Newcomer / Intro Silent Running

[ceeldee]

I needed to take an illicit cargo of Personal Weapons to a station in order to complete my first Empire Mission. I thought to use Silent Running.

When silent running is on my shields drop and very shortly after I start to take heat damage. Is that normal ? Managed to get in without being scanned but then Bulletin Board mission entry wont take cargo ???

 

[cmdr lowest]

I needed to take an illicit cargo of Personal Weapons to a station in order to complete my first Empire Mission. I thought to use Silent Running.

When silent running is on my shields drop and very shortly after I start to take heat damage. Is that normal ? Managed to get in without being scanned but then Bulletin Board mission entry wont take cargo ???

Yes. What is happening is this.

Your heat signature is what makes you show up on enemy scanners. If you engage silent running then what you are doing is closing your heat vents so you don't emit any heat and your heat signature drops allowing you to drop off the radar. But it's only a very temporary situation.

Temporary because all the heat you need to vent is not being vented and building up in your ship. So whatever you need to do you need to do fast.

My advice is to forget sneaking in and blast your way in. Fly out about 10KM from the slot and line yourself up then boost into the slot. The station never scans you, its the police outside the stations and once you are inside their scanners don't work so fly on in as fast and you can. There are two tricky parts to this. 1) braking once you are inside and 2) crossing your fingers that by the time you reach the slot a T9 isn't taking up the slot hole.

Fly safe commander.

P.S. your mission. are you sure you are at the right starport?

 

[paul1828]

Those missions are risky,,,flying in quick to avoid scan is easy to get wrong.... Silent running is a pain... Cargo has to be stolen...(found in space ) ...??

 

[Elan]

I wasn't aware of any ranking missions requiring the goods to be stolen, do you have a screenshot of the mission?

 

[paul1828]

Not recently had one...just remembered seeing it saying cargo has to be stolen??? Not sure if its this mission type exactly....just a thought...

 

[Dommarraa]

None of them require stolen goods. Some do require goods that may be illegal. In that case, accept the mission from somewhere where it isn't illegal

 

[Cybrdroyd]

I get my ship lined up with the letter slot before requesting docking. Then I go silent and fly to the slot as fast as I can. As soon as I get through the slot I can turn off silent running. You should be able to run silent for about 2 minutes before over-heating. Plenty of time to get through the letter slot. You won't get scanned once inside so you're pretty safe.

I know, it seems hairy when running these kinds of smuggling runs, but its not as hard as it seems.

 

[magot]

try to fit heat sinks , then every time when your heat comes close to 100% you can eject one heat sink . it will cool you down to 20-30% . you have three of them so should more than be enough to land successfully . i don t do smuggling but i heard its important to stay away from authority ships in front of station ( maybe 500m or more ? ) as they will scan you. also its good to have chaffs fitted as they will give you some protection against station turrets . never tried this myself but seems to me it should work . i only know that silent mode doesn t prevent you from being scanned .

 

[ceeldee]

Thanks guys very helpful, the cargo was not stolen just illegal at the station . Since I did not realize that Heat Damage followed Silent Running I took damage that destroyed 1 of my cargo of Personal Weapons
so no mission complete. Since then have completed a similar mission to get "Outsider". Used silent running from about 6km out , landing legs up fairly quick but not boost. Legs down, throttle off, Silent Running off as soon as thru the slot.

 

[JohnLuke]

I found that once I upgraded my power plant and power distributor, I could run in silent mode much longer without overheating.

 

[Sajuukar]

You can also try disable all non essential modules to reduce your signature. If they don't see you on their sensors, they're less likely to scan you

 

[Ism]

Its very easy.

After you drop from frame cruise, stay away from the station (no less than 6-7km).
Make your way around till you line up with the entrance.
With full shields, 2-2-2 pips, ask for permission to land. You can set engine pips higher if you wish, but you don't need to.
accelerate to full speed and go straight into the mail slot.
Even if scanned, there will not be enough time for sys auth. to complete it before you enter.
Once at the mail slot, you can reduce speed and land.

I have never been busted and only once that I remember did I get scanned but there wasn't enough time for the scan to complete.
If you are nervous, try it several times without illegal cargo and see if you ever get scanned before you enter the station.

 

[Gavski]

As mentioned, I switch-off all non-essential modules to reduce heat generated, request docking, silent run in with no problems. I don't blast-in, just usual speed.
Switching-off the modules was the key, I found (otherwise heat builds-up at an alarming rate!).