I've been reading a lot of you-guys-are-whiners and git-gud threads since the recent NPC AI debacle, so I thought I'd chronicle an example tonight that, I think, shows just how ridiculously stacked against the player (and more importantly having any actual fun) the existing mission-based interdiction nonsense remains. I started at Wundt Hub in Brani where I picked up a mission to salvage 4 units of illegal antiquities in the Freng system for 3M credits. It's not the juiciest such mission I've seen, but I figured there would be some danger with that kind of payoff.
I headed to Freng, dropped out of super-cruise to lock onto the beacon manually from the contacts panel--just targeting it regularly doesn't scan it, unlike every other object in the game (sigh, please fix this stupidity, Frontier)--and got a hint on the location: Freng 5E. Somewhere near that planet I was going to find an unidentified signal source with "degraded emissions", key verbiage for "cargo canisters that have the stuff you need to find". I flew out there on the shipping lane and orbited the planet slowly, checking out sources for a while until I found the one I wanted.
I surveyed the scene cautiously, enjoying the lovely ship debris floating around looking like the remnants of some very pitched and destructive battle. Sure enough, I found the four canisters I needed. So I extended my cargo hatch, lined up the first, and approached it slowly. I've done this a gazillion times, picked up all kinds of stuff floating out in the void. But this time it was a little different.
I say that because as soon as I scooped the canister five enemy ships popped into my location and starting scanning/shooting without any warning. Being the cautious soul that I am, I'd already put four pips into shields for just such an emergency, so I popped chaff immediately, finished scooping, and retracted the cargo hatch. Despite my chaff their first pass "only" melted my first two rings (best shields you can get on a Python with one A0 booster), but at least I could turn tail, boost, and hit the FSD to get out of there.
Unfortunately that wasn't going to work, because I was mass locked by some big ship. I'd had no time even to check contacts, but I could tell from all the fire it was either an Anaconda or another Python. This much was certain: there was no way in hell I could stand even a few more seconds of that kind of fire. So I cranked up a shield booster, jinked like a madman, and boosted as much as I could, dividing power between engines and sys to keep what shields I could. By the time I could get the FSD to activate, my hull was at 40% and falling fast. But I did get out of there. Just barely. I ran to the nearest outpost for repairs.
And of course, I got interdicted along the way. But that time it was "just" a single Python and some wingmen, so I was able to submit, pop chaff, and boost my way to another FSD activation easily enough. I made it to the station, repaired, restocked, and headed back, hoping that I could find the rest of the canisters I needed. I was pretty sure the game would let me find them in another unidentified signal source, so I kept orbiting the planet, looking for them.
Sure enough, a minute or two later I found another case of degraded emissions! I approached it as fast as possible, and was at 1.5 Mm about to drop when--yes, you guessed it--I got interdicted again. And to be clear, this interdiction was of the insta-fail variety. You know the kind, right? You see the blue tunnel begin to form, then the escape vector pops behind your ship, and you fail before you can even set the throttle. So no joy there. I was going to have a nice, long bit of trouble. Thankfully I was "only" interdicted by a pair of Cobra Mk III ships and a Viper Mk IV. So with a whole lot of careful dodging, popping about half my chaff, and using another shield cell I got away.
I'll spare you the rest of the tale and give you the summary. In the end I did get all four canisters, but I had to survive another seven separate interdictions as I cruised around the planet, and multiple ships popping into the salvage zone the instant I scooped one. I even survived the trip back to Wundt Hub in Brani to turn it in, though I was so frustrated by then--having been interdicted roughly a dozen times over an hour of incredibly tedious "play"--that when I saw the NPC warning message pop up in chat upon dropping out of FSD at the Brani star, I just quit to the main menu. And I had to do that five more times to avoid yet more interdiction from the same NPC and his two wingmen to cross the whopping 9 Ls to the station.
Now, I'm a pretty decent pilot. I've taken on as many as four ships and won before in my Python prior to the current patch. I now wouldn't attempt more than two, even the little guys given their completely shield/hull-melting weapons. I don't think I could have survived even one of those encounters because I think the lowest number of ships I faced at any point was three. And many times the group included at least one Python.
So in the end I did finish my 3M CR mission. But it took me about an hour-plus of pure pain-in-the-ass Interdiction Simulator 2016 "fun". I can't even imagine how anyone could enjoy such a "game". Because the only path I see to victory involved what I consider a lame hack (i.e., logging out to the main menu). But if I hadn't done that, I'd have lost the mission, incurred a "nice" hefty fine, and had to shell out 6M+ CR for the re-buy on my Python. In short, the mission-based interdiction system remains ridiculously broken.
