Stupid question time - How in the world do you find your target when bounty hunting?

[peteuplink]

I've always played as a trader in Elite, but I thought I'd branch out and do something a bit different. So I kitted out an eagle with some equipment and started flying from place to place looking or unidentified signals. Sometimes I picked up a wanted ship, other times it was authority forces and various other ships that I left alone. All in all I've been doing ok but I decided that, while flying from place to place looking for signals was fine, I wanted to try a more focused bounty mission... However I'm having a few issues.

The description to the mission said the person I'm after has been seen around Ross 210. I've been flying around scanning various ships for a couple of hours now but not found the one I'm after. Also doing it this way is a little tedious and it's not all that easy to keep track of who you've scanned and who you haven't... Does anyone have any advice that might ease the process a bit?

 

[X2Eliah]

For those missions, you have to pop into USSes until your target randomly is in one. The target will never load as a part of the FSD-cruising npcs or around stations.

 

[deMangler]

For those missions, you have to pop into USSes until your target randomly is in one. The target will never load as a part of the FSD-cruising npcs or around stations.

I am sure this must be a temporary mechanic. I would love to be able to spot a mark in a station and follow them to a dark corner before taking them out.
Hopefully when persistent NPC's are implemented...

 

[shrinkshooter]

Assassination missions are a two step process. First, you get a list of three systems where the target was last seen. Going to those targets and dropping into signals will eventually spawn a ship who tells you they barely escaped your target just recently at a certain system, which updates your mission. Then you head to that system and continue to drop into signals until an elite anaconda shows up. Sometimes it shows up within 1-2 signals, other times it take 6-7 or never, and I found that warping out from the system and returning 'reset' it and found the target soon after. On rare occasion, your target will be an Orca in an anarchy system for some reason, and that's bugged to crap because it never has a bounty and your objective doesn't get completed, even though the Orca's name will be the exact target you're looking for in the exact system to hunt in.

 

[peteuplink]

Assassination missions are a two step process. First, you get a list of three systems where the target was last seen. Going to those targets and dropping into signals will eventually spawn a ship who tells you they barely escaped your target just recently at a certain system, which updates your mission. Then you head to that system and continue to drop into signals until an elite anaconda shows up. Sometimes it shows up within 1-2 signals, other times it take 6-7 or never, and I found that warping out from the system and returning 'reset' it and found the target soon after. On rare occasion, your target will be an Orca in an anarchy system for some reason, and that's bugged to crap because it never has a bounty and your objective doesn't get completed, even though the Orca's name will be the exact target you're looking for in the exact system to hunt in.

So basically it's the same as I was doing, dropping into USS's, but with a more focussed goal. And I'll keep an eye out for the bugs.

 

[X2Eliah]

I am sure this must be a temporary mechanic. I would love to be able to spot a mark in a station and follow them to a dark corner before taking them out.
Hopefully when persistent NPC's are implemented...

Yeah, I hope so too. But, since this is what we have now...