My character's a lily-white. I never kill cops, civilians or other unWanted ships, not even in an Anarchy, though in an Anarchy, any ship owned by the ruling criminal faction (or any other anarchy faction) is by definition "not innocent" and fair game. I never take assassination missions, either, not even "pirate lords", but that's mainly because I'm rubbish at combat.
Two days ago I'm in my warship, the Investigator, looking for combat missions. I popped into a station I'm currently working the BGS for a faction at, and only found two mission on offer that I could accept: Assassinate a Pirate Lord and a "Spec Ops", both in a nearby Anarchy system. So, why not, I'll try them. (Note: I never relog the mission boards, either; I take what I'm given)
The Pirate Lord was in a Corvette, and my little punch-buggy T-10 was not going to be a match for it. I didn't find him, he found me. After getting my shields one-shotted by the initial broadside from the Corvette, I managed to escape with 75% hull left (not having dinted the Corvette's shield) and promptly abandoned that mission. Which only left the spec ops mission.
The mission contact in the anarchy system told me the mission target: kill 24 civilians during the next two days. 24 of them. From a small, perfectly harmless native Indie democracy faction, no less. What's a Federation Democracy doing springing a "kill civvies" mission on me, anyway? Bother. But I'd already abandoned one high-value mission for my friends, and didn't want to drop another, so I got down to it.
As you're all probably well aware, and as I was aware too since I read it on the forums, finding specific faction ships is now much harder, because the RNG can now generate ships belonging to pretty much any faction in the galaxy, to populate a beacon, RES or whatnot. Finding those specific 24 civvies to slaughter was hard. After two hours in a Low RES, I'd found three of them.
I tried the nav beacon, the Low RES, the HazRES... none had very many of them. The counter oh-so-slowly ticked over. I was finding just enough to prevent me from giving up and abandoning the mission. I found the Low RES seemed to offer my best chance at generating targets and having those targets last long enough for me to find before before the NPC pirates finished them off. While waiting for fresh meat to arrive, I attacked pirates from factions I wasn't supporting. Perhaps I got a bit carried away there, as I also managed to lose my T-10, twice, in the HazRES (the second time to a blown canopy, just 45 seconds away from entering the spacedock - in my panicked rush to try to reach safety, I forgot that I can now synthesize more air). That's 40 million credits I won't be seeing again any time soon, plus my trained-from-Harmless-to-Dangerous fighter pilot lost.
So, I had three hours left on the counter, and five more victims to bag. Boom! a victim, plus an escort! Two down, three more to go. But none more for the next hour and a half. Half an hour to go, and I find and take out the second-last one. I'm really worried that all those poor miners will have died for naught. I find a trick to making miners cycle a little faster: wait until all the initial spawn is scanned, then leave and re-enter the RES. But I keep seeing the wrong factions, again and again.
Finally, with seven minutes to spare, my final victim. He was an Asp Scout, and surprisingly tough to kill. It was drama down to the wire, but I made it. What a relief to see that "Mission Updated" message.
So, here's your stupid kill docket, guys. I hope you like it, because you're not getting another. I am never, ever accepting a Black Ops mission again, from you or anyone else.
Two days ago I'm in my warship, the Investigator, looking for combat missions. I popped into a station I'm currently working the BGS for a faction at, and only found two mission on offer that I could accept: Assassinate a Pirate Lord and a "Spec Ops", both in a nearby Anarchy system. So, why not, I'll try them. (Note: I never relog the mission boards, either; I take what I'm given)
The Pirate Lord was in a Corvette, and my little punch-buggy T-10 was not going to be a match for it. I didn't find him, he found me. After getting my shields one-shotted by the initial broadside from the Corvette, I managed to escape with 75% hull left (not having dinted the Corvette's shield) and promptly abandoned that mission. Which only left the spec ops mission.
The mission contact in the anarchy system told me the mission target: kill 24 civilians during the next two days. 24 of them. From a small, perfectly harmless native Indie democracy faction, no less. What's a Federation Democracy doing springing a "kill civvies" mission on me, anyway? Bother. But I'd already abandoned one high-value mission for my friends, and didn't want to drop another, so I got down to it.
As you're all probably well aware, and as I was aware too since I read it on the forums, finding specific faction ships is now much harder, because the RNG can now generate ships belonging to pretty much any faction in the galaxy, to populate a beacon, RES or whatnot. Finding those specific 24 civvies to slaughter was hard. After two hours in a Low RES, I'd found three of them.
I tried the nav beacon, the Low RES, the HazRES... none had very many of them. The counter oh-so-slowly ticked over. I was finding just enough to prevent me from giving up and abandoning the mission. I found the Low RES seemed to offer my best chance at generating targets and having those targets last long enough for me to find before before the NPC pirates finished them off. While waiting for fresh meat to arrive, I attacked pirates from factions I wasn't supporting. Perhaps I got a bit carried away there, as I also managed to lose my T-10, twice, in the HazRES (the second time to a blown canopy, just 45 seconds away from entering the spacedock - in my panicked rush to try to reach safety, I forgot that I can now synthesize more air). That's 40 million credits I won't be seeing again any time soon, plus my trained-from-Harmless-to-Dangerous fighter pilot lost.
So, I had three hours left on the counter, and five more victims to bag. Boom! a victim, plus an escort! Two down, three more to go. But none more for the next hour and a half. Half an hour to go, and I find and take out the second-last one. I'm really worried that all those poor miners will have died for naught. I find a trick to making miners cycle a little faster: wait until all the initial spawn is scanned, then leave and re-enter the RES. But I keep seeing the wrong factions, again and again.
Finally, with seven minutes to spare, my final victim. He was an Asp Scout, and surprisingly tough to kill. It was drama down to the wire, but I made it. What a relief to see that "Mission Updated" message.
So, here's your stupid kill docket, guys. I hope you like it, because you're not getting another. I am never, ever accepting a Black Ops mission again, from you or anyone else.