Horizons Beware of HIP 14909 - I just paid the price.

[Cybindis]

BUT!

I took one of the blighters with me!

Let me tell you the story my children, and let this be a stern warning that there are currently griefers/RPers in HIP 14909 stopping CMDRs landing and checking out the Alien structures.

I had spent about 2 and a half hours, maybe more trying to get both a UA and a UP to go and check out the cool alien stuff.

Long story short I get there and I see laser fire, so I think "Oioi, what's going on here." and move to investigate. I see some more laser fire and then a low-wake, so my immediate thought is "Oh god, someone's trying to have fun by ruining everyone else's fun."

But unlike other people I'd seen, and unlike another dude who dropped in just behind me who quickly buggered off once he saw the lasers, I was in my 'Vette, and it wasn't a "I went to Sothis before I learned how to shoot straight" 'Vette, this was a "I worked my knuckles to the bone doing PP interdictions and bounty hunting" 'Vette. So not completely 100% tricked out with all the bells and whistles, but everything I needed, I had, looking back I wish I had spent more on a certain module (Which you'll see why later).

So I thought "I'll see what the situation is, if they were only defending themselves I can let it slide and we can all go on a jolly exploration spree together."

Then messages popped up along the lines of "Attention pilots, the alien structures are dangerous, do not land, or we will be forced to open fire, we have been given permission."

So, RPers.

"Okay" I thought "I can get in on this, I love a bit of role play from time to time."

So I planted my ship in plain view (Which is called the FNS Albion btw, because I used to active be in a Federal PP group, don't worry this gets relevant) and got on the horn with a "By whose authority?"

Which got the response "Federation."


Yeah, I know, it's eyebrow raising stuff, that's like A kid stopping people from playing on the brand new swings that the local council put in last week, and then when someone asks "Oh, and who said so?" he goes "America."

So naturally, the quick witted and devilishly handsome fellow that I am, I reply "That's a bit broad there, chum."

You would've thought that as RPers when a Federal Corvette with a name like "FNS Albion" comes along and jumps into your roleplay you could at least elaborate and make it about ten times more interesting.


Anyway, none of this added up, it all sounded like an excuse to me, so I hung about and then scanned them.

They were both wanted, with pretty large bounties. I've seen PVP players before, even friended one after a fight, and they never really have bounties more than 40k, these guys were rocking in the 100k ballpark, so serious criminals.

It was then that one of them started firing on an innocent python.

So I sprang to his aid, it was me, and an explorer python vs a Vulture and an Anaconda.

I messed up the vulture easily, got his shields down and got him to 60%, needless to say with the pummeling he took in the first 30 seconds, he wasn't having any more and scarpered.

The fight with the Anaconda took a while longer, because since two days ago I hadn't played in months, and I obviously don't have the latest meta engineering upgrades.



Once it all came back to me I tore the 'conda apart and I was chasing him up into space and laying waste to his hull and got him to about 38% when.......................


HE COMBAT LOGS! Or at least he appeared to.

Just straight up disappears, no wake, no nothing, no explosion telling me he'd died.

So I turned back to fly the 28km back down to the site whilst recharging my shields.


Turns out the Vulture plucked up the courage to show his face again. So when I do get back I immediately set to work at chasing him off again.


However, another Fed Corvette appeared, and I don't know if he was with them, or if he was a randomer, but needless to say he was on me like flies on a proverbial.


Because I had nothing left to face a Corvette, I did the sensible thing and ran for my life, all the while spamming chat as best I could with "Cease fire! Vulture is griefer!"

Which the vulture was already taking full advantage of by turning around and coming at me.


I made it out on 8% hull.........


I also made it to Maia.

But, just as I was about to jump to space to make the return trip to maia my canopy blew out.

I thus had 7 minutes to get to maia.

I didn't make it.

I got to within 500LS of the station and died.................................






So for trying to protect innocent scientists, I experienced some shockingly bad roleplay, griefing, the heartbreak of losing both the UA, the UP, my Buddy fighter pilot who I had at Dangerous, but on top of that I lost 25 mil to re-buy.....


