Horizons Interdiction madness ruining my game

Try getting interdicted INTO a planet! Almost to orbital cruise when the interdiction happened, I "failed" the escape, when I stopped spinning, INSIDE the planet. Ship blew up when the surface textures rendered as I tried to exit. Logging did no good, I was still deep in the planet core........ $130k lesson to give in when that close to a planet, but make sure Im facing open space (at least, I hope thats what I would need to do)

That search button is quite good, very good workarounds for that can be found by using it...

:)
 
Not very "immersive" when the AI blatantly cheats by spawning ships right behind you which are impossible to outrun. As well as other things :/

When are we going to get persistent NPCs, or at least SOME consistency?
 
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I really wish they'd address this mechanic. For the love of God, please have pirates scan you for cargo!! "All I want is all you have." Well good luck, bozo, 'cause I don't have anything in my cargo hold. You wasted not only my time, but yours as well.

If they simply did a cargo scan once they've pulled you out of SC. OR make it so that you can tell if someone has cargo while you're in SC. Then you can cargo scan them later to see what they have.
 
I really wish they'd address this mechanic. For the love of God, please have pirates scan you for cargo!! "All I want is all you have." Well good luck, bozo, 'cause I don't have anything in my cargo hold. You wasted not only my time, but yours as well.

If they simply did a cargo scan once they've pulled you out of SC. OR make it so that you can tell if someone has cargo while you're in SC. Then you can cargo scan them later to see what they have.

I'm not sure I understand. I've had that happen in the past where I was scanned by a pirate and I did not have any cargo and get the message 'how do you make a living' then the go scan someone else. But that was when I was not in super cruise. Do they not do that anymore?
 
I'm not sure I understand. I've had that happen in the past where I was scanned by a pirate and I did not have any cargo and get the message 'how do you make a living' then the go scan someone else. But that was when I was not in super cruise. Do they not do that anymore?

That is most common at NAV Beacons but I have seen it in RES as well, should be part of the mechanic for all interdictions but it is much easier to code the NPC to cheat.
 
I don't know man, I've been intedicted so many times, I've escpaed 90% of the time playing the minigame. The rest, I just give in boost like mad and jump away. Haven't died once and my ship has no shield
 
I don't know man, I've been intedicted so many times, I've escpaed 90% of the time playing the minigame. The rest, I just give in boost like mad and jump away. Haven't died once and my ship has no shield
That usually works, but not when you are in a, I don't know, type-7 or something is really annoying. I still wouldn't have an issue with it, except maybe 30% of the time the interdictions are bugged, you get interdicted 0.5 seconds after jumping into a system, giving you no change to do anything, you get interdicted by invisible NPC, the minigame bugs out and you can't win it (the escape vector magically jumps to a random spot), and such. And the fan favorite, getting interdicted 5 times in a row even if you have like 2 missions or have no cargo.
 
That usually works, but not when you are in a, I don't know, type-7 or something is really annoying. I still wouldn't have an issue with it, except maybe 30% of the time the interdictions are bugged, you get interdicted 0.5 seconds after jumping into a system, giving you no change to do anything, you get interdicted by invisible NPC, the minigame bugs out and you can't win it (the escape vector magically jumps to a random spot), and such. And the fan favorite, getting interdicted 5 times in a row even if you have like 2 missions or have no cargo.


Bit late to add comment: I was scanned last night by an NPC and got a message: Sorry, thought you were somebody else.
I sent back : Okay! Safe travels.
Probably didn't do anything, but brings up a question: Should we be able to converse with NPCs in Solo?

That darn mini game! It does jump out of sight now and again. Gotta submit and then run, good in the Cobra, is why I'm scared to change it.
And as you say, 1 to 2 seconds into the system and getting interdicted by a mongrel sitting on the sun's surface. Hate that. hate it ... hate it ...
 
This was in issue, to a lesser extent, in pre-Engineers ED but it is now quite common. Pre-Engineers, I got tired of being the fox so I got rid of my freighter T7 and bought a Python, it's got cargo capacity, decent speed, range and can fight when cornered. I eventually a-classed it and got to the point where I looked forward to interdictions.

Engineers dropped and an a-class ship was tissue paper to the NPC's initially. The NPC's were deprived of modded weapons and I slowly hardened the Python with mods. The drawback is cost, 150+ mill CR plus the time invested for mods. But, IMHO, it is the best way to survive.

The instances described in this thread are common, if you're carrying engineer bits and are running a mission that has hostiles attached, the odds that you will be attacked are enhanced; if you have a bounty, another layer, Anarchy system, another one and so on.

Point is the odds are stacked against traders unless they are in fully-combat ready armed merchants.

There are common instances of instant interdictions just as you come out of hyper, with no warning. To better your chances, close throttle and submit to avoid the stupid spin cycle in the useless mini-game. This allows for faster FSD spin up and betters the survival/escape odds. boost away and high jump ASAP to a nearby system, this usually breaks the cycle.

Run. rabbit, run (until you get that Python).
 
