Elite / Frontier Being a Pirate/Smuggler in Frontier/FFE

[Somniphobia]

I am so lucky I found a community so helpful as you guys are. I browsed through most of the topics and I found some nice tips and hints about Frontier and FFE but there is one thing I couldn't found - some insights on how to be a criminal (a smuggler and a pirate). As I mentioned in my introduction - I am a huge fan of Iwar 2: EoC and I love stalking corporate transport freighters, scanning their cargo, preparing missiles to be fired upon the escort ships etc. And of course once I found a true gem of sanbox/open-ended space sim with physics even more spot on and realistic I also read that you could make some quick money if you dare risk your skin being a criminal.
So would you Frontier and FFE veterans give some tips about that? Are any old Space Wolves here who made a living plundering cargo ships and dealing with illegal goods?

 

[gunbladelad]

First of all, a hyperspace cloud analyzer and knowledge of the target ship's cargo are both a must. There's not really much point in chasing down that Panther load of slaves just to wind up with a cargo hold of, er, "fertilizer" (involuntary workforces don't withstand catastrophic decompression that well)

If you're on a busy spaceport you might be able to find out what cargo ships are going to get before they depart and once they jump check the destination cloud with your analyzer and then - assuming you're in a faster ship, simply jump ahead and wait for them to come through before divesting them of their ship.

Just be prepared to move quickly the moment the target jumps into the system as they often drop a gear and start shifting the millisecond they come in.

 

[Somniphobia]

That is really informative! I am not all that far into the game to actually afford a good vessel and fit it with top notch upgrades (currently doing some trade runs) but I will focus on combat once I master it completely (wasted only a couple of bad guys unti this point - started at the Lave Syst.).
So basically I should find a decent low-Police System, find a suitable spaceport and then plan things from there - looks similar to EoC's L-Points where convoys enter and leave star systems

 

[noldunar]

Welcome aboard commander and have fun exploring a great game. If you want to do combat, make sure you watch the Frontier 5-minute combat tutorial on Youtube. It tells you how to fight properly in this Newtonian flight model and it will make your game so much more fun. A real pitty that combat is one of the most misunderstood concepts in this game. If you follow the tutorial's advice (engines off, short manual bursts of thrust) you will find combat to be quite pleasing Just search it on Youtube.

One other thing: If you are ready to hunt and don't want to fight just one ship at a time, do not set your stardreamer to full time acceleration. Set it to maximum until the first ship attacks and after that to 100 times accelerated time. You might have to wait a little longer for them to get to you but you will encounter more ships at a time to make things interesting.

 

[Somniphobia]

Thank you noldunar! Yes I watched the video a few hours ago and I find it very informative and simple. I also took time and watched most of the ˝Frontier Fundamentals˝ last evening - a great tutorial series!

That is interesting... Is that a sort of bug/glitch? Of course I will take it into consideration and spice things up a bit.

 

[noldunar]

I don't think it is really a bug. It might have something to do with the flight model and the fact that even pirate ships traveling in groups have some problems staying that close together. So when the first ship arrives you will get dropped into normal time by your stardreamer and in normal time it would take the other ships still some time to catch up. Therefore you have the situation of only fighting one ship at a time.

Even if you don't use maximum time you will find that this is not a guarantee to encounter multiple ships but it does increase your chances. Also, some bigger ships (Constrictor, Cobra, ASP, Imperial Courier) seldom travel in groups so you will fight them almost always one on one. Anything up to and including Cobra MK I tends to travel in packs, especially the smaller fighters. Military bombing and photograph missions (that you will need to unlock by progressing in rank) on the other hand are good fun. There you will encounter multiple ships that launch to intercept you and you will fight in a planet's atmosphere as well as in space. Intense.

 

[Somniphobia]

Wow, you guys are full of in-depth info about this game's mechanics! Thank you very much and I hope others find this useful as well.

Slightly off topic: We have two major factions and the Independent systems but did they implement some way to simulate actual conflicts between those factions (territorial expansion, raids, attacks on enemy spaceports etc.) or do they stay the same as they are now (basically cold war)? And since you mentioned military missions: do they involve some sort of privateering similar to the methods used in 16th and 17th century naval warfare (sinking French trade galleons for the British etc.)?

I am basically new to the game (playing GL version) and I am not yet familliar with all the things you can do

 

[noldunar]

First one clarification: I am talking about Frontier, not Frontier First Encounters.

The power level stays the same, no matter what you do (there is no dynamic background simulation as in Elite Dangerous). You can still participate. After you get through the delivery mission grind you will see military assassinations start to pop up. There you are instructed to assassinate "double-crossing spies" or "corrupt government officials" for your chosen faction (Imps or Feds, choose a side but don't work for both as it can hinder your progress, however I never tested that statement). You could consider this as some form of privateering as you are destroying "enemy" ships. After a while you will get photograph missions. The time window on these can be very tight so you will need a fast ship with a large jump range. There you are asked to take pictures of military installations which are in enemy territory. There you will get to fight against enemy military craft.

