[TC] Goner Plot - Following the Blastclaw

[ancienthighway]

Yes, the nemesis of all players, following the Blastclaw through 2 heavily occupied pirate sectors.

It wasn't that long ago, my pirate rep was sitting at -2. Somehow, apparently a build station mission followed by a supply that very station mission took me up to a +4 rep. No complaints from me on that one. So I start the Treasure Hunt and ended up on the north side of Xenon 347 and decided to fly my Kestral off to Merchant's Haven and give the follow mission a go.

The first part goes as expected, a lot of trader micromanagement to pass the time. Around 3/4 of the way to the gate between Maelstrorm and the Mercenaries Rift I come upon my first red pirates. Scanning them when in range didn't turn them blue, yet the continued past me 783 meters off my starboard. No shots fired. Another grouping, scanned and still red, again, no shots. The only pirate to notice me was the gate harassment M5.

Into Merchants Rift and maybe another dozen red pirates. I stopped scanning them, and they all passed by me toking on their space weed chasing it with space fuel. Again the mandatory harassment at the gate. Galleons, Brigantines, Carracks all blues.

With a rep of +4, I was expecting a peaceful trip. What I wasn't expecting was reds that stayed red, yet ignored me completely. I'm so glad I didn't bring a MARS/CODEA enabled carrier with me.

Back to Gaian Star and calling my TM taskforce to handle the final harassment.

[DiArmada]

there will always be pirates which are red to you, that's why they are pirates
the Kestrel is a great ship to do it in though.
it's speed makes it practically invulnerable for anything; you can outrun it.
there are a few missiles which match the speed, but the Kestrel has a rear turret, so np.

[Mousse9]

There will always be some pirates that are red and hostile to you, no matter what your rep with them. They're pirates!

The red and hostile pirates at each Gate, those are spawned by the mission, but you know that already.

The red ones that pass you by (and didn't turn blue on scanning), are ones that are on a mission/have a target. If they're going through withdrawal and are on the way to get more Spaceweed, they'll ignore you. Or when they're on the way to squeeze profitsss out of some trader Teladi, they'll ignore you.

The ones that aren't doing anything, THOSE will attack you, they got nothing better to do, those bullies!

For the mission itself, I waited and camped in Maelstrom until the Blastclaw was in Gaian Star, and THEN went in. I'm not sure, but I think you can actually go do other stuff in the meantime, don't worry about losing the Blastclaw. Once the Blastclaw is in Gaian Star, jump in.

[ancienthighway]

The red ones that pass you by (and didn't turn blue on scanning), are ones that are on a mission/have a target.

If I thought about it, I would have come up with that conclusion myself (brainfart).

For the mission itself, I waited and camped in Maelstrom until the Blastclaw was in Gaian Star, and THEN went in. I'm not sure, but I think you can actually go do other stuff in the meantime, don't worry about losing the Blastclaw. Once the Blastclaw is in Gaian Star, jump in.

That works if you've been to Gaian Star already.

Now comes the feeding of the SQUASH mine factories so I can blow up the station.

Terran Plot - done
Goner Plot - 1 mission left
Treasure Hunt - 2 missions left
Final Fury - started but on hold

Looks like it might be time to start the unmodded Hub soon.

[Mousse9]

When I did it, I hadn't been to Gaian Star either.

The red pirates that camp at the gates, personally I didn't bother with them, I just ran for the gates. Depending on your ship, you can either run for it (Kestrel FTW), or kill them.

There were red pirates in the Unknown Sector between Maelstrom and Gaian Star, and I just circled around them in my slow Tiger (could've easily killed them, but didn't want my pirate rep go down too much). I don't think they're actively looking for you.

[Bill Huntington]

You had good luck, ancienthighway. If you plan the mission, you have to plan for bad luck, the worst they can do. So I set it up before I start to follow the Blastclaw. If you jump into the next sector before the Blastclaw, I've found that the scenario stops and has to start all over again. So what I do is put up Adv Sats along the whole route, from Maelstrom all the way to Gaian Star. I know where he'll go, so I lead him, not follow him. And I do it at altitude 15 or so. So if red ships come after me, I have a lot of flexibility (up, down, side, back) I don't kill them either. That would be easy in some ways, but tough on your pirate rep. And it is easy to turn blue pirates red, and then more trouble.

