NPC Pirates compeltely unreasonable.

ghostookami · Feb 20, 2015

Ok, nevermind the fact that since 1.1 I've been interdicted 4 times more than I usually was on my normal route, but ive been shot down twice today effectively wasting my time for all of today. The first time I didn't check what ship, but I am in a T9 and was masslocked, so I tried dropping 30t of cargo, nope wants more, drop 60, nope. losing shields, hull dropping, drop 100, nope wants more....! DEAD!
Second incident just now, a clipper interdicts me, oh im apparently mass locked by that, ok so this time I just say to heck with it and jettison 100% of my cargo, all 480tons, "MOAR PEW PEW" is all I get over the npc coms, so yup, once again, dead.....WHY IS AN NPC DEMANDING MORE CARGO WHEN I DROPPED MORE THAN DOUBLE WHAT HE CAN CARRY!? So ive lost 9mil in insurance and around 6 mil in cargo today. fantastic.

Yes I had insurance. But it is infuriating. Why can an NPC demand more than what I had, let alone more than he can carry, makes absolutely no sense at all.

EDIT: Forgot to mention im allied with both of the stations im trading between, thanks for nothing police.

Susimetsa · Feb 20, 2015

Sounds bad, but try being an explorer who loses a week's worth of gaming time by getting killed one jump away from his destination station... Did not even know that interdictions had been cranked up before I encountered them. :7

And, no, I did not even have any cargo for them to steal.

CMDR Starschulz · Feb 20, 2015

"i just want cargo"

"Die, Space dust!"

-meanwhile i don't have a cargo bay

Eagle Eye · Feb 20, 2015

Now lets hear player BH and Pirates claiming its working as intended & we need even MORE interdictions...

metatheurgist · Feb 20, 2015

Some pirates don't have a cargo scanner. Like RL crims many are just dumb.

Retu81 · Feb 20, 2015

Every human commander, with one exception, that has interdicted me has just wanted to kill me. So I guess NPCs are very human in that regard.

CMDR M Kozak · Feb 20, 2015

ghostookami said:
Ok, nevermind the fact that since 1.1 I've been interdicted 4 times more than I usually was on my normal route, but ive been shot down twice today effectively wasting my time for all of today. The first time I didn't check what ship, but I am in a T9 and was masslocked, so I tried dropping 30t of cargo, nope wants more, drop 60, nope. losing shields, hull dropping, drop 100, nope wants more....! DEAD!
Second incident just now, a clipper interdicts me, oh im apparently mass locked by that, ok so this time I just say to heck with it and jettison 100% of my cargo, all 480tons, "MOAR PEW PEW" is all I get over the npc coms, so yup, once again, dead.....WHY IS AN NPC DEMANDING MORE CARGO WHEN I DROPPED MORE THAN DOUBLE WHAT HE CAN CARRY!? So ive lost 9mil in insurance and around 6 mil in cargo today. fantastic.

Yes I had insurance. But it is infuriating. Why can an NPC demand more than what I had, let alone more than he can carry, makes absolutely no sense at all.

EDIT: Forgot to mention im allied with both of the stations im trading between, thanks for nothing police.

Just play in solo... oh, wait.

On a far more serious note: If you hyperspace to another system, other ships can not mass lock you = escape.

GJ51 · Feb 20, 2015

I never could figure out why anyone would drive a hauler. You're just a target.

Just took on 5 pirates at the same time - lot of debris now where they once threatened me.

Too bad for them. Get the right weapons on the right ship and they fold pretty quick...

The Asp and the Python still rule.

Gramps · Feb 20, 2015

It's all a false game mechanic, their going to start shooting regardless of anything you do, if you cant kill them or get your ship back into sc your only hope is that local authority ships will turn up to help you out. I'm wondering if anyone has ever witnessed npc scooping cargo.

ghostookami · Feb 20, 2015

Eagle Eye said:
Now lets hear player BH and Pirates claiming its working as intended & we need even MORE interdictions...

this cannot be working as intended. it makes no sense that an NPC would want apparently an infinite amount of cargo and even when your out still demands more. The interdictions have gone from ok, do massive in one patch. before I might get interdicted about once every 45 mins to an hour. now I get it about 4 or 5 times an hour, and 1 of those I will be masslocked. I could see them happening about two times an hour, maybe even three. but this has become more of an annoyance than a immersive experience.

