Assassination missions...a question

[verminstar]

So picture the scene...go to system A only fer the target not to be there...cool at least I have another system to go to. I go there and some guy starts asking me to follow him.

This is where things get utterly confusing...follow him how exactly? He vanishes leaving nothing but a low wake that also vanishes before I can scan it.

So what am I doing wrong here? Am I just having a very very bad day where Im obviously missing something simple? This is why I keep losing patience with combat in this game...the combat itself is easy...the mechanics to get there however are just inane which is why I still mostly harmless after two years. Today will be the last day I try because its starting to get very stressful indeed and Ill stick to non combat fer another 2 years ^

 

[Dommarraa]

Target the low wake, then approach and exist SC when you get the Safe message just like a USS.

 

[verminstar]

Target the low wake, then approach and exist SC when you get the Safe message just like a USS.

Tried this a total of 5 times now...the wake vanishes before I get close enough ^

Edit...6 times...seriously...

 

[Garix]

Don't need to scan a low wake, just drop into it as you would a USS or a Station.

You then get informed of the targets new location. Which has always been the System you first started looking for the target in

EDIT: Never had an issue with the low wake hanging around long enough before. Best idea I can think of is throttle down on arrival at the system, hopefully the NPC will drop a little closer to you at that point

 

[Dommarraa]

Tried this a total of 5 times now...the wake vanishes before I get close enough ^

You need to target it, or it will think you are not interested and vanish.

 

[verminstar]

You need to target it, or it will think you are not interested and vanish.

It vanishes while its targetted...it doesnt last long enough to get to it ^

 

[Aashenfox]

Here's how I do these infuriating missions, and by the way, pay no mind to the 'I never have an issue with this' crowd...

First of all, I am told that you can entirely avoid this scenario, by going to the relevant system between the times posted, but this is rarely possible for me, as I tend to stack quite a few at a time, so if I spent much time waiting, I'd struggle to complete them all in time...I digress...

So, yes, you drop into the system where the contact is...and you do the following in this order...

1) Immediately take a heading exactly away from the star at full throttle, you want to get as far away as you can, because when the contact spawns, they fly toward you. As soon as they get close to you they start their own dropping procedure. If you aren't far enough from the star, that usually means they go shooting past you into the star's corona and you can't actually reach their wake. So, at this point you have gained some distance from the star and CUT THROTTLE.
2) The contact goes shooting past you, but not too far, because you aren't moving, then they say they are dropping, and the wake appears. Hopefully, because you were nearly stopped it isn't too far away and you can get there in time. Do you have muscle memory for your throttle for approaching stuff (75% throttle at the 6 second mark? If you have this muscle memory, use it when approaching the wake to approach as quick as poss, because as you have probably noticed there is no countdown so you can't know how fast you are approaching. Anyway, assuming you manage to drop into the wake (when you get within 1Mm, you get the safe disengage option), the rest is trivial.

You need to target it, or it will think you are not interested and vanish.

I'm pretty sure it's on a timer, rgardless of targeting, and yeh, it is kinda short, but not really 'quick'. I only fail when I was already doing 25c when the contact dropped. Distance will make it disappear (if you fly away from it), verminstar, perhaps you took too long to turn around cos you were going too fast? Anyway, with the advice above you should be ok. Good luck.

 

[verminstar]

Here's how I do these infuriating missions, and by the way, pay no mind to the 'I never have an issue with this' crowd...

First of all, I am told that you can entirely avoid this scenario, by going to the relevant system between the times posted, but this is rarely possible for me, as I tend to stack quite a few at a time, so if I spent much time waiting, I'd struggle to complete them all in time...I digress...

So, yes, you drop into the system where the contact is...and you do the following in this order...

1) Immediately take a heading exactly away from the star at full throttle, you want to get as far away as you can, because when the contact spawns, they fly toward you. As soon as they get close to you they start their own dropping procedure. If you aren't far enough from the star, that usually means they go shooting past you into the star's corona and you can't actually reach their wake. So, at this point you have gained some distance from the star and CUT THROTTLE.
2) The contact goes shooting past you, but not too far, because you aren't moving, then they say they are dropping, and the wake appears. Hopefully, because you were nearly stopped it isn't too far away and you can get there in time. Do you have muscle memory for your throttle for approaching stuff (75% throttle at the 6 second mark? If you have this muscle memory, use it when approaching the wake to approach as quick as poss, because as you have probably noticed there is no countdown so you can't know how fast you are approaching. Anyway, assuming you manage to drop into the wake (when you get within 1Mm, you get the safe disengage option), the rest is trivial.



