I definitely believe the interdiction mini game is a bugged mechanic, I've seen pursuing ships on the radar instantly jump from one point to another with the escape vector doing the same, I think it's perhaps to do with internet lag.
I'd say approximately 50% (very rough guess as I haven't been keeping track) of interdictions that I've experienced have no warning whatsoever. No tale-tale sounds, no ship on the scanner trying to get behind you; just a sudden interdiction out of nowhere. Its been this way since gamma. I've also seen the occasional sudden jump in the escape vector, and I've had the occasional (very rare) interdiction evaded when I was nowhere near filling up the blue side/emptying the red side.
In the last couple of days, (since the latest patch/fixes for the super-AI weapons) I've lost a python and a type-6 in encounters that I don't feel I could have escaped or won no matter how gud I was.
I lost the python first, in an encounter with another python. Despite repeated boosts he was keeping right up with me and firing the whole time while my FSD is inhibited by factor whatever mass. I think he was "deadly" but I don't remember for sure, I remember deciding to run rather than fight once I'd evaluated him though.
I couldn't afford the insurance on a python a second time so I switched to my type-6, and while doing trade runs to try to get my funds back up got intercepted by a dangerous viper (I am currently "competent"). It killed me in 34 seconds. I made some mistakes while trying to run away (forgot to undeploy and transfer everything to engines) when his first missile (of several) hit me with no warning (what happened to "missile fired" or whatever the wording of that warning is?). If I'd done everything right, maybe I would have lasted a minute. Maybe the cops would have showed up by then, but that would have been my only hope.
34 seconds seems really long in text form, but in battle, it was something like, okay, target enemy, deploy, start kill warrant scan, what is he? dangerous viper, hm.. no warning missile explodes right in front of me, max out thrust, boost, fsd, missile explodes (approx. 2 seconds after the previous missile) sheids gone, hull something like 58%, what is that message about can't start fsd charge because I didn't undeploy? canopy explodes, try to boost again, ship explodes...
I guess, basically, I'm complaining that the matchmaking isn't (sometimes) creating fair fights. (yes, I know life isn't fair, but this is a game). Not saying it should be easy, but survival should at least be possible. In the past I've had plenty of insurance deductibles paid where I was upset, but I knew I did something wrong or got too ambitious and could have survived, but the last few (mostly during the "Skynet" period, but then these last two since that was supposedly fixed), where I don't feel that way.
At least the type-6 insurance claims are (relatively) cheap.
