my best 7 minutes and 30 seconds in 4 years of Elite - should you take thargoid cargo?

rdslw

R
This is what happened today. Disclaimer: I know this game quite well, but I wasnt prepared for this level of emotions I was served. Here is my story.


The situation is like this:
* While in Maia, Obsidian Orbital, I decided to take worth 11M mission with 48t of thargoid cargo -
* read corrosive cargo and of course I dont have resistant cargo racks
* I did today one such mission before, successfully, so thought I'll make it again to the destination before corrosion eats me
* at that time had around 1000 uncashed power play bonds, while being in Maia 400LY from the place I can cash them in
* that bonds are needed: This Thursday I'll be 4 weeks aligned to get Pacifiers
* Shortly before I got lucky and had on my roster 4 active other missions, worth 30 millions CR - really important money for me
* and just few minutes before I onboarded my dangerous level crewmate on my ship - I spent last two months training him to this level


What can get wrong, right?
Riiiiiight.



More less I jumped to the destination system (merope), but immedietaly upon arrival, corrosion broke my canopy. OK I thought, 7m30seconds, but the destination starport is 4000ls so it will take around 3 minutes to be there, plus 1 minute to dock (aprox). I will still do it, and have some reserve time.
Not so fast... Soon after, my FSD brokes down, and I'm thrown out of supercruise to normal space. Fine. I know the drill. Reboot sequence should do. Doing reboot. Some time later, FSD is operational and I'll be shortly jumping to SC again, but then somebody jumps into my instance. Deadly NPC. I had assasination mission on him - fine, I dont have time to fight, boost boost boost, love my cutter speed, and jump to SC.

Cool, I still have around 5 minutes left. Will do it. Not so fast CMDR. Around 30 seconds later I'm being interdicted by the very NPC. ARGHHHH, time to win this interdiction and shake this pesky NPC off my tail - this will use some precious seconds, but no other option and if I may remind you, no canopy on me, so no blue/red clues being shown. I managed, but it took me long time!! It's very difficult, emotionally to win the interdiction not knowing if youre doing bad or good.


Around 3 minutes left till my oxygen is out. No time to loose. I'm supercruising to the station and I start worrying. Huh, looks like I dont even have time to worry: Next interdiction attempt starts!! This time Police - I'm wanted in this system (another story ;) ) - decision time for me: what would be faster: interdiction fight or submit, boost and jump out. Because today going in/ou instances works really bad (too many people), I'm choosing interdiction duel. This should also stop all subsequent interdiction attempts from police. 30 seconds later Ive shaken police away, and I'm again desperately trying to supercruise to the station.
I'm flying at 100% speed, waiting till my time-to-arrive gets at 6 seconds, when I plan to set drive to 75% blue zone. You ask how to do it without canopy? Good question, I'm in cutter, and this in canopy-less mode has a tiny tiny tine piece of glass on bottom left part, I'm using it to observe the timer, while travelling not in straight line there.


Around 90 seconds of oxygen left left. I'm just few dozens ls from station. My heart is pumping really hard, even without breathing noises from ED. I know I need full 60 seconds from jumping into station instance till dock. My mind starts seeing all the losses I'll probably shortly face on the rebuy screen. The only good thing is I have insurance money, but the missions! The PP bonds! Cracked Industrial Firmware - did I mention missions got 4 of them?? My crewmate!!!!!
I overshot 6 seconds approach. Bad luck or stress. Doesn't matter, time is lost. Also, I probably messed up seconds number with ls distance number (window pane is ultra small). I have around 70 seconds left and I do turn around approach - LUCKY for me, this maneuver put me on slightly better arrival path to station entrance. Not ideal, because when I jump out of supercruise to the station, I'm aligned at 50 degrees. This time jump to instances was really fast: thank you FDEV GODS for this small thing.


