Newcomer / Intro Question about assassination missions (on foot)

Frankymole · Sep 12, 2022

If you're not carrying anything illegal, and you have not cloned an authorisation ID, why do any guards who scan you instantly start shooting at you, even if you're allied and have no bounties?

Do they somehow psychically know that you have an assassination target in the settlement?

Screemonster · Sep 12, 2022

Have you... done the assassination yet? Because if so you'll have a bounty.

For some reason the little scales-o-justice icon on the hud doesn't change to red until your second crime at a settlement. I can probably guess what's causing it but it's such a minor bug it seems pointless to report since it'll just vanish into the expired hole.

(my guess is that the proc to update the HUD is called before the bounty is actually applied instead of after, so it doesn't update the hud to say you're wanted until you commit your second offence)

aRJay · Sep 12, 2022

You are standing absolutely still for the scan? They absolutely hate people moving.

Miscellaneous · Sep 12, 2022

I get scanned all the time no problem

I mean, except when there's a problem, sometimes

Codger · Sep 12, 2022

I've never had them aggro on me unless I had a local bounty or stolen stuff, or an eBreach, or a cloned ID. If I'm clean, they scan me and go on their way.

In fact, if I have a bounty from another system, they scan me and say something rude about how CMDRs are supposed to be good guys, but they let me go.

That's how it's worked for me.

Tyres O'Flaherty · Sep 12, 2022

I'd hazard it's either illegal goods/assets/data or an e-breach.

Frankymole · Sep 13, 2022

Screemonster said:
Have you... done the assassination yet? Because if so you'll have a bounty.

No, I'd only just docked and the guard was the first person I met. And in before, they weren't the assassination target

Tyres O'Flaherty said:
I'd hazard it's either illegal goods/assets/data or an e-breach.

I had none of those. Made sure all was clear below the ship (inventory check).

aRJay said:
You are standing absolutely still for the scan? They absolutely hate people moving.

Yes, I always freeze the moment they give the warning. He completed the scan in leisurely fashion, then whipped out his gun and started blasting me. I'd been standing still while he scanned.

Codger said:
I've never had them aggro on me unless I had a local bounty or stolen stuff, or an eBreach, or a cloned ID. If I'm clean, they scan me and go on their way.

You're lucky, this is the second time this has happened to me. The first time I didn't even have a mission!

Dragsham · Sep 13, 2022

I shoot em 1st
Funny cos 10 or so minutes later and the base is deserted. No sign of life.

Frankymole · Sep 13, 2022

I kind of did that in reverse, then. 10 seconds and no sign of life from me on the base, as I scarpered.

Codger · Sep 13, 2022

Frankymole said:
You're lucky, this is the second time this has happened to me. The first time I didn't even have a mission!

Haha, well then I don't know. Maybe it's your cologne.

Frankymole · Sep 13, 2022

There was a message cautioning that the target might flee if alerted (with resultant mission failure) which is why I didn't want to alert the whole base with a frontal assault.

Dragsham · Sep 13, 2022

The other day I landed at a base...hehe.. started sacking it as per.. using the scarab to great effect.
And to my horror (I hadn't dismissed my ship which is the 1st thing to do) they started shooting at it. Fekkin turret pounding It too...I'd got complacent !
I boosted up into the air and quickly from the panel ordered it dismissed....too late. By then the orbiting ships were now shooting it. I'd parked her with 4 pips in shields & whilst running shooting at the sodding turret to draw its fire, watched her go boom

.
Ohhhh £%#%!
10 Mills later after a rebuy I was livid with myself.
Course the lesson is dismiss ship before doing anything.
Dumb noob mistake hehehe

Frankymole · Sep 13, 2022

Yes I too tend to put my ship in combat mode with all pips to shields (the rest to the engines) and dismiss asap if I'm up to no good. I try to disable the anti-personnel turrets if I need to keep the power on. It's not always possible though especially when the pesky guards are in lots of inside areas.

Mine's only a little Cobra though (sometimes a Python), what marque was yours?

Screemonster · Sep 14, 2022

Frankymole said:
Yes, I always freeze the moment they give the warning. He completed the scan in leisurely fashion, then whipped out his gun and started blasting me. I'd been standing still while he scanned.

This is an odd one. Do you remember if he said anything before he started shooting?

Codger · Sep 14, 2022

I had a further thought on this.

In Odyssey there is a bug that sometimes you cannot see your bounties even if you have them. Logging into Horizons will show them, though.

Might be worth checking.

Frankymole · Sep 14, 2022

Screemonster said:
This is an odd one. Do you remember if he said anything before he started shooting?

Can't remember, I don't think it was about anything specific, just some sort of "right you're not going to get away" kind of war cry. I'll keep an ear out if it happens again.

Northpin · Sep 14, 2022

Frankymole said:
No, I'd only just docked and the guard was the first person I met. And in before, they weren't the assassination target

I had none of those. Made sure all was clear below the ship (inventory check).

Yes, I always freeze the moment they give the warning. He completed the scan in leisurely fashion, then whipped out his gun and started blasting me. I'd been standing still while he scanned.

You're lucky, this is the second time this has happened to me. The first time I didn't even have a mission!

Check the journal/logs, it will list the reason (most probably a bounty)

DJ007 · Sep 16, 2022

Frankymole said:
There was a message cautioning that the target might flee if alerted (with resultant mission failure) which is why I didn't want to alert the whole base with a frontal assault.

@Frankymole IME you answered you're own Q by getting scanned. The message often means that your scheming was 'overheard' if you like. "Tipped off" by a CHIS crops up a fair bit in my EDO. So you alerted the whole base, not just the target, by having your scanned ID flash up on all their terminals on arrival. If they know you're coming, they know you're coming, & why! These NPCs look after their own! I did try, to no avail, to notice if it's more common with Fed than Pirate faction mission targets for example as Elite is clever in many ways I sometimes find.

It's not always going to be 'mission failure' though given you didn't die. I've had rarer ones where i've messed up, watched their ship lift off whilst i've been pinned down, meaning I chased them elsewhere, and after a bit of searching had 'em digging their own shallow grave on a nearby desert world instead. ✝

Frankymole · Sep 17, 2022

How does scanning show anyone your missions? I'm confused.

I've had one before who left the target base before I even arrived, it was very soon after accepting the mission and launching from the mission-giver station. I got a comms message saying they were at a new location on a desert world. Very easy to kill there - its almost worth tipping them off, in that case, to get them away from a protective settlement!

No wonder NPCs have a reputation for being stupid.

Codger · Sep 17, 2022

Frankymole said:
How does scanning show anyone your missions? I'm confused.

I've had one before who left the target base before I even arrived, it was very soon after accepting the mission and launching from the mission-giver station. I got a comms message saying they were at a new location on a desert world. Very easy to kill there - its almost worth tipping them off, in that case, to get them away from a protective settlement!

It doesn't. I don't know what he's referring to.