I later learned that the Conda died, but yeah.... It doesn't bring back Cecil......... I'm sorry Cecil..... I failed you, if only FD didn't make jumping from system to system slower by putting stars in the way.... If only I would've bought the larger life support module!!!!

OH CECIL YOU WERE SO YOUNG (I think)!!! I only hope your family will take solace in the fact that their Cecil died trying to protect innocent CMDRs...











tl;dr Don't go to HIP 14909 right now. There are at least 2-3 people there trying to keep everyone from enjoying the alien structures. I got one, and messed up the other, but I'm not sure if that Corvette was friend or foe because I had more pressing matters to attend to. Just to be safe, you might want to give it a miss tonight, try again another time.

 

[Doookie Shoes]

All I heard was you went to a tourist trap in open lol

 

[CMDR Ofan]

You could maybe try one of the other sites (180 ish I think). Odds are anyone wanting to spoil your fun are at the earliest reported sites. Pick a random middle number one and enjoy

 

[Cybindis]

You could maybe try one of the other sites (180 ish I think). Odds are anyone wanting to spoil your fun are at the earliest reported sites. Pick a random middle number one and enjoy

Yeah I did choose that one because it was closest, and it was first on the list. But it was mixed really, I'm not coming up in here raging like "OMG can't believe it! This shouldn't be allowed" I mean after I died I was angry, but it was more angry that I was so close to the station, and angry that I lost what took me hours to get both in credits, and in UA/UP.

I actually enjoyed the whole PVP aspect of it, even if that extra fed corvette that crippled me allowing the vulture to kill me was either with them, or I was a victim of wrong place wrong time... but yeah. It's a fond experience, and it was exciting and dramatic, and when I was chasing down that anaconda after seeing off the Vulture whilst the conda was free to shoot me you can bet my heart was pumping and my hands were getting clammy.

All I heard was you went to a tourist trap in open lol

I believe open is more fun.

Yes it hurts that I lost 25 mil, the UA/UP and my one and only pilot-bro Cecil, but when I was killing that Conda before he combat logged it was fun.

Also in open you don't get that magic feeling of talking to a person after spending months exploring, or you don't get to RP (even if these guys were terrible at RP) or you don't get to genuinely talk to them and exchange warnings, stories and tips of what's popping and what's dropping.

The only things I regret from the whole situation were:

1 - I didn't stop to assess the Corvette/I didn't bug out and wait for my shields to come back properly (This was a huge misplay on my part and is the reason why I died)

2 - I didn't have the oxygen to make it that extra minute I needed to save my ship, and Cecil (Part of that is down to FD making time critical transits a mare by spawning a star in front of you, and part of it is me thinking I'd be okay with 7 minutes of backup air).


Things to take away from the situation?

1 - Let shields come back, don't be too hasty to save people at the expense of your ship

2 - I might have to assess and change my life support loadout based on where I will be going (And the resources that are there) in future.

not to just hide like a wimp in solo.

 

[Doookie Shoes]

I get it.
My biggest problem is when you hit that moment that you KNOW you are beat. That's where I know I should boost the hell out, but that's when I get pointlessly aggressive and try and drive through their Window lol

I feel ya though, I bought the Corvette couple days ago and first ride out I barely crawled away alive. Made it out at 3 %.

Much upgrades since ;-)

 

[Cybindis]

It becomes a veritable beast when you get it fully upgraded. Which is why I didn't run immediately when that other dude showed up.

You can get into situations vs players that you wish you hadn't. Like you spend an hour taking on all comers in a HazRes by yourself, but when you meet another ship that maybe someone has sothis/minmaxed for PVP you start to realise it isn't all that powerful.

Then you get the odd time where an Eagle has min-maxed a build and because of Chaff and the fact that you need turrets/gimbals on big ships there is nothing you can do.

For me the moment when I knew I was beat was when I dropped out in maia and got to 600LS with only 25 seconds left on the clock. Strangely I didn't feel it when my canopy was punched open ~120LY away.


So yeah, learn from me.

Just because you can take on a person who may or may not be good at PVP and come out on top with some good piloting and a bit of skill doesn't mean you can take on 2 big ships on your own. I mean I managed with a vulture and the Conda, but hey they obviously weren't pro-PVPers if I could stand a chance against them.


