The continual serial star to station interdiction while commodity trading is far from compelling game play; and I wonder what FD expect it adds. Interdiction, submit, boost away (mines etc), fsd, repeat. There have been many cases where it has been almost instant (around less than five seconds) between re-entering supercruise and re-nterdiction; and interdiction at almost 1Mm from the station. Of course when you get very close to the station then the interdiction moves you further back, so I begin to wonder whether it will ever end. I generally allow up to about three or four interdictions before escaping and logging off – but even then the cycle sometimes continues when I log back on. Invariably the npc interdictors are elite with top skills, ships and weapons, so that fighting is generally not the sensible option, although I occasionally do. How do others deal with this. Not suggesting that there should be no interdictions but continual interdiction with no end in sight just seems out of balance/tedious. And to keep to the point, I just mention: I know it is elite DANGEROUS, and about FA off, mines, turrets, high wake etc. and I trade in my python or conda that I also use (as is) for combat - these are not stripped to max cargo capacity and jump range.
Serial interdiction
- Thread starter careBear1
- Start date
At least you can collect the wanted NPC bounty! I have a python fully armed, and have to make my way out fighting when trading!
I heartily agree, and what I really want is that before they change anything that they answer your question: what does FDev expect from this?
Because I think their first response in the past has often been to make a change that I would describe as knee-jerk. Increasing or decreasing the frequency or danger of interdictions is not what I want! What I want is for FDev to give us a narrative along the lines of, "when trading, there is a small but real danger in the form of pirates. The exact risk varies by system security level. The risk can be mitigated by dropping cargo."
See, even though FDev hasn't fully implemented that yet (dropping cargo doesn't seem to placate the pirates, for example) if they would just state very clearly what they intend, then we could provide feedback about how well they're achieving it. I don't know if what I said above is their actual goal. It was just an example. I want to hear it from them.
Because I think their first response in the past has often been to make a change that I would describe as knee-jerk. Increasing or decreasing the frequency or danger of interdictions is not what I want! What I want is for FDev to give us a narrative along the lines of, "when trading, there is a small but real danger in the form of pirates. The exact risk varies by system security level. The risk can be mitigated by dropping cargo."
See, even though FDev hasn't fully implemented that yet (dropping cargo doesn't seem to placate the pirates, for example) if they would just state very clearly what they intend, then we could provide feedback about how well they're achieving it. I don't know if what I said above is their actual goal. It was just an example. I want to hear it from them.
if i don't want interdictions, i don't run missions.
i try to fight and win the minigame more often now, to stop serial interdictions.
if in a medium/highsec system, i wait for system security to arrive and finish strong interdictors off with help.
but yes, that loop (saviest and most rational way is to submit and boost away, which triggers a repeating interdictions) sucks.
i try to fight and win the minigame more often now, to stop serial interdictions.
if in a medium/highsec system, i wait for system security to arrive and finish strong interdictors off with help.
but yes, that loop (saviest and most rational way is to submit and boost away, which triggers a repeating interdictions) sucks.
The NPC rank is supposed to be similar to your combat rank which can be problematic if you've ranked up your combat rating and then want to do some trading...
To deal with it there's the obvious destroy the ship (or damage them enough that they run away), high wake out of the system and then come back or drop enough cargo that they give up (it does work, but it's usually a galling amount of cargo) - or you can submit and keep flying till they disappear off the scanner for a while before re-entering SC (though to be honest I've only done this last one a couple of times so I'm not guaranteeing it works!).
They're an idiotic mechanic. I solved it by making my trade ship a battleconda with modded jump range and lightweight weapons. There is no point in running as you said OP, you will just be interdicted ad infinitum with no way to escape other than to fight or log out.
Interdiction logic in this game is very poor, agreed. I sincerely hope FD plans to give it some TLC in the near future. Interdictions are such a core part of the gameplay, something we deal with every single gaming session, multiple times. And yet the logic in there is placeholder stuff at best. It really needs to be fleshed out and improved some.
I had a situation just the other day (and I have it on video) where a named NPC was sent after me as part of a mission. He showed up as expected, Toby McNab, in an Anaconda, combat rank Dangerous.
I fought him off and he high-waked out at around 15% hull.
I went back to Supercruise, and was interdicted again by an NPC named Toby McNab. But this time his combat rank was Deadly. And his hull was 100% again. In other words, it was NOT the same NPC at all, but a new one spawned by the mission and given the same name.
From this we can see that the mission is only keeping track of one thing. Did the player kill the NPC, or not? If not, then it keeps re-spawning a new one with the same name over and over until you either kill it, or finish the mission.
This needs to be expanded just a bit, so that the mission keeps track of more than just the one flag.
Even if all they did was extend the state information a bit, so the game would remember a few things like interdiction count, damage to the attacker, distance from last interdiction, things like that, they could then add logic to make it at least appear to make more sense.
Here's hoping.
I had a situation just the other day (and I have it on video) where a named NPC was sent after me as part of a mission. He showed up as expected, Toby McNab, in an Anaconda, combat rank Dangerous.
I fought him off and he high-waked out at around 15% hull.
I went back to Supercruise, and was interdicted again by an NPC named Toby McNab. But this time his combat rank was Deadly. And his hull was 100% again. In other words, it was NOT the same NPC at all, but a new one spawned by the mission and given the same name.
