Citadel Space

I'm just wondering what our plans are if say... We get a distress signal? What would be SOP in this case? Plenty of people are bound to just go hog wild when they get into the game and either waste all their fuel, or be too damaged to do more than "limp home." There were talks of a autohome command but idk which forum it was from. But if that doesn't come to fruition, and we're on our way to an asteroid or back to base or whatever... And get this call, what can we do?

Murphy's law says no plan survives first contact intact, so I'm not expecting definitive answers here. I just think it would be good to have a discussion about this, and what our options are, so we're not fumbling around when we may need to act.

TL;DR

Doing your business, you get a distress signal: pirates, no fuel, badly damaged, etc.
What is our next step?

If the person was hit by pirates, Hell's Angels escort; out of fuel, a Starfarer and its escort.

Say you are a fighter squad, if you are on mission, call up and see if you should help, if not another squad will go out.

In the case of an explorer ship, you probably have advanced scanners, so access the situation, then report it to whomever can help.

If you are a trader, head back the way you came, most of these situations will be traps. Report while you return.

If you are a black ops, chances are you are scouting a system that you know is hostile, or you don't know... either way, make sure you stay dark, and do the same as an explorer.

Always keep your guard up no matter what ship you are in. You don't want any of these situations getting the best of you.

These solutions have no doubt some problems, but they are my ideas when it comes to seeing something like this.

(mobile)

Great question! Zramn is mostly right about it.

We'll have plenty of backup as members of CSC. If you ever need something near our home territory, we'll be around for back up.

But ultimately, it's up to you. If you're on mission, your commanding officer will evaluate the situation. But other than that, use your best judgement. Distress signals are dangerous. It's like blood in the water even if it's a legitimate distress signal.