Settlement assaults - very frustrating and badly designed for solo

[nosleepdemon]

If group missions were a thing, this would not be the only example. There would also be some sort of warning on the mission board, and payouts would be shared. Elite does not have group missions.

To be clear, the issues are not with bases that have a patrol, have a landed ship or with heavy AA defences, as some people unfamiliar with the situation seem to think.

There are some bases which the game *will not* allow to have less than one ship spawned and protecting it. No matter what you do, whether you allow one or both to leave, whether you wait, whether you kill one or both (no matter how fast), the game will *always* spawn at least one ship in the vicinity. This, combined with the NPC's almost unwavering air to ground accuracy, makes any sustained incursion into these bases a death sentence. While in some cases it may be possible to suicide your way in and complete your scan, the reward is simply not worth the risk. If you do get a mission to such a base, it's better to abandon it and eat the rep loss than to spend hours throwing yourself up against a brick wall.

 

[Red Anders]

Okay then tell me, how am I supposed to get Modified Embedded firmwares? They come from minimum medium sized - medium security settlements, which as I told you already usually have infinite Security Ship spawns. I have a very good engineered Anaconda. You failed to understand what endless waves mean for a solo player: meaning those respawn waves will eventually kill your SRV and basically makes the base assault very frustrating and nearly impossible. Trust me I have ZERO issues with clearing those endless waves of security ships in my Anaconda but then again please tell me, when will I land and use my SRV? Will infinity end?

Modified embedded firmware from medium +++ and medium ++ bases doesn't require you to assault the base though, all you need to do is scan datapoints in your SRV. Check this thread:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...List-and-Guide-for-Modified-Embedded-Firmware

Literally everything you could ever need to know about it is there, including aspreadsheet with loads of base locations and maps of the layouts for pretty much every type of base that's been identified in the game. You do not turn the base hostile by scanning the datapoints. Most of them have a small security area within the base that will set the alarms off but you don't need to enter it.

 

[JaksicN]

If group missions were a thing, this would not be the only example. There would also be some sort of warning on the mission board, and payouts would be shared. Elite does not have group missions.

To be clear, the issues are not with bases that have a patrol, have a landed ship or with heavy AA defences, as some people unfamiliar with the situation seem to think.

There are some bases which the game *will not* allow to have less than one ship spawned and protecting it. No matter what you do, whether you allow one or both to leave, whether you wait, whether you kill one or both (no matter how fast), the game will *always* spawn at least one ship in the vicinity. This, combined with the NPC's almost unwavering air to ground accuracy, makes any sustained incursion into these bases a death sentence. While in some cases it may be possible to suicide your way in and complete your scan, the reward is simply not worth the risk. If you do get a mission to such a base, it's better to abandon it and eat the rep loss than to spend hours throwing yourself up against a brick wall.

I can't say I ve come across this problem in the 100s of base assaults I ve done, all manor is security and size levels. But fair enough, every experience is different. I suggest again don't fight the ships anywhere near the anti air turrets. I ve heard so much about the ships continuously respawning but I have never seen it myself.

 

[PulsarShark]

Your expectations have been defeating you, by leading you to try combat-soloing forces you don't even need to fight!

Do not fire a single shot. (If you want to prevent accidents, put 0 pips to weapons, and empty your WEP bar by shooting in a safe direction before you drive to the base)

Never enter a red security zone. All data points in those MEF bases can be scanned without setting off any security alarms.

Use the maps in the MEF thread (the overhead views provided there are great, but you don't have to use the exact routes to succeed, you can tweak them if you find something that's easier for you).

Don't be the fanatical samurai, barging into the base alone with a loud shout and trying to cut down everything by yourself. And you can't be the awesome ninja, stealing all the data without anyone ever knowing you were there, because the game doesn't support that kind of stealth. But you can be the unassuming cat, darting and jumping all over the base while no one pays you any attention because you are small and aren't hurting anything.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Why is so hard understand that some bases assaults can be succesfully done only in team? Week or two ago I tried alone one from these well guarded and it was good fun despite 'give up' in the end and nice bounty packed as bonus . Actually it would be nice have more different missions needed team-work.

