This is a tale of how forgetting lots of previously learned things about the game can get you into trouble!
I recently decided to go back to mining, having not done it for quite a while. These days among my small fleet of ships I have an Anaconda that is regularly refitted for various purposes. So a quick refit for mining is done, and I'm off to my old mining haunt in a pristine metallic ring. The ship is still fitted out with its decent weapon and shield loadout with SCB's etc., and an SLF with an NPC crew.
So, I drop into the HAZRES because I figure I'm in a 'Conda that handles itself well in a combat zone, what could go wrong?! (mistake 1)
A couple of NPC's appear and do their usual scans but I haven't mined anything into the hold so they go away again. Ah! I am probably clear now for the rest of the session! So I sit back, get on with mining, get comfortable (and complacent!) and relax! (mistake 2)
I now have a hold about half full of gold, palladium, platinum, and a few tons of painite (what systems are currently in boom?). As usual I mine everything - a 4A refinery gives you 10 processing streams and needs no management - and abandon the lower value stuff once processed.
I'm part way through mining one asteroid and I get the NPC message 'what are you carrying' or some such. I jink around the asteroid but continue mining and let the limpets collet all the rock fragments. After all, it's a good one and I don't want to miss anything! Jinking around means he has to scan again, but I get another scan in quick succession too. 'that's odd' I think, but I'm concentrating on getting the limpets to finish their pickups (mistake 3)
As the limpets are finishing, the NPC has already messaged again - twice - about 'payday!' or some such. Then my shields are being hit. Note, I'm still really concentrating on getting the last few rock pieces picked up, I've not properly looked over my whole scanner (mistake 4)
Ok, target him, send the SLF to attack my target, get the hatch closed, cycle weapons from mining lasers to something that might do more than just scratch his paintwork. I haven't noticed at this point that there is already a 3rd NPC message saying 'what have you got in your hold?'.
By now shields are starting to reduce and I'm poised ready to activate an SCB and heat sink. Now I have him in my sights and I have found he is a Python, who's shileds are holding well. Ok, I should be able to have him, but it might be a bit of a fight. He's not in a wing or anything, so it is just me and him.
OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! WHY ARE MY SHIELDS DROPPING SO QUICK? SCB again .... and now I look properly at my scanner - I have 3 separate NPC ships on me, none in a wing, 2 heavily armed and shielded pythons, and an Asp X that seems to also be armed to the teeth!!! (remember, this is a HAZRES I dropped into - see mistake 1 above!)
Ok, so NOW I get 3 separate Hatch breaker limpet warnings - Ok, I think, 'I've got points defence, that will sort them!' (mistake 5) - errr, no, not all of them coming in at once!!
TIME TO LEAVE! Fighter is about dead, I head out perpendicular to the plane of the ring, but have to jink and dodge hard, plus chaff like crazy, I've used my final SCB, shields come down, I'm now starting to lose hull, a few cargo items are spilling out, and as I achieve the point at which mass lock goes off .... they kill my thrusters! However, I'm spinning wildly, but heading roughly across the top of the rings just outside mass lock range!
Frantic look at modules, try to make them inactive, and reactivate, but thrusters are well down at just a few %, and the module is red! No thrusters, no FSD capability!!! Panic! What do I do? Uh oh! Oh yes, they've also blown out my canopy in the excitement too! The air is counting down and I can't FSD out of there to get to the nearest station!
This is where rusty cogs in the brain were short on oil, as I was thinking about the rebuy screen ... in a 'conda ... ouch! However, the air timer gets below 1 minute and those rusty brain cogs just move a little and I remember it might be possible to synthesise some more air for the life support. Panic moves on the joystick buttons to get to the synthesis option - in the panic went past it TWICE! - luckily I have LOADS of materials for this so press it .... air is down to about 23 secs ... and the synthesis bar moves oh so slowly .... but completes when I have about 6 seconds left!!
