[not a rant] how to win the interdiction mini-game against a human?

[yoda711]

Last night I had just finished mining a full load of void opals and was on my way back to a station to sell. A human player had obviously checked prices on inara.cz to see where the highest VO payout would be, and was ganking incoming miners. I'm not complaining about being ganked -- that's part of the game and I chose to play in open. What I want to know is, why the interdiction mini-game was so much more difficult against a human player? I was dead-nuts in the escape vector, and the red bar on the right just kept going up. Does it have something to do with the size/class of each player's FSD or thrusters? I'm not sure what kind of ship he was in, but I had A-rated thrusters and FSD in my AspX (but not engineered). Is the game set to give the attacker the advantage? Is it RNG?

For those that want to know how it turned out...
He managed to interdict me a few Ls from the station. On his first attempt, I lost the interdiction mini game, and I managed to escape to supercruise before he could get any hits on me. 2nd attempt I got a little closer to the station but he still managed to pull me out before reaching it. Again I escaped hatch breakers and a torpedo. Point defense for the win. I jettisoned 1T of VO anyway to slow him down (didn't have any biowaste unfortunately), which worked for a bit, and I got back to supercruise. On his 3rd attempt I learned my lesson with the mini-game and submitted to the interdiction, but still got away with no further lost cargo or even a shield ring down heh. I can't remember if he tried a 4th time or not, it was getting a little annoying at this point and I would've switched to private if it happened again, but I managed to get within range of the station and sell everything for over 100 million. So whoever he was, I hope it was worth the effort for the 1 ton / 1.6mil he got from me.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

It has a lot to do with orientation. It might look right but be completely wrong.

There is only one way to increase your odds of escaping human interdiction : practice, practice, practice.

Among The Killer Whales, we frequently play “Interdiction Tag”, a simple, non-lethal game wherein one person, designated “It”, must successfully interdict another player. If they fail to evade, they become “It”.

Make a friend or 200 and play Interdiction Tag. Not only is it fun, you develop real and useful skills.

 

[Arguendo]

Always higwake.

Engineered FSDI, probably one of the big three.

If the OP had high-waked he would have had to run the gauntlet again and again, as he was in his end-route system. He could always hope that the pirate found another victim while he jumped out and back though, so it's an odds game. Chances of getting to the station when low-weaking vs chances of pirate finding another victim the short minute you're not there.

Engineered FSDIs dont' affect the mini-game. They only expand the arc or extend the range at which you can start to interdict someone. The mini-game definitely seems to favour the interdictor when it comes to player vs player.

 

[yoda711]

Always higwake.

Yes I know high-waking is usually advisable but I would've had to start my approach all over, and there were no other high paying stations nearby, so that would've done nothing but give him more opportunity. Unless of course it were to put me in a different instance.

 

[Vedmo]

Yes I know high-waking is usually advisable but I would've had to start my approach all over, and there were no other high paying stations nearby, so that would've done nothing but give him more opportunity. Unless of course it were to put me in a different instance.

For some reason I read:

Usually advisable high waking is, but arrival at station must I do. More opportunity for enemy I desire not.

 

[NascentChemist]

My usual tactic in this situation is to drop down before I'm interdicted. I can then spin up my FSD while waiting to see if the pirate/ganker is really after me.

If I'm close to the station, I might low-wake as soon as the player drops in. It will take a little longer for their FSD to cool down.

If they keep pursuing me, I will high-wake. Most miner and trader builds cannot survive multiple attacks by a ganker.

I avoid interdiction at all costs. It just gives them more time to kill me.

The OP got pretty lucky in encountering an actual pirate. A meta FDL could smoke a half-engineered mining Asp in seconds.

 

[Duck & Jenny]

Last night I had just finished mining a full load of void opals and was on my way back to a station to sell. A human player had obviously checked prices on inara.cz to see where the highest VO payout would be, and was ganking incoming miners.

Hmmmm, you've given me an idea for some legitimate piracy!

 

[ArchAngelofDeath]

As said above: practice.
I am most often beaten in the mini-game by my prey when I'm interdicting in my cutter as it doesn't handle well in SC (or regular space for that matter) so a decent player in a cobra or dbx can sometimes win the mini-game on me. That said, this is rare. Most players don't win it. Its deceivingly easy to beat an NPC at it but that doesn't translate to humans.

 

[Lightspeed]

Everyone talks about practice, but you may be up against someone with better hardware. If the interdictor has an expensive setup with HOTAS and pedals, he may just have better control of the outcome from the start.

I also understand from previous forum posts that mouse control of the interdiction is the most sensitive and gives the advantage to whoever is using it. Whether that is true or not, I don't know.

