High Security Planetary base scan experience?

Abil Midena

Abil Midena
I want to see if anyone has recently (past 6 mos or so) done one of the missions I have. Please post how you did it, so I can have an idea of my chances of success.

Mission: The mission is to ‘scan a data hub’ at a planetary base (pg, not perma). Simple, but it turns out the base is High Security, which means there’s 3 ships flying around (ships, not goliaths) and an air “red fence” that alerts when you get close with your ship, and a ground “red fence” about 0.5km from the base that alerts when you cross it with your SRV (no way to get anywhere near the base without crossing this fence with your SRV). Note I can use any ship for this, from a Corvette to a Cobra.

Approach 1: From past experience, about 3 yrs ago with a Corvette, I recall the ground based defenses will shred your shields/ship, so even if you kill the 3 ships (which respawn fairly soon), the ground based defenses will shred you. You could try to take the ground defenses out with dumbfires I suppose (IIRC, other weaps don’t lock on them as targets and taking them all out may take longer than you have shields/hull to survive). Then you’d have to land, SRV it, dismiss your ship, avoid the ground based defenses meant for your SRV, scan, run, done. This whole scenario seems…undesirable.

Approach 2: If I land outside the red fence, dismiss my ship, use my SRV, cross the ground red fence…I’ll have to avoid the ships shooting my SRV, the ground defenses shooting my SRV, all while getting to wherever the “Data hub” happens to live at this base (it's PG, not a perma base). Then scan it, then run while being shot at by air/ground, recall my ship, get in and leave. This seems undesirable, but the better of the 3 approaches.

Approach 3: Land in middle of base while getting hit by air/ground defenses, dismiss ship (hoping it doesn’t start fighting with the ships and/or get shredded by the ground defenses), take SRV to find/scan Data Hub while getting shot at by air/ground defenses, run away while still getting shot, recall ship, get in and leave.

This kind of feels like it should be labeled a ‘wing’ mission where you have another commander to keep the ships busy while you SRV in and scan/run, but it’s not labeled that way. It also would have been nice to know what security level the base was before taking the mission, but it’s not shown in the mission description IIRC. I wonder how FD expected lone commanders to do this one.
 

wenkman

wenkman
i do planetary missions regularly, i kinda like them but i have not found the ideal approach.

i had a similar mission like you.
  • medium sec,
  • settlement ++ (medium size)
  • 2 ships in standby over the base (conda + eagle)
Approach:
  • parked outside the fence, dismissed ship
  • drove in in turret view and shot the skimmers (were respawning constantly)
  • found the data link and scanned it (shields almost gone)
  • ran for it, skimmers dropped of, ships on my tail but they dont hit that good.
  • recalled and boarded the ship, shields almost gone
  • fled.

all in all, did not feel like i was in control of the mission. i think there should be more to it to be done, like killing the ships first or blowing something up to stop the skimmers from spawning...
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Hi Abil...

I do these kinds of missions (occasionally), they are either economic (or other) data acquisition missions or as part of a terrorist assassination mission where the terrorist location is revealed by scanning a data point.

I'll be honest, I do them the 'easy' way by scanning the data point with a ship. Side note: I imagine the devs anticipated we would use SRV's, ducking and weaving for cover before racing out and trying to recall our ship, but as you point out, in high sec, and especially large high sec bases that's a big ask to do successfully, unless I guess you go in and obliterate the ground defenses and any ships triggering multiple fines and bounties, and that's not exactly stealthy.

So, back to doing them with a ship. I use an iCourier, small target, fast. Nothing particularly special about the shields other than they are engineered for thermal resistance as all ground defenses are thermal. I will approach the base, staying just outside the exclusion zone at which point the data point will become targetable. I make sure that the distance to the data point is less than the distance to the base so I have less messing about trying to actually locate the data point. I put 4 pips to SYS and 2 to ENG - the iCourier is already too fast to control easily and have my data link scanner ready to go.

I speed in (I'm going to need to be within 100m of the data point to scan), and hopefully, if I've lined up right I will see the data point. I do all this part with throttle at zero and use forward and reverse thrusters as it's easy to overshoot and find that gives me the best most granular control. I will have triggered the trespass alert and in a high sec base there isn't time to do it without triggering a bounty and coming under fire from ground turrets - low sec bases I can do it getting only a fine, but the scan is quick, and as soon as it's done I boost away and the iCourier is out of range in a matter of seconds.

So TLDR - If you are happy using a ship, the most important thing to do is line up with the data point so that it is on the same side of the base as you are so you don't have to spend time searching for it once you've triggered the trespass zone, get to within 100m, the scan takes a few seconds then zip away with a small bounty. :)
 

Abil Midena

Abil Midena
wenkman said:
i had a similar mission like you...
Click to expand...
Yeah, I see what you mean. I did a "med sec +", so same security but smaller base than yours, and could just drive up in my srv, make a couple jumps, scan, leave...no fines, no muss, no fuss. My biggest issue is not seeing the security level or pop (+, ++, +++) when I'm reading the mission description so I know what I'm getting into.
Faded Glory said:
Hi Abil...

