Some questions about passenger missions and ship-launched fighters

Hi all. First post here, been lurking / playing (PS4) for a while but until now didn't have any questions that I couldn't find pre-existing answers for with a quick search.

I've been running passenger missions around three systems, getting allied with factions and making some money to upgrade. Bought my first Python a couple of weeks ago and then an Anaconda a couple of days ago.

My questions are:

1. I know mission generation is random* but I seem to be seeing a lot less passenger missions to my three "home" systems now than I was previously in the Python. It's not landing pad size as all the stations / ports I visit as part of my regular route can accommodate the Conda. Does what ship you're flying play any other part in what passenger missions are offered to you? Like I say, it might just be random but the numbers did seem to drop off a cliff as soon as I got the Conda.

*Side question - have they now fixed board flipping? I can get different boards in Open and Solo but they stay the same if I continue switching, so basically I get two sets of boards per station then I need to either wait or fly to the next one (usually quicker) for a new set of missions.

2. I have a fighter hangar and have been having fun with SLFs but the only decent description I can find of how the attack order behaves is an old Reddit which says that the fighter will attack anyone you're targeting even if friendly. Is that still true or was it fixed / changed? Surely if I set the SLF to attack orders and I target yellow or green contacts on the radar they're not going to fire on them, are they? That would be crazy. So how does it work? Do they immediately begin firing on red or flashing contacts once I target them? And with engage at will I'm hoping they wouldn't fire on anybody who wasn't wanted, or do anything else to gain a bounty on me/them, would they? To be honest all of this is a bit of a moot point since there simply isn't time to change orders when being interdicted anyway, and there appears to be no way to change the default ones.
 
Hi, nice work or your achievements so far :)

Missions are based on a number of factors such as local reputation with factions, system state and type of economy.

Sometimes mission boards dry up or completely change the type of missions offered due to changing states such as boom, war, etc.

Have a read up on BGS (back ground sim) for more information.

generally it's good to move around a bit get allied up with as many factions as you can and enjoy the variety as you'll find that if you stick to one system you'll be doing the same missions over and over again with regards to locations and tourist spots.

I've used the SLF quite a lot but not really bothered with orders, just left them too it - they seem to always attack my target by default, I don't think they would ever attack a clean target unless you attacked that target first.

Good luck on your journey.
 
2. The SLF will attack the ship you are CURRENTLY targeting regardless of its status. After the ship is destroyed, the SLF returns to Defend Mode.
 
2. I have a fighter hangar and have been having fun with SLFs but the only decent description I can find of how the attack order behaves is an old Reddit which says that the fighter will attack anyone you're targeting even if friendly. Is that still true or was it fixed / changed? Surely if I set the SLF to attack orders and I target yellow or green contacts on the radar they're not going to fire on them, are they? That would be crazy. So how does it work? Do they immediately begin firing on red or flashing contacts once I target them? And with engage at will I'm hoping they wouldn't fire on anybody who wasn't wanted, or do anything else to gain a bounty on me/them, would they? To be honest all of this is a bit of a moot point since there simply isn't time to change orders when being interdicted anyway, and there appears to be no way to change the default ones.

It would not be a lot of good to pirates if their crew refused to fire on the "good guys"; that's simply why they'll fire at anything you target.
 
If you go into the options setting you can set the slf orders onto various keybinds. Probably not helpful unless you have a keyboard.
 
It would not be a lot of good to pirates if their crew refused to fire on the "good guys"; that's simply why they'll fire at anything you target.

Fair point, I hadn't really considered pirates.

So is there a mode where you can get the fighter to fire on anything red (but only red, and only once they've scanned to get the "wanted" status if it hasn't already fired on us) without waiting for incoming fire?

Like I said though, it's kind of a moot point as without being able to set default orders / modes there usually isn't time to go changing it.
 
Tourist missions: Ship type is not relevant, only wht passenger cabins you have outfitted. Passengers will take the requested class or better, ie Business class passengers will also go in First Class or Luxury. If you don't have the correct passenger compartment or it is too small, the missions will move down to "not available" but you can see why you are not allowed to get them.

If you want to do tourist missions, it's best to find a system where there is a boom system next to it that will allow you to do Boom Data missions and rank up in minutes and get those juicy passenger missions. I have done this in WU Guinagi when it was in boom and in Sothis right now. This gives me individual tourist missions earning 5-10M for a 300ly trip (7-8 jumps for me). I use an Asp Explorer with 6C First Class compartment, 5A scoop and no guns (46ly jump) and mkae around 20M for an hour of doing tourist missions (some really cool sites to see as well if you have Horizons).

I tried a few long range missions to Colonia once in my Anaconda, having almost 200M of tourists on board, but lost all but one of those missions when I got scanned when entering Jacques. So I will never ever accept any of the 1000ly+ missions as you can can earn the same amount (20M/contract) just flying locally and not do the mind-numbing 20kly of non-stop jumping. Tourist missions are my bread-and-butter so to speak, I like doing it and it earns a lot of credits with nearly any risk. Right now I have around 600M of ships stored away and can basically buy anything I want and A-Rate it without sweating about the money. The key factor though is to get alligned with as many of the parties in the system you pick, so you have a lot of choices of passenger contracts.
 
When you issue the order to Attack, it will attach the current target regardless. If you have nobody targeted, the order does nothing.

Ah I missed the bit about attack orders, yeah I'd expect it to attack my target regardless of status if I've ordered it to, for example I could be pirating. Cheers, I must set up orders! I need to install voice attack, too many controls and not enough buttons on the controller, keyboard is difficult when you play VR.
 
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