 

[Momatty]

Just a thought... why not just go to the second or third highest payout station? One thing I've noticed about this game is that there isn't that much of a difference between them (tho I've never mined void opals).

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Because 3 credits per ton times 300 tons, that’s 900 credits, and without those 900 credits life isn’t worth living... or something melodramatic like that.

 

[Lightspeed]

Just a thought... why not just go to the second or third highest payout station? One thing I've noticed about this game is that there isn't that much of a difference between them (tho I've never mined void opals).

Yes, that would avoid likely interdictions by players.

 

[ethelred]

I'd love to get some anti-player interdiction practise in.

I thought the T7 was a agile ship, put the throttle in the blue and usually get the blue circle in my sights, but it just doesn't seem to work.

 

[yoda711]

For some reason I read:

Usually advisable high waking is, but arrival at station must I do. More opportunity for enemy I desire not.

lol. On my part, missed opportunity it was.

...any guess on the ship?

No clue, is there a way to get that info from my player-actions on the right panel, or from the game files somehow?

As said above: practice.

"Git gud", uh huh, yeah. We've all heard that one. As I said, I was dead nuts in the escape vector to no avail. I'm using a Xbox Elite controller specifically to have full control over pitch, roll and yaw.

Just a thought... why not just go to the second or third highest payout station? One thing I've noticed about this game is that there isn't that much of a difference between them (tho I've never mined void opals).

Normally I do, but in this case the next highest paying station within reasonable range was only offering $700k / ton at the time, less than half of the station I was going for. I guess next time I will have to choose my mining and selling stations more carefully to give me more options.

 

[Edelgard von Rhein]

I suspect you were beaten partly by experience and partly by positioning. As others have said, practice and see for yourself. Get right up close behind your target and match velocity and then hit the FSDI - that is what the interdicting player is aiming for. NPC pirates seldom manage this and try to inderdict when in poor positions and can easily be thrown off. The first step to winning against a human is therefore one of awareness; seeing that hollow square moving in behind you, seeing that it's a combat-capable ship and taking manoeuvres to try to make the angle and relative velocity more awkward for them to engage.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

What I want to know is, why the interdiction mini-game was so much more difficult against a human player? I was dead-nuts in the escape vector, and the red bar on the right just kept going up.

Basically there's two factors.

1) It's competitive, so if they were also dead-on their target vector, the best you can do is draw. NPCs are just so bad at aligning it that so long as you're somewhere near the escape vector you win, which gives a very misleading impression of how it actually works.
2) There is an slight advantage to the interdictor, in that they can see where you're going to go next more easily than you can see where the escape vector is going to go next, so if they're experienced, they can always turn that draw into a marginal win for them.

In practice it makes sense for the game to favour the interdictor a little, because if they win the interdiction, the interdicted player still has lots of options (as you found!) - whereas if the interdicted player wins that's the end of it.

 

[Krash]

As said above: practice.
I am most often beaten in the mini-game by my prey when I'm interdicting in my cutter as it doesn't handle well in SC (or regular space for that matter) so a decent player in a cobra or dbx can sometimes win the mini-game on me. That said, this is rare. Most players don't win it. Its deceivingly easy to beat an NPC at it but that doesn't translate to humans.

As the target I always submit to a CMDR. As the hunter, I thought it was a no-lose mini-game until last week vs a guy in a cobra (maybe in CODE?) that I tried to pull 3-4 times and failed every time (I was in my FDL). I'm still amazed at how he consistently stymied me.

 

[EUS]

It may be my imagination, but during interdiction (either side) I find the blue bar fills up faster when you go full throttle, which means constant fiddling with the throttle to stay in the circle, but to go as fast as you can.
Again, this just might be my imagination.
I don't recall any official explanation to the mini-game, but FD has, and does fiddle with something that translates to increasing/decreasing the odds.

 

[Krash]

It may be my imagination, but during interdiction (either side) I find the blue bar fills up faster when you go full throttle, which means constant fiddling with the throttle to stay in the circle, but to go as fast as you can.
Again, this just might be my imagination.
I don't recall any official explanation to the mini-game, but FD has, and does fiddle with something that translates to increasing/decreasing the odds.

I thought it had to do with maintaining consistent speed (as the hunter), adjust speed to match distance indicator. As the target, wild swings in throttle might help?

 

[ArchAngelofDeath]

"Git gud", uh huh, yeah. We've all heard that one. As I said, I was dead nuts in the escape vector to no avail. I'm using a Xbox Elite controller specifically to have full control over pitch, roll and yaw.

That wasn't a "git gud" reply. Just saying I got better from practice. But there's for sure an advantage to the interdictor so there' s no perfect solution.