@Squirrelking sorry about that, I'll have a word with the crew when I get back! The guns are good though aren't they 🙂 feedback cascade and everything!
Matt
@donk it's a cheap bundle store but profits go to selected charities, actually pretty decent.
Urgh, just scraped into Hogan Station, cashed in 750 and no scramblers. I'll figure it out in the morning...
@molgrips You should be able to find how many stations you’ve traded with in trading stats in the Codex in your right hand panel.
It shows how many markets I've visited, but Cheung is not in my 'known' engineers list so I see no progress bar. Guess I just have to get flogging stuff and see.
@Squirrelking sorry to be the bearer of bad news again, but you need to be level 3 and have pledged for 4 weeks. If you have now pledged for four weeks and have 750 merits (since the last tick), next Thursday, after the Powerplay tick you will be promoted to level 3 and be able to by cytoscramblers.
@molgrips you might not be quite far enough progressed with the Dweller. Not gonna help you but I always take enough modules and mats to get them to level 5 as soon as I unlock (mostly cos I'm not in a rush, which means I have loads of mats).
@D0NK i think that's a balance thing with the cytos, if you could actually hit things with a range of 3km or whatever, they would be massively OP.
Matt
I'm sure I pledged the same week as Donk, just about to log on and see if there's something that tells me how long I've been pledged. Doesn't matter that much anyway, had good fun and took out a few above my pay grade, you still have the accolade of sole kill for the evening.
Damn, 3 weeks 3 days. Oh well, I'm off to see Tod if we're not at war yet.
I'm level 3 with the Dweller which is what I thought you needed, but maybe I need more.
@molgrips - to see how many markets you've traded in then go to Inara, create yourself a login (if you haven't already), go to Commander (menu at the top), then choose Personal Logs & Game Statistics from the left hand menu. I think the Market Network value in the trading section is the number of markets you've traded at (169 for me).
@squirrelking I think you have actually done it the most efficient way. You only get the level at the tick, so if you have 750 merits now, on Thursday morning you will be good to go.
@molgrips you should get a notification about the next engineer immediately when you get high enough with the current one. I don't know how the 50 markets business would affect that, probably you would need both.
Matt
I'll go get some more rep at Dweller then.
I've gone for long range beam laser mods. The fall-off even with level 1 is like 500% better, meaning that I should get a huge damage boost when I am spending most of my time 1-1.5km away from my target.
Oh and the G5 thrusters came in handy last night. Fighting an imperial cutter he got down to 2% and he made a run for it, got the jump on me as I was facing the wrong way. But thanks to the hugeness of my Anaconda he couldn't jump out; and I was able to reel him in from about 4km distance 🙂
I didn't think you could mass lock a Cutter because it has the highest mass lock factor of any ship in the game?
still not cracked the murder thing.
1st attempt, oh yeah civilians use mines, ignore them, oh dear zero shields and 25% hull whoops
1 kill, my ship almost scrap
2nd attempt, 2xpoint defence fitted, yes thats better, pewpew, whoosh whoosh, oh, ship is cooking at 400degrees, oops.
3 kills most of my modules at 50% or less not many missiles left.
The search goes on...
I didn’t think you could mass lock a Cutter because it has the highest mass lock factor of any ship in the game?
yeah thats my understanding, think you got lucky/skillz there Mol, cutters are usually a far bit faster than condas too, so well done for catching it
@D0NK is the heat your missiles. I found them to be surprisingly 'cooking' when I had a couple of racks.
Now my loadout of choice for such things is Cytoscramblers, MCs and a single rack of packhounds.
Matt
a single rack of packhounds.
Unexpected bonus of using packhounds in a CZ...if you target a ship from miles away and fire a burst of packhounds then you're pretty much guaranteed at least one hit which nets you the combat bond if that ship gets destroyed.
I made 800,000 credits in a medium intensity CZ last night but only actually destroyed 3 ships. The rest were from sniping other NPC battles with the missiles.
I probably mis-remembered the ship in that story then. I don't really pay attention to the ship types 🙂
is the heat your missiles. I found them to be surprisingly ‘cooking’ when I had a couple of racks.
yeah. In the res the other night I was chilled, firing off alternate salvos, no issues. With the short time limit on muder missions before they jump away holding down the firebutton shouting "kill kill kill!!!", unsurprisingly, had a significantly different effect.
Sounds like fun though!
Spent the afternoon doing low grade bounty hunting, made more than enough to clear the 280k price on my head for last nights antics (though the Alliance Enforcers at the nav beacon were happily ignoring me throughout) and scraped up some materials form the wreckage. After some mods I'll have level 4 next time I visit, hopefully with some more mats. Even G2 heavy multis were ripping ships apart compared to before, reckon I'll replace the beams with a pair of scramblers and fling a corrosive MC on the remaining light slot when the tick rolls around (thanks for that @matt_bl).
Now 120LY from either Akuntsu or Deciat, either way it's a crap journey with ~16ly range, a tiny tank and no scoop. Need to rethink that one for future hunts.
