Newcomer / Intro Mission: Find some cargo in a system?

[Skürt Avil]

I took on a mission. Mainly because it was a change to what I'd been doing. Go to a system, find some Ceramic Composites and return them to a station.
I go to the system, hang around the Nav Beacon, waiting.
After a while, a ship turns up looking a bit suspicious.
I start thinking it's a combat mission, so open fire.
Not long after that, I'm on a station called Hammers Deep [or something], and out of pocket.
How are you supposed to find these needles in haystacks?

o7

 

[Skürt Avil]

Just read this...

Mission Board

The Mission Board shows available mission contracts for players in star systems of the galaxy. It is accessed via the Starport Services interface. A variety of missions are offered by Faction Representatives (NPCs), of whom it shows portraits and names, their faction name, their superpower...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

How do you scan Nav Beacons?

 

[CMDR Deano The Imperial]

Just read this...

Mission Board

The Mission Board shows available mission contracts for players in star systems of the galaxy. It is accessed via the Starport Services interface. A variety of missions are offered by Faction Representatives (NPCs), of whom it shows portraits and names, their faction name, their superpower...

elite-dangerous.fandom.com

How do you scan Nav Beacons?

Select Nav Beacon in ships navigational panel then face the Nav Beacon with your ship.
Just out of curiosity why do you need to scan a Nav Beacon?

 

[Faded Glory]

Those are recovery / salvage missions...

Go to the nav beacon and scan it as described above (select it from the contacts tab, when you drop out of SC at the nav beacon, you can only scan the beacon from normal space, not SC). Be sure to select the actual nav beacon, not its HUD target. (You need to scan it to update the mission - if you get a mission update in your inbox when you arrive at the system then you can skip that step.) Having done this there will be a mission specific signal source listed in the navigation tab.

Fly to the signal source and when you drop into it the canisters will be floating around and you can target and scoop them. Be aware that some of these missions can have incoming enemies that will drop in while you are scooping and attack you.

 

[Sapyx]

How do you scan Nav Beacons?

Select Nav Beacon in ships navigational panel then face the Nav Beacon with your ship.

Go to the nav beacon and scan it as described above (select it from the contacts tab, when you drop out of SC at the nav beacon, you can only scan the beacon from normal space, not SC).

In case it's not clear from the above posts: there are actually two separate things labelled "Nav beacon". The first is the navigational waypoint, which is visible in Supercruise and in normal space, and is coloured orange on your HUD (if you are using the default colourscheme).

The second is the actual nav beacon satellite. It is not visible in Supercruise - you have to drop down to normal space to see it. It is coloured white on the HUD, and is a white solid rectangle on the radar screen. Up close, it is an oval-shaped satellite-looking thing that beeps Morse Code at you. It is usually situated a few hundred metres away from the centre of the navigational waypoint.

It is that second one, the satellite, which you need to scan. To scan it, target it, point your ship towards it, and wait until the scanning timer finishes. You should then get a popup message in your inbox telling you where to go next.

It should perhaps be noted that if the target planet for your mission is within 1000 Ls of your arrival point at the star, then your navigational computer will detect the mission waypoint directly, without you needing to scan the nav beacon.

 

[Skürt Avil]

Update:
So I manged to scan the Nav Beacon and it gave me a mission update to go to a planet.
Head off to the planet, DSS both bodies.
A crash site on the moon shows up so I decend to the surface. The cargo I'm looking for is there, so I try to use a collection limpet to retrive it.
It would appear collection limpets only work in space, because 3 of them failed.
I go to my SRV panel and then remember I swapped it out for the collection limpets!!
Not much spare space in a DBX.
o7

 

[Faded Glory]

You'll get there...

Glad you figured out scanning the nav beacon. It is sometimes required for various mission types, and worth noting that when you scan a nav beacon, all currently spawned USS in a system are identified, useful if you are mat hunting.

Once you have identified a mission target by scanning the nav beacon, you don't need to DSS the body to find the target, it will spawn when you get within range (around 12 mm) and you can select it from the navigation tab, or visually by identifying its HUD marker. But of course DSS'ing the body will get you data to sell later. Signal sources in space will spawn automatically too, and if you are into assassination missions your target will often interdict you while you are on the way to find their signal source, or may also drop into the nav beacon while you are there.

Limpets don't work on a planetary surface, although you can scoop canisters direct with the ship. Not particularly easy, and depends on where the canisters are situated, they need to be out in the open.

 

[Skürt Avil]

On way way to a station to get an SRV, I come across a USS. I went to have a look find some wreckage and two pick ups.
I collected one and then received these two messages.
Specialised Legacy Firmware : Modifications have been detected in attached package - possible malware attack.
Decoded Emission Data : Possible cyber threat detected....

