Interdiction Death Squads

[Cynaqq]

Or just fly defensively until the masslock has ended, I don't understand the mentality that flying in a straight line is a good way to avoid being shot?

I can understand this. Fastest way of getting out of a mass lock is to fly in a straight line since the only thing you are trying to do is to put distance between you and the mass that's locking you. Also flying evasively while escaping in a large ship is not viable. They don't slide and strafe very quickly.

So, it leaves high waking while having four pips in shields the only viable option for surviving an interdiction.

 

[xxiii]

Everyone of these threads is the same, I will paraphrase it in to 5 short lines,
To escape I do not try any evasive maneuvers or use any chaff,
I fly in a straight line boosting, (most with 4 pips in engines which mean 2 in sys at most),
[...]
I tested last night in a T9 and escapoed every interdiction, think I had 5 all together and only 1 got me below 2 rings of shield, in nearly all cases here the problem lies between chair and keyboard.

yes, 4 pips in sys, and flying lopsided corkscrews makes you invulnerable, even to pilots 3 combat ranks above you firing at point-blank range while you're still recovering from interdiction spin; and T9s are a dime a dozen. Congratulations on being gud. Maybe only gud players should be allowed to have fun. That's a sustainable business model.

I didn't artificially inflate my combat rank, and I don't go looking for/starting fights. I'm playing roles other than "ace fighter pilot", which the game supposedly supports. I expect the game to take that into account.

Its late, I'm tired, and I'm tired of the 1% gud players blaming the 99% other players for wanting to have some fun too (especially the ones who want to do stuff besides "blow things up"). I know how to find all the bodies in an unknown system with only a basic discovery scanner (or no scanner for that matter), do you? There are other skills one can be gud at. why is combat the only one that counts?

Before 2.1 I was able to defend myself (either fight back, or run away) in ANY ship, now it seems certain ships are just off the table, unless you're one of those perfect players. Yes, maybe it was because the A.I. sucked before, but I was (mostly) having fun. I have no problem with the A.I. being improved, as long as the matchmaking is also adjusted accordingly. In other games, I used to fret over not being as high as possible on the leader boards, and then I figured out you have a lot more fun when you find players of your same approximate skill level to play against, in this case there is some background A.I./random number generator choosing my "opponent" and I have no choice in the matter; and it occasionally chooses someone so totally out of my league that there is no opportunity to learn from the experience, and I have no chance of surviving. This happens enough times, and I'll just stop caring and abandon the game to the gud players.

I really do like this game, but it needs to take into account that there is a range of skill levels out there, and they have different requirements for what makes the game fun for them.

Venting over (I hope).

 

[Commandr Sam]

yes, 4 pips in sys, and flying lopsided corkscrews makes you invulnerable, even to pilots 3 combat ranks above you firing at point-blank range while you're still recovering from interdiction spin; and T9s are a dime a dozen. Congratulations on being gud. Maybe only gud players should be allowed to have fun. That's a sustainable business model.

I didn't artificially inflate my combat rank, and I don't go looking for/starting fights. I'm playing roles other than "ace fighter pilot", which the game supposedly supports. I expect the game to take that into account.

Its late, I'm tired, and I'm tired of the 1% gud players blaming the 99% other players for wanting to have some fun too (especially the ones who want to do stuff besides "blow things up"). I know how to find all the bodies in an unknown system with only a basic discovery scanner (or no scanner for that matter), do you? There are other skills one can be gud at. why is combat the only one that counts?

Before 2.1 I was able to defend myself (either fight back, or run away) in ANY ship, now it seems certain ships are just off the table, unless you're one of those perfect players. Yes, maybe it was because the A.I. sucked before, but I was (mostly) having fun. I have no problem with the A.I. being improved, as long as the matchmaking is also adjusted accordingly. In other games, I used to fret over not being as high as possible on the leader boards, and then I figured out you have a lot more fun when you find players of your same approximate skill level to play against, in this case there is some background A.I./random number generator choosing my "opponent" and I have no choice in the matter; and it occasionally chooses someone so totally out of my league that there is no opportunity to learn from the experience, and I have no chance of surviving. This happens enough times, and I'll just stop caring and abandon the game to the gud players.

I really do like this game, but it needs to take into account that there is a range of skill levels out there, and they have different requirements for what makes the game fun for them.

