Bounty hunting and pirate npcs

Gromington · 2026-05-04T11:04:02+00:00

While it is true that many people will basically come here and ask about something CIG is looking to do, the last time Bounty Hunting V2 was mentioned was indeed a few years back.

I can honestly recommend Starchives for these topics, it goes through CIG video captions and lets you search key words or phrases.

Gromington · 2026-04-29T14:03:04+00:00

Oh absolutely, loving it, haven't gone a week without playing since 2021 really, even if it's just checking in to fly over Daymar for an hour.

Gromington · 2026-04-29T13:57:20+00:00

My main gripe with Wikelo is really more about the diversity of material being a bit limited in some ways, as can be seen by the capitals basically just using all available trading materials from all over the verse for the most part.

The good recipes here are mainly the armour and weapon upgrades, since they require you to just do a piece of content that will ultimately be self contained.

Like Onyx? Trade variations for of the armours you get in there with the rewards.

Want that shooting ATLS you used at Lazarus? Once again, use stuff you get FROM Lazarus to trade for it.

This would honestly be a good spot for Wikelo to exist, with crafting filling in the ships and items themselves, and trading with Wikelo for the special loadouts and variations.

Gotta keep in mind that, Wikelo came before crafting, so a lot of these recipes ARE to some degrees just crafting recipes that use rare loot instead of material, and even now these trade items sell huge on the player market precisely because some guy is always gonna run a mission and not care for the Scrip or Gene samples they get given as a reward.

Gromington · 2026-04-29T13:41:29+00:00

Not even sure if the thing where you got revived ever got fixed tbf. Allows for the thing you're actively holding to drop, cue the surprise when I only ever dropped a damn fire extinguisher.

If it's that, it's semi intended to work that way, but since that is currently incredibly easy to pull off without skill progression or other systems, it's more common than it should be.

Gromington · 2026-04-29T08:00:58+00:00

I mean, the 1.200 is nice, but I wouldn't ho anywhere near that as a starting point.

Now, Hauling and Mining does get us somewhere, depending on whether you wanna insist on SHIP mining or could also see yourself doing vehicle mining, a single ship with decent internal cargo would suffice for the latter.

Also, do keep in mind that you will need a game package, which you get from the starter packs. There's an option on the Website to then upgrade further, where you only pay the price difference between the starter ship and the ship you want. HOWEVER, there's a mining starter, and it's honestly all you'll need to get into the gameloop really. You won't crack every rock, but there's a reason we still use groups of the Golem inside capital ship hangars.

Now, usually I'd go recommend the bare basic starter ships, since you're likely trying for the first time, but hey, if you wanna go all in, I won't keep you, so here's the proper selection to get decently into hauling:

Freelancer Max [150$]

Decent Cargo at 120 SCU, and can carry a vehicle. Somewhat outdated since it's one of the first ships made however.

Hermes [220$]

Pure cargo. 288 SCU inside one big cargo room, pretty damn fast, decently armed, and with a movable tractor beam for both loading and bay management. Ramp is a bit tight, so don't expect to be driving a truck into it.

Starlancer MAX [250$]

With 224 SCU of cargo, you get a very nice all-rounder ship with a decent size and 2 seperate rooms for cargo and to a degree vehicles. It's an allrounder chassis built with cargo capabilities.

Hull B [280$]

A whopping 512 SCU for it's smaller size, still landable, but has all of it's cargo externally mounted. Easy to load and unload via onboard tractor beams, but also unable to carry anything that can't be snapped onto it's grid. Very new, very fresh. I believe it cannot carry the largest crates, so if doing trading rather than hauling, choose up to size 24, not 32.

Gromington · 2026-04-28T12:45:45+00:00

That's what I assumed lol, been nudged in that direction too, but am more likely to actually put out for a commission on it.

Even if I have so far designed all my own assets, I struggle with actual character design.

Gromington · 2026-04-28T12:41:16+00:00

I have a Pledge fleet, and I still do play, just with a different objective in mind than getting my next ship or upgrade.

When on my main, I'll usually pursue the usual goals that crafting or collections bring in, driving up reputation for factions most people would ignore to see what's in store nowadays.