Quick look at the timer: 47 seconds left. I won't make it. This is cutter. I'm flying this ship rarely, hate its lag and still can't use boost approach to the station slot reliably. So no boost this time, too much risk and I'm not aligned well. With 40 seconds I have only one approach, the perfect one, with slow curved approach path, while on max cutter speed. To the pilots who dont know cutter: it changes direction and responds to steering, ONLY if on blue zone. But I dont have time for blue zone. I fly at 100%. Breathing intensives. Both real life and ED virtual one.


Time passes. I'm at 9 seconds left, I'm almost touching slot and thinking: DID I MAKE IT? I forgot one thing. Emotions make mistakes. Cutter is big and unfortunately its left sides touches crates. I'm stopped. Speed is zero. Why me? Of course station rotates. I curse loudly while desperately try to align in my last attempt, waiting with last final keypress which is left. Boost. Boost in last attempt to survive. I fight till the end.




This is what happens next:
7xWfFxx.jpg



Dont make my mistake. Take thargoid cargo, only when you're ready for ALL possible problems :)

 
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krylite

krylite
haha congrats. all you had to do was make it in the slot, even if it was bouncing all along the rim like a basketball!
 

A D

A D
My heartfelt sympathy Commander, a hard lesson.... but on a brighter note I'm sure you'll use corrosive resistant cargo racks in future. :eek:
 

JonLuis69

JonLuis69
A D said:
My heartfelt sympathy Commander, a hard lesson.... but on a brighter note I'm sure you'll use corrosive resistant cargo racks in future. :eek:
Click to expand...

Don't think any ship can fit the necessary crcr's to haul 48 tons though.

Maybe the T-10?

:eek:
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
So what everyone else said: amazing and +1

I am a little bit surprised this didn't end with: "And then I realised I hadn't requested docking permission" though. That'd have been a nice round-off to the story.. :p


Also I can't remember who said it but: Elite Dangerous - 15 hours of mundane if beautiful space travels followed by 5 minutes of the most heart pounding excitement you'll ever feel in a game that leaves you ever aiming for that next experience whilst at the same time dreading it.
 

rdslw

R
yandoo said:
Couldn't you synthesise materials to repair life support? I'm sure I read that as a new feature in patch notes?
Click to expand...

Interesting idea. This might have worked, replenishing life support capacity. Don't know its material requirement. Anyway fully broken canopy can't be repaired.

I'll remember this in the future, as I plan to risk another thargoid cargo mission if GODRNG spawns it ;) On this attempt I was too stressed to remember this. In fact there was one thing I was really afraid in last minutes: another FSD break-up or Sensors breakup, as those would need another reboot I didnt have time for.

Thank you all for kind words. I'm renaming my cutter to "Schroedinger's Cat'ter" :)
 
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[VR]tailgunner30uk

V
rdslw said:

Interesting idea. This might have worked, replenishing life support capacity. Don't know its material requirement. Anyway fully broken canopy can't be repaired.

I'll remember this in the future, as I plan to risk another thargoid cargo mission if GODRNG spawns it ;) On this attempt I was too stressed to remember this. In fact there was one thing I was really afraid in last minutes: another FSD break-up or Sensors breakup, as those would need another reboot I didnt have time for.

Thank you all for kind words. I'm renaming my cutter to "Schroedinger's Cat'ter" :)
Click to expand...

I chuckled at that.

Fly safeish Commander o7
 

lysan

lysan
rdslw said:
This is what happened today. Disclaimer: I know this game quite well, but I wasnt prepared for this level of emotions I was served. Here is my story.


The situation is like this:
* While in Maia, Obsidian Orbital, I decided to take worth 11M mission with 48t of thargoid cargo -
* read corrosive cargo and of course I dont have resistant cargo racks
* I did today one such mission before, successfully, so thought I'll make it again to the destination before corrosion eats me
* at that time had around 1000 uncashed power play bonds, while being in Maia 400LY from the place I can cash them in
* that bonds are needed: This Thursday I'll be 4 weeks aligned to get Pacifiers
* Shortly before I got lucky and had on my roster 4 active other missions, worth 30 millions CR - really important money for me
* and just few minutes before I onboarded my dangerous level crewmate on my ship - I spent last two months training him to this level


What can get wrong, right?
Riiiiiight.



