Away missions are not worth the risk

[Skullywag]

Why should I leave my station, when it takes a while for your shuttle to get to the mission (depending on distance) I lose the 4 people I send (youre not sending less than 4) for the time it takes to go there and get back which reduces my ability to defend and do work at the station, I cant back the away team up quickly if emergencies happen, the crew on away mission dont get to sleep in a bed, so just drop on the deck if you dont get the mission done in time, plus the mood hit, the loot is the same as it would be at ANY derelict in my stations sector. Am i missing something, there is no reason to leave your station.

Just to back this up with my last experience of an away mission, I sent 4 decently armed crew (2 rifles with scopes, 1 laser rifle with scope and a shotgun with autoloader) to a ship that needed help, so off my crew go, as soon as they leave the sector my station is hit by rogue bots, I struggle to defend with my remaining 5 crew but get through it, in the meantime my crew arrives at the mission, ship wants me to get their dead crew of a derelict (ive done multiple of these in my home sector, so nothing new here), its bug infested, i work my way through, get hit a few times by haulers, one of my crew goes to sleep due to energy loss, eventually I clear the derelict, i set my shuttle to transfer inventory from the derelict and in the few hours of moving items back and forth (none of the items are anything I couldnt get anywhere else) all my crew run out of energy and fall asleep. I stop, reload to before i took the away mission, defend the rogue bots easily now i have my full crew compliment and in the same amount of time it took to get to the away mission I clear 2 derelicts in my home sector with similar loot but more of it, with way less risk due to having the rest of my crew close by.

I see people saying the amount of derelicts in the station sector is too high and i somewhat agree, but please DO NOT make it that we HAVE to go on away missions in their current state, for me personally that will sap the enjoyment out of this.

I dont have an answer on what could be changed/added but something has to otherwise again for me it seems like a part of the game I will never touch.

[Fleetside CMD]

i don't think they intended for you to SCRAP THE SHIP...

i think the idea is just an in and out mission where you just transfer the free items on the ground and in storages to your shuttle and just leave.

[Skullywag]

Thats what I did, i didnt scrap the ship, i just picked up the loose items, but by the time ive fought everything and cleared it and picked everything up everyones knackered. But again that part isnt really the point, why would i do all of this for the same stuff I have at any derelict in my home system?

[Death Approaches]

TLDR; so don't do them? just ignore them.

crazy station chaos... that was before, derelicts are waay less than a couple builds ago, the thing with unstable betas, they're likely to be updated a lot and frequently... update as soon as you see there is a new build if something is bothering you... I'm actually kind of missing the chaos of the crazy cluttered sector at the station with 8 visitors and 11 derelicts at the same time, drifting on top of each other. :-)

but can I say "what?" here? - half the things you're complaining about just don't exist!

first, you don't HAVE to go, on any missions, ever.

and when you send an away team out - and I should point out that sending ONE SHUTTLE is often times suicidal, many of "repeat visit" locations are well-defended and you should be sending 2, 3... maybe even 4? shuttles.. you wanna take out ~40 well-equipped pirates at their base of operations with 4 tough guys? 10:1 ratio is not what I'd call an ideal winning scenario.

your crew arrive in the same condition as they were when they left, both directions. same energy, air, etc. it stops time once they warp... you pick one in the wrong point in your orbit that's gonna take 2.5 days travel time? they'd have suffocated and died, after they all shat their suits with no bathroom on-board... but that does not happen.

also? you have NINE CREW and sent out almost half?! are you crazy?! if you don't have enough crew you can spare the away team members? just don't go.

you want to help others, sure, and hopefully score some phat lewt, but if you can't help yourself... it should be a slight inconvenience at worst... maybe an override on work shifts, or kick em out of their bunks an hour or two early, etc. even if you got 16 crew and send off 1/4th of your staff, but they were important staff with good skills? that's a bit of a hardship to be gone a long time. you should expect if anything goes wrong during their absence, you're gonna suffer.

just wait instead. wait til you have more crew, or wait til the station comes around and it's a mere 8 hours distance to the away mission.

also being prepared matters, if for example your key crewmembers don't have combat stims on them, both at home and away, or hell, why not all of them once you got an item crafter built, for that added jolt of energy when things get hairy or take longer than expected or they get knocked out...