Another bit of advice.

Take the FSD hit and go for the 15 minute life support. 7 minutes is fine in the bubble and it's almost fine 120LY away from Maia, but almost isn't good enough, almost is expensive, especially now that FD seem to have removed any legitimate way to make the money to run large ships in exciting ways.

I'm hoping that in future FD will let us join the Navy, so we can actually do relevant stuff, and have the gubbmint foot the bill when we are on duty.

But one can only dream, just like I can dream of what I could've done with those 25 million credits that I wasted by being brash.

 

[Doookie Shoes]

I giggled when you said "take the FSD hit...."
There is no helping that FSD lol
I took 176 lys to Deciat from where I was at the time, & it was 27 jumps! Lol
Was so silly I couldn't even be mad, I took some collector limpets with me and I stopped at every signal gathering random things. Made a night out of it

 

[Cybindis]

It's true though. In my experience jumps generally seem to be in 4 standard jump distance categories:

- 11 LY and below

- 18-22 LY

- 22-34LY

- 34LY +

(Bonus situational exploring distances out on the fringes vary from 52LY-108LY)

A 'Vette with a mediumly good engineered FSD will only make it to 17LY if you have it blinged out.

I lucked out with mine and I have it at 19.38 or thereabouts.

Which is good because it makes the difference between being in the middle of one category so you have standardly fueled and distanced jumps.

instead of the 17/18LY 'Vette which chooses between "You can make two jumps at this distance and you'll have to refuel, slowing down your journey" or "Yeah you can't make it into the next category of jump, so you'll have to take 10 extra jumps to get there.


I assume when you did that 176 jump you didn't have the best FSD?

I know that when I first bought it, it wasn't in the same system that I could outfit it in, and the system I bought it in didn't stock FSDs that large, so I had to make some painful 7LY FSD jumps to the nearest system that stocked a half decent FSD.

It was almost the same story with my FDL, but I had learnt to check if the station had useful modules available instead of trash.

But yeah, don't disparage the FSD too much, I'm getting almost 20LY out of mine, and whilst I wish it was something more like 24LY to make it a bit more bearable, but not insane, it's still manageable considering I'm hauling around a small country's worth of firepower.

 

[Doookie Shoes]

I went with a factory stock 6A FSD.
I had everything else engineer upgraded already. Shields, weapon's, power plant, thrusters, scans... The whole 9.
But I thought I had an upgraded 6A FSD in storage but was wrong, so off I went with a 10 lys max range.
I'm short on the level 5 so right now I'm at level 4 getting 16 max..... You can feel my excitement lol

All good, I Got it for battle not site seeing ;-)
Got other ships for that

 

[Archduke]

Sadly, FD have noi idea of how to either define an ideal ruleset to include conflicting RP nor an efective means of policing or accurately defining "griefing"The result is that, despite supposedly offering piracy on equal footing with exploration and trade as a playstyle - the lack of options and (even amongst those who choose to play in Open) limited capability for reasoned RP and direct conflicting agenda means that for many, the only conflict is achievable through (arguably less well received) 'ganking'. Attacking other commanders not for fiancial gain nor political purpose, but merely "because they can" and "for lulz" - acquiring reputation n the meantime and with the excuse of "it's in the rules and without me the game would be dull" - Don't Play Open if you don't like it.________I see the popularity of the Thargoid sites and their relevance to explorers and tourists a like as a real opportunity for RP groups to actually have something to conflict over.There may be elements of diplomacy, there may be levels of aggression - undoubtedly there will be risk and "death" - but most importantly, there will be a flourishing RPO and reasoning for attacks."We represent Thargoids Rights " Leave this zone or risk being attacked"They're damn dirtyy aliens, better shoot them all now while we can!""I'm just a scientist, seeking to learn, I'm not taking sides - I'l pay for protection..."This is the sort of thing where FD and the playerbase could really benefit - but they (as always) drop the ball.

 

[Alec Turner]

I'll tell you what OP, you may have suffered a tragic loss and experienced some sub par RP but you've pulled a terrific little story out of it! Repped and thanks for sharing!

