Rather absurd Pirate Misison

Demonic Squid

Demonic Squid
I wanted to take a quick break from trading in my Clipper, so I started doing a few assassination missions at various stops. The 150k (approx) to kill Fred McDonglepants in the Wibblecheese system sort of thing, targets were flying anything from a Clipper to an Anaconda, and the highest combat rating I saw was competent, very occasionally they had a small escort, usually a couple of sidewinders or eagles.

I get to one system, the only assassination mission is a 75k one to kill a bothersome pirate. Ok, I think, I'll do that, poor sap will be in a Cobra or something no doubt. I'm still in a clipper with 2 Burst Lasers and 2 Beams for an ammo-less loadout, Class 6 Bi-Weave Shield with a couple of A0 boosters, rest of loadout is all A-rated.

After ten minutes I hit the unknown signal and drop out of SC. I get a direct message from the target, "I'm gonna boil you up" and so on. I lazily target his ship. First thing I see is that he's Mostly Harmless. I swing my ship around at 4km, scan him (70k bounty), and then notice the ship he's flying, a Corvette. Twenty seconds later I'm frantically boosting away at 2% hull.

So, despite me being unprepared to face a corvette, there's so much wrong with this scenario. Firstly, the guy is ranked as Mostly Harmless, yet he's somehow managed to get a Corvette and fit it with enough firepower that can take down my shields (2 pips) and reduce me to 2% hull in a few seconds. To get a corvette you need to be an admiral for a start, I get that I could RP a reason that he's a former naval officer etc, but ranked Mostly Harmless? I don't think so somehow. Secondly, I'm getting paid 75k for killing him? You've got to be kidding me. And such a tiny bounty for someone in a corvette? The risk:reward ratio here is nonsense...

Once I'd docked up I abandoned the mission, and made a mental note not to do assassination missions for the time being, hunting at beacons or RES has a much better risk:reward ratio.
 

Sgt Pepper

Sgt Pepper
I never understood why these types of missions never gave more info. on the board such as rating and what ship they're flying.
 

AaronWatkins

A
Yea I feel you here OP I feel you,

I had a similar thing during an assassination mission, basically dual class 4 plasma are going to hurt like a bolt from Zues himself no matter if the pilot is a half blind racoon or some sort of cybernetically enhanced killing machine.

I don't think the problemo is the missions; it's more that being in front of a Corvette is like standing in front of a bulldozer with nothing but a great smile and winning personality as a defence if you don't get out of the way it's going to hurt. I nearly lost my combat python earlier today learning the same lesson.

It's Elite Dangerous alright.
 

Katie Byrne

Katie Byrne
I've done a few assassination missions the past few days. Never have i been shot at by the target. The wingmen in sidewinders have a go but they're sidewinders. The Target just flies around a bit before getting killed

I was in a FAS. enemy was mostly FDL's
 
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Bertrand Du Guesclin

Bertrand Du Guesclin
Well to be honest this problem has been around for a long time, but before the Corvette was introduced, pirates were all flying Anacondas.

I still have fond memories of a mission I picked up a few months ago, when I deleted my save to start a new CMDR : the mission required to be ranked Novice, with a reward of 54k. I showed in my fully kitted Eagle, expecting to see a Cobra, or a Sidewinder with an escort.

The target was a Python, with 2 Viper escorts ... so yeah, the risk was totally worth 54k
 

Louella

Louella
Sgt Pepper said:
I never understood why these types of missions never gave more info. on the board such as rating and what ship they're flying.
Click to expand...

I suspect the target npc is randomly generated. In other missions, such as hostage rescue missions, the target npc is not only randomly generated, but is changed every time you drop in or out of supercruise. Like, I was to intercept the target and rescue a hostage. I enter supercruise, and they're in a Cobra III. I go to a different station to fit a different module, then return to supercruise, target npc is now a Hauler. I exit and re-enter supercruise, and now they're a Type-6.

So, I guess you could try exiting and reentering supercruise, if you don't feel like the target is one you want to take on ?
 

CMDR Hagglebeard

CMDR Hagglebeard
I agree on the pay aspect, and the mostly harmless ranking is a bug. It's actually Elite.

Also, if you could report the OP and ask mods to change "pirate" to "assassination", that'd be great. Pirate missions involve doing piratey things.
 
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_Fissure

_Fissure
Cmdr Du Guesclin said:
Well to be honest this problem has been around for a long time, but before the Corvette was introduced, pirates were all flying Anacondas.

I still have fond memories of a mission I picked up a few months ago, when I deleted my save to start a new CMDR : the mission required to be ranked Novice, with a reward of 54k. I showed in my fully kitted Eagle, expecting to see a Cobra, or a Sidewinder with an escort.

The target was a Python, with 2 Viper escorts ... so yeah, the risk was totally worth 54k
Click to expand...

I took a 60k assassination mission hoping it would be a bit toned down (after making the mistake of taking a 160k assassination mission and getting my butt wooped). Jumped in, and my target was a Deadly Anaconda with duel Vulture escorts.....

Yea, 60k credits my butt. I turned and booked it.
 

smiths121

S
Just checking what was your rep with the faction that gave the mission, and the min rep.cor.the mission?
Never had one like this - maybe they were setting you up.
 

sbdags

sbdags
RNG with little to no modifier.

I got a mission for 1,000,000cr yesterday. All I had to do was kill 57 pirates. OK that's going to take some time.
Mission timer gives me a juicy 17mins to do it in lol.

Someone at FD please review the mission structure. The new one is pants sometimes.
 
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Bazziegamer

Bazziegamer
sbdags said:
RNG with little to no modifier.

I got a mission for 1,000,000cr yesterday. All I had to do was kill 57 pirates. OK that's going to take some time.
Mission timer gives me a juicy 17mins to do it in lol.

Someone at FD please review the mission structure. The new one is pants sometimes.
Click to expand...

Oh you got lucky. I saw a mission that offered me 6 million! All i had to do was kill 107 pirates in 32 minutes!
 

Sgt Pepper

Sgt Pepper
Louella said:
I suspect the target npc is randomly generated. In other missions, such as hostage rescue missions, the target npc is not only randomly generated, but is changed every time you drop in or out of supercruise. Like, I was to intercept the target and rescue a hostage. I enter supercruise, and they're in a Cobra III. I go to a different station to fit a different module, then return to supercruise, target npc is now a Hauler. I exit and re-enter supercruise, and now they're a Type-6.

So, I guess you could try exiting and reentering supercruise, if you don't feel like the target is one you want to take on ?
Click to expand...


Wow, didn't know that. Frontier really need to work on these missions, they're in danger of making Betheda's radiant missions look sophisticated.
 
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