Newcomer / Intro Mining and NPC Pirates

[Random Player]

Hello

Quick question... so, not much of a miner, although made several billion with VO, when you could. I am going to start getting into laser mining and wondering, do NPC pirates just automatically attack you, regardless of their demands to drop some cargo?

I have been interdicted millions times on sell runs, but always escape. Once, I was VO mining, lost connection and was logged back in, with a few tons of VO in my cargo. So, of course I was scanned by a pirate and ordered to drop like 15t of VO. I was actually going to DO IT, and was just about to open the panel to drop the loot, when pirate dude just opened up on me. I was able to boost away and escape, but wondering... is this the pirate NPC MO? Order you to drop and then just fire on you regardless?

If that is the case, what's the point of being ordered to drop some loot? I was literally given NO time to even get close to giving up the demand. Even real players give you time to drop their request.

BY the way, I ask this question, one out of curiosity, and two, I am going to be in a slow lumbering T-9 or T-10, easily interdicted ships. The VO ships were a Clipper and Krait, so no problem escaping, and even some good defense if needed, never was. The one time I was ordered to drop and fired on, I was in a DBX doing some prospecting and light mining, with no weapons.

Thanks!

 

[Para Handy]

The main thing is when you arrive at the asteroids wait until the pirates appear, swan around and h-wake out. As long as you have only limpets in your hold they will leave you alone. Be aware though that until you see the h-wake on your sensor display, the pirates have not gone away and might check you out again.

So - don't relog once you have started collecting stuff, no point in exiting the game and coming back to the game later as the pirates will appear when you log in.

 

[Random Player]

The main thing is when you arrive at the asteroids wait until the pirates appear, swan around and h-wake out. As long as you have only limpets in your hold they will leave you alone. Be aware though that until you see the h-wake on your sensor display, the pirates have not gone away and might check you out again.

So - don't relog once you have started collecting stuff, no point in exiting the game and coming back to the game later as the pirates will appear when you log in.

Thanks! Totally get that. I have been kicked out (lost connection) several times and know to bail out back to station once I get back in, going to be scanned every time, nearly. Also, I know that pirates, almost always, hit you when you drop into a ring. That's a near given... I always wait to either let them do their thing, or kill them if I have weapons.

What I am asking here is, once they DO scan you, and you have some cargo they want... the one time that happened to me, they (he) sent a message to drop 15 VO's. I was going to do it but he opened fire on me anyway, before I could do it. Literally, he said "Drop 15t of VO" or something like that. I went to my panel ASAP to jet 15t of VO, and before I could... he opened fire. So, just wondering... is that what they do every time? They demand cargo and then just open fire anyway? Is that the script for NPC pirates in the game? NO use in trying to give into their demands, when they will open up on you regardless. If I have lots of something, get hit with a request to drop a small amount of cargo to an NPC pirate, no problem, will do, but not if I am going to just get blasted anyway. Also, bad game mechanic as far as pirates go if this IS the case.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

In my experience, yes - they shoot you no matter what.

 

[Random Player]

In my experience, yes - they shoot you no matter what.

That's kind of what I was thinking too. Not sure what the point of the drop demand is then. Would be good programming if they actually waited for you to drop, collected, and went on their way. Thanks!

 

[Stabby_Dave]

Agreed. You don't have time to drop the cargo before "You are under attack".

 

[Random Player]

Agreed. You don't have time to drop the cargo before "You are under attack".

I wonder what would happen if you COULD drop the cargo in time. Hmm. But yeah, they demand cargo and literally 5 seconds later you're getting blasted! Ha! Good programming FDEV!

 

[d8veh]

Never trust the pirates. there was a thread recently, where a guy was crying because he gave them the loot, but they blew up his ship anyway.

 

[Random Player]

Never trust the pirates. there was a thread recently, where a guy was crying because he gave them the loot, but they blew up his ship anyway.

Ha! Real Pirate Players or NPCs?

At least real players will give you a chance to drop and usually go their way, NPCs just straight demand and blast, with no chance to drop.

 

[aRJay]

Ha! Real Pirate Players or NPCs?

At least real players will give you a chance to drop and usually go their way, NPCs just straight demand and blast, with no chance to drop.

NPCs.

It seams to be that they are very suspicious and if you do anything other than stop and drop the loot they assume you are trying to run or attack so they start shooting.

They also don’t count very well or start counting from when they start to send the message.

 

[Random Player]

NPCs.

It seams to be that they are very suspicious and if you do anything other than stop and drop the loot they assume you are trying to run or attack so they start shooting.

They also don’t count very well or start counting from when they start to send the message.

I don't remember if he even gave me an amount of time, but yeah, there should be a count down timer, like at a ancient ruins site where you're charging pylons or whatever... I don't remember seeing a timer. This was several months ago though. I think he just did the "What are you carrying?!" Then "Drop X Number of VO's" Then... immediately, BLAST! As soon as he said "Drop X VO's", I opened my panel to drop, maybe got it open for a second, and was going to tab to inventory to jettison the jack move requirement and, well... that didn't work out. Ha! Easy enough to escape though. I've even had a dropped connection mining and loaded back in, floating above the ring, and saw the pirates coming and just boosted into the ring and away from them and they didn't follow, or at least if they did, could not catch up I guess. They faded off the radar and was able to continue mining. I did do that once where they showed back up! So I guess I didn't boost far enough away. But even when they showed back up, I just dove deep into the ring and boosted some more and again, they faded away, not to return.

 

[sinisalo]

The game could use a simple 'comply with demand' button which sends them all out at once.

I couldn't use it, that's piracy!

But for those who just want to keep on and be left alone, it could be a good feature.

I don't care for laser mining so do core only, which leaves several hardpoints free for bang sticks and if any NPC demands my stuff they get the good news.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

If you travel far enough out of the bubble - and it's not that far at all although I don't have an accurate number - there are no NPC's and you can molest asteroids to your hearts content.

 

[MishaTX]

Not sure as it's never happened to me while mining. Being scanned due to an involuntary relog, yes, but I just boost into the ring and keep going until they lose interest, and that's in a MinaPython, which is not the fastest ship in the 'Verse

However, one thing popped in my noodle reading your post, and that was "was his throttle set to zero immediately upon receiving the message?" Because if you don't immediately throttle down, the NPC might very well interpret that as you're winding up to leg it, even if your "speed" is barely a crawl.

 

[Mike Reacher]

All NPCs say 15 seconds but they all mean 3 to 5 seconds.

 

[Sapyx]

I think if you start dropping cargo while they are shooting, they stop shooting and move in to scoop the cargo. The shooting's just to let you know they're serious about their demands. They'll start shooting again if you haven't dropped the full demand list.

I wouldn't know, personally, as I never drop cargo for pirates. I think I've un-bound the jettison cargo button. Don't pay ransom demands, never give terrorists what they want, millions for defense not one cent in tribute, death before dishonour, and all that jazz.