When the Blastclaw enters the West gate of Maelstrom, I jump to South gate of the next sector, which I have mapped. Then I run over to the Blastclaw, in time to keep the plot alive. Kestral is best, for speed. I follow in the Hype, and dock with it when it gets there. The Kestral is great again entering Gaian star, maneuvering all around, and drawing off the gate blockers.

Save often with this one. It takes so long. I don't like to start over. And they blindside you quickly sometimes.

When you do the next part, bring both the mines and the spaceweed together. Sometimes there's problems when there's two trips.

The Unfocused Jump makes it all worthwhile.

[sataki]

i did it the very slow way, keep my speed at exactly the Speed of blastclaw at a 11km distance, towed by a kraken stuffed with missiles

small stuff i wiped with my hyperion without changing course and a few wasps, big stuff i nuked with barrage from kraken

this was my 4th and finally successful attempt.

the first i tried to elude pirates and got too close to the blastclaw in the end
the second i tried it with a tiger to nuke big stuff but fell behind as it took too Long
third time i overnuked a sector with the kraken

oh well :/

[Honved]

I'm currently stuck on this mission. Last attempt, flying a Nova Raider, I came out of one gate into a burst of hot plasma from a Pirate Perseus. Attempt before that, flying a Disco Raider, it was a couple of Xenon Ns that attacked me, and when I wasted them, every Pirate in the sector headed straight for me, with something on the order or 20 missile warnings in about 10 seconds. Before that, my Centaur exited the gate into an armada that had to consist of:

10 Harrassing Harriers
9 Destructive Discos
8 Belligerent Buzzards
7 Susanowas swarming
6 Busters blasting
5 Nova fighter wings
4 Falcons' fire
3 Blastclaws
2 Carracks
and a Galleon coming after me.

It wasn't pretty, but gave a great Christmas effect with all that red and my green ship icon on the sector map.

I suspect that I may have to abandon my "All Argon" game focus, and go in with either a Teladi Kestrel or a Paranid Diemos; one extreme or the other. Unfortunately, my Pirate rep is in the -4 (79%) range, and I only saw about 4 blue pirates among the 40+ red ones in the sector each time.

As done by a previous poster, I tried keeping well to the side or above the main avenue of traffic, but in at least two of the three cases, all it took was one ship to start shooting and then every ship in the sector headed directly for me.

[pr0nflakes]

I seem to remember on my first play-through of this plot line having a similar problem.
As i recall i cleared out the sectors before triggering the mission in a Python then it was just a matter of killing off the few fighters that spawned afterwards.

[Honved]

Two more failed tries in the Disco, one where they launched missiles at me in quantity (followed by massive stuttering and lag), the other where I came out of the gate from Maelstrom into the Unknown Sector beyond, directly in front of a task force with enough firepower to take out most races' core sectors. The "Game Over" message popped up about a second after the sector initialized and gave me control of my ship.

I then tried going into Maelstrom with the Cerberus, and saw a Pirate Galleon at the edge of sensor range abruptly change course and head directly toward me. It was escorted by a Carrack with 4 Blastclaw escorts of its own, plus a Centaur. There was a Brigantine parked or moving slowly near the far gate as I approached within scanner range, as well as at least one M6 and a heap of M3s, but those didn't seem overly interested. I can take on a Carrack, a Galleon (with some difficulty), or 4 Blastclaws. Together, I don't stand a chance against them, and they refused to string out when I led them back toward Merchant Haven. Despite an "insurance" save and 3 tries, I couldn't get past them and the Brigantine (along with its own fighter compliment), and they refused to string out when I tried heading back toward Merchant's Haven.

At this point, I'm just about resigned to having to break "role" and buy and fly a non-Argon ship, since an M2 won't keep up with the mission Blastclaw, the Disco isn't fast enough to outrun some missiles, and the Cerberus isn't powerful enough against other capitals.

[Mousse9]

Or, as a last resort, make nice with the pirates.

In my current game, I had the luck of a Station Hack mission for Duke's, and after a couple of extremely lucky Build Station missions by the Duke's, very few pirates bother me. Even better, doing this Goner mission, ALL the pirates in Gaian Star were blue (except the mission-spawned ones). I was pretty much home free.