More less I jumped to the destination system (merope), but immedietaly upon arrival, corrosion broke my canopy. OK I thought, 7m30seconds, but the destination starport is 4000ls so it will take around 3 minutes to be there, plus 1 minute to dock (aprox). I will still do it, and have some reserve time.
Not so fast... Soon after, my FSD brokes down, and I'm thrown out of supercruise to normal space. Fine. I know the drill. Reboot sequence should do. Doing reboot. Some time later, FSD is operational and I'll be shortly jumping to SC again, but then somebody jumps into my instance. Deadly NPC. I had assasination mission on him - fine, I dont have time to fight, boost boost boost, love my cutter speed, and jump to SC.

Cool, I still have around 5 minutes left. Will do it. Not so fast CMDR. Around 30 seconds later I'm being interdicted by the very NPC. ARGHHHH, time to win this interdiction and shake this pesky NPC off my tail - this will use some precious seconds, but no other option and if I may remind you, no canopy on me, so no blue/red clues being shown. I managed, but it took me long time!! It's very difficult, emotionally to win the interdiction not knowing if youre doing bad or good.


Around 3 minutes left till my oxygen is out. No time to loose. I'm supercruising to the station and I start worrying. Huh, looks like I dont even have time to worry: Next interdiction attempt starts!! This time Police - I'm wanted in this system (another story ;) ) - decision time for me: what would be faster: interdiction fight or submit, boost and jump out. Because today going in/ou instances works really bad (too many people), I'm choosing interdiction duel. This should also stop all subsequent interdiction attempts from police. 30 seconds later Ive shaken police away, and I'm again desperately trying to supercruise to the station.
I'm flying at 100% speed, waiting till my time-to-arrive gets at 6 seconds, when I plan to set drive to 75% blue zone. You ask how to do it without canopy? Good question, I'm in cutter, and this in canopy-less mode has a tiny tiny tine piece of glass on bottom left part, I'm using it to observe the timer, while travelling not in straight line there.


Around 90 seconds of oxygen left left. I'm just few dozens ls from station. My heart is pumping really hard, even without breathing noises from ED. I know I need full 60 seconds from jumping into station instance till dock. My mind starts seeing all the losses I'll probably shortly face on the rebuy screen. The only good thing is I have insurance money, but the missions! The PP bonds! Cracked Industrial Firmware - did I mention missions got 4 of them?? My crewmate!!!!!
I overshot 6 seconds approach. Bad luck or stress. Doesn't matter, time is lost. Also, I probably messed up seconds number with ls distance number (window pane is ultra small). I have around 70 seconds left and I do turn around approach - LUCKY for me, this maneuver put me on slightly better arrival path to station entrance. Not ideal, because when I jump out of supercruise to the station, I'm aligned at 50 degrees. This time jump to instances was really fast: thank you FDEV GODS for this small thing.


Quick look at the timer: 47 seconds left. I won't make it. This is cutter. I'm flying this ship rarely, hate its lag and still can't use boost approach to the station slot reliably. So no boost this time, too much risk and I'm not aligned well. With 40 seconds I have only one approach, the perfect one, with slow curved approach path, while on max cutter speed. To the pilots who dont know cutter: it changes direction and responds to steering, ONLY if on blue zone. But I dont have time for blue zone. I fly at 100%. Breathing intensives. Both real life and ED virtual one.


Time passes. I'm at 9 seconds left, I'm almost touching slot and thinking: DID I MAKE IT? I forgot one thing. Emotions make mistakes. Cutter is big and unfortunately its left sides touches crates. I'm stopped. Speed is zero. Why me? Of course station rotates. I curse loudly while desperately try to align in my last attempt, waiting with last final keypress which is left. Boost. Boost in last attempt to survive. I fight till the end.




