If I understand things correctly, tiranus can't spread and invade near by systems any more. So that's the one I plan on dealing with, since it has the lowest chance of thargoids bothering me on my way to tiranus. But is there still a patrol near the malstrum in system? Not just in the corrosive cloud?
Question regarding ship building and game mechanics
- Thread starter husky of snow
- Start date
Taranis is very much still capable of taking systems, just slowly, because it was isolated. It took one system back this week, others to follow soon-ish.
But for the most part, the space around it is still clear so pretty much any properly outfitted/engineered ship should be capable of getting there with one jump.
And the control sphere also has little effects on the patrols within the Titan’s location. There, they remain as active as ever, with frequent interdictions in-system(and of course, hyperdictions during the jump). The short distance to the planet Taranis orbits should minimize the former, though.
But for the most part, the space around it is still clear so pretty much any properly outfitted/engineered ship should be capable of getting there with one jump.
And the control sphere also has little effects on the patrols within the Titan’s location. There, they remain as active as ever, with frequent interdictions in-system(and of course, hyperdictions during the jump). The short distance to the planet Taranis orbits should minimize the former, though.
I wouldnt say you handicap yourself by starting as a hauler, but by picking the T9 as the workhorse
I started the same way - settling in a system and doing mostly supply delivery missions with the occasional fetch mission (black boxes, art, whatever) , but my ship progression was Sidewinder, Cobra mk3, AspX, Krait Mk2, Python, Cutter.
By the time i got the Cutter (which happened doing Robigo runs in the Python- at least for the last leg - aka the last billion needed to buy and outfit the Cutter) i also had unlocked most of the bubble engineers
And i kept all those ships - The Cobra got to be my engineering material runner for encoded and manufactured.
AspX - the exploration ship
Krait Mk2 the combat ship
Python the workhorse for both supply/delivery missions and Robigo runner (eventually i ended up with 2 Pythons)
The Cutter - as large hauler, large miner and for a while (till i unlocked the Corvette) my heavy combat ship.
The entire system is hot, and you can get attacked anywhere in the system, and when jumping in and out of it. It's also impossible to avoid interdiction by Thargoids.
As Kira also said, Taranis is entirely capable of expanding, it was just beaten back by AXI, which as i understand has resulted in a ramp- up, so it's taken one system now, and more will probably follow.
You've found a good game to play!
Question
I enjoy salvage mission, but if a mission running hip isn't supposed to have weapons, how do I do the salvaged that have npc
I enjoy salvage mission, but if a mission running hip isn't supposed to have weapons, how do I do the salvaged that have npc
There is no hard rule that mission runners aren't allowed to have weapons. It's always a matter of compromise. Ideally, your (peaceful) mission runner is set up to run away. First step is not to lose interdictions, and the second one is, if you encounter bogies in normal space: Run away!
That being said, of course you can arm your mission runner. But carrying weapons is only part of it, apart from also not skimping on shields and armor. You need at least some combat experience to make that work. If you don't want to invest into your combat pilot skills (yet), your best bet is:
A Python also makes a great armed trader! It can carry enough cargo while still having decent armor and shields (and weapons). But it's only part of the equation.
Mission runners - as generic mission runners - should always have solid shields and weapons - IMO of course
However, my large hauler / cargo runner - which of course is a Cutter - will never have shields nor weapons - because engaging in combat is not productive towards trading/hauling
So i run this lightweight / long range Cutter - in which i either win every pirate/npc interdiction OR, if it happens near the destination station, i submit then pop a heat sink, boost boost wake out. And if i dont need the extra range, i just replace the 4H Guardian FSD Booster with another Cargo rack.
A while back I switched my medium-size “mission runner” approach from trying to cover cargo missions to:
- Data Courier
- Salvage
- Planetary Scan
- Megaship Scan
- Non-wing Assassinations
- Odyssey landings
This allowed me to stop compromising the build by trying to fit cargo space in - which invariably still meant having to do multiple trips if the cargo missions were only for 180T+
I essentially run a combat ship with a couple of compromises for taking limpets, an SRV and either an FSD Booster or Fuel Scoop (both if the ship is big enough).
