Elite: Dangerous PvE - Mobius

I just had a frustrating evening of play and I thought I'd reach out and see if anyone had some suggestions as to how I might improve.

I'd really like to be able to afford some of the VIP passenger- and/or fighter-ready ships when the October release comes out (I know I'll probably be able to try them at 10% cost during the beta, but I'd like to have them for real too). Right now, my "net worth" (credit balance, minus insurance, plus value of my Lakon Type-7) is about 31 MCr, which leaves me about 35 MCr short of my prior goal, which was trading my Type-7 in for a Python. (My ship progression has been Sidewinder, Hauler, Adder, Keelback, Type-6, Asp Explorer, Type-7.)

So last night I found a little loop between a Coriolis station in a system on the edge of the Empire and a planetary base in the Federation. With my current loadout (Coriolis.io link), I can carry 208 tonnes, so I had a nice little loop that was netting me about 350 KCr profit per leg.

Then I noticed that the mission board had a few jobs that were between systems already in my loop and didn't require going out of my way for special cargo. I made a couple of runs with those jobs taking up part of my cargo space and boosted my profit up to over 600 KCr per leg -- very nice!

I got interdicted a lot, but I just did what I always do in the T7 -- submit right away, boost continuously until my FSD cools down, and jump back to supercruise. Never was a problem before--I got interdicted at least a dozen times without suffering any hull damage. But then, I got interdicted right near the planet that was one terminus of my run. My FSD was inhibited by a factor over 10, and I couldn't keep my shields from going down before cooldown completed. After I went shields down, the NPC got my hull to 0 in seconds and I heard that horrifying "Eject, eject, eject!"

Oh well, sh-- happens, and the NPC was rated "Deadly" in a Vulture, so I figured it was just bad luck. I paid my insurance and rematerialized at the Coriolis starport. Despite the lucrative past couple hours, I was now a few thousand credits behind where I'd started the evening. Depressing.

But as I still had several missions in progress, I needed to carry on, and figured a little shield buffing wouldn't hurt just in case. I replaced my D- and E-class shield boosters with two A's, a B, and a C, which was the most my power plant could drive without disabling modules (see (Coriolis.io link).

Then I went back to my route, and within an hour was back to making the evening profitable, when, on that very same planetary approach, I got interdicted. Hmm, targeting shows the NPC to be a Novice in a Cobra Mk IV--should be no problem. I was so sure of myself, in fact, that I didn't submit, I figured I had a good chance of evading the interdiction, and if I didn't, there was no way some Novice NPC in a Cobra was going to take me down, right?

Well, obviously I wouldn't be posting if that were right. I failed to evade and dropped into normal space just out of orbital cruise distance. I started boosting while I waited... and waited... for my FSD to cool down and spool up. Then, "Shields are down. Taking damage. Eject, eject, eject!"

I stared dumbfounded at the buyback screen. Almost six hours of game play negated by two stupid interdictions.

So what do you think?

1. Just go back to the Asp. It may carry half as much, but at least it can fight.
2. Roll back the shield boosters. They increased my shield strength by ~40% (130 → 180 MJ), but at the expense of 13 seconds of shield recovery (0:49 → 1:02) and 26 seconds of recharge (1:04 → 1:30). I honestly don't think I had even the lesser timeframe between losing shields and hull destruction, but I could be mistaken.
3. Don't automatically submit to interdictions, and make use of the Type-7's relatively fast yaw and pitch to try to evade—I was pretty good at evading in the Asp, maybe I just need practice.
4. Fight! (What's a decent fighting loadout on a cargo-maximizing Type-7 look like, anyway?) I'm not bad at combat, generally; I've just never tried to fight in anything so unmaneuverable.
5. Just skip the dirtside missions—the FSD slowdown makes them just too dangerous for a T7.
6. That was just a bunch of bad luck there. Keep calm and carry on.
7. Something else?

Appreciate any thoughts from more experienced commanders—this play session was so frustrating that I can't bear the thought of repeating it.

I would honestly switch to the python. It can hold almost as much as the T7 and isn't a pain to maneuver. Plus the python can be readily equipped for combat.
My new interdiction method is try and evade by playing with the throttle, if I'm not getting any progress, I'll submit. When running cargo I'd also take note of any messages that pop when entering a system, ass to star as close as manageable and wait till they drop trying to get behind.
I did find a run using I think eddb that netted me over 1million cr per round and each round taking maybe 10-20 minutes (6 jumps I think) to do if I wasn't diddling around, on about 230t of cargo. My goal was just to make money and see how profitable that (trading)was versus Ceos/Sothis or my other money farm.
So you may have a different objective than myself.
I might also skip the mission board cause that could contribute to interdictions based on the mission itself. Personally at my money run system it's 2 systems, 3 stations and every so often a 3rd system is thrown in. Sometimes I'll take it others I won't because I'm lazy. Mind you all the systems are within 20 ly.
If you're set on the T7 I'd enhance the shield Gen itself and maybe grab some mines. I haven't used mines but they seem to be effective from posts I read.
Not an expert by any means but just some personal thoughts.
EDIT: I misread you're first post and thought you had a python but switched to the T7.
I might switch back to the Asp to do the runs or maybe try and find a system that can net a quicker turnaround on profits. Until you have enough for the Python which it seems is your plan.

Regarding combat in a T7... I've had some success with dropping shock mines when in similar situations, just don't put mines in the 2 hardpoints on the front of the ship or you mine yourself. Make sure you get the aggressor directly behind you as fast as possible and spam as many mines as you can till you jump away. ...though I mostly just avoided situations as best I can where I can't submit/escape an interdict.

