Horizons Twenty-Five HARD-CODED CHAINED-INTERDICTIONS in the Solo Game.!!!!!!

[KillaALF]

The only thing I really dislike is :

- Mission Critical Update
--> Text reads "Warning CMDR, enemy Ships have been... *BAM* INTERDICTION

I've checked and the NPC spawns directly behind me. Always. And with their "we don't need intertia on our Ships" godlike Interdiction Minigame skilz (or the frequent flickering Escape Vector bug), more often than not - I lose those.
That insta-spawn + insta-interdict right behind me kinda sucks.

Yeah, this. It wouldn't be so bad if the AI didn't cheat so blatantly. Insta-interdiction while I'm cruising at hundreds of C to a cargo drop-off destination some 100000Ls into the system? Only the AI is capable of spawning right behind you. And if you anticipate them (cause it's been happening so frequently), you're left wondering how the heck that Anaconda is able to turn around so fast and get on your six again. Never mind that there seems to be no way to actually win the interdiction mini-game in my Asp against said Anaconda. I really like the new AI - if they play fair. Which, outside of combat in normal flight, they obviously don't.

No offense, but that simple not true, good player will retract hardpoint when energy surge detected and charge FSD too, then in SC he need just press 2 button select target ahead, start interdiction, if you never be interdicted by same player in 2-3 second after SC, don`t mean that it is impossible (i had).

Yeah sure, but if he does that and I have him targeted while running away (which I always do) I also should get the warning about the energy surge. With the AI this never happens, but as soon as I arrive in SC he's there again. It's quite obvious that the AI just spawns again and does not follow you like a human player would.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

Mate no Offense.
But thats the very Definition of Bull .

Not only does it not change the Fact that People just Submit and Boost.
Its also currently complete Rubbish.


No Offense.
But no Player could ever Interdict you this fast again.
Against an Player when you Submit, Boost and Low Wake. You will be Fairly Far out before he even finds you again.
And the only time he can usually get a Second Interdiction is when you slow down towards the station somewhere later.
And this is very hard to as well cause you have to find the guy again and get into position again.
While the NPCs can even come from the Front of you and Interdict you Instantly.

Needless to say they even Follow you if you High Wake. And they dont stop when you win the Minigame either.
Heck no Player would ever Manage to get into Position and g interdict another Player at the Sun in between the Two Jumps.....



So Sorry but No.
Just No.
This is Rubbish.

So you are swearing and having a go at me because of what, ~10 seconds of difference time in between the AI interdiction and players?

Let me put what I put in bold earlier a different way: I am not defending the implementation or choices. Hell I don't even know if thats how it went down, I don't speak for the Devs but before the change literally no-one played the minigame.

I've tested this myself in my 1300+ hours of gameplay and I can confirm that winning the minigame dumps that particular NPC away for the rest of your supercruise journey until you drop or whatever. If they are in a wing of 3 you'll probably end up being interdicted by the other 2. If you use the "select next hostile target" you can see who's interdicting you. If you submit, boost and low wake I can pretty much guarantee it'll be the same NPC.

If I had time and patience I'd bring up a thread specifically by a "griefer/pirate" (depending on your definition) where he/she specifically states that they enjoy interdicting people right in front of suns as the added heat prevents them running to supercruise as quick.

Anyway, I'm not here spending my spare time to be swore at so goodbye forever, all im doing is trying to help but if you'd prefer to blindly low wake infinitely as the NPC's chase you go ahead, I'm not stopping you. But what I explained is how the game currently works (to the best of my knowledge).

For those that want to avoid infinite interdictions - High wake!

Edit: Mundo it's not as bad as it seems just a few adjustments need to be made to outfitting and strategy, high waking is the biggest thing to learn and implement and there's a good few youtube videos on the best way to shake the AI whilst your FSD charges for exit.

 

[askavir]

I agree.

The current frequency of interdictions is completely ridiculous.

I already thought they were too frequent before to be plausible. Now its ludicrous. How could civilization colonize 70k star systems if one can't fly for 10 minutes without being stopped by pirates/murderers/etc?...

