Mega ships game loop...

[VR SenseiMatty]

After returning from few mining sessions I decided to enjoy the game for the simple fun of it, and not for credits grinding...
I bought a Cobra and I outfitted it for these new game loops with installations and mega ship.

Meh, with the installation there's really nothing to do. I've visited a couple of them but there was no option to scan with the datalink nor with the Recon Limpets.
Then I tried with the Mega Ships.
The first I found was a touristic ship... the only data I could get was its flight plan: "Sol, Sol, Sol*, Sol Sol"... bah... ok...
I changed system and I found another megaship.

The moment I approach to it I receive a request to support the defence or the attack of the mega ship... I didn't even had the time to chose that I was immediately under attack.
I was not there for pew pew, so I boosted away and then I came back. In the mean time my enemy was destroyed by the security.

I scanned the mega ship, I scanned the datapoint... no data collected so far. The scanner highlighted instead the cargo holds.
I scan one cargo bay... this gave me the target to deploy a hatch breaker limpet... Cool, I thought, let's see if I can steal something secretly, or almost. At least that's what I expected.
The moment I launch the hatch breaker limpet my ship is under attack and destroyed even before the limpet can break the cargo door.

So... what did I say at the beginning of my post?

I decided to enjoy the game for the simple fun of it, and not for credits grinding...

FDEV: Nope

 

[Drelthar]

After returning from few mining sessions I decided to enjoy the game for the simple fun of it, and not for credits grinding...
I bought a Cobra and I outfitted it for these new game loops with installations and mega ship.

Meh, with the installation there's really nothing to do. I've visited a couple of them but there was no option to scan with the datalink nor with the Recon Limpets.
Then I tried with the Mega Ships.
The first I found was a touristic ship... the only data I could get was its flight plan: "Sol, Sol, Sol*, Sol Sol"... bah... ok...
I changed system and I found another megaship.

The moment I approach to it I receive a request to support the defence or the attack of the mega ship... I didn't even had the time to chose that I was immediately under attack.
I was not there for pew pew, so I boosted away and then I came back. In the mean time my enemy was destroyed by the security.

I scanned the mega ship, I scanned the datapoint... no data collected so far. The scanner highlighted instead the cargo holds.
I scan one cargo bay... this gave me the target to deploy a hatch breaker limpet... Cool, I thought, let's see if I can steal something secretly, or almost. At least that's what I expected.
The moment I launch the hatch breaker limpet my ship is under attack and destroyed even before the limpet can break the cargo door.

So... what did I say at the beginning of my post?


FDEV: Nope

It's not well explained anywhere, and it's actually a little bit overly hard sometimes, in my opinion.

Here's some tips, though.

If you activate silent running, before firing that hatch breaker, you won't be automatically detected.

Cops will be called though, and when they arrive, they will start trying to find and scan ships, once scanned, you'll get a bounty and they will attack you.

So, you can do this stealthy - use silent running to hatch break, drop collectors, and bug out before the cops catch on to you. It's possible.

There's other ways, which mostly involve either a lot of shield tanking (very very skewed towards large ships) or multiplayer game play, where someone does the actual stealing, while others handle distracting cops/bounty hunters/taking out turrets/etc

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

LOL I dropped a heat sink by mistake (too many fire groups) but that didn't help and I didn't think to Silent Running.
I will try with that if I ever decide to give it a second try.
Thanks

 

[Turd Ferguson]

FDev gameplay at its finest.

 

[Codger]

I also futzed around with the megaships a bit, trying to see if there was fun to be had in those scenarios, but I gave it up after realizing I'd need recon limpets, hatch breaker limpets, and collector limpets with me to cover the possibilities I might run into there.

It just didn't seem worth reconfiguring my ship, and the scenarios seemed to be bugged anyway.

Maybe they'll smooth that stuff out at some point. It does have potential, I think.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Cobra Mk.III and those big Installation (Combat) Scenarios?

Bad idea. Very bad idea

PS.
Their trigger often seems highly unreliable, but loitering in the Installation/MegaShip Instance normally does trigger a Scenario anywhere between like 60sec and 2-3min.
However, not all Installation types appear to have a Scenario and sometimes just nothing happens, even with MegaShips/Installations that are known to have them.

 

[Drelthar]

Cobra Mk.III and those big Installation (Combat) Scenarios?

