Kill traders - no, really, how do they work?

[panza]

Help me Commanders! Can someone give me an actual explanation for how they work?

Latest adventure:

- Get 'kill 3 traders' mission
- Go to nav beacon, kill a hauler, I get 1/3 kills. Nice. I must be onto something here.
- Kill another hauler, not a 'trader'
- Kill a Type 6, not a 'trader'
- Kill a hauler, not a 'trader'
- Go to a USS. An Adder! He adjusts my contract for some reason! Must be a trader! I kill it.
- Now I have the 'new' contract I didn't even want, but I can't kill traders anymore, not that I could really do that anyway
- And so ends another mad attempt at actually completing a combat mission

I've looked at all the advice on how to do these missions and I think I did everything right, but I still keep failing.

Is this intentional? Because I'm only interested in combat, these kinds of missions are all I have if I really want to gain rep.

What can I do?

 

[ElleShaped]

The issue is that not all ships that seem to be of a certain 'type' are. Cargo ships like Haulers and Lakons might also be pirates or smugglers, which do not count as traders.

That woudl be why the ones you killed didn't count at first.

Then, in the USS, yo ugot the 'alternate' which gives you the -option- of a different path, but does not mandate it. The mission is updated to show -both paths-. You will see that in the first section, the 'kill traders' part is still ther. Then in the second part you see the alternate.

The NPC who gives you the alternate -does not count toward the mission- either. They're special and are not flagged as 'traders' in the system; I think this is because they always spawn and the devs didn't want to make a reliable spawn a target, making you search.

When yo uget the alternate, it deletes the 'kills --- 1' line from the mission, but it does not erase your progress; once you get another kill, it will update to show how many you had plus the new kill.

The most reliable way I have found to identify traders is in one aprticular USS which is rather common - you show up and there are four or five ships; two or three are pirates, and one will scan you as soon as you land saying the usual pirate things like 'What have ou brought me today?'. There is always a cargo ship in this USS - a Hauler or Lakon - and that is -always- a trader. When you attack it, some of the other ships in the USS will become hostile. Those are also traders, friends of the one you attacked. Just wait for this USS a few times and you'll get your kills.

 

[Lustan]

Traders typically advertise that they want to buy stuff when you scan them.

Usually when your mission gets modified it will have the original objectings and new alternate objectives. You should still be able to do the original objectives and ignore the "Alt" stuff.

 

[Kyle Brennan]

The issue is that not all ships that seem to be of a certain 'type' are. Cargo ships like Haulers and Lakons might also be pirates or smugglers, which do not count as traders.

That woudl be why the ones you killed didn't count at first.

Then, in the USS, yo ugot the 'alternate' which gives you the -option- of a different path, but does not mandate it. The mission is updated to show -both paths-. You will see that in the first section, the 'kill traders' part is still ther. Then in the second part you see the alternate.

The NPC who gives you the alternate -does not count toward the mission- either. They're special and are not flagged as 'traders' in the system; I think this is because they always spawn and the devs didn't want to make a reliable spawn a target, making you search.

When yo uget the alternate, it deletes the 'kills --- 1' line from the mission, but it does not erase your progress; once you get another kill, it will update to show how many you had plus the new kill.

The most reliable way I have found to identify traders is in one aprticular USS which is rather common - you show up and there are four or five ships; two or three are pirates, and one will scan you as soon as you land saying the usual pirate things like 'What have ou brought me today?'. There is always a cargo ship in this USS - a Hauler or Lakon - and that is -always- a trader. When you attack it, some of the other ships in the USS will become hostile. Those are also traders, friends of the one you attacked. Just wait for this USS a few times and you'll get your kills.

The alternate mission certainly 100% does wipe all progress thus far. Cant count how many times I was 1 off a 7 kill mission only to have that dip shot alternate me and wipe the kills. Really really really annoying.

 

[ElleShaped]

The alternate mission certainly 100% does wipe all progress thus far. Cant count how many times I was 1 off a 7 kill mission only to have that dip shot alternate me and wipe the kills. Really really really annoying.

Well, that sucks. I'm sure, with the number of times these sorts of things have been flagged, that this will be high on their list to fix and clarify when they come back from vacation.

 

[panza]

Thanks everyone!

So the only way I can unequivocally know who is a 'trader' is by reading what they say in comms. Is that right?

 

[ElleShaped]

Thanks everyone!

So the only way I can unequivocally know who is a 'trader' is by reading what they say in comms. Is that right?

That and knowing the markers of the specific USS I mentioned. Other than that, you can check their cargo wit ha cargo scanner; if it is boring like minerals or Farm Equipment they are probably traders. If it's Narcotics or Slaves they're probably smugglers.

Really the only way to know with 100% certainty is to kill them and see if your mission increments up

 

[J.R.Ehman]

Since traders are unlikely to be wanted, won't I get a bounty on my head if I kill them in a normal system? I have here an Empire mission by an Empire faction to go kill traders in another Empire system. Won't the negative rep and Bounty outweigh the positive rep and payment for the mission???

 

[SpydersByte]

Since traders are unlikely to be wanted, won't I get a bounty on my head if I kill them in a normal system? I have here an Empire mission by an Empire faction to go kill traders in another Empire system. Won't the negative rep and Bounty outweigh the positive rep and payment for the mission???

I feel your pain, they definitely have a mess of a faction system going on. I really hope they modify it as time goes on because right now, unless you've really looked into it, it's next to impossible to know how your rep will swing or by how much and how that ties into the bigger picture. For the mission you mention in particular I would think you'll get maybe a little rep hit with the subfaction the traders belong to but probably not the Empire. I'm no expert in this though, I'm only just learning like you. I'm pretty sure you'll be fine with the Empire, or at the worst you'll have to pay a small fine/bounty when you dock to turn in the mission.

I'm actually about to accept a "kill traders" mission myself, hence my presence here


EDIT: I've taken the mission and I've killed multiple hauler and type 9's ect. I haven't completed the mission because they haven't all been traders, and once I got the alternate option I think it reset my killcount for the original mission. By the time I had to dock for a break (after 10 or so USSs) I came back into the station with a 55k bounty on my head. The missions would require me to kill more traders, so that bounty would go up. Therefore I highly suggest you don't do the "kill traders" mission, or only do it if you get the alternate option of kill pirates so you don't take a bounty hit.

 

[J.R.Ehman]

EDIT: I've taken the mission and I've killed multiple hauler and type 9's ect. I haven't completed the mission because they haven't all been traders, and once I got the alternate option I think it reset my killcount for the original mission. By the time I had to dock for a break (after 10 or so USSs) I came back into the station with a 55k bounty on my head. The missions would require me to kill more traders, so that bounty would go up. Therefore I highly suggest you don't do the "kill traders" mission, or only do it if you get the alternate option of kill pirates so you don't take a bounty hit.

Yeah, as many other missions it's either bugged or doesn't make sense. Or both. Better leave it for now. Might be fixed and make sense in a couple of months.

 

[Dominico]

The mission isnt bugged. Its an evil mission. Ie you are killing traders... so there are repercussions.

Like you can grt missions to kill the police... evil missions...

It is possible to do these missions without getting wanted as you sometimes find traders with wanted status if you looj around. However these missions are for the ruthless people of the system you are in. So expect tp get bounties etc. Otherwise work for the good guys. If you contine working for the "kill traders" mission you will get bad rep but help push the system towards anarchy.