What exactly is all the fuss and bickering about?

[Soothsayer]

Shadow Delivery missions aren't hard at all. I've never been "ghost scanned," or scanned from my landing pad. I can usually evade interdictions, and I use a pretty bog-standard mouse and keyboard at default settings. I'm rarely scanned at stations, and I'm generally always able to escape them if I do get scanned. I never use heat sinks or silent running. I can comfortably boost away from authority vessel scans in my Asp, which has a laden top speed of around ~385.

To those of you that are complaining, just keep practicing. I failed quite a few Shadow Delivery missions until I got the hang of things, and around half a week later, I'm breezing through stacks of 8 - 10 with ease. I just got through with a 30 million credit 8-mission run that took just under an hour, in fact, and had no issues whatsoever evading every interdiction. As long as you don't stack too many missions and use basic common sense, you'll be fine.

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

Maybe there's some glitch or whatever affecting some players and not others?
I don't know what it is but I've had problems. Interdictions as soon as you enter a new system etc (yes bug reported). Interdictions by ships that should be so close to the sun they should be carbon atoms, interdictions that start the mini game and then pull you down INSTANTLY. Immediate ship scans by NPC's, 3 unrelated ships dropping into the same instance and scanning.
Probably just having a crappy run with glitches but it does and has happened.
All reported. Probably just bumps in the road but I'll be doing other things rather than smuggling.
I'm doing no more missions until they fix the spambot either. I hate picking up assassination missions in r such just to be hounded by NPC's. I'll not goontoo much as I'm getting sick of myself even discussing the void vermin!

 

[EddyRockSteady]

Shadow Delivery missions aren't hard at all.....

Yes, we all agree with you. They are a simple way to make 50 million for a couple hours play.

That is however not what is complained about.

 

[sewerratuk]

They are a simple way to make 50 million for a couple hours play.

I feel a nerf on the way. Better slash a zero off of that!

 

[Shaamaan]

I'm pretty sure some bugs are affecting some people and not others.

Many people complain about NPCs ramming them when trying to scan - something that has never happened to me.

Still, bugs are bugs, and I can perfectly understand the frustration people must feel if they fail a mission due to a bug.

 

[Bortas]

I feel a nerf on the way. Better slash a zero off of that!

Yes, a nerf would also "fix" all the issues related to it. No one bothering with those missions any more = no issues

 

[babelfisch]

I'm pretty sure some bugs are affecting some people and not others.

Many people complain about NPCs ramming them when trying to scan - something that has never happened to me.

Still, bugs are bugs, and I can perfectly understand the frustration people must feel if they fail a mission due to a bug.

I believe that players are getting rammed during scans because they don't change direction when a NPC sits in front of them. It's not a bug but different play styles. It's our job to avoid collisions when the NPC throttles to zero.
When it comes to smuggling missions I think that most issues are related to mission stacking. Sure, there are bugs as well and some gameplay decisions should be revised.

 

[fennster]

I believe that players are getting rammed during scans because they don't change direction when a NPC sits in front of them. It's not a bug but different play styles. It's our job to avoid collisions when the NPC throttles to zero.
When it comes to smuggling missions I think that most issues are related to mission stacking. Sure, there are bugs as well and some gameplay decisions should be revised.

No, that ramming bug is real. I was leaving a station earlier in a Hauler and I got a scan detected notification, I was flying directly away from the port and boosting, and the scanning vessel came flying up my backside. Normally I don't really mind that much, the ships I fly soak up the impact, just think stupid NPCs. But as I was in a Hauler that lost it's shields and some of it's hull, it made think of some of the starter Pilots in their Sideys.

Seems like the approach and slow mechanic is a bit off at the moment.

 

[babelfisch]

No, that ramming bug is real. I was leaving a station earlier in a Hauler and I got a scan detected notification, I was flying directly away from the port and boosting, and the scanning vessel came flying up my backside. Normally I don't really mind that much, the ships I fly soak up the impact, just think stupid NPCs. But as I was in a Hauler that lost it's shields and some of it's hull, it made think of some of the starter Pilots in their Sideys.

Seems like the approach and slow mechanic is a bit off at the moment.

Are you sure that you got hit by the scanning vessel? It's not that I don't believe you, the situation just doesn't sound very likely. If you are boosting away and got hit from behind it means that the NPC was faster than your Hauler. The speed difference would be max. 100m/s, I usually don't even loose the first ring when crashing into something at that speed. In my opinion it's more likely that a third ship was involved.

 

[Jet Fusion]

Because people that did not sign up for a beta client are now beta testing. When i do missions for 5 hours then pretty much 2,5 hours with broken missions. Of course problems will be reported as bugs of a beta client that i never payed for. The last mission has a bugged payment sequence. I'm done for today. So much fun.

 

[fennster]

Are you sure that you got hit by the scanning vessel? It's not that I don't believe you, the situation just doesn't sound very likely. If you are boosting away and got hit from behind it means that the NPC was faster than your Hauler. The speed difference would be max. 100m/s, I usually don't even loose the first ring when crashing into something at that speed. In my opinion it's more likely that a third ship was involved.

I don't have any irrefutable evidence unfortunately, and so can't argue with the fact something else might of happened.

But I wouldn't believe other wise, I've played long enough to make very few awareness mistakes. Bearing in mind I just picked up the Hauler for a bit of taxing, reduced everything to D and threw in an A FSD. I had 4 pips to engine and 1 in shields too.

