Are Skimmer Missions REALLY as intended?

[Serath]

I managed to setup a control scheme for the SRV with my Steam Controller, and it makes driving an SRV ever so much more enjoyable, so I decided to brave those skimmer missions again.

It was for not. The planetary scan missions are fine, (and are probably a better option), the Skimmer Destruction missions at a low security station are fine too, (++ a big IF) but it still doesn't change that fact that these "Harmless" ranked Skimmer Destruction missions at +++/high security stations are a bit....asinine.

I'm not sure what kind of "strategy" you're expected to pull off here when you have 4-5 skimmers and gun turrents all firing at you at once, (PLUS enemy ships if you didn't take them down with your own first) and are expected to dodge or whatever when going anything faster than 20% throttle will send your SRV in a spinning frenzy at the slightest touch of the wheel, (cause you have nothing but time to turn slowly when under fire right?) or a simple rock causing more damage than a projectile, and ALSO not being out or range of a skimmer or even too CLOSE as both ranges make it impossible to hit. There's the turrent, but that requires either sitting still (suicide) or, driving the SRV like a tank, but then say hi to the rocks and spinning Disneyland teacups. I've even tried to kite the skimmers to fight them in smaller numbers but they just retreat. "Harmless" difficulty this is not.

I'm aware of the alternatives that everyone keeps mentioning when asking for help with these. Loading up on missiles and cheesing the skimmers with your ship. Hunting and finding "adjacent" POI's with skimmers of the same faction and killing those. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about charging head on into the location they told you with your SRV. Besides, when I last tried this months ago, the above were considered exploits and Frontier was working on fixing it, so I'm not about to waste time and trying it. The point of Skimmers is the land based combat change of pace anyway.

This wouldn't be so bad if we had multiple SRV's to choose from, or at the very least able to upgrade the one and only one we get to use. Something I"ve been asking since day one. Just being able to upgrade the accuracy or range of the SRV would be sufficient, as a skimmer can die quickly if you're up close, an occurence that never seems to happen in +++ stations since they all seem to fly WAY too fast and are too numerous to keep one in your sights long enough to hit it, let alone close enough.

If we get to influence the outcome of a mission with over 30 configurable ships, why not the SRV? It's been two years since Horizons came out, would at least SOME leeway to give the SRV a fighting chance to survive a total onslaught be too much to ask?

Yeah, I know I can check which station the mission is asking you to go ahead of time before accepting it. That's not the point. The point is that since the game can make such a mission, someone thinks it's feasible enough to consider it a "Harmless" mission, as if the sheer number of skimmers you have to fight at once over a large spannable area isn't a factor.

Whenever I get burned out of ED and come back again, I just CANNOT get into the skimmer missions because of this. Every single time.

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah, the mission rankings are a bit wonky. Pay attention to the target destination, not the rank.

Basically, unless you are in a wing, or really good, forget about doing those missions by yourself.

There is a strategy, but it takes time and caution.

Basically it involves putting 4 pips in shields, 2 in engines, in attracting the attention of the skimmer then running until you are out of the range of the turrets. Then try and take out some skimmers. Keep running as your shields get hit. If there are goliaths, you have to get away from them otherwise they will murder you if you try and sit taking others on.

Basically keep it up as a war of attrition. Running when shields get hit, turning (or using turret - oh for SRV multicrew!) and firing.

Golithas are nasty. I can take 1 at a time with some effort. I've taken two, but it took a lot of running.

Once down you can return and take out the turrets or try and hit the generator to shut them down. Note not all turrets are surface to surface. Some are surface to air, you can ignore those.

Still, such a base is risky to do alone an can take well over half an hour to clean up. So do it for the challenge, not the reward.

[Serath]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Yeah, the mission rankings are a bit wonky. Pay attention to the target destination, not the rank.

As I said, I know you can look up the station ahead of time. But what if a mission asked you to go to a low security, but is something like Dangerous or Elite rank? Do individual skimmers have different attributes? (Like ships do.) Or is difficulty meaningless for these types of missions and the game is just blindly picking them at random?

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Still, such a base is risky to do alone an can take well over half an hour to clean up. So do it for the challenge, not the reward.

Yeah, see, that's the part that get's me the most. I've tried attacking gun turrents from afar, as they for some reason don't react if you're far enough. But that takes a while, let alone boring.
Techincally I COULD draw the skimmers out one by one if I could figure out how without making them run away, but even if I could, again it's time consuming. And making the most of your time seems to be the thing with this game.

