Bad experience last night... is it a bug or what the hell I'm doing wrong?

[Lenroc elisav]

Hi,
as the title said had a bad/boring mission run last night. Picked a mission to kill 5 pirates in an anarchy unexplored system. Went there with my killing viper and as usual started looking for USSes. I noticed shortly that those were popping more infrequently that I was used to. After about half hour managed to find one with ships and killed 2 pirates. Then...nothing, saw more biowaste containers in USSes then in an entire week of play. An hour goes by and I'm still at 2 target count, I've tried following ships around and dropped on them using the Low Energy Wake even on planets/moon gravity well (w/o a basic scanner those don't get discovered even if they fill your screen and u have to super-cruise out following the escape vector). Ah BTW, I used at all times a warrant scanner and even killed a hand-full of ships with bounties w/o the target count being affected. About 2 hours into the mission I stumble in a USS where a guy counter offers me to kill some autority vessels I say "No ty" and blast his ass out of the sky. Target count reset to zero. Quarter our later, running out of patience I go and equip a FSD interdictor and spend another hour pulling ships out of super-cruise visiting "Scrap" USSes and getting aggravated. Manage to find 2 more pirates before I run out of patience 15 minutes short of the 4+ hours plus mission timer.
This is the first time this happens to me and I'm wondering if the fact that I was in unexplored system lead to this out come (I've done pirates hunts in explored systems and they went fairly smoothly). What am I missing here? Should I explore the system? Or was just a programing inconsistency/bug?

Ok bitchin' mode off, pressure returned to operational levels.
I'd appreciate any tips or advices .

 

[SP45M]

Personally i just go to the nav beacon and wait for the pirates to come to me while I farm bounties.

 

[smiths121]

Hello Cmdr Lenroc,

Couple of things, based on my experiences.
I think you are onto something with the unexplored system. I always take a basic scanner now when perform mission in an unexplored system. USS tend to drop near space stations, the star and planets (and like buses, they always come in 3s for me).

I tried a "Rebel Transmission" mission in an unexplored - uninhabited system and only really got USS around the primary star. Popped back with a basic scanner and explored and found the USS as I explored.

Difficult to tell from your description if the problem was quanttiy fo USS spawning or quality. I took a get X (where x was greater than 4) pirate mission, and like you struggled to come across pirates. Some things I learnt:

1) Interdicting and Killing Wanted does not count.
2) Pirates at the Nav point to do not count.

Seems they have to be discovered in the USS.

I failed the mission, but one of the things I mean to try when I take another one is to jump in, kill some pirates jump out and then back in again to see if this increases the spawn rate of pirates in USS.

Hope this helps

Simon

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Interesting. These did not seem to count for me. There again I just went for Wanted. How would you identify a pirate in the Nav point (am i Missing something obvious)?

Cheers
Simon

Personally i just go to the nav beacon and wait for the pirates to come to me while I farm bounties.

 

[fergal]

The population of the system determines the frequency of the USS spawns. A 0 or low population makes it difficult to do these missions some times.

 

[Lenroc elisav]

Personally i just go to the nav beacon and wait for the pirates to come to me while I farm bounties.

I do the same but the system didn't have one, probably because it was an unexplored system.

Difficult to tell from your description if the problem was quanttiy fo USS spawning or quality. I took a get X (where x was greater than 4) pirate mission, and like you struggled to come across pirates. Some things I learnt:

The USSes were less frequent (opinion based) mostly populated with useless cargo containers, few with clean traders (scanned them of course and even spent 10 minutes or so in a USS with one hoping the trader will act as bait) and just a few with wanted NPCs but killing them didn't count.

The population of the system determines the frequency of the USS spawns. A 0 or low population makes it difficult to do these missions some times.

I think you have the right answer here. So I guess no more pirate hunts in unexplored/low populated systems.