I expect many will post to the effect that they never get interdicted and I just need to quit my whining and "GIT GUD!!!". But that's not even remotely reasonable.
I headed to Freng, dropped out of super-cruise to lock onto the beacon manually from the contacts panel--just targeting it regularly doesn't scan it, unlike every other object in the game (sigh, please fix this stupidity, Frontier)--and got a hint on the location: Freng 5E. Somewhere near that planet I was going to find an unidentified signal source with "degraded emissions", key verbiage for "cargo canisters that have the stuff you need to find". I flew out there on the shipping lane and orbited the planet slowly, checking out sources for a while until I found the one I wanted.
I surveyed the scene cautiously, enjoying the lovely ship debris floating around looking like the remnants of some very pitched and destructive battle. Sure enough, I found the four canisters I needed. So I extended my cargo hatch, lined up the first, and approached it slowly. I've done this a gazillion times, picked up all kinds of stuff floating out in the void. But this time it was a little different.
I say that because as soon as I scooped the canister five enemy ships popped into my location and starting scanning/shooting without any warning. Being the cautious soul that I am, I'd already put four pips into shields for just such an emergency, so I popped chaff immediately, finished scooping, and retracted the cargo hatch. Despite my chaff their first pass "only" melted my first two rings (best shields you can get on a Python with one A0 booster), but at least I could turn tail, boost, and hit the FSD to get out of there.
Unfortunately that wasn't going to work, because I was mass locked by some big ship. I'd had no time even to check contacts, but I could tell from all the fire it was either an Anaconda or another Python. This much was certain: there was no way in hell I could stand even a few more seconds of that kind of fire. So I cranked up a shield booster, jinked like a madman, and boosted as much as I could, dividing power between engines and sys to keep what shields I could. By the time I could get the FSD to activate, my hull was at 40% and falling fast. But I did get out of there. Just barely. I ran to the nearest outpost for repairs.
And of course, I got interdicted along the way. But that time it was "just" a single Python and some wingmen, so I was able to submit, pop chaff, and boost my way to another FSD activation easily enough. I made it to the station, repaired, restocked, and headed back, hoping that I could find the rest of the canisters I needed. I was pretty sure the game would let me find them in another unidentified signal source, so I kept orbiting the planet, looking for them.
Sure enough, a minute or two later I found another case of degraded emissions! I approached it as fast as possible, and was at 1.5 Mm about to drop when--yes, you guessed it--I got interdicted again. And to be clear, this interdiction was of the insta-fail variety. You know the kind, right? You see the blue tunnel begin to form, then the escape vector pops behind your ship, and you fail before you can even set the throttle. So no joy there. I was going to have a nice, long bit of trouble. Thankfully I was "only" interdicted by a pair of Cobra Mk III ships and a Viper Mk IV. So with a whole lot of careful dodging, popping about half my chaff, and using another shield cell I got away.
I'll spare you the rest of the tale and give you the summary. In the end I did get all four canisters, but I had to survive another seven separate interdictions as I cruised around the planet, and multiple ships popping into the salvage zone the instant I scooped one. I even survived the trip back to Wundt Hub in Brani to turn it in, though I was so frustrated by then--having been interdicted roughly a dozen times over an hour of incredibly tedious "play"--that when I saw the NPC warning message pop up in chat upon dropping out of FSD at the Brani star, I just quit to the main menu. And I had to do that five more times to avoid yet more interdiction from the same NPC and his two wingmen to cross the whopping 9 Ls to the station.
Now, I'm a pretty decent pilot. I've taken on as many as four ships and won before in my Python prior to the current patch. I now wouldn't attempt more than two, even the little guys given their completely shield/hull-melting weapons. I don't think I could have survived even one of those encounters because I think the lowest number of ships I faced at any point was three. And many times the group included at least one Python.
So in the end I did finish my 3M CR mission. But it took me about an hour-plus of pure pain-in-the-ass Interdiction Simulator 2016 "fun". I can't even imagine how anyone could enjoy such a "game". Because the only path I see to victory involved what I consider a lame hack (i.e., logging out to the main menu). But if I hadn't done that, I'd have lost the mission, incurred a "nice" hefty fine, and had to shell out 6M+ CR for the re-buy on my Python. In short, the mission-based interdiction system remains ridiculously broken.
I expect many will post to the effect that they never get interdicted and I just need to quit my whining and "GIT GUD!!!". But that's not even remotely reasonable.
Monty Python off.