Venting over (I hope).

I didn't mean to offend you, as you are not one of the players that comment was aimed at, you clearly have done your research and know how to play.

Since release I have played almost solely as a trader so have not done a great deal of combat, until 2.1 was released and that became more fun.

I have done no exploring and when I do go to do it I will look up advice from other commanders on how to do it. I will not ask for the universe to be made smaller so that i don't need to learn how to navigate or commit any time to it.

Have you had any trouble with combat since 2.1? If you are flying a ship set up for exploring the "meta" has changed slightly and you will need to run shields and decent thrusters in areas when you can be interdicted and in an Asp with good thrusts should have no problem escaping. (I have a a fast Asp I use for CGs and can outrun all ships even since 2.1 with no Engineering mods).

The skill levels are still catered for, high sec space gives police within seconds of an interdiction. Those with low combat ranks rarely see high combat ranked interdictors.

Did you feel pre 2.1 where you were able to "was able to defend myself (either fight back, or run away) in ANY ship" kill any NPC ship in any ship no matter how set up for exploration or trading it was was balanced?

 

[xxiii]

Serious question:
Why people, including you, insist on trying to re-enter supercruise after an interdiction? If you jump to another system, and it's known as 'high waking', mass lock doesn't happen.

Is it because you don't know this, or is it too much of a hassle to hit 1, go up in the list, up again, press space twice when you are on a nearby system and then jump there?

sarcastic answer: yes, its too much of a hassle, I'd rather die. (and, why do I insist? because I know if I stay and fight, I'll lose).

serious answer: no, I didn't know that. Longer version:

Are we misunderstanding each other? I don't know about other people, but I don't recall ever being mass-LOCKED after an interdiction (as in can't even initiate FSD charging), I do however get "inhibited by factor of X" depending on the size/proximity of the other ship. Are you saying this never happens if your target happens to be another system?

I usually just try to jump to whatever my target was before I got interdicted. If I was interdicted while flying between systems, its another system (and I have to remember to be aligned with it), otherwise I was either flying to a station, or to some body in the current system. I haven't noticed any particular difference in the FSD charging behavior (other than the alignment requirement) between the two. I'll try to explicitly notice next time, if targeting another system makes the mass of the other ship not matter.

Now, where is this documented, or is this just one of those things that people are just magically supposed to know somehow (like 75% will keep you from overflying your target, and you have to decelerate to 75% no later than 7 seconds away (although occasionally you can get away with 6)). I have no idea where that's documented either. I think I found out about it from some forum post back in beta days.

 

[Commandr Sam]

Are we misunderstanding each other? I don't know about other people, but I don't recall ever being mass-LOCKED after an interdiction (as in can't even initiate FSD charging), I do however get "inhibited by factor of X" depending on the size/proximity of the other ship. Are you saying this never happens if your target happens to be another system?

Yes, that is what mass lock means and yes if you high wake that delay is not applied.

 

[Cynaqq]

sarcastic answer: yes, its too much of a hassle, I'd rather die. (and, why do I insist? because I know if I stay and fight, I'll lose).

serious answer: no, I didn't know that. Longer version:

Are we misunderstanding each other? I don't know about other people, but I don't recall ever being mass-LOCKED after an interdiction (as in can't even initiate FSD charging), I do however get "inhibited by factor of X" depending on the size/proximity of the other ship. Are you saying this never happens if your target happens to be another system?

I usually just try to jump to whatever my target was before I got interdicted. If I was interdicted while flying between systems, its another system (and I have to remember to be aligned with it), otherwise I was either flying to a station, or to some body in the current system. I haven't noticed any particular difference in the FSD charging behavior (other than the alignment requirement) between the two. I'll try to explicitly notice next time, if targeting another system makes the mass of the other ship not matter.

Now, where is this documented, or is this just one of those things that people are just magically supposed to know somehow (like 75% will keep you from overflying your target, and you have to decelerate to 75% no later than 7 seconds away (although occasionally you can get away with 6)). I have no idea where that's documented either. I think I found out about it from some forum post back in beta days.

Thanks for the serious answer, and yes. It's unfortunately something you have to magically know exactly like the 75% before 7 seconds. 'Inhibited by X' doesn't happen if you are jumping to another system and it usually (always in my experience) breaks the interdiction chain.