This is what happens next:
[IMGUR]RJn8D[/IMGUR]


Dont make my mistake. Take thargoid cargo, only when you're ready for ALL possible problems :)
Click to expand...


Well that sounds like a normal day in the office post 2.4 ;)
 

kofeyh

kofeyh
Ahh, that sweet sweet oxygen.

Yeah, i'd suggest an AFMU if carrying corrosive cargo, you can keep stuff going whilst making a run; it'll keep that LS from breaking entirely as well. And you can rearm AFMU. It won't stop corrosive on thrusters or FSD, but you can keep feeding it other modules back to full health.
 
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yolomcbobbinz

Y
Kept my heart racing, I had a similar situation not near as bad as yours but still made it at 0 seconds, thought I was going to lose 5 mil can't imagine the rebuy for a cutter

And I agree with tail gunner, you should name your ship Schrodinger's cutter
 

racer1

racer1
These are great missions, my story below :)

racer1 said:
I just saw a mission for 47 million to transport 140 tonnes 5ly, I couldn't accept it though, kept getting disconnected.

I managed to take 2 missions totaling 120 tonnes and 38 million credits.

It was hairy, merope obscured on take off, primatic shields down before I'd jumped to merope. Life support failure on merope arrival, FSD failure in supercruise, then thrusters, reboot repair, ok, but fsd malfunctions 3 times before I can get back to supercruise and then thrusters take another hit. Reboot repair again. Get to supercruise.

Mission critical message offering me a 38k bonus on 38 million if I make it in the next hour. If I survive 5 more minutes it'll be a miracle lol.

I get to the station, luckily only weapons take hits on way in. I land and I've made it, 38 million in 10 minutes. 300k in repairs. FSD, thrusters, life support all at 1-2%.

Flying a clipper with g5 dirty drives is the perfect ship I'd say.

Great fun though :)
Click to expand...
 
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ITZC0ATL

ITZC0ATL
2.4 is definitely producing some intense moments so far!

I took a mission for 17 million last night to source and deliver 4 units of Thargoid Resin to Darnielle's Progress. I noticed that sometimes Thargoid artefacts would spawn in those Non-Human Signal Sources so I developed a method of dropping into SS, half speed and quickly check for Thargoid items, if no item, then boost and immediately go back to SC, and if the item is present, then lower cargo scoop and try to snatch it before the actual Thargoid did. Quite a fun time, actually.

So I get to the alient base (which takes ages to find btw, FDev please help us locate coordinates in-game better) and land my ship. Out in the SRV, managed to load up with 2 Thargoid Resins when server drops and I lose my Thargoid Sensor, my only way into the base. So it's back to SC again in my now rapidly degrading Clipper, scouring signal sources for more Thargoid goodies. I eventually find one and have to go back and find said alien base AGAIN using the very clumsy coord system. I manage to load up another 2 Thargoid Resins, but they're now dealing serious damage to my ship.

One jump to Maia, damage is getting serious as I cruise towards Darnielle's. Cargo hatch down to 54%. Now 42%. I've entered orbital cuirse, it's down to 30%. GLIDE ENGAGED, cargo hatch down to 24%. Then just as I was about to end glide, the hatch breaks and my cargo is spewed out into the air. I try to catch one mid-air but quickly realise that won't work. So I land my ship, out comes the SRV and I manage to scoop up 3/4 Thargoid Resins, no idea where the last one has gone to. Possibly a server glitch.

At this point I'm right next to base, so I quickly and cautiously take off again and limp onto the pad, critical failures everywhere. I land in Darnielle's, without the full regiment required to complete the mission, to find that there isn't even a repair service at the station. Fuuuuu :p

At that point I logged out for the night, but I suspect I'm going to have to sell the remaining Resins and start from scratch tomorrow, preferably with some fancy new corrosian-resistant cargo racks and/or an AFMU on board. Still, best rush in Elite that I've had for a few months at least!
 
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