Newcomer / Intro Couple newbie questions

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Hello good sirs, been playing this amazing game for a while (basically bringing back memories of the days when I was hooked up to Elite Frontier back in 90's), grinding my way to be able to afford solid exploration ship, taking no shortcuts, no cheats, exploits etc... I would like to ask couple questions:

1. I've done two Federal Navy Delivery missions, where I was supposed to buy the stuff and deliver it. One of them was 446 units of Palladium and the other was something less expensive, don't exsactly remember... The Palladium was a problem. I completed the delivery and the federal navy gave me full reward, but they did not pay for the goods... So I ended up roughly 5.4M credits short... Is that normal? The other federal navy mission ended up the same. received full reward, but no payment for the goods... Seems to me, that the navy is bunch of crooks... ​

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2. I just recently started training avoiding the interdiction by submitting and then boost boost boost and off you go... It worked coule of times, but then this Cobra MkIV tried to interdict me, I submitted, boost boost boost but I was not able to outrun him and out of horror I just watched him eat my shields and destroy my precious DiamondBack Explorer... How is that possible? DBE has higher max speed, it shouldn't happen...​

Thank you anyone for your kind explanation...

 

[Chris Simon]

Hello good sirs, been playing this amazing game for a while (basically bringing back memories of the days when I was hooked up to Elite Frontier back in 90's), grinding my way to be able to afford solid exploration ship, taking no shortcuts, no cheats, exploits etc... I would like to ask couple questions:

1. I've done two Federal Navy Delivery missions, where I was supposed to buy the stuff and deliver it. One of them was 446 units of Palladium and the other was something less expensive, don't exsactly remember... The Palladium was a problem. I completed the delivery and the federal navy gave me full reward, but they did not pay for the goods... So I ended up roughly 5.4M credits short... Is that normal? The other federal navy mission ended up the same. received full reward, but no payment for the goods... Seems to me, that the navy is bunch of crooks... ​

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2. I just recently started training avoiding the interdiction by submitting and then boost boost boost and off you go... It worked coule of times, but then this Cobra MkIV tried to interdict me, I submitted, boost boost boost but I was not able to outrun him and out of horror I just watched him eat my shields and destroy my precious DiamondBack Explorer... How is that possible? DBE has higher max speed, it shouldn't happen...​

Thank you anyone for your kind explanation...

1. Yes, that's normal. Consider it more like a donation mission than a delivery one. The point of the navy missions is navy ranks and reputation, not profit.

2. Could have been an actual player you've met.
NPCs generally don't even use boost when pursuing you so you can run away from even ships that are faster on paper. So I suspect it wasn't an NPC.
In any case, submitting to interdiction is a bad idea, because as soon as you jump back to SC, the NPC will be back and after you again. If you, instead, win the interdiction minigame, the NPC will be stuck in normal space on the FSD cooldown and you can continue in SC without being harrassed again.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

1. Yes, that's normal. Consider it more like a donation mission than a delivery one. The point of the navy missions is navy ranks and reputation, not profit.

2. Could have been an actual player you've met.
NPCs generally don't even use boost when pursuing you so you can run away from even ships that are faster on paper. So I suspect it wasn't an NPC.
In any case, submitting to interdiction is a bad idea, because as soon as you jump back to SC, the NPC will be back and after you again. If you, instead, win the interdiction minigame, the NPC will be stuck in normal space on the FSD cooldown and you can continue in SC without being harrassed again.

Thank you for your kind explanation! So no more deliveries for Navy, I couldn't be bothered with Navy rank, I'm only interested in exploration ATM...

Regarding that interdiction, I think it was actually an NPC, because at that time I was doing a mission, where the interdictions were to be expected, he tried to interdict me couúle of times, I won the minigame and escaped... But then I tried the sub/boost way. First time it worked, but then the same NPC interdicted me again and oliterated me in just a couple of seconds...

Also, since I lost my first DBE, I started paying very close attention to my radar and try to be very careful, when I do missions with high probability of interdiction, and these NPC sometimes come completely out of nowhere... No sign of any ship near me, yet I get interdicted...