And yes, I wholeheartedly agree FD is doing a very poor job of documenting their own game. That's why some of us are trying really hard to tell people about this details. If we can manage to teach as many people as we can, then we can move on to more serious issues like the lack of documentation and the accessibility of said documentation, which is the biggest problem FD has to solve ASAP.

 

[zombieapocalypse]

Uhh no I was running boosting full speed he was LOONG range. He could catch up but literally it didnt matter he took my A rated shield boosted shields down in 15 seconds with multicannons.. wth??

Don't fly in a nice straight line, change direction constantly. I've been interdicted loads of times in my Python, the ones I didn't kill I managed to outrun.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

I can understand this. Fastest way of getting out of a mass lock is to fly in a straight line since the only thing you are trying to do is to put distance between you and the mass that's locking you. Also flying evasively while escaping in a large ship is not viable. They don't slide and strafe very quickly.

So, it leaves high waking while having four pips in shields the only viable option for surviving an interdiction.

Change direction by boosting. I put four pips to engines and two to shields.

 

[kofeyh]

This would be true of any ship though, right? The real question is can it boost away fast enough to get out of masslock without getting destroyed in the meantime (and the answer appears to be 'no' based on my experience with it so far).

When in SC, and an interdiction occurs, the following will solve the problem in virtually all cases (note this is particularly relevant for ships with low shields and hull):

1. cycle to the interdicting ship, identify if it is the same size or larger combat ship (ie has mass lock potential)
2. if aggressor can mass lock, immediately submit, then
3. switch to left panel, select first available system for the navigation computer
4. ensure once this is done you continue to chase the marker to ensure submission
5. when you drop out of SC, pitch to face aggressor, do not continue on your existing trajectory
6. FSD cool down will commence, if submission is successful this is 5 seconds only
7. place 4 pips in shields, 2 in engines, then immediately start the FSD jump once cool down elapses
8. do not face the FSD jump marker, continue to pitch to face aggressor
9. boost towards and past your aggressor as close as you are comfortable to fly
10. realign with the exit marker (FA-Off can expedite the manoeuvre)
11. boost again (with 2 pips to engines the vast majority of CAPs will allow two boosts) to ensure the trajectory aligns with the marker
12. leave

The AI will be forced to turn to face you, this a) reduces the numbers of weapons they can use due to firing arcs (for fixed, virtually all weapons will be unable to track) and b) forces them to come about to chase. If you have successfully submitted, then in most cases the FSD drive will already be spooling up before you boost; 15 seconds later, you have left the instance and will drop into another.

Also note that (unless frontier have fixed it) 4 pips to shields has a considerably higher damage reduction modifier than even 3. It's supposed to follow a roughly additive gain, but instead it's incredibly logarithmic. It's hard, but do not put 4 pips to engines. Always shields.

The thing to remember, is when you return to the original system, the instance is likely to have reset. So the same AI may not appear. It also stops the endless chain interdictions from the same AI. A minor detour, imho, is a small price to pay for a lack of rebuy.

I strongly believe such a simulation in the training missions for first time pilots would have a massive impact on their survivability in game; because the above is not at all intuitive. It's not intuitive to face a guy with a gun and run past them, indeed the natural reaction is to just boost directly away; but coming about and boosting past is almost always the strategically most advantageous method.

Please note, this is not a "git gud" post; it's a simply understanding how AI react to inputs, and the fact they are bounded by the same flight model we are, and the same basic weapons tracking. Never run in a straight line directly away from AI; you are allowing them to go weapons hot across the board and the burst potential if they dump the entire CAP across all weapons is very high.

 

[777Driver]

Please note, this is not a "git gud" post;

Surely you must have realised that any bit of advice that involves common sense is a 'git gud' post...

 

[kofeyh]

Surely you must have realised that any bit of advice that involves common sense is a 'git gud' post...

There is a commonality within these forums; emotion replaces logic as automatic reasoning, and if one does not subscribe to the same emotional statement, one is obviously wrong. For a game that you'd think would actually trigger quite a lot of critical thinking, there is precious little.

tl;dr humans are weird, dood.