Because people are self-centered with very little interest in others. People who only fly in wings want everything to be super hard. People who never fly in wings want everything to be very easy. People who enjoy PvP want mandatory Open. people who dont demand OpenPvE. People who like multiplayer demand special rewards for Open, people who dont are angry because NPC crew should be given before multicrew. If this community would be in one room together discussions would be very different. But we are not, so we collectively forget all the stuff we learned in kindergarten and go nuts.

 

[nosleepdemon]

I can't say I ve come across this problem in the 100s of base assaults I ve done, all manor is security and size levels. But fair enough, every experience is different. I suggest again don't fight the ships anywhere near the anti air turrets. I ve heard so much about the ships continuously respawning but I have never seen it myself.

It's in a minority of cases, for the most part it's possible to wipe out the landed craft and other defences then take a drive in the SRV. But with a couple of high sec bases I've come across, it's quite impossible to deploy your SRV as an NPC ship is guaranteed to spawn while you are in it. If the mission requires skimmer assault, it's always better to search for POI near the base as skimmers that spawn there count toward your goal. This is a design feature I've never really understood, as those skimmers belong to the base but have bounties on them, implying they are there illegaly. Yet attacking the 'source' of the problem - the base itself, confers a bounty on you.

 

[Morbad]

Okay then tell me, how am I supposed to get Modified Embedded firmwares? They come from minimum medium sized - medium security settlements, which as I told you already usually have infinite Security Ship spawns. I have a very good engineered Anaconda. You failed to understand what endless waves mean for a solo player: meaning those respawn waves will eventually kill your SRV and basically makes the base assault very frustrating and nearly impossible. Trust me I have ZERO issues with clearing those endless waves of security ships in my Anaconda but then again please tell me, when will I land and use my SRV? Will infinity end?

These settlements are actually the minority. Most ++ and +++ high security bases (~90%) aren't system security bases and won't have respawning defense ships, if they have any at all. Most of them also have MEF. Some medium security bases have MEF now as well.

Only the ones with the specific layout I've shown are the outliers that require a wing to assault.

 

[Eqitx]

Well, as much i agree it may appear as group content, on this particular case it 's more like a bug/anomaly.
If it was meant to be hard group-only we would have it mentioned on mission description "Requires a Wing"and appropriate rewards for each memeber of the wing.
As someone mentioned on this thread, this anomaly was reported multiple times during beta as inappropriate behaviour but ignored.
I do hope this thread will reach the dev team and gets fixed soon.

 

[Martian Successor]

Because people are self-centered with very little interest in others. People who only fly in wings want everything to be super hard. People who never fly in wings want everything to be very easy. People who enjoy PvP want mandatory Open. people who dont demand OpenPvE. People who like multiplayer demand special rewards for Open, people who dont are angry because NPC crew should be given before multicrew. If this community would be in one room together discussions would be very different. But we are not, so we collectively forget all the stuff we learned in kindergarten and go nuts.

Is true, why I just shoved crayons up my nose for no good reason!

*sigh*
Mother would be so dissappointed in me ...

 

[Martind Forlon]

If group missions were a thing, this would not be the only example. There would also be some sort of warning on the mission board, and payouts would be shared. Elite does not have group missions.

To be clear, the issues are not with bases that have a patrol, have a landed ship or with heavy AA defences, as some people unfamiliar with the situation seem to think.

There are some bases which the game *will not* allow to have less than one ship spawned and protecting it. No matter what you do, whether you allow one or both to leave, whether you wait, whether you kill one or both (no matter how fast), the game will *always* spawn at least one ship in the vicinity. This, combined with the NPC's almost unwavering air to ground accuracy, makes any sustained incursion into these bases a death sentence. While in some cases it may be possible to suicide your way in and complete your scan, the reward is simply not worth the risk. If you do get a mission to such a base, it's better to abandon it and eat the rep loss than to spend hours throwing yourself up against a brick wall.

or call friend or two for help and have fun fulfilling this mission together. I understand that ppl may want have in description label 'wing mission', but it's simply not the way which ED use ... it don't hold cmdrs hand saying do this such way and this another, ... you got mission, is up to you decide if you are able do it alone.