Combat bond query.

[Llandrenel]

So, I'm doing some conflict zones to get a few combat missions done, but each time I go to station to re-arm/repair when I hand in my current bonds, I click the contacts, click combat bonds and it gives me a price my bonds are worth, but when I sell them, I actually receive somewhat less than it says my bonds are worth. Most recently, about 100k less, not much to be sure, but it's mine . Do I need to sell bonds at a particular station to get their full amount, and if so how do I know which, or is something else dropping my rewards?

 

[Faded Glory]

Do you have any NPC crew? They take a percentage of all your income whether they are working or not.

 

[Hoshizoku]

Did you use the interstellar faction to hand them in?
Else i bet u got a sneaky credit leeching Crew sitting in the hub, slurping smoothies.

 

[Llandrenel]

Do you have any NPC crew? They take a percentage of all your income whether they are working or not.

Yea, that'll be it, got a crewman for my fighter bay. Figured they'd only take from missions for some reason, didn't click that it'd be that stuff too. Haha.

 

[Llandrenel]

Also kinda sucks you can't take on multiple missions for the same killing and have em all count up at the dame time like it would in many another game. But I get it, make us work for that rep rather than being sneaky.

On the subject of crew though. I bought me an expert and they have what seems to be an exp bar. Do they level up to elite eventually and if so, do they cost more? Or will they keep to their original payments but just get better as they go, meaning that while a harmless would be near useless at first, in the long run it'd be better cause levelling them up to higher ranks would mean they take less cash for the same job?

-- Oh, also, should I let go of my crew, can I then re-hire the same pilot from the station I originally hired them with whatever progress they made towards the rank upgrade they had when I last hired them?

 

[Hoshizoku]

u can stack pirate massacre missions from different factions, wont work with CZ since theres only 1 faction offering the missions.
you can level your crew, they take half your combat exp.
for costs: the lower the crew started out as, the less % it takes at the higher ranks. i think a harmless to elite crew takes around 10%, a expert to elite wld take around 20%

you wont be able to rehire your crew once gone

 

[Llandrenel]

u can stack pirate massacre missions from different factions, wont work with CZ since theres only 1 faction offering the missions.
you can level your crew, they take half your combat exp.
for costs: the lower the crew started out as, the less % it takes at the higher ranks. i think a harmless to elite crew takes around 10%, a expert to elite wld take around 20%

you wont be able to rehire your crew once gone

I see, so if say, 3 factions from the same station ask me to hunt XXX, they will stack, but not two missions to hunt XXX from the same mission giver? And that'd be the ones where I gotta hunt them down and interdict / be interdicted by them personallly, seeing as they wouldn't be in the CZ, right?

 

[Faded Glory]

I see, so if say, 3 factions from the same station ask me to hunt XXX, they will stack, but not two missions to hunt XXX from the same mission giver? And that'd be the ones where I gotta hunt them down and interdict / be interdicted by them personallly, seeing as they wouldn't be in the CZ, right?

Yes, massacre missions from different factions for targets from one faction stack. Massacre mission targets are usually pirates or deserters or the like, and the targets can be found either at REZ sites (if there are any in the target system), or will spawn in mission related signal sources.

 

[Peregrine Vee]

On the subject of crew though. I bought me an expert and they have what seems to be an exp bar. Do they level up to elite eventually and if so, do they cost more? Or will they keep to their original payments but just get better as they go, meaning that while a harmless would be near useless at first, in the long run it'd be better cause levelling them up to higher ranks would mean they take less cash for the same job?

Crew gain xp and level up their ranking which makes them all around better at everything. However it also increases their cost slightly each time they get better. Levels they gain working for you cost less of a chunk of your cash than levels that you pay for out of the gate, so the best way to minimize your cost is to hire someone harmless and train them up yourself. Someone trained all the way from harmless to elite like that will take about 10% of your profits, but that's a lot less than it'd be if you bought expert right out of the gate and went from there.

One other thing to note is they do take a chunk of your combat xp for every enemy ship you kill that they landed any damage on. This can slow down your combat rank leveling if you rely on them too much, but if you want to have all the XP to yourself you can always leave em off duty for a bit.