Hopefully you aren't TOO far in the red with the pirates...

[Honved]

Hopefully you aren't TOO far in the red with the pirates...

-4, 79% is pretty bad, and it's going to take a ridiculous number of missions to turn that positive.

Only about 4-6 of the pirates in the sector showed up blue. As I pointed out, two capital ships with escorts attacked on sight from maximum scanner range, which pretty much rules out kissing up and playing nice. With two more capitals a little ways behind them, even if I do manage to engage and win against the Carrack and Galleon, I've got to get out before the Brigantine and the other Carrack show up, and hope the first pair don't respawn nearby.

At this point, I'm hoping that, with the TLS out of the way, the rest of the mission can go on hold long enough for me to fit out a fleet or whatever I need to go in there and survive it. I'm also considering how many Tomahawks I might need to take care of the problem.

[ancienthighway]

This task is exactly why I played nice with the Pirates. I've done it wading through a sea of red. It was so much nicer being able to set cruise control and play with my traders this time.

Of course, now that the Goner plot is done, I'm not that friendly with them. Rep dropped from +4 to -3 pretty quick. Now I just need to get my Yaki rep up a notch to pick up some IBLs.

[Mousse9]

Ouch, dude.

In that case, total war. Bring in a fleet, with yourself in a tough, fast ship, as you'll need to pick someone up. Hang back a bit, let your fleet engage them, and while the pirates are busy, scoot over to the pirate base and pick the guy up.

Seeing as speed is really important here to minimize losses, I recommend the Springblossom, or Spitfyre. Or even the Xperimental Shuttle, if you have it. It's quite fast and well shielded.

You'll probably never get back in the blue with the pirates, but at least this mission will be finished.

[Nanook]

Hopefully you aren't TOO far in the red with the pirates...

-4, 79% is pretty bad, and it's going to take a ridiculous number of missions to turn that positive.....

I think you'd be surprised. Three or four higher difficulty 'Destroy Convoy' or Build Station missions should get you pretty close to neutral, if not higher. The pirates are actually pretty easy to please. That's been my experience, anyway.

[Honved]

Last night I got a bit closer to Gaian's Star, but still fell short.

I took a Cerberus and Minotaur combo into Maelstrom, and encountered one of the Carracks around the half-way point. I unleashed a few Tempest missiles to deal with its Blastclaw escorts, then took down the Carrack's shields, after which my M7M and 20 decently trained marines initiated repeated boarding attempts, but failed to penetrate the hull (possible hull polarization, but I didn't scan it while dodging fire). I eventually gave up on that idea and just blew it up. After all of the hassles, it at least had the decency to scatter pairs of almost every weapon known to man and alien, including a pair of IBLs. That left me with about 3/4 shields, which mostly recovered while picking up all of the dropped equipment, after which I burned an "Insurance" save, sent the M7M away, then continued on until I spotted the Galleon and second Carrack/escorts.

Rather than even try to take on all of that at once, I swung to one side and got close enough to the gate to find the Brigantine as well, and then turned away to make a wide arc back toward Merchant's Haven, making sure that all three capitals were on my trail. I had a speed advantage of 1 m/s over the Carrack, and a more significant edge over the other two. Once I had gotten far enough out and around to have a clear line of travel, I switched into my Discoverer Raider and sent the Cerberus on autopilot to "safety" in Merchant's Haven, to continue luring the capitals away from the gate. I took the Disco on a wide detour, until I was well past the Pirates, and then proceeded through the gate unopposed, other than some Duke's TS that triggered a warning buzzer but didn't bother to fire at me. The task force in the next sector was well off to one side of the central line of travel, so I went the other way, and made it all the way to within about 20km of the opposite gate before some Harrier decided to come after me. That dragged the whole Pirate navy into action, and red ships came through the gate to add to the problem. I narrowly failed to reach the gate before about 30 assorted missiles reached my ship.

Over the weekend, I'll try it again from where I left off in the Cerberus.

The problem with using a fast ship is that you have to sit there at the speed of the Blastclaw you're following (67 m/s in this case), and can't take full advantage of your own speed except for some local maneuvering, and perhaps some wide circling within range. It normally won't get you out of scanner range of the enemy, and they don't seem to stop chasing directly toward you even if they can't see you, even if you do manage that. The usual "psychic enemy" problem I see in most games: once they lock onto a target, they ignore normal game mechanics and common sense until you or they are destroyed.