Ok, so now I have another 7mins 30 secs of thinking time, mainly I think to try to get the rusty brain cogs working on how the hell do I restart the thrusters when they are showing red! Meanwhile I have 3 ships out there chasing my wildly spinning ship but with full pips to sys, lots of chaff, my shields came back on line and I am surviving ... for now! But hull is now at about 34%!
THINK man, THINK! How do I get thrusters back online?? I've forgotten so much about how certain things operate it seems. I'm making more modules inactive, but this doesn't help! Ah! Need to synthesise more air again!
They are demanding 20t of cargo, so I drop 10t of one and 10t of another (I don't have 20t of any one item) in the hope that may placate them a bit. NOPE, they want 20t ... presumably it only works if you drop 20t OF THE SAME CARGO!
Ah! FINALLY! Right hand screen, at the bottom - REBOOT option. Ship goes completely dead of course .... and I have 3 NPC's nearby but seem to be having difficulty doing much damage to my wildly spinning ship ... eventually, after about 3 hours (it seems!) it all fires up again, thrusters are now WORKING, and I low wake out of there .... with just 17% hull.
Oh yes, did I mention I now had no canopy? So it's fly back to 'base' just on instruments alone, the compass and the distance/speed settings, ooops, fly past it, so turn round and head back with the throttle well in the blue area. It is only when I get to within about 10M metres that I can make out the station as a small dot against the starry background, as there is no canopy for the HUD display to appear on.
Anyway, eventually I make it to within 1M metres and drop to normal space, get to within 7.5km, request docking, and fly in! Phew! I had plenty of life support synthesise materials left so life support and air wasn't really an issue.
However, this is why I love this game so much! In a HAZRES I had 3 SEPARATE very well equipped NPC's attack me almost simultaneously, none of them were winged together. You get complacent, you forget things you hardly ever use, and your thinking therefore gets rather rusty in certain circumstances, and you can end up at the rebuy screen! The panic and excitement of trying to work the problem in such circumstances is why I keep coming back for more!
Be careful out there commanders, and NEVER get complacent, or the game will bite you!
I recently decided to go back to mining, having not done it for quite a while. These days among my small fleet of ships I have an Anaconda that is regularly refitted for various purposes. So a quick refit for mining is done, and I'm off to my old mining haunt in a pristine metallic ring. The ship is still fitted out with its decent weapon and shield loadout with SCB's etc., and an SLF with an NPC crew.
So, I drop into the HAZRES because I figure I'm in a 'Conda that handles itself well in a combat zone, what could go wrong?! (mistake 1)
A couple of NPC's appear and do their usual scans but I haven't mined anything into the hold so they go away again. Ah! I am probably clear now for the rest of the session! So I sit back, get on with mining, get comfortable (and complacent!) and relax! (mistake 2)
I now have a hold about half full of gold, palladium, platinum, and a few tons of painite (what systems are currently in boom?). As usual I mine everything - a 4A refinery gives you 10 processing streams and needs no management - and abandon the lower value stuff once processed.
I'm part way through mining one asteroid and I get the NPC message 'what are you carrying' or some such. I jink around the asteroid but continue mining and let the limpets collet all the rock fragments. After all, it's a good one and I don't want to miss anything! Jinking around means he has to scan again, but I get another scan in quick succession too. 'that's odd' I think, but I'm concentrating on getting the limpets to finish their pickups (mistake 3)
As the limpets are finishing, the NPC has already messaged again - twice - about 'payday!' or some such. Then my shields are being hit. Note, I'm still really concentrating on getting the last few rock pieces picked up, I've not properly looked over my whole scanner (mistake 4)
Ok, target him, send the SLF to attack my target, get the hatch closed, cycle weapons from mining lasers to something that might do more than just scratch his paintwork. I haven't noticed at this point that there is already a 3rd NPC message saying 'what have you got in your hold?'.
By now shields are starting to reduce and I'm poised ready to activate an SCB and heat sink. Now I have him in my sights and I have found he is a Python, who's shileds are holding well. Ok, I should be able to have him, but it might be a bit of a fight. He's not in a wing or anything, so it is just me and him.
