Horizons slightly annoyed and asking advice

[kzintzi]

Hello All

first of all I'm not looking for gameplay changes or anything stupid like that, AND I know the game is called "Eliteangerous", however I'm getting slightly annoyed at the "5 ships pop up when I'm doing salvage and cost me 900k in insurance" thing that started happening.

In the end it doesn't matter that there is one vulture (or similar) and the rest of the pirates are flying eagles or sidewinders, having 5-on-1 means they bracket me and I'm dead inside 2 mins.. usually I've got one of the pieces of salvage in my hold when it happens and the mission is screwed once they kill me anyway, so once this happens I just abort the mission as it's not worth it to even try and go back and have another go (the first time this happened it cost me a LOT of money)..

At the moment it seems I either have one of four things happen:

1) nothing pops up - I have a quiet mission, collect my salvage and have no issues
2) I have a random selection of opponents added tot he mission and I get an announcement about it - I collect the salvage and then they try to interdict me
3) I collect the salvage and then someone random tries to interdict me
4) when I'm within 30m of the first mission required salvage item 5 ships pop in around me (usually bracketed by them so I have to exit an "englobement")

what I'm looking for is some advice:

1) I'm flying an ASP Explorer, and have it fairly maxed out (the only exception being I haven't spent money on getting the chassis upgraded yet - I know I should do this and I will once I've got the money), but I'd like to know if this is the norm for accepting missions higher than my rank, if it's the types of missions, the systems security rating etc..

2) am I better off shooting first and getting a bounty, waiting for them to attack and then use some to me unknown tactic to get the drop on them (I've already tried to boost out and string them out but it doesn't help that much), or should I just hightail it out of there and then wait for the system to give me another set of salvage to get the second/third mission required item (I did this once and the same pattern of ships instantiated around me which was pretty crap - especially since I was looking out the window and saw one of them just appear less than 100m away)

I realise I could get a new/different ship (and I am working towards a dedicated combat ship) but I like the full glass cockpit as I'm using an Oculus and the visuals are amazing, and I'm fairly good at combat when it's no more than 3-on-1, but the 5-on-1 thing is      .


any sensible advice would be appreciated.

 

[chetan1987]

Hi CMDR,

Better have wing for this, if you have atleast 2 extra wings it can be done, just ask some cmdrs to wing up, ASP is good one, it depends on how you use technique. Friendly wings can make your progress a lot better, else buy vulture upgrade it to max, Go ahead and try. First scan the ship if they dont attack you, if they attack you first, you are weapons free.

 

[Pville_Piper]

First off, an Asp is weak for this type of engagement. It is a good ship but in a pure combat environment this it won't hold up. I tried doing these with my Asp scout, Viper and a Diamond back scout and while I can survive and win in the scouts, I'm pretty battered up and it gets real dicey if the cops don't show up.

I've pretty much stopped doing these except in my FAS... Much better odds.

And yes, I will wait about 30 seconds before attempting to get the cargo. I've found they will pop in pretty much on top of the cargo so I sit back a ways and wait. When they pop in I select the highest ranked target and hit him hard and fast. Then I go for the next lowest target. Quite often, after you take out the top 2 the others will flee.

Some will suggest jumping out to supercruise and restarting the instance, but I've found they usually come back again and again. If you do fight, stay near the cargo because even if you do win and beat all five but loose track of the cargo you will have to restart the instance and they will re-appear.

 

[kzintzi]

Thankyou both for the info - might have to look at teaming up one day.

I hadn't thought to just wait before moving in and then hitting the heavy. I'll try that and see how I go. once I get my combat focused ship I think I'll be in a better position.

 

[W.T.Sherman]

I use a different approach. Granted I'm using a Python, but It shouldn't be alot different. First off, you must be vigilant on these missions as you never know which ones have baddies, second, always go in four pips to shields. The instant I come out of cruise I drop scoop and select my target as fast as I can, keeping one eye on the scanner at all times (I know, I know, you can't really do this, but just be vigilant and glace at it as often as possible). If you are close enough to the target container you might even be able to get it scooped up before the baddies show up, if not keep er steady and don't panic, you've got a good thirty seconds or so before they open up. If you can get the container within a few seconds or so of them showing up, you should still be able to get out with your skin, so long as there isn't an annie, then you're gonna have a hell of a time breaking mass-lock. It's then a matter of rinse-repeat after that. There will be several points around the planet to grab the cargo, so it doesn't take a crazy amount of time to complete the mission, even if you have to leave the cargo on a couple. It's actually kind of fun trying to get in and out without geting yer feathers singed (at least I think so). The key is keeping your eyes peeled and getting out fast, if you can't get to the container within a few seconds of them showing up.....just get out and make another pass at it. With a little practice, you'll be a pro.