If this fails, I'm going to put the rest of the mission on hold and take a heap of station building missions in pirate border sectors to raise rep. Having 90% of the Pirates attacking on sight really doesn't make it easy. Unfortunately, the Humble Merchant start gives you a -4 with the Pirates, and a few missions against them lowers that even more, despite occasional trade deals with their stations.

[Mousse9]

To call back to my first reply here to make things a tiny bit easier:

Let the Blastclaw go to Gaian Star on its own. Even if you get a warning that you're losing him, don't worry, the mission will NOT fail. I have tried this both times in my playthroughs, and both times I finished the mission.

Before this Goner plot mission, I had never even been to Maelstrom, let alone the Unknown Sector next to it, or Gaian Star.

Get in a fast, tough ship, camp out in Maelstrom hiding somewhere safe, and once the orange "active mission" blinking light on the map indicates that the Blastclaw is in Gaian Star, you can run the gauntlet of enemies. Ignore them as best as possible. If you get slowed down, you'll probably be annihilated.

[ancienthighway]

All you need to do is cross into Gaian Star, then jump in what you need to finish and get your lead scout/fighter out.

Spoiler

Show

If you've finished the Treasure Hunt, use the X-Shuttle. It's got the speed to outrun all but the fastest M5s, but Pirates aren't much on speed upgrades. If anything does catch you, you've got the shields and guns to put it down quickly. Spitfire or Springblossom would be even better on speed, guns, and, for for the Springy, shields.

[Honved]

After repeated attempts on Saturday, where my M5 got toasted the moment I entered the last sector, and the Cerberus just took a few seconds longer before the inevitable, I eventually got sick of it and bought a Diemos. Problem solved: I switched the PSG "blenders" to "puree" mode and simply flew through the opposing ships. That's "through", as in "ramming speed", and by the time I reached the other side of where the fleet had been, I was down to about 10% shields, but there was nothing behind me but space dust and a fine red mist that used to be "crew".

Sadly, a Diemos doesn't leave much salvage, if any. It also has precious little cargo space to spare, if you're carrying sufficient jump energy and a spare set of guns to swap out with the PSGs in sectors where "collateral damage" is not a good thing. I've learned to carry spare E-cells on the internally docked fighters, just in case I need it. It also voids my "all Argon" playthrough; the Cerberus simply doesn't cut it against larger M1 and M2 capital ships, although it will put down another M7 with a bit of work.

Of course, the Pirates like me even less now than they did before, and two of my traders (in race sectors) and one of my complexes (also in a race sector) came under attack within the hour. When I jumped in to prevent my complex from being wrecked by a Pirate Brigantine and its host of Blastclaw and Elite escorts, that triggered another plot, involving something about a rampage and Danna's Chance(?). I put it off for the moment, because I had those 6 stations and the connecting hardware to rescue first, and I was just coming into weapon range. The Brigantine (and PBG-armed Blastclaws) had already quickly and easily killed a Paranid Military Oddyseus and its escorts, and despite the loss of a couple of the Elites and a Blastclaw, never dropped below 90% shields on that encounter. I managed to wreck both it and its entourage without toasting any of the few surviving friendlies in the sector, although I was down to about 20% shields by the end of it.

The Cerberus never had the hitting power or the shielding to withstand that kind of intensity, and dancing at the edge of weapon range isn't that effective when their PPCs outrange, outclass, and outnumber your CIGs, ISRs, or IPGs. The Cerberus at best can only mount a pair of IBLs in each of its side turrets, which means you can only bring 2 to bear against a target, and then you can't use flak against the escorts. The Diemos just charges in and obliterates everything, an equal opportunity destroyer.

[Mousse9]

Wow. One of the few times where a Deimos with PSG's would be useful. Interesting.
I HAVE a Deimos (from a stolen Return Abandoned Ship mission), with PSG's all around, but that was AFTER Operation Final Fury, so I have no real use for it, it's been sitting in an EQ dock ever since...

So there was no chance of getting back in the good graces of the pirates? Were there no missions from pirates at all? Even a few Hard missions would help a lot, I think.

But anyway, it's resolved, and hey, maybe the hostile pirates will make life interesting.