NPC Interdictions, Futile, Irritating and Should be Removed.

[Red Anders]

I am making up the cost of buying & equipping a T9. I have found a nice trade route that will in 13 runs generate profit to the tune of the 100 million that the ship cost. All fine & dandy, except that on the return leg some NPC keeps intercepting me. He never actually pulls me out of super-cruise. I out fly him every time (remember I am flying a T9) , but just about every trip he tries. This has now got beyond tedious. Either the game could be adapted to make NPC pirates a real danger or just remove them

Interesting that you present two options there yet only reference one of them in your thread title. I agree completely with your premise that NPC interdiction attempts are nothing more than an irritation these days but the solution I would prefer is for them to be made an actual challenge again. A good start would be making it so that I can't just outfly an NPC interdiction attempt from a Courier or Viper in my T9. It's laughable.

I also don't fly with weapons on my T9. Thing is, I never used to do back when there was a decent chance of being successfully interdicted by an NPC either.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

Because then I would become a combat pilot again and that is a route I don't want to go down. I have been playing my current character for about three years now on iron man mode & it is a role play thing. I fly as a trader/trucker with a bit of smuggling thrown in, I don't do violence.

I don't mind being interdicted, what I find tedious is being interdicted by incompetent AI that I can out-fly in a T9. It adds nothing to the game & when I am flying a regular trade run and it happens every 25 minutes or so it becomes very boring.

You're a cargo hauler in pirate infested space. Defend your (or your client's) cargo.
Are you routing via low security systems?
Are you running missions?
If it's as predictable as you claim there's a definite cause.

 

[varonica]

Pirates ask for the cargo... drop what they want and fly safe. If tries to run, they might incapacitate the ship (killing drives/FSD) and/or use hatchbreakers.

Blowing up is usually the consequence of openin fire against a pirate ship.

Haven't yet established if these are actually pirates or mission NPC's, every time I ask I get no reply. It implies in his OP that this is a "particular" NPC, not a random pirate;

All fine & dandy, except that on the return leg some NPC keeps intercepting me. He never actually pulls me out of super-cruise.

He mention pirates at all in his OP. If it is indeed a mission NPC then he will get blown up every time.

 

[varonica]

Are you running missions?

I've asked that question 3 or 4 times and got no answer, seems we are wasting time here.

 

[Sellias]

Don't remove them, but yeah the frivolous npc interdictions are akin to a fly buzzing around and you wave your hand to make the annoyance go away.

Would great if npc's actually had some teeth.

 

[HurstLlama]

Again, did you take a mission, because they will keep coming after you if you do. Also do you fly along the trade routes rather then deep space because you will get attacked more often if you do. You know you will be interdicted multiple times if you take a mission, it tells you. I hardly ever got interdicted in my T9 even when carrying a full cargo, so you must be doing something to attract them.

You seem to struggle with my messages. I keep saying I am running a trade route. A trade route is not a mission.

 

[HurstLlama]

Do you really think the OP would be happy if every time he was interdicted he was blown up? He's already stated he doesn't carry weapons, if the NPC's were more dangerous instead of being continually being interdicted he would be continually blown up.

Please, do read what I actually post. Please, pretty please.

 

[Rebel Yell]

You seem to struggle with my messages. I keep saying I am running a trade route. A trade route is not a mission.

I believe those have been introduced to limit/prevent cough bot....ting cough some trade routes can be also affected by system states (pirate attacks, boom, etc).

 

[JohnRoberts]

So to summarize, you find that avoiding game content is tedious, so you propose to remove it for everybody else too.

 

[HurstLlama]

So to summarize, you find that avoiding game content is tedious, so you propose to remove it for everybody else too.

I refer the honorable gentlemen to my previous comments.

 

[Old Duck]

I am making up the cost of buying & equipping a T9. I have found a nice trade route that will in 13 runs generate profit to the tune of the 100 million that the ship cost. All fine & dandy, except that on the return leg some NPC keeps intercepting me. He never actually pulls me out of super-cruise. I out fly him every time (remember I am flying a T9) , but just about every trip he tries. This has now got beyond tedious. Either the game could be adapted to make NPC pirates a real danger or just remove them

NPC interdictions didn't used to be so annoying, but something changed sometime ago. It's one of the reasons I don't even bother trading anymore. Not because it's hard, but because it's tedious.