 

[Cybindis]

Sadly, FD have noi idea of how to either define an ideal ruleset to include conflicting RP nor an efective means of policing or accurately defining "griefing"The result is that, despite supposedly offering piracy on equal footing with exploration and trade as a playstyle - the lack of options and (even amongst those who choose to play in Open) limited capability for reasoned RP and direct conflicting agenda means that for many, the only conflict is achievable through (arguably less well received) 'ganking'. Attacking other commanders not for fiancial gain nor political purpose, but merely "because they can" and "for lulz" - acquiring reputation n the meantime and with the excuse of "it's in the rules and without me the game would be dull" - Don't Play Open if you don't like it.________I see the popularity of the Thargoid sites and their relevance to explorers and tourists a like as a real opportunity for RP groups to actually have something to conflict over.There may be elements of diplomacy, there may be levels of aggression - undoubtedly there will be risk and "death" - but most importantly, there will be a flourishing RPO and reasoning for attacks."We represent Thargoids Rights " Leave this zone or risk being attacked"They're damn dirtyy aliens, better shoot them all now while we can!""I'm just a scientist, seeking to learn, I'm not taking sides - I'l pay for protection..."This is the sort of thing where FD and the playerbase could really benefit - but they (as always) drop the ball.

Well exciting RP actually requires some thought behind the RP, with such gems as "By whose authority" followed by "Federation" it just kind of jars it to a halt. There were many people RPing along saying they were simply scientists, but they were having none of it, plus the whole "This sight is dangerous, for your own safety leave or else we'll shoot you." aspect is another thing that just screams "I'm using this as an excuse."

Now if he'd done a bit of research, and I'm not sure if this information is out there or not, and come at me with "Article 367 subsection D, under Federation Scientific Research and Discovery Guidelines 3302 - No civilian craft can be permitted access to a dangerous/un-catalogued alien site until safety can be verified by an approved Federation research team. I'm sorry Commander but until this team arrives I cannot permit you to land, if you have any queries or complaints take it up with Admiral X, 7th Southern Fleet X Star-system" then I might have been inclined to RP along and then come back later, or in Solo if I really wanted to. But it would've been a nice interaction.

Most of the time for me RP is ruined by actual present game mechanics, not lack of mechanics. For instance in ages past back in my FLC - Winters days there was a dude undermining in the area I was operating in, so naturally I hit up the group PVPers and jumped into a combat ship to go and chase him down, I was shortly joined by another Winters commander and we had a little hunt in the system.

So I got on this guy's tail when he finally popped up and pulled him down, which was easy since I was in a 'Vette and he was in a FAS. Trouble is what happened next, I did a bit of RP, gave it the old "Attention, Commander, you are in Federation Space and there have been reports of attacks on civilians in this system, withdraw immediately or I will be forced to assume that you are the attacker, and take action accordingly."

Which got the response "If you can catch me "

And off he goes. Now the RP was a bit disappointing, but it was still fun, however after the humiliation I had dealt him by interdicting him, the remaining times he just submitted and was already halfway gone by the time I got properly into the instance. He didn't leave the system, he didn't have to, as long as he kept submitting and boosting because he'd always load in first, there was nothing I can do. Which kind of ruined the whole "Defend this area" because it wasn't "Defend this area" it was "Annoy this guy until he gives up because it's not worth his time."

Eventually he did leave once more ships turned up, but as things go he probably came back as soon as he'd seen everybody had dispersed.


But I agree with you, the RP is down to honour, and people who actually care for RP, the rest of it is pretty threadbare, and apart from the game mechanics getting in the way sometimes, I agree that mostly what you need isn't there. For instance a simple "Report" function that marks that person for a specific amount of time would be extremely useful. For instance in PP if you are a certain rank or above and active for more than 3 weeks you can get a little feature where you can mark an undermining ship as a threat and NPC faction ships will chase him relentlessly, and other CMDRs pledged to your faction would also get special radar/instant messages of alerts in their area and a special faction icon next to the offending player's name.