What does this mean? Is it in game?

 

[Para Handy]

Update:
So I manged to scan the Nav Beacon and it gave me a mission update to go to a planet.
Head off to the planet, DSS both bodies.
A crash site on the moon shows up so I decend to the surface. The cargo I'm looking for is there, so I try to use a collection limpet to retrive it.
It would appear collection limpets only work in space, because 3 of them failed.
I go to my SRV panel and then remember I swapped it out for the collection limpets!!
Not much spare space in a DBX.
o7

If this is a salvage mission to salvage stuff from a planet then the mission itself would have the surface icon and the text would say "SRV required" (or suchlike).

 

[Skürt Avil]

It was a private in-flight message request, no mention of SRV in the message. I recieved three of them before I accepted.
I'm assuming it's a nudge from FD to get to use an SRV.

 

[Para Handy]

It was a private in-flight message request, no mention of SRV in the message. I recieved three of them before I accepted.
I'm assuming it's a nudge from FD to get to use an SRV.

Fair enough. BTW those two screenshots in your previous post were of "Encoded Materials" - one of the three types of materials used in engineering.

e.g. https://inara.cz/galaxy-component/112/

 

[Sapyx]

Specialised Legacy Firmware : Modifications have been detected in attached package - possible malware attack.
Decoded Emission Data : Possible cyber threat detected....

What does this mean? Is it in game?

"Specialized legacy firmware" and "decoded emission data" are the things that are important; those are the types of data you have collected. Collect enough, and you can do some Engineering, or swap it at a data trader for data that you do need for engineering. If you go to your inventory tab, you will see that you have now collected some Specialised Legacy Firmware and Decoded Emission Data.

All the stuff in yellow, about cyber attack and malware, is just flavour text. You can ignore it.

 

[Skürt Avil]

"Specialized legacy firmware" and "decoded emission data" are the things that are important; those are the types of data you have collected. Collect enough, and you can do some Engineering, or swap it at a data trader for data that you do need for engineering. If you go to your inventory tab, you will see that you have now collected some Specialised Legacy Firmware and Decoded Emission Data.

All the stuff in yellow, about cyber attack and malware, is just flavour text. You can ignore it.

I was worried for a minute. Wasn't too sure if it was in-game or not!
I'm not paranoid, they're really following me!

 

[aRJay]

I had seen reports of people collecting some of the artefacts at a Guardian site using collector limpets so after reading the reports I gave it a go, usually the limpet died sometimes it destroyed the object as well occasionally the object would be driven beneath the planets surface the rest of the time it worked.
Regrettably this was back just after the megaship ferry was created and I don’t remember clearly how it was done but I think the object needed to be targetable from the ship but probably not targeted so that the limpet would fly slower.

It is quite possible that changes over time have stopped this working.

 

[Skürt Avil]

Just getting back to crash site with a SRV on board.
Now I'm thinking.. does an SRV have a cargo scoop?

 

[aRJay]

Just getting back to crash site with a SRV on board.
Now I'm thinking.. does an SRV have a cargo scoop?

Yes and it is possible to bind it to either a toggle or to hold button to deploy, I think toggle is better as it doesn't affect the speed so I generally deploy the scoop as soon as I have dropped out of the ship.

Not everything on the SRV is bound to a control by default.

 

[CMDR Jago Kain]

Just getting back to crash site with a SRV on board.
Now I'm thinking.. does an SRV have a cargo scoop?

Yes. It can only carry 2 items though so you might need to return to your ship, transfer the cargo, then pick up more.

You might also find more materials to pick up on the ground. These don't count towards the cargo limit.

 

[Ashnak]

Yes, it does. Deploy scoop, select stuff to pick up, drive over it.
But:

• the SRV can only carry 2 cargo
• you can't enter the ship (and stow the SRV) while you've still cargo on board, so you will need to transfer the cargo to the ship first (crotch menu). That is, provided you got the storage space on your ship...

 

[Ashnak]

P.S.: 4 years ago, Vindicator Jones was able to do it from the ship. I've heard similar reports from the rats when scooping up mats.

 

[Skürt Avil]

Yes, it does. Deploy scoop, select stuff to pick up, drive over it.
But:

• the SRV can only carry 2 cargo
• you can't enter the ship (and stow the SRV) while you've still cargo on board, so you will need to transfer the cargo to the ship first (crotch menu). That is, provided you got the storage space on your ship...

There is now an option to transfer cargo to the ship. My main problem was trying to get in position to reboard though.

Edit: sorry, misunderstood your mssg. I meant that when I reboard the ship it automatically transfered the cargo.