Newcomer / Intro How to kill 6 pirates?

[aRJay]

Keep reseting the RES by jumping out and back or logging that should bring in some targets, you tend to get more targets the higher the risk of the RES is, if you don’t go to a Hazardous then there is likely to be help from security.

I think the skill and toughness of NPCs as well as some of their behaviour is rewritten in USSs depending on type and threat level so not necessarily a good option if you are not confident in your combat skills.

 

[The Lawful]

This is odd. Usually, pirates should leave you alone unless you carry some cargo, mission POI or not. Then, you can finish them off one by one, the others don't care until you hit them and fly away after their scan. The hardest part is not letting them get away, for in this case, the mission POI respawns far away and you have to fly all the way over to there to continue. But otherwise, those missions are rather easy (whereas wing missions are a real challenge, avoid them for now). I usually do them in a Frag Vulture (Pacifiers actually) for the fun of it, on Elite level. A Krait II should well be enough. But who knows, the mission generator sometimes is full of surprises, and that Lua programmer possibly coded that part on a Monday morning. Do you use fixed weaponry by any chance?

In a RES, pirates can fly in wings, so better check if they do. In that case, all ships in the wing attack you at once. In pirate mission POIs, you shouldn't find pirates flying in wings, though.

O7,

 

[sinisalo]

I'd say try a couple thermal vent beams. Enough of these that when you are striking a pirate your ship temp drops to iced over. This acts like a cloak. It doesn't mean you'll take no damage, but it does present a challenge to the NPCs to resolve you on their sensors, buying you more time to dispatch each in turn.

Heatsinks have the same effect, but are limited. When you are not striking, or after the target dies, the temp spikes quickly, so the effect is very temporary, but does help to make your ship more survivable when it is most vulnerable, and that's when you're saddled up on a target giving him the good news.

 

[Maymo]

This is odd. Usually, pirates should leave you alone unless you carry some cargo, mission POI or not. Then, you can finish them off one by one, the others don't care until you hit them and fly away after their scan. The hardest part is not letting them get away, for in this case, the mission POI respawns far away and you have to fly all the way over to there to continue. But otherwise, those missions are rather easy (whereas wing missions are a real challenge, avoid them for now). I usually do them in a Frag Vulture (Pacifiers actually) for the fun of it, on Elite level. A Krait II should well be enough. But who knows, the mission generator sometimes is full of surprises, and that Lua programmer possibly coded that part on a Monday morning. Do you use fixed weaponry by any chance?

O7,

I’ve experienced both instances, sometimes you can drop in on a pirate convoy and pick them off one by one...

It sounds like the op is going through the same encounter as myself a few days back. All pirates dropping in at once and all opening fire after a few moments. So...

1 Anaconda
1 Krait/Vulture
2 Tanky Cobra 4’s
2 Eagles

Even with a well engineered medium ship it can be a struggle. As soon as you begin focusing one of them the rest are pounding on you and I could only afford to put two pips into shields as I needed enough power in engines and weapons to effectively fight back. Ended up just going 2:2:2 and hoping for the best.

Had 60+ ships to kill so it really was grindhog day...

 

[Maymo]

I'd say try a couple thermal vent beams. Enough of these that when you are striking a pirate your ship temp drops to iced over. This acts like a cloak. It doesn't mean you'll take no damage, but it does present a challenge to the NPCs to resolve you on their sensors, buying you more time to dispatch each in turn.

Heatsinks have the same effect, but are limited. When you are not striking, or after the target dies, the temp spikes quickly, so the effect is very temporary, but does help to make your ship more survivable when it is most vulnerable, and that's when you're saddled up on a target giving him the good news.

Using three large thermal vent beams on my ship, it made no notable difference...

The thing is that when you’re fighting a group they auto-resolve you even when you’re frosting over from hosing an Anaconda.

 

[Para Handy]

............

