Evacuation Mission Running

TopShopGamer · Dec 2, 2022

I've been running evacuation missions in the thargoid warzones and my ship has been working out well. I have a python for medium station trading that I mainly use for power play. I swapped some cargo for a shield and it's a good fit. It's fully engineered, but the only thing you really need are good thrusters on it. I made an unengineered version as well, but you should still engineer the thrusters with dirty/drag drives as far as you can; I can't assure that you'll live without them.

If you want to try evacuation missions too, here are some tips:

Transportation missions are cargo, occupied escaped pods. Evacuation mission are passenger missions and pay much better.
500m/s is a good goal to keep the thargoids away
If you don't usually turn FA off, turn it off while you're boosting away and on to align your jump. Every bit helps when you're under fire.
Find a hub actively being attacked, the rewards are much better
Autodock doesn't work when the station is under attack. Get docked quickly or flee and repair.
Use solo play so you're not hogging the 1 open landing pad at medium stations
You don't need more than 200t of cargo space, you'll fill up on contracts before your cargo bay does
Most importantly, plot your route before departing! You'll likely be under fire as soon as you come out of the station.

These are just some things I've noticed while running the missions. If anyone else has some tips for people, please share 'em.

My build:

Coriolis EDCD Edition

A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

coriolis.io

Unengineered variant:

https://coriolis.io/outfit/python?c...==.Aw18RQ==..EweloBhBmUA5QFMCGBzANokICMF8hRFA

o7

BDelacroix · Dec 2, 2022

I've been advising that 300+ boost speed is plenty to be able to get through. Don't fight the thargoid interdictions just submit and dash.

My t10, on the other hand is <300 even with a boost. But it was only supposed to be a fuel transfer mule. So hasn't been optimized at all, just spare parts lying about. Still got there and back with half hull.

TopShopGamer · Dec 3, 2022

300+? That's great news. I would hate to think the content was locked behind an engineer.

I made a few more runs and thought of more notes. I also swapped out the unengineered python build above. I didn't take into account the return trip, the original build would have to stop for fuel. Increasing the power plant allowed for a fuel scoop while retaining 190T of cargo space.

Accept all of the evacuation missions that there and then take an irl breather. When you come back, the station will have more missions available so you can max out your contracts at one station. Having to head for another station or system just means more interdictions.

If you get blown up with evacuees, you'll owe money in fines. The fines look almost as high as the rewards, but I don't plan on testing it on purpose. More reason to fill up on contracts at a single station for fewer interdictions.

Helmut Grokenberger · Dec 3, 2022

I usually find both types of evacuation missions. You either get missions to evacuate injured persons in escape pods as cargo in the transport category in the mission board, or you find refugee transports in the group transport category in the passenger area. For those you need economy cabins, those are bulk missions so you can fill the cabins to the brim across the missions.

I found that, for my own personal goals, the passenger missions were more effective. There are way more passenger missions than you can accept, and there are quite a few of them that offer five G5 materials, usually biotech conductors or exquisite focus crystals, sometimes G5 data (mostly moddified embedded firmware). I got offered missions between 18 and 80 passengers, and with my 112-passenger Python I can usually get three to five missions (depending on availability) to earn 15 to 25 G5 mats per run.

With the cargo evac, I got offered between 15 and 20 missions of 8 to 11 passengers each, with the material reward being 1, and a max of around 10 material offering missions. Also, accepting the mission, collecting the cargo, delivering the cargo and handing in the mission is quite a tedious process, and in the end my 192t Python was running 1/3 empty.

Of course doing more missions at once might be better for the war effort; I guess we still don't know what influence exactly running those missions has on the war state. For the personal gain (materials) passenger rescues seemed more efficient to me.

I started with near empty biotech conductors and exquisite focus crystals. I collected 50 biotech conductors and 47 exquisite focus crystals during my four hour play session, and of those only two crystals were from cargo missions. The other cargo missions I got were a few modified embedded firmware and a handful of G4 data I don't remember. I also did some ship building and visited a material trader, so I wasn't running missions for the full four hours.