From this we can see that the mission is only keeping track of one thing. Did the player kill the NPC, or not? If not, then it keeps re-spawning a new one with the same name over and over until you either kill it, or finish the mission.
This needs to be expanded just a bit, so that the mission keeps track of more than just the one flag.
Even if all they did was extend the state information a bit, so the game would remember a few things like interdiction count, damage to the attacker, distance from last interdiction, things like that, they could then add logic to make it at least appear to make more sense.
Here's hoping.
They have already toned it down, I can tell, as I was ranting about how pointless is was for ages, and am no longer ranting
I only get serial interdictions within a system. If you are honk scooping, they dont seem nearly as serial as they were in 2.1.0. (1 in 10 systems or so, easy enough to boost and high wake on your way)
If it is in-system interdictions that are annoying, then I would add 2 more things to consider. 1) If you break the interdiction mini game they stop. 2) If your end system is High Sec I find it rarely happens, so choose your end destination better.
It would be good if the ship/skill of the enemy was more tied to value of cargo and dangerousness of your ship. Getting your A Rated Python interdicted by an Elite FAS for a couple of thousands cr worth of rubbish, is still silly.
If you are taking missions, ignore everything I said, they add a whole level of complexity
I only get serial interdictions within a system. If you are honk scooping, they dont seem nearly as serial as they were in 2.1.0. (1 in 10 systems or so, easy enough to boost and high wake on your way)
If it is in-system interdictions that are annoying, then I would add 2 more things to consider. 1) If you break the interdiction mini game they stop. 2) If your end system is High Sec I find it rarely happens, so choose your end destination better.
It would be good if the ship/skill of the enemy was more tied to value of cargo and dangerousness of your ship. Getting your A Rated Python interdicted by an Elite FAS for a couple of thousands cr worth of rubbish, is still silly.
If you are taking missions, ignore everything I said, they add a whole level of complexity
I agree, the missions need to keep track of the state of all mission related things, and to also update that state with an alternate 'not in player view' simulation that will allow players to leave an instance with a mission related npc without the game forgetting it. So for example, an NPC not in player view would only appear in supercruise once the alternate simulation has properly counted their FSD charge up time, and will appear in the same position that they dropped out. Since for some reason this didn't make it into the game in the beta (a mistake since imo, it's as vital to the sim as flight, sound, graphics, bgs etc), I don't have high hopes for it ever appearing. It is such a crucial element to the game that imo, either its implementation is technically infeasible or the developers do not see it as any sort of priority.
i would add to it: if the pirate can't deal damage, let him give up ... it's a bit silly to interdict a cobra mkiii more than two times in a dropship, when the npc can't keep up with boosting anyways ...
If you are interdicted & you "low wake" away - the pirate is still there and will enter supercruise and get you again (NPC's have magic supercruise). It's either destroy them or high wake.
If you "High wake" away (i.e. another star system), you will lose them.
E: D has made it harder for traders to maximise profits by dumping their shields and going weaponless now, and I approve.
If you "High wake" away (i.e. another star system), you will lose them.
E: D has made it harder for traders to maximise profits by dumping their shields and going weaponless now, and I approve.
The mechanic was partly in response to complaints that the game was too easy, as NPC pirates could be easily evaded by the submit, jump tactic.
So, now we have magic NPC FSD that can spool up faster than PC and place the NPC ahead of you in your flight path, or into the next normal space instance. So, if you ever escape an NPC and get interdicted by a DIFFERENT NPC, then you will be facing both. Or, the NPC will be waiting for you at the startport.
Yeah, so while the fact that NPC will chase you is more realistic, it still needs to be limited by the same factors that plague the PCs.
So, now we have magic NPC FSD that can spool up faster than PC and place the NPC ahead of you in your flight path, or into the next normal space instance. So, if you ever escape an NPC and get interdicted by a DIFFERENT NPC, then you will be facing both. Or, the NPC will be waiting for you at the startport.
Yeah, so while the fact that NPC will chase you is more realistic, it still needs to be limited by the same factors that plague the PCs.
It wouldn't be so bad if the NPC's were characters physically obeying by game convention, and restrictions imposed on players..
Wish I could free spawn anywhere at any time in some region of space in exactly the right line up for an immediate interdiction to anyone, without consequence, with any upgraded weapon I wanted!
Wish I could free spawn anywhere at any time in some region of space in exactly the right line up for an immediate interdiction to anyone, without consequence, with any upgraded weapon I wanted!
I had an experience last night which I think illustrates how bad this is.
I was travelling to the Alien ship for a look.
I dropped into a single star system and get a message from an NPC about cargo blah blah.
I sit and top up my fuel, nothing on radar.
I line up the next system and move away from the star at max velocity.
I run for a couple of minutes radar still blank.
Throttle down and drop out of super cruise and Bang! Elite python drops right in front of me.
I evade and high wake out.
Ooh yeh no cargo onboard either!
Any of the rocket scientists from fdev wanna explain to me/everyone about this particular game mechanism and why it's still ingame?
Don't forget my hull magically healing when I FSD out...that's the one I just LOVE.....
These mission encounters are script based, so until the value of "NPC Killed" is set they will just keep respawning ad nauseum. Easiest way is (ready with the pitchforks guys?) to just beat the interdiction and then log off - seems to break the script loop. I will do that after the 3rd or 4th time within 10ls of the station.