What 'role' are the NPC interdictors playing?

Neillm

N
I was buzzing around in a hollowed out Hauler, just scouting around with a 30+ ly jump range. I had no shields, cargo bays or anything that would add weight as I was treating the ship as a run around.

The main point of this post is to ask if anyone is seeing the same behaviour with interdicting ships. What seems to happen is this:

1. Get interdicted
2. Submit or fail to evade (this post is irrelevant if I evade)
3. Sometimes get a demand for cargo
4. 5 or so seconds later, another message saying, "Right, you're dead then!"
5. I sometimes manage to leg it or, in the case last night, instantly get two missiles fired at me and destroyed.

I know I'm in a totally unshielded ship, but that's not the point I'm trying to ask about. On the surface, the NPC ship is acting as a pirate. However, I had no cargo...not even cargo bays, so what do they gain from this action? There was no time for them to have scanned me to see if I was carrying anything before they opened fire.

At the moment, and I know this is changing somewhat in 1.2, the whole interdiction mechanic seems rather scripted. You hyperspace into a system, empty or otherwise, and 4-5 seconds later a ship pops up on your scanner which seems like it needs a, "Good day, I'll be your interdictor for the evening" message.

So, in summary, I know I was asking for trouble given the ship I was flying but has anyone else experienced the same repetitive NPC interactions?

Thanks.
 

PotatoOverdose

PotatoOverdose
I believe fdev has said these are the roles the NPC AI tries to fill: trader, law enforcement, bounty hunter, pirate, and psychopath.

There are plenty of NPCs that will simply try to kill you without ever demanding your cargo. These fall under the psychopath role. In that context, an npc interdicting you and killing you should happen regardless of whether you have cargo or not.
 

silence please

S
Neillm said:
So, in summary, I know I was asking for trouble given the ship I was flying but has anyone else experienced the same repetitive NPC interactions?
Click to expand...

Oh yeah for sure. Until you jump out of the 400 Ly range from civilized space you'll always find That One Spaceship who will interdict you no matter what you are flying or even if you carry nothing at all. I just don't bother any more with systems that are in that zone - just jump jump jump until I'm out of the zone of idiotic NPCs and then get down to some proper exploring.
 

Auditore

Auditore
PotatoOverdose said:
I believe fdev has said these are the roles the NPC AI tries to fill: trader, law enforcement, bounty hunter, pirate, and psychopath.

There are plenty of NPCs that will simply try to kill you without ever demanding your cargo. These fall under the psychopath role. In that context, an npc interdicting you and killing you should happen regardless of whether you have cargo or not.
Click to expand...

Yeah but what about those that do ask for cargo but end up behaving exactly like the psychos? I can only assume that is not intended behaviour...
 

sfajardo

S
problem is you think that background sim/AI is working, but is not. You will find this kind of weird scenarios. It's so lame that you're far far away from civilization yet you find beacons, traders NPCs,etc..etc.
 

Hardwood

Hardwood
I noticed this a lot in Solo lately too. A Clean (initial scan) ship attacks without provocation (I'm not wanted anywhere) so I engage, do a KWS and come out with 20000 cr bounty from the kill. And I'm pretty sure I've checked contacts after the KWS and still no wanted status on this NPC anywhere. I've read a number of threads on here where players become wanted in such situations so now I wait until I'm fired upon before returning fire. So far, so good.
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
To make life a bit more dangerous, seems to be the main role. Particularly if you are a pure trader or explorer. If you are a combat pilot then their role is to act as prey for Bounty Hunters.
 

Flyto

F
Neillm said:
You hyperspace into a system, empty or otherwise, and 4-5 seconds later a ship pops up on your scanner which seems like it needs a, "Good day, I'll be your interdictor for the evening" message.
Click to expand...


Heee! Yes! This expresses it nicely... And wheras in inhabited space, NPCs often have better things to do, if one appears in an empty system you *know* they're coming for you.....

I've observed both the "pirate" and "psychopath" archetypes doing this, but I think there's a bug with the pirate ones.
IIRC, if you have an empty cargo bay, after they scan you they say something disappointed and then leave you alone.
But if you have *no* cargo bay, this seems to send them into a murderous rage.

My approach these days is to keep turning to face them while I fuel scoop. This usually results in them flying into the sun in an attempt to get behind me...
[/QUOTE]
 

Neillm

N
FalconFly said:
The Irony of all this is :

At NAV Points, Resource Extraction Sites and even in uninhabited Anarchy Asteroid Belts... Pirates are scanning you for Cargo and actually fly off if you don't carry any.
After all, there's no benefit in it for them.

I never understood why Pirate Interdictors never followed these pre-existing rules that work just fine in other Locations...
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This is my point exactly. It's just a bit on the inconsistent side at the moment. There are a number of changes to interdictions and behaviour in 1.2, so hopefully, we'll see an improvement.
 

Doctor Axel

Doctor Axel
specialsymbol said:
Even if you are a trader, try to drop some cargo - doesn't change a thing.
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I've actually had success dropping cargo for NPC's before (I know, I know =P). It got a couple of higher-level pirates off my butt back when I was still in an under-armed Adder.

You have to high tail it after that - if they finish collecting cargo they might come find you for a second helping.
 

Cmdr Pli55ken

C
I know I'm in a totally unshielded ship, but that's not the point I'm trying to ask about. On the surface, the NPC ship is acting as a pirate. However, I had no cargo...not even cargo bays, so what do they gain from this action? There was no time for them to have scanned me to see if I was carrying anything before they opened fire.
Click to expand...

Seems fairly straight forward:

1) They have no cargo scanner (note: in RES sites pirates have cargo scanners and you get an appropriate message when it's used. Those pirates will not attack you if you have nothing)
2) you do nothing (i.e. not give into their demand to drop cargo). So they'll just (try to) blast you because the wreckage sometimes contains undestroyed cargo cannistres. Again: they don't know you don't have any.
3) The ones that just start blasting away without messaging you may be on an assasination mission of their own ("kill x number of traders", etc.)

You hyperspace into a system, empty or otherwise, and 4-5 seconds later a ship pops up on your scanner which seems like it needs a, "Good day, I'll be your interdictor for the evening" message.
Click to expand...
A plausible 'explanation' could be that pirates just lay in wait (not in supercruise) until a ship passes over.
At least that's the way I would do it as a 'real life' pirate in the Elite universe: Get a (clean) pal to wait in SC and tell me via radio (teamspeak) when a victim passes my position. Then pop up and grab it. Otherwise I'd constantly be in danger of being grabbed myself by system authority vessels or bounty hunters. In SC they can see me. In "normal" space they can't.
 
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