Newcomer / Intro Why do bad guys drop cargo before they run?

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
Are they trying to distract me with their useless cargo & pizza boxes? Lighten their load (seems insignificant)? Do they think I'm going to stop shooting at them to pick up their crap?

Or is there actually a good reason for dropping cargo?
 

aRJay

aRJay
Some of the canisters will be being lost due to cargo bay door malfunctions caused by the damage you are doing.

Some of it might be an attempt to distract or appease you or to get a bit extra jump range.

In the case of nastier minded baddies they are hoping you will make the mistake of collecting some of the cargo which will make you a target for all baddies which will increase the chance of your being destroyed in turn.
 

Greasetrap42

Greasetrap42
Oh I didn't think about cargo falling out of the cargo hatch. And thats an interesting thought about trying to set me up to be attacked by other baddies.

After I wrote my OP I was thinking it could also be a friendly game mechanic to tell me to hurry up with the kill cause they are gonna flee. I'm not sure if they always flee after dropping cargo but I take it as an indicator.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Greasetrap42 said:
Oh I didn't think about cargo falling out of the cargo hatch. And thats an interesting thought about trying to set me up to be attacked by other baddies.

After I wrote my OP I was thinking it could also be a friendly game mechanic to tell me to hurry up with the kill cause they are gonna flee. I'm not sure if they always flee after dropping cargo but I take it as an indicator.
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My recollection is that when I was using less powerful ships they (the baddies) would drop cargo more times before trying to flee, surge detected FSD charging warnings, now my ships are more overkill they don’t last as long so fewer drops.
Which ties in with the damage theory also I have been on the other end of it with a T9 full of stuff which had less cargo on board when what was left arrived at the destination after getting away from the interdictors eventually.
 

d8veh

d8veh
I've been playing for 10,000 hrs, and i've been watching that the last few days. I was going to post the same question because I never figured out what they gain. I also speculated about what aRJay said, but I was hoping for some 0ther reason because I don't find it convincincing, though it is logical.
 

0threeleven

0threeleven
aRJay said:
In the case of nastier minded baddies they are hoping you will make the mistake of collecting some of the cargo which will make you a target for all baddies which will increase the chance of your being destroyed in turn.
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I learned this the hard way, after blowing up wanted pirate ships their cargo bay contents is scattered all over the place, so I pulled a reinforcement module and replaced it with a cargo rack. Sure enough, 3 1/2 minutes later he's back this time with his wing and they all open up on me, sending hatch breakers after me. I had no clue at first and they stole the canisters back, now I boost away from the limpets or I'll try to jump them first on their return. It makes for some pretty interesting combat, this usually happens at a resource extraction sites.
 

aRJay

aRJay
0threeleven said:
I learned this the hard way, after blowing up wanted pirate ships their cargo bay contents is scattered all over the place, so I pulled a reinforcement module and replaced it with a cargo rack. Sure enough, 3 1/2 minutes later he's back this time with his wing and they all open up on me, sending hatch breakers after me. I had no clue at first and they stole the canisters back, now I boost away from the limpets or I'll try to jump them first on their return. It makes for some pretty interesting combat, this usually happens at a resource extraction sites.
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I use limpets to collect the goodies after a fight but I have switched to ignore every bit of cargo that I have seen dropped, if I ever get back into doing Community Goals I will have to do some resetting if I need to take part in any 'Teabagging' (do NOT google that just hunt around the forums), so I just collect the materials dropped.
 

Sapyx

Sapyx
Watch the chat coming from the NPC you are attacking. If they mention something along the lines of "Here, take my stuff, just let me live", they are playing the victim and indeed hoping you are an actual pirate, to be distracted with shiny things while they run away.

"Bad guys" i.e. pirates, bounty-hunters, cops etc generally won't do this; only merchants and smugglers. Everyone else, they're just dropping cargo because you've damaged their hatch.
 
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