Threat Level 4...I win?

[CMDR_Halceon]

So, I've been trying to do more combat and dropped into a threat level 4 distress call. There was a disabled Farragut and dire warning that system authority help wasn't forthcoming. The Farragut asked me to stay until help arrived.

There were several hostile ships in the instance, but they all waked out after I arrived in my mostly harmless viper. Nothing happened for a long time, but I felt guilty leaving the disabled ship to its fate.

Eventually I thought that picking up the floating canisters might trigger something, and when I scooped the last one, even more hostile ships jumped in. I boosted once to get some room to move, but when I turned around, the second round of hostile ships had waked out too.

I've googled, and it seems this scenario is known for not having a nice dismount, but... is it normal for the pirates to turn and run? Does anyone know if there's something I could have done differently? Maybe to reassure the pirates? Otherwise this victory will surely go to my head. [smile]

 

[Mrat13]

Why not go to a res site? Or conflict zone? You're more likely to find willing combatants there. With threat levels, it's pot luck with what happens.

 

[CMDR_Halceon]

I'm starting on res sites as well, but I've always felt bad about ignoring distress calls, and dropping into them has been one of my new year's resolutions. I probably worry about the NPCs feelings too much.

 

[Mrat13]

I'm starting on res sites as well, but I've always felt bad about ignoring distress calls, and dropping into them has been one of my new year's resolutions. I probably worry about the NPCs feelings too much.

It's fine doing them for the sake of doing them, but just realize you might not get the combat experience from doing them like you would from other methods.

I'm not saying don't do them, I'm saying go into them with the appropriate expectations. If you do that, you'll feel less depressed about the whole thing. Then you can go about your day and do what you intended to do in the first place, in this case, combat practice, without the weight of feeling cheated because you know what to expect now.

 

[Stealthie]

Problem is, the NPC's regular behaviour undermines the way those scenarios play-out.

If you engage with the outlaws you'll get several waves of hostile ships appearing, culminating in a duel with something like an Anaconda/Corvette and a wing of FGS's or FdLs.
Trouble is, the NPCs AI consists of arriving, flying around for a while, possibly scanning the player ship and then (either if they don't find anything valuable or they simply don't scan you at all) they jump away.

I suppose this is "working as intended" because it means a player intent on avoiding combat can look around the cap-ship and then leave, a player who is intent on combat can attack the NPCs or a player can scoop some of the goodies, get scanned by an NPC who then demands cargo and initiates combat.

Basically, though, if you're specifically looking to "complete" one of these encounters, you're probably going to need a better ship than a Viper.

 

[Quantis Trap]

It was a whole Farragut cap ship and not just a Corvette?

 

[CMDR_Halceon]

That makes sense, I guess. Had they been attacking the capital ship, I would have engaged and then seen how long until I died, but since they weren't attacking anyone, I didn't have a reason to escalate. I'm sure in other scenarios the pirates have attacked me first--maybe I just wasn't close enough and found a whole in the logic.

I did have fun flying around and inside the capital ship without it deciding to attack me.