Salvage Missions... really?

[A D]

Call me a cry-baby, but here goes.

Accepted a salvage mission to recover military data for court proceedings. Sounds legit right? It offered a modest 65,000 CR on completion. Simple, just scan signals in the destination system, pick up the data and take it back to the mission home.

Here's what actually happened:

1. Flew to the system to scan the Nav Beacon (learnt the hard way from previous experience this means dropping out of super-cruise and scanning the actual beacon, not the yellow circle).

2. Immediately set upon by NPCs though my ship was "clean". Brought my shields down in seconds and damaged my hull so I got out of Dodge.

3. Went to the nearest orbital station and repaired my ship and restocked weapons for about 2,300 credits.

4. Returned to the NB, scanned it and got out. Success!.

4. Went to the suggested planet. No mission marker, so circle the planet half a dozen times. No big deal, just irritating.

5. When the mission marker showed, dropped out of super-cruise, collected the data canister and set a course for the mission home. All good, but a lot of effort for 65k CR.

6. When I arrive at the mission home (a terrain outpost), scanned by an NPC and given a 41,000 CR fine. How come you ask? Well apparently the data was illegal, although the mission brief and the outpost didn't think that was important enough to tell me. In fact the outpost did not list the data at all as (legal or illegal).

So basically, did the salvage mission as instructed, took more than an hour, for 22,000 CR net (i.e. also less the costs of fuel, ship repair and restocking weapons). So call me whatever you want, but is that screwed up or what?

 

[Viktor Dracul]

When you jumped back you should have received a marker telling you that you were carrying "illicit cargo". If not I would submit a bug reports. And yes those missions are a fair bit of effort for little reward until you have built your rep up with the local faction.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

Call me a cry-baby, but here goes.

Accepted a salvage mission to recover military data for court proceedings. Sounds legit right? It offered a modest 65,000 CR on completion. Simple, just scan signals in the destination system, pick up the data and take it back to the mission home.

Here's what actually happened:

1. Flew to the system to scan the Nav Beacon (learnt the hard way from previous experience this means dropping out of super-cruise and scanning the actual beacon, not the yellow circle).

2. Immediately set upon by NPCs though my ship was "clean". Brought my shields down in seconds and damaged my hull so I got out of Dodge.

3. Went to the nearest orbital station and repaired my ship and restocked weapons for about 2,300 credits.

4. Returned to the NB, scanned it and got out. Success!.

4. Went to the suggested planet. No mission marker, so circle the planet half a dozen times. No big deal, just irritating.

5. When the mission marker showed, dropped out of super-cruise, collected the data canister and set a course for the mission home. All good, but a lot of effort for 65k CR.

6. When I arrive at the mission home (a terrain outpost), scanned by an NPC and given a 41,000 CR fine. How come you ask? Well apparently the data was illegal, although the mission brief and the outpost didn't think that was important enough to tell me. In fact the outpost did not list the data at all as (legal or illegal).

So basically, did the salvage mission as instructed, took more than an hour, for 22,000 CR net (i.e. also less the costs of fuel, ship repair and restocking weapons). So call me whatever you want, but is that screwed up or what?

1. Why not just use an Advanced Discovery Scanner?

2. Are you doing power play? Excessive NPC aggro is still an issue, but will be fixed in 2.2.03.

6. Silent running is your friend . It will show up as illegal in both the mission description & when you enter the system.

 

[z993126]

There ought to be above-board missions like this where you're given a permit to carry that specific bit of data/cargo as non-illicit. Alas, lawful endeavours are seen by the galaxy as above mere Commanders, mercenaries and cutthroats all.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

You had one of the easy ones, that was why it paid so little. The hard salvage missions spawn 3-4 rather powerful NPCs, who turn up pretty quickly at the mission USS.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

There ought to be above-board missions like this where you're given a permit to carry that specific bit of data/cargo as non-illicit. Alas, lawful endeavours are seen by the galaxy as above mere Commanders, mercenaries and cutthroats all.

There are plenty of salvage missions that are above board.

 

[kpmop]

1 - you can use the discovery scanner instead (if you have space for one!) - saves dropping into the Nav beacon
2 - were you carrying any cargo? it's a pirate magnet - best avoided if you can (though obviously if you're collecting engineer commodities it's something you have to live with for now)
4 - flying around "looking" for the USS is annoying...
6 - if you check your inventory the cannister may be marked as illegal or stolen (sometimes - randomly - as legal haulage) it will also be on the HUD whether you have illegal goods.

If you have illegal goods don't get scanned, and evade if you get the scan detected message - around stations it's hard to work out who is scanning you so it's normally best just to hit boost a couple of times (obviously avoiding the station walls etc!). Generally though drop into the station instance, line up as best you can with the entrance as far out as you can, and then go in and dock as fast as you can (some ships are better for this than others!). You can try silent running, but that's a bit hit and miss.

Screwed up? a little, but it is what it is. The over-enthusiastic pirates and the long (random) search for the USS could do certainly with some improvements though...

 

[smiths121]

There are plenty of salvage missions that are above board.

As of 2.2 all the Blackbox missions are legal. Ttally changed the way I execute my mission stack.

Simon

 

[Deleted member 38366]

-- edit : disregard, misread ---

If I'm in doubt, I set the Mission Filter to Legal and it should be good. Never ran into trouble and it also gives a nice overview which Mission Templates are legal and whcih ones are commonly not.

 

[z993126]

(re. black box missions legal, forgot to reply-with-quote) Oh!? Well, then! Learn something new every day.

 

[trollson]

Did a number of Black Box salvage missions recently while building up reputation with a minor faction. All legal and paid well (by my standards - in the '00ks). Only had a couple of ambushes, but well practiced scoop-and-run tactic was effective. In the absence of an ambush at the target site, any other cargo floating around is also legal finds (not sure what would happen if there was any non-commodity cargo though!?).