The Robigo runs are more time efficient as a source for materials, because the rescue ships are a few jumps away and you don't have to deal with hyper-/interdictions and approaching through a warzone. But personally I can't do Robigo for longer than half an hour because it is too boring, while at least for now running evac in the war zone was quite exciting. Maybe it wears off over time though.

To bad we only get these two G5 materials (three if you count the data) from missions.

Felix DiCestria · Dec 3, 2022

I'm running an Orca, 80 passengers, 12 tonnes cargo.
Speed is good for the hyperdiction on the way in. I fly a corkscrew to the station ( put the destination in the top corner and keep it there while I spiral round it) I haven't had a single interdiction flying that way.

Go'Gen · Dec 3, 2022

Python, 116 seats for group passengers. Boost speed 470.

Question:
Is there a diminishing return for attacked stations at some point? Like, if there's really no point to do more than five runs.

Ashnak · Dec 3, 2022

Felix DiCestria said:
I'm running an Orca, 80 passengers, 12 tonnes cargo.
Speed is good for the hyperdiction on the way in. I fly a corkscrew to the station ( put the destination in the top corner and keep it there while I spiral round it) I haven't had a single interdiction flying that way.

Î can squeeze 80 pax in my Phantom, but no cargo (at least not if I want to bring along a bit of hull reinforcement and a smal AFMU - but I'm still squeezing the last few bits of engineering in, so don't know yet how she will stand up). And the Orca limits you to large pad stations (in space or on the ground).

Louis Calvert · Dec 3, 2022

If any new commanders out there are looking for a budget build; a cobra with some drive tuning and heatsinks works great - it's fast an agile enough to outrun anything, and get into ports under attack easily, and it can run cold for quite a while.

56t of sick & injured out per run and you can run back in needed supplies.
No shield needed, or anything fancy, it's a really cheap and effective way to get started.
With that much cargo space you can make 2-4mill per run
Guardian FSD booster makes the trip to the rescue ships quicker.
Total ship value (A-rated) at about 6mill, so rebuys are no issue for even newer commanders.

Felix DiCestria · Dec 4, 2022

Ashnak said:
Î can squeeze 80 pax in my Phantom, but no cargo (at least not if I want to bring along a bit of hull reinforcement and a smal AFMU - but I'm still squeezing the last few bits of engineering in, so don't know yet how she will stand up). And the Orca limits you to large pad stations (in space or on the ground).

True, the major result of which is being forced into solo as there's only a single large pad on the rescue ship.
However the speed means I don't need an AMFU or any reinforcement.

TopShopGamer · Dec 5, 2022

Oh wow, I haven't done passenger missions in so long that I forgot about them. I have a cutter outfitted for trading that I swapped out for passengers and I'm making 30mil credits per evacuation run to the large station Fozard Dock in HIP 19934. It looks like each passenger is bringing in around 130k-150k credits. I changed my pyhton over as well as there aren't many large docks remaining under attack. Here's an unengineered version that will net you around 18mil credits per run. 5 runs and it pays for iteslf. It has 136 passenger slots, which is enough for an 80 passenger mission and a 54.

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A ship builder, outfitting and comparison tool for Elite Dangerous

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Val Sylvana · Dec 5, 2022

This is the Python I put together for evacuations yesterday, fully engineered and with the tech broker FSD and heatsink launcher. It'll boost to nearly 500 and do over 250 Ly with 140 passengers, or about 225 if you carry cargo instead (280 T). The range allows for a couple of hyperdictions between the rescue ship and station.

I did try an Anaconda before this, but it was too unwieldy and the smaller operational range wasn't worth the mediocre extra capacity.

Fr33k · Dec 5, 2022

Hopefully a quick question, I am doing passenger evacuation missions, should I be turning them in for max 'influence' to get the most impact in the Thargoid war? Or does this just affect human faction stuff, so for the Thargoid War is it just a number of evacuees game, so may as well take cash or materials?