And expanding on Federal Navy/Imperial navy it could work the same with ranks, to avoid players with both ranks high enough you could do a PP style lockout of other factions, just to add a bit of extra spice. On the one hand you can mark someone as a troublemaker in Federation space, but the downside is you can no longer travel in Empire space freely, just like if you PP federation and go to empire PP you get all sorts of agents buzzing you.

But these are just thoughts, and wishes really. A man can dream.

I'll tell you what OP, you may have suffered a tragic loss and experienced some sub par RP but you've pulled a terrific little story out of it! Repped and thanks for sharing!

Thanks man. I pulled some sweet combat moves out of it too! Or at least one that I'm particularly proud of. The Conda had missiles/torps of some sort which I'm not too sure about because there were a bunch of limpets floating around afterwards, but then again the computer did give me a missile warning....
Anyway, the fancy flying: I have PD mounted on top of my 'Vette in the dorsal nose slots, and at the time I was chasing after the Vulture who was actually doing the shooting. The Conda was plinking my rear shields, and then the missile warning went up. I knew missiles directly behind me wouldn't be caught by the PD turrets, so I waited until the missiles were about to come into PD range, thrusted down, pitched up and locked my throttle on neutral, stopped pitching, and the PD turrets did their thing and PEW PEW'd the missiles, at which point I pitched up, kicked my throttle backwards then did a flip back around and pounded it after the vulture again without losing too much speed.

Made me feel like an action hero in a movie, a real "Here's what I think of your missiles buddy!" manoeuvre.

I'm damn proud of it too.

 

[Strangepork]

BUT!

I took one of the blighters with me!

Let me tell you the story my children, and let this be a stern warning that there are currently griefers/RPers in HIP 14909 stopping CMDRs landing and checking out the Alien structures.

I had spent about 2 and a half hours, maybe more trying to get both a UA and a UP to go and check out the cool alien stuff.

Long story short I get there and I see laser fire, so I think "Oioi, what's going on here." and move to investigate. I see some more laser fire and then a low-wake, so my immediate thought is "Oh god, someone's trying to have fun by ruining everyone else's fun."

But unlike other people I'd seen, and unlike another dude who dropped in just behind me who quickly buggered off once he saw the lasers, I was in my 'Vette, and it wasn't a "I went to Sothis before I learned how to shoot straight" 'Vette, this was a "I worked my knuckles to the bone doing PP interdictions and bounty hunting" 'Vette. So not completely 100% tricked out with all the bells and whistles, but everything I needed, I had, looking back I wish I had spent more on a certain module (Which you'll see why later).

So I thought "I'll see what the situation is, if they were only defending themselves I can let it slide and we can all go on a jolly exploration spree together."

Then messages popped up along the lines of "Attention pilots, the alien structures are dangerous, do not land, or we will be forced to open fire, we have been given permission."

So, RPers.

"Okay" I thought "I can get in on this, I love a bit of role play from time to time."

So I planted my ship in plain view (Which is called the FNS Albion btw, because I used to active be in a Federal PP group, don't worry this gets relevant) and got on the horn with a "By whose authority?"

Which got the response "Federation."


Yeah, I know, it's eyebrow raising stuff, that's like A kid stopping people from playing on the brand new swings that the local council put in last week, and then when someone asks "Oh, and who said so?" he goes "America."

So naturally, the quick witted and devilishly handsome fellow that I am, I reply "That's a bit broad there, chum."

You would've thought that as RPers when a Federal Corvette with a name like "FNS Albion" comes along and jumps into your roleplay you could at least elaborate and make it about ten times more interesting.


Anyway, none of this added up, it all sounded like an excuse to me, so I hung about and then scanned them.

They were both wanted, with pretty large bounties. I've seen PVP players before, even friended one after a fight, and they never really have bounties more than 40k, these guys were rocking in the 100k ballpark, so serious criminals.

It was then that one of them started firing on an innocent python.

So I sprang to his aid, it was me, and an explorer python vs a Vulture and an Anaconda.

I messed up the vulture easily, got his shields down and got him to 60%, needless to say with the pummeling he took in the first 30 seconds, he wasn't having any more and scarpered.

