What do you do with "Convoy Dispersal Pattern" USSs?

Stealthie

Stealthie
Honestly, my awareness of CDP USSs has mostly been limited to rolling my eyes at their prevalence instead of USSs which I considered more useful.

I assumed their main use was as a source of ship-scans and wake-scans after they jump out.
I have tried causing trouble at them and, previously, they seemed to work a bit like "wetwork" missions, whereby you pick targets and try to destroy them while the rest of the ships escape.

I now find myself short of Polymer Capacitors, however, and INARA tells me that exploding ships in CDPs are a source of them.
I decided to take my Beluga Killer Krait (which I suppose I should have named the Pequod) to an anarchy and see what's what.

I jumped into a CDP USS filled with Elite T10s and Annies, which seemed like a good opportunity, and got stuck in.
Trouble is, instead of running away, all the other ships became hostile and attacked me, which wasn't exactly a fair fight and I was forced to make a tactical withdrawl.

So, ummm, how are people successfully farming CDP USSs?

Do I just need to go back in my 'vette and "git gud" at destroying targets while I'm being attacked by nearly a dozen Elite Annies and T10s?
Did I just get unlucky by finding a CDP with so many big, aggressive, ships in it?
Is there some other strategy for farming CDPs or is it just not the done thing?
 

yelboc

yelboc
Cant tell you about CDP's but polymer capacitors at Dav's Hope is a lot less trouble if you just want the mats..
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
yelboc said:
Cant tell you about CDP's but polymer capacitors at Dav's Hope is a lot less trouble if you just want the mats..
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Fair point.

TBH, I just want to try out different ways of obtaining stuff so I've got options.

I mean, if it turns out that I can get a heap of Polymer Capacitors from a CDP then I can avoid doing the laps around DH.
Conversely, if (like a lot of combat salvage) PCs are going to be rare drops at CDPs then it's probably not worth the effort.
 

yelboc

yelboc
CDPs did form a part of the thargoid discovery, so its a mechanism thats been used in the game before for lore story lines, but I'd be interested too, to know if they serve any other purpose.
 

FrogsFriend

FrogsFriend
They can contain anything from a handful of small traders, exploration ships, fat cargo convoys up to military convoys of Anacondas and Vultures. Sometimes you'll get pirates in there too. They have a Threat Level that will give you a rough idea of the danger.
 

Lightspeed

Lightspeed
Targeting each ship in turn gives you some useful data mats ... at least one of the ships usually provides it.

In some USSs the escorted ship is left alone as the convoy disperses. In others, the ship escapes while the rest attack you when you go hostile. I haven't worked out the logic, but FrogsFriend has pointed out that the higher threat level ones are those where you can expect a heap of trouble.
 

CMDR Redcrest

C
Get in your big ship with max engineered therm resist shields and a load of shield boosters. Have a heat sink and two scb's mapped to the same fire button.
Provoke and then kill them all with weapons of choice. Collect.
Unless there's engineered npc ships in them now. In which case get a wing.
 

CMDR Redcrest

C
I wish there were something worthwhile in Ceremonial Comms USS'. I always wanted a load of top 1% of all liners spamming wedding barge messages to blow up. They'd be too busy spouting off about not writing their vows over the comms to summon help.
 

GreyAreaUK

GreyAreaUK
The Threat 2 CDPs can be a bit tasty. They sometimes give you a "defend us from the incoming bad guys" mission but, as you say, they can be tricky if you open fire on them. The Threat 0's are fine though.

However, I get my PCs from CZs.
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
zipline said:
But that's what @Stealthie did and got his butt handed to him on a plate! ☺
So were yours less well attended, lower rank, or did Stealthie choose a wing of 12, or just needs to get a killer vette and git gudder?
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I'm guessing in an anarchy system you haven't broken the law so you don't get the massed attack response. This would be the same as political assassination missions in anarchy. No assault bounty means the system authorities let you get on with killing the target.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
FrogsFriend said:
They can contain anything from a handful of small traders, exploration ships, fat cargo convoys up to military convoys of Anacondas and Vultures. Sometimes you'll get pirates in there too. They have a Threat Level that will give you a rough idea of the danger.
Click to expand...

See, that's something else....

The one I referred to in the OP was TL2.

At this point I should say that I've visited quite a few in the past, and I visited half a dozen last night, so it's not like I'm asking after visiting a grand-total of one.

In the past, I've seen convoys of T9s, passenger ships, Adders/Cobras etc.
It's just that, given that I'm hoping to find Polymer Capacitors, I'm specifically looking for convoys of militay ships so one with T10s and Annies should have been "perfect".

I've got no idea what TL2 actually means, in this context.
Is it supposed to be the threat level as long as you don't do anything hostile?

Cos, when I attack one of nearly a dozen T10s/Annies and they all become hostile in response, that sure as hell aint threat-level TWO.
 
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