 

[limpetdwarf]

With the bi-weave shields, I always had the problem that they go down very fast. That means I'm too unlikely to shoot down anything because I have to run like right away, especially in a combat zone. In combat zones, I found that enemies that I've been shooting at follow me until I'm far away enough that I don't show up on my scanner anymore. So rechargeing these shields may very well take longer because I need the energy on the engines to run, then wait for the shields to recharge, then go all the way back and start all over again. That doesn't get me anywhere.

It's not as bad in REZ because the enemies don't follow me that much and tend to get shot down by security before they kill me while I'm running. It's still just bad, though, and I have to wait for the shields to recharge anyway.

The difference between the bi-weave and standard shields is that I can shoot down enemies with standard shields while I can't do that with bi-weave ones and are much more likely to get killed with the bi-weaves.

To me, taking hull damage is a last resort for instances in which it can't be avoided (obviously) or as a resource that can intentionally be used in exchange for some kind of accomplishment, like being able to destroy an enemy which otherwise can't be destroyed. It seems that some players rely on taking hull damage to make up for a lack of shield strength. I tried that with a Chieftain and found that its hull is pretty sturdy --- and I don't like it because it not only means that I have to go in for repairs all the time, but it can also get me killed somehwat easily because the hull doesn't replenish itself. So I switched the Chieftain to standard shields and found it works much better, but then the Chieftain really makes you wait for the shields to reload. That made me unhappy, so I tried the Krait, and it turned to suddenly be a very differently world --- to my surprise as I never thought anything much about Kraits (they were around 35 years ago in Elite and, I think, in Frontier, too, and I remember that they could be dangerous but not too much).

The engineered standard shields can be surprisingly weak when you don't have the energy to keep them charging all the time. That's why I'm trying to get prismatic shields, and it's one of the reasons why I'm trying to get the power distributor engineered. (Maybe bi-weaves work better when the distributor is engineered?)

And you're right, I really look into using chaff ...

I'll try the waiting in a REZ for while once I get repaired ...

 

[The Lawful]

The Chieftain is a typical hull tanker, whereas the Krait is a shield tanker. It's natural the Chief takes some hull damage, but it has a lot of hull (~3k with engineered HRPs) and only rather weak (bi-weave) shields, but it's a formidable fighter and packs a lot of punch. Plus, it's fast and agile. Its weakest point is the canopy, but you can overcome that by engineering. I use mine for PvP (when forced to), for NPCs, it's overkill. For the Krait, a bi-weave should be enough. That said, I got Prisms on mine currently, but their usefulness is rather limited IMHO. They're really heavy and power hungry, and if they ever go down, it's time to leave asap, even in a Vette. Prisms are fine for large ships in CZ or builds where the largest slot is already occupied by SCBs (FdL), but otherwise, don't expect too much from them. I'd rather engineer the standard shields (usually bi-weaves for me, thermal resisant + fast charge), the PD (charge enhanced) and the shield boosters (resistance augmented, super capacitors) and see if it gets better. With shields, the raw strength means not everything, resistances are what counts, plus finding a balance between boosters and recharge times.

O7,

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

If you upload your logs to EDSM or use EDDiscovery which can automate the process, that site has a link in the ship section that places your ship build into a Coriolis configuration- no need to manually select your stuff.

Bit of a digression to the thread topic but it might help.

 

[Maymo]

Just winged up with OP. It wasn’t easy, we weren’t getting anywhere trying in a private group so just moved to open in the end.

We met at a nav beacon and surprisingly were greeted by two other cmdr’s. Rather awkward o7?’s took place until we were all sure there wasn’t going to be any trouble...

Followed Limpetdwarf to find his pirates. The problem is that he has to drop first and I was 20 seconds behind him. By the time I get in he’s on his last ring of shields and is having to bunk out...

There’s a ‘Conda (which I killed) and a Challenger (also now dead) amongst a crowd of other ships but unless he’s actively fighting the mission isn’t going to ever complete.

It’s definitely not a harmless contract

We left to try at a HazRes (had more instancing issues) but couldn’t find any mission targets.