Target is generally a circa 1000MJ bi-weave shield with engineering and guardian SRMs: easily done on Krait Mk II / Chieftain but slightly under on my FAS, which I’ll forgive it for. I’d imagine a Python would work very well, too.
This optimises the types of missions I can take whilst also ensuring I can swat pretty much anything (NPC) that interdicts me.
It also means I can go sit in a HazRES without changing ship if I fancy some pew-pew but I’m not good enough to risk a CZ without going for something a bit more “focused” with engineered military hull, HRPs in place of the mission modules, etc.
It really depends upon what you mean by "mission running ship." For me, personally, I think of a "mission running ship" as a multi-role ship, capable of doing several different mission types concurrently: passenger, salvage, cargo, bounty hunting, scan, etc. That's primarily because I prefer a variety of activities. This type of ship will naturally have weapons, strong armor, strong shields, and a variety of utility modules, because I intend to take it into combat.
If, on the other hand, I intend to do one type of mission, I'll take a ship that specializes in it. Passenger and cargo mission running ships won't have weapons, because I won't be endangering the mission by shooting back at a would-be attacker. Salvage missions are typically ones where you might want to fight off the enemy, so naturally a ship specializing in that will be armed... though typically I take an operations multi-controller, endure the hostile fire while my limpets retrieve the mission objectives, and then Sir Robin it out of there.
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Yes, T9 is a sitting duck until it gets to charge its FSD. It's really not for dangerous missions and it's never worth trying to fire back, unless the police have turned up, they're on your side (not bugged), and you just want to ping the pirate to get the bounty when they explode him.
Before you can have the Cutter, an Anaconda might be a better choice for hauling. That gets you a huge hardpoint and there are plenty of slots so you can include decent shields and armour.
Before you can have the Cutter, an Anaconda might be a better choice for hauling. That gets you a huge hardpoint and there are plenty of slots so you can include decent shields and armour.
Quickly
If by "salvage" you mean missions like "retrieve 5 black boxes" or whatever, then they're entirely possible without firing a single shot (on your side, that is). In fact, I found it impossible to complete the missions (in a single signal source) once I start shooting back - by the time I kill all the NPCs, I've lost the signal from the black boxes and couldn't find them again (yeah, space is big...).
So, my main ingredient here is: be fast.
If you're not extremely good at manual scooping, get yourself one (or several) collector limpet controller (and some limpets) and use targeted mode for the limpets. In targeted mode, the limpets fly faster and don't waste precious time in picking up other debris, and with a dedicated collector controller (as opposed to one of the general purpose controllers that also can collect) the limpets also fly faster. Then target your mission cargo, fire off a limpet, target the next one, fire off the next limpet... It will take a few seconds for the enemy NPCs to pop in, and a few more seconds for them to start firing. By the time they start shooting, you can have all your mission cargo safely on board.
If not, run (and take the attack on your shields). Of course, that implies that your ship is either big enough (yeah, Cutter again...) or fast enough to get out of mass lock range of the attackers before your shields break down.
If you haven't collected all required mission targets, a new mision signal source will pop up a few seconds later and lets you continue. That repeats until you have all the required mission cargo on board. Also useful if you (or one of the NPCs) blow up one of your mission targets...
The only occasions when you actually need weapons on a mission runner are (obviously) when the mission requires to attack something - like disable a turret, discretely shut down a ground base's power station, kill a terrorist/pirate/freedom fighter/venerable general/unsuspecting civilian or liberate hostages/cargo/politicians.
My general mission runner (this also somewhat answers your question from another thread) is a Krait Mk.II - with guns, shields and an SLF. But for those retrieval missions, I only use the shields and the collector controller. The guns are for high risk transport missions - I can make more money from the bounties on the pirate Anacondas than from the mission itself. At least if those pirates manage to show up. For other mission types, I use other dedicated ships:
- ground base invasion (scans, generator destruction, that kind of stuff) are handled with a shieldless Viper Mk.III. If you ever fought in a combat zone, yuo'll know why. Those Mk.III's are near impossible to hit and, if properly oputfitted with hull and module reinforcements, can take quite a beating.
