Is The First Pirate-Fighting Mission Difficulty Tied To The Ship You're In When Mission Starts?

[Monkeyfister]

I consider myself an advanced X2/X3 Player, and an experienced and good dog-fighter.

I bought a used M3 Barracuda, was in it when I pulled in and received the "Kill Pirates" early plot Mission.

Of course, the 'cuda is too slow, and has a lousy laser generator so only two PACs can be used for a tiny period of time. So, I brought in the Adv. Disco with its 4mj shielding and IREs, and a Pirate M5 still might as well be an M2, I can't even strip shields down before the damb thing starts lobbing the missiles at short range.

Do I need to go back and load a save to take the mission in the Disco?

Is that plot mission tied to the ship you take the mission in?

Has something changed in ship/combat stats?

[Thandrall]

I consider myself an advanced X2/X3 Player, and an experienced and good dog-fighter.

I bought a used M3 Barracuda, was in it when I pulled in and received the "Kill Pirates" early plot Mission.

Of course, the 'cuda is too slow, and has a lousy laser generator so only two PACs can be used for a tiny period of time. So, I brought in the Adv. Disco with its 4mj shielding and IREs, and a Pirate M5 still might as well be an M2, I can't even strip shields down before the damb thing starts lobbing the missiles at short range.

Do I need to go back and load a save to take the mission in the Disco?

Is that plot mission tied to the ship you take the mission in?

Has something changed in ship/combat stats?

Theres a few ways to complete it, but the easiest I guess is just build another scorpion and use that. I personally managed it in my adv. kestrel with phased repeater guns. With the disco, I'm not sure if it would work nearly as well to be honest.

[Snafu_X3]

IIRC in TC the ships (quantity/class) generated/spawned for missions (mostly?) depended upon your combat rank; I'd suspect this is similar in FL tho ship size may also be taken into consideration too

[Monkeyfister]

Hmm. I built the Scorpion, and tried it.
No shields, save for swiping 2 1mj shields from the Disco... and it can only take 2 PACs with its hopeless laser generator. It's slow, too.
I do appreciate early grind in an X3 game, but something seems perhaps off with one of my saves.
I think I'm going to try to go back to a pre-Barracuda save, and try taking the mission again in the Disco in hopes of re-setting.

Seriously, the Pirate M5s might as well be immortals right now, and even poking away with 4 IREs, I should be stripping shields with a solid, long burst of super-short range opening fire. I'm hitting at solid efficiency, just can't budge the shields down more than 50%.
I'm honestly asking this *because* I have seen several youtube videos of others fighting this mission in their Disco or the Scorp, and winning handily with all the same tactics.

[Monkeyfister]

IIRC in TC the ships (quantity/class) generated/spawned for missions (mostly?) depended upon your combat rank; I'd suspect this is similar in FL tho ship size may also be taken into consideration too

Ahhh... just exactly what I was thinking there.
Just showing up in the M3 (implying higher fighting capacity) shifted the difficulty up to match my ship (even though it's an under-shielded, under-gunned, slug-slow 'cuda).

Just still figuring out which rules we're working with in this new DLC, which I think is a solid blessing from all those who made it happen. Everything is so wonderfully new and fresh, again.

[Thandrall]

Your talking about the beginning plot right? Pirates flying around in the paranid sectors (aka Holy vision) right? Then theres always going to be M3s to M5s flying around. You kill what you can and outrun what you can't till you've killed the 6 or 8 or whoever much it is you need for the quest. They fly around randomly and are attacking the Paranids, nothing is due to you. I'm honestly not sure why you're having trouble killing M5's with 2 PAC's, unless your going after the M3s in which you're really not meant to be able to kill them without using missiles. Just focus on the M5's and you should be fine.

[Martin Head]

I'm doing this mission at the moment, and I was having difficulty hitting anything in the discoverer. Until I noticed the I needed to buy Fight Mk1 and 2 software.

All the Pirates in the 6 Paranid sectors seem to be gone (I've captured 3 or 4 of them). But the mission has not ended yet. So I am just cruising around looking for protect station missions.

I'm wondering if reverse engineering, or breaking the captured ships down for parts, so they are destroyed would make the mission end.

[Thandrall]

I'm doing this mission at the moment, and I was having difficulty hitting anything in the discoverer. Until I noticed the I needed to buy Fight Mk1 and 2 software.

All the Pirates in the 6 Paranid sectors seem to be gone (I've captured 3 or 4 of them). But the mission has not ended yet. So I am just cruising around looking for protect station missions.

I'm wondering if reverse engineering, or breaking the captured ships down for parts, so they are destroyed would make the mission end.

As far as I know, having them bail still counts. I'd sit around in SETA for awhile till they respawn. I personally did all my kills in the sector with the mines in it, they seemed to respawn quickly there.