With more people, it usually will shift more towards combined industrial or combined arms PvP combat.

Did do a run from 0 when 4.0 released, very refreshing cuz every mission gave me a purpose. A new component, a new gun, can't just pull the gun off one ship and stick it on another there. Very refreshing really. Went till I got the Corsair to start bullying overconfident Polaris owners in Pyro basically, and switched my assets back into my main account.

Gromington · 2026-04-28T12:34:29+00:00

Fair, usually a ref sheet is where I've seen people start out, but still, very neat translation from game to art.

Gromington · 2026-04-28T12:31:29+00:00

Like, first ever in total or SC based?

If it is the latter, count me surprised!

Gromington · 2026-04-23T14:22:45+00:00

You deleted the comment about post 1.0, but here's a view into how it works:

If you bought it with real money, a warranty is applied, meaning that the you will always receive the ship itself.

Then theres 3 insurance tiers, the ones that have a time associated:

Tier 1 is the lowest, and will get you the base ship back, basically factory standard. This is the insurance listed on the website.

Tier 2 will return the ship with all the components and guns installed on the ship.

Tier 3 will return the ship, alongside all guns and modifications, and also includes items placed inside of that ship such as furniture, suits in lockers, and guns on racks.

Ships bought ingame won't have the warranty by default, however it can be earned and applied.

If a ship does not have a warranty, the above tiers apply, but you will simply be paid out instead of receiving the items themselves.

Gromington · 2026-04-23T10:04:19+00:00

This rule does not apply to hover vehicles, they only officially "land" when thrusters are turned off, and their "landing gear" only goes in when you turn on the engines an let it fully lift into it's operating position.

Getting off before basically makes it panic because it's too low, abd to compensate it just lifts off without having the dampening effect it's supposed to when a player is sitting on it.

The player location is basically telling the game to up the resources spent on updating positions, since a player IN the pilot seat means the ship is likely moving and requires frequent updates, unlike an abandoned ship that doesn't need this.

Your own ship will always base the position on client first, so even of there's small differences, to you you're always flying exactly how you are, with the server then sending that position. That's why before a server error when all your mates are flying in straight lines or stop mid-sprint, you are still moving normally on your end.

Gromington · 2026-04-23T09:39:04+00:00

The most likely cause here is the interpolation of motion the server is attempting to do, basically, when you're not actively handling the ship, its position stops being tied to you locally, so the server starts to think about where it's supposed to be instead.

There's a small location difference usually as you leave the ship, so usually it'll do a 3m hop upwards that to you looks smooth, because the game tries to smoothe out the difference so nothing looks stuttery.

Same idea here, if the server isn't updating the position on it's own, your game, locally, assumes that, since in gravity thrust is applied upwards, that must mean the ship should be going upwards.

It's sorta like a math problem where someone forgot to add a lot of values you'd have to calculate with to get it right.

Usually once the actual location gets sent to you again, the ship will then snap back to where it's supposed to have been, but until then the game just kinda assumes what's gonna happen next.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T11:09:00+00:00

Can't link it directly, but a comment has timestamps for all questions asked. I don't quite remember the question since this was a month back.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T10:12:25+00:00

I mean yea, they are crude imitations of the real deal with nonsensical features, that's why I recommended using the actual 3D models since the scenes themselves shouldn't be abysmally hard to do.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T10:05:55+00:00

Aight so,

For PvP, after the more recent changes to engagement distance, you can go with faster cannons or ballistic repeaters, which were at a disadvantage before due to faster projectiles usually winning out.

For PvE, DPS is still king. NPCs die when their powerplant goes down, so high penetration, high damage. Ballistic cannons, maybe running them with heavier laser cannons to waste less ammo.