- priacy missions (i.e. "liberate" whatever) get a cold running (again shieldless - shields are useless when you use silent running as a tactic) DBX with a few guns, hatch breaker and collector limpets.
As for the builds:
The Viper Mk.III Chihuahua. The only modules that are not engineered are the fuel scoop and the fuel tank. Everything else is tuned to a balance between speed and survivability:
Core:
Bulkheads: lightweight alloy (the default module) with thermal resistance and deep plating. Usually, you'd go for heavy duty - but for some reason I can't remember, I put the thermal resistance on the bulkheads and take care of the base strength through three heavy duty hull reinforcements.
Powerplant: 2A, reinforced (for strength and power) and stripped down (for weight). Smallest power plant that can supply this build - at least when I switch off the cargo hatch
Thrusters: enhanced performance. The real reason for small ships. Add dirty drives on top, with drive distributors in this case (the Viper is somewhat on the heavy side). That means that this build won't reach the absolute Viper top speed (in excess of 900 m/s IIRC), but, unlike a racing Viper, can survive an unscheduled lithobreaking event.
Life support: just as lightweight as possible. I don't plan on hanging around for long, especially not when I'm being shot at, so the 7.5 minutes I get from a D rated life support are enough
Power distributor: usually, you'd use an A-rated PD. However, in this case, the next size up D-rated PD gives the same performance at a lower weight.
Sensors: I don't really need them, so use the lightest option I can get away with. Good enough to resolve (and target) a base power plant from just outside the exclusion zone.
Fuel tank: also downsized. Good enough for two jumps, so I don't need to lug around unnecessary fuel.
Optionals:
Fuel scoop: doesn't weigh anything, so I use the largest I can get away with.
Everything else: protection. Three heavy duty for the base strength, one kinetic and one explosive to balance restistances. Smallest size again to save weight.
Weapons:
Nothing expresses the discrete message that you annoyed someone as well as a volley of packhounds converging on your power plant. Your ground defenses will usually take out one or two missiles from a regular launcher, but a volley of packhounds? Just cover your ears and come back out again once the dust has settled.
The cytoscramblers are basically just there because I got them in stock - I try not to tangle with other ships when flying this one.
Utility:
A PD turret - since NPCs inevitably happen to be armed with missiles if you fly a shieldless ship. Yes, this ship can outrun a missile. But the PD still makes it even harder for them to hit you with one.
A chaff launcher. Don't know if it helps, but I still want to believe that it somewhat confuses the ground defense cannon when I (again) tripped the alarm while scanning a private datapoint.
The main reason for building this ship were these "scan an enemy datapoint on a planetary base" misions. If you're allied with the mission giving factions, each of those can net between 500k and 1 MCr.. Stack three or four of them and don't forget to pay a visit to the nearest Interstellar Factor on your way back.
The Diamondback Explorer Cold Ethyl. Built like a tank.
Core:
Your basic A-Rated and engineered loadout. Just notice that this doesn't show any engineering on the PD - no idea why, the PD is engineered. Maybe I ran out of mats when storing this build. However, in this case, the power plant is engineered for low emissions (and monstered, to get a bit of power back). The DBX itself is already cool running, with the low emissions PP it becomes a ghost.
Optionals:
again, no shields. Since they get turned off as soon ayou switch to silent running, I don't need them here. Dedicated colelctor and hatch breaker controllers, a small cargo rack and a FSD interdictor (for those cases when my target doesn't have the politeness to wait in a signal source). Otherwise again protection, but in this case geared towards tankiness. Adds some weight, though.
Weapons:
unlike with the Viper, these aren't engineered for weight. Instead, I got a big efficient thermal vent laser. Efficient so it fits in my power budget, and thermal vent cools me down even more. A long range railgun - no running away from me, pal. And a force shell cannon just for the fun of it. If all goes well, I usually don't need any of these.
Utility:
The manifest scanner - I want to know what my target is carrying
Two PD turrets, since some of those lovechilds are actually carrying hatch breaker limpets themselves.