I do think we need to take a look at your Krait build Limpetdwarf, you seem to be losing shields too quickly for an engineered ship. I suspect your resistances are either too low or simply don’t exist...

Here’s my Krait 2’s bi-weave shield stats for reference, includes two guardian boosters...

That was fun though!

 

[Krieger]

Just winged up with OP. It wasn’t easy, we weren’t getting anywhere trying in a private group so just moved to open in the end.

We met at a nav beacon and surprisingly were greeted by two other cmdr’s. Rather awkward o7?’s took place until we were all sure there wasn’t going to be any trouble...

Followed Limpetdwarf to find his pirates. The problem is that he has to drop first and I was 20 seconds behind him. By the time I get in he’s on his last ring of shields and is having to bunk out...

There’s a ‘Conda (which I killed) and a Challenger (also now dead) amongst a crowd of other ships but unless he’s actively fighting the mission isn’t going to ever complete.

It’s definitely not a harmless contract

We left to try at a HazRes (had more instancing issues) but couldn’t find any mission targets.

I do think we need to take a look at your Krait build Limpetdwarf, you seem to be losing shields too quickly for an engineered ship. I suspect your resistances are either too low or simply don’t exist...

Here’s my Krait 2’s bi-weave shield stats for reference, includes two guardian boosters...
View attachment 191593

That was fun though!

Did you get a clue why the pirates are so aggressive?

 

[Maymo]

Did you get a clue why the pirates are so aggressive?

I suspect Limpetdwarf has insulted them in some way. Stolen some of their rum perhaps? Slept with one of their wives maybe...

No clue.

 

[Krieger]

I suspect Limpetdwarf has insulted them in some way. Stolen some of their rum perhaps? Slept with one of their wives maybe...

No clue.

I was thinking maybe his reputation with the pirate faction is hostile but I think only authority ships become aggressive in that case.

 

[Esteban]

Sorry, I'm late to the thread...

@limpetdwarf & @Maymo: Glad you were able to get together and wing up. Since you're not together when in a wing and dropping on the mission site, can you (@limpetdwarf) just run/evade immediately when you drop in to allow @Maymo to get in to the instance?
It's pretty interesting that they're so aggressive and coordinated, and it's unusual that you don't find any of the target faction ships in the RES. I've done a bunch of these missions and only had real difficulty with the wing-intended ones.
(PC)

 

[Maymo]

Sorry, I'm late to the thread...

@limpetdwarf & @Maymo: Glad you were able to get together and wing up. Since you're not together when in a wing and dropping on the mission site, can you (@limpetdwarf) just run/evade immediately when you drop in to allow @Maymo to get in to the instance?
It's pretty interesting that they're so aggressive and coordinated, and it's unusual that you don't find any of the target faction ships in the RES. I've done a bunch of these missions and only had real difficulty with the wing-intended ones.
(PC)

Yeah it has to be something like this.

It’s a low security system so OP really can’t rely on any kind of backup.

Limpet does have dirty drives so as long as he doesn’t open fire he should be able to boost a few k’s away from trouble when he drops in. First pirate ship in should be the Anaconda, easy to get away from.

That should be enough time for me to catch up and also get my SLF out for another distraction.

The problem is that I don’t think I can actually score kills for him, he has to be involved with each ship kill for it to count against his mission (same as CZ/bounty hunting), but he only needs a few so shouldn’t be a big problem.

 

[limpetdwarf]

If you upload your logs to EDSM or use EDDiscovery which can automate the process, that site has a link in the ship section that places your ship build into a Coriolis configuration- no need to manually select your stuff.

Bit of a digression to the thread topic but it might help.

How do I that? I tried to figure out how to feed the database with data, and it seems there's a way to do that by selecting an xbox uploader instead of an API key. So I made an edsm account and I don't see a way to change from API key to xbox updater: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threa...-net-to-log-your-journeys.466747/post-8747371

I'm guessing I could upload logs and ship information as well if I could get that to work?

