Evacuation Mission Running

[Esteban]

Thank you for letting me know. Knight Enterprise is listed as damaged so I presumed that it wasn't under direct attack and it doesn't show that in the map (unless that changed since yesterday). There wasn't much going on there when I made my runs, especially of any intensity. 3 of 5 trips, there was no sign of a Thargoid ship. On my 4th, I heard COVAS report a frameshift anomaly and I got fired upon when leaving, but apparently (somehow) caused the caustic missile to miss. On my 5th run, there were two small ships but they seemed to be busy with a CMDR flying a Chieftain - Thank you, CMDR! Awesome support!

I was wondering about Wakata but didn't have a moment to stop by last session. That also means that I could bring my large-pad ship.

 

[Kayvan]

So I gave that a shot just now.
Refitted an Imperial Clipper that was just gathering space dust. I went with a cargo rack outfit bc I thought running frozen passengers would be easier.

So, first off: definitely can confirm the complaint of another user further up; it is a PAIN to process a dozen transportation missions for a single sortie. Way too many clicks just to pick up 5, 6 popsicles! So I'm gonna refit that w passenger cabins next time. And then I only managed to fill 92 tons out of my 200t cargo capacity.

As for the ship outfit itself: the clipper was combat-rigged, so everything A-rated and engineered. I replaced the shield with a class 4 Prismatic though, and added class 3 fuel scoop and GSFB for just shy of 40LY jump range. Unfortunately it does need a scoop due to the ~160LY distance, and the small scoop is a bother due to the low scoop rate, but I didn't want to waste a bigger slot. A single class 4 hull reinforcement for good measure.

I didn't fit a weapon but I'll remedy that, even if its main purpose is just to generate heat in case I need to burn off some caustic damage. Also got a heat sink and a SFN for good measure.

The real kicker of the Clipper ofc is the speed -- it runs almost 500 without boost, and boosts well over 600. Let the goids eat dirty drive exhaust fumes!

 

[Louis Calvert]

Really like that paintjob too

 

[QfXFred]

I've been running evac missions out of HIP 23716 with this bad boy : https://s.orbis.zone/l673

Has just enough range to get there from Tarach Tor in 4 jumps (including the hyperdictions into HIP), plenty of shields/hull/heatsinks to survive any interdiction, and fast enough to not get shot at most of the time anyway. I'll probably need to tweak it a bit to run other systems but worst case I can just swap one of the passenger cabins to a fuel scoop.

 

[TopShopGamer]

Looks like HIP 23716 is the place to be. Knight was lost but Wolf was kept. Now Wakata Station is under attack and it has large landing pads which means notable payouts. Speaking of Wakata, I just got shut down in the mail slot coming out. Luckily the station protected me from attack but I still lost almost 1.5k in hull before getting out of there.

Moral of the story is if you hang out at a station under attack too long, some big thargoids can jump in. This isn't the first time I've been shutdown when departing and time spent seems to be a deciding factor. If you're not above the tactic, you can logout immediately on shutdown and probably live through the exit countdown.

 

[Esteban]

So I gave that a shot just now.
Refitted an Imperial Clipper that was just gathering space dust. I went with a cargo rack outfit bc I thought running frozen passengers would be easier.

So, first off: definitely can confirm the complaint of another user further up; it is a PAIN to process a dozen transportation missions for a single sortie. Way too many clicks just to pick up 5, 6 popsicles! So I'm gonna refit that w passenger cabins next time. And then I only managed to fill 92 tons out of my 200t cargo capacity.

I have to agree. I have found that - if you want to carry wounded (aka cargo, not passengers) - I was able to fill my hold at Knight Enterprise when it was in a damaged state. Missions offered were for approx. 2 to >20 wounded each. I visited stations like Wakata Station (not under attack or damaged at the time) and Wolf orbital (it was under attack at the time) and a couple in the Imeut System. In all cases I could only get missions of something like 1 to 6 (ish) wounded each, meaning that I'd easily reach max missions (20) and have very few to haul. This is pretty blah. There's definitely no shortage of wounded and this help is also in dire need right now. To haul a-largely-empty hold all the way to Tarach Tor makes no sense form the standpoint of immersion in the situation (and I DO NOT need credits).

