So, I’ve finally gotten myself to the point where my primary source of income is pirating – and its fucking great.

I have tried my hand at everything from market crashing, to scanning, to farming, and while they all produced results, I hated each and every one of them. My main gripe is that the cycles take so long to complete, plus it is just the most boring thing in the world to me. I am a void-borne type of guy (if you know, you know) and I really do not like being tied to terra firma. Also, I abhor games that eventually become second jobs. If I wanted to grind, I’d get in some extra hours at work. I want fun and tending to livestock or picking frost crystals just wasn’t doing it for me. I want action and adventure in a game where long-range strategy isn’t a thing. So, once I discovered pirating and learned the ropes, I started just taking shit and blasting anything that has a problem with it. I love it.

Now, I am an unrepentant Gek hater. Period.

I will not abide friendship with the Gek, on any level. The infernal Gek filth that roam the bowls of my freighter have all denounced their heritage and committed their lives to an eternal campaign of Gek annihilation. (They gleefully participate in our regular walk-the-plank celebrations that punctuate a successful cargo run.) So, I trawl the cosmos in search of Gek systems to ravage. I used to just operate in outlaw systems, but now, any system can get these hands and they generally do – with extreme prejudice.

In order to make my privateering challenging I maxed out the combat difficulty settings; so, even with a very high DPS infra-knife, I still have to put in some effort to kill off the sentinels that spawn. I’ve already detailed my opinion of the Gek, so losing standing with them is in fact a badge of honor for me. In fact, I am on a head-long, dead-run to the absolute bottom of the Gek standings. The sooner I get there, the better. I have two squad-mates that run with me and help keep things from getting overwhelming to quickly, and I always keep my freighter in-system in case things get FUBARed enough to force me to have beat a hasty retreat. I know there’s a lot of squadron hate, but I find that two are enough to help get the party started and they generally don’t block my line of fire too much. I’ve made them sign liability waivers, as I simply cannot be bothered to not destroy their shields if they wander into the path of my righteous hellfire that is meant to discipline the pesky agents of the systems authorities for daring to interfere with my lawful assault on the wealth of the low-born Gek trash that litters the cosmos. (…damn that sentence was long..)

I generally go after the cargo pods first, so I’m not fighting the sentinels and freighter lasers at once. Depending on how I do, I may have to duck into the freighter a few times before I completely demolish every cargo fleet I’ve targeted or I’m so full of booty (gigitty), that I can’t store anymore.

Interestingly, I found out that the sentinel capital ship will actually come back online and spew out waves of sentinel fighters, five at a time, after a certain point – and this, of course, makes things even more interesting.

Once I’ve gotten my fill of anti-Gek violence, I turn to plying my trade routes buying and selling commodities, items found during frigate runs, liberated Gek spoils of war, and sundry other baubles, until I’m empty. At this point, I take off my villain mask and go back to my mild-mannered alter-ego of a traveler exploring the universe.

I’ve finally found my niche in the cosmos, and I couldn’t be happier.

Long Live the Pirates! Death to the Gek!

I’m looking at and firing at an enemy torpedo and if I try to lock onto it my ships spins in some random direction because it’s locked on to an enemy ship that’s in completely the opposite direction.

Once I’m in the enemy freighters shield brakes on my ship seem to stop working so I end up bouncing off the ship. I can’t run through the lines to destroy the shield generators when I’m getting bounced back into space.

I’m decent at space combat otherwise but the it feels like the game is handicapping me during freighter attacks. I keep getting dropped into the middle of an asteroid field with friendlies blocking my shots.

Extra fun is that the freighter you’re saving has an RNG controlling the class. When I actually did save a freighter it was a C class ship, a huge step backwards from the A class I have. Sorry but the new mechanic kinda sucks, the ships being saved should Always be an A class or better or it’s not worth the time. The free freighter that the Atlas questline gives you was better than what I got when I saved a freighter. That’s the level of time the new system wastes.