The fight with the Anaconda took a while longer, because since two days ago I hadn't played in months, and I obviously don't have the latest meta engineering upgrades.



Once it all came back to me I tore the 'conda apart and I was chasing him up into space and laying waste to his hull and got him to about 38% when.......................


HE COMBAT LOGS! Or at least he appeared to.

Just straight up disappears, no wake, no nothing, no explosion telling me he'd died.

So I turned back to fly the 28km back down to the site whilst recharging my shields.


Turns out the Vulture plucked up the courage to show his face again. So when I do get back I immediately set to work at chasing him off again.


However, another Fed Corvette appeared, and I don't know if he was with them, or if he was a randomer, but needless to say he was on me like flies on a proverbial.


Because I had nothing left to face a Corvette, I did the sensible thing and ran for my life, all the while spamming chat as best I could with "Cease fire! Vulture is griefer!"

Which the vulture was already taking full advantage of by turning around and coming at me.


I made it out on 8% hull.........


I also made it to Maia.

But, just as I was about to jump to space to make the return trip to maia my canopy blew out.

I thus had 7 minutes to get to maia.

I didn't make it.

I got to within 500LS of the station and died.................................






So for trying to protect innocent scientists, I experienced some shockingly bad roleplay, griefing, the heartbreak of losing both the UA, the UP, my Buddy fighter pilot who I had at Dangerous, but on top of that I lost 25 mil to re-buy.....


I later learned that the Conda died, but yeah.... It doesn't bring back Cecil......... I'm sorry Cecil..... I failed you, if only FD didn't make jumping from system to system slower by putting stars in the way.... If only I would've bought the larger life support module!!!!

OH CECIL YOU WERE SO YOUNG (I think)!!! I only hope your family will take solace in the fact that their Cecil died trying to protect innocent CMDRs...











tl;dr Don't go to HIP 14909 right now. There are at least 2-3 people there trying to keep everyone from enjoying the alien structures. I got one, and messed up the other, but I'm not sure if that Corvette was friend or foe because I had more pressing matters to attend to. Just to be safe, you might want to give it a miss tonight, try again another time.

If you are in open, (be brave), it's not as dangerous as people would have you belive. Just dismiss your ship, you can't come to much harm then. Unless you can't stand the idea of dying in an srv.

 

[Alec Turner]

I have PD mounted on top of my 'Vette in the dorsal nose slots, and at the time I was chasing after the Vulture who was actually doing the shooting. The Conda was plinking my rear shields, and then the missile warning went up. I knew missiles directly behind me wouldn't be caught by the PD turrets, so I waited until the missiles were about to come into PD range, thrusted down, pitched up and locked my throttle on neutral, stopped pitching, and the PD turrets did their thing and PEW PEW'd the missiles, at which point I pitched up, kicked my throttle backwards then did a flip back around and pounded it after the vulture again without losing too much speed.

Made me feel like an action hero in a movie, a real "Here's what I think of your missiles buddy!" manoeuvre.

I'm damn proud of it too.

Out of rep but nice flying!

 

[Zoff]

2 - I didn't have the oxygen to make it that extra minute I needed to save my ship, and Cecil (Part of that is down to FD making time critical transits a mare by spawning a star in front of you, and part of it is me thinking I'd be okay with 7 minutes of backup air).

Stars do not always spawn in the wrong place, it depends on the location of the next jump (if you are travelling) and of the objects within the system. Sometimes the place you want is conveniently located and you hardly need to turn at all let alone fly around the star. I usually pick a nearby system which I know has an easy to get to station and plot route to that before I even fire a shot. If things get too rough all I need is "select next jump in route" and h-jump... two buttons on HOTAS and I am on the way.

 

[Stealthie]

In situations like that, a healthy paranoia is often a good thing.
For however many of them I can see, I always assume at least double that amount are somewhere nearby.
I've always got another system on speed-dial and I force myself to use it regardless of how brave I'm feeling.

Simple fact is, these guys almost always hunt in packs so you're always going to be at a tactical disadvantage.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

But I agree with you, the RP is down to honour

You expect honor out of Open? You did see the Salami Tapes, did you not?