 

[sensai25]

I agree.

The current frequency of interdictions is completely ridiculous.

I already thought they were too frequent before to be plausible. Now its ludicrous. How could civilization colonize 70k star systems if one can't fly for 10 minutes without being stopped by pirates/murderers/etc?...

Same advice. Very annoying part of "gameplay".

 

[Sunleader]

No offense, but that simple not true, good player will retract hardpoint when energy surge detected and charge FSD too, then in SC he need just press 2 button select target ahead, start interdiction, if you never be interdicted by same player in 2-3 second after SC, don`t mean that it is impossible (i had).

No Offense. But that would be an Insanely Lucky Case.
And also completely Senseless.
Because lets face a Fact.
If the other Guy Retracts hard Points the moment a Surge is Detected. It would mean he can Interdict you all the Time but he would not be Shooting at you at all.

And here is another thing you seem to forget.
Aside from this needing an large amount of Luck on the Followers Part as he has to find the Target again right away before the Target is too far Away.
NPCs are Firing at you down to the last Second of you Charging your Super Cruise.
They just Ignore the Charge Time themselves and Jump after you the moment you Jumped. Despite them still having their Hardpoints Deployed when you Jumped.

 

[EdzUp]

Okay, so maybe it wasn't 25 interdictions but it was close enough to that for Government work. So just when I'm really starting to enjoy stuff on the new Mission Board, at least when the Mission Board actually opens (welcome to the new On-Again/Off-Again Bug for that), but instead, I'm back to playing Elite-Interdictions again.. frack me.

A simple canned mission to supply some non-illegal goods paying out 179-k, and I get the mission update saying I'll get a bonus if I destroy any of the ships sent to attack me on the delivery run. Just one thing, I don't do combat. I don't want to do combat. I'll leave the yanking and banking to the kids. They can destroy their joysticks, not me. [cool]

Nothing new there with the mission update about the baddies, and in my Cobra Mk III which is optimized to be as fast as it can be, with a boost speed of 448 m/s, nothing touches me. Most of the time it's one interdiction and then I'm an outie.. the devs can rest easy, at least they did their bit to save humanity, etc, etc, etc.

But this time the interdictions didn't stop, throw realism out the window. No human player pirate/griefer would be that stupid. They would give up after 2-3 failed interdictions.

And the devs tried their best to cheat with the hard-coding. The old mass-lock trick to keep me from boosting away. That would work, guys, except for one thing, I just need to boost 2-3 more times with Flight Assist off and then I'm back to supercruise.

The only time I took even a few rounds along with accruing a little damage, is when they used a spin-out-drop, out of the interdiction. But once again, guys, I just boosted away.

So I have to ask, I feel duty bound. What happened, did one of the unpaid Interns, on an all-nighter without enough coffee (java), do the coding on this one.?!?

And look, I really really do get it, honest. Interdictions is part of the game's history. But is it the sole purpose of the game, especially hard-coded -loops like this.

How can I even think about recommending a game like this to any casual, more mature players that I know. I would be laughed out of the King's court, it's not going to happen, soldier.

Anyway, I finally finished the mission even though I toyed with the idea of just letting the NPC pirate destroy the ship. And like how clever is that in terms of NPC AI intent, not very if you ask me, refer back to the unpaid Intern again. But it was only a Cobra, after all, with the insurance hovering at around 465k and I have roughly 80-Mil credits in the bank.

Oh ya, even logging out to the Main Menu, I tried it twice, doesn't work any more. So now I'm thinking, with interdiction like this, do I even want to play any more.

I dunno, I'll play some other, lesser games for a while, some of the typical crap that the civilians play. But no more Elite-Interdictions, certainly not for tonight anyway. Not with that kind of spoiling what should be, and could be, a really great game.

Interdiction are nor a part of Elite/Frontier or FFE as we had jump drive in Elite and Stardreamer in the others. It stopped when a ship entered the area close enough to be mass locked

Interdiction mechanics are new to the Elite universe and in some cases are seriously abused.

