Hi all. One month player here. Looking to learn a little more about where I went wrong. Last night I decided to dip my toes into the world of contracts - courier contracts to be more specific. I grabbed myself a Bestower and head out to the pick up location (lowsec 0.3). $4.5 mill collateral with $1.5 mill payoff. I believe it was a 9 jump route back to Amar. I accepted the contract and put the item in my cargo. Undocked and started the journey back. It may have been the first gate, possibly the second gate, that I see a message pop up saying “I foolishly was carrying contraband” or something to that affect. I ended up dead of course. I figured it was Concord destroying me, but in my in game mail I saw that i had “Kill rights” on 3 players now.
So a few questions:
Was it players that were just waiting for me to pick up that contract and kill me or was it Concord? (Contraband)
How can you tell if the contract is contraband BEFORE excepting the contract?
Are there any “tell tale” signs that I should be looking for as a scam when starting my courier career?
A) I always check the owner of the contract for their security status but other than that I’m not sure
what to look for.
I appreciate any help you guys would throw my way.
You were in lowsec, where anyone can kill you. It was another player.
You may get a warning about contraband, but you will usually not be killed in lowsec by faction police unless its gate guns.
It depends on which space youre travelling through. Looking at the info tab on the item in question will show a tab called “Legality”. Pretty much, if you see that tab, you know its illegal in some place or another.
Make sure the item in question both delivers and is picked up at hisec.
I should have thought to look at the killboard. I appreciate that. So most likely they were just waiting for someone to pick up that contract and come through. The contraband message threw me for a loop since I was at a gate. I assumed gate guns is what got me.
I’ll be sure to look for that legality tab. That could be helpful, as well as being mindful not to grab contracts that are 1 day completion.
i would like to highlight that you have the good behaviour, trying to learn and improve, not whining nor asking CCP to make you invulnerable.
I sent you some isks to help you
Keep the faith!
Wyk
Wyk Bathana you certainly didn’t have to do that! I absolutely appreciate it though. I’ll put it to good use. I’m looking to get back on this evening and keep at it.
I’d like to add another thing, JUST because both pickup as destination are in high sec does not automatically mean the route will be through high sec. It might be that there’s a bit of low sec in between that you can’t avoid.
Before you accept the contract set destination to the pickup point (assuming it’s not your current location) and then set the drop off point as a way point. Then you can see which systems you need to travel through from start to finish and can check if there’s any low sec in there.
looking at the killmail it doesn’t look like there was any contraband, also it being in lowsec I don’t think any notification about contraband would have shown up. Lastly I’m not sure you can put contraband items into courier contracts.
If anything it seems like the main problem here is trying to haul in lowsec with a bestower, it’s fat, slow, and easy to kill. Looking at the contract itself you say the collateral was 4.5mil, and looking at the package that’s about fair. Likewise the reward is fine for the collateral level, maybe not so good for the number of jumps or lowsec requirement though.
Biggest scam warnings are collateral and/or rewards that seem too big, or routes that take you through choke points.
in general I’d say avoid courier contracts as the rewards are often just not worth it. I’ve gotten a bunch of stuff hauled for pretty much nothing bless whomever does it but it just seems like a bleak profession. And that’s completely ignoring the possibility of scams or ganks which just make it something I never even think about doing.
Honestly - I agree with Wyk’s assessment here. I’ll pass you some ISK when I get home as well @Crucious_Roman. Safe flying!
Low-Sec is always going to be a risk unless you have a ship you are confident running contracts between, such as a Blockade runner (Covert Ops unit, better maneuvarability, etc), but even those aren’t invulnerable. I almost lost mine when I was consolidating some of my goods because I ran into a station camp like a dummy.
Another consideration for you, by the way, is checking the cargo size of whatever the contract has you shipping. Sometimes people want something small moved from one location to another that they can’t be bothered to do themselves. In those cases, you might be able to get away with using something like a frigate to fly in-and-out more easily, better turn radius, warp initiation, and you can fit to your need for safely moving it from point A to point B. Good rule of being a courier: Plan for survival and a safe trip. With more experience researching locations and what sort of contracts you can take with your skillset, you might find the challenge rewarding.
Zachary Dellinger I thank you for the added info and most definitely for helping a new guy out with a little scratch!
I’ve been playing MMOs and other types of games my entire life. I have never EVER found myself playing a community like this one where people actually are interested in helping out some new comers. Sincerely, I appreciate all the help you guys have been offering. I will be sure to “pay it forward” when I find myself in a situation where I can be of help to someone else.
The contraband or criminal message is broadcasted to everyone on grid if someone else jumped in a system with some illegal goods in cargo or with low standings to the faction controlling space.
Hey, if you want to feel better about your situation, I’m technically a vet and I just lost a Kronos because I went to the restroom and didn’t know more enemies were going to spawn in an area. Lost maybe 1.5 bil isk in that ship.
It happens - don’t be too worried about things. ■■■■happens in this game and you just have to live with it.
You are right, they should highlight the name of the offender. When I frist read those messages, I wondered what I did wrong until I saw they didn’t mean me.
