Newcomer / Intro Thermal attack & immediate destroy | What's wrong with me?

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Hi cmdrs,

old returning noob here. Played like 5 y ago for 100ish hours, then stopped and here we go again.
Came back for exploring basically, since I watched some tutorials to get money easily.
Hope to find some hint here about thermal attacks.

I have been interdicted 4 times (NPC) since I came back.
In the past it happened as well of course: sometimes I defeated the attacker or escaped, sometimes I died.
Fair enough.

Now I can only spectate the very same situation: thermal attack, shields offline and ciao ciao. It all lasts like 2 seconds.
Never experienced something like that before. At least we could fight a bit.

I am flying a Diamondback Expl. now.
Best power plant and shields, reinforced alloys. OK, no shield booster or other stuff in order to increase jump range.

Do I just need shield boosters, heatsinks and chaff launcher to avoid this sudden-death? It is just that or is there something I'm missing?
I doubt I'll have the chance to launch chaff or something as it happens, given how fast it is.

Thanks for enlightening me!
I'll buy you Romulan Ale.
 
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Craith

Volunteer Moderator
Craith
Thermal attack points to plasma, which tends to destroy weak shields and hull alike. What does not fit is that NPCs usually don't attack explorers (unless you brought some cargo back from the exploration). They attack you either due to cargo you carry, you angrying some faction (due to failing missions usually), or when you are wanted (even if you are clean in the current system).

What ships were they flying? NPCs usually also don't deal that much damage, that sounds more like players, especially when you were in the CG system in Open, a few people like to "enrich" your experience that way.

Speaking of jump range vs. defense reinforced alloys cost you way more in jump range than anything shieldboosters or hull reinforcement (if you have aspare slot) could do. Especially if you engineer them (which is not immediately applicable when you just returned after a 5y break).
 

Troopi

Troopi
If you are doing exploration, keep your criminal record clear. If you are intercepted by some NPC, just let him scan you and don't shoot at it. If you have a fast ship, you can run away. 4 pips to engines, 2 pips to shields and boost. Don't fight.
If you are playing in open and are being interdicted by players, well... tough luck. You are dead. Better to master the interdicting evasion.
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Thank you very much Craith,

I omitted to say I mounted 2 plasma beam lasers (small). Might it be (part of) the cause?
But I always preferred (as a noob) gimballed beam laser even in the past. And again it never happened like that (I used cobra or viper).

Some suggest to avoid hardpoints at all but it sounds unsafe to me even though I agree with you, better shorter jump range than dying like this.

No cargo with me, and I am not wanted. But perhaps I enrolled some faction/powerplay before I quitted years ago and now it has some effects?
It's been always happening these days around Betencourt station for the current ammonia worlds CG mission.

I'd bet they were NPC, but I only had the chance to read a comment once ike "you avoid to pay something then you have to die". I don't know if it rings a bell. However, 4 times.

Engineer and other new stuff are far from me now, I need to understand basics again before I dive into this.

Thanks a lot
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Thanks Troopi,

I succeed in evading interdiction sometimes, well more than some fortunately.
But when there's nothing to do I can't even scan that thing-NPC that I am dead.

Like two times I got interdicted actually and the NPC just said "I dont want to waste my time" and everything went fine.
 

Craith

Volunteer Moderator
Craith
That phrase is something NPCs say, you either had some cargo on you or boosted away before he was able to scan you - if he scans you and finds out you have nothing on you he'll let you go with something along the lines of "next time fill your hold with gold". Or actually like you failed a delivery mission and got a fine on your ship (and an angry npc out for revenge).

Weapons on a ship that is not fit for combat do have the effect of causing you to stay and fight when you should run. While my DBX also has a beam laser, I would still run when I encounter any hostile ship.
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
@Craith I definetely boosted: I didn't know it could make things worse, even without shooting at him.

SO, basically I just have to stop, let its scanners go and just it?
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Thanks Agony, perhaps I "provoked" them just boosting... got nothing in my cargo, only data I scanned for CG

PS: I ll check "my faction preferences" if it might be a part of the cause.
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Filthymick420 said:
Since sept 2017 I've never been interdicted by a human npc in an exploration ship. There has to be something you're leaving out.
Click to expand...