 

[limpetdwarf]

[...]
I'd rather engineer the standard shields (usually bi-weaves for me, thermal resisant + fast charge), the PD (charge enhanced) and the shield boosters (resistance augmented, super capacitors) and see if it gets better. With shields, the raw strength means not everything, resistances are what counts, plus finding a balance between boosters and recharge times.

O7,

I don't have an engineered PD yet; I'm currently working on that. So far, the bi-weave shields, in lack of a better comparison, are like soap bubbles that are being blown away by the slightest gust of wind (ok, that's a bit exaggerated ...). Perhaps they don't really work when you don't have an engineered PD because the charge is insufficent.

 

[limpetdwarf]

Just winged up with OP. It wasn’t easy, we weren’t getting anywhere trying in a private group so just moved to open in the end.

We met at a nav beacon and surprisingly were greeted by two other cmdr’s. Rather awkward o7?’s took place until we were all sure there wasn’t going to be any trouble...

Followed Limpetdwarf to find his pirates. The problem is that he has to drop first and I was 20 seconds behind him. By the time I get in he’s on his last ring of shields and is having to bunk out...

There’s a ‘Conda (which I killed) and a Challenger (also now dead) amongst a crowd of other ships but unless he’s actively fighting the mission isn’t going to ever complete.

It’s definitely not a harmless contract

We left to try at a HazRes (had more instancing issues) but couldn’t find any mission targets.

I do think we need to take a look at your Krait build Limpetdwarf, you seem to be losing shields too quickly for an engineered ship. I suspect your resistances are either too low or simply don’t exist...

Here’s my Krait 2’s bi-weave shield stats for reference, includes two guardian boosters...
View attachment 191593

That was fun though!

What, you killed an Anaconda and a Challenger in like no time at all while there were 7 enemies shooting at you all at the same time? How did you do that? I'm having a hard time killing an Anaconda while security is helping me, and it it's very likely to get me some hull damage (though last time I think the damage was all from the security ships shooting the Anaconda and hitting me instead because I was too close).

I don't have any Guardian stuff yet. I'll take a picture tomorrow.

For the record, since it was impossible to do this mission, I abandoned it. I did just another one and it was entirely different. It said the pirates were to be found at nav beacons and in RES, and it was easy to complete the mission that way. There were no emissions for the mission target location unlike in the first mission. So it might have been some kind of bug, who knows ...

Anyway, it was fun, and I'm sorry I had to leave for dinner. We might have accomplished something somehow, though I doubt these pirates would ever have shown at the RES.

 

[limpetdwarf]

I was thinking maybe his reputation with the pirate faction is hostile but I think only authority ships become aggressive in that case.

Hm. I'm pledged in order to get the prismatic shields, and some systems (actually many) show as hostile since. But that would have been the only occassion in which a system showing as hostile was having any effect, and it was limited to the 7 ships at the location of the mission.

Security ships are not the only ones that can work together. Ships in a wing sometimes become hostile when attacking one of the wing members.

(I'm wondering why all the allied ships in combat zones are not working together. If they were coordinating their efforts by attacking all the same target, that target wouldn't last long. Of course this could work that way for all sides of the conflict, but it might allow the outcome of the battle to be less random in that advantanges could be gained by picking the targets very carefully and through synergetic effects that may be brought about through the configuration of the ships. If there was a conflict like in conflict zones, something like this would be done. Allowing your ships to randomly dogfight arbitrary opponents without any coordination at all is a recepie for imminent failure.)

 

[Vetinari]

Bah, missed all the fun already, I would have helped.

Sounds like you need help with build and combat, youll get both here

RE Instancing, after the 2 ships were dead you could have dropped back in to the same instance if held open by Wing and had 2 less ships to fight. If its an Assass mission you personally have to kill the targets. If its a massacre mission just hitting it in a wing should work for the kill to be counted.

You normally do get the blue USS, only seen if close enough, use FSS or drop in and scan Nav Beacon (the easiest).