Assassination mission issues

[Saool]

Today I found myself having a lot of problems with assassination missions. Normally it is quite easy to find your target however having taken on four assassination missions, I found myself, after a number of hours, on and off, having failed to find a single one. I am hunting four targets across seven systems. I have had updates to all four missions. Two having just asked me to give up and to have asked me to be a turncoat (generating two further targets).

So far I have yet to see a single target. I have gone to dozens and dozens of unknown signals across all seven systems, and a few strong and weak signals for good measure but have drawn a complete blank.

Has the difficulty of these missions been changed?

Is there a bug causing targets to simply not spawn?

Has anyone else suddenly found assassination missions seemingly in-completable?

 

[skramz]

Yup! I had the same problem and lost a good amount of reputation for a minor faction I've been working for.. The only solution that SOMETIMES works is shooting those ships that offer "Alt Rewards" (which is the main bug in the missions) before they can complete their messages that trigger the mission update.
Since this should be fixed with the 1.3 update, I would recommend not accepting any assassination missions at all until it drops. Also avoid combat missions that request you to hunt in systems without Nav Beacons / Anarchy Systems since it can take hours to find the pirates / bounty hunters / system authority you need to kill.
-CMDR skramz

 

[Forlorn]

.. The only solution that SOMETIMES works is shooting those ships that offer "Alt Rewards" (which is the main bug in the missions) before they can complete their messages that trigger the mission update.
..

Yeah, I too have had those mission-forkers spawn just outside sensor range! Rarely, but it has happened.

Don't know that anything has changed, though. I picked up 2 missions today - the first gave me the targetting NPC right away, but the second caused me to rack up over 2k in bounties before the right NPC showed up to tell me where my target was.

 

[ZephyrDark]

Thankfully, in 1.3, Assassination missions are revamped. You can now find your targets in supercruise (and fairly easily) and you just have to interdict them. You also get a nice and handy "Mission Target" identifier on the target info panel in the bottom right!

 

[Yomamas Fett]

Do USSs still give you the target in 1.3? 'Would be disappointed if they are nolonger useful and I had to rip every target out of supercruise.

 

[Kazacy]

Thankfully, in 1.3, Assassination missions are revamped. You can now find your targets in supercruise (and fairly easily) and you just have to interdict them. You also get a nice and handy "Mission Target" identifier on the target info panel in the bottom right!

This is really good news and way more entertaining.

 

[valleydweller]

Do USSs still give you the target in 1.3? 'Would be disappointed if they are nolonger useful and I had to rip every target out of supercruise.

I've only had a few found in USS and done a few dozen during beta. I'd prefer them in USS as I don't want to have to equip an interdictor
My feelings aside, they are fun , the AI is a lot more aggressive and they have a tendency to ram. this coupled with the shield changes means a lot more careful CMDR

 

[Yomamas Fett]

Thank you for the reply, I'm looking forward to them, even if I have to fit an Interdictor......what shield changes?

 

[valleydweller]

Your shield won't go to full power when entering SC so as to stop players hopping in and out of SC when their shields go down. It also means if you have multiple assassination targets then you will have to pause between engagements.