Pirate Attack

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Polofix
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Joined: Thu, 6. Dec 18, 18:05

Pirate Attack

Post by Polofix » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 11:17

Hello,
I have a few problems to react to a pirate attack.
I get the message that one of my ships is attacked by pirates.
The procedure is usually as follows:

1. identification of the ship
2. evaluation of the situation on the map
3. decision whether to flee or to drop cargo

When a PGS Minotaur attacks, I usually flee. The chances of escape are very high.
However, when a PGS Phoenix attacks, I prefer to drop my cargo unless I'm in a very good position to make a successful escape.

But it fails because of 1. (identification)
Most of the time I am on the map when the message comes. Then I press the "F" key to enter the selection menu. But as soon as I want to look into the logbook to identify the ship, the selection menu disappears. I haven't found a way to identify the ship in any other way yet either, unless I check all freighters on the map that might be. But even then I often don't see the pirates yet, because they are still outside the radar range of the attacked ship and enter the area only a short time later.
I can't call the selection menu a second time. The chance is then missed. I have not found a way to identify the ship, what is being attacked by the pirates, look at the map to see what the best decision is and then tell the pilot whether to flee or drop the cargo.

How do you do that?

As it is, the question whether to flee, attack, wait or drop cargo is completely pointless. I can't even react to it in an adequate way. Except to roll the dice.

Alan Phipps
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 11:29

I think you will find a slightly related discussion currently active in this thread. There may be some ideas that you might find useful coming up there.
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mchan7
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by mchan7 » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 15:08

Once you have got the message about one of your ships being attacked, you can check your log and find that particular update.
Once you found the update message, you can see number plate of the ship being harrassed by the pirate.
Search the ship by entering the ship number plate on to the search filter like your search for items to trade.
Select either your station list or fleet list or unassigned ship list to locate your ship on the list.
Click the ship on the list and it will bring you to the ship immediately.
Everything should happend while you pasued your game though.
Otherwise, it will be over by the time you got there.

Note: Setup your own patrol in some of the sectors where you can quickly get the support from your fleet around.

Corryn Tano
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by Corryn Tano » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 15:34

Do you have already set a default reaction for your ships?

I don't want to micro-manage every pirate harassment, so I set the default reaction to "Flee". I rarely loose a ship to the pirates.

I prefer the faster and more nimble ships, so maybe that's an advantage when being chased.

jlehtone
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by jlehtone » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 15:45

Corryn Tano wrote:
Mon, 12. Oct 20, 15:34
I set the default reaction to "Flee". I rarely loose a ship to the pirates.
So do I.

When I hear the message, I do open Map, select "show ships" option, zoom out to show almost whole galaxy. In the list of ships on the left are only my ships and the ship that is now in Flee mode has that icon in its action column. Quite easy to spot (since I have a limited fleet).

Alas, FAF Rattlesnakes are fast and powerful. They can catch and kill.


Furthermore, when the default is Flee, you can still change reaction but you can't choose "Comply" any more? :headbang:
Goner Pancake Protector X
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Polofix
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by Polofix » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 21:23

Hello,
I have to explain it even better. It's about the selection menu where I can make the decision whether to flee or to drop cargo. And only that. The selection menu disappears as soon as I call up the log. The escape symbol (ship list) on the left appears only if the pilot is already escaping. Once the ship flees, it is already too late. Then I can't decide anymore whether to flee or to drop cargo.
But I have to make this decision before. If I make the right decision, I can save the ship.

I have set the default behavior to escape and to "Notify me when an incident occurs".
So, finding the ship when it flees is easy. But I have to find it when the pilot is waiting for my decision. That is the point. It would be very easy to solve. The selection menu must not close when I call up the logbook to identify the ship. And it must remain open when I go back to the map to find the ship on the map. Then I make the decision whether to flee or to drop cargo. I thought there might be a trick. If the message could provoke a second time, the problem would be solved too. But unfortunately I did not succeed either.

aard00
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by aard00 » Mon, 12. Oct 20, 21:46

Polofix wrote:
Mon, 12. Oct 20, 21:23
Hello,
I have to explain it even better. It's about the selection menu where I can make the decision whether to flee or to drop cargo. And only that. The selection menu disappears as soon as I call up the log. The escape symbol (ship list) on the left appears only if the pilot is already escaping. Once the ship flees, it is already too late. Then I can't decide anymore whether to flee or to drop cargo.
But I have to make this decision before. If I make the right decision, I can save the ship.