 

[aRJay]

1: When you take such missions you have to decide if you can get the require supplies and make a profit from the rewards and sale and if not is the reward alone worth the costs too you.

2: The size and grade of thrusters fitted to the ships and the number of pips in Eng will affect their speed but as Chris said if boost wasn’t making the difference it might not have been an NPC.

 

[Chris Simon]

Also, since I lost my first DBE, I started paying very close attention to my radar and try to be very careful, when I do missions with high probability of interdiction, and these NPC sometimes come completely out of nowhere... No sign of any ship near me, yet I get interdicted...

Check your radar zoom. If you're zoomed all in, everything behind you (planets, ships,...) is bunched up in the lowest edge of the scanner screen so it's easy to overlook things.

Oh and also - start paying attention to mission rank. Normally, the ships you meet in the game are around your combat rank (or two or three ranks below your highest non-combat rank if your non-combat ranks are higher than your combat rank) (Yes that was a sentence and I'm standing by it). But when you accept Elite mission, the ships that will be going after you are going to be rank Elite, therefore vastly more capable.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

1: When you take such missions you have to decide if you can get the require supplies and make a profit from the rewards and sale and if not is the reward alone worth the costs too you.

2: The size and grade of thrusters fitted to the ships and the number of pips in Eng will affect their speed but as Chris said if boost wasn’t making the difference it might not have been an NPC.

Yeah, the pips in the engines could be an explanation... Of course I would love to say, that I'm sure I had full pips in the engines, but I'm not sure...

Couple more: is it possible, that you enter an unexplored system, you do the scan, then you do the FSS and yet you could still find something far away from the star, that was originally not visible to scans? Like I saw a guy making a vid on YT, where he scanned the system, there was nothing, he went ahed, flew couple thousands Ls and discovered some planets that would not initially show up...

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Check your radar zoom. If you're zoomed all in, everything behind you (planets, ships,...) is bunched up in the lowest edge of the scanner screen so it's easy to overlook things.

Oh and also - start paying attention to mission rank. Normally, the ships you meet in the game are around your combat rank (or two or three ranks below your highest non-combat rank if your non-combat ranks are higher than your combat rank) (Yes that was a sentence and I'm standing by it). But when you accept Elite mission, the ships that will be going after you are going to be rank Elite, therefore vastly more capable.

Yeah, thanks for the tip, I normally have my radar zoom set in the middle of the left part of the scale, so just partially zoomed in... This way I have escaped couple of interdictors, because I saw them lining up behind me... Could be, that I simply just thought, that I checked the radar and didn't see em coming... For a newbie, the game can be a little bit overwhelming...

Mission rank... Hmmm, that's a good observation... I do mostly trading and deliveries, I do not engage in fights that much... I killed some pirates just out of curiosity, but my rank is still Harmless... And yes, sometimes I do take Competent missions... I try to avoid Elite missions, as I know I would just waste my ship and cargo...

 

[Para Handy]

Thank you for your kind explanation! So no more deliveries for Navy, ..........

If you don't like the navy promotion mission offered to you, just exit the mission board and then re-enter it, the promotion (ascension) missions cycle each time you re-enter the board. I for example won't do strike missions so I refresh the board until I get a supply or courier mission for example.

Your choice...

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

If you don't like the navy promotion mission offered to you, just exit the mission board and then re-enter it, the promotion (ascension) missions cycle each time you re-enter the board. I for example won't do strike missions so I refresh the board until I get a supply or courier mission for example.

Your choice...

Well quite honestly, the promotion from Recruit to Cadet in exchange for 5.4M credits was not really something I would write home about...

 

[Chris Simon]

Well quite honestly, the promotion from Recruit to Cadet in exchange for 5.4M credits was not really something I would write home about...

What Para meant was that the navy missions come in all flavours, so if you decide to do them, you can simply wait for some easy one like data courier job or something like that so you don't lose money.