That's my original doubt. I tried to mention everything I can recall so far. Ah, last time I got a message like "authority vessels will help you in XX seconds". So I am "clean" in that system.

However I don't think they were real players (human) but npc. I'll have a deeper look next time
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Filthymick420 said:
Who's to say now that we get updates without patch notes now
Click to expand...

before writing here I looked around and read that many had this same issue (thermal attack and dead) but couldn't figure out if we were just noob or what.
Maybe I am just noob, I'll try to "not provoke" standing still and getting more modules for shields and launchers..
 
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[PS4] Filthymick420

[PS4] Filthymick420
All yesterday I had npcs blowing up while at 15-25% still. Id wager they (fdev) are breaking things in the name of fixing things. Hopefully this doesn't continue for long but I'm worried there might not be a definitive answer for you.
 

Troopi

Troopi
When I get interdicted, sometimes I put my throttle to 0 and submit to the interdiction (faster to reset FSD), just to boost away and show the middle finger at the pirates. But you need a crazy fast ship for that. Engineering gets the job done, in what NPCs are related. Players are a whole different story. When you get your engine engineered beyond 500mps (you can do that to the DBX), only other players can catch you.
NOTE: multiple unrelated NPCs jumping in your instance can have bad results, like a sudden anaconda jumping in right over you, and ramming you to pieces. It happens. XD
 

Rey Nexus

Rey Nexus
Troopi said:
When I get interdicted, sometimes I put my throttle to 0 and submit to the interdiction (faster to reset FSD), just to boost away and show the middle finger at the pirates. But you need a crazy fast ship for that. Engineering gets the job done, in what NPCs are related. Players are a whole different story. When you get your engine engineered beyond 500mps (you can do that to the DBX), only other players can catch you.
NOTE: multiple unrelated NPCs jumping in your instance can have bad results, like a sudden anaconda jumping in right over you, and ramming you to pieces. It happens. XD
Click to expand...

Thanks Troopi, I'll try this 0-throttle manoeuvre as well as the "wait for being scanned" thing. Fingers crossed.
I didnt have the chance yet to understand how (operatively) these engineer upgrades work. I mean, it seems I have to mine/buy/trade stuff with them, right?

Thanks
 

Para Handy

Para Handy
Rey Nexus said:
Thanks Troopi, I'll try this 0-throttle manoeuvre as well as the "wait for being scanned" thing. Fingers crossed.
I didnt have the chance yet to understand how (operatively) these engineer upgrades work. I mean, it seems I have to mine/buy/trade stuff with them, right?

Thanks
Click to expand...

You should have no trouble at all in winning the interdiction mini-game against NPCs if you are flying anything more manoeuvrable than a T9. If you are empty and not carrying any missions (salvage, courier, etc) then you can just submit and sit there, the NPC will scan and leave. N.B. You occasionally get interdicted by security / naval forces (they announce it in chat) - best to just submit unless you are smuggling or wanted.

There are some good engineering yootoobs - Down to Earth Astronomy and Obsidian Ant for example.
 

Troopi

Troopi
https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineers/
The extensive list. Who they are, where they are, what you need to unlock them, and what do they improve.
Most of all, you need materials:
Raw materials - you get them by mining asteroids, or with an SRV, by shooting outcrops and other cores on landable planets.
Manufactured - You get them by destroying ships, or visiting POI's in space (degraded, encoded, High, combat aftermath, etc...)
Data - You get them from scanning ships, from encoded POI's in space, or by scanning data cores in land POIs.
Some missions give materials as rewards, so keep an eye on them.
BUT THE MOST IMPORTANT, you don't need to suffer looking for a specific type of material. Just keep collecting what you find, and go to a material trader.
Trade what you have in excess for what you need.
https://inara.cz/galaxy-nearest-stations/?ps1=Sol&pi1=0&pa1[25]=1
Inara can search them for you.
 
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