 

[Heater]

Been using my Python with out issues sure the mass interdiction's are a pain and need to be looked at / fixed.
But until then you will need to adapt how you play,

What I do is the following:
1.) Identify the ship type that is interdicting me. (decide am I going to flight or flee)
2.) Based on the above set up the pips and summit
3.) If I am going to fight I use the FA on/off, thrusters and flight controls for maneuvering (the Python has very strong thrusters and it makes a big difference ) always target the PP. (PIP management in the fight is key, I have all my controls mapped to the Warthog Joystick and throttle and using trackir.
4.) If running, split 3 pips to engines / shields start boosting, dropping chaff go FA off and use the rudder peddles to "barrel roll" as the FSD is charging to high wake out.

The Key is to have very good SA and know your limits.

 

[xxiii]

I didn't mean to offend you, as you are not one of the players that comment was aimed at, you clearly have done your research and know how to play.
[...]
Have you had any trouble with combat since 2.1? If you are flying a ship set up for exploring the "meta" has changed slightly and you will need to run shields and decent thrusters in areas when you can be interdicted and in an Asp with good thrusts should have no problem escaping. (I have a a fast Asp I use for CGs and can outrun all ships even since 2.1 with no Engineering mods).
[...]
Did you feel pre 2.1 where you were able to "was able to defend myself (either fight back, or run away) in ANY ship" kill any NPC ship in any ship no matter how set up for exploration or trading it was was balanced?

I'm not usually this punchy and I'll probably regret my last several posts in the morning (3am here as I'm typing this).

For the last few months, I've flown an ASPe, with A level shields, thrusters, military hull, adv scanner, surf scanner, planet hangar. Basically everything is A, set up for exploring, but I want to be able to defend myself, and I managed to have 32 cargo (I think thats right) space as well. I generally love that ship, other than I wish I had more cargo room.

However, almost two months ago, I decided to give powerplay a try, after ignoring it until now (and before then I was sometimes doing the community goals, also frustrating with my ASPs cargo space). I found a type-6 more conducive to accomplishing the powerplay tasks so I bought one and parked the ASPe, I stupidly didn't do this at the power's homeworld though. (incidentally I had a type-6 about a year ago, and it drove me batty because even with the max-size A power plant, you can't A-level everything without exceeding it).

I'm now finding powerplay to be a bit of busywork though, and the merit retention does NOT seem to work as documented in other forum posts (another topic) so now I'm pretty much just using powerplay as a stepping stone to get my next "dream" ship, which I thought was the python, which I finally bought about a week ago, however it now seems like one of those shiny luxury sports cars that looks good but actually spends most of its time in the shop, and maxing it out is also going to mean remaining in PP for several more weeks. I've been trying to speed that up with missions/trading, and gradually upgrading things, being sure to keep enough to pay the insurance should the worst happen; which it did a couple days ago.

And of course in the middle of all this 2.1 arrived along with Skynet (hadn't bought the python yet, lost my type-6 five or six times to Skynet, rage quit a couple times, went through all the forum posts with people saying "its great! yuu just need to get gud", then frontier officially acknowledged the Skynet issue...)

Anyway,... Yes 2.1 is frustrating me. Just before I lost the python, I had managed to get 100,000+ in bounties (purely from defending myself multiple times) and was just about to go find the engineer who has that as his requirement, when I got interdicted and killed by another python. I thought things were going fine, after they fixed Skynet, until that encounter. Looking back, I don't know what I could have done to survive. I was frustrated that the other python was able to both keep up, AND keep firing on me while I was very slowly waiting for the FSD to charge. I remember playing with more pips in sys vs eng and vs versa trying to survive until the FSD was done, but it didn't work. It seemed like the other python was able to remain about 500m or so behind me no matter what. Also, If I remember right, I think I spent about 10 seconds or so vomiting all over the cockpit when I failed to evade the interdiction (I try to submit if it looks like I'm going to lose, but sometimes it doesn't seem to work if you didn't submit right away). Before 2.1 I generally always submit and either kill them, or run away. Pre 2.1 my type-6 was able to kill anything smaller than an ASP, though it would take nearly 1/2 hour sometimes (granted this because the pre-2.1 AI was not-quite sitting duck). Generally, if they weren't a sidey/eagle or have a huge bounty, I'd just leave.

