Quick question to smugglers - hot or cold?

Rauminen

R
I've been experimenting with silent running + heat sinks a little bit, to the extent of passing through the letterbox iced.

Conclusion: doesn't seem to matter at all.

If they want to scan you, they will scan you. If they won't they don't, even if you running in hot & full shields. It seems like a roll of the dice to me.

The only thing I found to affect this is reputation - if you're allied, they won't scan you that much. (they only seem to scan you when you're actually carrying illegal goods :D)

So I'm actually better off with going in hot with full shields and hitting boost if I hear the scan. Then pray to avoid the big spikey-spikey in the middle.

Thoughts?
 

Samosa

Samosa
I boost in as fast as possible from 7000 whatsits away, and cut the engines as soon as I get to the slot. Then I let the docking computer deal with the mess of slowing me down enough, seems to work just fine, even if I do occasionally bounce a bit off the far wall.
 

Rauminen

R
Samosa said:
I boost in as fast as possible from 7000 whatsits away, and cut the engines as soon as I get to the slot. Then I let the docking computer deal with the mess of slowing me down enough, seems to work just fine, even if I do occasionally bounce a bit off the far wall.
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the thing isn't it. So what's the point of silent running then I wonder?
 

Zenith

Zenith
I say hot.

Do the boost in from around 7km or so, enter the toast-rack while dropping your landing gear and setting zero throttle at the same time. You should come to a stop or at least strongly slowed down before hitting the back of the station.
 

DuQuesne

DuQuesne
Always hot.

Line it up right from a distance, go in at full speed, and there's very little chance of somebody managing to finish a scan in time.
 

Vasious

Vasious
Hot you are on their scanners earlier and thus they are more likely to choose to scan you
Cold they might see you and still scan you but the window is smaller as if you are cold you wont be a contact until you are much closer.

Assuming entry speed is similar which is possible.

If traffic coming and going is busy you can watch when the Secruity patrol breaks off to scan traffic and time your approach when they are busy.
Best way to see this is to sit outside one of the Powers Headquater Stations and watch the traffic and the System Authority Vessels' Patrol
 

Ben Ryder

Ben Ryder
Vasious said:
Hot you are on their scanners earlier and thus they are more likely to choose to scan you
Cold they might see you and still scan you but the window is smaller as if you are cold you wont be a contact until you are much closer.

Assuming entry speed is similar which is possible.

If traffic coming and going is busy you can watch when the Secruity patrol breaks off to scan traffic and time your approach when they are busy.
Best way to see this is to sit outside one of the Powers Headquater Stations and watch the traffic and the System Authority Vessels' Patrol
Click to expand...

Yup there are other ways. Like the chap says. Sometimes I sneak with other traffic. When you see a communication message on local saying something like 'hey is there a reason for this scan' just slip in.

Or you can have some fun using cover and find a fat ship and slide in behind.

Old video but it might give you some ideas.

[video=youtube;L4JDtBOJaLs]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L4JDtBOJaLs[/video]
 
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Andromalius

Andromalius
When I want to do smuggling I go in hot with an Asp. I'd do it with a clipper if most of the good smuggling opportunities didn't include outposts.
 

Kyudos

Kyudos
I've always gone cold so far - but I don't like the 'no shields' aspect of Silent Running with those unpredictable NPCs. Somewhat paradoxically perhaps, its probably safer to come screaming in with full pips to shields.
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
For the record, getting into stations with illegal cargo or with a wanted status is (usually) fairly easy hot, no need to go cold and silent.

What is really hard (have managed it once only, and took three attempts) is going into a *hostile* faction's station. You absolutely must go cold and silent, as the security ships don't need to scan you at all, you just need to appear on their scanners and they attack you.

tl;dr
If you're only wanted or have illegal cargo, security open fire after a scan.
If you're hostile, security open fire on-sight.

Tangent; I put a post in suggestions once which got no replies, but I *really* want to see missions which require you to be hostile to a faction first. Most missions have a minimum standing requirement (e.g you must be at least neutral to receive this mission), but I'd love it if there were missions where you needed to be at least unfriendly, if not hostile, to the target faction.

e.g "Smuggle a bomb into station belonging to faction X" offered by faction Y, where you have to be hostile with X. Then it'd give a reason to be hostile to factions :D

If I get time today, I'll try and do a video showing the difference.
 
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Rauminen

R
That's definitely a feat, sneaking in to a hostile station! Nice.

To be honest, as things stand right now, the mission would be something like this: smuggle a bomb into station belonging to faction X, offered by faction X, and you can't take it because you have to be allied as well as hostile at the same time. And probably you are AT the station :D
 

Jmanis

Jmanis
salad said:
Sometimes I turn on silent running and boost. don't judge.
Click to expand...
Actually not a dumb idea if you're running cold too. I did exactly that to get into the hostile station.

- Switch everything off except thrusters from 10k out, positioned in front of the envelope
- Engage silent running
- Get in quick as hell

Oh, and request permission to dock under 7.5k (you're probably at 300-400ms at the time XD)

EDIT: Ugh, silly rep decay system means i'm only unfriendly with the system which I used to be hostile to. Boo. Need to get hostile again, then record the video.
 
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