So today for the first time since 4.84, I escorted a trader on his journey to filthy riches. Finding the run to be quite quick and I got a lovely fee for the escort (double than expected) I decided that I really will try to be more of an escort pilot since I've never really tried it out.
So folks here are some tips/assumptions I've made on escorting and being a trader in general that can be useful. Share your own too! You've likely done more escorts than me!
Have a light fighter - Your job is to harass pirates and be agile, taking down the pirates is a bonus but that is time consuming and that means less money for you and your employer.
<strike>Equip a Hornet Disruptor - I prefer the sheer speed and reliability of the Hornet, however its main drawback is explosion range. If you are being targeted by a big target, try to get behind and fire away. Hit those engines.</strike>
Get a Train CD - These disruptors are the best at stopping things over the Hornet, not to mention have the larger hit radius. Stop those ships.
Recon, Recon and Recon - Your main advantage as an escort is your small profile, therefore jump ahead in the lanes but by ONLY one lane. Making sure the way is clear is good but don't leave your escort behind where he can be jumped. Making you look a right fool and with less money.
If you see a suspicious target, check - Not everyone that is white or red want to pirate you, but it doesn't hurt to shout stop to your trader. Try RP'ing with the character to get an idea of who they are and what they want. But make it quick, time is money and safety.
Be a pest - You are going to harass, and keep harassing pirates, they will attack in numbers and you just need to wind them up to get them off the trader. Keep cruise disrupting and keep strafing, every CD explosion on them may stop their own CD, giving the trader a better window to escape.
Know where you can dock - Sometimes you'll have no choice but to dock with your trader, know where you are allowed to dock
Talk to your trader - Traders are heartless beings, convert them into people of society by talking to them. They're like Sims, sociable when coaxed into it.
Look for traders - Traders rarely call for escorts, offer your services. On most 'power routes' there are almost always traders. Know where the hubs are and sit around, once you see one leave, follow close and offer your services.
When in New York... - New York is a hub of many kinds of activity, skullduggery and hilarious acts of RP. Avoid the trade lanes at all costs. It may take a few minutes longer to get to the sell point, or through New York. When in doubt, sneak. Can be applied to all systems really.
Those are some things I can think of from top of my head. Anyone got more solid things to add? I'm new to this art. :crazy:
Escorts and their practice has been a topic of some discussion lately with the flapdoodle and hooplah surrounding the mining mod. The subject of escorts being ineffective has come up more than once and, I feel, has been deposited so virulently that the mindset that escorts are useless has sunk into the global consciousness.
Hopefully I can provide an alternative view with the provision of a few basic strategies.
Please bear in mind that I am, at best, an average pilot. I'm an average pilot when I've been playing a lot, when I haven't been playing a lot I sink to a below average pilot. I can still escort ships. That's something to keep in mind.
The act of escorting a ship, if successful, does not involve blowing up an attacker before it can blow up your charge in the common sense. If successful the vessel you are escorting will be leagues away from your position.
90% of the strategy involved in escorting demands that you encounter trouble long before the vessel you are seeing to safety falls into it. If you are escorting a ship by flying next to it you are wrong. Chances are very good that an attacking force will be able to overwhelm the vessel you are escorting before you are able to destroy them. In which case you have failed.
I'll break that down further for you.
A) Lone escort for wing of transports: Fly at least one tradelane length ahead of your group. They do not move until you tell them to move. Proceed through jumpholes ahead of them. If there is a substantial length of tradelane/gate on both sides of a system consider traveling the entire length before summoning them forward. If you leave your convoy at a location where they can dock you will not need to worry about them.
B) Dual escorts for wing of transports: One performs the actions above while the other lags behind or serves to shut down tradelanes as your group moves through them to ward off any group that may be following. The more escorts you have the better, especially should it come to combat.
