[Skimmer Missions] What am I doing wrong?

[Daiyus73]

So I finally got Beyond 3.0 installed and thought I'd try something a bit different. I've spent the last few weeks raising my standing with a faction by doing trading, data runs and the like.

Today I decided to have a pop at some Skimmer missions. Support the expansion, or so the mission description says.

Well it's been an incredibly frustrating two hours with a net loss of the cost of four SRV's and repairing my ship twice. The mission directs you to a base to kill skimmers. Easy enough. The skimmers spawn but there's so many defence turrets it's impossible to kill anything. Focus on the turrets and the skimmers rip the SRV apart and vice versa. Tried using my ship to whittle down the ground defences but I can't lock onto anything making my weapons useless. Cue repair bill and two lost SRV's.

So I do some Google research and discover you're not actually meant to go to the base. You're meant to find POI's and destroy the skimmers there. Not exactly obvious, but OK. Off I go looking around for some POI's and half an hour of surface flying later I've found absolutely nothing. Bored I decide to see if there's something obvious I've missed back at the base. Two more destroyed SRV's.

In almost two hours of game-play I've managed to destroy 5 of the required 12 skimmers and have wound up incredibly frustrated. This is the first time in over 100 hours I've felt this way with the game, and I've been to Colonia and back in that time.

Seriously, what the hell am I missing? Why are skimmers so hard to find/kill?

 

[Deleted member 115407]

So I finally got Beyond 3.0 installed and thought I'd try something a bit different. I've spent the last few weeks raising my standing with a faction by doing trading, data runs and the like.

Today I decided to have a pop at some Skimmer missions. Support the expansion, or so the mission description says.

Well it's been an incredibly frustrating two hours with a net loss of the cost of four SRV's and repairing my ship twice. The mission directs you to a base to kill skimmers. Easy enough. The skimmers spawn but there's so many defence turrets it's impossible to kill anything. Focus on the turrets and the skimmers rip the SRV apart and vice versa. Tried using my ship to whittle down the ground defences but I can't lock onto anything making my weapons useless. Cue repair bill and two lost SRV's.

SO I do some rsearch and discover you're not actually meant to go to the base. You're meant to find POI's and destroy the skimmers there. Off I go looking around for some POI's and half an hour of surface flying later I've found absolutely nothing. Bored I decide to see if there's something obvious I've missed back at the base. Two more destroyed SRV's.

In almost two hours of game-play I've managed to destroy 5 of the required 12 skimmers and have wound up incredibly frustrated. This is the first time in over 100 hours I've felt this way with the game, and I've been to Colonia and back in that time.

Seriously, what the hell am I missing? Why are skimmers so hard to find/kill?

Buy eagle, equip dumbfire missiles, fly to base, wake up skimmers, shoot missiles at skimmers.

Mission accomplished.

If the base is too heavily defended, look for a smaller one in the same system owned by the same faction. Any target-faction skimmer will do.

 

[Blackcompany]

So I finally got Beyond 3.0 installed and thought I'd try something a bit different. I've spent the last few weeks raising my standing with a faction by doing trading, data runs and the like.

Today I decided to have a pop at some Skimmer missions. Support the expansion, or so the mission description says.

Well it's been an incredibly frustrating two hours with a net loss of the cost of four SRV's and repairing my ship twice. The mission directs you to a base to kill skimmers. Easy enough. The skimmers spawn but there's so many defence turrets it's impossible to kill anything. Focus on the turrets and the skimmers rip the SRV apart and vice versa. Tried using my ship to whittle down the ground defences but I can't lock onto anything making my weapons useless. Cue repair bill and two lost SRV's.

So I do some Google research and discover you're not actually meant to go to the base. You're meant to find POI's and destroy the skimmers there. Not exactly obvious, but OK. Off I go looking around for some POI's and half an hour of surface flying later I've found absolutely nothing. Bored I decide to see if there's something obvious I've missed back at the base. Two more destroyed SRV's.

In almost two hours of game-play I've managed to destroy 5 of the required 12 skimmers and have wound up incredibly frustrated. This is the first time in over 100 hours I've felt this way with the game, and I've been to Colonia and back in that time.

Seriously, what the hell am I missing? Why are skimmers so hard to find/kill?

They are a desperate attempt to force srv game play. Hence your ship beimg useless because...video games.

Avoid them. Half the time, the bases only spawn half the skimmers needed anyway, wasting yoir time with a mission you cannot complete.

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

I check the station before committing to an assault of the base itself. Does it look impressive? Does it have air support? Usually they do, so I skip that. In fact, some bases have anti missile defenses now, which is... annoying. Flying around a bit (right at the 2km above the surface mark) and POIs always pop pretty quickly. Just land and look for blips near the top of the radar. From a distance, they will be vertical lines on the scanner.

Some people can spot the POIs on the ground from the air, but I never caught on to that trick (or am just a bad hunter, I guess). I've done a few of these within the past few days in high and medium security systems.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

They are a desperate attempt to force srv game play. Hence your ship beimg useless because...video games.

Avoid them. Half the time, the bases only spawn half the skimmers needed anyway, wasting yoir time with a mission you cannot complete.