When the game's progression is all about how much money you have, and no amount of killing is going to get you things like XP for skills or whatever, (I don't even think skimmers give you rep for the superpowers, would they?) time is money. This mission was offering me 1.7 million, but the mission I just did before it was a Ranger difficulty Planetary Scan job, which techincally is above my Explore rank (not that the game was stopping me from accepting it for some reason, maybe my rep was high enough) was for 1.2 million.

So why do something that requires too much risk and an hour of your time for 1.7 mil when I could do a simple exploration planet scan mission and fight 1-2 measely skimmers where the challenge is trivial for 1.2 mil in 20 minutes? I guess the game is intended to simulate "good deals" and "bad deals" as far as mission pay, cause if that's not the intended logic than I'm just baffled.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Serath:

When the game's progression is all about how much money you have

Ah, you see, its best not to get hung up on progression. You can't really do much more in an Anaconda than you can do in a Cobra.

All it means is you can usually make money quicker, and for what?

Forget about progression, just enjoy the game. Do the things you enjoy. Credits will come anyway. Don't do things you don't enjoy.

Simple.

If all you want is credits, go stack some passenger missions to distant stations and laugh as you earn over 100 million per hour. Its pretty boring doing that though.

Play the game to enjoy it and experience it, don't play the game to achieve some target, you'll invariably be dissapointed, as getting what you want doesn't actually enable you to do anything different... if anything, it just usually makes things easier and reduces the challenge.

[xolophreny]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

...if anything, it just usually makes things easier and reduces the challenge.

A bit offtop, but that's exactly why I dislike big ships... well, except Orca and Beluga in combat. Who needs passenger liners to haul passengers anyway.
So out of my 7 ships 5 are small. Then a Federal Raveship with full burst lasers and a 570-boost Orca. Coz reasons

Also ~1500 hours and only 300kk credits in assets. Could've used Sothis-Ceos or similar back in the days, but thx no

[Serath]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

If all you want is credits, go stack some passenger missions to distant stations and laugh as you earn over 100 million per hour. Its pretty boring doing that though.

Play the game to enjoy it and experience it, don't play the game to achieve some target, you'll invariably be dissapointed, as getting what you want doesn't actually enable you to do anything different... if anything, it just usually makes things easier and reduces the challenge.

My eyes aren't so set for an Anaconda, after I heard how slow they are. A Python for it's versatality maybe, but as far as combat goes, which is my main thing, I feel I'm already set with my FAS for now, as long as I don't go after things like high ranked heavy ships.

My current goal is to actually to try everything (except for maybe piracy because I don't think it would be easy to go around wanted all the time) so I'm more versatile at the mission board, but I guess Skimmers is out, but Planetary Scans are defiently in.

I did notice the rather high pay for Passenger missions, which I've been hesitant to try, but I thought they were high because it's so easy to fail the mission, (getting into a fight that you probably have no control over) not just beause they're long and boring? Cause I can handle long and boring. My second monitor plus Youtube or whatever is what helepd me get my Fed rank fast for my FAS doing cargo deliveries.

[Agony_Aunt]

Oh, do give piracy a try, its good fun. You don't have to get wanted. You can either interdict in lawful systems then let them run, track them through systems until they hit a lawless system, then you can attack. Or just do your piracy in anarchy systems.

I have a thread hereabouts about my recent piratical activities.

Payout can be highly variable though and its nowhere near as easy as A to B deliveries or even regular combat. It requires both skill and patience.

[Serath]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Oh, do give piracy a try, its good fun. You don't have to get wanted. You can either interdict in lawful systems then let them run, track them through systems until they hit a lawless system, then you can attack. Or just do your piracy in anarchy systems.

Oh you mean robbing? I was thinking more along the lines of trading illegal goods. It was the getting scanned part I was talking about. I haven't yet mastered speeding into a port fast, (getting out of one I can sometimes do fast) but running stealth I haven't tried yet, so when the real thing comes I don't think I could pull it off.

Besides, I thought robbing wasn't actually, "implemented," sorta speak? It's not like you can go to the contacts tab and click the "hold them up" option. Or are you talking like as if it was a liberation mission, only you're doing it in a lawless system?

[Chro]

skimmer missions are tricky, until we can properly outfit our SRV for combat (if that ever happens) doing them on ur ship is the way to go, personally i use an Eagle with dumbfire missiles, the eagle is really fast so i just dive and let the missiles do the job

[White Prime]

So it is possible to kill the Skimmers from your ship then?

I too have not yet been able to complete a planetary Skimmer kill mission.

[Wolf]

Originally posted by White Prime:

So it is possible to kill the Skimmers from your ship then?

