A friend much more into E:D got me back into the game with the recent Golconda Community Event, despite him usually playing the Odyssey version, while I only have the 'Horizons' verison. One shared multi-crew to get some seed money, one new Dolphin outfitting as a light cargo hauler, and I made it up to 'Broker' and had enough money to buy new ships: A Type-7 heavy, a Diamondback Explorer, and an Asp Explorer for multi-crewing with friends. One trip to Maia and then Farseer to get the initial tier of FSD engineered upgrades, and then back to my home system to help my minor faction; mapping to/from gets me the rank of 'Trailblazer'. And for reference, I don't min-max; I always put the best reactor and shield generator that a given ship allows, and only played on friends-only sessions.
A couple of days ago, I tried a "Harmless" rated combat mission to go to a low-intensity combat zone in-system and get 8 kills for my minor faction; I had a railgun, multi-cannon, and laser on my Diamondback and figured it would be adequate. Upon arrival, all the ships were listed as "System Defence Force" and all were Anacondas fighting one another. On joining the fight, I could do almost no damage and was returned to the insurance screen shortly thereafter. I switched to a Viper (my previous ship before the Golconda windfall), tried a different low-intensity combat zone, and was met with Asps, Vultures, a Federal Gunship, and yes, Anacondas. Lasted slightly longer, but had to abandon the mission.
Today, I tried a "Peddler" ranked delivery mission. Since it started from an Outpost, I took my Asp Explorer and fitted it for cargo. On getting to the pickup point, I'm attacked by an Asp Scout for the crime of carrying 10 tons of coffee through an uninhabited system to get some spending money en route.
On getting to the delivery system, I was interdicted twice, and survived. The mission giver then notified me that enemy ships were being sent against me, and I limped to the nearest outpost offering repairs. On leaving it and entering supercruise, I was interdicted by a "Deadly"-ranked NPC Anaconda, and torn apart, losing half the irreplaceable mission cargo. On respawning and paying the 600k+ insurance bill, the moment I go to supercruise, the same NPC interdicts my now-cargoless Asp and kills me even faster. I no longer have spare money to recover a re-buy, and abandon the mission, incurring a 2.5 million CR fine I still haven't paid off.
I spend the next several hours exploring in my Diamondback, and learning how to map planets and use the SRV to get raw engineering resources. I take a "Mostly Aimless" grade mission to recover a black box. I get to the target system, use FSS to find the orange grade "Degraded Emissions [Threat 0]". One long supercruise there, I find the wreckage and cargo; check for hostile contacts and deploy my cargo scoop. An NPC Anaconda and Eagle immediately appear from nowhere and rip apart my Diamondback before I can even get my cargo scoop retracted.
-673k CR insurance and all the work I'd done in the past several hours getting a bit of money.
Thanks game. My combat rating is 'Harmless' and I'm flying small (or at most, Medium) ships, and you keep putting me against unwinnable odds that have depleted my in-game savings to the point I can no longer replace my ships–not that it would have helped.
I was seriously considering upgrading to 'Odyssey', but the last several days have burnt out my desire to play further.