CMDR M Kozak · Feb 20, 2015

ghostookami said:
this cannot be working as intended. it makes no sense that an NPC would want apparently an infinite amount of cargo and even when your out still demands more. The interdictions have gone from ok, do massive in one patch. before I might get interdicted about once every 45 mins to an hour. now I get it about 4 or 5 times an hour, and 1 of those I will be masslocked. I could see them happening about two times an hour, maybe even three. but this has become more of an annoyance than a immersive experience.

I have yet to be interdicted by ANYTHING this month. Granted, I dont play that much. But session worth of 5-6 hours should still yield some interdictions. I cant help feeling that there are some of you that just want to play with half an eye on the game, watching movies while your docking computer flies the ship for you.

Automated grind... to what end?

EDIT: Also with current submit/boost mechanics, interdictions is a non issue

INSTG8R · Feb 20, 2015

Sorry but they have NO interest in your cargo. The comms is just "chatter" and not to be regarded as anything but. You can eject cargo all day long they are still going to kill you. You should be trying to escape and nothing else.

Ydiss · Feb 20, 2015

Pirates that interdict you have always just attacked. Don't drop cargo.

Submit, boost, boost, jump.

It needs to change though. You should be able to drop cargo.

ghostookami · Feb 20, 2015

mortenfischer said:
I have yet to be interdicted by ANYTHING this month. Granted, I dont play that much. But session worth of 5-6 hours should still yield some interdictions. I cant help feeling that there are some of you that just want to play with half an eye on the game, watching movies while your docking computer flies the ship for you.

Automated grind... to what end?

EDIT: Also with current submit/boost mechanics, interdictions is a non issue

in a t9 which is extremely slow, no it doesn't always work, ive gotten it to work maybe once today. And no im not making my numbers up. nor do I use the docking computer, this is all by hand, 100% in the game.

CMDR M Kozak · Feb 20, 2015

ghostookami said:
in a t9 which is extremely slow, no it doesn't always work, ive gotten it to work maybe once today. And no im not making my numbers up. nor do I use the docking computer, this is all by hand, 100% in the game.

So you get blown up alot in your T9 ?

Anyway, if you get masslocked by ships. Try to hyperspace out instead.

Draa · Feb 20, 2015

mortenfischer said:
I have yet to be interdicted by ANYTHING this month. Granted, I dont play that much. But session worth of 5-6 hours should still yield some interdictions. I cant help feeling that there are some of you that just want to play with half an eye on the game, watching movies while your docking computer flies the ship for you.

Automated grind... to what end?

EDIT: Also with current submit/boost mechanics, interdictions is a non issue

You can be watching the screen and still be interdicted by an NPC. It's like they're invisible or something. Happened to me a couple of times last night and multiple times over the last week or so. No one tailing me. Empty space as far as the eye can see. Next second there's a ship trying to interdict me. I ALWAYS watch for ships on my tail or coming in fast but it doesn't always help. I assumed they might be running silent but I don't know if NPC can do that. Also thought it might be a bug. Either way it gets annoying as heck. And I agree about submitting. It's the quickest and safest way to get away without much damage.
Edit: Oh, and it seems to happen after I pass a USS so maybe that has something to do with it. Don't know for sure though so who knows.

CmdrSimonsen · Feb 20, 2015

Ships interdicting then blowing you up? Sounds like NPC's are mimicking some players now

On a serious note, what's the system security where you're trading?
Do you fly without shields?

ghostookami · Feb 20, 2015

CmdrSimonsen said:
Ships interdicting then blowing you up? Sounds like NPC's are mimicking some players now

On a serious note, what's the system security where you're trading?
Do you fly without shields?

Oh heck no, never fly without shields. and im in empire space

Sandmann · Feb 20, 2015

INSTG8R said:
Sorry but they have NO interest in your cargo. The comms is just "chatter" and not to be regarded as anything but. You can eject cargo all day long they are still going to kill you. You should be trying to escape and nothing else.

... which of course also applies to 90% of human "pirates" too.

Captain N · Feb 20, 2015

Do you have weapons on your Lakon? Have you considered upgrading to something that can better defend itself?

CmdrSimonsen said:
Ships interdicting then blowing you up? Sounds like NPC's are mimicking some players now

Sounds like they're just doing what they've been doing since the dawn of the history of Elite.

Of course, back then, to get someone's cargo all you needed to do was to blow them up so it made sense pirates would do just that.

The more complicated mechanics of ED would call for more complicated AI, but I guess that part of the equation is lagging behind.

Player pirates might forgo scanning just because it sacrifices valuable time that can be used to lower the target's shield instead and a hardpoint that can be freed for something that is more useful and doesn't implicate them as an obvious "pirate" in a bounty hunter's subsystem scan.