So this afternoon I decided to head back to my home system and pick up some missions around the 5-6 systems I'm familiar with there. Being Master in combat I picked up 3 well paid combat missions, 1 assasination and 2 pirate kill missions and headed off in my Vulture (gave my FDL a lick on the way out but fancied something smaller for this flight.) Off I went to take care of the assasination first before heading into an anarchy system for my 1st pirate kill mission. In short time I'd taken out the 9 required pirates at the anarchy nav beacon with barely enough time to breathe between engagement (3 of which were in a fairly savage wing.) Then it was off to the last system, I hadn't been there before but knew of the name as they'd expanded to the anarchy system about 3 months ago and were doing well for themselves.
Fortunately there were RES sites so my pirate hunting was going to be very focussed and hopefully swift. Off I went into a high intensity, jumping in at 15km out....
.... all was silent as I picked my way through the asteroids, nothing in sight until I picked up a wanted Dangerous Imperial Courier. We tusseled and I got a fairly comfortable victory but the turreted beams forced me to use two chaffs to save taking too much damage (those Vulture shields don't like to recharge quickly.) Miners started to come in, mostly in wings, a cobra with 2 sidewinders and a solitary Python shared a rock with a Type 7.
I drifted for a few minutes, checking my scanner and looking for signs of activity, didn't seem to be much happening until I picked up 3 unknown targets. Getting closer 2 Vipers and a Python scanned in, all master and above, all wanted. I ruminated on the best strategy, the scanned me for cargo, I drifted past them. Lining up with one of the Vipers I opened fire, as I took the last ring of it's (surprisingly) strong shield off the other Viper and Python were in full attack mode. I dropped chaff and continued my attack on the Viper. Before I could destroy it I dropped one of my four shield cells before turning on the other Viper and finally dropping the Python. Already I'd used half my chaff after only 4 ships, usually I could spend ages in a RES, this was tough stuff. It may have been due to my turning "report crimes" off, no cops had turned up.
Anyway, after a few more tussles with dropships, clippers, pythons and a couple of (thankfully) smaller wings the pirates had attacked the miners and the cops were called, which was a mercy. Half my cannons were depleted and I only had one shield cell left and 2 chaff. I'd already had my shields dropped once by a particular viscious turreted Dropship and only 83% hull. 20-30 minutes in and the place was buzzing, laser fire in several places over a wide area, I barely knew where to look. Large ships came in, mostly not in wings but even then there'd be 3 of them at one time.
After this each engagement was a close fight, relying on authority vessels as I could no longer avoid the accurate turrets or rely on chaff/shield cells. Big ship after big ship was engaged, Anacondas hurled plasma into Clippers as my beam stripped shields and burnt systems. There's somethign entertaining about seeing a Police Anaconda ram a pirate Python head on right in front of you.
After 2 hours my Vulture was beaten and bruised, my cannons depleted, my chaff and shield cells a distant memory, my canopy nearly cracked, my thrusters malfunctioning and my hull down to 43%. It was time to leave....
4.5m credits richer
I've never got that amount of money from a RES so quickly before, and it's never been that free-form. Having two clippers and a python facing off against the Feds (not even in a wing, just random drop ins) is pretty awesome. I was spoilt for targets and most of them gave me a stern test to stay alive.I'm sure in a Python or FDL I'd have cleared much more.
So... are RES sites Dead? Nerfed? Boring? Not if my evening is anything to go by.
I hadn't planned to RES farm, I just was going to pick up missions. So perhaps the lesson is, go where the wind takes you, pick up some random missions and look around, you never know where the next big score will come or how much fun it will be. I hadn't planned to stay in the RES, just looking for pirates and was going to take more missions but it was an awesome set up and I couldn't leave. Didn't need to keep resetting it out of greed, wasn't looking for it, just went with the flow and got an amazing treat with it.
Fortunately there were RES sites so my pirate hunting was going to be very focussed and hopefully swift. Off I went into a high intensity, jumping in at 15km out....
.... all was silent as I picked my way through the asteroids, nothing in sight until I picked up a wanted Dangerous Imperial Courier. We tusseled and I got a fairly comfortable victory but the turreted beams forced me to use two chaffs to save taking too much damage (those Vulture shields don't like to recharge quickly.) Miners started to come in, mostly in wings, a cobra with 2 sidewinders and a solitary Python shared a rock with a Type 7.
I drifted for a few minutes, checking my scanner and looking for signs of activity, didn't seem to be much happening until I picked up 3 unknown targets. Getting closer 2 Vipers and a Python scanned in, all master and above, all wanted. I ruminated on the best strategy, the scanned me for cargo, I drifted past them. Lining up with one of the Vipers I opened fire, as I took the last ring of it's (surprisingly) strong shield off the other Viper and Python were in full attack mode. I dropped chaff and continued my attack on the Viper. Before I could destroy it I dropped one of my four shield cells before turning on the other Viper and finally dropping the Python. Already I'd used half my chaff after only 4 ships, usually I could spend ages in a RES, this was tough stuff. It may have been due to my turning "report crimes" off, no cops had turned up.
Anyway, after a few more tussles with dropships, clippers, pythons and a couple of (thankfully) smaller wings the pirates had attacked the miners and the cops were called, which was a mercy. Half my cannons were depleted and I only had one shield cell left and 2 chaff. I'd already had my shields dropped once by a particular viscious turreted Dropship and only 83% hull. 20-30 minutes in and the place was buzzing, laser fire in several places over a wide area, I barely knew where to look. Large ships came in, mostly not in wings but even then there'd be 3 of them at one time.
After this each engagement was a close fight, relying on authority vessels as I could no longer avoid the accurate turrets or rely on chaff/shield cells. Big ship after big ship was engaged, Anacondas hurled plasma into Clippers as my beam stripped shields and burnt systems. There's somethign entertaining about seeing a Police Anaconda ram a pirate Python head on right in front of you.
After 2 hours my Vulture was beaten and bruised, my cannons depleted, my chaff and shield cells a distant memory, my canopy nearly cracked, my thrusters malfunctioning and my hull down to 43%. It was time to leave....
4.5m credits richer
I've never got that amount of money from a RES so quickly before, and it's never been that free-form. Having two clippers and a python facing off against the Feds (not even in a wing, just random drop ins) is pretty awesome. I was spoilt for targets and most of them gave me a stern test to stay alive.I'm sure in a Python or FDL I'd have cleared much more.
So... are RES sites Dead? Nerfed? Boring? Not if my evening is anything to go by.
I hadn't planned to RES farm, I just was going to pick up missions. So perhaps the lesson is, go where the wind takes you, pick up some random missions and look around, you never know where the next big score will come or how much fun it will be. I hadn't planned to stay in the RES, just looking for pirates and was going to take more missions but it was an awesome set up and I couldn't leave. Didn't need to keep resetting it out of greed, wasn't looking for it, just went with the flow and got an amazing treat with it.
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