 

[rrobes]

If you are trying to scoop with your cargo hatch, you will be a target for too long a time. Equip your ship with a collector limpet controller, preferably a 2-limpet one and some limpets. Go in and select your target through the port HUD contacts menu. Use one limpet per target and let the limpets do the work. They will self destruct after doing the single recovery. Don't target everything with one limpet, it takes too long, one limpet per item.

Another advantage is that you can defend yourself as the limpets make their way back for their delivery.

The best solution? The grind for a fully modded engineered Python. The game is skewed against less-than combat ready ships post-Engineers. I gave up on all other ships and use my a-class high mod Python 90% of the time. I also did the grind for a Federal Corvette, also a-class (mostly) with high mods for heavy cargo missions or trading.

 

[kzintzi]

by the looks of it I need to build a custom salvage ship then I like having goals awesome guys, thanks.

 

[Shadowdancer]

A souped-up Viper Mk4 can be a cost-effective salvage ship since you can get decent jump range out of it and it can take a beating while still being fairly maneuverable. If you are alone, go for missions with a low item count (one or two, you can usually get a single item before the instance NPCs even go hot) and practice "Scoop and Get The Funk On".

 

[D.G.Cerberus]

pretty much a combination of the above.....plus...If you aren't using limpets as per rrobes said above, which I would strongly advise along with his exact methodology........and you are reliant on the cargo scoop, the advice is Don't get greedy. If you have scooped 2 of the 4 items when the pirates show up then exit back to SC immediately, boosting away from them if you need to to break mass lock. You should have a little time whilst they spam the comms channel for a bit. Once back in SC, keep flying around the planet or OpArea - another mission USS will spawn. Same procedure, and if you collect another 2 then your mission should complete (I say should because I have never done this without stacking about 15 or them and in Cemiess/ Vequess you do not even need to mission log to get this number once you are allied across the board. Therefore I just kept jumping around dropping on multiple mission USS's, sometimes getting the full quota, other times maybe just 3 especially if I break my own limpet going too fast etc. After a while you will find you have completed all of them).

If you get the message saying people are after you, know this. They absolutely WILL insta-dict you at the earliest opportunity (i.e once you go back into SC or if you high wake, the moment you drop out). By Insta-dict I mean they will not be on your scanner beforehand, the first you will know about it is the warning message.
1. It is worth killing these guys for the bonus. Try fitting mines to your ASPx (plenty of forum posts and You tube vids on this, and at least for the moment, it works very well)
2. If Multiple people are coming for you, I have found that they don't necessarily all show up at once but rather on separate insta-dictions, so usually not fighting more than one at a time

You can do these effectively in an AspX. I did most of mine in them. If your re-buy was 900K Cr then it isn't maxed out, even without upgraded bulkheads mine are well over that. The more "basic" of my ones has a 1.5m Cr re-buy and from memory the other is almost 3m Cr. Maybe work on your shields and boosters to give you a little more longevity at the scene too.

When I was doing them in other more combat orientated vessels, the advice above to take out the pirate leader(s) works a treat.

 

[Pville_Piper]

Limpets will definitely help and black box or single salve missions you can get in and out pretty quick... But with multiple items you will not have time. Even worse you will likely have the limpets blown up and have to restart the instance, which means they will most likely re-spawn and attack. One thing to note, on subsequent re-spawns they will re-spawn much quicker. Typically in about 10 seconds I think, and they go to attack mode right away.

If you are going to uses limpets in an Asp I would suggest shield tanking it with military armor that way you can take some hits while waiting for the limpets. Put 4 pips to the shields and 2 to weapons. when you first go in. Then when you have the cargo, 4 to the system and 2 to the shields and boost out of there while engaging the FSD for a HIGH WAKE, not a low wake. It's been a while since I've flown the Asp, but you may be able to boost nearly continuously with the 3 to the system and that would allow you to keep 3 in the shields.

Good luck Commander!

 

[sicksuntzu]

had this happen to me a few times, well the multi ship jump in bit anyways. What i do is jump into salvage hit x send limpets to grab stuff, shields to max and you should scoop before they jump in. then just jump out. Thats been my experince anyway, just dont hang around and do it quick, dont try and scoop just use limpets.

 

[GMANTOR]

I've done many of these in my python. i use dual limpets but i don't target them. When I drop into the instance I immediately fly so that the cargo is as close as possible to the underneath of my ship. if you get this right you can drop cargo scoop deploy two limpets and at least scoop two items before they show up and you might get 4 items before having to run. rather than target the items directly I rely on luck. you might get 1 of 3 items before you have to boost out but you can try again as the mission will respawn until you complete the mission. The initial alpha strike can be quite large as you are a sitting duck so strong shields are important but they are quite doable.