Horizons planetary missions too difficult now?

Lance 'Spacecat' D.

Lance 'Spacecat' D.
I'd like to know your opinions, as I'm not sure that my experience is accurate, this is about planetary missions that involve killing skimmers and blowing up generators and such.
Before engineers those missions were easy in small sized settlements that weren't high security, and totally doable in nothing but a buggy. High security settlements were another story as there might be a goliath there, I found that perfectly fair.

Now in this patch I failed a few missions of the same type. I do these in an extra-armored multipurpose Aspx, counting that the buggy is what really matters, but here's my experience.
-I tried a mission to blow up three skimmers, and approaching the settlement I find it's defended by a sidewinder. I try attacking it, and get flanked by a ship I hadn't noticed (apparently it was landed or something) and have to run for my life.
-Attempt #2 on the same mission, I try ignoring the ships and going for the mission in the buggy. The moment I damage one turret, a vulture takes off and despite my rolling around a tower to avoid him, that vulture had surprising skill in shooting at my buggy using missiles. x.x; Lost that buggy.
At that point I notice this was a high security settlement and figure "Okay, this was too hard a mission, fair enough. I'll try a low to no security one next."

So next I pick a different 'kill three sentries mission' and pay attention that it's a -small- settlement (no plus) and no security level, thus I was certain this was an entry level easy mission.
-I landed, was a bit surprised to see three turrets on such a small settlement, they're so close together I can't help but be shot by the other two the moment I open fire, well, I've handled similar situations in the past, so I start...
-After destroying one turret, 4-6 sentries suddenly emerge with full agressivity, including I believe one goliath as I got missiles shot at my buggy! I try and run for my life but can't even make it half a kilometer away...


So I'd like to have your thoughts on them, if you've succeeded at these missions without using a big ship to bombard the settlements and such. Did I get unlucky?
 

Khromm

K
Tip (of sorts); currently if you land your ship close enough to the settlement (but far enough away that you can use your SRV turret) and have point defense on your ship, it'll automatically target and destroy any missiles being fired at your SRV ;) Don't yet know if you can leave your ship with regular turrets deployed and set to "fire at will" but I do intend trying it out just for a laugh...

Having said that, I've had several failed settlement assault type missions because the skimmers and annoyingly close turrets just melt my SRV - just because my PD is tking out those missiles doesn't mean I'm not getting hit by other projectile fire. Running away is always an option, but I need more practice at that on low G worlds (my last settlement was on a low G planetoid, and it's surprising how much an SRV just spins when trying to escape at full speed when you're not expecting it...). Gonna be tring a few more later on though, with dumbfire missiles to try to soften the settlement before I get into my SRV.
 

Lance 'Spacecat' D.

Lance 'Spacecat' D.
Yeah. If you're bombarding a settlement with dumbfires it's of course another story. But I was thinking that these planetary missions -could- be done without using the spaceship, or at the very least the easier tier ones.

So you're telling me you're also getting wrecked attempting these without air support, okay. Anyone else?
 

GG7

G
I don't do those Skimmer missions anymore. The weapons on the SRV are pretty weak for a lot of those bases and the shields and hull strength are equally weak for any serious combat, and since I play SOLO, I can't call in support or anything. It doesn't seem as though FD wants us to use our ships to deal with these bases. For one thing, I can't target lock surface installations anymore.

The new mission system offers a pretty wide variety of mission types to choose from, so you really don't need to bother with those unless you like doing them. Whereas you are definitely going to have a lot more of an uphill battle than before this update dropped.
 
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Cmdr Thrudd

Cmdr Thrudd
I stayed away from them in 2.0 but started to do them with 2.1 and have been surprised at my enjoyment of them. Some of them are too easy (those are boring) but some are REALLY hard and required more than one attempt & some plan formulation. I've had to 'advance in the opposite direction' more than once to draw away skimmers or recharge after destroying a turret.
How I deal with ships at the base depends on the mission and settlement. Sometimes a patrolling ship just flies away or can be ignored, other times it needs to be dealt with first before landing (if you're REALLY quick you can hit the target and be half way to your ship before the ship tries to engage you). I try to avoid excessive explosions because I'm generally trying to keep the bounty low (hit what I need to for the mission and leave)
For some missions and settlements you can get away with driving in blowing up the thing you need and then running away without killing anything other than the specific target but to do that takes a bit of scouting and some fast driving/shooting. It means you only end up with a small bounty that drops after 10 mins. That's usually not an option with bigger high security settlements. Those I tend to do by sniping a few turret's using either distance or terrain/buildings to block their shots then dealing with any skimmers before working my way into the complex trying to only take on a turret at a time as necessary.
 
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Lance 'Spacecat' D.

Lance 'Spacecat' D.
I just went to a no-security small settlement, and it was defended by two turrets and 6 sentries (including two guardians) Is that your experience Zhon?
 

[VR] Deggial

[VR] Deggial
Don't attack the actual stations to hunt down skimmers!

Land about 7 km away from it, drive around in your SRV (always in one direction to avoid driving in circles) and search for artificial structures (crashed beacons and ships, commodity depots,...). They are guarded by 1-4 wanted(!) skimmers of the correct faction.
This is not only way easier, but you also avoid getting wanted, will earn extra 1000cr. per skimmer and might find some additional materials while driving around.
 
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fraggle88

F
scout and plan your attack, check for ships on pads / in the air and big gun emplacements as these are usually the ship killers. look for generators as these can knock out defences. dumb-fire missiles are your friends as they generate splash damage and can easily take out skimmers gun emplacements generators. large high sec bases can have anti-air defence that render missiles useless so fixed beam lasers are recommended. use the base to your advantage use it to obscure direct line of fire from big guns until you need to take it out.

high end ships may pack a punch but low end ships cost way less to replace.

most dangerous tool in a commanders arsenal is the ability to think plan and adapt. :p
 

Henri

Henri
fraggle88 said:
scout and plan your attack, check for ships on pads / in the air and big gun emplacements as these are usually the ship killers. look for generators as these can knock out defences. dumb-fire missiles are your friends as they generate splash damage and can easily take out skimmers gun emplacements generators. large high sec bases can have anti-air defence that render missiles useless so fixed beam lasers are recommended. use the base to your advantage use it to obscure direct line of fire from big guns until you need to take it out.

high end ships may pack a punch but low end ships cost way less to replace.

most dangerous tool in a commanders arsenal is the ability to think plan and adapt. :p
Click to expand...
I completely agree! Below some imagery to go with what you said....
[video=youtube;xRU2JAFDjSE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRU2JAFDjSE&feature=youtu.be[/video]
 
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