Regarding getting out of the T7 and into a Python... (please someone correct me if this advice is no longer relevant or just stupid)

1. Get yourself to CEOS/SOTHIS with as much cargo space as possible (equip cargo bays before you leave).

2. Do the missions between these systems to get your rep up and you might see the occasional smuggling mission for quick big money.

3. Once you start seeing low-unit (8-24ish) cargo missions back to the bubble for around 200,000cr per unit, start stacking them by changing game type (solo/private/open) till your cargo/mission portfolio is full of only these small cargo / huge payout missions. It takes a long time to stack all the missions and is horrendously boring but it got me in a Python right quick.

4. Make sure you aren't in Open play and head back to bubble to deliver your 15-20 insane payout missions. Don't die. Big money.

I'd suggest A rating your thrusters and power distributor. Then submit and run - a lot faster.
Add a point defense to handle any missiles they shoot at you.
Drop mines if you want to punish them.
Lasers to harass them.
If you get mass locked, jump to another system,
Maybe avoid missions as they generate interdictions.
There is nothing wrong with disabling modules when hard points are deployed.

This is how I might tweak your build - link

Roger Wilco Jr wrote:I'd suggest A rating your thrusters and power distributor. Then submit and run - a lot faster.
Add a point defense to handle any missiles they shoot at you.
Drop mines if you want to punish them.
Lasers to harass them.
If you get mass locked, jump to another system,
Maybe avoid missions as they generate interdictions.
There is nothing wrong with disabling modules when hard points are deployed.

This is how I might tweak your build - link

Thanks, all good ideas! Just two (probably stupid questions): "if you get mass locked, jump to another system"? Is warming up the FSD to witch space faster than to supercruise? I didn't know that--I've been playing for almost two years now and I'm always learning new things!

So, the fastest way I know to do that (when on approach rather than departure and you have no next system plotted, I mean) is to go to the navigation panel, select a system, and choose the "lock and jump" option. Is there an even faster way (short of always plotting an escape route when you arrive in your destination system, which I can't really see always remembering to do)?

Charging a system jump isn't affected by mass locking, and if you are a smallish ship caught by a bigger one the charge time to supercruise could be epically long.

As for power settings I try for as long as it is possible to keep the fsd in high priority.
If you offline the fsd it will have to power on before you can charge the drive.
If it is powered you can start charging the drive as soon you retract hardpoints, no waiting needed.
That has gotten me out of quite a hairy situations and let's me pick fights I possibly shouldn't while knowing I can get out if needed.

A t7 is however not something I would pick any fight in at all, and would just engage GTFO mode.

Addendum:
Oh and sometimes the game just decides to kill you, repeatedly.
I myself once lost 3 t9's in less than one our of play..

TorTorden wrote:If you offline the fsd it will have to power on before you can charge the drive.
If it is powered you can start charging the drive as soon you retract hardpoints, no waiting needed.

Really? I keep hearing clunking noises, which I assumed were hard points retracting, cargo scoop deploying, and etc. The FSD won't engage until after the last clunk (about 10 seconds). I'll have to try that, although I'm usually in the Vulture and don't have the spare power. I also like to run as little equipment as possible to keep temps down. Anyway, you learn or relearn something about this game every day.

As for plotting an out of system jump, the fastest way probably is to plot an emergency jump as soon as you arrive in a system. But that can get old really fast, so just hit the nav panel and scroll down until you get past all the planets and then pick any system and jump (scrolling up may actually be faster). What I would really like would be to have an NPC navigator that I could just scream at to get us the eff out of here!

Roger Wilco Jr wrote:

TorTorden wrote:If you offline the fsd it will have to power on before you can charge the drive.
If it is powered you can start charging the drive as soon you retract hardpoints, no waiting needed.

Really? I keep hearing clunking noises, which I assumed were hard points retracting, cargo scoop deploying, and etc. The FSD won't engage until after the last clunk (about 10 seconds). I'll have to try that, although I'm usually in the Vulture and don't have the spare power. I also like to run as little equipment as possible to keep temps down. Anyway, you learn or relearn something about this game every day.

As for plotting an out of system jump, the fastest way probably is to plot an emergency jump as soon as you arrive in a system. But that can get old really fast, so just hit the nav panel and scroll down until you get past all the planets and then pick any system and jump (scrolling up may actually be faster). What I would really like would be to have an NPC navigator that I could just scream at to get us the eff out of here!

Vulture is one of the few I have to disable the fsd drive on to keep enough power going.
I have used this many times on the vette and often I'm out into cruise before the huge hardpoints has finished retracting whatsoever.

Just though of a few more things.

Of course, if you want avoid any FSD charging slow downs, then don't deploy hard points and just submit, boost, boost, boost, jump.

If you want to deal some damage, like myself, then you may want to consider some chaff instead of the third shield booster, because you are more likely to come into their range, and not getting hit at all, or a lot less, is a lot easier on the remaining shields.

If you start taking hits, you may want to put 4 pips in shields so they will last a lot longer. With 2 pips in engines, you should still have some decent boost. In a T7, you don't want any extended combat, so run if things are going south.

If you are getting hit, don't fly in a straight line, but dodge and weave, and don't forget to use your up/down & left/right thrusters.

Roger Wilco Jr wrote:I'd suggest A rating your thrusters and power distributor. Then submit and run - a lot faster.
Add a point defense to handle any missiles they shoot at you.
Drop mines if you want to punish them.
Lasers to harass them.
If you get mass locked, jump to another system,
Maybe avoid missions as they generate interdictions.
There is nothing wrong with disabling modules when hard points are deployed.

This is how I might tweak your build - link

What Jr said.