Bad idea. Very bad idea

PS.
Their trigger often seems highly unreliable, but loitering in the Installation/MegaShip Instance normally does trigger a Scenario anywhere between like 60sec and 2-3min.
However, not all Installation types appear to have a Scenario and sometimes just nothing happens, even with MegaShips/Installations that are known to have them.

Yes, they are random events. Sometimes they trigger, sometimes they don't.

Also, to the above poster, yeah, recon limpets should not have been made. They should have renamed hatch breakers, to "infiltration limpets" or something.

 

[GraphiteGB]

A default cobra bad idea..

An engineered cobra can do defence missions very easy... as it can out fly the pirates with speed and combine its fire power with what the AI targets...
Taking out Pirate ships on mega ship defence mission is actualy very easy as many will sit perfectly still trying to grab the cargo from the mega ship...
Also as its a cobra the game adjusts the number of AI spawned in stead of 8-12 pirates youll be lucky for it to spawn waves higher then 4 at a time...
Turn up with a corvette or cutter and you can get 12 pirate AI turn up in a single wave...

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Meh, with the installation there's really nothing to do. I've visited a couple of them but there was no option to scan with the datalink nor with the Recon Limpets.

Recon limpets can be used on most installations - datalink scan the whole thing, then look for "private data transmitter" or similar targets, then datalink those to bring up the recon subtargets - though you have the same "they don't like you doing that" as hatchbreakers.

 

[CMDR Big Mike]

I was running megaship turret destruction and attack/defend in an un-engineered courier without issues. I think those missions are super fun. The turret destruction is not obvious at first. You have to scan and then subtarget the power grid. The first time I did it, I was trying to destroy all of the power supplies lol.

I am 70% sure you can use the datalink scanner instead of recon limpets. You could probably do them with hatch breaker and collector. Though Cobra is small enough to scoop.

 

[Stealthie]

I built a pair of Krait 2's specifically for doing naughty things, including megaship bothering.

It's got a recon controller, hatchbreakers, collectors and a cargo rack for pilfering stuff.
Weapons and a big shield for exploding stuff (related to missions and scenarios).

Overall, there's quite a bit of stuff you can do with a ship like that.
Trouble is, it's all "small potatos" stuff.
It'd be nice if there was more narrative-driven stuff related to it all.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Cobra Mk.III and those big Installation (Combat) Scenarios?

Bad idea. Very bad idea

I don't think the ship should be a problem even if I see your point. It would exclude new players from this activity which is actually focused on new player as seen the low payout.

 

[GraphiteGB]

I don't think the ship should be a problem even if I see your point. It would exclude new players from this activity which is actually focused on new player as seen the low payout.

New players and weak ships are not allowed to survive every were ... If an event Is to hard, ships with out engineering get killed.... players have to work up to doing things...
You should not jump into areas if your ship is not up to it... and yes every one else and you have to learn the hard way that basic ships are not up to doing all of the game play...
Incorrect wrong ships get you killed and face a rebuy...

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I don't think the ship should be a problem even if I see your point. It would exclude new players from this activity which is actually focused on new player as seen the low payout.

Don't know, it might be Combat Rank related and I can't test that.

1st time I triggered such a Scenario I was sightseeing in a G5 Engineered Eagle.
Well, let's just say I tried >hard< for 30mins or so but being chased by Anacondas, Vultures, Chieftains and Krait IIs ... uhm.... didn't quite work out xD
(in that Eagle I managed to survive with like 10% Hull - but even returning later and using the Scenarios to get some Bounties and have some fun really put all my Medium Combat Ships through their pacing)

So based on that I take it new Players simply shouldn't try those, that'd seem like an awfully quick rebuy screen opportunity.

PS.
I'm still convinced that the bugs in these Scenarios (Friendlies not recognizing Hostiles even when right next to them) make them far more difficult than they should be.
The same issue that prevents 'Target hightest Threat' and 'Toggle next Hostile' or the SLF even to recognize Hostiles reliably (apart from incurring massive Bounties from bugged Friendly Fire rules similar to RES/HighRES SLF operations, but that's a whole different story).

