You went bounty hunting in WHAT?
07 Aug 2015Hardy
A couple of days ago, I saw a well-paid mission to take out 13 pirates - ¾ million Cr. Was already mid-trade in my 'conda and mid-conversation with Dobermann224 who wanted to form a trade wing. I told him about the mission, so the wing would have to wait. It occurred to me that I couldn't be bothered to fly the short distance (five jumps) to pick up my bounty hunting Vulture. I told him I may just buy a viper or eagle and sell it when the mission is complete.In the shipyard, after a very short discussion on what would be the best ship (he said Viper), I paged past the Hauler. I jokingly said I should do it in that. His response - "Do it do it do it do it do it". A little bit inspired by Loriath's recent return to a sidewinder, I thought it would be a bit of harmless fun so I agreed.
I ended up with this loadout.
My decided that I wouldn't take on any wings with big ships, or any single ship bigger than a competent python. My first victim - a dangerous Cobra.
A couple of minutes into the fight I realised what a massive mistake this was. It was taking bloody ages. I'd knock a few percent off his hull then his shields would be back on. Luckily, the rozzers showed up and made far quicker headway than I was, and he was soon toast. One down.
The next ship was just as slow to damage, but again I got some unexpected help. I thought there's something wrong here, so when he popped I checked my settings - sure enough "Report crimes against me" was enabled. It's not much of a challenge if I left it that way, so I didn't.
In the end, I succeeded, but it was a two-hour twenty marathon which really sapped my will to live. That said - it taught me that the key to fighting in a hauler is to listen for your target's boost, and boost with them. If your target puts enough distance between you that he can turn and have even a short (1km) run, you're going to lose ALL shields. Once you're in a fight, you're in it pretty much to the death, so boosting away isn't really a choice, you have to boost with.
I bailed on one ship that inderdicted me - a dangerous Vulture, and I did bail on one fight that I started - a deadly viper. He managed to get a couple of long runs at me and I used up all my SCBs and a bit of hull. I might have been braver, but he was the last target I needed, and I wasn't going to risk losing the mission at this point (I don't know if ship destruction is still a barrier to kill mission completion, but I wasn't going to risk it).
So the tally:
5xCobras (2 dangerous, competent, novice, mostly harmless), 3xEagles (dangerous, 2 competent), sidewinder (dangerous), Diamondback scout (dangerous), viper (competent), Asp (expert) and Imperial Courier (dangerous).
I won't be doing it again...