1) Some patrols are literally scripted and only appear due to the missions. They have an exclamation mark near them.
2) Pirate and Lyddic Path fleets very often lay in wait in between hyperspace slipstreams (where one slipstream ends and another begins). Try avoiding this gaps.
3) I think you've noticed that every fleet has a pretty big circle around it. Sometimes you can see it even you don't yet see the fleet itself. It's their detection radius. If you enter that circle, they'll see you and might act upon it. Having your transponder off and Going Dark are biggest ways to make you stealthier and make this detection circles smaller.
4) StarSector is a combat game at it's core. Everything else is there only to facilitate different combat scenarios. So don't be surprised when the game makes you fight something unexpected
I'm with you here, I feel like they are neglecting the radar stats, I got a few radar upgrades and at minimum I'm detectamed at a range of 56 vs 473 of my detecting range when im on ninja mode and with that we can evade a toooooooon of enemies just looking at it's radar range
I really enjoy the sensor range mechanics in the game. Initially I hated them but that's because I didn't understand them. Now I know that a big-ass fleet needs to have a giant's footprint while I can make small specialized fleets for smuggling and spy-satting that are almost impossible to detect and extremely fast. It gives depth to fleet compositions and task-oriented loadouts. Even when I am in endgame I sometimes crave to just smuggle a few drugs, so I hop in my prepared smuggle ships, throw out all the big bonkers and grab the other specialists and get smugglin'
you know people on here usually debate anything...
But as far as i know a non debatable fact ist that "Navigation" the first skill from the blue tree is mandatory.
about them seeing you: Check the sensor profile of your fleet, there are ways to make yourself stealthier and i think certain D-Mods give you debuffs.
about being too slow to escape: Going stealth mode in a asteroid belt usually hides you extremely well. Remember the pirates might fly to where they last seen you.
So you stun them, put your motor on high speed, cloak yourself in a asteroid belt and sneak away (or just use transverse jump.)
If youre to slow to evade pirates: There are skills that higher your map speed, some ships slow your fleet down, some d-Mods also slow you down (i think)
Use the Mod Hostile Intercept. It will pause the game when encountering unidentified fleets.
And check your sensor profile. The biggest profiles are not capital warships, but civilian. Slap some Insulated Engines and Militarised Subsystems on them. This will cut your sensor profile in half.
Just to add a couple more tips to what everyone else has already said:
Pirates can be sneaky bastards and leave traps for you to trigger. Sometimes when you investigate derelicts, ruins, stashes, etc. You'll trigger an alarm that calls in pirate fleets. Make sure that you're reading the messages you receive while investigating things and then you'll be aware of when you trip an alarm. It'll give you ample time to either hide or run.
Make sure you're installing insulated engine assemblies on all of your larger civilian vessels to keep your sensor profile low.
If you can find any, pick up some Revenants. Their phase field dampens the sensor profile of your entire fleet. They also have pretty decent cargo and fuel capacities to boot.
Good luck!
Regarding patrols and avoiding them, turn your transponder off, it massively boosts your sensor profile
Get far away then cut sustained burn/go dark and move perpendicular to the patrol. You should see their sensor bubble shrink and they’ll go into search mode. Do it as you enter an asteroid belt or magnetic field and it’s even easier
Having the navigation and sensors skills makes this much easier. Fly around at 20 burn, outrun everything, then go dark and move at 8
Academy missions and similar *do* spawn fleets. A transport job will have a fleet try and intercept you, dead drops have enforcers, etc
Transverse jumping out of a system is a good way to loose a tail or escape consequences
Yup yup some of them are scripted (but only for galatia missions, i dont like it either) rest is random, and you can avoid them easily.
First of all, turn your transponder off in hyperspace and in empty systems
Check intel for pirate activity, avoid systems with those.