 

[Lucius Neng]

I think the answer is...do both things. Like the old Frontier game. Have systems which are safe - where you never get interdicted. And systems which are dangerous, where you run a genuine risk of being interdicted. (Maybe that's the case with NPCs already, though I'm not sure how you would tell. I'd like it if it were the case for PvP too, but that's another thread!)

 

[varonica]

You seem to struggle with my messages. I keep saying I am running a trade route. A trade route is not a mission.

You can take missions as part of a trade route if they happen to be going in the same direction, specially data delivery because they don't take cargo space, you don't do that to increase income? That's why I asked because in your OP you implied it was the same NPC, and you don't get the same NPC if it is pirates, only if you have a mission. All you had to do was say no to one of my questions instead of being snarky about it.

You seem to struggle to answer normal questions.

 

[varonica]

Please, do read what I actually post. Please, pretty please.

I do, you want to eliminate interdictions or make them so dangerous you get destroyed every time, because that's what will happen if you run around unarmed in a T9 and can't avoid or escape interdictions.

Fortunatly no-one agree with you so it's highly unlikely FDEV will get rid of interdictions.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

I think the answer is...do both things. Like the old Frontier game. Have systems which are safe - where you never get interdicted. And systems which are dangerous, where you run a genuine risk of being interdicted. (Maybe that's the case with NPCs already, though I'm not sure how you would tell. I'd like it if it were the case for PvP too, but that's another thread!)

Yes it's the security rating of the system.
You'll rarely be interdicted hauling cargo in a high security or unpopulated system.
It happens rather frequently in low security or populated Anarchies.
It used to vary depending on the cargo carried though this seems to have been replaced by a simple cargo yes/no check.
If the OP really doesn't want any interdictions, fly a carrier.

 

[GraphiteGB]

NPC interdictions didn't used to be so annoying, but something changed sometime ago. It's one of the reasons I don't even bother trading anymore. Not because it's hard, but because it's tedious.

It was an attempt to kill of Bots and automation in trade... the higher chance now of the cops and Pirates pull people over the more the autobots are broken...

Even when using SCA lately its a cop pulling me over in the cutter not a pirate lol...

 

[Brrokk]

I am making up the cost of buying & equipping a T9. I have found a nice trade route that will in 13 runs generate profit to the tune of the 100 million that the ship cost. All fine & dandy, except that on the return leg some NPC keeps intercepting me. He never actually pulls me out of super-cruise. I out fly him every time (remember I am flying a T9) , but just about every trip he tries. This has now got beyond tedious. Either the game could be adapted to make NPC pirates a real danger or just remove them

But it's how we get engineering materials.

 

[Neilski]

I am making up the cost of buying & equipping a T9. I have found a nice trade route that will in 13 runs generate profit to the tune of the 100 million that the ship cost. All fine & dandy, except that on the return leg some NPC keeps intercepting me. He never actually pulls me out of super-cruise. I out fly him every time (remember I am flying a T9) , but just about every trip he tries. This has now got beyond tedious. Either the game could be adapted to make NPC pirates a real danger or just remove them

It really does sound like you mean the same NPC each time, which is hugely significant as mentioned above.
Also, that many runs to raise that much money in a T9 is odd. You should need maybe half that many. Try Inara for better routes.
And I'll echo the other advice - this doesn't normally happen every trip, so another route is a good idea anyway. (But do check if you have any missions live.)

 

[Old Duck]

It was an attempt to kill of Bots and automation in trade... the higher chance now of the cops and Pirates pull people over the more the autobots are broken...

Even when using SCA lately its a cop pulling me over in the cutter not a pirate lol...

Is this confirmed, or just a very good theory? Totally makes sense that Frontier would use an annoying captcha to attempt separate humans from bots, seeing that's one of the ways they ruined the Issue Tracker. Like captcha, all this does is make me go somewhere else. Also like captcha, any good bot writer can work around this. Heck, if I were serious about trading, the annoyance factor of an overly-aggressive interdiction system would make me more inclined to write automation software to deal with the tedium, not less.

Meanwhile X Universe games and Space Engineers actually embrace "bots", and they are all the better for it.

 

[Neilski]

the annoyance factor of an overly-aggressive interdiction system would make me more inclined to write automation software to deal with the tedium

LOL, that could actually be lot of fun to write!
Are bots still even a thing though? (Not seeing a lot of point in them, since money is like water.)