But yeah, generally, if you're not interested in navy ranks, just ignore them altogether. They're not lucrative in the slightest. (they will keep popping up until you complete one and raise your rank, though )

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

What Para meant was that the navy missions come in all flavours, so if you decide to do them, you can simply wait for some easy one like data courier job or something like that so you don't lose money.

But yeah, generally, if you're not interested in navy ranks, just ignore them altogether. They're not lucrative in the slightest. (they will keep popping up until you complete one and raise your rank, though )

Yes, thank you, I was just making a sarcastic comment about my poor choice of Navy mission...

 

[d8veh]

2. I just recently started training avoiding the interdiction by submitting and then boost boost boost and off you go... It worked coule of times, but then this Cobra MkIV tried to interdict me, I submitted, boost boost boost but I was not able to outrun him and out of horror I just watched him eat my shields and destroy my precious DiamondBack Explorer... How is that possible? DBE has higher max speed, it shouldn't happen...

Always travel with 4 pips to engines and two to shields. Don't change them before, during or after the interdiction.
A prerequisite is that you have a ship capable of at least 300 m/s boost speed. Try to get as high as 350 or more. For anything slower, you need to launch a heatsink immediately after the first boost. It will break target lock.
Do not delay the first boost. It's what gets you the distance to reduce any damage from enemy weapons.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Always travel with 4 pips to engines and two to shields. Don't change them before, during or after the interdiction.
A prerequisite is that you have a ship capable of at least 300 m/s boost speed. Try to get as high as 350 or more. For anything slower, you need to launch a heatsink immediately after the first boost. It will break target lock.
Do not delay the first boost. It's what gets you the distance to reduce any damage from enemy weapons.

Thank you, very good info, i will make sure I equip my ship with heatsink...

BTW, I went back to the game and went to finish the mission, that was interrupted just prior me posting my first post here. I got killed by that NPC that I could not outrun... So I go back and that same person tries to interdict me again... I evaded, delivered the cargo and without completing the mission (because I was afraid this NPC would get deleted from the galaxy), I went to hunt him down... And immediately after I undock, I get this message from him "I knew I'd find you blah blah blah..." But since I'm not skilled fighter, I didn't know where to find him... So I went to SC and he immediately tried to interdict me... I submit, because I want a fight... Scan shows Competent rank and Wanted... For a harmless trader/explorer, quite a challenge... Since I boosted rigt after interdiction, he opens fire... I tried maneuvring behind him, while my shileds drop to two lines... I finaly get behind him, but he's cahffing like crazy, because my gimballed 2D beam lasers cannot lock... Police appears and starts fighting him as well... Eventually my weapons managed to get a lock a stripped his shields, with help of the kind police officers... I started pounding him with my 3C Multicannon and within a minute pufff... He evaporates... Ahhhhh... the feeling of satisfaction... Especially when he sent me a message "You scratched my paint!" at the beginning of the fight, taunting me... Well I guess if there wasnt police to keep him busy, I would probably REBUY again...

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

LOL, got interdicted again, guess these pirates were after me because of the other mission i had on my list... This time the ship was Mc Fleury Da lance or something like that, the pilot was Master and we killed him together with the police.... I managed to score just a couple of hits, as he was chaffing all the time... And he probably sent couple of missiles in my diection, as my point defence needed refilll...

 

[Chris Simon]

Thank you, very good info, i will make sure I equip my ship with heatsink...

BTW, I went back to the game and went to finish the mission, that was interrupted just prior me posting my first post here. I got killed by that NPC that I could not outrun... So I go back and that same person tries to interdict me again... I evaded, delivered the cargo and without completing the mission (because I was afraid this NPC would get deleted from the galaxy), I went to hunt him down... And immediately after I undock, I get this message from him "I knew I'd find you blah blah blah..." But since I'm not skilled fighter, I didn't know where to find him... So I went to SC and he immediately tried to interdict me... I submit, because I want a fight... Scan shows Competent rank and Wanted... For a harmless trader/explorer, quite a challenge... Since I boosted rigt after interdiction, he opens fire... I tried maneuvring behind him, while my shileds drop to two lines... I finaly get behind him, but he's cahffing like crazy, because my gimballed 2D beam lasers cannot lock... Police appears and starts fighting him as well... Eventually my weapons managed to get a lock a stripped his shields, with help of the kind police officers... I started pounding him with my 3C Multicannon and within a minute pufff... He evaporates... Ahhhhh... the feeling of satisfaction... Especially when he sent me a message "You scratched my paint!" at the beginning of the fight, taunting me... Well I guess if there wasnt police to keep him busy, I would probably REBUY again...