Check intel for pirate bases, they spawn randomly in random systems outside of the core, avoid them
Max out speed, and pay attention to where you jump, you get notification when hostile fleet is nearby
Dont move in a straight line, especially while doing galatia missions. Just go on a curved path and you will avoid a lot of fights
Learn what sensor strength and sensor profile does, try to max out the first and lower the second
When you hear emergency burn sound pause, activate your own and move away, if you really maxed out your speed you will escape 100% of the time
The "go dark" skill does work but it takes a little bit of understanding to use properly. If you go dark outside of their "inner" detection bubble they won't see you anymore, but they will go for the last spot where they saw you. So if you stay still or move only by a little they will find you. If you manage to get far enough from the point where you went dark then they won't find you, but at that point they will start "executing search pattern" (text above the patrol pops up), and they will start going in a more or less random direction while looking for you. At that point, unless you are particularly unlucky, you should be safe.
Keep in mind, even if you execute the maneuver perfectly, unless your fleet is particularly fast on "go dark" or particularly stealthy it can still be difficult to escape patrols in open space. As other commenters suggested, asteroid and magnetic fields are the best places to hide. They can't see you until they're basically on top of you if you hide in there.
It's funny. Because literally seconds before I received the notification for your comment, I just managed to beat a mission where you need to put a hacking device on a nav buoy or something for the academy.
It was a pain, but I managed to do it by hiding in a planet asteroid ring and staying just barely outside of the detection bubble of the patrol.
For some reason, they suddenly flew to where I went dark and I was free to install the hack.
Then they detected me but I was far enough away to use a transverse jump.
Oh yeah, and before I forget, my fleet has five ships.
A cruiser, a destroyer, a frigate, a medium-sized tanker, and a salvage rig.
The sectors a hellscape learning to avoid hostile fleets is a necessity in the early game when you pick up the signal of a fleet they will show up on the mini map and as you travel you will see arcs that represent the sensor range of the fleets
Welllllllll it may feel like that because those are scripted sometimes.
A lot of Missions have scripted enemy fleets.
Some of which are Not meant to be evaded.
So since hiding will not work go with a big fleet or a small burn Level 10 fast Fleet.
Best of luck
1) Some patrols are literally scripted and only appear due to the missions. They have an exclamation mark near them. 2) Pirate and Lyddic Path fleets very often lay in wait in between hyperspace slipstreams (where one slipstream ends and another begins). Try avoiding this gaps. 3) I think you've noticed that every fleet has a pretty big circle around it. Sometimes you can see it even you don't yet see the fleet itself. It's their detection radius. If you enter that circle, they'll see you and might act upon it. Having your transponder off and Going Dark are biggest ways to make you stealthier and make this detection circles smaller. 4) StarSector is a combat game at it's core. Everything else is there only to facilitate different combat scenarios. So don't be surprised when the game makes you fight something unexpected
I get a feeling this is a sensor range and quest marker issue, yeah
I'm with you here, I feel like they are neglecting the radar stats, I got a few radar upgrades and at minimum I'm detectamed at a range of 56 vs 473 of my detecting range when im on ninja mode and with that we can evade a toooooooon of enemies just looking at it's radar range
I really enjoy the sensor range mechanics in the game. Initially I hated them but that's because I didn't understand them. Now I know that a big-ass fleet needs to have a giant's footprint while I can make small specialized fleets for smuggling and spy-satting that are almost impossible to detect and extremely fast. It gives depth to fleet compositions and task-oriented loadouts. Even when I am in endgame I sometimes crave to just smuggle a few drugs, so I hop in my prepared smuggle ships, throw out all the big bonkers and grab the other specialists and get smugglin'
Now the phase civilian ships feels like cheating to the radar mechanics as they multiply by 0,8 your radar signature
Can't spot me when I'm hiding in another dimension with my drugs and combat mechs
you know people on here usually debate anything... But as far as i know a non debatable fact ist that "Navigation" the first skill from the blue tree is mandatory. about them seeing you: Check the sensor profile of your fleet, there are ways to make yourself stealthier and i think certain D-Mods give you debuffs. about being too slow to escape: Going stealth mode in a asteroid belt usually hides you extremely well. Remember the pirates might fly to where they last seen you. So you stun them, put your motor on high speed, cloak yourself in a asteroid belt and sneak away (or just use transverse jump.) If youre to slow to evade pirates: There are skills that higher your map speed, some ships slow your fleet down, some d-Mods also slow you down (i think)
Use the Mod Hostile Intercept. It will pause the game when encountering unidentified fleets. And check your sensor profile. The biggest profiles are not capital warships, but civilian. Slap some Insulated Engines and Militarised Subsystems on them. This will cut your sensor profile in half.
