Overly aggressive?

[xdesperado]

So started new game on basic difficulty.
Spy Captain flying Guardian Interceptor for House Zenrin.

Take first mission from initial contact no problem and complete one way shipping job.
See I have a second contact available and since they are on a farming zone and I have a hold full of goods to sell to a farm zone head there.
Make nice profit do a bit more crew hiring and grab a contract from the contact there.
Contract is a pickup with pay on return no problem as it's in quadrant and still in starting phase of game.
Go pick up the package and heading back to hopefully make the deadline for job (only had 8 weeks to do job and was a bit over 3 week trip one way) when I run into a Rychart Pirate.
First there are no Rychart planets in my starting quadrant and this is turn 180.
Second my only option in preamble is to surrender or fight.
3rd they have a larger ship than mine and while I'm trying to withdraw and torp them they're holding me at max range.
Then they're knocking out my weapons while continuing to hammer my ship. Ended with my ship destroyed.
If I was playing on a higher difficulty level I might understand how this could happen so early even in friendly faction controlled space but on basic?

[grävling]

especially since, as a spy, don't you have a talent for 'get me out of here?'

[Officer Genious]

Feb 14, 2017 15:23:02 GMT -5 xdesperado said:

So started new game on basic difficulty.
Spy Captain flying Guardian Interceptor for House Zenrin.

Take first mission from initial contact no problem and complete one way shipping job.
See I have a second contact available and since they are on a farming zone and I have a hold full of goods to sell to a farm zone head there.
Make nice profit do a bit more crew hiring and grab a contract from the contact there.
Contract is a pickup with pay on return no problem as it's in quadrant and still in starting phase of game.
Go pick up the package and heading back to hopefully make the deadline for job (only had 8 weeks to do job and was a bit over 3 week trip one way) when I run into a Rychart Pirate.
First there are no Rychart planets in my starting quadrant and this is turn 180.
Second my only option in preamble is to surrender or fight.
3rd they have a larger ship than mine and while I'm trying to withdraw and torp them they're holding me at max range.
Then they're knocking out my weapons while continuing to hammer my ship. Ended with my ship destroyed.
If I was playing on a higher difficulty level I might understand how this could happen so early even in friendly faction controlled space but on basic?

You MUST invest in sharp steering from your crew. Double torp, escape and sharp steering will see you through almost anything. Keyword: almost, it failed me maybe twice but it's incredibly rare.

[fallen]

Thanks for the feedback, we'll keep trying to improve.

[xdesperado]

Feb 14, 2017 15:32:09 GMT -5 Officer Genious said:

Feb 14, 2017 15:23:02 GMT -5 xdesperado said:

So started new game on basic difficulty.
Spy Captain flying Guardian Interceptor for House Zenrin.

Take first mission from initial contact no problem and complete one way shipping job.
See I have a second contact available and since they are on a farming zone and I have a hold full of goods to sell to a farm zone head there.
Make nice profit do a bit more crew hiring and grab a contract from the contact there.
Contract is a pickup with pay on return no problem as it's in quadrant and still in starting phase of game.
Go pick up the package and heading back to hopefully make the deadline for job (only had 8 weeks to do job and was a bit over 3 week trip one way) when I run into a Rychart Pirate.
First there are no Rychart planets in my starting quadrant and this is turn 180.
Second my only option in preamble is to surrender or fight.
3rd they have a larger ship than mine and while I'm trying to withdraw and torp them they're holding me at max range.
Then they're knocking out my weapons while continuing to hammer my ship. Ended with my ship destroyed.
If I was playing on a higher difficulty level I might understand how this could happen so early even in friendly faction controlled space but on basic?

You MUST invest in sharp steering from your crew. Double torp, escape and sharp steering will see you through almost anything. Keyword: almost, it failed me maybe twice but it's incredibly rare.

I normally do but none of my pilots had leveled enough so I could give one or more of them that talent yet.
This was essentially start of game, my XP priority for template is at D so crew start at level 1 (2 for starting officers).
Wouldn't have posted this if it had been later in game but found it odd to run into such a hyper aggressive Pirate that doesn't offer to take bribe that early in a Basic difficulty game.

Note I've had encounters playing on Hard with Zealots, Bounty Hunters and Pirates from factions that wanted my head on a spike who still gave option to bribe during preamble.

[Officer Genious]

Yeah, that just sucks. I'd pray for your officer's soul, but I got bills to pay and that money is doing no good in a space wreck, is it?

[athios]

xdesperado - It's probably one of those RNG things... You may have ended up rolling on the "extremely unlucky" end of the spectrum to get a pirate with a large ship at -4 or worse hostility.

Were you carrying a lot of expensive goods at the time?

[xdesperado]

Feb 14, 2017 15:51:10 GMT -5 athios said:

xdesperado - It's probably one of those RNG things... You may have ended up rolling on the "extremely unlucky" end of the spectrum to get a pirate with a large ship at -4 or worse hostility.

Were you carrying a lot of expensive goods at the time?

No cargo was grain basic foods and some meds.
If I hadn't had the contract on board I'd have thought hard about just surrendering when not given chance to bribe them.

[athios]

Surrendering is the right choice.

I wonder if there is a Rep penalty for losing your contract cargo/passenger in ST2?

[Cory Trese]

Sounds like you might want to regenerate the map or pick a different Faction. The next update improves the new game Faction select to tell you the strength of the Faction in the map you've picked.

[Brutus Aurelius]

Feb 14, 2017 16:36:46 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Sounds like you might want to regenerate the map or pick a different Faction. The next update improves the new game Faction select to tell you the strength of the Faction in the map you've picked.

I'm guessing that update will drop within a couple days?

[xdesperado]

Feb 14, 2017 16:36:46 GMT -5 Cory Trese said:

Sounds like you might want to regenerate the map or pick a different Faction. The next update improves the new game Faction select to tell you the strength of the Faction in the map you've picked.

Actually the map looks great for Zenrin as we supposedly control more quadrants than any other faction. Also starting quadrant looks good as far as planet mix etc.

[Cory Trese]

Added a -10 Reputation penalty for Contract failure via seizure.

[Deleted]

Feb 14, 2017 15:54:57 GMT -5 xdesperado said:

Feb 14, 2017 15:51:10 GMT -5 athios said:

xdesperado - It's probably one of those RNG things... You may have ended up rolling on the "extremely unlucky" end of the spectrum to get a pirate with a large ship at -4 or worse hostility.

Were you carrying a lot of expensive goods at the time?

No cargo was grain basic foods and some meds.
If I hadn't had the contract on board I'd have thought hard about just surrendering when not given chance to bribe them.

The smuggler job has a talent which protects your contracts if you're searched.

[athios]

On that thought, there's also a Smuggler's Hold (not 100% sure on the name) as a ship component option.