I do NPC piracy for playing with shields and drives.I also tried the non-violent version once because I was annoyed a bit too much by the point defence shooting down all my missiles. It is a bit faster indeed but I still prefer taking out their drives because I find it just mor fun.
It's the same with the planetary scan missions and data retreival: You could do them much faster by scanning from your ship but I think it is more fun with SRV (unless the base is high security)
For missions I definitely prefer non-violent style due to mission failure if I pull the trigger one time too many or for a second too long.
Hi Northpin
That is very interesting, never though of that. I suppose that is if you go for the non-violent extraction with hatch breaker limpets only. I thought that is also considered as assault, the same as shooting at an “innocent” ship. Maybe with missions the police response is sort of limited, like assassination missions. Never saw the system police show up for those either. Haven‘t done a lot of those either to date. I usually do the shooting and the target don‘t get a chance to shoot back, not much if any, before it is over.
Maybe you were just fast enough and/or lucky because in low security systems the police response can take about 5 minutes and in anarchy systems noone will even show up. If the crime response is inhibited by something it will show you right after you exit supercruise like in haz res.
I had a lot of missions the other day where on every 2-3 attempts the police was automatically spawning with the instance - THAT was annoying. I want to liberate my cargo in peace, please!
I had a lot of missions the other day where on every 2-3 attempts the police was automatically spawning with the instance - THAT was annoying. I want to liberate my cargo in peace, please!
Hello. I often pirate NPCs because it's fun and sometimes you'll get lucky and run across a T9 full of LTDs but that's beside the point. It's essentially the same game loop except your doing it for "good" reasons. Anyway I have actually seen the targets have escorts. I've even gotten a warning message in my inbox saying the target has an escort so it is good to actually be able to defend yourself. You're built is good. I like it and it will do the task. I just want to show you two of my builds. They have power play weapons but you can replace the cytoscramblers with burst lasers and the packhounds with standard missiles or class 1 rail guns with super penetration. If you use rails you may want to pack some repair limpets in case the targets health get too low. Also use a class one cannon with force shell to slow down the target. Trust me it's the best way to do that.
Anyway this build is a challenger I use when I'm in a wing. It can fight NPCs well and has a decent amount of cargo but you'll need help with someone with a bigger hold to drain off anything bigger than a T7. For your purposes that shouldn't be an issue. https://s.orbis.zone/elg4
This is an experimental build I use for solo piracy. It sacrifices shield strength but has 192 cargo capacity. The previous iteration had a class 6 shield with the same engineering and I am experimenting with weather it is enough to leave it as is or change back. 95% of the time I am fighting cargo ships and the occasional DBX and Cobra 3s so it's not been an issue so far.
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
s.orbis.zone
Edit: corrected a slight mistake in my build.
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O7 SenseiHello. I often pirate NPCs because it's fun and sometimes you'll get lucky and run across a T9 full of LTDs but that's beside the point. It's essentially the same game loop except your doing it for "good" reasons. Anyway I have actually seen the targets have escorts. I've even gotten a warning message in my inbox saying the target has an escort so it is good to actually be able to defend yourself. You're built is good. I like it and it will do the task. I just want to show you two of my builds. They have power play weapons but you can replace the cytoscramblers with burst lasers and the packhounds with standard missiles or class 1 rail guns with super penetration. If you use rails you may want to pack some repair limpets in case the targets health get too low. Also use a class one cannon with force shell to slow down the target. Trust me it's the best way to do that.
Anyway this build is a challenger I use when I'm in a wing. It can fight NPCs well and has a decent amount of cargo but you'll need help with someone with a bigger hold to drain off anything bigger than a T7. For your purposes that shouldn't be an issue. https://s.orbis.zone/elg4
This is an experimental build I use for solo piracy. It sacrifices shield strength but has 192 cargo capacity. The previous iteration had a class 6 shield with the same engineering and I am experimenting with weather it is enough to leave it as is or change back. 95% of the time I am fighting cargo ships and the occasional DBX and Cobra 3s so it's not been an issue so far.
Coriolis EDCD Edition
A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous
I like the concept of the Pirate Clipper, not only the name but your build. Will do some experimenting as a privateer ”good prirate”.
Thank you.
Firstly, no need to drop shields. Limpets go through shields.
Secondly, destroying engines is more trouble than it's worth. If you're trying to pirate, say, 100t of LTDs, this might matter more, but for no more than 8t of cargo, it's not worth it.
Thirdly; it's really, really important to note that the AI reacts very differently if you shoot them, compared to just using limpets without firing; the only exception here is wings.
If you just use limpets, the target does some basic manouvers, but not many, and the cargo won't spray far. If you fire on the target, they start combat manouvering and the cargo will be spread out when it breaks out. As mentioned, the only exception is wings... they always start combat manouvering regardless.
@Northpin 's actually covered most of the points off already though. I might repeat some, but there is hopefully some others in here.
- Turn off Report Crimes, nothing is worse than having the cops show up in the middle, worse if the cargo is illegal and the cops start blowing it up.
- Always use targeted mode for collector limpets. Enemy PDs will attempt to shoot down collector limpets as well as hatchbreakers... the additional speed of a targeted collector outruns PD fire easily enough. Also, you just don't want to waste time on junk cargo
- Use a hatchbreakers with multiple limpets... 3A Hatchbreaker is sufficient with 3 limpets at once... 3B gives you 4, but that feels like too much. 5A at max 9 is way too many. This allows you to overwhelm PDs if you're struggling against combat manouvers.
- If the target has PD's, manouver to the underside where the cargo hatch is. Two reasons for this: Firstly, targets never seem to have PD on their underside (T9 is the only exception I've seen here)... secondly, hatchbreakers attach to the target in three phases; the approach, the alignment, and the connection. I've illustrated below. If your limpet somehow manages to complete the alignment phase, it tries to manouver around the target in a close, slow orbit to align with the hatch. This will guarantee limpet loss if your target has a PD (this is also why rolling constantly avoids a hatchbreaker). By firing the limpet from the correct side, it minimises the alignment phase time, and makes a connection directly.[1]
This is a condensed fit of the ship I use (Jacka)... I don't include weapons or non-essential internals, and fit core internals however you like. The cargoholds are even optional, since this is actually more an all-purpose mission ship, but having =~ 190t of limpets means you can load up a full 20 of these missions and blitz them out.
[1] This is actually best observed when tissue-sampling thargoids, as limpets always attach to the rear of the interceptor.
Oh yeah I love the pirate clipper. It has insane speed and cargo space. The only drawback is it's a large class ship so your limited where you can dock and it's offensive capabilities aren't as good as the challenger. That being said with 600+ speed who really need to fight?
Thank you, this is very intresting. I did not know that you don’t have to drop the target shields for the hatch breaker limpets to do the job.