Griefed by an NPC - Think I might ragequit (not)

[Killing Time]

So I recently made it to Dangerous and decided to take some time away from the pew pew to do some work on my trade rank.
To this end I bought a Type 7, found a half decent trade route (palladium-performance enhancers 450k round trip), and set off.

On the very first trip I was interdicted by an NPC asp.
Without even pausing to ask for loot the cad opened fire on me and took me down to 48% hull before I managed to re-engage the FSD.
With 210 tonnes of unarmed palladium in the hold this was as scary a moment as I've had in E: D.
Once I'd got my pulse back to normal and changed my trousers I docked, sold my goods and did the whole thing again.
Over the next 5 or 10 trips I was interdicted two more times by NPC pirates, both of whom decided to shoot first. Luckily neither of these ships was packing the same cajones as the first and I hopped away with minimal shield loss.

But what occurred to me is that this is absolutely no different to so called griefing by CMDRs.
If I'd been in a Type 6 the first one would have taken me out in short order. Solo play would have made zero difference - and at least in Open I have the option of winging up for protection.
I really enjoyed the experience - it was as exciting as anything I've done in my Vulture - and it made no difference just because it was an AI kicking my .
So I'm now at Merchant, have developed a bit of a nervous twitch, and have a new found respect for players who trade in Open. It's not boring. It's really not boring at all.

 

[teaurn]

My T9 was interdicted 3 times by the same NPC pirate in one trip.

And the station is only 80ls from the star!

That's persistence for you!

He also opened fire immediately, which I think is generally what NPC Pirates do...at least I've never heard of them actually stealing cargo

I have 5A shields and 4 boosters, but no weps at all, and by the time I got to the station my shields were out, and hull down to 88%.

If the station had been further from the star and he carried on doing it, I could potentially have been in trouble there.

Great fun!

 

[archeolog108]

So I recently made it to Dangerous and decided to take some time away from the pew pew to do some work on my trade rank.
To this end I bought a Type 7, found a half decent trade route (palladium-performance enhancers 450k round trip), and set off.

On the very first trip I was interdicted by an NPC asp.
Without even pausing to ask for loot the cad opened fire on me and took me down to 48% hull before I managed to re-engage the FSD.
With 210 tonnes of unarmed palladium in the hold this was as scary a moment as I've had in E: D.
Once I'd got my pulse back to normal and changed my trousers I docked, sold my goods and did the whole thing again.
Over the next 5 or 10 trips I was interdicted two more times by NPC pirates, both of whom decided to shoot first. Luckily neither of these ships was packing the same cajones as the first and I hopped away with minimal shield loss.

But what occurred to me is that this is absolutely no different to so called griefing by CMDRs.
If I'd been in a Type 6 the first one would have taken me out in short order. Solo play would have made zero difference - and at least in Open I have the option of winging up for protection.
I really enjoyed the experience - it was as exciting as anything I've done in my Vulture - and it made no difference just because it was an AI kicking my .
So I'm now at Merchant, have developed a bit of a nervous twitch, and have a new found respect for players who trade in Open. It's not boring. It's really not boring at all.

Maybe this is FD strategy to invite solo players to open?

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
But what occurred to me is that this is absolutely no different to so called griefing by CMDRs.…

It's different.
Against a player you would have lost your ship and cargo. You would have faced 4 CMDRs in Clippers, FDL and Vultures.

But the real difference is: The difference is the intention of the attacker.

You know that a CMDR does this fully knowing that a) you have no chance b) you will lose a few hours of game play. That's the reason he/they do it. They do it because it could cause grief in their victims - that's why it's called griefing. (doesn't matter if griefing is the right way to use that word, we could use different words it wouldn't really change anything).

The NPC simply is a part of the program designed to make flying around in Elite a bit more interesting and FD is balancing the difficulty of the NPCs to match the player base. The intention of the NPCs isn't to kill you, it's to break the routine.

And yes, trading can be slightly dangerous, especially if the attacking NPC isn't just an Asp. Got interdicted by everything from sidewinders to Anacondas.

 

[Dbrn47]

What I've noticed is a lot of times where they do demand cargo, they just don't give you enough time to respond to the demand. There are some psycho npcs that are just looking for a kill though.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
He also opened fire immediately, which I think is generally what NPC Pirates do...at least I've never heard of them actually stealing cargo
…

They do steal cargo!
Got interdicted once by a Python NPC pirate, he demanded cargo, he started shooting at me, his ship mass locked* my T-7. I had to drop around 50t of gold before he stopped shooting. All the time he demanded more (I dropped the cargo in small patches, hoping to distract the NPC).

*) Yes, now I know that I could/should have "high wake out". Everybody starts as a noob in a new game and I simply didn't know that this is possible.

 

[Killing Time]

It's different.
Against a player you would have lost your ship and cargo. You would have faced 4 CMDRs in Clippers, FDL and Vultures.

Except this didn't happen....
So far my trading interdictions = 3xNPC 0xCMDR

But the real difference is: The difference is the intention of the attacker.

Except the outcome is the same.....
And against a CMDR there's a good chance they're a real pirate who will ask for cargo, whereas against an NPC they're guaranteed to shoot to kill.
I barely got away from the first one in the Asp. If I'd been in a Type 6 I'd have been toast.
I'd have lost everything just as effectively and truthfully it would make zero difference to me knowing it was a mindless AI or some giggling 15 year old.