I get what you're saying about the loot, it doesn't seem "worth it" for the risk, but also remember each shuttle can only carry 50 cargo, and if that shuttle was involved with trade logistics when you drafted it, it could already have 10 items in storage, so 40. another reason to send more than one shuttle... but you don't have to spend all that time and air and energy loading up on inexpensive crap on away missions; I usually only bring back good weapons and prisoners, rescues, new crew that were in stasis pods. it's mostly about crew for me.

look, it's a managerial game, and good decisions are key to your survival, and it sounds like you're making very risky and questionable ones. which can be fun, sure, but when you don't have to? just remember it's self-imposed; you're the one that sent off half your guys.

[HangarPilot]

Not to belabor the point, but "not worth the risk" will vary player-to-player depending on play style and/or objectives. It's a game about risk management after all.

That said, it really pays to look at the star map before embarking on any mission. You can see what's upcoming in the orbit (asteroids, debris/derelicts, nebula) as well as inbound bots/infesters/pirates. It might not be worth leaving on a mission if you're about to be raided or if derelicts will start popping in. [One of my lessons learned the hard way was sending all my pilots on an Away mission right before an attack.]

It also pays to plan ahead. A mission you want to do is "ahead" in the orbit path ... but it doesn't expire for 9 more days ... you can afford to wait until you clear the next derelict field and send the team when you're closer. This could mean 12 hours of travel time instead of 1+ days.

1) Ships that request "assistance with a mission" ... I agree ... these are just the standard NPC missions (e.g. retrieve a data log) and not worth my time as they don't seem to offer anything more than those same missions at home base.

2) Alien infestations - high chance to get crew. My go-to for farming potential crew when I'm ready. Again, planning. If a Military Alliance ship gets infested, you bet I take that mission. Good chance of getting a new crew member who's a decent shot!

3) Pirate attacks - get money. Can be helpful if you NEED cash. Haven't tried, but I assume you can take prisoners for crew recruitment. My tactic is to kill the pirates and pick up their weapons for use/sale. Selling stun pistols early game is quite lucrative. Fun fact: Ship gets intercepted by pirates (even a Pathfinder ship) ... if you take the mission and free the crew they resume their trip to your station.

4) Bots - the cargo shuttle allows you to send more loot/scrap home ... but, yeah, my risk-reward analysis says probably not worth it unless I'm farming hamster/chimp bot corpses for research.

5) Bases - These are the "boss fights" ... take down the base and they stop sending out bot/pirates/infesters and stop causing trouble. Do note this can back-fire. Take down the Alien base and so more "infestation" missions for farming crew.

6) Mining sectors - generally fun and you're rewarded with a steady supply of mining resources for each one you do.

Early game (again, looking at the map) I will risk sending my only shuttle on a mission. I send a crew of 3 on Alien missions (so I have a free seat for a recruit) but send a team of 4 for Pirates/Bots. Bases are late-game for me and either laser weapons or two teams (and in the case of the Pirate base, both).

[Death Approaches]

re: the 5 mining regions, really wish that was repetitive; they could get taken over again and again; hey governor, we'd love to send you your ore dividends from Mine 236 but the aliens are back and we can't mine or load cargo, think you can come do what you do so well and we'll resume shipments?

they should also expire; ore's mined out, need to find a new source. though I dunno how the metrics would be, I mean a total of 75k or 100k investment, is a lot of flippin' rock and meant as a way for a rich station owner to spend their vast wealth and get some rock when there's currently nothing in range to mine yourself... hmm. I'm sure we/they can come up with something interesting and fun, though.