Please help with planetary landing missions?!?!

Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the right area for this, I don't use forums in general much.

I took out my first mission that involved landing on a planet and deploying the SRV. I had to scan something in a base. My friend told me that I had to disable gun turrets to get anywhere near the thing I needed to scan, but there was a federal security ship nearby, I drove next to it and noticed there was no pilot in it, so I decided to attack a gun turret at the base, immediately the federal security ship launched and blew my SRV to smithereens.

I thought my actual body was inside the SRV so I told my ship to come back down from orbit, it did, but then my SRV was blown up and I was teleported back to the ship (I'm assuming the SRV is remote control).

My question is.... Was I doing it wrong? What should I have done differently? Would the turrets not have been hostile? Could I have got away with just going into the base and scanning the thing I needed to scan? I didn't know if the base would be hostile if I got anywhere near the base or turrets.

I've done the tutorial but it doesn't mention anything about hostility of certain bases.

Any help and advice you could give would be very welcome. :D

Rob.
 
A safer way to handle this is to become friendly with the factions supplying those and surrounding missions. If you're friendly you can generally just drive upto the datapoint, collect and leave. Sometimes though you'll get a tresspass fine but you can give it toes back to your ship before any hostiles close in on you. Make sure you don't shoot / kill the hostiles though as that could make you wanted.

Hope that helps.

V2k.
 
A safer way to handle this is to become friendly with the factions supplying those and surrounding missions. If you're friendly you can generally just drive upto the datapoint, collect and leave. Sometimes though you'll get a tresspass fine but you can give it toes back to your ship before any hostiles close in on you. Make sure you don't shoot / kill the hostiles though as that could make you wanted.

Hope that helps.

V2k.

Ah, so next time just drive into the base, do the scan and run away? Are the turrets not really powerful enough to kill me in the meantime?
 
Oh no the turrets will kill you alright but if you're on good terms with the faction who owns the base, you have less to worry about.

V2k.
 
Depends on the kind of turrets.

Some are anti-ship and will blast your ship if you call it in too close. They won't bother targeting and shooting your SCV.

Some are anti-SCV and will blast you. These can do some damage but some LOS maneuvering can help mitigate the damage.

Generally look around before you try to scan or shoot anything. Know where your targets are and where you may get shot from. Scanning things doesn't always activate the turrets. If you have to. Take out the powerplant for maximum effect. If it has a ship, you may want to hide your ship nearby and run if the ship launches.
 

verminstar

Banned
Hi all, I hope I'm posting in the right area for this, I don't use forums in general much.

I took out my first mission that involved landing on a planet and deploying the SRV. I had to scan something in a base. My friend told me that I had to disable gun turrets to get anywhere near the thing I needed to scan, but there was a federal security ship nearby, I drove next to it and noticed there was no pilot in it, so I decided to attack a gun turret at the base, immediately the federal security ship launched and blew my SRV to smithereens.

I thought my actual body was inside the SRV so I told my ship to come back down from orbit, it did, but then my SRV was blown up and I was teleported back to the ship (I'm assuming the SRV is remote control).

My question is.... Was I doing it wrong? What should I have done differently? Would the turrets not have been hostile? Could I have got away with just going into the base and scanning the thing I needed to scan? I didn't know if the base would be hostile if I got anywhere near the base or turrets.

I've done the tutorial but it doesn't mention anything about hostility of certain bases.

Any help and advice you could give would be very welcome. :D

Rob.

I know theres probably other workarounds but I find the ethic 'drive it like ye stole it' seems to work best, although occasionally one does lose the SRV in the process. The point being ye still complete the mission although stacking multiple planetary scan missions just got harder unless ye carry two SRV...or 4.

Dont take on the larger sentry gun, only the smaller which is easier to kill...the main gun stops firing when the smaller gun dies...whether thats a bug or not I dont know and dont care...it works. Dont just charge in and always check if theres skimmers as they complicate things if not dealt with quickly. Try and use the cover to snipe the smaller gun and keep most of yer pips to sheild cos yer gonna have to be nearly sitting still when scanning the data point.

Even if ye lose the SRV, so long as ye made the scan, ye complete the mission. Dont just give up though...drive hard and fast and erratic and learn to work faster through the menus while still moving. Give yer SRV the 100% boost on the fly with synth if ye need to...which ye almost certainly will, but do not stop or slow down or try and glide cos once in the air, they have ye cold...yer now a lot easier to target after all.

