I'm surrounded by dropped Loot, but too afraid to scoop it up...

Scoob

Scoob
Hey all,

Had some fun hunting pirates last night. A fair few of them had obviously been busy as they dropped a fair bit of loot on destruction. So, after the battle I'm surrounded by tens of thousands of credits worth of Cargo - likely more value than I got for the Bounties. However, I'm too scared to scoop any of it up! The local enforcement ships that seem to appear within minutes of any fight I get involved in (thanks guys) do insist on scanning me every few minutes. I might be able to scoop one of two pieces of cargo prior to being scanned again, but that's it! Sooo much waste!

So, what do people do? Do they scoop and run, leaving most of the items? Do they turn pirate and take on local forces after a scan? I'm trying to play a good guy - only ever had fines (and been attacked by over-reacting local forces) due to the excessive friendly fire response prior to 1.1, but always snuck into a station to pay the fine promptly.

The same is true in USS areas, I've found good cargo there too, but it's always stolen, never "recovered" so my options are a little limited. How successful are good, law abiding (mostly) players at making money from dropped cargo? Just wondering.

Roll on the mythical "Salvage Licence" I say! I mean, I'd be "rescuing" someones stuff, right? :)

Scoob.
 

bonsek

bonsek
I play as a bounty hunter/smuggler. So kinda a good guy.

First you need to find yourself an outpost that has a black market (easy mode), or find a station that has a black market (harder mode where you have to perfect getting in the station without being scanned.

Once you find yourself a place to sell illegal goods close to a Nav point or RES, it's time for bounty hunting.

Subtarget the Pirates cargo hatch as you are taking them down, as that will get you more loot.

I only collect rares and high paying items (you can figure what to take by looking at the market). Yesterday I killed a pirate that dropped 8 tons of palladium, that's around 14200cr/ton. So you can increase your bounty hunting profit by picking up goodies.

One thing is to turn off Crime reporting and don't let the security ships scan your cargo hold as you will get a hefty fine and there goes your profit.
 

DB Cooper

DB Cooper
Once while bounty hunting I was going to interdict a high value target and I turned on the report comes against me because I thought I would need some help from the feds. I had forgot I had picked up some cargo from a previous bounty. After I collected the bounty vouchure from the interdiction I proceed to the platform with the black market only to find out that I had a 27K fine to pay. I then realized I must have been scanned by the feds I had asked to help me ----lesson learned ---avoid all scans if you are going to scoop cargo
 

Jezzah

Jezzah
DB Cooper said:
Once while bounty hunting I was going to interdict a high value target and I turned on the report comes against me because I thought I would need some help from the feds. I had forgot I had picked up some cargo from a previous bounty. After I collected the bounty vouchure from the interdiction I proceed to the platform with the black market only to find out that I had a 27K fine to pay. I then realized I must have been scanned by the feds I had asked to help me ----lesson learned ---avoid all scans if you are going to scoop cargo
Click to expand...

The even more annoying thing is that when DO arrive they go out of their way to scan you first despite the bloody great wanted anaconda that's clearly wanted in the system NOT being scanned. The annoying AI will continue trying to scan you all the while the actual WANTED ship continues to fire unmolested.

Sighbeans this game.
 

emacinnes

emacinnes
I tried bounty-scooping cargo a few times, after all it was gold, palladium and imperial slaves, with a "street value" of about 50,000, and that was the last time I bothered with it, after an immediate 60,000cr double fine by two security vipers that jumped into the system while I was scooping. I could have done the whole silent running/scooping thing, but the impact of that makes the Time To Credits the same as just ignoring the cargo and blasting Wanted ships, as the moment all the cargo is in it needs to be sold off as fighting with it retains a big risk of much more attention, and also given the time to find a black market, go there, sell the stuff, return to a farmable nav point, can generate the same 50k creds in just pure bounty and ignoring the cargo, especially also given the 50% markdown on stolen goods to boot.
 
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Darth Ender

D
This is the single most "hey, lets make something completely useless" aspect of the game for me. Since a good fraction of USS's are abandoned cargo, i tend to waste a significant amount of time jumping into these and then immediately jumping out since I have absolutely no desire to waste time getting a fine or bounty with cargo, on top of the fact that I dont bounty hunt in ships that waste space with cargo holds.

The way cargo mechanics should work is completely logical if you hold existing functionality to be true. A ship that is reporting crimes reports when they are fired upon and when they are destroyed. A ship that is reporting fired upon but not destroyed that dumps cargo before being destroyed (if it is destroyed at all) should yield cargo that is not listed as stolen. The owner dumped the cargo, whether via duress or good will it doesn't matter. Now cargo dropped due to a ship's destruction should be labeled as stolen, same as if a pirate busts the cargo hatch of a ship and it falls out that way.

Stolen cargo should be flagged and notified in your scan when you target a piece of cargo. If the authorities know it's stolen, it stands to reason you would as well. But if the owner dumped it on their own command, then it should be flagged as abandoned cargo rather than stolen, and thus be treated as perfectly legal to pick up.

cargo labeled stolen would follow the current black market mechanism. cargo labeled as abandoned or unclaimed should be treated as if you purchased it.
 