Your comment is also one that I plan to raise with FDev. Having just upgraded to the new UI, I very distinctly feel that the designer wasn't terribly conscious of the number-of-clicks required to accomplish things in the interface. I like the new UI well enough and there are definitely improvements over the old but this certainly has room to improve. It makes a very notable impact to anyone running numbers of missions or even just grabbing some limpets. Too many clicks, devs!


(btw, @Kayvan , you wouldn't care to post a link to your build, would you?)

 

[Kayvan]

Sure, here's the build as exported from Inara:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Keep in mind I did not make any new modules for the purpose, just took my "Ramming Speed!" clipper and refitted it. ^^ So the PP and PD could certainly be downsized a few notches to save weight. Conversely, I haven't engineered the Prismatics yet. If you were to build that thing from scratch, you'd prolly want Mil Composite rather than Reactive armour.
I also realized that refitting that one for passenger missions won't do much good; it has a class 7 compartment for which there are no cabins, so it would be a lot of wasted space. So I'll keep that one as a freighter and hope for some improvements on the UI front soon.

And then ofc there's the Clipper-sized elephant in the room that it's a Large ship and doesn't fit on outposts.

I have started refitting my trade Python for the purpose - took the thrusters out of another combat ship and refitted the rest. However, here I find it difficult to strike a good balance between durability and speed. To hit 500 boost you need to tailor for Lightweight a bit, whereas hitpoints cost mass so you'll prolly end up with 480 boost or so if you reinforce a Mil-grade hull.
However, the other day I saw in a YT video how an interceptor literally vaporized an unarmoured Beluga within seconds, with absolutely nothing that CMDR could do about it, so that's certainly a fate you want to avoid.
Guess I'll play around on Coriolis a bit and compare w a Crate [sic]; mine is currently labelled "Garbage Truck" bc it's sole purpose was to farm salvage mats in RES.

 

[TopShopGamer]

I was thinking about the cargo missions. You take a cargo mission to pick up on the way back, but it's a lot of added time. A medium ship could take 2 smaller missions and make about 450k on the return trip, but it adds 1-2 extra stops. A large ship could take bigger missions, but those require around 1-2k cargo per mission and the reward is small. It'll take 2-3 round trips and an extra stop each trip to complete one cargo mission. I wish we knew the weight of these missions on the background simulator, maybe the time spent is worth it.

If you have a fleet carrier, I suppose you could find common commodity requests for the missions and then stock the carrier up on those items in a nearby system. Either run the missions yourself or make a profit helping others. On that note, here's a list of items that Wakata has missions for, I'm guessing most stations are the same. I've been seeing more missions for clothing than others so that might be a good start.

Spoiler: Requested Commodities

Clothing
Non-Lethal Weapons
Explosives
Synthetic Meat
Advanced Medicines
Mineral Extractors
Fruits and Vegetables
Liquor
Consumer Technology
Onionhead Gamma Strain
Water
H.E. Suits
Animal Meat
Fish
Water Purifiers
Grain
Performance Enhancers

 

[Jup]

Large Cutter Cabins (shieldless, 188 Economy Seats, 38LY jump, 507 m/s boost, 3472 Armor):

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Works like a charm, shields are overrated
You rarely get hit much (just pop a heatsink if in doubt), and even if, 3472 is a lot of armor, you should never ever explode, unless you go AFK or something.
Obviously not a build for newer players.

