ADVICE REQUIRED - How to find cargo to steal (from NPCs, for missions)

EtherDragon

E
I'm looking for advice from those who have succeeded at one of the "pirate" missions, where I'm expected to go steal some cargo. I have been focusing on doing these missions vs NPCs.

Here is what I know how to do:
I know how to interdict NPCs. I know how to scan them with my Cargo Scanner to see if they have what I want. I know how to target the cargo hatch and get them to spill their goods. If they keep fighting afterwards, well - guess my bounty just got bigger.

Here is what I've tried:
I use the Galactic Map to find places that export the given commodity and Interdict any cargo haulers I find. I also raid every USS I can find. So far absolutely no luck - even using a Cargo Scanner.

I also tried using System Info to look at what Stations export certain things, and hang around there. Still no ships I've encountered have what I'm looking for.

I've tried taking a lot of these missions all at once, so if I happen to stumble upon any ONE of the half-dozen commodities the various places are looking for, I can grab them. But it seems like this is just guess and check - isn't there a better way?

Here is what I need help with:
How do I find ships that have the commodities I want?
 
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Danger Mouse

Danger Mouse
Buy a cargo scanner, it will tell you exactly what a ship has on board. You may also want to try using limpets to aid in your thievery. The best place to go is anarchy nav beacons to minimise legal trouble. Alternatively you can also accept delivery missions, abandon the mission and give the commodities to the pirates.
 

Cruis.In

C
Your experiences show me is that this is too random, you would think that the people asking for these things that haulers have them in the same system thats why they are asking you to steal them, but it just seems its so random. What are the chances out of hundreds of commodities that you will come across a hauler carrying that one?
 

EtherDragon

E
Danger Mouse said:
Buy a cargo scanner, it will tell you exactly what a ship has on board. You may also want to try using limpets to aid in your thievery. The best place to go is anarchy nav beacons to minimise legal trouble. Alternatively you can also accept delivery missions, abandon the mission and give the commodities to the pirates.
Click to expand...

Forgot to mention, I have a cargo scanner, and use it all the time to try and find my quarry. Somehow, I doubt that accepting and abandoning the delivery mission is not what Frontier had in mind.
 

Ortikon

O
If you are referring to the heist missions:

They very heavily imply that a trusted person be a "closer" for a heist.
-Grab a bunch of heist missions. There is no penalty for not completing them, just like cargo seeking missions.
-Find missions that supply the needed cargo...
-"Close" the mission on them if the heist pays more than the legitimate mission.

Either pay off the fines, or learn how to lay low to keep the most money!

Edit:
Something like this happened in my city during the building of our convention center for the Olympics several years ago.
The roof was awaiting a delivery of over $5m in aluminum tiles (cant remember the value, it had many zeros on it)
A truck arrived at a facility to pick up the tiles...
Later, the REAL truck arrived to pick up the tiles.
Huge cost hit on the building of the convention centre, I hope there was insurance!

Be the truck, pilot. BE THE TRUCK
 
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Ortikon

O
The better trust you have gained with the mission givers, the larger cargo they will offer to pawn off to the criminals. I plan on doing more of these. Some pay very well. You just have to pick your moments and at best, screw over people far away and move on elsewhere. All the other scam artists do it that way in RL.
 
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Larrow

L
Here is what I've tried:
I use the Galactic Map to find places that export the given commodity and Interdict any cargo haulers I find. I also raid every USS I can find. So far absolutely no luck - even using a Cargo Scanner.

I also tried using System Info to look at what Stations export certain things, and hang around there. Still no ships I've encountered have what I'm looking for.

I've tried taking a lot of these missions all at once, so if I happen to stumble upon any ONE of the half-dozen commodities the various places are looking for, I can grab them. But it seems like this is just guess and check - isn't there a better way?
Click to expand...
TBO i would try this the other way round. As in look for goods being hauled in import systems.
I mean think about what you do when hauling goods. The first thing you do when leaving a stations mass lock is jump to the delivery system, so it would with reason be expected not to find the goods your looking for being hauled around in the systems that export them.
I did try this for a while in 3.9 by cargo scanning ships entering the nav beacons of import systems but found it very random. With the large amount of goods going into a system you would not expect to always find lots of what your looking for, although i barely found enough to complete my missions. I had hoped it would be a little less random in Gamma but i have not tried myself yet.
 

Loren Lovanchi

Loren Lovanchi
Ortikon said:
If you are referring to the heist missions:

They very heavily imply that a trusted person be a "closer" for a heist.
-Grab a bunch of heist missions. There is no penalty for not completing them, just like cargo seeking missions.
-Find missions that supply the needed cargo...
-"Close" the mission on them if the heist pays more than the legitimate mission.
[snip]
Click to expand...

Wrong, there might be no monetary penalty for not completing pirate acquisition missions, but you lose lot of reputation doing that.
In Beta3, I tried and cancelled a few of those missions for Freeport, and the following time I arrived there, the station and security ships were red to me and shooting me on sight! My reputation with the local mob had quickly sunk to hostile :)
 

EtherDragon

E
mnemon said:
Try nav points, lots of traders passing through those.
Click to expand...

Been trying nav points, but can't seem to find any rhyme or reason to what they are carrying. One would think that people arriving into the system would have goods on the docket for import, at the Nav points.

I tried that - hanging out at a nav point where the stuff is supposed to be imported, but no joy.

I'll keep trying, and when I figure it out, it'll become a video!

But, some advice would help, too - to make it become a video faster. =)
 

GODthePUNlSHER

G
I am going insane trying to complete these type of missions. I have been going in and out of navigations beacons in systems where they sell or buy the item i need for hours scanning ships but no luck. Is there a trick to this or is this mission type broken? Please someone do a video tutorial for this.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
One way to do it is to get a friend to jettison the cargo for you.

I took a similar mission before for 8 lithium. The only time I found ships hauling lithium, they were military T9s accompanied by two Anacondas.
 
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trippcr

T
Have you tried any Strong Signal Sources?

One time, while trying to do one of these steal cargo missions, I dropped into an SSS out of desperation. Sure enough there was two T9's and each had the cargo that I was suppose to steal. Of course they were also heavily guarded by tons of Vultures and Anacondas, which was far too much for me to handle on my own. I abandoned that mission and haven't taken any like those since.
 

Sire

Sire
Make a friend buy the commodities you need and abandon them in space. Scoop commodities and deliver them to complete the mission.
 

noldunar

N
If you use the search function there is a Guide to NPC piracy floating around here someplace.

I think in there I have read that NPC ships always carry the stuff of the system they are in. So in an agricultural system they carry agricultural stuff etc.

Maybe you find some answers in there.
 

Neflite

Neflite
Dear OP.

As far as I know, and I would love to be corrected if I am wrong, there is no real way to complete these missions.

Sure you can be lucky and run into a ship that carries the required commodities but that is hardly a strategy.

The only real way to complete these missions is to cheat the system by having a friend drop that cargo for you.


Until the system is changed you had best stick to smuggling missions if you want a structured way to be on the wrong side of the law.

P.S. Oooops, epic necro thread : /
 
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