Tales from the spacelanes...

[Dragonfire]

Yeah, that's what I can't figure out. Maybe Galcop was carrying a screamer mine? I know I carry one, tho I didn't fire it.

[Cmdr Wyvern]

Screamers aren't explosive devices, though. They're decoys.
They broadcast a signal that the Bugs find repulsive. The Thargs start shooting at it, and while they're distracted you can run away bravely or turn the tables on them.

[Dragonfire]

Hmm. There were a LOT of navy carriers. Maybe they all got Thargoids in their sights in tandem?

[Alex]

Grab shield capacitors and shield equalizer, expensive but worth every .1cr. I can attest to their effectiveness; my ironhide doesn't get damaged as often.
A mining railgun will also serve you well.

Pro-tip: I don't believe the cargo shepard works on asteroid chips or dead Thargons; it only collects loose cargo canisters last I heard. At the very least it has a beacon, so it can lead you to the general location of the loot.

I have all the defenses mentioned, my iron hide gets tanned quite often, probably coz as ol grandma said "What him, he jumps in 6 feet first where even total nutters run away"
Though I don't have a railgun yet. Will have to try that.

The cargo shepherd is great, haven't much used it for cargo as such. Mostly used to find my drones.
If I recon the contract is gonna split fast I target one of the drones and deploy shepherd before going after the contract. Has saved my 10's of thou. in replacing drones. I don't know if it actually draws them, but have saved anyway.

Anyone interested, Gerty is feeling fine and looking for the next lot of "fun"

[Thargoid]

Cargo Shepherd also doesn't work on splinters and rocks (unless it's been hacked to do so). Only on cargo pods.

[stop4stuff]

Cargo Shepherd also doesn't work on splinters and rocks (unless it's been hacked to do so). Only on cargo pods.

Here's the cargo shepherd doing its stuff with some asteroid splinters. (This OXP is 'as is' downloaded, I haven't even looked at the code yet, let alone hacked it - the first time I just thought 'hey, it works with splinters', so I just carried on using it)



Four or so (game) hours later after dropping off my cargo, the splinters are still hanging about and are closer to the cargo shepherd.



Thanks for the heads up on the shield capacitor & equalizer... dl'd the OXP now, but it looks like I'll have a lot of saving up to do before I manage to make full use of them.

[Thargoid]

Ah yes, I forgot the recent update I did that made them work on objects that met the isCargo condition, which I guess splinters do. OK ignore me, I only wrote the thing

I hadn't actually intended it to work with splinters, but as it does then so be it

[stop4stuff]

Cheers Thargoid, it works a treat with splinters.

I usually drop of off in the middle of an asteriod field and start carving away, pick up the outermost splinters, go for a drop off, by the time I get back all the splinters are in nice little clusters.

I've found it useful to carry two shepherds, the second for any another asteroid fields that might be en-route.

[stop4stuff]

I just found something else out about the cargo shepherd... the data isn't saved... I just got spread to the 4 corners of the Ooniverse and had to go back to my last save... cargo shepherd is nowhere to be found

[Thargoid]

Nope, it's a spawned entity so can't easily be saved.

In any case, if you leave such a nice inviting hoard unattended, just think of it that someone else found it and walked off with it

[stop4stuff]

Nope, it's a spawned entity so can't easily be saved.

In any case, if you leave such a nice inviting hoard unattended, just think of it that someone else found it and walked off with it

Oh, that brings a bit of balance into things. I suppose the shepherd disapears if I hop to another system and back again?

[Thargoid]

Yup.

[Eldon]

I had a go at a broke adder start last night; griff adder, no fuel, no missile, no credits, no nuthin'.

First attempt I managed to hitch a lift with a boa to the next system. Unfortuantely that system was Riedquat (TL4 poor industrial anarchy). I should have just stayed with the convoy, but I got bored and went to help an anaconda in trouble. Got a 9cr bounty off a sidewinder (I think), all my own work. A bit closer to the planet I got ambushed by a moray star boat. I was lucky enough to shoot down the missile it shot at me (seriously, pure luck), but it was soon joined by a python class cruiser and a third ship, I forget what type. That was me done. No amount of dodging was going to get me to the main station and, being an anarchy, there was no chance of rescue by the police.

Second attempt went much better, my lift took me to Zaonce (TL12 average industrial corporate state) and I managed to find a rock hermit in sight of the station. After clearing the asteroids from around the hermit I had amassed the princely sum of 27.8Cr, a fair bit of in-system trading later and I'm up to 500.5Cr and a full fuel tank.

It'll be a while before I can afford a decent ship I think.

[Dragonfire]

Stellar serpent just bit the dust under my laser fire. He barely got out five shots at me (outmaneuvering those things is key to defeating them). Then I went ahead and used my energy bomb to detonate the corpse segments (which I might not have done, in hindsight, as that's gonna cost me the full bounty to replace the bomb. Time to dip into my personal savings again...?)

[Dragonfire]

An easy hit that turned a smidge hard...I found my quarry just off the space lane, so I locked on and started firing. He witchspaced out. No problem, I hitched a ride on his wormhole, and then locked onto him at the new witchspace beacon. I was surrounded by about six or seven cops, but they took no notice of me and my quarry.

So, I started firing again, and he went down fast. Then, an ominous transmission - Q-Bomb: "Can you hear the drums?"

Cue the Symphony of Oh Crap in D Minor...

I hit the fuel injectors and got the heck out of there, barely in time. As I'm flying out, I switch to aft. The witchspace beacon, the fuel station, and all the cops...history. More explosions from the fuel, and this is catching up to me fast...with me using my mil fuel injectors!

I made it out alive, thankfully, but man that was scary. Hey, at least I didn't get blamed for the explosion, and I still got my bounty payment! I still feel back for the cops, tho...