Newcomer / Intro What am I doing wrong with (some) surface mission?

THE WHIFFLE

T
Hiya all,

I'm at a bit of a loss with how to approach some surface missions (this has happened a few times now). Example: Yesterday, I took a "Novice" level mission to destroy seven skimmers. Pretty straight forward - or so I thought. The target installation was a +++ medium security site. Approaching the target I noticed a couple of defence ships - one (I think) was a Viper but the other... an Anoconda! Kept fairly well back and landed 6/7km away from the site. Approached in the SRV and hit the security cordon (usual warnings then fines). One or both of the ships began blasting and before long destroyed my SRV. Got another SRV and went back for another attempt. Decided to leg it through the secury cordon towards the buildings. The ships seemed to ingnore me once I'd got closer to the main site. Killed a skimmer (one down) then a goliath found me. Managed to get into a hollow that allowed me to shoot at the goliath but it didn't shoot back. Emptied my entire magazine of ammo, resynthesised ammo and finally (after about 5 mins of blasting) destroyed it (two of seven). After more Goliaths and two more SRVs I'd finally got the seven skimmers/goliaths. Leaving the site feeling pleased with myself, the defence ships (still prowling above) shot me up big style (SRV number four).

Remember this was a "Novice" mission. What should I have done differently? There is no way my Cobra (mostly unengineered) could take on an Anoconda so killing the ships first and desroying the Goliaths from above was out.

Oh hum.
 

Chris Simon

Chris Simon
There is no such thing as Novice mission when comes to the installations. The game lies.

The only real measure stick for how difficult the mission is going to be is the number of (+) next to the name of the surface base.
Single (+) usually means small-ish site with not a lot ofdefenses. Maybe one turret, two or three skimmers, etc. Doable. Anything more and you're going to go through hell if you try to solo it.

That being said, I suck at these types of missions, but that is my experience.
And Goliaths? Yeah, nope. The only time I killed one was when I fed its face with DF rockets from air. :LOL:
 

Codger

Codger
I tend to just search the surrounding areas for POIs that contain skimmers. They will generally be of the correct faction for the mission, and much easier to destroy since they are not inside the fortified area.

That's how I do them. It's not exactly fast, though. I'm pretty good at searching them out now, but it still can take a bit to find them.
 

d8veh

d8veh
THE WHIFFLE said:
Hiya all,

I'm at a bit of a loss with how to approach some surface missions (this has happened a few times now). Example: Yesterday, I took a "Novice" level mission to destroy seven skimmers. Pretty straight forward - or so I thought. The target installation was a +++ medium security site. Approaching the target I noticed a couple of defence ships - one (I think) was a Viper but the other... an Anoconda! Kept fairly well back and landed 6/7km away from the site. Approached in the SRV and hit the security cordon (usual warnings then fines). One or both of the ships began blasting and before long destroyed my SRV. Got another SRV and went back for another attempt. Decided to leg it through the secury cordon towards the buildings. The ships seemed to ingnore me once I'd got closer to the main site. Killed a skimmer (one down) then a goliath found me. Managed to get into a hollow that allowed me to shoot at the goliath but it didn't shoot back. Emptied my entire magazine of ammo, resynthesised ammo and finally (after about 5 mins of blasting) destroyed it (two of seven). After more Goliaths and two more SRVs I'd finally got the seven skimmers/goliaths. Leaving the site feeling pleased with myself, the defence ships (still prowling above) shot me up big style (SRV number four).

Remember this was a "Novice" mission. What should I have done differently? There is no way my Cobra (mostly unengineered) could take on an Anoconda so killing the ships first and desroying the Goliaths from above was out.

Oh hum.
Click to expand...
Yes, you tried to do it the hard way. Here's how I do kill skimmer missions:

Method 1
Equip a ship with normal missiles (not seekers). Any ship will work.
The mission will send you to a base on a planet. Don't go there. Instead, look at the planet in the system map to see if it has a low security base nearby that is controlled by the same faction , which there normally is. It's a while since I've done them, but you might have to check out nearby planets for a the low security base. Some bases have no defences at all. You have to get your ship quite close before the skimmers will spawn.
Fly to the base. When you get there, look for the orange generator and nuke it with the missiles. That will take out the base defences. Look for the skimmers and nuke them.
After a few minutes, more skimmers will spawn. Nuke them until you have enough to complete all missions.
If you take further missions, after a few visits, you become hostile with the base, so they will shoot you as you approach with the base missiles, so don't go too close until you've nuked the generator. Also, lasers will shoot as you approach, but you can get the generator before they do any damage. if you want to go back and do more missions at the same place, make sure your learn where the generator is so that you can get it quickly.
You will get fines and become wanted, so when you've finished, don't go to a station in the same system, otherwise the police will get you. After a few trips, go to an interstellar factor to clear the bounties. The vid was done before the introduction of the IF, so some of the comments about bounties aren't valid either.

Method 2 - quite good for beginners, but takes longer.
Use any ship and equip it with an SRV.
Fly to the place where they tell you to go. Don't land at the base. Instead, fly around about 1km high looking for the blue points of interest on your radar. when you find one, land and explore it. There's often "wanted" skimmers guarding something. Don't shoot them if they're not "wanted".They're easy to kill one at a time with the SRV.
After that, you can carry on driving around in the SRV to get materials from rocks, and before long, you will come across more skimmers guarding something. Follow any signal that appears at the top of your scanner. Or you can get back in your ship and look for more blue circles.

Method 1 video. You can no longer stack missions for megabucks like that, but the method for killing the skimmers is the same. Also, the bit about commodity mission rewards, which used to be compulsory, is no longer valid.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqgqSAvrrVw&t=442s
 
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GroG79

G
I like it the hard way

Not that I take these missions.. I just raid the bases for their data. It helps to stick close to buildings/walls. Especially so you can focus on the skimmers and leave the turrets (they also will repair)

Goliaths are a problem. Well done for taking one out. I usually avoid them like the plague. (If you want to fight them, consider premium ammo)
 

THE WHIFFLE

T
Brilliant - thanks all, I really appreciate your input! There is a lot to try out here and so will have some fun over the weekend (and, in the process, probably keep the makers of SRVs in gainful employment!)
 

d8veh

d8veh
Codger said:
Sorry d8veh, but I have to correct this one point. You can't see the blue circles for POIs unless you are at least 1.8km above the surface. At 1 km you won't see them.

Just for the sake of accuracy :)
Click to expand...
Thanks. I wasn't sure what the height is.
 
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