Crazy Idea! Remove FSD Interdictors!

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Why you ask?
Well, not only are they just a pain in the backside, they're one of the main reason combat often takes place in the middle of nowhere.

We've got all this cool stuff to fly around, yet apart from Res sites, all combat is done in deep space, unless organised.

So, remove FSD Interdictors. Then all combat will take place at your targets destination.

Let's just ignore the fact it's probably a well armed insta-gib station...

 

[Firebeard]

So then how do i stop you getting to high security space before I can pirate you.

Sounds more like - I dont like being attacked when I have 6000 void opals so get rid of the tools the pirates have to make a living.

 

[Aashenfox]

This has nothing to do with avoiding combat, quite the opposite. No doubt this piece has been raised by cosmic because he recently started doing serious pvp and finds the interdictor mechanics frustrating in terms of getting an interesting fight. It doesn't exactly support interesting places to have a battle. But nice attempt to project, of course the answer to your question is you can't stop anyone now, if they go solo, so meh.

Sometimes people just shoot the breeze, try to generate discussion on possible alternatives. Believe it or not, not everyone here is always complaining or trying to get the game adapted to suit them (although it does seem to be something of a trend).

 

[Rubbernuke]

My suggestion would be the opposite, in that you make interdictions harder (NPCs back to old levels especially) and that grade and size of ships / interdictors comes into play. The change is that you can carry a device (like a SCB) that can disrupt an interidction tether with an EM style pulse (or weaken it) by firing it during the struggle.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I imagine the main use was evisaged to be for piracy or bounty hunting. Two areas where your prey is going to be more or less home and dry once they drop out at a station (or at least you're going to want to be very careful where you shoot).

I'm not sure how this would work, but since the outcome then involve battles where the environment (stations / installations) around you had to be considered as well, I'm going to agree.

Actually, here's another mad idea to go with the OPs idea. Remove the no fire zone from anarchy (and maybe even low sec.) stations.

 

[Rubbernuke]

I imagine the main use was evisaged to be for piracy or bounty hunting. Two areas where your prey is going to be more or less home and dry once they drop out at a station (or at least you're going to want to be very careful where you shoot).

I'm not sure how this would work, but since the outcome then involve battles where the environment (stations / installations) around you had to be considered as well, I'm going to agree.

Actually, here's another mad idea to go with the OPs idea. Remove the no fire zone from anarchy (and maybe even low sec.) stations.

A long time ago, you dropped much further away from stations and had to dash to cover in the NFZ. I think that should be a thing too now that we have engineering- it would open up a whole new zone for piracy and combat. It would also prevent SC being the only place traders could get attacked (via interdiction) on straight flights.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I imagine the main use was evisaged to be for piracy or bounty hunting. Two areas where your prey is going to be more or less home and dry once they drop out at a station (or at least you're going to want to be very careful where you shoot).

I'm not sure how this would work, but since the outcome then involve battles where the environment (stations / installations) around you had to be considered as well, I'm going to agree.

Actually, here's another mad idea to go with the OPs idea. Remove the no fire zone from anarchy (and maybe even low sec.) stations.

I would suggest dropping ships 20km from the station, instead of 8km.

Also also remove NFZ from low/anarchy stations. Pew pew danger!
But, increase the range on high security to silly levels, like 15km.

Or something. I dunno. I haven't had coffee yet.

I just recently saw a video of a big battle at low altitude, and thought, "why doesn't that happen more often?".

 

[Dillon Fallon]

I've also wondered if we should have a pirate (anarchy) version of Jameson Memorial. Put a permanent black market and maybe some other advantage over Jameson, add the changes above and watch the bedlam happen outside.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Yep, a few locations sure could be used to spice up existing Gameplay.
Like... PLANETS.

Miners :
- you're just in the Mining Vehicle deploying Seismic Prospectors on the Surface, when all of a sudden...
-> Multiple Surface Contacts appear and your deployed Turrets guarding your Mining field go off like crazy
-> in the midst of the Battle (you're winning), Air Support is appearing for the bad guys.

Bounty Hunters :
- you're hunting for Pirates and located a "Pirate Activity Detected - Threat 6" in a small Crater next to deep Canyons
-> you Glide straight in and realize you just stirred the Hornet's nest. Dense AAA Turrets and Missile Launchers take you under fire while a whole Wing of hostiles takes off
-> you realize you need to lure them into the Canyon to finish them off without getting torn apart

Conflict Zones :
- you enter a Conflict Zone 25km above a larger Planet
-> and turns out, the 1.5g there take a toll on the tactics and fighting styles (a lighter and more agile Vessel seems to work better than a Battleship)

So if the mechanics for some reason have to remain the same more or less.... location matters if more spice/variety is desired. And the Game clearly offers a few places.
No reason why a Conflict Zone can't be on or over a Planet or in a dense Asteroid field.

Sure, needs some NPC finetuning to make them fight effectively in these environments - but it'll definitely be worth it.

