Are all Planetary Scan Missions now criminal/illegal?

I've been doing them tonight. Every single one was private, so illegal. I've noticed before that when you start doing them, they're easy - public and no red fences, but the more you do, the harder they become. Maybe that's why the ones I did tonight were tricky with lots of patrolling ships waiting to get me as soon as I became wanted.
 
That *could* be quite easily explained *if* FDev decided that the "public/non-criminal" threshold was too low, and increased it for 3.0 (which could make sense with the new C&P system).


Why do you assume that how the ED universe works will never change? (And in fact the mission system of ED has changed with almost every release, in some way or other.)

As I said before... If you READ the mission description and know the faction issuing the mission well enough, it will be obvious that the site they are sending you to is one of their OWN, or that of a friendly associate. There is no reason for the beacon to be off limits to you, locked inside a Trespass Zone, and for you to incur a bounty for scanning what should be, and was previously a "friendly" site.

In other words... These mission locations are bugged or otherwise confused.

The bulk of these missions before the flip were friendly. After the flip the same ratio are now hostile.
 
As I said before... If you READ the mission description and know the faction issuing the mission well enough, it will be obvious that the site they are sending you to is one of their OWN, or that of a friendly associate. There is no reason for the beacon to be off limits to you, locked inside a Trespass Zone, and for you to incur a bounty for scanning what should be, and was previously a "friendly" site.

In other words... These mission locations are bugged or otherwise confused.

The bulk of these missions before the flip were friendly. After the flip the same ratio are now hostile.
Given the number of bugs with each new release of ED, you could certainly be right that the change is unintentional.
 
As I said before... If you READ the mission description and know the faction issuing the mission well enough, it will be obvious that the site they are sending you to is one of their OWN, or that of a friendly associate.
Have you checked the *actual* faction that has Jurisdiction of the site, when you arrive? Does it differ from what you'd expect?
 
Have you checked the *actual* faction that has Jurisdiction of the site, when you arrive? Does it differ from what you'd expect?

I haven't gotten any deeper into these than recognizing that the planet/outpost location is the same as it always was, the issuing faction is the same as it has always been, and the ownership of the base/outpost is the same as it has been in the past when the majority of these missions involved non-hostile/friendly contacts at the surface bases/beacons.

The only difference is now all of these locations are considered hostile, contain a private beacon instead of the previous and long standing public version and are now cordoned off within a Trespass Zone. Completing the mission will result in a 600 CR bounty where previously a public/non-hostile beacon and bounty free outcome would have been the norm after completing the beacon scan.

In terms of smelling something fishy going on with these, which happened overnight following a 2.4 point update...

I do have the added advantage of a long history of working/completing these missions from all the same locations.

Basically, the bulk of my Planetary Scan mission experiences have always been from the same home system/issuing factions and out to the same nearby systems/planets that host the destination "Search Zone/Outpost/Building/Storage Facility etc."
 
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I dont care if they are legal or illegal. I will take a 600 cr Bounty per scan for 2+ mil reward or sweet sweet MEF's all day long
 
I've taken to ignoring these missions now. I don't care about credits anymore and spend most of my time playing the BGS. That means staying in a local area of about 15 LY around one system. Since the assumption now has to be that the scan will be illegal and get me a bounty in the jurisdiction of the scan site owner, it means I have two options:

1. Run the missions as: do scan, visit IF, turn in mission. 15 min minimum, for one mission. Not worth it, time/efficiency-wise. That's because I could take 2 legal missions and do them in the same 15 min.

2. Run the mission as: swap to secondary ship (meaning I now can only do that one mission), do scan, turn in mission, swap ships, continue on. If I want to do another scan mission, ensure target location is not wanted area for me (or accept risk of getting shot down), swap ships, do mission, turn in mission, swap back ships. Continue on. That's a lot of faffing about and limiting myself on missions, locations, and ships, all in a small 15 LY range where I operate. Not worth it considering other inf missions available.

So I guess I've made a choice here, and maybe I can experiment with option #2, but right now, it's just smarter to ignore the scan missions FOR ME. The only 'solution' I can think of, is that there be a different ratio of legal/illegal scan missions. Right now, 9 in 10 are are illegal for me (elite expo and combat rank, faction I'm working for is corporate in med security system).
 
I dont care if they are legal or illegal. I will take a 600 cr Bounty per scan for 2+ mil reward or sweet sweet MEF's all day long

The 600 CR bounty really isn't the problem I have with the change.

Getting locked out of the entire system after completing just one of these is my major beef. Unless I make a detour to an Interstellar Factor every time, this prevents me from efficiently working a collection of multiple mission types in the same system the way I usually do. Especially if you are working a binary system where the "B" star is a respectable SC distance away. HIP 5700 is a prime example of this in the sector I work in.

Many of the most lucrative missions issued by my HQ involve 5700 as the target destination. If you stack missions like most of us do, you will often end up with a half dozen or more various mission types all culminating somewhere in HIP 5700. ;)
 
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I've been doing them again now and all but one have been illegal. I still do them mainly for the materials (MEF's, Exquisite Focus Crystals, etc).