 

[Mundo54]

For those that want to avoid infinite interdictions - High wake!

Edit: Mundo it's not as bad as it seems just a few adjustments need to be made to outfitting and strategy, high waking is the biggest thing to learn and implement and there's a good few youtube videos on the best way to shake the AI whilst your FSD charges for exit.

Yes, boss!! That's a big 10-4, roger on that. I feel like a timid Disneyland tourist sitting around talking with some NASCAR drivers, when I read the stuff you guys do.

I think I'm okay for the outfitting, at least from a Run-Away!! point of view. Here's my latest Cobra Mk III build - Coriolis, and my Asp Explorer - Coriolis.

Both of these ships are built to be as fast as they can be, while maxing out the cargo capacity in each case; 36-tons for the Cobra and 84-tons for the Asp.

It's a little more work milking the Mission Board with the Cobra, but like my grade-school music teacher used to say back around '68, it's not tea bag.

Of course I can stack more missions and carry more with the Asp, but if I get taken out, the roughly 1.5-Mil insurance cost will smart a little more. Kind of like a bad day at the track, i.e., I need to go see a man about a horse. :x

 

[terrycloth]

If you can outrun them, wait until they disappear off your scanner and then go back into supercruise. They vanish into the black lagoon and are never seen again.

 

[Sunleader]

So much for that....

God Interdicted.
NPC Fired on me to last minute and Hit 100% (on 4.2km....)
I High Wake.
I arrive in the next System. And I already get a Chat Message of the Guy being right on me......

Yeah Good Joke.
Show me one Player.
Just one Single Player.

That can Fire at me until I am in Jump on 4.2km away from Him.
Which Arrives in the System I high Waked to. Less than 1 Second after me.
And Manages to Interdict me within 5 Seconds again...


THIS IS BULL    !!!

Sorry but its Bull    .
The NPCs are Cheating!
They are Ignoring Rules that Players are Bound too.
Heck its 10 Times easier to Escape from 3 Enemy Players at Once. Than it is to Escape from one of these Freak NPCs !!!

 

[askavir]

No offense, but that simple not true, good player will retract hardpoint when energy surge detected and charge FSD too, then in SC he need just press 2 button select target ahead, start interdiction, if you never be interdicted by same player in 2-3 second after SC, don`t mean that it is impossible (i had).

That only works if the interdicted player does not submit to the interdiction.

If I submit to an interdiction my FSD only needs 10 seconds to cool down, allowing me to go back to supercruise or even jump to another system while the attracking ship's FSD is still cooling down.

 

[Andrej]

No Offense. But that would be an Insanely Lucky Case.
And also completely Senseless.
Because lets face a Fact.
If the other Guy Retracts hard Points the moment a Surge is Detected. It would mean he can Interdict you all the Time but he would not be Shooting at you at all.

And here is another thing you seem to forget.
Aside from this needing an large amount of Luck on the Followers Part as he has to find the Target again right away before the Target is too far Away.
NPCs are Firing at you down to the last Second of you Charging your Super Cruise.
They just Ignore the Charge Time themselves and Jump after you the moment you Jumped. Despite them still having their Hardpoints Deployed when you Jumped.

That only works if the interdicted player does not submit to the interdiction.

If I submit to an interdiction my FSD only needs 10 seconds to cool down, allowing me to go back to supercruise or even jump to another system while the attracking ship's FSD is still cooling down.

You are never have been hunted by competent players don`t you?

 

[Tikigod]

Just curious OP, but why did you feel it was necessary to make the distinction that it happened in Solo?

It's not like there's any distinction in terms of the game what so ever other than all your instances are solo instances.

 

[Mundo54]

That only works if the interdicted player does not submit to the interdiction.

If I submit to an interdiction my FSD only needs 10 seconds to cool down, allowing me to go back to supercruise or even jump to another system while the attracking ship's FSD is still cooling down.