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rrobes, I got interdicted a few times yesterday and submitted three times, and each time my ship got thrown around the system. It really        *** me off that when that happens really close to my stop, I wind up about an extra 5 to 20 LY further away.
 
I like it just the way it is, its fun. In fact i carry an fsd interdictor just in case i hit a dry stretch i can do some interdicting myself. Usually end up with anywhere from 20 to 200k bounties per outing from my chosen home base. Good income imo.
 
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These insta spawning on your six i could only see at mission spawned npc's.
I'm already used to it to prepare for interdiction when i hear "mission critical massage" because one or 2 seconds after this you get interdicted out of nowhere even at 1600clicks travelspeed.
 
The ship YOU'RE in makes a big difference to how interdictions go.

What annoys me is how there is no warning, not even another ship being visible on the sensors until it happens (I witnessed this stealth behavior twice so far).

I do agree though that there needs to at least be some variation on where the interdictions happen. So far, they've all occurred during slow-down to the destination, or at least within the destination system only (when on a mission).

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These insta spawning on your six i could only see at mission spawned npc's.
I'm already used to it to prepare for interdiction when i hear "mission critical massage" because one or 2 seconds after this you get interdicted out of nowhere even at 1600clicks travelspeed.
THIS! It's annoying. The system knows you're on a mission before leaving port, so this instant spawning shouldn't happen. The ship should be subject to the same rules as a human, with the ship placed somewhere random to begin with, and if they're out of range, too bad (it would also have the effect of reducing the relatively high level of interdictions, though I think something was changed as the last few nights it has not been crazy compared with last week).

The NPCs are so crazy one was shot by station protection as it followed me in without permission. :D
 
I agree that the interdictions are better now than earlier, but it is still an idiots version of programming when an interdicter sits on the sun's surface before it interdicts you.
And it is not (what part of not do you not understand?) how the game is meant to be played. Some complaints were made that had space physics mentioned as unfair.
Gotta go with physics, but I already said somewhere that if a pirate can see you, you should be able to see him. If he isn't on the map, he should not be able to see you.
How hard is it to make the programme slightly more realistic. Oh well, it is FD. Probably wont happen.
 
Yeah it's way too high, i love the way they can almost teleport themselves after you at will, totally ignoting the FSD mechanic. just a bit silly...
 
An elite npc "I have come a long way for what's in your hold". But I've only got a single engineer's commodity that you can buy at almost any market, and costs less than the fuel it took you to track me down.
 
I was upgrading my sidewinder last night and had an elite npc in a sidewinder do the invisible interdict routine on me.
Ooh yeh it had a plasma accelerator in one weapon slot!
 
It's the fact that they seem to be equipped with magic frame shift drives that annoys the heck out of me. You can be travelling at over 150 times the speed of light, they're no where in sight, not even in your contacts list. Then suddenly from out of the edge of your scanner, ZZZzzziiiiipp! They come flying over at super warp speed and stop dead right behind you and 2 seconds later, bam! You're being interdicted.

Of course that's not including the others that just magically appear right behind you out of nowhere, or the ones that some how manage to be there already waiting for you every time you drop out of SC. Which is especially surprising given that they appear to have terrible short term memory problems. "I knew I'd find you all that tasty cargo! Don't try to run." Hang on a minute, didn't we already have this conversation the last 3 times I ran away from you?

I think what's especially annoying and frustrating about it, is that it is purely straight up cheating by the AI and there is nothing you can do to avoid it. You're flying through the middle of space, there's no where to hide, you can't take a quick left, then a right and another right down that little backstreet to lose them. All you can do is fly in a straight line to where you are going and hope that you get there without too much hassle.

As for the space lanes, what rubbish! So if I make a bee line to a port from the drop in point at a star I'm in a space lane, but if I just deviate from that a little bit I'm not and somehow that makes me less likely to get interdicted? Despite the fact that I'm still just as visible on the scanner, as is everyone else as they were before I left the space lane. Utter nonsense.


An alternative idea to the current interdiction system:

I understand it's hard to make a chase and evasion game set in a big empty void. So how about instead of just having pirates pop out into SC from nowhere right behind us or have them chase us from half way across a system with their magic super fast drives. Why don't we have them lie in wait in ambush instead? As we're flying along we could perhaps detect disturbances like the USS's from which the pirates pop out and give chase and not with any super fast magic drives either. If they pop out ahead of our flight path they can still interdict us as we fly past. However it will also give us a fighting chance to try and avoid them, either by steering a course clear of any suspect signals or some last second evasive manoeuvres if we see them pop out in an ambush. They could set up a chain of ambushes ahead of you and have you weaving in and out try to avoid them. Would be a heck of a lot more fun than the current implementation. The same would work well for cops and smugglers too. And it would make the current space lanes make a bit more sense too if you were more likely to encounter them along popular routes.
 
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Honestly, while it might have made some kind of sense, early on in development, the interdiction mechnic always feels as ridiculous as it does frustrating. It needs replacing with something more realistic or at least made not to feel so 'dumbed down'. The whole 'chase the magic blue circle' thing just feels so arcarde-ish... Especially when it can often just disappear completely off your screen when you've almost 'caught' it.
 
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