With 3.0 they are supposed to spawn all the skimmers. That's how it was in beta. I'll have to check the patch notes.

I check the station before committing to an assault of the base itself. Does it look impressive? Does it have air support? Usually they do, so I skip that. In fact, some bases have anti missile defenses now, which is... annoying. Flying around a bit (right at the 2km above the surface mark) and POIs always pop pretty quickly. Just land and look for blips near the top of the radar. From a distance, they will be vertical lines on the scanner.

Some people can spot the POIs on the ground from the air, but I never caught on to that trick (or am just a bad hunter, I guess). I've done a few of these within the past few days in high and medium security systems.

Believe me, the POIs with buildings and lights are easiest to spot. When they are little piles of wreckage it's a PITA.

Per Enexmander's first point, OP... as I said, if the base has too many defenses, see if there is another, smaller base in-system that is owned by the same faction. Should do the trick.

 

[Blackcompany]

With 3.0 they are supposed to spawn all the skimmers. That's how it was in beta. I'll have to check the patch notes.



Believe me, the POIs with buildings and lights are easiest to spot. When they are little piles of wreckage it's a PITA.

Per Enexmander's first point, OP... as I said, if the base has too many defenses, see if there is another, smaller base in-system that is owned by the same faction. Should do the trick.

Thanks for the info.

I hope its fixed. I actually enjoyed trying these. They shake things up a bit.

I tend to aggro tbe skimmers away from their base and thin their numbers. Take on kne or two at once. But that dumbfire trick...going to remember that, too.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Thanks for the info.

I hope its fixed. I actually enjoyed trying these. They shake things up a bit.

I tend to aggro tbe skimmers away from their base and thin their numbers. Take on kne or two at once. But that dumbfire trick...going to remember that, too.

Dude, airstrikes are the bomb (no pun intended)

 

[Red Anders]

So I finally got Beyond 3.0 installed and thought I'd try something a bit different. I've spent the last few weeks raising my standing with a faction by doing trading, data runs and the like.

Today I decided to have a pop at some Skimmer missions. Support the expansion, or so the mission description says.

Well it's been an incredibly frustrating two hours with a net loss of the cost of four SRV's and repairing my ship twice. The mission directs you to a base to kill skimmers. Easy enough. The skimmers spawn but there's so many defence turrets it's impossible to kill anything. Focus on the turrets and the skimmers rip the SRV apart and vice versa. Tried using my ship to whittle down the ground defences but I can't lock onto anything making my weapons useless. Cue repair bill and two lost SRV's.

So I do some Google research and discover you're not actually meant to go to the base. You're meant to find POI's and destroy the skimmers there. Not exactly obvious, but OK. Off I go looking around for some POI's and half an hour of surface flying later I've found absolutely nothing. Bored I decide to see if there's something obvious I've missed back at the base. Two more destroyed SRV's.

In almost two hours of game-play I've managed to destroy 5 of the required 12 skimmers and have wound up incredibly frustrated. This is the first time in over 100 hours I've felt this way with the game, and I've been to Colonia and back in that time.

Seriously, what the hell am I missing? Why are skimmers so hard to find/kill?

This might be a daft question but when you're flying around looking for POIs, are you flying at an altitude between around 2km and 4km and do you have your ship's scanner set to the most zoomed-in setting possible? If not, you should.

I don't do hundreds of skimmer missions but I've done enough of them and to be honest as long as you're within 100km of the base I wouldn't even bother using your ship - just land and drive in a straight line with your SRV scanner range maxed out. On the scanner display look for any signals which are appear only on (or above) the middle of the scanner; they will all be shipwrecks, downed nav beacons or similar sites and almost all of them will all be guarded by skimmers from the faction you need. If you're lucky you can get four at one site. It's rare for you to have to drive more than a couple of minutes away from a site like that without finding your next candidate on the scanner.

 

[Blackcompany]

Dude, airstrikes are the bomb (no pun intended)

Definitely trying that!

 

[Daiyus73]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I'll have to give these another go at some point now I have a better idea of how to approach them.

 

[Phord Prefect]

Skimmer spawns have been buffed. They now respawn without instance flipping or logging.

However, base defenses have also gotten a buff it seems. SLF's are no longer immune to base fire. Though... Imp fighter with fixed beams can still snipe from the periphery. Just not the easymode it was yesterday, but still very doable. Not sure what changes regarding SRV's, if any. Haven't done that since.. ever.

 

[Deleted member 115407]

Skimmer spawns have been buffed. They now respawn without instance flipping or logging.

However, base defenses have also gotten a buff it seems. SLF's are no longer immune to base fire. Though... Imp fighter with fixed beams can still snipe from the periphery. Just not the easymode it was yesterday, but still very doable. Not sure what changes regarding SRV's, if any. Haven't done that since.. ever.

It has been a while maybe, but I noticed that AA guns are much more resistant to missile fire.

Surface to surface guns are still weak against missiles, but the surface to air guns just shrugged it off.

On the plus side they were more easily targetable. Will have to start bringing a gimballed multi with me.