There may be an exception to that normal 10-second FSD cool-down time if you submit to the interdiction. And this is where you get the spin-out-drop after the interdiction, where your ship system reports that you're taking on hull damage.

I had one of those yesterday and I believe it has something to do with a more powerful class of FSD Interdictor but I'm not sure. Because I submitted immediately, every time one of the interdictions started. So I don't know why that only happened the one time, because it seemed to be the same NPC pirate, interdicting me endlessly.

But I think all bets are off, as they say. Based on what some people are saying in terms of the NPC ships cheating, it's anybody's guess what shortcuts the Frontier devs have used to make it easier for them, but harder for us to evade, to fight or even to just survive.

I suspect that the devs have too much on their plate. They're already working on new stuff even as the update came out. So they're cutting corners on some stuff. Like possibly reverting to this absurdly aggressive NPC AI, ships with God-like powers, as some people have said.

So it's basically getting harder to beat them at their own game, because it's just so much easier for the devs to cheat.

 

[Sunleader]

You are never have been hunted by competent players don`t you?

No player in this game could ever be more annoying than the current AI.

 

[Andrej]

There may be an exception to that normal 10-second FSD cool-down time if you submit to the interdiction. And this is where you get the spin-out-drop after the interdiction, where your ship system reports that you're taking on hull damage.

I had one of those yesterday and I believe it has something to do with a more powerful class of FSD Interdictor but I'm not sure. Because I submitted immediately, every time one of the interdictions started. So I don't know why that only happened the one time, because it seemed to be the same NPC pirate, interdicting me endlessly.

But I think all bets are off, as they say. Based on what some people are saying in terms of the NPC ships cheating, it's anybody's guess what shortcuts the Frontier devs have used to make it easier for them, but harder for us to evade, to fight or even to just survive.

I suspect that the devs have too much on their plate. They're already working on new stuff even as the update came out. So they're cutting corners on some stuff. Like possibly reverting to this absurdly aggressive NPC AI, ships with God-like powers, as some people have said.

So it's basically getting harder to beat them at their own game, because it's just so much easier for the devs to cheat.

He is a mistaken when saying that attacking ships FSD cooling more that 10 sec when you submitted. It always same time as yours when you submitting or not. And yes, you are right, NPC cheat, but only a little. When i was rallying to trade Elite, i was smuggling imperial slave in open play, and was constantly hunted by anti-slaver players groups. And some of them perfectly perform constant chain/instant interdiction's just like NPC now.

 

[Andrej]

No player in this game could ever be more annoying than the current AI.

Have been interdicted 5-6 time in row by ships that can`t mass-lock you when station only 270 Ls away from the star it is annoying enough? And in every interdiction you lost some shield, until it all gone, and when you dropped in normal space to regenerate it, attacker drooping at yours low wake. As i said, you probably never be hunted by competent player.

 

[Sunleader]

Have been interdicted 5-6 time in row by ships that can`t mass-lock you when station only 270 Ls away from the star it is annoying enough? And in every interdiction you lost some shield, until it all gone, and when you dropped in normal space to regenerate it, attacker drooping at yours low wake. As i said, you probably never be hunted by competent player.

Mate no offence but your saying bull    .

1.
Few days ago an NPC interdicted me 8 times on a 340ls cruise....

2.
I start charging FSD roughly 6 seconds after dropout.
So the other guy has 6 seconds to deploy weapons and hit me.

After 6 seconds when i am charging already he would need to retract and charge as well. (Which would already be 2 seconds difference)

He needs to enter SC in the same direction as me. Find me in contacts and follow me.
Rinse and repeat.



Now lets compare that to an npc.

Again i need 6 seconds.
But npc keeps shooting all the way info jump animation.
Then in SC WITHIN 1 SECOND which is faster than a player.
He is in contacts and coming after me already and interdicts me.



Mate seriously.
Stop making up stuff.
The Interdiction capacity of NPCs right now is beyond what any player is able too.
No player can jump after you while shooting.
And no player can interdict you a god        8 times on less than 400 ls.
Aand hell no player can have your cargo scanned 1 second after you jump into a system.
And no freaky player can just fly at you from the front and interdict you when you only jump into the system and jump out again.....