UFKLS · Dec 6, 2022

I went to Wilkes Base in Imeut, which is 54k ls from entry in a T 9, just to see if it worked.

Got hyperdicted by an interceptor (hull 80%), and interdicted by scouts twice, after which I had 60% hull left. Second interdiction took me some time to remember the key for supercruise for whatever reason. So quite comfortable.

Just military composite, no engineering, and a load of heat Sinks. Boost speed is 215 m/s or so.

I went on silent running and heat sinks. I couldn't really fool the interceptor as he kept a clear line of site to me. The scouts acted somewhat confused, only 2 attacked and one of them went silent after a while.

One could swap in a repair limpet controller and I think that's good enough.

Louis Calvert · Dec 6, 2022

UFKLS said:
I went to Wilkes Base in Imeut, which is 54k ls from entry in a T 9, just to see if it worked.

Got hyperdicted by an interceptor (hull 80%), and interdicted by scouts twice, after which I had 60% hull left. Second interdiction took me some time to remember the key for supercruise for whatever reason. So quite comfortable.

Just military composite, no engineering, and a load of heat Sinks. Boost speed is 215 m/s or so.

I went on silent running and heat sinks. I couldn't really fool the interceptor as he kept a clear line of site to me. The scouts acted somewhat confused, only 2 attacked and one of them went silent after a while.

One could swap in a repair limpet controller and I think that's good enough.

Good to know, how did you get away from the Thargoid mass lock? That's the thing that gets me with sub-500m/s ships

Louis Calvert · Dec 6, 2022

Fr33k said:
Hopefully a quick question, I am doing passenger evacuation missions, should I be turning them in for max 'influence' to get the most impact in the Thargoid war? Or does this just affect human faction stuff, so for the Thargoid War is it just a number of evacuees game, so may as well take cash or materials?

That is a good question, I'd like to know that too! I hadn't thought to ask, been assuming that just completing the mission is enough.

UFKLS · Dec 6, 2022

Louis Calvert said:
Good to know, how did you get away from the Thargoid mass lock? That's the thing that gets me with sub-500m/s ships

That wasn't a problem. Maybe I got lucky.

I think it did some maneuver that let me leave. Rather than just flying behind me.

I would have guessed it to be much scarier than it actually was. I've been using a fully engineered MK2 so far.

UFKLS · Dec 6, 2022

So, the thing is: Before I took this trip I was pretty sure I'd die there. I was very underwhelmed, when those 3 incidents only shook off 20% hull. (I haven't spoken English for a while, it takes some tries to formulate my thoughts. )

Esteban · Dec 7, 2022

Fr33k said:
Hopefully a quick question, I am doing passenger evacuation missions, should I be turning them in for max 'influence' to get the most impact in the Thargoid war? Or does this just affect human faction stuff, so for the Thargoid War is it just a number of evacuees game, so may as well take cash or materials?

I am going to guess that the answer is NO. Why? Building INF is done to move factions which occupy a system. The Thargoids are attacking, they are not a faction that occupies the system. I believe that makes sense.

What I have been doing is turning them in for Rep with the expectation that I might see a little benefit when I have better reputation with the factions.
o7

Esteban · Dec 7, 2022

A question of mine:

While running these evac missions, it's impossible not to wonder what I might bring along on the "empty" leg of the trip (coming to the stations to pick up). However, the station where I've been frequently (Knight Enterprise in the HIP 23716 System) has no open commodities market. I figured that medicines and numerous other supplies would be useful cargoes to haul into these stations.
How do I help in this way?

Louis Calvert · Dec 7, 2022

Esteban said:
A question of mine:

While running these evac missions, it's impossible not to wonder what I might bring along on the "empty" leg of the trip (coming to the stations to pick up). However, the station where I've been frequently (Knight Enterprise in the HIP 23716 System) has no open commodities market. I figured that medicines and numerous other supplies would be useful cargoes to haul into these stations.
How do I help in this way?

Stations not under direct attack have missions to supply resources. It's not going to help you at Knight Enterprises, but it will at Wakata Station (who also have evac missions)