Locating containers and lost equipment - any tips?

[Gagzila]

Hi All,

I find myself starting to get really frustrated with trying to find objects in space that can't be targeted / scanned and must be seen with the naked eye which I have found means you need to be rather close to see.

A couple of contracts now I have had to cancel after heading to the waypoint and simply not being able to find them after extensive searching. I have also just completed some of the quests which ended up giving me some Saphire coordinates to 3 secret crates regularly stocked up with weapons and other items. I jump to this exact location but after searching back and forth and all around in about a 5-6000 radius / area and trying to use bright backlighting from nebulas or the near by planet to silhouette them or sit on the side of the local systems star so as to see the light reflecting of them, I still can't locate the damn things, despite being told EXACTLY where they are!!

Can someone please help a rookie out

Thanks,

Gagzila

[Kikoni]

Things like containers and floating equipment will appear on your radar as a purple blip. Merely turn your heading to this purple blip and fly until it's in your sights.

It's quite simple, really. However, It took me some doing to realize that that was how my radar worked.

Hope this helps!

[Gagzila]

Things like containers and floating equipment will appear on your radar as a purple blip. Merely turn your heading to this purple blip and fly until it's in your sights.

It's quite simple, really. However, It took me some doing to realize that that was how my radar worked.

Hope this helps!

Hi Kikoni,

I hadn't noticed this and had been checking my radar quite regularly to keep track of the nav point...will check it out, thanks for the tip

I once noticed this tiny little purple dot / apostrophe looking thing in space which I eventually zeroed in on but think it was just a graphical glitch or something, nothing happened when I tried beaming it aboard.

Cheers,

Gagzila

[Marvin]

Tips for completing "search and recover" contracts:

• While still in the station, turn toward the waypoint.
• Engage inertial (very important).
• Initiate the jump.
• Coast under inertial until you see the purple blip on radar.
• Use thrusers to adjust your trajectory toward the blip.
• If it's a "recover" contract, turn on your tractor beam.
• Otherwise, just fly by the container to complete the contract.

As long as you're pointed at the waypoint prior to jumping ... and keep coasting after exiting hyperspace ... the pod will eventually show up almost directly in front of you.

[Gagzila]

Tips for completing "search and recover" contracts:

• While still in the station, turn toward the waypoint.
• Engage inertial (very important).
• Initiate the jump.
• Coast under inertial until you see the purple blip on radar.
• Use thrusers to adjust your trajectory toward the blip.
• If it's a "recover" contract, turn on your tractor beam.
• Otherwise, just fly by the container to complete the contract.

As long as you're pointed at the waypoint prior to jumping ... and keep coasting after exiting hyperspace ... the pod will eventually show up almost directly in front of you.

Hi Marvin,

Thanks for the great tips, had most figured out already except the purple radar ID. I went back in after Kikoni's reply and was still having no luck finding them after another 10min or so flying around in the area....ended up pulling the message back up and realised it was meant to be in the Glacia sector not central Saphire DOH! So I popped over there, went to the local sector coords again and there they are exactly at the nav...so it was just me being daft all along, though the messages are quite hard to read sometimes and I still had issues with those contracts which the knowledge of the purple radar ID should help a lot for any future ones.

Big thanks to both of you!

Cheers,

Gagzila

[Marvin]

There is one other type of cargo pod you might hear about ... but only if you have a science officer aboard your ship. When you enter a different sector and that sector has a cargo pod either floating in space or buried on the local planet, your science officer will inform you of such and give you a heading (in both azimuth and altitude) to the object ... from your current location. Even with a more accurate compass and pitch ladder, you'll find it difficult to glom in on the heading ... usually you pass by the pod without detecting it. Luckily, there is help.

SeeJay has a little program at his website you can download. It's an Excel sheet where you plug in at least two sets of data taken from your science officer for triangulation ... outputting a set of coordinates leading you to the pod.

[Nigel_Strange]

What Marvin refers to are hidden containers. They are hidden because they are designed for radar transparency. You have to be very close to them to see the blip on your radar. Science officers have other means of detecting them.

If you are doing a retrieval mission from a base, though, the coordinates you are given will almost always put you close enough to the crate so that when you are AT the waypoint, you should see the blip. Remember, though: when you jump, you usually land 2500 clicks in front of the waypoint. These crates are usually not stealthy, so you can see them on radar from farther away.

[Busch]

For the snoopies and go-find-ums-drag-ums-back (lost crate locates, escape pod & crate retrievals), except for Talison CZ @ Command Alpha (special-case senario), I usually turn 180 degrees to the posted way-point, raise or lower my aim-point (via the pitch ladder) by the estimated degree of the off-set, go inert and hit the "GO" button. If it's a lost crate or a crate/pod retrieval, I'll engage my M/T beam (either Alt-B or press-and-hold) from the launch-point/station, and watch for the purple blipster on my radar gymbal. Have been very successful "fly-fishing" for crates and pods in this manner. Also shaves a few seconds off the run as well. The pods and crates missions seem to "manifest" within a 20 degree arc off the plane of the ecliptic, either 10 degrees up or down at the outside limits. You may wish to consider this....

[Gagzila]

Thanks for all the great advice guys, will definitely keep it in mind for the next retrieval contract

I'm still facepalming from the realisation of my error with the secret crates last night I was pleasantly surprised to find a cannon in one of them worth 114k! Will hold onto it for now but will probably sell later on to fund a new ship further down the track

Cheers,

Gagzila

[Edited on 10-2-2012 by Gagzila]

[Marvin]

Those cargo pods get refilled with similar items on a regular basis.