 

[Esteban]

Sure, here's the build as exported from Inara:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Keep in mind I did not make any new modules for the purpose, just took my "Ramming Speed!" clipper and refitted it. ^^ So the PP and PD could certainly be downsized a few notches to save weight. Conversely, I haven't engineered the Prismatics yet. If you were to build that thing from scratch, you'd prolly want Mil Composite rather than Reactive armour.
I also realized that refitting that one for passenger missions won't do much good; it has a class 7 compartment for which there are no cabins, so it would be a lot of wasted space. So I'll keep that one as a freighter and hope for some improvements on the UI front soon.

And then ofc there's the Clipper-sized elephant in the room that it's a Large ship and doesn't fit on outposts.

I have started refitting my trade Python for the purpose - took the thrusters out of another combat ship and refitted the rest. However, here I find it difficult to strike a good balance between durability and speed. To hit 500 boost you need to tailor for Lightweight a bit, whereas hitpoints cost mass so you'll prolly end up with 480 boost or so if you reinforce a Mil-grade hull.
However, the other day I saw in a YT video how an interceptor literally vaporized an unarmoured Beluga within seconds, with absolutely nothing that CMDR could do about it, so that's certainly a fate you want to avoid.
Guess I'll play around on Coriolis a bit and compare w a Crate [sic]; mine is currently labelled "Garbage Truck" bc it's sole purpose was to farm salvage mats in RES.

The large-pad thing is an issue raised by several players. You can make it work. You just have to find a station with large pads in the correct "state" to get those missions.
Yes, I understand that the size 7 slot is a waste for passenger cabins. Maybe you keep that as cargo and the rest for passenger cabins and do both. Hmm...

Realize that I'm not doing rescues to earn credits. I don't need the credits so my view on this can be different from CMDRs who cite credits earned from missions like these.

For me the biggest down here is that a passenger cabin holds 1/2 the numerical value of the same size cargo hold. For a #6, I can hold 64t of cargo, but only 32 passengers.
For this reason, when I switched to passenger evac missions, I grabbed my Type-7. I'm not a huge fan of that ship; I simply prefer others. It does the job and is ultra-cheap to rebuy.

Incidentally, I have been flying around in my armed-trader Python all week without having touched its build. Even at 435 boost I have had zero difficulty escaping everything that mission-running has thrown at it.* I have rescued 1000+ wounded. A 500+ boost speed is impressive and great, but it's not utterly necessary. I have seen other CMDRs say this too. Even the tougher Thargoid opponents can easily be outmaneuvered and escaped with a ship below 500m/s or 450. Sheesh, I have done it in my 345-ish m/s boost Type-7! Sure it has taken hits but it can be done. Heatsinks help!

* No, not hyperdictions, of course. No magic., Sorry CMDRs!

 

[Esteban]

Large Cutter Cabins (shieldless, 188 Economy Seats, 38LY jump, 507 m/s boost, 3472 Armor):

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Works like a charm, shields are overrated
You rarely get hit much (just pop a heatsink if in doubt), and even if, 3472 is a lot of armor, you should never ever explode, unless you go AFK or something.
Obviously not a build for newer players.

Love this simple build! Might have to finally use that Cutter I got for Xmas last year!

 

[Kayvan]

Did a couple of passenger runs with my Python now - 130 seats, class 3 prismatic, and about 480 boost. Small beam just to decon quickly if I get caustic damage, and a SFN.
Here's the build, but as with the other one, I just slapped on whatever I had lying around:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Also, in Wakata the instance is broken most of the time, so you really only have to survive some scouts.

 

[TopShopGamer]

Large Cutter Cabins (shieldless, 188 Economy Seats, 38LY jump, 507 m/s boost, 3472 Armor):

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

s.orbis.zone

Works like a charm, shields are overrated
You rarely get hit much (just pop a heatsink if in doubt), and even if, 3472 is a lot of armor, you should never ever explode, unless you go AFK or something.
Obviously not a build for newer players.

I treated myself to a second cutter yesterday so I can keep my trade cutter intact and our builds are pretty close. I didn't realize how little the heavier armor would weigh, I'm definitely changing to military from lightweight. I was running 196 passengers, but I'll swap parts and upgrade the FSD booster like you have it to maintain a 40ly jump range. I'm going to be swapping 8 passengers for an extra 50% HP so thanks for the post!

