NPC crew and combat bonds

[evoker]

I have never used a fighter hangar and since I recently got a Corvette, I wanted to use one in the CG's CZs to help out a bit.

Do NPC pilots get a cut of the Combat Bonds before you hand them in? I was thinking of getting the NPC crew, fly around for a while wrack up a few million in Combat Bonds, fire the NPC and hand in the combat bonds.

Will they get 0CR if I do it like that or do they leech off even while killing things in the CZ?

 

[Deleted member 182079]

If you fire them before you hand bounties/bonds in, then they won't get anything.

You can take this approach for as long as you don't need a crew better than Expert level, but I can tell you they do become noticeably better beyond that - my crew is 60% through Deadly now, and I can leave them on their own destroying smaller ships while I focus on the bigger fish - my pilot has cost me around 1bn now but I don't care about credits since it's just a cut they take... what's more important to consider is Combat rank, they will leech 50% of your progress so if you're grinding towards Elite combat rank I wouldn't use SLF crew at all (up to you of course) - and that happens 'live' so to speak i.e. as soon as the enemy ship explodes.

 

[evoker]

what's more important to consider is Combat rank, they will leech 50% of your progress so if you're grinding towards Elite combat rank I wouldn't use SLF crew at all (up to you of course) - and that happens 'live' so to speak i.e. as soon as the enemy ship explodes.

Thanks for the reply and the heads up!. I recently reached Dangerous and there's a long way to go to Elite but I am not going to actively grind it.

I was thinking of using the npc pilot to go after the small ships and also take some heat off me. Even with a Corvette, I almost lost my 3rd shield ring before I used a cell bank in a HI CZ.

 

[BDelacroix]

Pilots get a cut of everything. Regardless of if they are currently with you.

 

[evoker]

Pilots get a cut of everything. Regardless of if they are currently with you.

What does that mean exactly? My question was if they get parts of the combat bonds or bounties before you actually hand them in.

I am aware they get bits of everything even if they aren't active but I am planning on firing them before I hand in bonds or bounties.

 

[BDelacroix]

The transaction occurs when you turn things in.
Also, I'd never want to work for you

 

[Koben]

Your NPCs crew members will get their share on every single credit you make, from cartographics to mission rewards and it doesn't matter if you never ever even have deployed them yet.

 

[d8veh]

Do NPC pilots get a cut of the Combat Bonds before you hand them in?

To be precice, the NPC crew gets their cut after you hand in the bonds as long as they're still on contract..

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Pilots get a cut of everything. Regardless of if they are currently with you.

If you keep pilots, yes, but in the case of the OP if they are merely hiring and firing just prior to doing some CZ work and getting rid of them before handing in the bonds, in which case they earn nada.

Only downsides to this approach are

• A lot of faffing about with crew and you spend 150k each time on hiring costs (for Expert level crew, hiring anything below that level isn't really worth it as their abilities are very limited then)
• You still lose 50% of combat rank while you fly with SLF crew
• SLF pilots losing their ship counts against your CZ score I believe (i.e. fills up the red enemy bar)
• You will limit yourself to Expert level SLF pilots (beyond that they come into their own imo)

 

[evoker]

Thanks for the detailed reply @ObiW, but I'd like to test them out. I am still not Elite in combat so I would prefer to fly solo till I get to Elite. Which is a slow grind.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yeah, that's how I did it (eventually, when I found out how it works), avoided SLF crew until I hit Elite Combat - the rank grind from Deadly to Elite is particularly steep, iirc it's the same number of kills required from Harmless to Deadly, again.

The Triple Elite decal was worth it though

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

To counter ObiW's points they do bring a lot to the table at Elite rank.

As mentioned they can provide a great distraction during CG's or vs a wing, or provide the equivalent or around a large hardpoint of extra damage if you both focus the same target.

Hiring and firing is a great workaround while you're still levelling combat rank and credits are an issue. However, endgame when those things aren't an issue I think they're more than worth it.

I remember me and my wing sending 4 elite SLF pilots after an Elite Conda in a Haz rez once while we sat and watched, they chewed it up very quickly.

There are known lag issues associated with them but I've been fortunate not to have suffered from that.

My pilot, Precious Bush, will be with me for a long time to come.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

To counter ObiW's points they do bring a lot to the table at Elite rank.

As mentioned they can provide a great distraction during CG's or vs a wing, or provide the equivalent or around a large hardpoint of extra damage if you both focus the same target.

Hiring and firing is a great workaround while you're still levelling combat rank and credits are an issue. However, endgame when those things aren't an issue I think they're more than worth it.

I remember me and my wing sending 4 elite SLF pilots after an Elite Conda in a Haz rez once while we sat and watched, they chewed it up very quickly.

There are known lag issues associated with them but I've been fortunate not to have suffered from that.

My pilot, Precious Bush, will be with me for a long time to come.

Oh don't get me wrong, I only stopped using them when I actively started to grind through the final 30% towards Elite - probably one of the worst (self inflicted) grinds I went through the game if I'm honest, it was soul destroying. But I really wanted that decal, and fast.