Trick is just make sure you have a low security system 1 jump away from where you are getting the missions if you want to pay off the bounty. That way it makes it easier to just do a little loop of completing the scans then paying off the bounty and then cashing in for whatever reward you are after.

You can stack them once again which also makes it pretty nice. So I've been doing it for about 2 days now gaining a ton of mats along with some credits doing them and using those at the trade brokers for other mats I need. So I still think they are worth it for some people to continue doing them in 3.0...
 
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The 600 CR bounty really isn't the problem I have with the change.

Getting locked out of the entire system after completing just one of these is my major beef. Unless I make a detour to an Interstellar Factor every time, this prevents me from efficiently working a collection of multiple mission types in the same system the way I usually do. Especially if you are working a binary system where the "B" star is a respectable SC distance away. HIP 5700 is a prime example of this in the sector I work in.

Many of the most lucrative missions issued by my HQ involve 5700 as the target destination. If you stack missions like most of us do, you will often end up with a half dozen or more various mission types all culminating somewhere in HIP 5700. ;)

And the cool thing is Lambda Hydri is a low security system next door to pay off the bounties if you want, or you don't have to if you don't feel like visiting any of the stations in HIP 5700. Actually Lamdba Hydri has a few factions that also give out scan missions as well, so essentially you could just pay off the fines each time you cash in the rewards at the same station...
 
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The 600 CR bounty really isn't the problem I have with the change.

Getting locked out of the entire system after completing just one of these is my major beef. Unless I make a detour to an Interstellar Factor every time, this prevents me from efficiently working a collection of multiple mission types in the same system the way I usually do. Especially if you are working a binary system where the "B" star is a respectable SC distance away. HIP 5700 is a prime example of this in the sector I work in.

Many of the most lucrative missions issued by my HQ involve 5700 as the target destination. If you stack missions like most of us do, you will often end up with a half dozen or more various mission types all culminating somewhere in HIP 5700. ;)

See I've made home in a system where I grab a bunch of the scans missions. Bing bang boom knock them out. Stop at the system with a IF right next door to my home system with the station really close to the drop point. Then off to home. It adds maybe 5 min to my run
 
See I've made home in a system where I grab a bunch of the scans missions. Bing bang boom knock them out. Stop at the system with a IF right next door to my home system with the station really close to the drop point. Then off to home. It adds maybe 5 min to my run

Very cool! [up]

That is indeed handy! But we both know that such an ideal situation as yours is a significant exception and not the rule. ;) Most players are not going to have everything so nicely laid out for them. And in most cases, it isn't worth moving your HQ simply to make doing a singular mission type easier to do. :)

Some have suggested simply changing the 600 CR bounty to a fine instead. Not sure if that would make that much of a difference under the new system or not. ??
 
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Check this out guys! Just when I thought I had seen it all when it comes to these scan missions, I am witness to yet another totally unexpected and bizarre occurrence!

Earlier today, when I posted my previous AM replies in this thread, I had just accepted (2) new Planetary Scan missions from my HQ mission board @ Stross Installation in the HIP 5623 system. Making a point to confirm that all of the missions on offer were indeed the usual "Illegal" versions, I accepted (2) of them based on their mission rewards.

Soon after I accepted these, we had a bit of an urgent situation develop with our PowerPlay efforts, so I had to quickly swap into my Cutter and head out to help with additional expansion efforts there, and was busy with that most of the day.

I just returned to my HQ at Stross Installation in HIP 5623, swapped back into my Python and set sail to knock out those two previously accepted Scan missions. When I landed at Planet 2 in the Falendal system and arrived at the outpost to scan the beacon, I was surprised to discover that there was no Trespass Zone! And the beacon was PUBLIC! -- The previous warnings about this mission involving illegal actions is no longer included in the mission description! The only info listed in RED is "Mission will fail on ship destruction".

Additionally, the second mission out to Winagiman also appears to no longer be illegal! (WTH?) :O

Do all I need to do flip the mission's legal/illegal status is leave it parked in my Transactions section for 8 hours? This is really bizarre, and I know for a fact that both were illegal when accepted because I was using them and the entire mission board as a real time example of the complete lack of legal/public beacons on offer, which of course is the topic of this thread. [haha] [wacky]

I have NO IDEA what the hell is going on here! [wacko] -- But not having to divert to an IF system before continuing on with completing the remaining stack was a pleasant surprise. :D

And the cool thing is Lambda Hydri is a low security system next door to pay off the bounties if you want, or you don't have to if you don't feel like visiting any of the stations in HIP 5700. Actually Lamdba Hydri has a few factions that also give out scan missions as well, so essentially you could just pay off the fines each time you cash in the rewards at the same station...

