Newcomer / Intro Getting interdicted every single flight, several times

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

- I'm travelling along shipping lanes. I honestly don't feel like trying some fancy fly-around stuff. I've got a fast ship and put a lot of cash into upgrading my thrusters, I should at least be able to outrun most pirates.

Avoiding shipping lanes isn't fancy stuff or about outrunning pirates. It's about not being interdicted in the first place, although would exclude mission-specific NPCs. Here's a comment from another CMDR in a recent newcomer thread who explains it better than I can:

Avoiding shipping lanes is a very useful tip, particularly if your star port is a long way from the main star. The funny thing is, you don't have to divert your course very far away from the shipping lane .. just enough so it says "deep space" when you align instead of "shipping lane". Logically, you would think NPCs would still see you and come after you but they don't (they're programmed NPCs, after all). I tried this multiple (10 or so) times last night going to a station that is 2000+ ls away and I didn't get interdicted once. Previously, when I didn't know about these shipping lanes I would have been interdicted many times (at least once). I did get interdicted in other systems but that's a different story.

 

[SpacePug]

FYI I just had a random, no mission-related NPC pirate interdict me 4 times in one system, all the time talking about how much he wants my cargo except I had NO CARGO AT ALL. Not to mention I've watched him getting destroyed by station security and then he was resurrected and attacking me in the next system. That's just sloppy AI programming right there.

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

FYI I just had a random, no mission-related NPC pirate interdict me 4 times in one system, all the time talking about how much he wants my cargo except I had NO CARGO AT ALL. That's just sloppy AI programming right there.

Materials (not sure about Data) also counts as cargo. I jettisoned a lot of my materials.

 

[AdamDZ]

The overly aggressive, repetitive interdictions in this game totally break imersion and the fun in this game.
Whichever numbnut in the dev team thinks this a cool mechanism clearly have no understanding on good gameplay.

Well said. So the repeated and overwhelming interdictions in Solo Mode haven't been a problem before? it's a recent "upgrade"? This is indeed very stupid. It breaks the game. Yeah, I just started playing recently and played for around 50 hours and gave up on this game. I though it was about trading and exploration and combat was optional but the interdictions by aggressive an tough AI ruined the experience for me. This needs to be fixed.

 

[AdamDZ]

Thank you for many replies and good advice. The problem, however, persists.

I have put easily 20 more hours into the game since the first post, I'm now flying Asp Explorer with roughly 75% of max upgrades and the game remains UNPLAYABLE. Allow me to explain:

I am not wanted in any system whatsoever. I do trading only and supply mission, nothing more. No smuggling, no pirate hunting, nothing of the sort. I have embraced the "submit & boost away" technique and it worked fine for a day or two. Not anymore. I'm not sure if the pirates have levels scaled up to your ship's worth or something, or are just generated completely randomly, but I've spent half of the day playing today and this is how it looked: I get interdicted EVERY flight. I can have up to THREE individual NPC pirates chasing me within the same system at a time. Some I can destroy within seconds (I've got a nice array of lasers to take shields down and rockets to kill), others can somehow keep up with me at speeds up to 350, shoot me with lasers from light years away and fire unlimited amounts of missiles. Hell, they even dodge my mines at that speed.

But that's not the actual problem. I can handle having it tough from time to time. the actual problem is, even if i escape a pirate and continue flying within the same system, he will interdict me again within 10 or so seconds. This isn't challenging. This is and unrealistic, especially since he's always at 100% and armed up to the teeth, no matter how much I've damaged him before. This renders the game a literal MASOCHISTIC TORMENT. I can escape by jumping to another system, sure, but what does it mean for me? That any station that isn't within 5 seconds of the arrival point is unreachable? That I will never fly to 90% destinations because a 5 minutes flight easily turns into a hell of 20 or more interdictions? WHO INVENTED THIS?

Seriously, I appreciate games that are challenging, require skill, tactics and whatnot. This game does none of that. It just keeps bashing your head with an undefeatable enemy again and again. I would gladly pay money to see Elite: Dangerous devs enjoying being interdicted every 10-15 seconds by the same NPC. Show me how that's fun. Not to mention that when I somehow make it to a station, the same NPC can follow me sometimes all the way to the landing pad while firing all the time. HOW DOES TRADE EVEN EXIST IN AN UNIVERSE LIKE THAT?

My experience is exactly like yours. This game is broken.

 

[Caller9]

In first video it says map through your destination. How do you do that? The routes are plotted automatically and you can't select a destination after your target without a new route being generated bypassing your intended destination? It is not clear in the video how to do that.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Don't submit. If you fight and win, they won't come back. If you fight, lose and run, they may still interdict again but the chance is much less.

If you are finding multiple interdictions impossible, don't stack missions, don't carry engineer cargo (though you haven't said you are doing this), don't fly in the shipping lane and don't submit all the time.

 

[Chris Simon]

FYI I just had a random, no mission-related NPC pirate interdict me 4 times in one system, all the time talking about how much he wants my cargo except I had NO CARGO AT ALL. Not to mention I've watched him getting destroyed by station security and then he was resurrected and attacking me in the next system. That's just sloppy AI programming right there.