Basically, I'm just wondering/tempted to go back to my ASPe; the limited cargo space is just really frustrating sometimes. The python was supposed to be my new ASPe but with tons more cargo space, and then I looked at the A-level FSD range, and my heart started to sink... (I know the ASPe has exceptional jump range compared to other ships, but I didn't think the python would be THAT bad...)

Another consideration I had was trying to get a ship that I could equip for exploring and transport and mining (including the limpet controllers) while still being able to defend itself, and the python has enough module slots to finally do that. (although I did NOT enjoy my previous attempts at mining. I'm hoping the limpet controllers will make it much better).

If they get ship shipping(?) in and it doesn't cost a fortune, maybe I'll feel less of a need to try to make a jack-of-all-trades ship.

In short, I haven't flown my ASPe since 2.1 came out, and now I'm sort of afraid to (I think its about as much as my current python in insurance costs to replace). And the type-6 handles like a shopping cart, the view is GREAT however (in VR). I have something like 28 insurance claims and around 10 or so of them are since 2.1 came out. I am going to be *dead* at work tomorrow...

Incidentally, neither of these two most recent kills did the opponent claim to be from an opposing power. One time I had a load of silver, the other time I had a load of, I think performance enhancers (which I was going to drop off then find the engineer). I've generally survived all the "opposing power" encounters since Skynet was killed (and was where I got the 100,000 bounty that I needed for the engineer).

On your last question, I seem to remember struggling with the sidewinder but I generally did fine in the other ships I've had, but most of my play time was with a cobra mk iii, and then the ASPe, with a brief stint with a type-6 in between. It seemed balanced to me, considering I generally only do defensive encounters, although once I stopped trying to just automatically run away/evade, I realized that AI mostly doesn't fire back after the first few shots, but was pretty good at really prolonging a fight sometimes, and would occasionally run away after you spent 10 minutes trying to kill it (usually not that long when I'm in my ASP though). So I recognize that the AI could do with some improvement.

Also, in my case, I've tried to make sure all my ships had decent hull/weapons/shields. While my primary occupation is exploration, I'm not one of those that sacrifices everything to eke out the best jump range. I've been known to slightly downsize the shield so I could have either more cargo or a larger fuel scoop, but that's generally the only compromise I've made on the defensive capability of my ships. Usually its cargo space I sacrifice the most, except in the type-6s where I didn't equip for exploration at all. Essentially, my first type-6 was "trade/mission until I can afford an ASP". Sorry this got so long.

 

[xxiii]

Yes, that is what mass lock means and yes if you high wake that delay is not applied.

Hm, and I thought it was that bit right after you left a station or planetary ring when you couldn't even initiate charging until the mass-locked light went out, whether or not your target was another system.

 

[777Driver]

Hm, and I thought it was that bit right after you left a station or planetary ring when you couldn't even initiate charging until the mass-locked light went out, whether or not your target was another system.

It's a strange one, even the devs call it mass locking. I call it mass locking but really it's mass inhibition, the only things that actually mass locks are stations/planets,moons,Capital ships and asteroid fields. Anything else generates a mass inhibition factor.

 

[cmdr_Havalok]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cC0keDGobck

Best. Advice. EVAH!

 

[Commandr Sam]

I'm not usually this punchy and I'll probably regret my last several posts in the morning (3am here as I'm typing this).

For the last few months, I've flown an ASPe, with A level shields, thrusters, military hull, adv scanner, surf scanner, planet hangar. Basically everything is A, set up for exploring, but I want to be able to defend myself, and I managed to have 32 cargo (I think thats right) space as well. I generally love that ship, other than I wish I had more cargo room.

However, almost two months ago, I decided to give powerplay a try, after ignoring it until now (and before then I was sometimes doing the community goals, also frustrating with my ASPs cargo space). I found a type-6 more conducive to accomplishing the powerplay tasks so I bought one and parked the ASPe, I stupidly didn't do this at the power's homeworld though. (incidentally I had a type-6 about a year ago, and it drove me batty because even with the max-size A power plant, you can't A-level everything without exceeding it).

