3521

Oh yeah, my Cobra is about 90k at this point as well. Just gets worse with bigger ships, so one has to plan ahead.

3522

From Sarah:

Grazing a shield with a loose bullet or laser hit, not a problem. :) Hitting a targeted ship or damaging a hull… :eek: insta-bounty!

Hmm. Not seeing the shield/hull distinction (other than that one type of damage is “permanent”. What happens if a ship has been stripped of its shields and flies into your sights? Hope that was just shorthand and not indicative of an actual dichotomy in damage treatment.

3523

I have long since learned the costly way to check my fire when flying in areas with friendlies and such. I’ll only take the shot if I feel I’m safe to do so. What annoys me to no end is when NPC ships trying to take down the same target as myself fly into my ship and I’m the one who gets the bounty! But the issue I wish the devs would good and resolve is another one altogether: I would like docking pad bays to light up the moment I’m given clearance to land at them, and not some random period vaguely around the general time I enter the space station.

EDIT: Current insurance on my ship: 823,300 CR.

3524

I think it’s to stop people from inevitably trying to game it with attritional abuse against one target without causing aggro. The solution she’s detailed looks fine to begin with - definitely better than the current situation. All of my involuntary withdrawals from combat are caused by other ships (usually police) getting into my line of fire before I can stop. It happens much less now after dozens of hours of combat, and with better trigger discipline and situational awareness but when it does it’s still frustrating. This fix will eliminate that problem, for me at least.

3525

But the issue I wish the devs would good and resolve is another one altogether: I would like docking pad bays to light up the moment I’m given clearance to land at them, and not some random period vaguely around the general time I enter the space station.

They usually do. I’m pretty sure the current maybe-maybe-not behaviour is a bug - it wasn’t like this before gamma.

3526

Sheesh, what are you flying Vurt?

3527

Asp. Top-of-the-line A-rated equipment costs 5M CR or thereabouts, and I haven’t even cracked that particular nut yet. I just sold my first- and second-born for some B-rated kit, and even with the “family discount” they cost 1.7M CR each. The painful downside to ditching my cobra…

Yeah, usually it’s not a problem, but once in a few I’ll be looking and looking and absolutely nothing has been lit up! And then the no-loitering warnings start popping up…

3528

Would it be a huge waste of time to buy a hauler outright if I wanted to do a little mining or cargo shipping and then switch back to my Sidewinder? How many hours would it take to make back the investment?

3529

I’d recommend you simply upgrade your sidewinder to an adder. Same speed and maneuverability, but more equipment slots and guns, shields and armor. Plus, you can easily kit it out for mining or hauling when the urge hits you. The only downside to the adder is the limited side windows, basically. I had been thinking along your lines, originally, only I never felt the need to go back to the sidewinder. That said, I have no idea how much time it would take to make up the cost, but the added cargo slots (especially if you upgrade) will open up a lot more money-making opportunities.

3530

I gotta tell ya, the more I read about the operating costs of an Asp, the more I wanna keep my Cobra. Yeeesh.

3531

Pretty much. If you are going to try that then I would save up and go straight for the Adder. In my experience it is better than the Hualer in every way.

If you are going mining do a map search for high-tech systems , look for one with a major reserves or pristine metallic RING system (not belts). Then go and fill your boots. You will make around 4-6k per trip selling within the system. Rings are better because ether have more rocks and they are your defence against pirates. If one comes and scans you, just raise your scoop and boost into the belt. The AI has a really hard time catching you and soon enough you will be able to start mining again.

Oh and get a 2 slot refinery. the basic mining laser is fine.

3532

Not EVERY way, the Hauler can hold a bit more cargo and jump a bit further if configured correctly, but then you’d have no shields and would need to run away from EVERYTHING. ;)

I kinda liked that, though.

3533

I bought a Hauler because it allowed me to get better Bulletin Board missions due to the extra cargo slots. Then I saved up for the Adder which was easier to do with the credits I earned faster (and did not lose much when I sold my hauler to buy the Adder). I also think it was worth learning how different the hauler flew than my sidewinder. Made me appreciate the Adder more.

3534

And story books! I purchased the original primarily elite on the basis of box weight. I hadn’t even heard of it before I saw it in the store that day. My reasoning was “space game, heavy box, sold!”.

3535

Kind of like buying a melon at the fruit stand? :)

I remember trying to fit all the different size game boxes on my shelf.

3536

Yeah I miss the obligatory note pad included to weight down a box. I think I still have one from New World Computing with some sheets on it.

3537

How does one find the QT3 group?

3538

I got in an hour of play this morning before work and I finally hit a bounty hunting bonanza. I was hunting around the resource extraction outside Olivas station in LHS 3505 in my recently acquired Viper. It seems there was a convention of wanted Cobras. Instead of my usual hunting experience where I snoop around for a while to find just one wanted ship among the rocks, it seemed every time I was done killing one cobra another wanted one appeared in no time. I made 265k worth of bounties in that session alone. By far my biggest haul to date. I was finally chased out of there when two cobras working together decided I had been there long enough and pursued me with single minded determination until I shifted out (though I managed to quickly kill a different cobra that was about to take down a system authority eagle while I was fleeing the persistent pair).

I absolutely love hunting around extraction points. Flying above the rings looking around at all the mining lasers in the distance. My eye searching for those long laser flashes that indicate the system authority has found another victim for me to kill steal from them. Or seeing the faint engine light of a ship that should be in range but isn’t yet in my contact list, indicating they are trying to be stealthy and thus are probably a pirate. I’ve had encounters that aren’t all that different from the trailer that was criticized a while back with lots of ships present and engaged in combat.

To those that think you need to start out with trading or mining before getting into combat, you really don’t. I’ve been doing nothing but bounty hunting since starting fresh at release. Granted, I had my free eagle, but even in a sidewinder you can get into combat right away. Find a extraction point that is well patrolled by system authority and engage whoever they start shooting at. With multiple ships attacking a pirate they usually won’t be able to focus on you so you can avoid getting hit, and if you do take a beating running away is often easy when other ships are distracting the enemy. Also, and I could be wrong about this, it seems that even if I don’t get the last hit and a system authority ship does, I still get the bounty. I don’t know if they changed from a ‘last hit’ to a ‘most damage’ system or if the SA just doesn’t count when determining who gets the bounty, but I’ve had at least one ship which managed to get away from my guns with about 4% hull left and was killed by the SA before I could bring to bear again, and I received the bounty.

3539

I have only played a little bit, so very noob running four Food Containers to a neighboring station to make a 70 cr profit x4 in my sidewinder. All of the sudden I get interdicted, and I am tired so I don’t fight it and jump out. Then I receive a message “You don’t have to die, just dump your cargo”. Really? - by killing me in my sidewinder you do me the favor of restarting somewhere so I can go back to hauling small stuff right away…was going to jump out but accidentally in my noob way pressed J when I was just about charged up and had to restart charging. Dude gets a 150cr bounty on him and if he did get any of my cargo it would have been worth about 150cr per. A very senseless crime, really.

EDIT: Actually - I benefitted in that the station I reappeared in had a haul mission for 8K which I was able to do in ten minutes.

3540

Check the OP of this thread and reply in there with your Commander handle for me to add it to the list.

We tend to be playing in Brian’s group - Veloxi.