If it wasn't for a number of other instances were scan detected was heard, shortly followed by a collision, I could be convinced.

EDIT: I think I might try some recreation to satisfy my curiosity.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Are you sure that you got hit by the scanning vessel? It's not that I don't believe you, the situation just doesn't sound very likely. If you are boosting away and got hit from behind it means that the NPC was faster than your Hauler. The speed difference would be max. 100m/s, I usually don't even loose the first ring when crashing into something at that speed. In my opinion it's more likely that a third ship was involved.

I had a few encounters with scanning vessels coming straight at me but they are relatively rare when coming out of a station. I would come across just as many other ships blocking the exit, like a T9 for example, and I just take that as normal behaviour and luck of the draw. I usually find the police vessels can hit if you have to fly out the side of the station as your target system is behind the entrance, anything beyond 90 degrees as that takes you into where they tend to hang about when they patrol.
On the way in, I usually don't have many issues unless I cut across the ship lane into the station if I've dropped in behind the entrance. Seems to annoy the NPC's and they like to play the bouncy my ship but it's more my fault for queue bunking. Never have issues if I fly in from a straight line at distance and the entrance is in front of me.

 

[Crank Larson]

Are you sure that you got hit by the scanning vessel? It's not that I don't believe you, the situation just doesn't sound very likely.

This also happened to me yesterday. Security vessel started scanning me as I was boosting away from the station in my T9. A few seconds later I hear a crunch and my hull is down to 74% (I don't run with shields)... Didn't think much of it at the time (except for noting that it was strange behaviour for a security vessel, and he really needs to go back to flying school...).

 

[Mikey2305]

As a matter of interest as i dont do them... When you fail, do you just go back and get some more? Does it affect anything like rep to a gaggle of these missions? Just curious...

 

[Rubellen]

Maybe there's some glitch or whatever affecting some players and not others?
I don't know what it is but I've had problems. Interdictions as soon as you enter a new system etc (yes bug reported). Interdictions by ships that should be so close to the sun they should be carbon atoms, interdictions that start the mini game and then pull you down INSTANTLY. Immediate ship scans by NPC's, 3 unrelated ships dropping into the same instance and scanning.
Probably just having a crappy run with glitches but it does and has happened.
All reported. Probably just bumps in the road but I'll be doing other things rather than smuggling.
I'm doing no more missions until they fix the spambot either. I hate picking up assassination missions in r such just to be hounded by NPC's. I'll not goontoo much as I'm getting sick of myself even discussing the void vermin!

I have had the same experience... Some runs go flawless others are a pain in the rear. All of the above happened to me too and I do have 1000+ hours in the seat... And there is always the cat pressing the 'jettison all cargo' button when all went flawless

 

[DragoonKnight]

Shadow Delivery missions aren't hard at all. I've never been "ghost scanned," or scanned from my landing pad. I can usually evade interdictions, and I use a pretty bog-standard mouse and keyboard at default settings. I'm rarely scanned at stations, and I'm generally always able to escape them if I do get scanned. I never use heat sinks or silent running. I can comfortably boost away from authority vessel scans in my Asp, which has a laden top speed of around ~385.

To those of you that are complaining, just keep practicing. I failed quite a few Shadow Delivery missions until I got the hang of things, and around half a week later, I'm breezing through stacks of 8 - 10 with ease. I just got through with a 30 million credit 8-mission run that took just under an hour, in fact, and had no issues whatsoever evading every interdiction. As long as you don't stack too many missions and use basic common sense, you'll be fine.

Well good for you. Some of us on the other hand do run into bugs where the AI basically cheats.

 

[Soothsayer]

Long-range smugglers should be thankful that they're in on this instead of bickering about bugs. It's only a matter of time until smuggling is nerfed into the ground. Mission cycling is the only reason shadow deliveries are even a viable alternative to trading, and I assume Frontier is planning or working toward a fix.

 

[Duane Dibbley]

I stacked 20 missions on my third run (first two went swimmingly )...only completed 8 before I cocked up at an outpost when the cops followed me out of SC..not complaining..15mil for an hours work - still not too bad!

 

[Mortarius]

Definately a bug or many with these missions ... had the following scenarios happen so far:

1. Authority NPC trying to interdict and scan. I get to the station before they manage to initiate the interdiction only for them to drop out right in front of me and immediately start to scan, despite being 100ls+ away from me. Avoiding the collision prevented boosting away to break the lock and silent running / heat sinks didnt work either on another time.
2. Having two authority NPCs trying to interdict me, managed to evade the first one only for the second one to instantly interdict me as the interdiction started fully red ...
3. Similar to 2, but got instantly interdicted upon entering a system, no second NPC involved.
4. Also had an authority NPC scan me in a fraction of a second, after I submitted to pull my guns on them.

Bugs aside I am still managing to run plenty of them successfully.

 

[crushdepth]

This also happened to me yesterday. Security vessel started scanning me as I was boosting away from the station in my T9. A few seconds later I hear a crunch and my hull is down to 74% (I don't run with shields)... Didn't think much of it at the time (except for noting that it was strange behaviour for a security vessel, and he really needs to go back to flying school...).

I saw it happen to someone else today as I left a station. The security vessel flew after a departing ship that was ahead of me, I presume to scan it. The ship was heading more or less directly out the slit and away from the station.