 

[Eonsu]

I did rage quit after paying out my insurance.
500 ton of beryllium, mostly A spec T9.
Was interdicted, thats fine normally, its happened before.
it was a wing of three eagles, cool. ill just FSD outta here....
mass locked... can mass lock me here...
apparently three eagles outmass a 1000t ship, plus 500t of metals... how?

anyway, a few ours later and a calmer me, came back and went to work getting back that 15 mill lost.
this was also before 1.3.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Report the NPCs who do this! They should be shadowbanned!

 

[KellyR]

I've been interdicted lots of times in my T-7. I can evade almost all of them. If the escape vector goes to the left or right side, don't roll, use yaw (unless it goes way too far to the left or right). I roll occasionally, but usually use pitch and yaw and evade most of them. Not all; no one has a 100% rate for evading unless they just started. But I can evade 95 to 98 percent of the time. And if I see I'm going to lose the interdiction fight, I submit to avoid the hull damage and let my FSD charge quicker.

I've had some tell me "Big haul like that I'm surprised you made it this far", or "I guess the rumors were right. Good job I found you first" or "That's the ship I'm looking for. All that tasty cargo". And then "You're mine Commander." Then I leave them damaged in normal space while I continue in Supercruise. I love it.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
I'd have lost everything just as effectively and truthfully it would make zero difference to me knowing it was a mindless AI or some giggling 15 year old.

For others it makes - obviously - a difference. That's why they call it griefing. Humans are different, they react differently to things and, in my opinion, this should be something to keep in mind while interacting with other humans (in a game or in RL).

To me it's very surprising how strong some react to "bad language" (for example).

 

[Luponator]

I concur. I'm hopping around in my T-7 currently trying my hand at smuggling and the thrill of getting caught smuggling and/or interdicted and trying to get away is def. adding to the experience. Not that long ago I was literally trading while doing other things, and I mean anything from reading a book to doing dishes Not anymore, and honestly, that's how it should be.
Nice change to game pace IMO.

 

[Saool]

I've not flown a Type-7 but have had this happen a number times in a Type-6. I can't say I have ever felt in danger.

I don't usually have weapons on my Type-6s so there is no energy to the weapons. I go with 2 pips to shields and 4 to engines at all times. I also usually fit chafe.

As soon as you are interdicted, quickly align yourself away from the pirate. Go full throttle and boost right away. With the four pips in your engines you can boost frequently and leave most NPCs in your tracks. If they do open fire, pop some chafe.

Using this method I have not so much as lost a single ring of shields to pirates in a Type-6. Of course I may just have been continuously lucky.

 

[Killing Time]

I think you've just been lucky (or I was very unlucky).
I used all the normal protocols as you've just described, but the Asp was heavy enough to slow down the FSD charge, and packing enough firepower to do some pretty serious damage. Eeven chaff had no effect so I'm guessing he was running fixies.

 

[Lupin]

I wonder is players have considered pushing up there combat rating means that when they switch to trading they are more at risk.
One of the reason I now use Python for trading.

 

[Zelos1983]

If you get interdicted, start spooling the FTL right away. Point in the direction of the vector, execute evasive action (strafe) and fire chaff if you have. Also, redirect power to shields.
BTW, the Imperial Clipper might be a better option than the T7 for similar size.

 

[Acteris]

I think since the 1.3 release the NPC pirates have gotten more persistent!! One followed me all the way to the space port, the pesky so and so kept interdicting me allllll the way!! I had no weapons, no shields and started getting quite nervous, pulse began to race, drops of sweat appeared on my brow, in the end the pirate got his justice, the space port vaporised him yeah!!!

 

[DjordjeDtW]

Maybe this is FD strategy to invite solo players to open?

This is not strategy, this is manipulation. But they don't do that.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

I think you've just been lucky (or I was very unlucky).
….

I guess you had bad luck. Since 1.3 i get interdicted a lot in my Tradeconda and it's always NPC Sidewinder, Imp. Courier or Eagle that does nothing but fly around in front of me waiting for my KWS to finish and to get shot down. It's really annoying.

Flying around in my DBS things got much more interesting - got interdicted by NPC Elite Anaconda, FDS (surprisingly agile at Elite) and Vulture. The NPC Elite Anaconda was fun, from the chat I got the impression that the NPC got angry because I scanned him in SC.

I guess only "mostly harmless" NPC noobs try to interdict Anacondas.

Overall the NPCs got more interesting, they do different things and have different load-outs (Elite Vulture with beam and cannon was a surprise). On followed me to the station. Fighting a NPC close to a big station is fun.

 

[Loriath]

7 times by the same NPC last night. I beat the interdiction 2 times, the rest I spooled, boosted, heat sinked, and ran. 40% hull by the time I hit the station. There was no way to high wake out as I was on vapours. Me in my T9 and Gail whatever her last name was, in her Vulture.

Made me me want to pop for another ship and hunt Gail down.

A few jumps later and a python was waiting at the star, so I backed my T9 up to the star and he cooked himself trying to get behind me. 3 heat sink launchers FTW. He didn't blow up, he dropped out, maybe crashed into the star.

At at least they blabber in chat before they try. Oh and to all Eagle NPC's with no shields that interdict a T9, word of advice. You can't ram us and expect to survive. If you come close enough I am aiming right at you and boosting. 1 ring barely makes a noise when you bounce and die.