clipper thats E Rated firing of chaff every 30 seconds the feds will come looking at you
.
Also remember you can be scanned leaving stations as well as arriving.
.

When I am smuggling I tend to use a cobra - decent size of hull, can land at outposts and doesnt draw attention to itself

 

[Bruce Warren]

Most outposts won't have the coppers for the scanning, but you might get scanned it it's a military outpost, so best avoid those.

 

[OCAdam]

Practice makes perfect. In the case of smuggling goods in and out of stations and outposts, you can definitely practice as if you actually had illegal goods while just doing legal runs. When you feel confident in your abilities, then start actually doing your smuggler's runs.

What I suggest is picking up a Diamondback Scout and fitting it with a good power plant (A rating). If you only have cash for the ship, then that's fine as well (the ship itself is already very good at low heat signature). Failing even that, I'd hope you aren't using a Viper or Eagle (mostly due to abysmal use for trade of basically any sort, but it's possible). I've personally smuggled with a Python using the stock E rated power plant, so with enough skill (and maybe some luck), just about every ship is capable of evading scans.

Try to get yourself at least moderately lined up with the letterbox (if a full station) outside of the 7.5km range (you can be risky and brazenly fly next to the station the whole time, but that really is risking a scan that has time to complete). Once you've got that setup, engage silent running and start heading to the opening (don't boost unless you're extremely confident in your ability to do so, and also not get your heat above ~90% before you've even gotten to the letterbox). The DBS shouldn't even really be getting to 50% with a good power plant during this.

Should a ship be in the way, you should have practiced enough legal entrances to know how to get around them quickly. If not: generally at least one side of the box shouldn't have a ship passing through, so go through there, but maybe slow down a bit so you can get a bit better control over your maneuvering through the box. Once you're past the box, you should be safe to disengage silent running. Dock as normal.

If you're heading to an outpost, basically do nothing different than the usual legal landing. Security is non-existent here (except for a few rare outposts, like military ones). If you got scanned here, it was either a player, or the most random of random NPCs. If you're worried, learn to speed dock at outposts. You should probably learn this anyways.

 

[Hollis_Renatus]

Here's a relevant question to those experienced in smuggling; is there a noticeable difference in reward whether you use a black market at an actual station as opposed to an outpost?

 

[OCAdam]

I don't think there's a difference. TBH, the best way to get money in smuggling is to do the BBS missions. At my trade rank (Merchant), I can sometimes manage to get enough missions to a single place to net about 400-700k in a single jump (and just flying a DBS with 20t hold!). Usually it's about 15-50kCr/t for the missions I've picked up (or so my memory tells me, but it's faulty at best).

 

[nosscar]

Hi I have done some exploring, and combat and done ok at it. But its time for a change, im thinking of doing some transporting of illegal goods (slaves etc) and wish to get some do's and dont's advice from you.

One question i have is how do you avoid being scanned when taking them to their destination?

Regards
MoiD101

Well i make good money transporting imp slaves, and it's legal in the right systems.
But if i do need to smuggle them in somewhere, i use a very easy method, and this is in an Anaconda.
I approach as normal, i request docking as normal with the Docking computer.
Now here's what's different, i do not slow down for the DC to take over, this effectively disables it for a while, i the head for the letterbox at full speed, but not boosting, i pop 2-3 heat-sinks on approach, (keep temps below 15) as soon as i am in the letterbox, i throttle to zero, and the DC takes over and lands me on the pad. It is as easy as that. No silent running needed, so no recharging shields.

you can see the idea in this video, (at around 18mins) although i was not smuggling, i was wanted and damaged, but same principle was used to avoid scans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IwM4PmIqMjc

 

[askavir]

Cobra is great for smuggling, fast ship, decent cargo space, low heat signature.

Also tried smuggling in an Asp explorer because os the ~100 cargo, but was scanned frequently.

May want to buy heat sinks, to use silent running without frying your shipo. Don't forget however that when you engage silent running your shiled drops, so be careful.

Oh, and when silent running, don't boost. THe heat will rise very quickly and you will get noticed by the cops.

On outpots you won't get scanned, the only exception are military outposts which are very rare.

 

[Bariel]

Having done a lot of this recently, I would suggest using a cobra as it is so fast that you can get to the mail slot before any scans complete, and on the way out you are out of station masslock so quickly that again you have almost no chance of being scanned, and even less of the scan completing before you jump away.

I've also done this in a DBX which is almost as good, but it is not as fast, so the risk is higher.

 

[Broon]

I guess I do it the simple way.....no boost, no heat sinks, no chaff or silent running......I just do my best to drop out of SC facing the letterbox and open the throttle wide (A class Cobra, 2 pips all around) and get docking permission asap. Hold wide open until I am almost in the doorway and then drop throttle to blue and scoot inside. I only get scanned maybe 1 in 8-10 runs using this method and 95% of the time that I DO get scanned it's too late for them to get a positive lock/scan on me this way. Once in a while I get fully scanned but that is the price I have to pay for the play.

Also once in a while I overshoot the pad right inside (16 and 31 come to mind iirc). Damn I hate when that happens!

On exit I give 4 pips to engines so my boost recovers quickly and out I go....boost...boost...boost....until the FSD takes me away.

And yes, Military outposts will scan you so get docked and get inside asap.

One bonus I have found recently is that if an NPC decides he wants your cargo while you are flying in for docking, just ignore him. He will invariably shoot at you in the NFZ and then the station and the coppers will open up on him and ignore you. At that point just casually fly in (Just fly casual Chewie). LOL

 

[GJ51]

Here's a relevant question to those experienced in smuggling; is there a noticeable difference in reward whether you use a black market at an actual station as opposed to an outpost?

Hi I have done some exploring, and combat and done ok at it. But its time for a change, im thinking of doing some transporting of illegal goods (slaves etc) and wish to get some do's and dont's advice from you.

One question i have is how do you avoid being scanned when taking them to their destination?

Regards
MoiD101

Just transport them from Mexico to the US. There's currently no penalty...

 

[CMDR Endincite]

I've found that simply using the right ship (usually a combat vessel) and getting through the mailslot as quickly as possible works 99% of the time. Once you pass the mailslot they can't compete the scan. I smuggled in an FdL for a while, and they almost never scanned me unless I missed and had to circle around.

Edit: I know an FdL is expensive, but its tough to find a combat vessel with a decent cargo load for smuggling. I think the FdL will carry 50 with a reduced shield gen. I'm sure the Scout is effective, but with such a tiny load I wouldn't bother with it for this.

 

[moid101]

Thanks all i have made a couple of mill merely transporting slaves around, its quite lucrative

 

[Swifty]

Smuggling is frankly far too easy, you can do it in pretty much anything and as long as you take a fast direct line to the mailbox you'll be fine. I'm currently smuggling in a clipper, which according to the Devs has a high profile that makes the cops prioritise scanning it. However I never get scanned even when I forgot to request docking and had to reverse out, taking fines, wait, request and redock. Security needs a real buff imo.