Elite: Dangerous PvE - Mobius

Seriously, calling me "harmless" is an insult to those that are actually harmless.

So here's what's up. After running one way boom missions between a couple of system along with the usual planetary scans and a few side jaunts for exploring I got genuinely fed up with the near constant NPC interdiction attempts (They averaged 5+ on a normal delivery mission and are occasional as many as 7. In the later, as soon as I'd successfully evade an interdiction I'd immediately be in another.), Honestly they get more than old in a big hurry. So i decided to arm my ship and have a bit of fun. Mistake.

So after paying way too much in insurance to have it driven home that I need help, I went back to basics, got a disposable ship and started taking harmless combat missions. I found that I still suck. I'd get the usual go kill 2 npc ships from a faction we don't like. I'd head on out to the nearest CZ and find one. Sometimes I'd find one under attack with it's shields down. Once I'd target on the seemingly defenseless NPC and open fire: 1. I'd get the bounty (expected) and 2. Find every ship in the immediate vicinity including those that had been fighting my target had now targeted me and <boom> back to the last station I'd docked at. 3. I'd get a go kill Lord Can'tkillagnatwithanuke mission. Go to the system. Scan the nav buoy. Find the area, find the target. Lock onto the target. Confirm it was really the target. Open fire and get the usual bad boy bounty (expected). Again, any vessel in the vicinity immediately would target me and the mission target would never get a scratch.

No bounties on me, no fines, no legacy fines. All missions have been for the harmless rank. All have been in either solo mode or in a semi obscure system in one of the Mobius groups.

So how do I actually get to the point where I'm not worse than harmless? Honestly I'd just as soon keep on running missions and selling bulk commodities but that's no longer an option in the game as stated above. It's actually starting to feel like there's not really a reason to continue playing.

You need to pick your battles. Stay away from CZ's, they are difficult and you need a good ship (preferably engineered) for them - I wont even do them out of a wing lol.
Get yourself a disposable ship (Eagle, Viper III), A Rate it as best funds will allow and go to a Low Resource Extraction Site in a High Security system.
After jumping in, you should see police attacking wanted pirate NPC's. Help the police take them down and you'll get the full bounty. You can practice like this until you are confident to move to a standard RES then a High RES.

Combat can be a frustrating affair, but fighting in a CZ can multiply that frustration by a lot. It's important to stay aware in a CZ because there are pockets of combat where you'll find yourself outnumbered by the side you didn't pick. I start off by assisting the npc ships to help turn the tide in the favour of your side, then and only then do I start picking my own targets. Even then, you don't want to isolate yourself, especially if you aren't in a wing.

Compromised nav beacons and HAZ RES are a bit less frustrating as long as you don't bite off more than you can chew. Just go in without cargo and you'll be fine.

RD-83 wrote:You need to pick your battles. Stay away from CZ's, they are difficult and you need a good ship (preferably engineered) for them - I wont even do them out of a wing lol.
Get yourself a disposable ship (Eagle, Viper III), A Rate it as best funds will allow and go to a Low Resource Extraction Site in a High Security system.
After jumping in, you should see police attacking wanted pirate NPC's. Help the police take them down and you'll get the full bounty. You can practice like this until you are confident to move to a standard RES then a High RES.

Good advice!
It's all part of the learning curve.
Keep at it and your performance will improve.

Sent from my LON-L29 using Tapatalk

Unless you have bigger badder wingmates.
I honestly wouldn't bother with a cz in anything smaller than a python.

It's endgame territory.

If you want to practice combat, forget missions, take an eagle or viper mk3 into a low resource site.
Those npc's will be lower ranked and less armoured than anything in a cz.
They also pay better per kill and there will be an abundance of police to follow around and help you.

Keta wrote:Seriously, calling me "harmless" is an insult to those that are actually harmless.

So here's what's up. After running one way boom missions between a couple of system along with the usual planetary scans and a few side jaunts for exploring I got genuinely fed up with the near constant NPC interdiction attempts (They averaged 5+ on a normal delivery mission and are occasional as many as 7. In the later, as soon as I'd successfully evade an interdiction I'd immediately be in another.), Honestly they get more than old in a big hurry. So i decided to arm my ship and have a bit of fun. Mistake.

So after paying way too much in insurance to have it driven home that I need help, I went back to basics, got a disposable ship and started taking harmless combat missions. I found that I still suck. I'd get the usual go kill 2 npc ships from a faction we don't like. I'd head on out to the nearest CZ and find one. Sometimes I'd find one under attack with it's shields down. Once I'd target on the seemingly defenseless NPC and open fire: 1. I'd get the bounty (expected) and 2. Find every ship in the immediate vicinity including those that had been fighting my target had now targeted me and <boom> back to the last station I'd docked at. 3. I'd get a go kill Lord Can'tkillagnatwithanuke mission. Go to the system. Scan the nav buoy. Find the area, find the target. Lock onto the target. Confirm it was really the target. Open fire and get the usual bad boy bounty (expected). Again, any vessel in the vicinity immediately would target me and the mission target would never get a scratch.