 

[GeoJase]

This is a highly entertaining and educational vid on megaship looting

Source: https://youtu.be/2wbnMXDMGgY

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

New players and weak ships are not allowed to survive every were ... If an event Is to hard, ships with out engineering get killed.... players have to work up to doing things...
You should not jump into areas if your ship is not up to it... and yes every one else and you have to learn the hard way that basic ships are not up to doing all of the game play...
Incorrect wrong ships get you killed and face a rebuy...

It's like you're saying that non horizons player are not allowed to play this kind of content. I don't think so. I think it's just badly balanced.

 

[Klarg]

After returning from few mining sessions I decided to enjoy the game for the simple fun of it, and not for credits grinding...
I bought a Cobra and I outfitted it for these new game loops with installations and mega ship.

Meh, with the installation there's really nothing to do. I've visited a couple of them but there was no option to scan with the datalink nor with the Recon Limpets.
Then I tried with the Mega Ships.
The first I found was a touristic ship... the only data I could get was its flight plan: "Sol, Sol, Sol*, Sol Sol"... bah... ok...
I changed system and I found another megaship.

The moment I approach to it I receive a request to support the defence or the attack of the mega ship... I didn't even had the time to chose that I was immediately under attack.
I was not there for pew pew, so I boosted away and then I came back. In the mean time my enemy was destroyed by the security.

I scanned the mega ship, I scanned the datapoint... no data collected so far. The scanner highlighted instead the cargo holds.
I scan one cargo bay... this gave me the target to deploy a hatch breaker limpet... Cool, I thought, let's see if I can steal something secretly, or almost. At least that's what I expected.
The moment I launch the hatch breaker limpet my ship is under attack and destroyed even before the limpet can break the cargo door.

So... what did I say at the beginning of my post?


FDEV: Nope

Im not sure I get your point. You tried to steal cargo from a huge ship and it blew you up but that's unfair because you didn't want to get blown up? You were in a tiny ship.Doesnt it make sense it destroyed you quickly and easily?

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Im not sure I get your point. You tried to steal cargo from a huge ship and it blew you up but that's unfair because you didn't want to get blown up? You were in a tiny ship.Doesnt it make sense it destroyed you quickly and easily?

My opinion is that the concept lack of stealth gameplay (but I've been proven wrong) and that it's not well balanced (I was in an A-rated Cobra) because you need a medium A-rated ship or even an engineered one while the payouts for this activity suggest that it's more new-players oriented.
So it's again another case of high-risk/low reward.

 

[Klarg]

My opinion is that the concept lack of stealth gameplay (but I've been proven wrong) and that it's not well balanced (I was in an A-rated Cobra) because you need a medium A-rated ship or even an engineered one while the payouts for this activity suggest that it's more new-players oriented.
So it's again another case of high-risk/low reward.

Oh, okay. In that case I agree with you!

Edit: in that the payoff for other less dangerous activities is ridiculous.

 

[Jmanis]

I think others have mentioned it, but the basic loop for activities with them are, regardless of if it's a megaship or installation:

• Scan the whole thing with the datalink scanner. This reveals everything on the object under the contacts panel... turrets, cargo bays, escape hatches, power capacitors, fighter hangars, data links, ship logs, maintenance hatches... think that's everything.
• Scan the subtarget you're interested in. Depending on what it is, you'll get different results:

- Power Capacitors: No effect
- Turrets: Reveals turret power generator... destroy it to disable the turret
- Ship logs: Should just give the relevant data.
- Cargo Bays, Escape Hatches: Reveals limpet docking port in subtargets menu, fire hatchbreaker to get access to cargo contents. You can also use a manifest scanner to reveal the contents of that bay. This is generally considered criminal, unless you have silent running on.
- Fighter Hangar: ??? never tried
- Maintenance hatches/Private Data Links: Reveals limpet docking port, use recon limpet to access data or open the hatch.

Beyond that, there's also scenarios. One is always "Defend the megaship", but the aggressor action varies between:

• Steal cargo; and
• Destroy power capacitors

And of course, there's missions to disable megaship turrets.

Beyond this, there's also megaships damaged by Thargoids. With these, you'll get either:

• Repair hull breaches (fire repair limpets at them); or
• Rescue survivors (Hatch break the escape hatches, scoop up the escape pods).

Personally, I don't go out of my way to do these activities generally coz the cargo rewards aren't worth it, and you can be waiting some time for a scenario to trigger if it's BGS effects you're after.