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[SomethingOrOther]

I did bounty hunter start this time around.

Due to the random nature of bounty availability- what am I supposed to do? Store all my ships and wait in orbit till something shows up? It was a bad experience that I had a bunch of missions I couldn't do (too far away), and I ran out of supplies just waiting/hoping for something to turn up and ended up having to take a desperate option and lost everything. I don't know what I could have done differently. All my available trade options weren't netting enough money to even cover fuel cost even trading surplus buys to deficit buyers and I didn't have enough cargo capacity to make the only available delivery (bar) mission work out (this was my last desperate effort before losing everything in that bad battle).

I also don't understand how the picket fleets see you go dark from so incredibly far away! I'm way out of their sensor range because after I go dark I see their sensor range indicator coming up on me as they approach- why are they even coming over here like they noticed me when I'm obviously out of their sensor range? I didn't notice any in-game indication or explanation of this behavior and it just feels like "Oh, here comes the cheating AI again!"

[intrinsic_parity]

What ships were in your fleet?

Also with the sensor range thing, you likely saw their sensor range for after you went dark, but they can see you from much further away before you went dark (that's the point of going dark). If a ship within their vision turns off its transponder, they will go over to look for it where it just was, and since you went dark, you're moving very slowly so you can't get very far before they arrive.

[Arcagnello]

I did bounty hunter start this time around.

Due to the random nature of bounty availability- what am I supposed to do? Store all my ships and wait in orbit till something shows up? It was a bad experience that I had a bunch of missions I couldn't do (too far away), and I ran out of supplies just waiting/hoping for something to turn up and ended up having to take a desperate option and lost everything. I don't know what I could have done differently. All my available trade options weren't netting enough money to even cover fuel cost even trading surplus buys to deficit buyers and I didn't have enough cargo capacity to make the only available delivery (bar) mission work out (this was my last desperate effort before losing everything in that bad battle).

I also don't understand how the picket fleets see you go dark from so incredibly far away! I'm way out of their sensor range because after I go dark I see their sensor range indicator coming up on me as they approach- why are they even coming over here like they noticed me when I'm obviously out of their sensor range? I didn't notice any in-game indication or explanation of this behavior and it just feels like "Oh, here comes the cheating AI again!"

Picket fleets will come running to you the moment you cut your transponder if they had you on your radar when you had it on.

The best options you have (Coming from someone that did a Pirate/Smuggler campaign not so long ago) is to either
a)Find an asteroid belt, a nebula, an irradiated world's "aureola" or even after battle debris to station yourself in with the trasponder still on, make sure there are no pickets around you that sill see you and ONLY THEN kill your transponder
b)don't turn you trasnponder on when entering a system, do try and make sure to NOT jump into a system from a planet or an otherwise patrolled jomp point ( I usually jump into a system from the star jump point, CR degradation is nothing if you make stacks of cash anyway)

Also try -as intrinsic_parity stated before me- to both increase your sensor range and decrease the range at wich you're detected. The bigger the margin between the two are and the easier of a smuggling life you will enjoy.

On a side note, also consider installing the Hostile Intercept (and Autopause!) 1.2.1 mod ( https://fractalsoftworks.com/forum/index.php?topic=18909.0 ). It will help you immensely!

Edit: I've also got Nexerilin installed and that mod does atually feature fleets that will magically know where you are if you've got a big enough bounty on your head. Make sure that the fleet trailing you is not one of those from this mod, if that's the case just evade them until your bounty expires and your big naughty war crimes are wiped off the bounty board, at least until you tac bomb and raid another half a dozen planets in a row.

[SCC]

System bounties are pretty profitable. You might also consider obtaining a tanker or two to extend your range, if all personal bounties were too far away from the core.

[Wyvern]

System bounties are pretty profitable. You might also consider obtaining a tanker or two to extend your range, if all personal bounties were too far away from the core.

System bounties can be profitable. They can also be total trash. Sometimes I can go in, fight a bunch of pirates and make bank - and sometimes I spend the entire bounty duration looking around trying to find something, anything, to fight... and there's just nothing there.

Also, RE: range to person bounties: How many faction mods are you running? Because every faction added means a larger 'core' region and missions to things outside the core will necessarily be that much further out.

[DancingMonkey]

System bounties are great to do inbetween fleet bounties and starbase bounties.

[CoverdInBees]

I find system bounties to be worth it during (the aftermath of) a raid, or when i'm in the neighborhood and i either spot some pirates or it's in a system with one of their bigger bases/planets so there's a decent chance to spot a patrol with a small detour.

I.E. not usually worth to specifically hunt down but if it's convenient to check it out you can earn some pretty good cash. By the time when you can take on their bigger raid fleets (with multiple Atlasses) you can easily earn as much as a decent personal bounty, only without having to travel through half the sector.
Admittedly by the time you can do that it's not hard to make cash in other ways either.

[Flying Birdy]

Due to the random nature of bounty availability- what am I supposed to do? Store all my ships and wait in orbit till something shows up? It was a bad experience that I had a bunch of missions I couldn't do (too far away), and I ran out of supplies just waiting/hoping for something to turn up and ended up having to take a desperate option and lost everything. I don't know what I could have done differently. All my available trade options weren't netting enough money to even cover fuel cost even trading surplus buys to deficit buyers and I didn't have enough cargo capacity to make the only available delivery (bar) mission work out (this was my last desperate effort before losing everything in that bad battle).

General trading is actually extremely profitable, it is by far the fastest and most lucrative way of making money. As long as you are dealing in elicit goods and trading exclusively on the blackmarket, you should never be taking on a loss as there is always a market with shortages paying above market. If you aren't dealing in illicit markets then its not a surprise that your trades aren't profitable. Press F1 and check the prices and shortages; pirate and luddic path planets tend to have persistent shortages in drugs, organs, heavy weapons that can be exploited.

I also don't understand how the picket fleets see you go dark from so incredibly far away! I'm way out of their sensor range because after I go dark I see their sensor range indicator coming up on me as they approach- why are they even coming over here like they noticed me when I'm obviously out of their sensor range? I didn't notice any in-game indication or explanation of this behavior and it just feels like "Oh, here comes the cheating AI again!"

You were well within their sensor range prior to turning off your transponder, so much so that you couldn't see the circle boundaries indicating the AI sensor range. If you went dark within their sensor range, they will fly towards you as usual. The AI is not cheating; you just need to be more careful where you go dark, preferably before you even enter a system where transponders are required by the AI.

[Retry]

Yeah, you were definitely well within their sensor range.  A giant ol' massive fleet blip just stopped blipping on the radar all of the sudden.  I dunno.  Seems kinda suspicious.

[Arcagnello]

Yeah, you were definitely well within their sensor range.  A giant ol' massive fleet blip just stopped blipping on the radar all of the sudden.  I dunno.  Seems kinda suspicious.

Hegemony: "Player looking kinda sus"