 

[Cmdr Thrudd]

I've noticed this as well. I now try to avoid taking kill missions in unpopulated systems as the rate is really low. I once spent nearly 2 hours popping in and out of USS trying to find 5 pirates. Lots of orca's, cans, smugglers but hardly any pirates.

 

[Armante]

I've noticed this as well. I now try to avoid taking kill missions in unpopulated systems as the rate is really low. I once spent nearly 2 hours popping in and out of USS trying to find 5 pirates. Lots of orca's, cans, smugglers but hardly any pirates.

Just wanted to say thanks for the TTT. Helped me earn a few credits here and there. I try to update a few stations as I go, help keep it uptodate

 

[Hexcaliber]

2) Pirates at the Nav point to do not count.

Wrong, pirates at nav beacons DO count, as do pirates at resource extraction points, and pirates who interdict you. Any AI that scans you and makes comment about the contents of your cargo will count towards these missions.

 

[Zeeman]

Anyone tried buying 1T of something very pricey (Gold, Palladium.. whatever is worth more than, say, 5k/T), to use as bait?

Z...

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

I've not had the issue where my count is reset to 0...then again, I've not been counter offered before.
When I have done these missions I usually go to nav beacons. 20mins maybe for 5 pirates. Some wanted ships are not considered pirates so you have to kill maybe 10 to get 5 pirate kills.
Alternatively pop over to a resource extraction site...LOADS of pirates...with whopping bounties. Fun, fun, fun!

Anyone tried buying 1T of something very pricey (Gold, Palladium.. whatever is worth more than, say, 5k/T), to use as bait?

Z...

Yup. Gold I looted from a previous pirate. Certainly got me attacked for no reason in the extraction sites, it was like pirate cat nip.
Then I noticed I had a 90k fine from being scanned by an auth vessel there. DOH!
Tip: Don't use stolen gold for bait

 

[Sarabian]

Had exactly the same issues a number of times now, mainly on Naval Progression missions. Get sent to an unpopulated unexplored system, no Nav Point and the fly round aimlessly waiting for pirates to turn up. Get a lot of 'Clean' people pop up who don't scan you so they won't count and a lot of canisters. Maybe pop a 'scanner' or a pirate and then get an 'you can abandon this' plea and then after that it seems you just can't get any pirates to pop.

I picked up a few canisters for bait but that didn't help and explored the whole system and discovered stars, planets, resource fields the works, but still no pirates. I gave up after 2 hours and logged off in space and went to bed. Logged in again the next day, ofc the mission had expired, so I jumped back to the home system, forgot about my bootlegged canisters and got a 11K fine for my trouble..and negative rep to boot (that really irritates).

Imo this aspect of the game really needs some work as it just makes the whole thing mind-numbingly boring, tiresome and frustrating. It wouldn't be so bad if you didn't then get the negative impact of fines and/or rep loss.

 

[MrVibrating]

Had exactly the same experience as the OP last time i made any effort to play properly, about a week or so ago - needed 5 pirates, spent hours searching and found one or two then gave up - it was 03:30 AM and i had work in the morning.


Absolutely head-bangingly mind-numbingly boring frustration, trying to do something that in past games, just happened by itself. You'd get attacked left right and center without any effort at all, and rack up those 5 kills in minutes, at most.

"Elite" "Dangerous" just isn't worthy of either designation. The fact that it even allocates 4-5 hours for a piddling five pirate slam is a clue. It's an insipid patience-trying adrenalin-killing anti-climax of a sequel.. so far.

Hopefully they'll liven things up a bit some time in the next year...

 

[MrDoe]

I am not taking any missions that are located in unpopulated systems, for the reasons OP states.
If you want to finish these missions in around 15min go to a ressource extraction site. They are infested with pirate scum ^^

I always carry a crate of something cheap like food or fuel with me to lure pirates.
Works like a charme with interdicitons, but at a RES you wont't need something to find yourself a pirate or 7.

BR
CMDR MrDoe