It;s on a timer, and it's not a short one. Distance will make it disappear (if you fly away from it), verminstar, perhaps you took too long to turn around cos you were going too fast? Anyway, with the advice above you should be ok. Good luck.

Just setting up attempt number 7...there wont be a number 8 cos this is a right royal pita and Ill take the rep hit. Really, this is beyond vexing now ^

 

[IndigoWyrd]

So picture the scene...go to system A only fer the target not to be there...cool at least I have another system to go to. I go there and some guy starts asking me to follow him.

This is where things get utterly confusing...follow him how exactly? He vanishes leaving nothing but a low wake that also vanishes before I can scan it.

So what am I doing wrong here? Am I just having a very very bad day where Im obviously missing something simple? This is why I keep losing patience with combat in this game...the combat itself is easy...the mechanics to get there however are just inane which is why I still mostly harmless after two years. Today will be the last day I try because its starting to get very stressful indeed and Ill stick to non combat fer another 2 years ^

You don't need to scan low wakes, just lock on and Safe Disengage when in range.

These really are nowhere near as difficult as people make them seem.

 

[Aashenfox]

Just setting up attempt number 7...there wont be a number 8 cos this is a right royal pita and Ill take the rep hit. Really, this is beyond vexing now ^

Fingers crossed for you mate, but if it still won't happen, give up for today, but try them again in the future, cos when you get a feel for it, it's not that bad.

 

[verminstar]

You don't need to scan low wakes, just lock on and Safe Disengage when in range.

These really are nowhere near as difficult as people make them seem.

Its not difficult, its frustrating...the combat itself is so easy its funny, its getting to the point of deploying hardpoints in the first place thats a pita.

Anyway, got it on number 7 but thats the last time I even look at one of these missions...frustration a nice word...its not the word that initially sprang to mind. Ill stick with non combat from now on...me own fault fer thinking missions had improved when they really havent ^

 

[Urbanski101]

You then get informed of the targets new location. Which has always been the System you first started looking for the target in

This is the part I love the most....getting told to go straight back to the original target system. Once you get back there you need to check the mission tab or nav panel to find the planetary body you need to wait near.

Honestly, this whole assassination mechanic is just bizarre.

FDev don't want to waste our time....ok then, cut out the arbitrary step to meet a contact one jump over only to be sent back to the original system. Create a slightly more fun and engaging mechanism for finding the target other than waiting by a planet for up to 20 mins.

How was this ever given the green light to make it into the game is anyone's guess.....to call it placeholder is an insult to placeholder content the world over. To call it game play.....forget it.

 

[Aashenfox]

This is the part I love the most....getting told to go straight back to the original target system. Once you get back there you need to check the mission tab or nav panel to find the planetary body you need to wait near.

Honestly, this whole assassination mechanic is just bizarre.

FDev don't want to waste our time....ok then, cut out the arbitrary step to meet a contact one jump over only to be sent back to the original system. Create a slightly more fun and engaging mechanism for finding the target other than waiting by a planet for up to 20 mins.

How was this ever given the green light to make it into the game is anyone's guess.....to call it placeholder is an insult to placeholder content the world over. To call it game play.....forget it.

To be fair to FD, a looooong time ago, it used to send you to a random other system and never back tot he same one. I believe this is a bug introduced by fiddling with something else that just has never been a priority to fix.

fingers crossed for beyond (not that they fix this idiotic event, that they get rid of it completely)

 

[verminstar]

This is the part I love the most....getting told to go straight back to the original target system. Once you get back there you need to check the mission tab or nav panel to find the planetary body you need to wait near.

Honestly, this whole assassination mechanic is just bizarre.

FDev don't want to waste our time....ok then, cut out the arbitrary step to meet a contact one jump over only to be sent back to the original system. Create a slightly more fun and engaging mechanism for finding the target other than waiting by a planet for up to 20 mins.

How was this ever given the green light to make it into the game is anyone's guess.....to call it placeholder is an insult to placeholder content the world over. To call it game play.....forget it.

I noticed that as being beyond hilarious. The first system, nothing go to another system...7 times...and meet the contact who eventually tells ye to go back to the system ye just came from. I laughed out loud when I saw that...this this clearly designed to do nothing more than waste time. Wont be touching these missions again unless frontier fix them, they just too annoying and frustrating.