No bounties on me, no fines, no legacy fines. All missions have been for the harmless rank. All have been in either solo mode or in a semi obscure system in one of the Mobius groups.

So how do I actually get to the point where I'm not worse than harmless? Honestly I'd just as soon keep on running missions and selling bulk commodities but that's no longer an option in the game as stated above. It's actually starting to feel like there's not really a reason to continue playing.

I can see a few issues here.

1) if you are taking pirate kill missions, then you want resource extraction sites (RES), not CZs. If you are fighting in a war, then yes you need to go to a CZ, but before you engage anything you need to choose a side (right hand panel, last tab at the top), if you don't choose a side and open fire then yes everything will attack you.

2) Enemy ships in CZ are military vessels and are tougher than normal ships, so you need a good fighter. When you arrive at the CZ head 10km away from it before you do anything, then choose your side, then slowly head back in and pick of the stragglers around the edge, if you do end up in the middle of the fray keep with a group of friendlies, if you start to take heat get out quickly.

3) When attacking anything outside of a CZ you need to make sure that your scan finishes before you open fire, target the ship and only open fire when WANTED appears under their name. If you don't wait for the scan to finish (or fire on a ship that isn't wanted) then you'll become wanted and a target for everyone else.

4) Start your combat at Nav Beacons, go to any nav beacon, scan ships, when one appears as WANTED (and isn't in a wing) then engage it, but choose your targets wisely, stick to targets in your rating range, Elite ships (even sidewinders) can carry some nasty weapons if you are not prepared or in a weak ship.

5) When you are comfortable with nav beacons, head too a low RES, you can then let the security do the heavy lifting for you.

TorTorden wrote:Unless you have bigger badder wingmates.
I honestly wouldn't bother with a cz in anything smaller than a python.

It's endgame territory.

And even with "Bigger badder wingmates".......

It's got "A bit hairy" .............

We all come unstuck sometimes........

Just learn how to fly your ship in combat......Use thrust....FA Off....Boost turns......Etc.....

Most important is to know what your ship can and cannot do........

And run if needs be.........No shame in that......

It's normally a rebuy screen just after your brain said get out.....

And your bravado said no.....

Keta wrote:Seriously, calling me "harmless" is an insult to those that are actually harmless.

So here's what's up. After running one way boom missions between a couple of system along with the usual planetary scans and a few side jaunts for exploring I got genuinely fed up with the near constant NPC interdiction attempts (They averaged 5+ on a normal delivery mission and are occasional as many as 7. In the later, as soon as I'd successfully evade an interdiction I'd immediately be in another.), Honestly they get more than old in a big hurry. So i decided to arm my ship and have a bit of fun. Mistake.

Here's what I've found in my short time with the game.

I get interdicted a lot when I either have a lot of different missions, or rewards in my cargo hold.

Since many missions state "enemy ships may be sent after you," the chances rise if you have a whole lot of these missions at the same time. And some pirates will keep coming after you even after you die if you still have "their" mission in contracts.

I also sell any reward items/commodities I get as soon as possible since it seems like rewards are also a magnet for pirates.

And finally, I like to check contacts when the pirate messages me - if the pirate is "Harmless" and flying a "Sidewinder" I throttle to 0 and submit to interdiction, and then easily blow up the pirate!

But if the pirate is Elite and in a big bad ship, if I can't avoid interdiction when I drop out I go to max speed and boost until I can FSD

Fly safe commander! o7

Thanks for the thoughtful suggestions, they're much appreciated. That's also why I posted here instead of on the official forums.

Given my druthers I'd not be involved in combat at all. As long as I'm grinding Federation ranks though, I'll continue to get the serial interdictions and thought it'd be a diversion from the "this gets old fast" mini game of evasion to fight them once in awhile. Which means I'd need a degree of competency to do so.

So I bought a disposable fighter and headed to the nav beacon and managed to not get killed for a change and actually collected a whopping 9,000 credits worth of bounties. Both good suggestions as are all the others.

I also discovered that there was a peculiarity in the particular system I was in at the time in that there were no resource gathering points. Most of the kill pirate mission occurred around planets (patrolled by big cruisers) or in a cz. So... I dropped those. Now that I'm 11 jumps away back in what is my home system (for now) that's no longer the case and I'm back to running boom delivery missions, a few planetary scans and getting serial interdicted again. The pirate mission there are far more straight forward as well, though I haven't done any just yet.

Back to grinding the Federation levels then I'll be on my way in my Asp directly, instead of slowly (as I am now), to Azrael.

Mahalo nui loa.

Keta wrote:Which means I'd need a degree of competency to do so.

There is one additional option for combat training, and that is doing the various training missions and challenge scenarios. The big advantage is that you get to fight when you want to and you can try different tactics in the same scenario and see what works best. And if you pop, you do not loose credits.