 

[Jmanis]

My suggestion would be the opposite, in that you make interdictions harder (NPCs back to old levels especially) and that grade and size of ships / interdictors comes into play. The change is that you can carry a device (like a SCB) that can disrupt an interidction tether with an EM style pulse (or weaken it) by firing it during the struggle.

Yep. FSD spikes and that sort of thing would be great.

 

[Rubbernuke]

You could do all sorts with it- how about....

Drive experimental: low SC signature- mod that makes interdiction harder in practice by making your blue zone fill much easier than the red side. Con to it would be lower realspace speed and heat (or something like that).

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I would suggest dropping ships 20km from the station, instead of 8km.

Trouble is, unless you followed someone down exactly, they'd be at the station before you found them. A 20km radius sphere is pretty big ... but on full boost even a T-9 can probably get to the centre in two minutes. But if you wait for their low wake and lock on to that, that gives them quite a bit of time to get closer to the station.

NFZ is a bit of a red herring - shots within the NFZ only get a fine, it's hitting a clean ship which gets you a bounty, and that happens just as much at 2000Ls from the station. The key factor is the station's weapon range. (Anarchy stations already have no NFZ: they just object to you hitting them with stray fire)

You'd need to make it something like 50km, and give each station a nav beacon that ships preferentially dropped out at. (Manual drop-out would still be an option)

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

I had a similar idea a long time ago. Don't like the interdiction mechanism and would prefer encounters to happen in normal space where Elite's flight mechanics shine

[Suggestion] Piracy and trading through no man's land

In the original Elite we were constantly trading, but that was made exciting by having to fight through pirates. In this one, there is no such mechanism. Reason for this is that the jumps to planet have been replaced by the continuous Supercruise. So most encounters take place being pulled out...

forums.frontier.co.uk

 

[Myrm]

I find being interdicted by an NPC quite frustrating as it always seems to happen just as I am about to drop from SC to my destination. However, getting rid of FSD interdictions is a stupid idea and I do not support it at all. NPC interdictions are easy to evade. Player v Player interdictions are tougher but not impossible to evade.

 

[Nutter]

Makes sense - I've always wanted PvP but not with the 1v1 private arena (Interdiction) gameplay.

I'd either want to be a pirate or Station defence force (complete with Siren and Blue light Modules ) and even a hauler. Mission (Open Play)
Get 20,000 tons of x in station
Defend Station
Attack Cargo Ships
Defend Cargo Ships
Defend Attackers / Defenders

Would be awesome, a PROPER battle with more things to consider than just max damage / tank. As while you are having a 20 min PvP 1v1 with a defender the Cargo ships slip through! So many fun scenarios which I'd love to get my teeth into.

Right now PvP is just a skill and spreadsheet number game for 2 people.... YAWN!

 

[Rubbernuke]

Makes sense - I've always wanted PvP but not with the 1v1 private arena (Interdiction) gameplay.

I'd either want to be a pirate or Station defence force (complete with Siren and Blue light Modules ) and even a hauler. Mission (Open Play)
Get 20,000 tons of x in station
Defend Station
Attack Cargo Ships
Defend Cargo Ships
Defend Attackers / Defenders

Would be awesome, a PROPER battle with more things to consider than just max damage / tank. As while you are having a 20 min PvP 1v1 with a defender the Cargo ships slip through! So many fun scenarios which I'd love to get my teeth into.

Right now PvP is just a skill and spreadsheet number game for 2 people.... YAWN!

So in essence you describe Open Powerplay.

 

[Riverside]

I would suggest dropping ships 20km from the station, instead of 8km.

Also also remove NFZ from low/anarchy stations. Pew pew danger!
But, increase the range on high security to silly levels, like 15km.

Or something. I dunno. I haven't had coffee yet.

I just recently saw a video of a big battle at low altitude, and thought, "why doesn't that happen more often?".

With the removal of the Interdiction mechanism there would need to be reasons for players to drop down from supercruise. Entering a system in realspace at the nav beacon would be a good alternative. For systems without a nav beacon the ship would remain in supercruise to be scanned and to allow fast travel.

I do agree that this proposal has some significant downsides compared to the current mechanism but I like the idea that all involuntary interactions happen somewhere more interesting than empty space. If nothing else it would justify the rapid police response - they would already be there.

 

[CoyoteXStarrk]

So then how do i stop you getting to high security space before I can pirate you.

Sounds more like - I dont like being attacked when I have 6000 void opals so get rid of the tools the pirates have to make a living.

Nobody is a pirate in this game anymore come on lol

 

[Nutter]

So in essence you describe Open PvP with a purpose

Fixed that for you

 

[Rubbernuke]

Fixed that for you

Like I said, Open Powerplay. Have a read of my vision here which you describe quite concisely: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/please-make-powerplay-in-open-only.512067/ In many posts (especially at around P 25 onwards) it goes into the nitty gritty.