In the time it took, I gained 1% of rep...in the same time, I could have delivered a score of data missions which give significantly more than 1% and more coin in the long run. These missions are about as much fun as watching paint dry and the mechanics dont make any logical sense whatsoever ^

 

[Urbanski101]

To be fair to FD, a looooong time ago, it used to send you to a random other system and never back tot he same one. I believe this is a bug introduced by fiddling with something else that just has never been a priority to fix.

fingers crossed for beyond (not that they fix this idiotic event, that they get rid of it completely)

Yeah...agreed.

Looong before that you would have to interdict the target which would spawn in your vicinity. I was never a massive fan of this but at least there was some game element to it and it sort of felt like you were hunting the target. The current mechanic is lacking in any game play element whatsoever apart from the actual combat.

FDev seem to want to waste our time and create arbitrary time sinks to pad out the whole mission completion loop.

Another example is taking an assassination mission to a binary system, especially one where the secondary star and orbiting bodies are 100k+ ls away. I would say having done many of these missions now that 9/10 it will send you to a planet orbiting that distant star.

It's been like this way for so long that I think this is now considered 'working as intended'

Like you I hope they address this and the many other mission issues in Beyond.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I've done a few in recent times, and they all went like this :

- go to Target System
- honk Discovery Scanner or visit NAV Beacon

a) Target Location within System given (Mission Objective detected USS), present regardless of given Target time location; FSDI apparently never needed as opposed to Mission Description

b) Mission Critical Message : meet Contact in {RNG_System_Range15LY}
-> enter Alternative System
-> NPC Contact often doesn't show up until SuperCruise Instance is cycled (manually drop out and re-enter to reset the Generic RNG spawn and spice it with the required Mission Spawn)
-> NPC will appear, Messages "Follow me so we can talk", creates a semi-persistent Low Wake
-> Target Low Wake until Safe Disengage, NPC will send you to the Original Target System with a Target Body

- Target is now "hot" in the Target System, again via Mission Objective Detected USS

The only reason I could imagine such a Low Wake to disappear would be island hopping in a busy Instance with Players entering and leaving.
If another P2P Client is controlling the Instance and disengages/leaves the Instance, the Island Transfer is known to frequently make all NPC Traffic and Wakes disappear instantly (Island Transfer failure I presume).
That's also the only single reason I could imagine for NPC Low Wakes not the be "Disengage-able", as the own Client doesn't recognize them as valid Disengage Targets. That Info is either lost or lagged from the Instance P2P host.

 

[Troy_McClure]

Mods please move to 'Newcomers' section!

*checks OP's forum status*......:O

 

[verminstar]

Mods please move to 'Newcomers' section!

*checks OP's forum status*......:O

Ive been exploring in the black fer two years...I originally avoided combat because of things like this and if theres a wealth of targets in the black, Ive yet to discover them. Its sorta morbidly comforting to know combat mechanics in this game are still as vexing as what they were when I first tried them 2 years ago ^

Maybe after 3 or 4 years here, I might move away from the mostly harmless tag...as it is right now, not so much ^

 

[Aashenfox]

Ive been exploring in the black fer two years...I originally avoided combat because of things like this and if theres a wealth of targets in the black, Ive yet to discover them. Its sorta morbidly comforting to know combat mechanics in this game are still as vexing as what they were when I first tried them 2 years ago ^

Maybe after 3 or 4 years here, I might move away from the mostly harmless tag...as it is right now, not so much ^

How did attempt number 8 go? If it didn't go well, I will do yo ua video tonight. It would be my pleasure, I haven't uploaded anything for a couple of weeks, all 4 of my subscribers must be itching for more. lol.

 

[verminstar]

How did attempt number 8 go? If it didn't go well, I will do yo ua video tonight. It would be my pleasure, I haven't uploaded anything for a couple of weeks, all 4 of my subscribers must be itching for more. lol.

Worked on attempt number 7 and that’s it cashed in...won’t be taking any more because I could have achieved more rep with non combat missions in the same time. Credits have very little meaning to me, this is fer the rep.

I’ll stick to non combat missions from now on because the sooner I get that rank and back into the black, the better. The rank locked ships are the only thing I can’t have...there’s nothing else worth grinding for.

It’s no big deal was just trying something new while I’m in the bubble...I feel a bit more educated now...now I know I should have stayed away from this place...game hasn’t been as much fun since ^