Pirate hunting missions used to be reasonably easy and fun. Drop into the named system, hit up a RES, if not just wait for USS spawns and soon enough you get your quota.
Now I haven't seen any since 1.6 went in, so when I found one to hunt down 6 pirates from a particular faction I picked it up thinking it would be as straightforward as it was previously, especially as it was for a system which I regularly bounty hunt in anyway. So off I toddle, drop into my favourite RES and start shooting the bad guys. An hour later and I'm still 0 for 6, so I read the mission log more carefully. Hmm, so it says search RES's, signal sources and the nav beacon, all sensible options so I give that a try and do a quick tour of the local RESs and come up with nothing. Drop into the Nav beacon and find it swarming with Fed Power Play NPCs who quickly drive me off.
At this point I've had about enough so I head back to the station. On the way I found a convoy USS and drop in thinking that I'll give it one last chance, and find some Pythons hauling medical supplies *and three Novice-level mission targets are there too*. I a) give a WTH? and b) off them in short order, that's half my quota! In a surge of optimism I fly around the system some more, dropping in on every USS I can find, but nada, nothing, zilch. I shoot up some of the local pirate faction in my growing frustration and am about to low wake home, when I get an update asking me if I can complete it in shorter timescale! Are they serious?! Mission abandoned, with a big middle finger to my reputation with these unreasonable bar stewards!
What gives? Why are these missions now rarer than rocking horse (ahem), and more importantly why are they so damned frustrating and hard to complete?
Now I haven't seen any since 1.6 went in, so when I found one to hunt down 6 pirates from a particular faction I picked it up thinking it would be as straightforward as it was previously, especially as it was for a system which I regularly bounty hunt in anyway. So off I toddle, drop into my favourite RES and start shooting the bad guys. An hour later and I'm still 0 for 6, so I read the mission log more carefully. Hmm, so it says search RES's, signal sources and the nav beacon, all sensible options so I give that a try and do a quick tour of the local RESs and come up with nothing. Drop into the Nav beacon and find it swarming with Fed Power Play NPCs who quickly drive me off.
At this point I've had about enough so I head back to the station. On the way I found a convoy USS and drop in thinking that I'll give it one last chance, and find some Pythons hauling medical supplies *and three Novice-level mission targets are there too*. I a) give a WTH? and b) off them in short order, that's half my quota! In a surge of optimism I fly around the system some more, dropping in on every USS I can find, but nada, nothing, zilch. I shoot up some of the local pirate faction in my growing frustration and am about to low wake home, when I get an update asking me if I can complete it in shorter timescale! Are they serious?! Mission abandoned, with a big middle finger to my reputation with these unreasonable bar stewards!
What gives? Why are these missions now rarer than rocking horse (ahem), and more importantly why are they so damned frustrating and hard to complete?
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