I think your problem is that you are just running away. The NPC that decided to kill you won't back down until you get out of their reach (jump into another system) or kill them. It's working as intended. If you have more than one hauling mission active, they can be really persistent. (pun intended)
Just load your Asp with mine launchers and no enemy will touch you ever again, plus you earn some nice extra cash.

[video=youtube;xzVYxOhteq4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzVYxOhteq4[/video]

After that, you'll look forward to interdictions.

 

[avow555]

This game is just unplayable.


I'm a new player, been working hard to make a progress for the last few days, currently flying a 1 million worth ship. Then, yesterday, it started - being interdicted at EVERY SINGLE FLIGHT by THE SAME NPC PIRATE again and again. Most ridiculous thing of all, the same pirate can interdict me SEVERAL TIMES during SINGLE FLIGHT, no matter the system, and I'm sure that's not supposed to happen. Trust me, I've been trying every tactic possible, but in the last two days I went from owning over 0.5 million in cash to being in debt. I CAN'T DO A SINGLE MISSION and I'm not even in some dangerous territory. If I manage somehow to off one pirate, I get a few flights in peace then another one comes along and this one is tougher. The same NPC guy can kill me up to 5 times in the row easily.


I gave up when the same pirate attacked me twice in the SAME SYSTEM - first I was fighting him off, the cavalry arrived, we got him beaten down to like 25% when my canopy disintegrated, so I made a run to the nearest port leaving him to the security guys to finish. GUESS WHAT HAPPENED NEXT. The SAME GUY interdicted me just as I was approaching the port.


I'm pretty sure this is not supposed to happen. I have no bounties on me, I sometimes have no cargo at all and still the NPCs attack me. I've just bought a joystick to enjoy this game - worst investment ever.


I expect a working solution or a refund.

Any fdev want to respond to this, please do as it's about time someone from the dev team explains this....

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

In first video it says map through your destination. How do you do that? The routes are plotted automatically and you can't select a destination after your target without a new route being generated bypassing your intended destination? It is not clear in the video how to do that.

Assuming you mean Captain Kremmen's video: Yes I guess that can be tricky in more densely populated areas.
Alternatively after submitting to the interdiction, you can (if your quick& calm enough) during one of your boosts: select the Nav panel list, scroll UP not down so that you are now at the bottom of the list and then just select a system to high-wake to.

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

Any fdev want to respond to this, please do as it's about time someone from the dev team explains this....

The solution in this particular case (from July) was to high-wake to another system.
Tips/videos already provided on how to decrease the chance of the interdiction not occurring in the first place: don't stack missions and avoid shipping lanes.

Another video on avoiding interdictions but from 2014 when there was no 'shipping lane' indicator on the HUD and a faster way to travel to the destination station:

Spoiler

[video=youtube_share;1nC3KmSF85Q]https://youtu.be/1nC3KmSF85Q[/video]

 

[Caller9]

Yeah I'll have to give that a try. Problem was the last NPC wiped me out in two passes. My first boost wasn't enough to get away. Shields went completely on first pass engines on second then game over. Second attempt and some 350,000 credits later I was able to jump to another system after being interdicted. About 10 seconds in the other system the same guy was there and had me again. -350,000.... again. Third time basically a repeat of the first. Even jumping systems did not get rid of him. At that point I just dropped all the missions I had and gave up. There wasn't much chance of a different outcome. Not being able to escape does get frustrating and expensive. The mine trick looks good but with the T6 I don't know if I can drop enough of them. I'll see. The weapons some of the NPC's have are off the charts.

 

[CMDR Mr. Boombastic]

If you are taking fire you need to have 4 pips to SYS as that effectively more than doubles your shield strength.
Other things to take into account is your shield generator's optimal mass needs to be greater than the ship hull mass, and a Point Defence is now must item as the countermeasure for NPC missiles/torpedos/mines.
Jousting is a particular risky technique if you cannot dodge fire using thrusters. VJ's video in post #8 features the T6 and the three possible options on surviving.

 

[aRJay]

If he is following you to another system I suspect he is your designated killer from a mission you have accepted, in which case the following are your possible solutions.

• Give up the mission.
• Reconfigure your ship (change ships) to a faster defensive vessel (more on that below).
• Get offensive, make your ship as tough as possible to attack him on sight.
• Get sneaky, as soon as he is spotted, mouths off about your cargo drop out of cruise fast, select another system and jump to it, jump to a third system then jump back to the destination and head for the nearest dock regardless of whether it is your destination or not as fast as possible, drop out of cruise there and dock, you can then try running to the next station, the idea is to not give hi time for the intercept so he tries to close to a station and they kill him for you.
• Jump into the target system gey into fuel scoop range of the star throttle right back and move to a point where your temperature is just rising then turn away from the star and shut your throttle, the idea is that he will show up and try to get behind you to interdict which will put him too close to the star to survive.