Good job!

Honestly the first couple of fights are the most sweat-inducing. You'll get used to it.

Also, don't know if you know, but if you have gimballed weapons and the enemy is using chaff, you can de-target them. That will stop weapons from gimbaling and you can use them as fixed weapons (provided you have that level of ship control already, of course) in either case, hitting them occasionally is still better than not hitting them at all.

 

[CMDR SleepyDelegate]

Good job!

Honestly the first couple of fights are the most sweat-inducing. You'll get used to it.

Also, don't know if you know, but if you have gimballed weapons and the enemy is using chaff, you can de-target them. That will stop weapons from gimbaling and you can use them as fixed weapons (provided you have that level of ship control already, of course) in either case, hitting them occasionally is still better than not hitting them at all.

LOL, my ship control has still an entire galaxy for improvement... But thanks for the tip, next time I meet this Mc Fleury De Lance, I will de-target him and try to hit him that way... I also just learned, that I have night vision, which allows me to see untargeted ships even in the dark of space...

 

[Chris Simon]

LOL, my ship control has still an entire galaxy for improvement... But thanks for the tip, next time I meet this Mc Fleury De Lance, I will de-target him and try to hit him that way... I also just learned, that I have night vision, which allows me to see untargeted ships even in the dark of space...

Yes. Although being primarily aimed at explorers for planetary use, one of the side effects of the night vision is that it totally killed all stealth builds one might find fun using. PvPers were quite livid.

 

[Ashnak]

...
Couple more: is it possible, that you enter an unexplored system, you do the scan, then you do the FSS and yet you could still find something far away from the star, that was originally not visible to scans? Like I saw a guy making a vid on YT, where he scanned the system, there was nothing, he went ahed, flew couple thousands Ls and discovered some planets that would not initially show up...

With exploration (and everything else, actually), definitely check the expiry date of the videos. What you describe sounds like a pre-FSS video, when we had three types of Discovery Scanner - short, medium and infinite range. With the FSS, all signals in the system show up and you can give all objects a preliminary check by zooming in on them.

 

[aRJay]

Yeah, the pips in the engines could be an explanation... Of course I would love to say, that I'm sure I had full pips in the engines, but I'm not sure...

Couple more: is it possible, that you enter an unexplored system, you do the scan, then you do the FSS and yet you could still find something far away from the star, that was originally not visible to scans? Like I saw a guy making a vid on YT, where he scanned the system, there was nothing, he went ahed, flew couple thousands Ls and discovered some planets that would not initially show up...

Remember to always check the date of any tips and videos not all of the ones that are now obsolete are removed.

The only astronomical bodies in a system that won’t show up in the FSS scan would be behind the star when the scan was made distance Is not a factor, just something big enough and close enough to the scanning ship to act as a block.

edit: Ninja’d

 

[Ashnak]

...
2. I just recently started training avoiding the interdiction by submitting and then boost boost boost and off you go... It worked coule of times, but then this Cobra MkIV tried to interdict me, I submitted, boost boost boost but I was not able to outrun him and out of horror I just watched him eat my shields and destroy my precious DiamondBack Explorer... How is that possible? DBE has higher max speed, it shouldn't happen...

Are you sure about the ship? That would have been the first NPC I've seen (or heard of) in a Cobra Mk.IV - that one was/is a special bonus for early buyers of Horizons IIRC. A Viper Mk.IV on the other hand would have no big trouble in catching up with a DBX.