Newcomer / Intro Questions on Liberate Correspondence in new pilot district?

[eliteqs]

Why does this mission tell you to use hatch breaker drones when there are no hatch breaker drones in the new pilot district?

What makes a target drop liberation correspondence - damage to cargo hatch or low remaining integrity, or both?

The first mission I decided that, since I didn't have hatch breaker drones, I would try targeting the cargo hatch. I reduced the cargo hatch to 0% (this wasn't easy flying FA Off with fixed weapons; really one pulse laser since I couldn't use the fragment cannons for precise targeting) and put a couple more shots into it, but the ship didn't drop anything. I blew it up hoping correspondence would drop, but it didn't. I got an update that the mission failed.

In the second mission, I destroyed the drive first, then locked rotation and orbit with the disabled ship and the cargo hatch down to 0%. A couple shots after it was at 0%, the hatch came open halfway and start spilling out canisters containing either correspondence or "military plans". I grabbed the correspondence and the mission updated success. My question is, was it my hits on the cargo hatch, or that the ship was at low integrity that caused the canister ejection? The pilot said in chat she wasn't willing to die to protect the correspondence.

 

[Hans v Martell]

NPCs do drop their cargo sometimes when at low health. On the comms you will then read something like "Ok, the cargo is all yours, this job isn't worth my life" or similar.
I think a damaged cargo hatch can also make them lose stuff, but in this case they won't comment on it on the comms.

 

[Maolagin]

It was probably because of damaging the cargo hatch - causing a module malfunction on the cargo hatch results in cargo spilling. But as post above mine says, NPCs sometimes do drop cargo when they decide they need to escape. Can't count on that behavior though.

Interesting oversight having missions that specifically suggest hatch breakers, but no hatch breaker limpets in the district. The "shoot out the hatch" approach seems like it would be much harder for a newbie to manage.

 

[Raino]

WOW, kudos, keep goin, as a beginner You do much better as most I have met including myself (And I meet myself very often!)

 

[Dommarraa]

Once a cargo hatch is down to 80%, any damage caused has a chance of causing failure, which will eject a random handful of cargo. Doesn't matter if the damage caused is 1% or 50%, and it takes some time for failure to process, so hammering away with high damage weapons is bad. Chip away with a small weapon until it is triggered, then wait for the cargo to stop pouring out.

TBF, if you are playing fa off, get out of the newbie zone, it is entirely optional and limiting.

 

[Dommarraa]

Why does this mission tell you to use hatch breaker drones when there are no hatch breaker drones in the new pilot district?

I dont know if this was a scripted training mission, or one you chose from the mission board.
If it was scripted, then consider this training that missions are normally doable in alternative ways. Well done you worked it out.
If it was a regular mission, maybe consider that accepting a mission where you do not fulfill the stated requirements may not be the wisest of choices. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should.

 

[Para Handy]

There are several "missing" modules in the noob zone that the available missions would expect you to have available - hatchbreaker is one and FSD Interdictor is another. So liberate-type missions just cannot be done in the normal way. I also think that you cannot get a Prospector Controller in the zone and that is a pain for those mining missions.

I understand why they limit the availability of some things but these basic tools for specific mission types should be there if the missions are produced.

 

[eliteqs]

A video of the second hatch break:

https://streamable.com/abo92 (25 second video)

NPCs do drop their cargo sometimes when at low health. On the comms you will then read something like "Ok, the cargo is all yours, this job isn't worth my life" or similar.

That's what was on the comms when I looked later on, but see the video and my response to Dommarraa below.

The "shoot out the hatch" approach seems like it would be much harder for a newbie to manage.

I did it out of desperation not knowing if it would work. The first target kept turning the bottom of the ship away from me, which is why I went for the drive on the second one. Do the NPC pilots do this intentionally to protect the cargo hatch in this situation, or just generally keep targets above rather than below? I do not know if I could have done it with FA On because it required a lot of flying one way while facing another to place the shots.

Once a cargo hatch is down to 80%, any damage caused has a chance of causing failure, which will eject a random handful of cargo. Doesn't matter if the damage caused is 1% or 50%, and it takes some time for failure to process, so hammering away with high damage weapons is bad. Chip away with a small weapon until it is triggered, then wait for the cargo to stop pouring out.

As you can see in the video, the cargo doors opened only a little bit. After a delay, I heard a breaking sound and canisters started coming out. Does that look like a hatch failure from damage?

TBF, if you are playing fa off, get out of the newbie zone, it is entirely optional and limiting.
I dont know if this was a scripted training mission, or one you chose from the mission board.

I chose it from the mission board. I'm fully exploring the new zone including all mission types first. Once I check out of the zone, I can't check back in.