I do these kinds of missions (occasionally), they are either economic (or other) data acquisition missions or as part of a terrorist assassination mission where the terrorist location is revealed by scanning a data point.

I'll be honest, I do them the 'easy' way by scanning the data point with a ship. Side note: I imagine the devs anticipated we would use SRV's, ducking and weaving for cover before racing out and trying to recall our ship, but as you point out, in high sec, and especially large high sec bases that's a big ask to do successfully, unless I guess you go in and obliterate the ground defenses and any ships triggering multiple fines and bounties, and that's not exactly stealthy.

So, back to doing them with a ship. I use an iCourier, small target, fast. Nothing particularly special about the shields other than they are engineered for thermal resistance as all ground defenses are thermal. I will approach the base, staying just outside the exclusion zone at which point the data point will become targetable. I make sure that the distance to the data point is less than the distance to the base so I have less messing about trying to actually locate the data point. I put 4 pips to SYS and 2 to ENG - the iCourier is already too fast to control easily and have my data link scanner ready to go.

I speed in (I'm going to need to be within 100m of the data point to scan), and hopefully, if I've lined up right I will see the data point. I do all this part with throttle at zero and use forward and reverse thrusters as it's easy to overshoot and find that gives me the best most granular control. I will have triggered the trespass alert and in a high sec base there isn't time to do it without triggering a bounty and coming under fire from ground turrets - low sec bases I can do it getting only a fine, but the scan is quick, and as soon as it's done I boost away and the iCourier is out of range in a matter of seconds.

So TLDR - If you are happy using a ship, the most important thing to do is line up with the data point so that it is on the same side of the base as you are so you don't have to spend time searching for it once you've triggered the trespass zone, get to within 100m, the scan takes a few seconds then zip away with a small bounty. :)
Click to expand...
I'm not opposed to using my ship like you say. I thought they made it so you can't scan with your ship...did they not change that? Have you done one like mine recently? I kept the mission, so maybe I'll give it a go.
 

Faded Glory

Faded Glory
Yes, I've done a bunch recently - as in the last couple of weeks, mainly to find terrorists to kill. You just need to be within 100m of the beacon for the scan to work.

Agree entirely that it would be useful to know the size / security level of the base beforehand, but frankly doing it the way I described it doesn't actually make much difference other than you will get a bounty rather than a fine (in high sec) and that you will get shot at in high sec, but once I got my method worked out and tweaked the engineering on my shields I haven't lost even one ring (I'm just not there long enough).
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
Something small and fast with a big shield and a small enough nose to get in range of the data beacon (sometimes it won't resolve as a target until you're within 50m, which some medium and most large ships might not be able to do as the range is measured from the centre of your ship)

So basically use an imperial courier.
 

here_it_comes

here_it_comes
I simply fly up to the data terminal, scan and boost straight up into SC. They never start the alarms until I'm already scanning. This works in my shieldless DBS, so you really don't need to be overly fast, or even shielded, assuming you can pilot well enough.

These missions are so fast and effortless for me that they honestly feel like an exploit. My home system often gives such missions for one particular high sec settlement. I'll end up with a few stacked that I complete in practically no time. Scan, boost into SC, flip around and drop out, scan, etc. Easiest g5 mat rewards ever. Because these missions feels like cheating to Mei, I avoid such missions unless I really need the mat rewards.

BTW, Cytos do full damage to generators. Their high DPS combined with their cone of fire makes them ideal for destroying generators. Easiest and quickesr weapon to do it with by far, easier than dumbfires even.
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
Ramming does damage to generators too and didn't count as an assault last time I tried it, so if you're quick enough you can come at the right angle, smash your nose into the generator, and boost out before the trespass timer elapses for a "clean" mission.

I haven't bothered for a while since the angle to get it without crashing into the housing can be kinda tricky and lobbing a dumbfire onto their general vicinity while you blaze past at 500m/s is simpler.
 

Just Paul

Just Paul
[VR] here_it_comes said:
BTW, Cytos do full damage to generators. Their high DPS combined with their cone of fire makes them ideal for destroying generators. Easiest and quickesr weapon to do it with by far, easier than dumbfires even.
Click to expand...

Rails are even better and you can shoot them from 6km out. Easy mode. But I usually do what Screemonster suggested, ramming is best and you can line up the scan right a way too.
 

Riverside

Riverside
Paul Smith the 3rd said:
Rails are even better and you can shoot them from 6km out. Easy mode. But I usually do what Screemonster suggested, ramming is best and you can line up the scan right a way too.
Click to expand...

For disable the power I go for the ram, and if I miss just frag the thing as I bounce off the ground ;)

OP, if you want to use the SRV go for option 2, fast in, scan, fast out. Some base scan missions don't highlight a (white) target on the scanner, you'll need to use the SRV for those to find the correct one, once you get familiar with the layout you can do those in a medium or small ship too, but you need to get within 50m instead of 100m.

Doing them in the ship is quicker & easier, but doing them in the SRV is more fun ;)
 
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