I'm now finding powerplay to be a bit of busywork though, and the merit retention does NOT seem to work as documented in other forum posts (another topic) so now I'm pretty much just using powerplay as a stepping stone to get my next "dream" ship, which I thought was the python, which I finally bought about a week ago, however it now seems like one of those shiny luxury sports cars that looks good but actually spends most of its time in the shop, and maxing it out is also going to mean remaining in PP for several more weeks. I've been trying to speed that up with missions/trading, and gradually upgrading things, being sure to keep enough to pay the insurance should the worst happen; which it did a couple days ago.

And of course in the middle of all this 2.1 arrived along with Skynet (hadn't bought the python yet, lost my type-6 five or six times to Skynet, rage quit a couple times, went through all the forum posts with people saying "its great! yuu just need to get gud", then frontier officially acknowledged the Skynet issue...)

Anyway,... Yes 2.1 is frustrating me. Just before I lost the python, I had managed to get 100,000+ in bounties (purely from defending myself multiple times) and was just about to go find the engineer who has that as his requirement, when I got interdicted and killed by another python. I thought things were going fine, after they fixed Skynet, until that encounter. Looking back, I don't know what I could have done to survive. I was frustrated that the other python was able to both keep up, AND keep firing on me while I was very slowly waiting for the FSD to charge. I remember playing with more pips in sys vs eng and vs versa trying to survive until the FSD was done, but it didn't work. It seemed like the other python was able to remain about 500m or so behind me no matter what. Also, If I remember right, I think I spent about 10 seconds or so vomiting all over the cockpit when I failed to evade the interdiction (I try to submit if it looks like I'm going to lose, but sometimes it doesn't seem to work if you didn't submit right away). Before 2.1 I generally always submit and either kill them, or run away. Pre 2.1 my type-6 was able to kill anything smaller than an ASP, though it would take nearly 1/2 hour sometimes (granted this because the pre-2.1 AI was not-quite sitting duck). Generally, if they weren't a sidey/eagle or have a huge bounty, I'd just leave.

Basically, I'm just wondering/tempted to go back to my ASPe; the limited cargo space is just really frustrating sometimes. The python was supposed to be my new ASPe but with tons more cargo space, and then I looked at the A-level FSD range, and my heart started to sink... (I know the ASPe has exceptional jump range compared to other ships, but I didn't think the python would be THAT bad...)

Another consideration I had was trying to get a ship that I could equip for exploring and transport and mining (including the limpet controllers) while still being able to defend itself, and the python has enough module slots to finally do that. (although I did NOT enjoy my previous attempts at mining. I'm hoping the limpet controllers will make it much better).

If they get ship shipping(?) in and it doesn't cost a fortune, maybe I'll feel less of a need to try to make a jack-of-all-trades ship.

In short, I haven't flown my ASPe since 2.1 came out, and now I'm sort of afraid to (I think its about as much as my current python in insurance costs to replace). And the type-6 handles like a shopping cart, the view is GREAT however (in VR). I have something like 28 insurance claims and around 10 or so of them are since 2.1 came out. I am going to be *dead* at work tomorrow...

Incidentally, neither of these two most recent kills did the opponent claim to be from an opposing power. One time I had a load of silver, the other time I had a load of, I think performance enhancers (which I was going to drop off then find the engineer). I've generally survived all the "opposing power" encounters since Skynet was killed (and was where I got the 100,000 bounty that I needed for the engineer).

On your last question, I seem to remember struggling with the sidewinder but I generally did fine in the other ships I've had, but most of my play time was with a cobra mk iii, and then the ASPe, with a brief stint with a type-6 in between. It seemed balanced to me, considering I generally only do defensive encounters, although once I stopped trying to just automatically run away/evade, I realized that AI mostly doesn't fire back after the first few shots, but was pretty good at really prolonging a fight sometimes, and would occasionally run away after you spent 10 minutes trying to kill it (usually not that long when I'm in my ASP though). So I recognize that the AI could do with some improvement.

Also, in my case, I've tried to make sure all my ships had decent hull/weapons/shields. While my primary occupation is exploration, I'm not one of those that sacrifices everything to eke out the best jump range. I've been known to slightly downsize the shield so I could have either more cargo or a larger fuel scoop, but that's generally the only compromise I've made on the defensive capability of my ships. Usually its cargo space I sacrifice the most, except in the type-6s where I didn't equip for exploration at all. Essentially, my first type-6 was "trade/mission until I can afford an ASP". Sorry this got so long.

