Combat whilst exploring... cool

[Badman76]

Anyone had this happened to them. I'm playing in solo, canyon running in my slf, aimlessly flying about with my krait mk2 explorer following me, when i noticed an npc ship land in the distance. I approach wanting to see what he was doing, but when i got close he said over the comms 'ha, I've got you now' turned his engines on and started to attack my krait.

I'm not really into combat, I'm at harmless rank, he was dangerous but it didn't end well for him, my krait had 6A shields and to my surprise, the slf made short work of him quickly. My krait took no hull damage

Anyway, is this a thing or was this not meant to happen. I enjoyed it, but it also made me really appreciate having good shields and a way to defend myself even whilst away from the bubble.

 

[Rick6549]

Well children, what did we- wait hold on, he did it right ??!?!


Anyway, yes, npcs will still spawn quite a distance from civilazation

 

[Bigmaec]

Sounds like you had a mission (or were pledged?) ...
Or cargo in the hold?

 

[Badman76]

No, i wasn't doing a mission, and my krait had no cargo aboard either

The pirate definitely landed on the planet too, and turned his thrusters and lights off.

 

[Jmanis]

Came here expecting a ragepost, found a pleasant experience of dynamic and varying experiences.

10/10 would read again.

 

[Rick6549]

No, i wasn't doing a mission, and my krait had no cargo aboard either

The pirate definitely landed on the planet too, and turned his thrusters and lights off.

Maybe they just dont like you ??

Though it is possible you went into a trespass zone and didnt realize

 

[Badman76]

Maybe they just dont like you ??

Though it is possible you went into a trespass zone and didnt realize

lol Maybe, but i had already probed the planet and it showed no factories or planetary ports.

I'll just take it as an enjoyable one off experience

 

[B.Roberts]

Anyone had this happened to them. Im playing in solo, canyon running in my slf, aimlessly flying about with my krait mk2 explorer following me, when i noticed an npc ship land in the distance. I approach wanting to see what he was doing, but when i got close he said over the comms 'ha, i've got you now' turned his engines on and started to attack my krait.

Im not really into combat, im at harmless rank, he was dangerous but it didn't end well for him, my krait had 6A sheilds and to my surprise, the slf made short work of him quickly. My krait took no hull damage

Anyway, is this a thing or was this not meant to happen. I enjoyed it, but it also made me really appreciate have good sheilds and a way to defend myself even whilst away from the bubble.

I had some encounters of that nature in the past, I've also seen dormant NPC ships on the surface of the planets. I haven't seen it myself anywhere outside of the bubble though, which makes sense because NPCs simulating human behavior and if there's no humans in the area NPCs wouldn't have any business of being there either.

 

[Rick6549]

lol Maybe, but i had already probed the planet and it showed no factories or planetary ports.

I'll just take it as an enjoyable one off experience

Sometimes there are procgen trespass zones too. Usually have a couple skimmers and some cargo pods, occasionally a ship (like what you saw) guarding it.

 

[photomankc]

Sometimes there are procgen trespass zones too. Usually have a couple skimmers and some cargo pods, occasionally a ship (like what you saw) guarding it.

Yep, I've run into exactly that. I've also seen them sit back and do nothing while I looted a cache site. So it was a bit of a surprise when a Viper popped up off the deck and came at me one time. Waiting to get back into the SRV bay was excruciating, and I had to bail because my shields were already hurting. Loved it.

Nice exploration rig though. It's good to travel with a buddy!

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

I was on a planetary scan mission and a npc wanted status ship was parked up no lights low heat shields on and a couple of sys authority ships were looking for him ( scripted background flavour i think) because as he was in the way of my preferred route in i waited till tbe cops were close then lit him up , cops deal with him i keep sneaking in, thanks for coming

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Must be a personal narrative.

 

[CMDR GRAEME COWELL]

Have seen the sys authority ships doing the low level search thing a dozen or so times near POI's even the non-persistent ones so like i was saying above i believe they are scripted for flavour

 

[sandkid]

Along with many others, I've advocated for more hostile encounters in the black - be they human or otherwise - that are combat risks. There will always be a place for the stripped down, max-jump explorer by virtue of the racing spirit inherent to the career. But, currently, there is virtually no place for the heavily armed and prepared explorer.

Which is a real shame, especially with descriptions like that of the Federal Corvette - a long range patrol craft - that makes an excellent explorer if you don't care about jump range (like most ships). I don't think we need anything greater than Master rank out in the black in terms of AI lethality, but I do wish my favorite explorer (a fully equipped DBX) had the occasional miscreant or rambunctious flora give it a run for its money. Risky enough to possibly warrant high-waking and give lightweights pause before dropping out in the first place, but balanced such that small ships (and thus newer explorers) could handle it with the right equipment.

That's not to say there isn't potential for highly lethal encounters in the black. Imagine if Thargoid swarms were programmed to be nomadic, gradually drifiting in random corners of the galaxy over time. Or hidden illegal AI research stations? Or drug cartels ferrying their cargo from the depths of distant nebulae? There's a lot of 'combat exploration' potential in Elite with a little thinking and smart programming of existing assets.

 

[Jmanis]

Along with many others, I've advocated for more hostile encounters in the black - be they human or otherwise - that are combat risks. There will always be a place for the stripped down, max-jump explorer by virtue of the racing spirit inherent to the career. But, currently, there is virtually no place for the heavily armed and prepared explorer.

Which is a real shame, especially with descriptions like that of the Federal Corvette - a long range patrol craft - that makes an excellent explorer if you don't care about jump range (like most ships). I don't think we need anything greater than Master rank out in the black in terms of AI lethality, but I do wish my favorite explorer (a fully equipped DBX) had the occasional miscreant or rambunctious flora give it a run for its money. Risky enough to possibly warrant high-waking and give lightweights pause before dropping out in the first place, but balanced such that small ships (and thus newer explorers) could handle it with the right equipment.

That's not to say there isn't potential for highly lethal encounters in the black. Imagine if Thargoid swarms were programmed to be nomadic, gradually drifiting in random corners of the galaxy over time. Or hidden illegal AI research stations? Or drug cartels ferrying their cargo from the depths of distant nebulae? There's a lot of 'combat exploration' potential in Elite with a little thinking and smart programming of existing assets.

I'm not going to go into the things I've suggested before, but they've been a range of activities which would be calculated risks out in the black, for potentially more rewards.

But no. Apparently that's not what exploration is... rather it's just honk, scan planets, and hope the random attributes planet "X" has set some record for being higher than other attributes of planet "N".