I do enjoy SLF action, especially when I switch to the fighter and let my Deadly pilot take over the mothership (I wouldn't advise this with lower level crew), it nicely breaks up longer sessions in RES's or CZ's.

And the credits don't bother me - I've played through long periods without using my pilot once and they probably made hundreds of millions in commission without doing any work, but it's only credits so who cares.

In fact, I'm considering hiring a second (this time female) pilot for variety.

 

[PontifusRex]

I forgot to fire my pilot last week before starting my Robigo runs (while grinding the last few billion I needed for a FC). She leached 150 million off me in just a few days.

 

[Vandaahl]

Thanks for the detailed reply @ObiW, but I'd like to test them out. I am still not Elite in combat so I would prefer to fly solo till I get to Elite. Which is a slow grind.

Like said, they only taka a piece of the combat rep when they are active They will always take your money, whether they are active or not.

There is another thing to consider, they can be a great help in tough wing fights. If you command your pilot to attack your target first, and the target turns hostile on your SLF, it will keep on focusing on your SLF until all of its shield and a part of its hull is gone, before it will turn to you. So in tough moments, if you play it right, they can really take the heat of of you.

 

[Walter2]

I've been training up a SLF pilot from Harmless - mainly as a cheapskate option to hiring a pilot of proven ability. It's been fun - apart from the incessant nagging and sarky comments:
"We're outnumbered here, Commander. Best pick our targets carefully." (In-flight advice from a Harmless rated pilot to an Elite.)
"No more hostiles on my scanner, Commander." (That's because you wouldn't recognise a hostile until they've taken your shields and half your hull.)
"I really need your help - my shields are gone." (I can't come to your aid because I'm already trying to destroy the ship that's attacking you.)
"If you want to destroy your own ship, that's fine by me Commander." (DON'T FLY YOUR FIGHTER THROUGH MY BEAMS EVER AGAIN!!!!)
But she is getting to be quite good.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

Thanks for the detailed reply @ObiW, but I'd like to test them out. I am still not Elite in combat so I would prefer to fly solo till I get to Elite. Which is a slow grind.

I posted this elsewhere, I’m closing in on Elite Combat, (I only PvE),

I found something out by accident. So if you're doing those massacre missions, simply to rank up, yes the money is nice, but the rank of the opponent is of far greater importance. I have been taking the Dangerous or Elite ranked massacre missions, but only being supplied with deadly or dangerous opponents to kill. I was flying around, taking a break from killing when I happened into a system with a compromised nav beacon. I nuzzled up to the beacon and there I found a bunch of wanted NPCs, ranked at Dangerous and Elite, I hung around and killed a few until my shields were wafer thin (Mr Creosote) then headed off to the nearest station to collect the rewards. Yes they were less than the massacre mission, by some margin, but I don't need money, I need the higher ranked kills. I'll be back there tonight. I killed something like 4 Elite ships and 5 Dangerous and earned an extra % to my rank in half the time it takes with the massacre missions.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I posted this elsewhere, I’m closing in on Elite Combat, (I only PvE),

I've been doing Thargoid Scouts (each count as Elite rank) but it's soooo boring and tedious. Best approach is to break things up by switching between that, CNBs and HazRESs (don't recommend CZs unless you enjoy them because they're bullet sponges compared to the rest due to higher armour/shield values and it will just take longer to churn through them).

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

I've been doing Thargoid Scouts (each count as Elite rank) but it's soooo boring and tedious. Best approach is to break things up by switching between that, CNBs and HazRESs (don't recommend CZs unless you enjoy them because they're bullet sponges compared to the rest due to higher armour/shield values and it will just take longer to churn through them).

It’s a good tip, breaking it up. The thing about the compromised beacons is, I’m spatting Elite ranked ships like Haulers, Viper III’s, easy money, done in seconds. Thargoid scouts, IIRC, take a bit more time/skill.

I don’t really like combat, I managed to get to Dangerous almost entirely by fighting off attackers when trading, but I do like perfection, so to reach Elite in combat, I want the easiest method, blowing up a hauler is as about as easy as it gets. I know, I’m lazy, almost cheating, the rank means nothing if I did it the easy way, but as they say in golf, there are no pictures on a scorecard.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

It’s a good tip, breaking it up. The thing about the compromised beacons is, I’m spatting Elite ranked ships like Haulers, Viper III’s, easy money, done in seconds. Thargoid scouts, IIRC, take a bit more time/skill.

I don’t really like combat, I managed to get to Dangerous almost entirely by fighting off attackers when trading, but I do like perfection, so to reach Elite in combat, I want the easiest method, blowing up a hauler is as about as easy as it gets. I know, I’m lazy, almost cheating, the rank means nothing if I did it the easy way, but as they say in golf, there are no pictures on a scorecard.

I enjoy combat most when I just do it for fun - grinding rank is pretty much the opposite so I can't imagine what it must be like for someone who doesn't particularly like combat Honestly though, as nice as the decal is I wouldn't bother again as there's not much else benefit to Combat Elite (not even bragging rights as there's no skill involved, just tenacity). As a matter of fact, on my alt account I'm trying my best to keep combat rank as low as I can because the element of surprise when coming across hostile players is not to be underestimated (and can be fun when they realise they can't squash a noob that easily).