A few months ago I found a system on the edge of the bubble with fairly good passenger missions. I stuck around and eventually it started to feel like a "home" system. I was allied with the two emperial factions and (slowly) working on my rank, even after the pax were nerfed. One day the criminal faction in the system started a civil war, and I had the most fun I've ever had in a CZ because I felt like I had skin in the game - I was helping my friends out.
About a month ago, a system a few light years away became a control system for aisling duval. My system suddenly started getting a lot of traffic (though none of it in open) apparently from people who are really focused on powerplay. They boosted the communist faction because that gives aisling more CC, and although I fought against them, they won three civil wars and took the system.
I was kind of "meh" about this because I was ready to move some place new anyway - needed to start grinding fed rank. But it bothered me a bit to leave all those (virtual) people to their fate and just take off. So I decided to do something about it.
At first, I just started attacking the commie ships. That turned out to be too easy and boring. Over the weekend, I switched to PvE piracy.
But I wanted to make it somewhat challenging, so I limited myself to a Cobra with only minimal engineering (G3DD, heavy armor, and thermal-resist shields). I also reduced by bank account balance to a nice round number so that I could easily keep track of if I was making or losing money.
It turns out, piracy under these circumstances is not as easy as I thought it would be. The system was in lockdown now, and I had a hostile rating with the communists - so they opened fire on me immediately, no scan necessary. System security forces take about 10 seconds to show up, and my little Cobra can't sit still gathering cargo while they shoot at me.
I died twice before learning that I have to be really, really cautious. It's better to leave with nothing than to leave with cargo that doesn't cover your repair bill - or get an insurance bill that takes a long time to pay off.
I found that I don't have time to try and disable a freighter - take out his drives and steal all his stuff. I don't really even have time to waste on a cargo scan. It's better to just fire off a hatch breaker and see what comes out. I also have to just go ahead and kill the freighters so that they aren't shooting at me too. So I get them down around 1% and then as soon as the hatch breaker is done, I finish them.
Now there's cargo spread over several kms of space. I have a collecter out of course, but they're idiots that like to pick up biowaste, so I manually scoop whatever is most valuable - two or three canisters at most, then it's time to run.
I also tried encouraging freighters to high-wake and following them, but believe it or not, security shows up so fast that I'm getting pummeled before I can scan their wake. Better to just attack them right away.
I tried hanging around the station and following some outbound freighters. Bad idea. Way too much security. I had some success at a surface base. I sat on the ground several kms away and I could visually see when a freighter was leaving. Then I'd just boost up to scan his wake. The trouble here is that roving security condas "just so happen" to fly right over me and they always see me. So I can only stay in one place for a few minutes.
And I went to a RES. My thought was that I could wait on the outskirts until the NPC security was fighting NPC pirates. Then I could zoom in and hatch break a miner. Didn't work though. Even tried staying in silent running. The security sees me from a long way away, and if I turn to fight an eagle, that allows the condas to join in.
The only place I'm safe is in super cruise. NPCs cannot (currently) win an interdiction vs. a cobra. I get interdicted all the time though, and it's very frustrating when I see a juicy target, but I know I'm about to get interdicted myself.
In the end, between repairs and insurance bills, I only just managed to make a small profit. I think this screenshot shows the best haul I had - I had started this experiment with 200 million, so this is the point where I broke even.
the HIP Organophosphates are from two different T7s. The game spawns the same NPCs over and over, so after a while, you can start to guess what someone is carrying.
About a month ago, a system a few light years away became a control system for aisling duval. My system suddenly started getting a lot of traffic (though none of it in open) apparently from people who are really focused on powerplay. They boosted the communist faction because that gives aisling more CC, and although I fought against them, they won three civil wars and took the system.
I was kind of "meh" about this because I was ready to move some place new anyway - needed to start grinding fed rank. But it bothered me a bit to leave all those (virtual) people to their fate and just take off. So I decided to do something about it.
At first, I just started attacking the commie ships. That turned out to be too easy and boring. Over the weekend, I switched to PvE piracy.
But I wanted to make it somewhat challenging, so I limited myself to a Cobra with only minimal engineering (G3DD, heavy armor, and thermal-resist shields). I also reduced by bank account balance to a nice round number so that I could easily keep track of if I was making or losing money.
It turns out, piracy under these circumstances is not as easy as I thought it would be. The system was in lockdown now, and I had a hostile rating with the communists - so they opened fire on me immediately, no scan necessary. System security forces take about 10 seconds to show up, and my little Cobra can't sit still gathering cargo while they shoot at me.
I died twice before learning that I have to be really, really cautious. It's better to leave with nothing than to leave with cargo that doesn't cover your repair bill - or get an insurance bill that takes a long time to pay off.
I found that I don't have time to try and disable a freighter - take out his drives and steal all his stuff. I don't really even have time to waste on a cargo scan. It's better to just fire off a hatch breaker and see what comes out. I also have to just go ahead and kill the freighters so that they aren't shooting at me too. So I get them down around 1% and then as soon as the hatch breaker is done, I finish them.
Now there's cargo spread over several kms of space. I have a collecter out of course, but they're idiots that like to pick up biowaste, so I manually scoop whatever is most valuable - two or three canisters at most, then it's time to run.
I also tried encouraging freighters to high-wake and following them, but believe it or not, security shows up so fast that I'm getting pummeled before I can scan their wake. Better to just attack them right away.
I tried hanging around the station and following some outbound freighters. Bad idea. Way too much security. I had some success at a surface base. I sat on the ground several kms away and I could visually see when a freighter was leaving. Then I'd just boost up to scan his wake. The trouble here is that roving security condas "just so happen" to fly right over me and they always see me. So I can only stay in one place for a few minutes.
And I went to a RES. My thought was that I could wait on the outskirts until the NPC security was fighting NPC pirates. Then I could zoom in and hatch break a miner. Didn't work though. Even tried staying in silent running. The security sees me from a long way away, and if I turn to fight an eagle, that allows the condas to join in.
The only place I'm safe is in super cruise. NPCs cannot (currently) win an interdiction vs. a cobra. I get interdicted all the time though, and it's very frustrating when I see a juicy target, but I know I'm about to get interdicted myself.
In the end, between repairs and insurance bills, I only just managed to make a small profit. I think this screenshot shows the best haul I had - I had started this experiment with 200 million, so this is the point where I broke even.
the HIP Organophosphates are from two different T7s. The game spawns the same NPCs over and over, so after a while, you can start to guess what someone is carrying.