And a heat sink launcher - if all else fails, this will definitely break their target lock and make me invisible again (until I start shooting again, at least)
You don't need a genius to realize that this build has only one purpose, and that isn't exactly lawful...
When I was doing my salvage FAS, the entire point was to be in and out before any opposition showed up. But even then the FAS could take a lot of opposition.
Yeh.. not sure who said mission ships don't have weapons. I have a mission ship optimized for: Salvage, hijack, assassination, small deliveries, courier, all surface missions, megaship missions and a variety of uss and scenarios.
In general, i find there's two sorts of mission ships:
- ones optimised for a very specific activity.
- ones optimised for taking as many different types of missions as possible.
Examples of the top one for me are:
Battle Anaconda: nothing but shield, armour tank, and a bunch of overcharged weapons for massacre stacking; or
Trade cutter: heaps of cargo space and the best shields money and engineering can get, with a military hull and a fighter for distractions.
Meanwhile, this is my mission ship.
Main thing being, there's a purpose with known limitations. Wing missions are out (ish...), and not all cargo missions are doable, but they're known left and rights and i can still get away.
Edit: it can only just survive the salvage ships.. but the extra collector using targeted collection means you've got the gear and are out before they can get past shields.. that's how it's meant to be used. Conversely, it can take of any tail no problems.
For a T9, it needs to sound a bit more like the cutter i described, but not take missions, because it just doesn't have the staying power without escorts or severely gimping its strength (hauling). Bulk hauling is its niche.
Fun tangent; enemy hatchbreakers won't jet any cargo tagged as mission cargo from your hold.
Likewise, for hijack missions, it will prioritise the mission cargo to fall out of a target first, no matter what else they're carrying (e.g if you have to jack 4 political prisoners, and the target is a T9 with 400t of biowaste on board... it'll jet the political prisoners first.
Neither of these used to be the case, but i guess FD did them as a QOL thing, because:
- pre- change hijack missions were god awful if you ever got anything that wasn't an adder as the mark; and
- if mission cargo gets jetted and scooped by the enemy, and you get it back from them, it loses the mission tag, breaking the mission.
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On CGs;
Item 1; SOLO or Private Group.
You're already having problems regarding your rebuy, don't waste your time with the campers.
Item 2; Guardian sites fall into 2 groups, Ancient Ruins which you can farm for things like the Relics with no combat at all (provided you stick to Solo/PG or bypass the closest sites) And Guardian Sites which provide the blueprints for modules but will involve some combat with skimmers. Easily doable in an SRV and if you have a ship with top mounted point defence the missiles are a non issue.
So I've been to the rebuy screen a few times and noticed something. Is it wise to keep the old modules you replace? I ask because you can sell them on rebuy if you don't have or need credits, thoughts
I haven't seen the rebuy screen in ages but that seems weird.
You can reduce the rebuy by removing items you don't want insurance to replace. You will lose them permanently which you usually don't want to do with engineered modules. You would only do that if you are desperate to not lose more by not being able to afford the rebuy.
I think the game also lets you sell items that are not involved in the rebuy. I thought you have the option to sell ships, not modules. That would also have to be an act of desperation.
You can reduce the rebuy by removing items you don't want insurance to replace. You will lose them permanently which you usually don't want to do with engineered modules. You would only do that if you are desperate to not lose more by not being able to afford the rebuy.
I think the game also lets you sell items that are not involved in the rebuy. I thought you have the option to sell ships, not modules. That would also have to be an act of desperation.
I was in that desperate situation. Been engineering a ship and got killed. Sold off modules to keep my shipI haven't seen the rebuy screen in ages but that seems weird.
You can reduce the rebuy by removing items you don't want insurance to replace. You will lose them permanently which you usually don't want to do with engineered modules. You would only do that if you are desperate to not lose more by not being able to afford the rebuy.
I think the game also lets you sell items that are not involved in the rebuy. I thought you have the option to sell ships, not modules. That would also have to be an act of desperation.
Did you sell off the engineered modules? Coz that would be painful. Ships are ships, they're nothing special. Modules are the investment.
I don't know if it's an option to lose the ship but keep the modules at the rebuy screen, but if it was, that would be the way.