I too have not yet been able to complete a planetary Skimmer kill mission.

yes but you cant scan them from your ship, so if they are wanted, you wont know and you will become wanted. best to use the srv :) unless its an anarchy system lol

[Mio Rin]

Try with ship launched fighters. They should let you get close with out getting swiss-cheesed by everything in the area. :3
Keelback can fit those.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Serath:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Oh, do give piracy a try, its good fun. You don't have to get wanted. You can either interdict in lawful systems then let them run, track them through systems until they hit a lawless system, then you can attack. Or just do your piracy in anarchy systems.

Oh you mean robbing? I was thinking more along the lines of trading illegal goods. It was the getting scanned part I was talking about. I haven't yet mastered speeding into a port fast, (getting out of one I can sometimes do fast) but running stealth I haven't tried yet, so when the real thing comes I don't think I could pull it off.

Besides, I thought robbing wasn't actually, "implemented," sorta speak? It's not like you can go to the contacts tab and click the "hold them up" option. Or are you talking like as if it was a liberation mission, only you're doing it in a lawless system?

Nah, you find a trade ship, interdict them, disable their powerplant and/or drives, and fire hatch breakers at them. Steal their stuff, go sell at a black market.

[Shifter]

Originally posted by wolf:

Originally posted by White Prime:

So it is possible to kill the Skimmers from your ship then?

I too have not yet been able to complete a planetary Skimmer kill mission.

yes but you cant scan them from your ship, so if they are wanted, you wont know and you will become wanted. best to use the srv :) unless its an anarchy system lol

or just take the 10 minute bounty

[Ravelilly]

some of the bases on the planets have spots you can hide from the airships, like under bridges or pipeing. I pop out and kill all the sentrys 1 at a time. then I bring 6 srv. after your srv gets destroyed just fly into orbit and re-enter and the sentry will have respawned land tour ship redeploy your srv and you can repeat the process till the missions completed

[<⭕>]

Originally posted by Serath:

I managed to setup a control scheme for the SRV with my Steam Controller, and it makes driving an SRV ever so much more enjoyable, so I decided to brave those skimmer missions again.

It was for not. The planetary scan missions are fine, (and are probably a better option), the Skimmer Destruction missions at a low security station are fine too, (++ a big IF) but it still doesn't change that fact that these "Harmless" ranked Skimmer Destruction missions at +++/high security stations are a bit....asinine.

I'm not sure what kind of "strategy" you're expected to pull off here when you have 4-5 skimmers and gun turrents all firing at you at once, (PLUS enemy ships if you didn't take them down with your own first) and are expected to dodge or whatever when going anything faster than 20% throttle will send your SRV in a spinning frenzy at the slightest touch of the wheel, (cause you have nothing but time to turn slowly when under fire right?) or a simple rock causing more damage than a projectile, and ALSO not being out or range of a skimmer or even too CLOSE as both ranges make it impossible to hit. There's the turrent, but that requires either sitting still (suicide) or, driving the SRV like a tank, but then say hi to the rocks and spinning Disneyland teacups. I've even tried to kite the skimmers to fight them in smaller numbers but they just retreat. "Harmless" difficulty this is not.

I'm aware of the alternatives that everyone keeps mentioning when asking for help with these. Loading up on missiles and cheesing the skimmers with your ship. Hunting and finding "adjacent" POI's with skimmers of the same faction and killing those. But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about charging head on into the location they told you with your SRV. Besides, when I last tried this months ago, the above were considered exploits and Frontier was working on fixing it, so I'm not about to waste time and trying it. The point of Skimmers is the land based combat change of pace anyway.

This wouldn't be so bad if we had multiple SRV's to choose from, or at the very least able to upgrade the one and only one we get to use. Something I"ve been asking since day one. Just being able to upgrade the accuracy or range of the SRV would be sufficient, as a skimmer can die quickly if you're up close, an occurence that never seems to happen in +++ stations since they all seem to fly WAY too fast and are too numerous to keep one in your sights long enough to hit it, let alone close enough.

If we get to influence the outcome of a mission with over 30 configurable ships, why not the SRV? It's been two years since Horizons came out, would at least SOME leeway to give the SRV a fighting chance to survive a total onslaught be too much to ask?

Yeah, I know I can check which station the mission is asking you to go ahead of time before accepting it. That's not the point. The point is that since the game can make such a mission, someone thinks it's feasible enough to consider it a "Harmless" mission, as if the sheer number of skimmers you have to fight at once over a large spannable area isn't a factor.

Whenever I get burned out of ED and come back again, I just CANNOT get into the skimmer missions because of this. Every single time.

Just go under the landing platform and voila..... pure defence from skimmers and ships................... .. rush in, find a corner to hide, , blast away..