 

[Andrej]

Mate no offence but your saying bull    .

1.
Few days ago an NPC interdicted me 8 times on a 340ls cruise....

And so what? Player can do exactly the same

2.
I start charging FSD roughly 6 seconds after dropout.
So the other guy has 6 seconds to deploy weapons and hit me.

In 6 seconds Python or Clipper can deal lots a damage

After 6 seconds when i am charging already he would need to retract and charge as well. (Which would already be 2 seconds difference)

He needs to enter SC in the same direction as me. Find me in contacts and follow me.
Rinse and repeat.

Sound about right, little comment, it is harder to do not enter SC in the same direction as you (and make no sense really), and offender don`t need to find you in contacts, you right before him AND in interdiction range, he need only to press select target before me button and start interdiction.

Now lets compare that to an npc.

Again i need 6 seconds.
But npc keeps shooting all the way info jump animation.
Then in SC WITHIN 1 SECOND which is faster than a player.
He is in contacts and coming after me already and interdicts me.

Yeah, NPC cheat by, probably, 2 seconds faster interdiction that player can.

Anyway, is no point in arguing, you are free to believe in whatever you want, but it don`t change reality, NPC is not a godlike, they just starting to act more like real players.

And no freaky player can just fly at you from the front and interdict you when you only jump into the system

You should bug report this, i was never been interdicted from the front.

 

[Sunleader]

And so what? Player can do exactly the same



In 6 seconds Python or Clipper can deal lots a damage



Sound about right, little comment, it is harder to do not enter SC in the same direction as you (and make no sense really), and offender don`t need to find you in contacts, you right before him AND in interdiction range, he need only to press select target before me button and start interdiction.




Yeah, NPC cheat by, probably, 2 seconds faster interdiction that player can.

Anyway, is no point in arguing, you are free to believe in whatever you want, but it don`t change reality, NPC is not a godlike, they just starting to act more like real players.



You should bug report this, i was never been interdicted from the front.

They dont Cheat by 2 Seconds.
They Cheat by over 10 seconds.

They get 5 seconds to shoot which the player gets as well.
They get another 5 Second (depending on drive) because they shoot while your charging.
And they keep shooting another 5 seconds for the countdown.

In short they get 3 times the amount of Shots in any Player would manage.
And despite that. They are back on your ass way faster than any player is.



And no mate.
I am usually doing a turn after SC to get out of the Interdictable alignment.
Just that an NPC needs no alignment.
He can interdict you on any speed without any restrictions.


Sorry man.
But as i said. Currently no Player no matter how skilled would ever be more dangerous than the current NPCs

 

[Mundo54]

Just curious OP, but why did you feel it was necessary to make the distinction that it happened in Solo?

It's not like there's any distinction in terms of the game what so ever other than all your instances are solo instances.

I had to Google OP to find out that it means Original Poster. I'm new to participating in forums although I cut my teeth on Usenet Newsgroups back in the day. But that was a long time ago, in a Galaxy far far away. [cool]

I stressed that it was the Solo version of the game for a few reasons. First and foremost, I wanted to make sure that people were aware that I was being interdicted by NPC ships, and not human players, if I was playing in the Open version of the game, for example, and I was possibly confused about who or what was interdicting me. It doesn't take much to confuse me.

And then if I made reference to logging out to the Main Menu as a last resort to deal with some ridiculous chained-interdictions, I wanted to make sure that people knew that I wasn't logging out and avoiding being interdicted by actual human players, which is kind of unethical. A permutation of the Combat Logging that I have seen reference to in some forums.

So far today, I haven't been back into Elite-D. I'm weighing the pro's and cons of re-engaging. Laziness is also a factor, an ongoing aspect of my persona, some might even say a character flaw. Who am I to argue.

But I installed the 1-week DOOM Demo from Steam before dins, about a 7.5gb install. I just played about 5-minutes of it and it's really trippy.