Update: Raids 51 and 52 -- salewa searching

All my outstanding quests are just "find shit" quests. I need Salewas, white body armor, food for Jaeger.  If I could find a spark-plug then I could craft Salewas. I've been hitting Oli hard in Scav raids, making money, but not finding what I need.  In offline practice, I see that the crackhouse has quite a few med things, especially Salewas. I normally dislike going in buildings, but if I catch a good spawn, I'll hit it. 

Goals:

• head to crackhouse and find Salewas (or spark plug, so I can craft them).  
• survive

Destination: Customs

Raid 51

Loadout: Suppressed VPO-209 with .366 TKM FMJ.  A great ammo against scavs, but probably not great for PMCs unless I can eke out a headshot or leg meta (which I'm not good at).  Crappy class 2 armor, ears, meds. T-Bag backpack.  CMC Medkit, splint, and extra ammo in container.

Insurance: 5K (mostly previously insured)

I spawned across the river, at the trailer park end. Excellent!  That's a great spawn for hitting crackhouse, maybe the best.  I moved fast - walked directly to the land bridge, ran across it, and up the hill, sticking close to the map edge. There were no scavs that I could see when I set out, but as I crossed RUAF extract, there were two, but their attention was elsewhere. I darted cover-to-cover and went past them. As I came around the building to where the dead body lies, there was a scav camping there. But I was ready for him. I quickly fired off a series of shots and brought him down before he could return fire.  Fortunately, that did not seem to alert the other scavs in the vicinity.  Yay suppressed.

I bee-lined it to crackhouse. Door at top of stairs still closed (good).  Went in front door, headed to med-case.  It was empty. And no other med-spawns. Hmmm. I hustled upstairs, went down hall to med-lab.  There was very little loot in the lab.  Two painkillers and a stim maybe.  Just then someone started on the heavy machine gun at stronghold. They can't easily spot me through these windows, but if someone starts shooting them "just for fun" that might kill me.  Also, I hate being in buildings.  I left.

I hustled up to construction, planning to take the shipping container shortcut through the wall. But I was moving too fast - I didn't see the scavs as I entered the area, but they saw me and I started taking fire.  My motion was freezing. I PK'd and ran through construction the long way, crossing the wall near the river side. Dodging bullets the whole way.  But I was just trading adversaries, on the other side of the wall were two more scavs who opened up on me. There's no hard cover.  I dove into the bushes, and kept moving.  Amazingly I survived and got away.  Even more amazing, while I had quite a few wounds in my arms and legs, nothing was blacked.  I medded up, splinted, and resumed.  Crossed the map, hitting a few more med spawns. Got a lot of loot, but no spark plug, no salewa.

Time In Raid: 14 minutes, 21 seconds. 

Exp: 913

Killed: Kaban Gefors (scav).  Godspeed Kaban.

Ammo Used: 11    Hits: 3   Accuracy: 0.27

Mistakes

• moving too incautiously into construction. Should not have gotten surprised like that
• fleeing across construction.  Safer to have fled back the way I came - more cover, plus it was clear.
• did not get salewas or spark plug.

Successes

• Survived
• I pushed immediately from a spawn position.  Something I normally never do.  I should get extra exp just for that.

Raid 52

Loadout: identical.  Plus a "Hot Rod" energy drink.

Spawned across river again, but other spawn point - the one across from smugglers extract.  Drank my energy drink and headed out.  Ran across that little junky bridge and started to approach intersection. My original plan was to cross the intersection, and either approach crackhouse from construction or "behind" RUAF extract.  But a gun-battle broke out at the intersection.  Wow - someone really pushed! I thought about trying to third party it, but I don't have a good weapon against auto-fire opponents, and that's not why I'm here. Plus, I really don't need to die in the first minute of a raid.   Moved away, peeked the road to sniper roadblock, crossed it.  Made my way over to the hill between dorms and construction.  As I surmounted it, fighting broke out in both dorms and construction.  Damn - that blocks my way.  Made my way behind the bus-depot. The fighting in construction area was continuing, so I decided to bail on crackhouse this time.  Hit the stashes. 

As I was looting the stash next to the railroad track, I started catching fire. But not sure from where - I bailed on the loot,  ran back through the gap in the fence, rotated around, took shelter in a bush and medded.  But I still had a "tremor". Great. Will that go away or am I stuck with it? 

Could hear continuing firefights nearby in dorms. Crossed the wall, the tracks, and began to head up the hill, bearing towards gap between the rocks before I would approach power tower (in case that's where I had been fired upon earlier - not sure).   Just then heard a player running towards me. I ducked into a bush, he must have heard me, because he did the same.

Despite the rain and bad weather, I caught a glimpse of his silhouette in the bush.  I know where he is, he doesn't know where I am. But I need to act before he figures it out.  I aimed down sight and opened fire. The recoil was much worse than I'm used to (the tremor?) and I didn't fire the weapon at the rate I normally do. I really need to fire this thing fast fast fast to have any chance of taking him down. Especially, since I'm just aiming at a smudge in a bush.

I had the initiative. But the lack of auto-fire, poor aim, and my slow firing overall was just not enough. He was able to get his weapon on me and cut me down with a dozen rounds of BT.  Sigh.  Congratulations LordOfRat on the kill. I hope you won't be offended if I say that I wish it had been the other way round.

Time In Raid: 9 minutes, 9 seconds.

Exp: 188

Ammo Used: 15 (I guess that was fast)  Hits: 2   Damage to Body: 96  Damage to Armor: 106

Heal: 7K

If I had been able to land just one or two more shots that might have gone my way.  

Mistakes

• should I have used a grenade first?  The sound of the pin would have given up my initiative. It could end with him displacing, or him zeroing in on my location and firing.  I think I chose the right path by firing instead of grenading.  Wish I could go back and try again.
• Not using an auto-fire weapon.  I have a collection, gathering dust, but I can't replace them. Heck, I can't even get magazines for my AK-101s.  That's why I use these SKS and VPO-209/136 - these I can buy from Prapor or Fence. And they often come back with insurance.   But maybe now that I'm level 9 I should start to use my stash of 5.56 weapons, to help me push towards the flea.  If I could buy an 7.62 AKM I would.  But I can't. 
• sucking at combat. I'm getting much better at taking down scavs, but not PMC kills.
• should not have stayed crouched while firing.  Probably better to have stood and started moving while aiming down sight.  Of course, that might have surrendered concealment, so this is debatable.  Maybe best would be to have rushed him. 
• Moving too fast through the map?  Getting shot up while looting put the fear in me, and I was moving fast, and not with a clear plan. I was sort-of planning to hit the medbox on power tower. 
• died

Successes

• bail on loot, evade, rotate and med after first receiving fire
• remembering to bring and drink my energy drink - have to eat and drink between consecutive raids.
• took the initiative in a firefight.  Even though I lost, I feel like I did pretty good considering the cards I had been dealt (or had dealt myself). I fired first, fired as quickly as I could manage.

Postscript

I can't believe I haven't found any Salewas or spark plugs. Not in regular raids, not in my scav raids.