Sometimes I die and wake up in the ship and I gotta turn the mission in before hitting the other 3 planets in the same system...and sometimes I get out. And thats a DBE with a 3A sheild...cos if ye dd get into yer ship, yer gonna have to get into sc asap or ye risk losing the ship as well.

Its annoying and a bit buggy I think...but pretty much straightforward ^
 
I don't think friendliness has any influence on the trespass zones. You are supposed to not enter these or be quick with your doings inside. Just scan public data and core data terminals, they don't necessarily have to be in your view, can be scanned through walls, on a different height level, etc. While you are not trespassing and scan only public terminals, turrets and skimmers will not attack you.

Or just ignore the alarms in low-sec bases if you don't care about bounties, etc. and do a swipe of the security just for fun. Authority ships only appear at high-sec and mil med-sec bases IIRC. And they can be dealt with beforehand using your ship, or "ignored" as another option: do everything quick, use the base itself as cover, proceed cautiously. I think I've been at all base type combinations (at least those from the tip-off missions), they all are manageable solo SRV-only. But SRV is meant to be lost then, but you keep your data. NPC ships are stupid enough to boost into ground and sometimes kill themselves eventually, but this is unlikely and a lengthy process, and SRV has only a mallet against them, so you can't escape. Don't forget to dismiss your ship for this and don't even think to call it back (although if it's strong enough... but you're better using it to deal with the authority ships first then).

Also, there is this thread with settlement maps if you don't consider this spoily:

Oh, and regarding the security, if you are going that way, consider ignoring anything not threatening you (if it isn't for fun that is). AA turrets are of no problem to you, distant anti-surface turrets as well, sometime even closer ones, skimmers can be confined to some area you can avoid, etc.
 
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Thanks for the advice, tried one again last night before I read your advice and didn't realise there was a perimeter. I just barged in and all the skimmers came out and kept their eye on me, then I scanned the thing I wanted and all hell broke loose. I ran away and two ships came after me and those skimmer things, I thought I lost them all and recalled my ship so I could get onboard, I managed to get onboard but couldn't figure out how to take off again!! I ended up having my ship destroyed and lost 500k in insurance. I think I'll use a smaller ship for planetary landings so the insurance is not so high and then try again, I've got a couple of smaller ships that I've not bothered using, I think an Eagle and an adder.
 
The learning experience is frustrating, but also part of the a-ha moment and fun.

Quick tips:
* Scanning public terminal is ok; private ones will get you a bounty.
* interacting or disabling power generators, controllers will get you back bounty.
* Watch out for trespass zone (shows up as red zones in you display and you get a warning).
* Some missions you have to scan the next terminal to reset the warning countdown. Some missions you zoom in, scan terminal and exit zone before you get a bounty.
* Use smaller ships for these missions. Stealth and evasion is the best strategy unless the mission is to blast things.
* Dismiss you ship. If you are under fire and your SRV is destroyed, you shoukd reappear in your ship in orbit (never happened to me so not firsthand experience).

Enjoy learning and trying out various approaches.
 
I have a video for you of one of those, it is the worst case scenario, a guarded private datapoint with armed response, so other variations are invariably easier (no hostility or less hostility). Hope it helps...

Particularly note that the scan can be performed without entering the trespass zone, however when the scan completes, all response is unleashed anyway.

[video=youtube_share;KxjWDdODjC0]https://youtu.be/KxjWDdODjC0[/video]

P.S. There's no need to destroy the turret at the end, that was for my personal satisfaction. ;)
 
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On some missions it's possible to scan the beacon from just outside the perimeter of the tresspass zone, but scanning sets of the base defences....run.

Park your ship in a dip out of line of sight of the defencses....or dismiss and race away till you lose the persuit and then recall.
 
Excellent, thanks for the tips and the vid, I will give it another try today.

You're most welcome but based on reading your OP better and some of the other posts, I'm not sure the vid perfectly covers your scenario, as you mentioned ships attacking you, which normally only happens at major bases, not at planetary scan buildings and outposts (the ones that hop all over the map like in the vid)

But...The next two tutorials I will do will be medium security base scanning (along with a list near Sol) for MEF and CIF, and scanning the high security datapoints for Assassinate Terrorist missions, that will about cover all the important interactions with planetary scan points. :)
 

verminstar

Banned
You're most welcome but based on reading your OP better and some of the other posts, I'm not sure the vid perfectly covers your scenario, as you mentioned ships attacking you, which normally only happens at major bases, not at planetary scan buildings and outposts (the ones that hop all over the map like in the vid)

But...The next two tutorials I will do will be medium security base scanning (along with a list near Sol) for MEF and CIF, and scanning the high security datapoints for Assassinate Terrorist missions, that will about cover all the important interactions with planetary scan points. :)

Oh no, I just did another trio of these this morning, and even single buildings and minor bases are guarded...sometimes by two navy ships, at least 3 skimmers and two turrets. Thats on small minor bases of maybe one block and thats it...guarded like fort knox.