This is actual balanced feedback and the sort of thing FD can use, most of the other posts we see on here are knee jerk reactions to having to adapt.

I will try not to keep you up too late but can probably give you a few tips to help you with what you are doing.

If you do not really like combat PP is a big no no, it will be responsible for the majority of ships interdicting you and they will be tough.

Flying your asp explorer, it sounds like you know exactly what you are doing. All I can recommend on that ship is the biggest thrusters you can have, some point defence turrets and chaff (optional).

Flying the T6, this is a low end hauler ship so comes with the inherit limitations (mostly heat and power management) but does have one big advantage, its really fast. So try and escape combat as above in your asp, big thrusters and run away, fit PDTs as they stop missiles which cause most player hull damage.

This brings me on to the python, this ship as you mentioned is a bit like a sports car. It needs all the kit to work well. You would not have a ferrari with a ford KA engine on it (sorry to hate on KA's but they suck).

The python with low rated gear flys and handles like a pig. Whilst once A-graded is a wonderful ship.

With 2.1 landed it is now much harder to fly a multi purpose ship so I recommend specializing a bit.

The T6 is great for hauling cargo but really gimps you in combat.

The Asp is great for long range trading (rares) or exploring but is a bit weak in combat.

The python can be good at pretty much all roles once A rated and specialised to do that job.

TLDR - If you want to love combat again, get a vulture and you will kick ass with it, it is a specialized combat ship and excels at the role.

If you want to trade keep your t-6 get big shields, big thrusters and PDT turrets and you will be able to space truck to your hearts content with out any real risk, just avoid combat.

To explore keep your asp and you seem happy with that.

Most importantly to avoid hard combat drop PP.

 

[xxiii]

and it usually (always in my experience) breaks the interdiction chain.

And yes, I wholeheartedly agree FD is doing a very poor job of documenting their own game. That's why some of us are trying really hard to tell people about this details. If we can manage to teach as many people as we can, then we can move on to more serious issues like the lack of documentation and the accessibility of said documentation, which is the biggest problem FD has to solve ASAP.

You mean where you get interdicted again a few seconds to a minute or so after escaping?

I'll have to try it.

I'm still trying to figure out what some of the stuff on the instrument panel is for; for instance this that is right under the shield hologram:

()
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

And why the heat (I presume: red sqiggly lines) comes on when I'm nowhere near overheating, or seem to be getting hotter.

It seems like there is some extra line along the side of the scanner as well (besides the blue-zone, current speed lines), but I don't want to fire up the game right now to look. (way way past my bed time).

 

[Cynaqq]

You mean where you get interdicted again a few seconds to a minute or so after escaping?

I'll have to try it.

I'm still trying to figure out what some of the stuff on the instrument panel is for; for instance this that is right under the shield hologram:

()
_ _ _ _ _ _ _

And why the heat (I presume: red sqiggly lines) comes on when I'm nowhere near overheating, or seem to be getting hotter.

It seems like there is some extra line along the side of the scanner as well (besides the blue-zone, current speed lines), but I don't want to fire up the game right now to look. (way way past my bed time).

Right under the shield hologram is your hull health. There is nothing else there. I don't understand what you are asking.

Right hand side of the sensor display is, in order, blue zone (optimum turn rate indicator), your actual speed on your main vector (not necessarily through your nose but directly towards where you are moving), and the throttle setting (while FA on, the ship tries to match this with the actual speed through your nose).

I also don't understand what you mean by 'red squiggly lines'. If right above the fuel indicator, it's your heat signature. You don't have to overheat for it to move. Any change in your heat signature will be visible there. If you are talking about the left hand target indicator sometimes turning into wave shapes, it means you selected a signal source.

If you can provide screenshots and ask specific quesitons next time you visit the forums, I'll be glad to help with what everything is.

 

[thirstyfish]

yeah, this is a pair of known bugs. The overpowered npc ships has been fixed in a recent patch. hyper-aggro ai i don't know if its fixed or not. should be fine now

 

[Darth Ender]

I love the sound of Interdiction Death Squads. Can we get these in the game ASAP?! I'd love for them to be a persistent NPC existing in one place at one time just patrolling the bubble and - regardless of mode - identifying naughty players and just going to town on them. Could make it a meta game of tracking their last known locations to stay away from them. etc.