OK, there's a lot of similar sounding carrier names out there, a few creative ones, and then there's this one; PA14 Yabass - nice to see a classic Scottish greeting 221k LS into space. Made me laugh anyway. 🙂
Boomtime war, hell yeah! May bypass Deciat after all and hit the CZ instead. Will see how much time I have and how knackered I am in the morning.
How many Scots are there here? Its beginning to turn into a Chewin the Fat sketch.
Set phasers tae malkie!
Actually that reminds me, when we were mining the other week there was a carrier called Kirkintilloch in system.
Struck the first blow in the war for Akuntsu.
Federal capital ship appeared, which was cool.
First blood to NKL.
Can we hand in NKL combat bonds at Wylie Dock?
Also noticed a new fleet carrier in Kuwembaa. Must be there for the pew-pew.
We’ll need to be aware that a Federation v Empire war may attract randoms to fight because of the chance of encountering capital ships.
I'll have to put up with my G3 shields then and head on over. My faction needs me.
Ooh 'eck. I'm off to the pub for a few beers this evening. Combat + beers probably won't end well.
Quick question about missiles. I'm in the process of unlocking Liz Ryder. Which is "best"? Seeker missiles or regular missiles? I've not got any plans to get packhounds just yet (too much other stuff to do first).
Aye, indeed, Chewin' The Fat in Space. I saw that Kirkintilloch carrier, although they should've called it The Kirky Puffer.
Seekers for me. Easy to finish them off with a couple of seekers as they try to escape.
I'm just hoping out to Ida Dhor for some high tech gear for my Anaconda whilst my FdL is on its way.
Yeah, combat bonds anywhere in the Akuntsu system. I believe the actual effect is for winning CZs.
Matt
1 high and 3 medium in the mighty Yellow Hammer of NKL and 1 low in my (as yet unnamed and not painted yellow yetj FDL all fought and won tonight.
Made the most out of combat bonds in the low funnily enough.
That’s plenty for one night
Glad it's not just me. One low and one medium with me and my new SLF buddy Salvatore, didn't get a scratch or even lose more than one shield ring.
I refitted my Anaconda for this, with repair limpets and AFMS in my many spare slots. Didn't need them yet. Not sure what else Is have needed. I may try seekers as it was taking a while even with all the MCs I have.
Give a High a go. Fair chance one or both of the big boys might show up.
Afraid of highs but I just cleared out another medium without a scratch.
Will try the FdL tomorrow and a high. Also, it looks like Imset Patron's Principles are happy to sell me weapons with which to blow up their own people. Idiots.
Couldn't resist another go with the FdL in a medium. Harder but funner.
Went to the CZ high right outside wylie in FdL, imperial capital class jumped in. Cytos are great for destroying the heat plates and forcing the capital ship to leave. 1st time trying it, got lucky.
FdL with ~1400Mj shields, 2cytos, 1 thermal vent beam 1 corrosive mc and the huge MC with auto load. Works well for murder missions, massacres and CZs - would recommend!
Also, it looks like Imset Patron’s Principles are happy to sell me weapons with which to blow up their own people.
IdiotsCapitalists.
Ah pish, here's our new visitors:
https://inara.cz/squadron/933/
The good news is their carrier is kitted out for mining supplies but with a roster about 15x bigger than ours I fear this may be a hard war. But aye, get it up the away team! They're on Xbox anyway so not going to bother many of us.
On a better note for myself I decided to go to Deciat anyway and now have dirty drag drives, G4 FSD and reinforced shield boosters. The chieftain is shifting now. Docked on Slumpys.
Well, that's a fly in the ointment. Is there anyone we can call on to join the fight? Or does that risk losing control by inviting in another group? No idea if The Syndicate would want to get involved. They're Independent but seem motivated by cash so combat bonds might tempt them. But we're bumping up against them in a few systems so maybe they wouldn't want us growing our influence on their doorstep?
Wait, there's a player faction defending the Empire faction?
Is there anyone we can call on to join the fight?
This is how world wars start isn't it? Can @matt_blh get onto a discord server and get honest and decent Federation folk to defend freedom and democracy?
Some bloke from a big squad approached me after playing CQC and offerd to ally with our squadron, I'll ping him.
At least we won the first day.
It might just be a lone CMDR in his fleet carrier expecting to sway the course of a BGS generated NPC war In a sleepy backwater. He’s probably more surprised than we are that the Empire is currently losing.
I've just noticed there's also a war between IPP and LCE in Kuwembaa. Is that anything we can use to our advantage? i.e. divide and conquer, so we force the Imperial Enforcement Division to fight on two fronts (if we get re-inforcements to bolster us, that is).
BTW last night both NKL and the baddies were on 39.7% before and after my CZ was won and I got the message about increased influence. Does it take time to show up or what?
There's a public discord for ED - worth asking for backup on there?
There’s no change in influence until the war is won or lost. After the BGS tick each morning you can see the progress of the war In the status panel
OIC
According to Inara, you appear to win a day at a time. So we won yesterday but it was close.
So Perchy won 2 battles and I won 4, that was enough apparently. So if we can all chip in and get 6-8 wins a day between us, we should be able to do it.