OUCH! OUCH! OUCH! WHY ARE MY SHIELDS DROPPING SO QUICK? SCB again .... and now I look properly at my scanner - I have 3 separate NPC ships on me, none in a wing, 2 heavily armed and shielded pythons, and an Asp X that seems to also be armed to the teeth!!! (remember, this is a HAZRES I dropped into - see mistake 1 above!)
Ok, so NOW I get 3 separate Hatch breaker limpet warnings - Ok, I think, 'I've got points defence, that will sort them!' (mistake 5) - errr, no, not all of them coming in at once!!
TIME TO LEAVE! Fighter is about dead, I head out perpendicular to the plane of the ring, but have to jink and dodge hard, plus chaff like crazy, I've used my final SCB, shields come down, I'm now starting to lose hull, a few cargo items are spilling out, and as I achieve the point at which mass lock goes off .... they kill my thrusters! However, I'm spinning wildly, but heading roughly across the top of the rings just outside mass lock range!
Frantic look at modules, try to make them inactive, and reactivate, but thrusters are well down at just a few %, and the module is red! No thrusters, no FSD capability!!! Panic! What do I do? Uh oh! Oh yes, they've also blown out my canopy in the excitement too! The air is counting down and I can't FSD out of there to get to the nearest station!
This is where rusty cogs in the brain were short on oil, as I was thinking about the rebuy screen ... in a 'conda ... ouch! However, the air timer gets below 1 minute and those rusty brain cogs just move a little and I remember it might be possible to synthesise some more air for the life support. Panic moves on the joystick buttons to get to the synthesis option - in the panic went past it TWICE! - luckily I have LOADS of materials for this so press it .... air is down to about 23 secs ... and the synthesis bar moves oh so slowly .... but completes when I have about 6 seconds left!!
Ok, so now I have another 7mins 30 secs of thinking time, mainly I think to try to get the rusty brain cogs working on how the hell do I restart the thrusters when they are showing red! Meanwhile I have 3 ships out there chasing my wildly spinning ship but with full pips to sys, lots of chaff, my shields came back on line and I am surviving ... for now! But hull is now at about 34%!
THINK man, THINK! How do I get thrusters back online?? I've forgotten so much about how certain things operate it seems. I'm making more modules inactive, but this doesn't help! Ah! Need to synthesise more air again!
They are demanding 20t of cargo, so I drop 10t of one and 10t of another (I don't have 20t of any one item) in the hope that may placate them a bit. NOPE, they want 20t ... presumably it only works if you drop 20t OF THE SAME CARGO!
Ah! FINALLY! Right hand screen, at the bottom - REBOOT option. Ship goes completely dead of course .... and I have 3 NPC's nearby but seem to be having difficulty doing much damage to my wildly spinning ship ... eventually, after about 3 hours (it seems!) it all fires up again, thrusters are now WORKING, and I low wake out of there .... with just 17% hull.
Oh yes, did I mention I now had no canopy? So it's fly back to 'base' just on instruments alone, the compass and the distance/speed settings, ooops, fly past it, so turn round and head back with the throttle well in the blue area. It is only when I get to within about 10M metres that I can make out the station as a small dot against the starry background, as there is no canopy for the HUD display to appear on.
Anyway, eventually I make it to within 1M metres and drop to normal space, get to within 7.5km, request docking, and fly in! Phew! I had plenty of life support synthesise materials left so life support and air wasn't really an issue.
However, this is why I love this game so much! In a HAZRES I had 3 SEPARATE very well equipped NPC's attack me almost simultaneously, none of them were winged together. You get complacent, you forget things you hardly ever use, and your thinking therefore gets rather rusty in certain circumstances, and you can end up at the rebuy screen! The panic and excitement of trying to work the problem in such circumstances is why I keep coming back for more!
Be careful out there commanders, and NEVER get complacent, or the game will bite you!
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