Easier to stack them when ye carry two srv cos the risk of losing an srv is very real indeed...just takes one unlucky shot and wake up in the ship. Wouldnt bother with them, but at 3m a pop fer 5 minutes work, plus several scan data packets, its hard to refuse ^
 
Oh no, I just did another trio of these this morning, and even single buildings and minor bases are guarded...sometimes by two navy ships, at least 3 skimmers and two turrets. Thats on small minor bases of maybe one block and thats it...guarded like fort knox.

Easier to stack them when ye carry two srv cos the risk of losing an srv is very real indeed...just takes one unlucky shot and wake up in the ship. Wouldnt bother with them, but at 3m a pop fer 5 minutes work, plus several scan data packets, its hard to refuse ^

I'm really surprised, you are the second person to say this recently, so I do believe you, it's just that as you say, they are good money so I do them often, and I've never seen a patrol ship. Lucky so far I guess. I'm gonna do more to see how often this happens. :)
 
I do planetary scans a lot and have tried many variations trying to escape the "final conflict" of being attacked by a Navy ship that was dormant before the scan - with less than satisfactory results, - meaning i always get destroyed no matter what i try = No matter what ship i use - and i have several to choose from - either landed or recalled - nothing seems to work to survive intact with all assets - this needs changed in some way - i like the diversity of combining flying, exploring, and using the SRV in a mission - but it gets very frustrating to have to replace the SRV after each and every encounter - especially when the ship lands over 1Km from recall point everytime or it lands insIde the conflict zone and gets destroyed also. THIS NEEDS CHANGED IN 3.0 !
 
Since they pay quite well, I run scan missions when I need credits. The other replies cover most of the high points, but I suggest getting a good look at the base before you land. If there's a security ship parked nearby or flying around you should just assume that the SRV is a loss. Dismiss your ship to orbit and scan the data port, if it is a private port security will be alerted and will destroy the SRV. Don't worry about it, you are piloting it remotely ( telepresence indicator in the lower left hand corner of your display ). You pop back to your ship, so boost and escape into SC as fast as you can. Restock price for the SRV is Cr 1030 at any base with restock facilities.
Skimmers are pretty easy to take out, Stingers are a bit tougher. The repeater on the SRV works pretty well once you switch to turret view mode ( X button on Xbox, I'm not sure what the other systems use). Defense turrets can be taken out as well, but have armor you need to blast through.
My SOP is to land, scan, run to a local anarchy system to wait out the bounty, then turn in the mission. I usually search for USS while waiting, to pass the time and maybe make a few extra credits. Depending on how low my bank balance is, I run anything from an Adder to a FAS. Never fly without a rebuy.
 
How do you lose the pursuit? Ships are simply faster than a SRV, and usually another one spawns when you get a bit away from the base.
 
How I have been doing these is as follows. I have done a lot of them and this works consistently for me.
1. Park your ship close to the base so that it is easily accessible. Do not recall it (or send it away).
2. Approach the base but always stay outside of the exclusion zone/perimeter. If you accidentally enter it then back out immediately and you won't get a fine.
3. Target one of the skimmers (if the base has them) in most case cases these will show up as wanted. If they are then activate your turret and shoot down the skimmers. This will give you a credit for destroying a wanted skimmer and won't give you a fine. The turrets won't be activated either.
4. Slowly approach the base as closely as possible to the data point. When close enough it will display the words "Data ..." which means that it can then be targeted. You should be able to do this without getting a trespass notice even though a large part of your SRV will be showing as over the boundary on your scanner.
5. Activate the turret. Target the data point and use the secondary fire button to scan it.
6. As soon as the scan finishes you should depart and head for your ship. You will probably receive some damage but I have never been completely killed. If you park your ship facing the base and are heading for the rear end to embark then it will shield you while you board.
7. Immediately after boarding you will be advised that the "Mother Ship is under attack". Again if your ship has anything like reasonable shields it will absorb the damage while you take off. If there is a ship nearby you should be able to get in the air before it really becomes more than a nuisance. I point my ship up, boost and engage supercruise asap which loses any ships at the base.

The net result of the above is that you will get a fine of 400 to 600 credits for accessing private data which will become dormant in less than 10 minutes.

These missions usually pay really well and once you get used to them they don't take long to do.
 
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