BarFly

BarFly
Hello,

I only collect rares and high paying items (you can figure what to take by looking at the market). Yesterday I killed a pirate that dropped 8 tons of palladium, that's around 14200cr/ton. So you can increase your bounty hunting profit by picking up goodies.
Click to expand...
Did I get you correct? You have to sell this loot at the Black Market, despite it is totally legal stuff?
I don't believe this.
it is a game I really like, but a couple things are just ..... lets say, not quite well implemented. :S
 

Boff'in

Boff'in
+1 rep.

Legal it cargo just fell out the back of a hauler by WILLFULLY ejecting it.


okay as a newbie.

You are telling my, the "report crimes against me" is not an aesthetic thing?

I just thought it just stopped displaying all the dumb "fines" that appeared in the HUD, and just stored them quietly in my transactions panel for me to weep over at a later date.


So The mechanic is.

If I have "report crimes against me" is turned on, AND I get shot at (as a trader/miner) the Police may turn up to help out.
if I have "report crimes against me" turned off, and I get shot at (as a trader/miner) I'm on my own (effectively I don't call the cops).

However as a bounty hunter / pirate
report crimes needs to be turned off, since you don't want the filth turning up camping out that cargo.

I've been testing my legs as a bounty hunter in the Helio system.
They have a anarchy platform with a black market/repairs/re-arm in a federation system.
Oddly enough the station is still very protective about the traffic, but it forgets you once you go to FSD.
But it still just *random*, making you want to try out one last signal for that "big drop".

I was out for a good hour or two and made 80k or so. If I knew about that "report crimes against me", it might have helped me out.
But now I just sold my interdictor module to help out in yembo.
 

Loskene

L
My bounty hunting cobra has some cargo space but I don't stop for anything less than imperial slaves, palladium or rares. Not worth the time or risk otherwise. It's also handy having a bit of room because the elite anacondas always have holds full of gold and such, and they often start pelting my shields with canisters to get my attention off their power plant.
In regards to unwanted authority scans, let them scan you when you're empty and they'll often just leave after a couple of minutes, or at least wander out of scan range so you can quickly scoop and run.
 

emacinnes

emacinnes
The way the game views it (not that I agree with it as the gameplay implications are very problematic), is that cargo is tagged to an owner when it's bought. So anybody that's "not the owner" has stolen it, regardless of the means of acquiring it.

There is no in-ship module or in-game capability for "washing" stolen cargo, for a fee, to re-tag it. That's where a "Cargo Salvager" module can come into play, something that re-tags it, but requires "ammo", adds weight to the ship and takes up an internal compartment.
 

Jerakeen

Jerakeen
I didn't know about the reporting crimes thing so thanks for that information. I assumed it was just something you could use if you wanted to dogfight with a friend without either of you becoming wanted. I'll try that out after work. I've always passed up on scooping dropped cargo. I must have missed millions.
 

Valethar

Valethar
Jezzah said:
Do NPCs drop rares? Killed a lot cargo hatches and never saw those drop out myself.
Click to expand...

Indeed they do. I got interdicted once by an NPC that dumped about a dozen or so right before I smashed the cheeky little punk to atoms. I then scooped up the rares and scarpered off to a pirate outpost nearby to unload them.

Didn't get as much for them as I would have had they been 'legal', but free money is still money. :D
 

Zylark

Zylark
The fine for getting caught with stolen goods is one thing - the hit to your reputation is much more severe. The fine is just credits after all, got plenty of those. Getting back on good terms with a major or minor faction however, can take ages. And is quit important if you intend to climb the ranks with the Feds and Imps at least, as you'll need pretty high rank in their navies to buy the faction specific ships. OK, the Fed Dropship is not something to drool over for the time being, but soon we'll get the Fed Corvette, and if it performs even halfway as good as it looks...

When I pick up cargo that is floating about, I only do so if the law is nowhere to be seen *AND* I'm already intending to head to a station. With stolen cargo in my hold, I always go for an outpost that I know got a black market - or any station or outpost that is anarchy, without any pesky lawmen. Also, I don't stop for anything. Not entering any other USS, evade interdiction, keep away from RES or NAV points. I go straight to unload my stolen cargo, no detours.

Same thing with other illegal goods. Which soemtimes it easy to forget may be illegal. The other day I landed at a big station when picking up items for several 'go fetch' missions. In the previous station, I had picked up some tobacco, which it turned out was illegal at my current station. Getting out without a scan was a bit tense. Set my jump target before even launching, lined up to the slot from well back in the station and then floored it. Full steam ahead, and boosting non-stop once through the slot. Luckily the jump position was just a bit up and to the side from the station, so lined up with it pretty fast. Just coming out of the no fire zone when I heard the dreaded 'Scan Detected' message. A scan takes 10 seconds, spooling up the FSD takes 5. Watched the Mass-Lock indicator very intensely, and hit the FSD the second it went off. Managed to get out of dodge without getting caught out by perhaps a second or two.
 
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