In case you also try First Encounters, here is some First Encounters combat info:

Regarding fighting against multiple ships that issue was solved in First Encounters. There you will get attacked by multiple ships without having to fiddle with the stardreamer. Also, when playing First Encounters, as soon as combat starts your ship goes automatically in Engines Off mode (you can tell by looking at the left hand ship shaped console, if it switches to combat mode you are also in "Engines Off" mode).

That means you will have to use the Enter key to apply manual thrust and I strongly advise to do so immediately after the alarm sounds together with a radical change of course. Otherwise you will be a sitting duck and you get vaporized instantly. Combat in First Encounters is A LOT harder than in Frontier. The AI shoots better and fires missiles like crazy, most of them also being immune to ECM. I had several very intense fights there. The key is to always stay in motion, apply thrust, change your vector. Single out the ships with the higher powered lasers first (you can tell by laser beam color) and destroy them, then go for the other ships. Sometimes you will encounter mean Imperial Explorers with 100MW beams. Even one grazing hit will destroy you instantly in a medium sized ship. Save often.

If you want to try First Encounters I recommend the Direct 3D version which as improved graphics and runs in Windows. Look for FFED3D in Google.

 

[AndyJ]

Yes, the missions for either navy are really only affecting your own character progression.
In FFE there are contested areas, and you can find a small cluster of ships zooming around each other sometimes - presumably opposing forces - but there's not always much (or any) shooting happening!

If you want to try First Encounters I recommend the Direct 3D version which as improved graphics and runs in Windows. Look for FFED3D in Google.

Or follow the link in my sig for a much updated build

 

[Somniphobia]

Thank you again for your advice and insight about the game! Yes, I already have First Encounters with one of those slick graphical builds (I think its some Andy's fersion if I recall correctly), but I haven't tried it yet as I have seen some post on other threads warning players not to start any combat focused careers in FFE before mastering Frontiers combat first. On the other hand I also heard about many new features in FFE so now I am tempted to invest more time in it

 

[AndyJ]

"Some Andy's version"... cough.. cough... If do you need any help with getting that one set up, pop a question in the thread I mentioned rather than here, as this section is only really for the 'official' versions.

Just dive in and have a play. Not being able to fight very well never stopped me from reaching the end of the in-game story... and arguably that's where the biggest draw is. Pretty much straight away there'll be a delivery race to join in, and a planet needing medicine replies - so keep your eyes on the latest journal stories for dates/places.
I'd say, keep strategic copies of save games quite often, just in case you go wrong along the line and want to retry. e.g. you might find it takes you longer than you'd thought to get somewhere and you then miss being part of the story. (definitely save before accepting a hard military mission)
Things can go horribly wrong some times, and it's helpful to have a position to fall back to!

Jade's First Encounters Site has been around 'forever' and I think I used it when I originally played. It's a great source of info, particularly regarding the 'hand-code' (story) missions ... just beware of reading too much and spoiling how the game timeline plays out. (assuming that you don't already know)

 

[Somniphobia]

"Some Andy's version"... cough.. cough...

Ahahaha now I realised!!! Silly me xD Oh you did an excellent job there - I am not a graphic w***e but good visuals and details help me get immersed even more.

For now the game works fine - I only took off just to see if it runs ok, but now you convinced me to give it a go for real
And I really like the amazing amount of guides on that link. Now all I need is a couple of hours to go trough that huge amount of info (bookmarking it right now), but I will skip all the guides about the story for now. Thank you!

Edit: My name is Andy too by the way... So nice to meet you Andy!

 

[MacArthur]

I never really tried deliberate pirating in FE2, more opportunistic scooping the left overs of those foolish enough to attack me, but I do have a tip for you.

You can see and select juicy targets using the local system 3D orrery, (with the green background IIRC). Your position is marked by the pink dot. Other dots show the position of other ships in the system colour coded by mass, big ships are white. You can target them by clicking the dot then use the radar mapper to find out what they are. You can time advance the orrery, (not the stardreamer), to project their current course to help you plan an intercept or you can let the autopilot take you to them. Even if they are "out of range" this will still work.

BTW, this is also a great way to catch up with assasination targets if you arrive a little late in the system. You can target the ship as it leaves the dock from many AU distance, when it jumps out, you will be left targeting it's hyperspace cloud allowing you to follow, you will then have to use the same technique to find the ship in the destination system.

 

[Somniphobia]

Great! This thing with the 3D map is new to me, but as far as the cloud scanning goes I recently watched some assassination tutorials on YouTube and the author did just that to follow his target.
Thank you very much for your tips guys - much rep to you all!

 

[MrDave]

In FE2 I don't think there's a trick to smuggling other than finding a genuine merchant on the bulletin board. The fines for getting caught are pitifully small anyway so it doesn't really matter.

In terms of routes Arcturus to 36 Ophiuchi and back used to be pretty lucrative.