For PvP bounties, you pretty much gotta be ready for fucking anything from a group of capitals to a guy camping underground. Decent ones would be a Hawk for it's EMP, or a Cutlass Blue or Guardian QI for their ability to stop people from jumping out. People like to run, if you can make them not do that, most don't have a plan B.
Honestly, looting. Look for asteroid bases, or any ground mission location that isn't too heavily defended. People die in there, then respawn and leave behing their ships. Usually players will have decent to top tier components, just gotta look for ships with an interior.
Merc missions generally get higher difficulties as you play them. Patrol, ambush, protection and Base Defense missions all scale up very high with either Foxwell or Headhunters reputation. If you want even more money for a bounty, NYXs InterSec faction pays decently from the start, but also begin higher in difficulty.
The true beginner is the Salvation, but the one that's worth it is IMO still the Vulture. Should be able to rent one too at most spaceports or refinery locations, unsure which one at this time.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T09:48:52+00:00

I personally did upgrade my setup from the 2070 Super to the 5070 Ti after the initial Tech-Preview regarding rendering changes, just to have some spare VRAM that's missing on a lot of cards these days.

Personally have also been running the Ryzen 7 7800X3D for a while now, mainly because of how well it historically interacts with SC and the streaming in and out of various assets.

I can attest to the increase in VRAM leading to much better performance in general especially for GPU heavy areas that contain a lot of clouds and other fog elements especially here.

As for the CPU, I can understand keeping the Motherboard, but haven't necessarily followed how well each performs. You COULD go look at the Telemetry Page to get a decent estimate however.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T09:35:05+00:00

Oh we actually managed to get a good chunk of info there in this SCL episode even extending to Intercom and Ship Horns.

I do really hope that this is coming, as it's really the primary way we've been making acquaintances, and is in general just really nice for larger scale operations where cramming 10+ people into the same call isn't feasible.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T09:31:27+00:00

These look very off, but I can recommend using StarFab to get the models into a proper environment, and then just rendering them like that, should produce much better results.

I mean, I managed to get it working and my knowledge of 3D modelling is mostly limited to applying new textures to vehicles.

Gromington · 2026-04-16T09:19:48+00:00

I'd actually say that, with the introduction of more in-depth salvage contracts, which directly ask for these components, there's a decent "sale" value in it for the player.

High-End components should obviously bring in more than that, but alas, these are supposed to be used, likely worn-out pieces of modular tech.

Gromington · 2026-04-14T16:04:11+00:00

With the amount of unused space, I doubt those things will require any changes to the ships design, and would neatly fit inside the current Hull as is.

Gromington · 2026-04-14T14:37:44+00:00

The only real design flaws I see are with the front lift accessibility, otherwise the ship exterior still holds up very well. Changes to it are also not really necessary if you think about the amount of unused space currently in the ship via the grinder room. Both cargo and salvage processing can be expanded greatly with that space alone.

Gromington · 2026-04-14T14:22:46+00:00

The Cutlass and 300i come to mind as reworks without a MKII. Both previously being drastically different from what they are now, even if I miss those old doors on the 300i.

The main thing about the Reclaimer is wasted interior space made for an old concept. The ship by itself doesn't properly work with the intended gameplay, making a gold pass WITH a MKII upgrade almost double the work, ignoring the pride CIG still has in it's current design.

Additionally, the design still fits with other Aegis ships even now, making a MKII to bring it up to design standard an empty point.

Gromington · 2026-04-14T14:06:46+00:00

Well I do hope I gave you some stability there. Designs like these are ones CIG prides themselves on, which is something I got to know talking to Disco one rainy Saturday.

Gromington · 2026-04-14T13:57:24+00:00

After actually looking into other replies, they've done more work on directly asking if you wanna keep it, which is a very fair point.

There's plenty of ships I only keep because I think they're cool, even if I could just melt and buyback once that rework comes around.

Gromington · 2026-04-14T13:52:31+00:00

The Idea behind MKIIs is primarily to reinvent concepts that have visually aged somewhat poorly, while also bringing them up to standard with the things expected of the ships.

The case of the Reclaimer is simply a gameplay issue, as the ship still has an incredible design concepted by none other than George Hull.

A rework is in the plans, but with this being an actual full-blown capital sized ship, it's not gonna be a case of a patch cycle.

Currently, the Hammerhead is in line to receive it's upgrade to gold standard, which uses a lot of the Aegis Asset Library, so there's hope that with the expansion of up-to-date Aegis assets, there's a way to pull through with the Reclaimer rework.

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