For a fast defensive vessel you want a shield that has an optimum mass slightly higher than your bare hull mass, shield boosters and point defence in your utilities, PD in rearmost slots preferably two of them, minimum amount of cargo capacity for the mission, mine launchers (not shock mines) in as many weapons slots that don't look to be in front of fins or other protuberances on your hull, D rated life support and sensors, A rated FSD and thrusters, D rated distributer and the lightest power pack that will power everything with FSD and cargo hatch set to priority 2. You also need to set 4 pips to shields and two to engines before you set off.

With something like the above rig submit straight away then as soon as you leave supercruise put your throttle to max then press your boost button, deploy hard points, look for the interdictor and head directly away from him so that he is on the plane of the scanner target him either using next target button or contacts or if he is shooting highest threat button, fire three times, boost, when mines have reloaded another three salvos whilst keeping him directly behind you on the scanner plane, fire another salvo, he should be hurting now, keep on until he is destroyed or does a runner, retract hard points and go back into cruise to the destination but don't relax till you have docked and completed the mission.

 

[Caller9]

Made changes to ship. The deep space and shipping lane trick works on non specific NPC's. The ones that are sent after you it does not. Same with mines. Just killed twice in a row by an expert Vulture. Mines bounced off I guess. That ship took no damage. Couldn't outrun. Shields gone first 10-15 seconds, engines damaged first encounter to the point of non functioning. Not sure why he didn't come in for kill but I was left floating in space. Reboot got me started but there he immediately was again and now I'm done. Second attempt pretty much same. Another 400K gone. Too much for too little. If you can't run missions that make you any amount of money because it generates killer ships it's not working for me. Maybe I'll never get the hang of it but I need a break. This is too much wasted time just spinning my wheels and losing ground. Maybe I'll give it a try again later but it has lost me at this point. Thanks for the help though. It did work for the random NPC's it seems. Thought I had it beat for awhile. Until the mission specific guys showed up anyway.

 

[Chris Simon]

Why don't you just stop doing missions, then? There are many other (and safer) ways to get by.

 

[aRJay]

I rarely bother with missions unless there is one that fits in with what and where I wanted to do and go to anyway.

The thing to be careful of if you do take one is the commander level the mission is designed for, back in the day if the mission was designed for say a Master level commander it was locked unless you were Master or above, nowadays it just mentions the designed rank with a warning note if you are lower ranked but will let you take the mission anyway.
The mission specific NPCs are of course generated based on the rank the mission was designed for, leading to significant mismatches as the abilities of low ranked NPCs at interdictions and so on are below par by NPC standards but upper ranked NPCs are skilled pilots and are likely to be armed with more powerful weaponry.
The thing is that these more dangerous missions will be the ones that pay more.

Remember Elite is a sandbox game you can do pretty much anything in any order, missions are required for such things as naval ranks and system permits but there is nothing to say you can't wait to do those activities until you have a few ships available and can survive most interdictions reasonably easily apart from those by over powered player commanded ships.

 

[Caller9]

For example? All I see are the missions on the Mission Board. I'm taking supply runs and Data delivery. If there is something safer than that I haven't found it yet.

 

[aRJay]

For example? All I see are the missions on the Mission Board. I'm taking supply runs and Data delivery. If there is something safer than that I haven't found it yet.

For safer look at the galaxy map trade section and pick something that the station where you are supplies, go into the commodity market and buy hold full or what your budget allows, make a mental note of what seems to be in demand where you are. Fly the load to the system that should want it and sell it there. No missions no built in hunting NPCs.

When looking at the items for sale look for those in a different colour, they are Rare items (known as rares) if you buy those and fly around 200 light years away or more they will sell usually for much much more, now along with things like gold these are more likely to attract an NPC but they won't be chasing you from system to system.

Fit a mining laser (better kit is available budget permitting) go to a RES site not Hi or HAZ RES though with NO cargo onboard, an NPC will soon appear scan you then moan about the lack of cargo, head off 10km or so away from where you arrived and start mining, take what you find back to the station. Check before you sell it on the market that there isn't a mission you can complete with your mined materials, if there is take it and hand in to complete if not sell in the market.

Fit combat type weapons and head to a Nav point see who the cops are shooting at scan their target and only after wanted comes up nip in and shoot the target until it goes red, do not hit any other ships, if you can't get a clean shot wait there will be another target later, if after 10 seconds the target isn't destroyed shoot it again. When the target is destroyed a message appears telling you how many credits you have earned. Head back to the station and go to the contacts section of the station menu there you can cash in your credits. Again for this one no cargo.

Non of these are guaranteed safe but unlike missions there are no NPCs programmed to hunt you and the ones you will meet won't be interested in your empty cargo hold.

The disadvantage compared to missions is that nobody has sorted out what you need to do for you but another advantage is that you can't be late for a delivery and won't be fined for not completing the mission.

I started out by hunting around Nav points.

 

[AdamDZ]

Run one mission at a time. It's actually much safer not to run missions at all and just run your own trade routes to earn CR for a better ship. Then you can get back into missions.