I have set the default behavior to escape and to "Notify me when an incident occurs".
So, finding the ship when it flees is easy. But I have to find it when the pilot is waiting for my decision. That is the point. It would be very easy to solve. The selection menu must not close when I call up the logbook to identify the ship. And it must remain open when I go back to the map to find the ship on the map. Then I make the decision whether to flee or to drop cargo. I thought there might be a trick. If the message could provoke a second time, the problem would be solved too. But unfortunately I did not succeed either.
This is a good point, and it is a bit different to my thread that Alan pointed to.

I don't have an answer, but just as keen to hear from anyone that does.

The only workarounds I've found so far are to manually cancel the flee in the ships order cue and then order it to do something else in those cases where a different course of action seems more sensible to me. I know that manually dropping the cargo after that dialogue seems to have no effect and the pirate will continue its attack. Finally, if you have the ability to Teleport, that can also change the outcome. For me, when I've teleported into a sector when on the map it has looked like certain death for my trader, my trader has always escaped.

Polofix
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu, 6. Dec 18, 18:05

Re: Pirate Attack

Post by Polofix » Fri, 16. Oct 20, 15:57

I have found a small solution.

I have found a small solution.
Radio message of the pilot can be heard ("I was told to drop my cargo") while I am on the map:

1.as soon as the radio message can be heard , press "f" for the selection menu.
2. press the Pause key immediately afterwards.

Now the selection menu should appear while the map is open.
Now I open the ship list and go through the possible ships. There should be a speaker icon somewhere on the edge of the map above the border of the marked ship. This tells me which ship has sent the radio message and is in trouble.I do not need to call every ship on the map visibly. It is enough to scroll through the ships in the ship list using the up-down key. Only when I have identified the ship I look at the situation on the map and decide whether to flee or drop cargo. This works very well.
The only difficulty is the small time window between the beginning and end of the radio message. As soon as the radio call is finished, I don't get a speaker icon on the marked ship on the map. So I can't identify the ship very well anymore.

The procedure also works when I am in the cockpit. All I have to do is first call up the map, then select menu and press pause immediately. This makes the time even shorter.

I help myself with a Key Macro. I use the software "Voice Attack". With it I can trigger several keystrokes in the game one after the other with one key. This is very helpful.I press a key (right ctrl) as soon as the radio message "I was told to drop my cargo" comes and then the shortcuts "m", "f" and pause are automatically sent very quickly one after the other. Then I can identify the ship in a relaxed manner.
I also use the mod "Info Center", with this I can filter out merchant ships from the ship list better and I find the ship much faster.

Oh yes, of course I have to activate the function in the global settings to be informed in case of a pirate attack. Otherwise the selection menu will not appear.

Polofix
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu, 6. Dec 18, 18:05

Re: Pirate Attack

Post by Polofix » Sat, 30. Jul 22, 07:12

Since 5.1 (maybe earlier) this workaround does not work anymore, because Egosoft disabled the crosshair function for the whole map.
This makes it much more difficult to find the ship that sent the message.

See here:

viewtopic.php?f=180&t=448879

jlehtone
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Re: Pirate Attack

Post by jlehtone » Sat, 30. Jul 22, 10:39

The crosshair is still drawn when you zoom in enough to see ships. Previously all player property was shown at all zoom levels.

The "Property Owned" lists current sector for each ship. With that info you can zoom in to the right part of map.
Goner Pancake Protector X
Insanity included at no extra charge.
There is no Box. I am the sand.

Polofix
Posts: 179
Joined: Thu, 6. Dec 18, 18:05

Re: Pirate Attack

Post by Polofix » Sat, 30. Jul 22, 15:52

I already wrote that the crosshairs are only there when you zoom in deeply. Before, you could quickly locate a ship in each zoom level and see from the speaker icon whether the radio message was coming from the ship. This is no longer possible with the change.

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