Lambda has an IF? How did I miss that? I need to look into that here in a minute. If it is just a low security system then some bounties can't be paid off there. You need an actual Interstellar Factors service for that. I must admit that I don't frequent Lambda Hydri nearly as often as the other systems around here, simply because it doesn't come up as the destination system for missions that are issued out of 5623 and Pira, which are the two systems I tend to pick up the bulk of my missions from.
 
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Check this out guys! Just when I thought I had seen it all when it comes to these scan missions, I am witness to yet another totally unexpected and bizarre occurrence!

Earlier today, when I posted my previous AM replies in this thread, I had just accepted (2) new Planetary Scan missions from my HQ mission board @ Stross Installation in the HIP 5623 system. Making a point to confirm that all of the missions on offer were indeed the usual "Illegal" versions. So... I accepted (2) of them. Soon after I accepted these, we had a bit of an urgent situation develop with our PowerPlay situation, so I had to swap into my Cutter and head out to help with additional expansion efforts there, and was busy with that most of the day.

I just returned to my HQ at Stross Installation in HIP 5623, swapped back into my Python and set sail to knock out those two previously accepted Scan missions. When I landed at Planet 2 in the Falendal system and arrived at the outpost to scan the beacon, I was surprised to discover that there was no Trespass Zone! And the beacon was PUBLIC! -- The previous warnings about this mission involving illegal actions is no longer included in the mission description! The only info listed in RED is "Mission will fail on ship destruction".

Additionally, the second mission out to Winagiman also appears to no longer be illegal! (WTH?) :O

Do all I need to do flip the mission's legal/illegal status is leave it parked in my Transactions section for 8 hours? This is really bizarre, and I know for a fact that both were illegal when accepted because I was using them and the entire mission board as an example for my earlier replies to this thread! [haha] [wacky]



Lambda has an IF? How did I miss that? I need to look into that here in a minute. If it is just a low security system then some bounties can't be paid off there. You need an actual Interstellar Factors service for that. I must admit that I don't frequent Lambda Hydri nearly as often as the other systems around here, simply because it doesn't come up as the destination system for missions that are issued out of 5623 and Pira, which are the two systems I tend to pick up the bulk of my missions from.

I think all low systems now have an IF, but Lambda Hydri does anyways regardless. I was doing planetary scan missions all afternoon there today and just popping over to there to pay off the bounties every time before cashing in. But it's really helpful in that area having it just one jump away...
 
I think all low systems now have an IF, but Lambda Hydri does anyways regardless. I was doing planetary scan missions all afternoon there today and just popping over to there to pay off the bounties every time before cashing in. But it's really helpful in that area having it just one jump away...

WOW! That is Excellent news! [up]

I'm going to head over there right now and check it out. I can't believe that I haven't noticed it hosted an IF! I have been relying on Pira and Winagiman as my IF go-tos all this time.

Thanks for the heads-up! :) [up]
 
Been doing Planetary scan missions to help with a local election... And there has been a mix of private and public data points but must concede, nothing that I can see indicates which are going to be which.

That said all I check now is who I expect the bounty to be from and most of the time it isn't an issue as a bounty or 3 or 4 even a time is not enough for bounty hunters to attack you when you are in a jurisdiction where you are clean.
 
I haven't gotten any deeper into these than recognizing that the planet/outpost location is the same as it always was, the issuing faction is the same as it has always been, and the ownership of the base/outpost is the same as it has been in the past when the majority of these missions involved non-hostile/friendly contacts at the surface bases/beacons.
I'm curious how you determined base/outpost ownership for Planetary Scan Job missions, since you don't know the (randomly generated) target until you arrive at the planet & search for it.

The only ways I know to do that is to either:
1. Select it as a target (after you've found it), then under the target's name (e.g. Outpost) it says the jurisdiction (aka faction owner).
or
2. Drive close to it in your SRV, and then I think you can see what jurisdiction you are in (?).


By the way, I have found NO relationship between the Target Faction stated at the bottom of the Mission description, and the target's actual jurisdiction.

Do you know if they used to be the same, and it's just bugged now?
 
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I'm curious how you determined base/outpost ownership for Planetary Scan Job missions, since you don't know the (randomly generated) target until you arrive at the planet & search for it.

The only ways I know to do that is to either:
1. Select it as a target (after you've found it), then under the target's name (e.g. Outpost) it says the jurisdiction (aka faction owner).
or
2. Drive close to it in your SRV, and then I think you can see what jurisdiction you are in (?).


By the way, I have found NO relationship between the Target Faction stated at the bottom of the Mission description, and the target's actual jurisdiction.

Do you know if they used to be the same, and it's just bugged now?

Before the change from Public to Private , the outposts/buildings were always connected with the mission giver's faction or a friendly faction. After you did a few, it was obvious that this was always the case.

Under the new versions, the same mission givers are sending you to the same planets, under the same exact conditions, yet the outposts/buildings are being guarded by "Friendly Skimmers (Green), inside a Trespass zone. The Beacon is now Private which always defaults to a criminal act regardless of who owns the location the beacon is placed in.

I am calling it a bug.
 
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