 

[TenakaFurey]

There ought to be above-board missions like this where you're given a permit to carry that specific bit of data/cargo as non-illicit. Alas, lawful endeavours are seen by the galaxy as above mere Commanders, mercenaries and cutthroats all.

To be honest....I find the entire "illicit cargo" routine as it is now odious, tedious and illogical. From situations such as that described to scooping up cargo it doesn't make sense and the fines levied are again way out of whack.

I know Frontier want to add gameplay and a smuggling mechanic....but being blunt, there are better ways to do so.

 

[d8veh]

Those missions are dead easy, but you missed the obvious.

Firstly, you will get ganked by pirates if you take cargo into a nav beacon, RES or anywhere else that pirates go, so get rid of the cargo first. You should only carry cargo when you're trading or going directly to an engineer. Any other time, you'll get interdicted, which is an unnecessary waste of time.

Secondly, the canister was probably marked stolen, which is a bit of a clue that you must't let anybody know that you've got it. That includes any ships that drop in because you are no longer clean. Even if it wasn't marked stolen (like some courier or smuggling missions), the moment you jump into a system where it's illegal, you get a big "illicit cargo" warning over your fuel guage, in which case you have to make sure that you don't get scanned. You have to fly into the station reasonably fast, say 200 to 250, and straight down the station's axis to avoid the scan. Also, think about switching on report crimes against me. You can leave it on, but if you get interdicted and decide to fight, the feds will come, so the moment the interdictor dies, they'll try to scan you. The moment the interdictor blows up, turn away from the feds annd boost out of there.

All this is nothing to complain about. It's simple and logical. When things don't make sense, ask about - no need to rant.

 

[A D]

Thanks all for the tips. Wasn't carrying any other goods, so it was the data that got me into strife. Don't recall seeing "illicit cargo" on my ship transponder. Probably was there and didn't notice, but either way needed to complete the mission to avoid a fine in any case. I was just annoyed at a 41.000 CR fine for what was a small paying and ostensibly legit mission. Like the tip about setting the mission filter to "legal" BTW, will keep that in mind. Cheers

 

[Ian Skippy]

-- edit : disregard, misread ---

If I'm in doubt, I set the Mission Filter to Legal and it should be good. Never ran into trouble and it also gives a nice overview which Mission Templates are legal and whcih ones are commonly not.

Mission filter?

 

[2plex]

Thanks all for the tips. Wasn't carrying any other goods, so it was the data that got me into strife. Don't recall seeing "illicit cargo" on my ship transponder. Probably was there and didn't notice, but either way needed to complete the mission to avoid a fine in any case. I was just annoyed at a 41.000 CR fine for what was a small paying and ostensibly legit mission. Like the tip about setting the mission filter to "legal" BTW, will keep that in mind. Cheers

That salvage mission are about illicit goods without explicitly telling you so, is intended game play by Frontier.
It's just one of their glorious ideas of making E: D 'dangerous'.
Also, never accept any salvage mission from a planetary outpost because it is damn difficult to land there without getting scanned.

 

[Marc_Hicks]

1 - you can use the discovery scanner instead (if you have space for one!) - saves dropping into the Nav beacon
2 - were you carrying any cargo? it's a pirate magnet - best avoided if you can (though obviously if you're collecting engineer commodities it's something you have to live with for now)
4 - flying around "looking" for the USS is annoying...
6 - if you check your inventory the cannister may be marked as illegal or stolen (sometimes - randomly - as legal haulage) it will also be on the HUD whether you have illegal goods.

If you have illegal goods don't get scanned, and evade if you get the scan detected message - around stations it's hard to work out who is scanning you so it's normally best just to hit boost a couple of times (obviously avoiding the station walls etc!). Generally though drop into the station instance, line up as best you can with the entrance as far out as you can, and then go in and dock as fast as you can (some ships are better for this than others!). You can try silent running, but that's a bit hit and miss.

Screwed up? a little, but it is what it is. The over-enthusiastic pirates and the long (random) search for the USS could do certainly with some improvements though...

4. Much easier than pre 2.1. Now they show up blue, & are designated as your mission target.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

My go-to missioning ship is a Python. Pirates are not a concern, they're a bonus.
But as has been said, a Discovery scanner, especially the expensive Advanced Discovery Scanner, can save a good deal of headache when it comes to these missions.
However, I feel these are equipment for explorer ships, so I rarely carry one, though if a mission is sending me into unknown space I may make a special trip to that region in my Asp Explorer first, to gather scan data about the system, then return for my mission ship, especially if the mission is high risk.

It's just one of those "Elite is not like other games" things that I like about Elite.

And cargo alone is not a pirate magnet - certain cargo, especially valuable items like Taffetite, Jadite, Platinum, Palladium, Painite or Low Temp Diamonds draws pirates, but the real pirate bait are the Engineer commodities - Modular Terminals, Nanofiber, Telemetry Suites or rubber hoses... pirates just go all old-man-on- for them... which is why I always try to carry a few of these when I'm bounty hunting or running Massacre the Pirate Faction Ship missions - it brings them in from light years away, like mentally challenged lambs to the slaughter.

 

[Zeeman]

Aaahh, the good old days, when I'd pick up random black boxes and stockpile them, then hand them in as the missions popped up.

A lot of confused investigators, I am sure, wondering how their missing Clipper in Sol had data for a Sidewinder from Pand...

Z...

 

[Grumpy jawa]

Here is a small hint..

If mission icon has a skull : It's likely illegal salvage

No skull just cargo icon: it's a simple here is a salvage permit for said black box or items.