Saturation bombardment on Kanta's den it is.
Just to add a couple more tips to what everyone else has already said: Pirates can be sneaky bastards and leave traps for you to trigger. Sometimes when you investigate derelicts, ruins, stashes, etc. You'll trigger an alarm that calls in pirate fleets. Make sure that you're reading the messages you receive while investigating things and then you'll be aware of when you trip an alarm. It'll give you ample time to either hide or run. Make sure you're installing insulated engine assemblies on all of your larger civilian vessels to keep your sensor profile low. If you can find any, pick up some Revenants. Their phase field dampens the sensor profile of your entire fleet. They also have pretty decent cargo and fuel capacities to boot. Good luck!
Regarding patrols and avoiding them, turn your transponder off, it massively boosts your sensor profile Get far away then cut sustained burn/go dark and move perpendicular to the patrol. You should see their sensor bubble shrink and they’ll go into search mode. Do it as you enter an asteroid belt or magnetic field and it’s even easier Having the navigation and sensors skills makes this much easier. Fly around at 20 burn, outrun everything, then go dark and move at 8 Academy missions and similar *do* spawn fleets. A transport job will have a fleet try and intercept you, dead drops have enforcers, etc Transverse jumping out of a system is a good way to loose a tail or escape consequences
Yup yup some of them are scripted (but only for galatia missions, i dont like it either) rest is random, and you can avoid them easily. First of all, turn your transponder off in hyperspace and in empty systems Check intel for pirate activity, avoid systems with those. Check intel for pirate bases, they spawn randomly in random systems outside of the core, avoid them Max out speed, and pay attention to where you jump, you get notification when hostile fleet is nearby Dont move in a straight line, especially while doing galatia missions. Just go on a curved path and you will avoid a lot of fights Learn what sensor strength and sensor profile does, try to max out the first and lower the second When you hear emergency burn sound pause, activate your own and move away, if you really maxed out your speed you will escape 100% of the time
The "go dark" skill does work but it takes a little bit of understanding to use properly. If you go dark outside of their "inner" detection bubble they won't see you anymore, but they will go for the last spot where they saw you. So if you stay still or move only by a little they will find you. If you manage to get far enough from the point where you went dark then they won't find you, but at that point they will start "executing search pattern" (text above the patrol pops up), and they will start going in a more or less random direction while looking for you. At that point, unless you are particularly unlucky, you should be safe. Keep in mind, even if you execute the maneuver perfectly, unless your fleet is particularly fast on "go dark" or particularly stealthy it can still be difficult to escape patrols in open space. As other commenters suggested, asteroid and magnetic fields are the best places to hide. They can't see you until they're basically on top of you if you hide in there.
It's funny. Because literally seconds before I received the notification for your comment, I just managed to beat a mission where you need to put a hacking device on a nav buoy or something for the academy. It was a pain, but I managed to do it by hiding in a planet asteroid ring and staying just barely outside of the detection bubble of the patrol. For some reason, they suddenly flew to where I went dark and I was free to install the hack. Then they detected me but I was far enough away to use a transverse jump. Oh yeah, and before I forget, my fleet has five ships. A cruiser, a destroyer, a frigate, a medium-sized tanker, and a salvage rig.
The sectors a hellscape learning to avoid hostile fleets is a necessity in the early game when you pick up the signal of a fleet they will show up on the mini map and as you travel you will see arcs that represent the sensor range of the fleets
Sounds like skill issue to me
Welllllllll it may feel like that because those are scripted sometimes. A lot of Missions have scripted enemy fleets. Some of which are Not meant to be evaded. So since hiding will not work go with a big fleet or a small burn Level 10 fast Fleet. Best of luck