As for what they're good for? I mostly use them for harassment and distraction when I'm hunting in rez sites or conflict zones. They do a little bit of damage on their own which is nice, but their real value is all the time whichever NPC your fighting will spend flailing around trying to land a hit on the hired pilot's ship launched fighter while you're spraying them down with the big guns.

 

[aRJay]

Just to emphasise NPC crew get their percentage cut of any credits you make whether they are active or not, they only take a cut of your combat XP if they are in the fight.

Until I got to Elite in combat I didn’t use them for actual combat just as part of the defences of my cargo ships, initially I would hire one for the voyage then fire them before selling the cargo so they didn’t get a percentage.

 

[Susanna]

Yea, that'll be it, got a crewman for my fighter bay. Figured they'd only take from missions for some reason, didn't click that it'd be that stuff too. Haha.

I had an Elite npc that I trained in up from helpless. When I realised that they had syphoned off 1.5b credits, I fired them on the spot! No more little money leaks like this! They take a cut of everything! Hire when needed - fire them immediately after!

 

[d8veh]

Also kinda sucks you can't take on multiple missions for the same killing and have em all count up at the dame time like it would in many another game. But I get it, make us work for that rep rather than being sneaky.

On the subject of crew though. I bought me an expert and they have what seems to be an exp bar. Do they level up to elite eventually and if so, do they cost more? Or will they keep to their original payments but just get better as they go, meaning that while a harmless would be near useless at first, in the long run it'd be better cause levelling them up to higher ranks would mean they take less cash for the same job?

-- Oh, also, should I let go of my crew, can I then re-hire the same pilot from the station I originally hired them with whatever progress they made towards the rank upgrade they had when I last hired them?

Always take a harmless crew and rank them up because it'll be a lot cheaper in the long run. Get a new harmless crew and take them to a high RES, log or jump in and out until you get a spawn of only small ships. In no time your crew will be ranked up enough to be useful.

 

[d8veh]

I had an Elite npc that I trained in up from helpless. When I realised that they had syphoned off 1.5b credits, I fired them on the spot! No more little money leaks like this! They take a cut of everything! Hire when needed - fire them immediately after!

Money is so easy to get now that it makes no difference to keep your crew. An Elite one is always better to have than a competent one. Mine's taken about 23 billion off me, but it's like tax: I don't mind paying a lot of tax because the more I pay, the more money I get for myself because tax is a percentage of your earnings.

If your crew took 1,5 billion off you, it means that you got about 15 billion for yourself, which is more money than you'll ever need in the game, so it was poinless sacking your crew. An elite crew is worth a lot more than 10 billion in the bank that you can't spend.

 

[Lightspeed]

They are fun to watch in action, if you give the SLF a distinctive color for their weapons

It also gives you information about how effective they are, not what they claim to be. There was a time when they used to slope around doing nothing, just saying things like "that one's for me !" and, without the color, you'd have been none the wiser

 

[Llandrenel]

Indeed. I only have them on when I'm jumping into combat by choice that's more thna just "take down named XXX" cause that's usually only 1, or maybe two enemy pilots. But yea, I have found it to be that their main use is keeping enemy pilots off me, rather than any specific damage numbers they provide. As for taking my exp, I don't mind that at all, I'm not massively bothered about my combat exp to be fair, I just jump into those for a break from other things when I'm tired of mining/trading and exploring.

 

[Susanna]

Money is so easy to get now that it makes no difference to keep your crew. An Elite one is always better to have than a competent one. Mine's taken about 23 billion off me, but it's like tax: I don't mind paying a lot of tax because the more I pay, the more money I get for myself because tax is a percentage of your earnings.

If your crew took 1,5 billion off you, it means that you got about 15 billion for yourself, which is more money than you'll ever need in the game, so it was poinless sacking your crew. An elite crew is worth a lot more than 10 billion in the bank that you can't spend.

True - to some extent. My intent with the NPC was as an assistant when I was using a fighter when flying over planets. But I don't do that very often. I don't especially need an NPC when doing PVE ... So they didn't really serve a purpose for me.