C) Mining operations: Patrol a distance between your location and the most likely source of enemy attack. Be it a jumphole, planet, tradelane. As soon as you spot trouble send up the flare and prepare to disrupt the incursion so your mining group can scramble to safety or you can assess the threat. Your job is to make sure that, to the best of your ability, the pirates never reach the actual site of the mining operation or that the vessels laboring are able to scramble to safety prior to the pirates reaching a distance of engagement.
D) Transports within fleets. A number of the midrange transports act as excellent second class combat vessels. Vessels within the 3800ish range carry a limited number of weapons but, with the recent changes, can be outfitted to deal with a number of combat operations. If you have three of such vessels you can do silly things to gunboats with a nice set of class 2 turrets. With a nice set of transport solaris turrets you can put the scare of bombers and similar craft long enough to reach your destination.
E) Even if your group is attacked you have a backup plan. Namely a basic sphere of survival. A vessel with X armor traveling under thrust can survive Y distance. Those odds are only increased by an escort harrying a bomber or gunboat, the bulk of the convoy shooting back and the passing of botts/batts to the primary combat target. Don't think of your ship as having 400 botts/batts. Think of how many the group has. With three transports you're up to 1200 for your ship. That's a lot. You'll go a long ways with that.
F) Pay your escorts well! Don't give them some pissy 500k. Give them a full share of the load. A good escort is worth every credit you have because, well, without one you're going to lose a lot. Bad escorts are a dime a dozen. If you're in a faction and your escorts suck call them out on it and tell them to get in shape. If you're on your own contact one of the more prestigious groups and offer them a wealth of money to cover your rear.
In Discovery every player is everything. If you find someone who wants to play an escort and he finds out he can make more money and have more fun pirating your sorry rear than he can protecting it guess what he's going to do? Pay your escorts well.
So, a brief summary.
1) Escorts travel ahead of convoys to find trouble before the transports do.
2) Mining Op escorts fly patrol patterns between likely vectors of approach by pirate parties.
3) Group cohesion, communication and strategy should be discussed before heading out
4) A group of individuals will fail. Fight together. If things go to pot it'll be the difference between losing 50% of your collective worth and 100% of your collective worth.
5) PAY YOUR ESCORTS WELL YOU CHEAP BUMS. PAAAAY THEEEEEEM.
I hope some of you find this guide somewhat useful. It's all very very basic common sense, so I'm not going to pin it or similar. But keep it in mind if you find your group easy prey for any idiot in a gunboat.
Nice guide Dusty:) I was actually surprised how much my original fee was, I just offered to escort without saying how much it costs. So I made a cool 10 million thanks to a certain IMG transport in a good mood, which was very nice:D Now I can finally get a class VIII armor.
What is the usual rate for a fighter escort anyway?
Hah. I run a merc company and I have no idea how much escorts generally snag. Mostly because sitting around looking for escort work is bad business.
Back in the day I'd generally demand about two million, but that was before the advent of the mining mod. Generally my rule of thumb is that I'd ask them to fork over as much as they would if they were being pirated. A cruel irony I'm sure but, at the same time, better to pay the escort than to pay the pirate.
In the GMS/D: or any other mining group that I've put together the rule was a bit simpler: The escorts get paid the same amount as the escortee. Every job was important. Escorts mine. Haulers haul. If there's 5 people the profits get split 5 ways. So GMS escorts generally can expect to make much better money than, say, a trading group escort or a merc.
Hmm, I'd need to recall how much most routes make in order to ask for 'share based' fee. Though I think for now until I get my new light fighter I'm going for about 3-4 million on successful missions.
Wait now that I remember, is it illegal for someone to escort the trader, then not get paid after doing so? Or is that just completely un-gentleman-like behavior?
I find trading in convoys (with an escort or other traders) to be slower than trading alone, so it is actually better to pay the pirate if it saves you time which leaves more time to make more money... Unless the pirate charges more than the escort would charge.
Quote:Hah. I run a merc company and I have no idea how much escorts generally snag. Mostly because sitting around looking for escort work is bad business.
Do you? Do you get a lot of business? I -never -see escorts on anyone, only big trading factions (like Convoy, or USI...) seem to feel to hire them.
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