Newcomer / Intro How do I find my target?

[Tryst]

I have been given two kill missions by the feds.

Gen Pratchett
Gen Miller

I have flown around for ages in the two systems each one is supposed to be in and found NOTHING!
They don't give the pilots name, just the ship name but I don't have a clue how to identify a ship name, it just shows the pilots name in the info.

So how do I find out who my target is so I can target him by his pilots name?

 

[Aquamonkey]

Just go around in super cruise dropping into every Unidentified Signal Source that pops up. You'll find them eventually.

 

[Tryst]

Thanks for the help.

That could take weeks though! There are loads of them all over the place. Is there no way to refine the search?

Also, does it give the Gen xxxx as the ship type or something? There doesn't seem to be a place for a ship name.

 

[Ophion]

It's the name of the pilot, not the name of the ship. And you'll find him quick enough, don't worry.

 

[Gavski]

That could take weeks though! There are loads of them all over the place. Is there no way to refine the search?
Also, does it give the Gen xxxx as the ship type or something? There doesn't seem to be a place for a ship name.

Doesn't take too long, keep an eye on the actual mission details, too - sometimes they may update (your target may have been spotted in another system etc.).

When you target ships (once dropped-out of supercruise at a USS) look for:

Gen Pratchett [pilots name]
Cobra [ship type]
Clean [wanted status]

 

[Tryst]

Ok, thanks for the info.

Sounds like FD need to make the mission details a bit clearer. The text says "the ship is called Gen Pratchett and is flown by a terrorist...". That makes it seem like it's not the pilots name which was what confused me.
It should read: "The pilots name is Gen Pratchett and is a terrorist...".

 

[Gavski]

Oh, never come-across that before: the name of a ship to destroy. I think we all misunderstood you, thinking it was a pilot name, so apologies.

I guess you just have to find anything called "Gen Pratchett" or flown by "Gen Pratchett"!

 

[the100thmonkey]

Gen Pratchett will be the name of the commander in the ship info display on the left side of your HUD. It will be a Federal dropship. You'll have to fire the first shot and you will incur a bounty of about cr6,500 for his murder (he will show as clean). Make sure you know the location of the nearest outpost (not station) aligned with the Federation so you can pay the bounty off with no hassle.

Be warned, the ship will be well-armed. Go prepared for a protracted fight and don't get sucked in too close. Both times I did the covert ops missions the ship was running turreted beams on the medium hardpoints and a fixed beam on the large one.

 

[Himmel Tropf]

Yeah just drop into all the USS you find. There's usually a USS somewhere with a random guy (not the pilot target) that will tell you 'the terrorist has been spotted in X system' or something if you're doing Assassination missions, and then you will receive an update to your mission information telling you to go to another system, where you will find that pilot at a USS. There are lots of USS but having the mission active makes the probability pretty high i think...
and as 100thmonkey says, be prepared to have your ass handed to you.

identify your target as per usual: select target in scanner, wait for name to load in your target ID screen then start the fun.
If it's an assassination mission like the one i did, the target will tell you to flee or perish, then open fire on you quickly.

 

[Tryst]

I've got a Cobra with Class C gear at present, (best I could get in the area, need to go further out to get class B or A gear), Seeker missile rack and autocannons plus two point defence although I might change one Point Defence for a Chaff Launcher to throw off his turrets. It was enough to take out another NPC Cobra without too much trouble, he didn't even get past my shield. I'm also quite adept with keyboard and mouse controls, being an 84er with lots of experience at the Elite style roll and climb controls.

Is that enough or would it be wise to go out and find some A or B grade gear and pimp it a bit more for this?

After I've done it, does being blown up also count as clearing the bounty? If so, I can go back and get my Sidey, return and let them blow me up. The insurance will be negligible. I popped another clean pilot a few days ago, paid the bounty and yet I still have a "Wanted" tag so it seems paying off the bounty doesn't always work, is this a bug?