This is what I'm swapping to when I hop on next:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

 

[Jup]

I treated myself to a second cutter yesterday so I can keep my trade cutter intact and our builds are pretty close. I didn't realize how little the heavier armor would weigh, I'm definitely changing to military from lightweight. I was running 196 passengers, but I'll swap parts and upgrade the FSD booster like you have it to maintain a 40ly jump range. I'm going to be swapping 8 passengers for an extra 50% HP so thanks for the post!

This is what I'm swapping to when I hop on next:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

Perfect, ofc. you can min/max here and there a bit.
I just used some modules that i had already engineered.

But i figured, just for evac missions, i don't need all the extra tools, xeno scanner, field neutraliser, point defence etc.
But doesn't rly matter much, add whatever you want, as long you get 500+ boost and somewhere around 38ly+ jump range you are in a good shape.
No fuel scoop needed, and even if, we can always sacrifice one 5E (or even just a 4E) Cabin for a Fuel Scoop.

The cutter is just awesome

 

[TopShopGamer]

I feel silly for not thinking of this sooner. There's no reason you can't run passengers and cargo. You can outfit a python to run an 80 passenger evacuation mission and have over 100t of cargo to run 8 or 9 cargo missions at the same time. My cutter can fit an 8E cargo rack and still do 2x 80 passenger missions. That's a lot of extra missions per run counting towards the war effort.

 

[SteveWW57]

Does not the number of missions affect the chances of interdiction? More missions, greater threat. Probably better off taking the least number possible.

Steve

 

[Leadfoot]

Did a couple of passenger runs with my Python now - 130 seats, class 3 prismatic, and about 480 boost. Small beam just to decon quickly if I get caustic damage, and a SFN.

I was originally doing the evac runs and found something really yucky about them: If you're coming in with cargo racks to take out the wounded that are in life pods you'll only get them in 1 through 5 pods at a time. Yeah, you get more opportunities to get more reward in materials for them but it means spending much more time in what is probably the only pad a python can land on at an outpost than I'd like. Then spend a lot of time on one of the few pads of a rescue ship as you deliver them one mission at a time while you KNOW others are waiting and waiting and waiting...

Can we just give them 10, 20, 30 pods at a time? Some of us are in a hurry.

 

[Esteban]

Been

I was originally doing the evac runs and found something really yucky about them: If you're coming in with cargo racks to take out the wounded that are in life pods you'll only get them in 1 through 5 pods at a time. Yeah, you get more opportunities to get more reward in materials for them but it means spending much more time in what is probably the only pad a python can land on at an outpost than I'd like. Then spend a lot of time on one of the few pads of a rescue ship as you deliver them one mission at a time while you KNOW others are waiting and waiting and waiting...

Can we just give them 10, 20, 30 pods at a time? Some of us are in a hurry.

The number of wounded offered for evac missions apparently depends on the state of the port. As I reported a couple of times before in a couple of threads (I have lost track), I was able to get missions for "a few" to >20 wounded (per mission) at damaged stations. In particular, I was working Knight Enterprise in the HIP 23716 System at the time. At stations under attack, the offerings fall to ridiculous amounts where you'll reach your allowable mission-count (20) well before your hold would be filled. It's terrible, but true.

 

[Leadfoot]

Been

The number of wounded offered for evac missions apparently depends on the state of the port. As I reported a couple of times before in a couple of threads (I have lost track), I was able to get missions for "a few" to >20 wounded (per mission) at damaged stations. In particular, I was working Knight Enterprise in the HIP 23716 System at the time. At stations under attack, the offerings fall to ridiculous amounts where you'll reach your allowable mission-count (20) well before your hold would be filled. It's terrible, but true.

Yeah, that's where it was, I just couldn't remember the name of the outpost off the top of my head. Took so long that I decided to give that up and just take the walking wounded instead.