You know it's true what they say, this game is SERIOUSLY unfriendly....

[lenna]

Thing was, I took on a mission, arrived at the USS and as soon as I got within a couple of hundred metres of the black-box, 3 or 4 fairly powerful ships appeared and my Cobra was destroyed within seconds.
I took on 2 or 3 more black-box missions and this happened each time.

What rank(s) were the missions and what rank were you at?

I have done a few black box missions myself and find the trick with the ones that send aggressors after you is to scoop one and then low-wake out (rinse and repeat) OR to concentrate on the aggressors then pick up the boxes after the fight (assuming the boxes survive the fight). Just remember to not to try and fight with the cargo scoop down, that will turn into a really bad hair day very quickly.

Where all missions are concerned you need to carefully read the brief and most of the time you can guess how hard they are likely to get if combat becomes necessary. As a rule of thumb, the higher the mission level (regardless of whether it is Exploration/Trading/Combat entry criteria) the stronger any mission related opponents are likely to be.

 

[HappySpaceInvr]

I remember cursing a lot when I started with Elite. Couldn't finish basic combat, couldn't hit any ship above mostly harmless, couldn't find the landing pad. Cursed a lot. Then I started to change keybindings around, got more practice with flying, succeeded in the basic combat tutorial and discovered the clues for finding the right way to the landing pad. Still kept cursing a lot. Things didn't go smooth for a while. Takes perseverance to get into ED. Steep learning curve, indeed.

The problem with the combat tutorial is not so much the difficult, but the fact that what the announcer is telling you bears no relation to what's happening. E.g. she keeps telling you to use your pulse laser... even as you're rapid-firing that thing into your opponent.

 

[FoxTwo]

I remember my first flight out from Lave station back in the 80s..... I went to Diso with 4 tons of food (all I could afford on 100cr) and I slammed into the station wall trying to match rotation.

And in those days, a "joystick", let alone a HOTAS, was a luxury. That was pure keyboard (no mouse) flying.

 

[Stealthie]

What rank(s) were the missions and what rank were you at?

I have done a few black box missions myself and find the trick with the ones that send aggressors after you is to scoop one and then low-wake out (rinse and repeat) OR to concentrate on the aggressors then pick up the boxes after the fight (assuming the boxes survive the fight). Just remember to not to try and fight with the cargo scoop down, that will turn into a really bad hair day very quickly.

Can't recall, TBH.

I reset my save when I first started playing "properly" so I would probably have been Harmless or thereabouts.

At the time I, literally, didn't know what'd hit me.
I targeted the mission objective, zoomed in the scanner to get a better idea of it's position, realised I was taking fire and then... Boom!
Next time I was on the lookout for hostile ships and I did see 3 red blobs appear on my scanner and then... Boom!

With hindsight, obviously they weren't especially powerful ships but a Cobra with A-rated shields and upgraded armour takes a fair bit of punishment so I doubt they were just sidey's or eagles.

The point, though, is that - as a "newbie" who doesn't know any different - an experience like that is going to lead you to think that's SOP for that type of mission.
So you have to come to the forums, ask how you're supposed to complete those missions and you get told you were just unlucky and those missions aren't usually so tough.

As I said, it might be nice if the game "disabled" the RNG for the first couple of times that you attempted every kind of mission so a newbie can get an idea of how things are supposed to work if everything goes according to plan.

 

[lenna]

Can't recall, TBH.

I reset my save when I first started playing "properly" so I would probably have been Harmless or thereabouts.

At the time I, literally, didn't know what'd hit me.
I targeted the mission objective, zoomed in the scanner to get a better idea of it's position, realised I was taking fire and then... Boom!
Next time I was on the lookout for hostile ships and I did see 3 red blobs appear on my scanner and then... Boom!

With hindsight, obviously they weren't especially powerful ships but a Cobra with A-rated shields and upgraded armour takes a fair bit of punishment so I doubt they were just sidey's or eagles.

The point, though, is that - as a "newbie" who doesn't know any different - an experience like that is going to lead you to think that's SOP for that type of mission.
So you have to come to the forums, ask how you're supposed to complete those missions and you get told you were just unlucky and those missions aren't usually so tough.

As I said, it might be nice if the game "disabled" the RNG for the first couple of times that you attempted every kind of mission so a newbie can get an idea of how things are supposed to work if everything goes according to plan.

I disagree... the training tutorials are meant for the teaching side of things, where the main environment is concerned as individuals we are supposed to make an assessment about what kind of risk each activity might entail... to do as you suggest would more than likely give them a false sense of security.

The combat rank is not the relevant point where the legal black box missions are concerned - their difficulty is determined by the exploration rank IIRC. Ultimately, it all comes down to mission descriptions - providing they give a clear indication of the level of threat you MAY encounter then all is peachy. Where the black box missions are concerned, the potential threat is spelled out in big red letters. For a Surveyor level Blackbox mission I would expect Competent mission level spawns, and for a Pioneer level Blackbox mission I would expect Deadly mission level spawns. Perhaps, missions should spell out more clearly the level of opponents you might face when there is a potential combat element but that is as far as I would go on that score.