 

[the100thmonkey]

The Cobra's shields are pretty weak, I understand, so you should probably upgrade those as best you can.

I don't think you need 2 point defense turrets; chaff will be a significant upgrade to your survivability as it scrambles both gimballed and turreted weapons.

You can also shoot seeker missiles down if they're coming in from the front.

 

[Tryst]

The Cobra's shields are pretty weak, I understand, so you should probably upgrade those as best you can.

I don't think you need 2 point defense turrets; chaff will be a significant upgrade to your survivability as it scrambles both gimballed and turreted weapons.

You can also shoot seeker missiles down if they're coming in from the front.

Well, I swapped the interdictor with a shield cell bank and one point defence with a chaff launcher. Didn't really need the chaff launcher at all, used it once and it did nothing to stop his attack even though I was side on using the sideways thrust, I only had to boost the shields twice from the cell bank and used up all my missiles on him, most of them launched from under him as he went over me, too close for even point defence to take them out if he had them. Overall, it was pretty easy. Got 986 credits worth of damage and it cost me 8K to rearm all the weapons. From my point of view, those shields held up pretty well, certainly better than most other ships I've flown.

Gen Miller is now learning to play a harp and unlikely to ever be seeing Elite status where he's going.

Also, got no bounty, he fired on me first.

 

[Himmel Tropf]

nice. I may offset the cost of a cobra when i get around to taking the leap of parting with my credits given your success...
he may have been in anarchy space, or you may require a KWS to claim bounty? i don't know why... possible bug. was he wanted / clean after firing on you?

 

[Tryst]

nice. I may offset the cost of a cobra when i get around to taking the leap of parting with my credits given your success...
he may have been in anarchy space, or you may require a KWS to claim bounty? i don't know why... possible bug. was he wanted / clean after firing on you?

I didn't look after he fired on me, I was a bit busy He fired on me and then turned red and started ranting about how I was going to die, that's all I know. Toward the end, he said "you don't want my blood on your hands." to which I spoke out loud to the computer and said "it won't be, it in space and you're nearly a kilometre away. Might be some blood on my spent ammo though."

Incidentally, I had a laugh while I was cruising around looking for the USS. A wanted pirate flying a Falcon pulled my Cobra out of SC and his first words were "Fear me!". Seriously? I could have died... From laughing too much.

Here's the loadout if anyone is interested and it managed to survive very well despite it being primarily a cargo runner. Spoilers are put in for those who don't want graphics loading in a thread.

Spoiler

 

[the100thmonkey]

Well, I swapped the interdictor with a shield cell bank and one point defence with a chaff launcher. Didn't really need the chaff launcher at all, used it once and it did nothing to stop his attack even though I was side on using the sideways thrust, I only had to boost the shields twice from the cell bank and used up all my missiles on him, most of them launched from under him as he went over me, too close for even point defence to take them out if he had them. Overall, it was pretty easy.

I forgot you had dumbfires. They're totally OP - I took an Anaconda down to 8% hull from full shields with them tonight. I got interdicted in my T6, boosted and span around with FA off and fired the whole magazine at him. I'd have killed him if I hadn't missed a volley.

 

[Ozric]

I forgot you had dumbfires. They're totally OP - I took an Anaconda down to 8% hull from full shields with them tonight. I got interdicted in my T6, boosted and span around with FA off and fired the whole magazine at him.

They won't be next week

 

[mistohise]

It will be a Federal dropship. You'll have to fire the first shot and you will incur a bounty of about cr6,500 for his murder (he will show as clean).

Generally you can approach these target ships with weapons deployed and they'll fire on you, saving you that small fee and hassle.

 

[Tryst]

I forgot you had dumbfires. They're totally OP - I took an Anaconda down to 8% hull from full shields with them tonight. I got interdicted in my T6, boosted and span around with FA off and fired the whole magazine at him. I'd have killed him if I hadn't missed a volley.

I thought FS was seeker, I had 1B/FS and the description said seekers.