A little help: how to avoid NPC attacks and scans

[Imrus76]

This info is for beginners and who didn't know:
NPCs are more aggressive in 1.4 then before, but there is an effective way to avoid them, especially for traders and smugglers. Against player CMDRs this method is restricted, because they don't need to target you to attack.

Activate Silent Running, then use heat sinks to keep your ships heat level down.
Use "A" rated power plant.
Doing this way, NPCs cannot target, scan and attack you.

 

[Space Pigeon]

If I can motivate myself to do it, I try to line up with the letterbox entrance of a station and just fly straight in. If you didn't get scanned at the SC dropout, this will probably be enough to prevent any trouble.

 

[Imrus76]

Of course, but there are a lot of traders having trouble with NPC interdictions and attacks.

 

[DragonIV]

Silent running works for docking against normal AIs, not the anti-smuggling crew. Has no impact on interdictions, but in general, escaping an interdiction you've submitted to (AI only) is cake--just hit afterburners once or twice and jump back to SC. Even works against the AI po po scanners in reasonably fast ships like the Asp. Pro-tip: don't smuggle with a slow ship.

 

[Arry]

You have to keep the ship's temperature at below 20% to drop off of the radar. Even with heat sinks, this is hard to keep up for any length of time with a normal build.

 

[Bomba Luigi]

NPCs can scan you even in Silent Running, but that in my expierence only happens when you activate SR too late. As for the Security that interdicts you, if you fail to win it, even when I use SR the moment I drop out they still scan me, but boosting in there direction always helped me in that case. getting behind them stops the scan and until they turned around Im too far away for a Scan while I in SR to work.

 

[Sayne]

Bomba Luigi, boosting in the direction of the Fuzz that interdicted you is definitely a good idea.

Last night a System Authority freaking ANACONDA was hounding me out of Robigo. I let him interdict me in an Anarchy system thinking it was a Viper I could easily dispatch.

Being in an Asp with no Boosters or SCBs, I boosted straight at him, ran past him while charging my FSD and jumped before he could close the distance.

 

[Tuub t Tute]

An NPC still has to be behind you to interdict you. As soon as you see one either appear behind you, or one that has text commed you go zooming back past you and loop, you do the same. Or do an emergency drop out of SC if that works for you.

 

[insanephoton]

If a scan starts just as you're going through the slot, dive down as soon as you're clear to break the line of sight.

When leaving a station while carrying contraband, line up with the slot, retract landing gear and once it's clear 4 pips to ENG and boost and boost.

Sometimes if you're doing smuggling missions you'll see a warning message in the comms panel from Security saying something like 'moving to interdict smuggling suspect'. Drop out of SC before they get the chance to interdict you. They will probably follow you and try to scan but if you boost away you can return to SC before they're able to. It buys you a bit more time than being interdicted by them.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Shooting a cop stops the scan. When dropping from SC to dock, throttle down and wait a few seconds. If you were followed by a cop, shoot and run. If nothing happens after 10-15s, carry on to dock.

 

[Schlachtenlenker]

last time i got a fine for illegal cargo, but no "Ship Scan detect"-Message before.
:-(

 

[Sayne]

An NPC still has to be behind you to interdict you. As soon as you see one either appear behind you, or one that has text commed you go zooming back past you and loop, you do the same. Or do an emergency drop out of SC if that works for you.

Emergency drop doesn't work if it's an Authority Vessel. He'll spawn on top of you 100% of the time, like magic.

Emergency drop, pirate interdiction, drop at a station despite the nearest cop being thousands of light seconds away... If you get the red direct messages from a cop as soon as you hyperspace into a system, he WILL spawn right on top of you in normal space.

Good luck.

 

[Brian of Earth]

One thing, not discussed here yet, is the interdictions near a drop point. If you are close, and are interdicted, you can get pulled back away from the drop point. One time I was ready to drop in seconds, finger hovering over the button, got interdicted and dropped out after submitting 37ls away from the drop point. Maddening as hell when it happens a bunch, it's like there's no hope of making it all the way to the station when you have both pirates and cops hounding you (I saw a cop shoot at a pirate ONCE in this scenario, otherwise they are both/all after you).

One way to get around this is to watch for either the pirate message (tasty cargo, I found you first, don't run etc etc) or the the cop message (any message in red), throttle back right then, safe drop where you are, boost boost FSD boost, repeat. Just watch out for ramming when they pop in with you after you drop. My experience says to avoid the interdiction if at all possible when you are close to your drop point, as that drags you back away from your drop point.

 

[Helgarth]

You have to keep the ship's temperature at below 20% to drop off of the radar. Even with heat sinks, this is hard to keep up for any length of time with a normal build.

Nope this is internal temperature. It has no influence on the chances to be detected. SR is the lowest possible signature even if your ship is cooking internally.

 

[Rubellen]

Strangely i find the loop option working for me... Never fly in a straight line to your target but always in a curved or hooked one. Find myself being interdicted a lot less... And yes in an Asp loaded with contraband

 

[DragonIV]

Strangely i find the loop option working for me... Never fly in a straight line to your target but always in a curved or hooked one. Find myself being interdicted a lot less... And yes in an Asp loaded with contraband

I had limited success flying a square pattern in SC. The AI seems to have a lot of trouble lining you up when you do this, unless they have a really high power interdictor installed. Think I only got interdicted one time using this approach last night.

 

[Faybs]

Something that seems to work for me when dealing with authority ships is to submit, immediately hit silent running and boost. When the FSD cooldown finishes you will be too far to scan, then restore normal operation and immediately jump back to SC. You should be out of masslock and the jump timer is less than what it takes for a scan to finish. Don't do this with pirates, because they just start shooting immediately and you won't have any shields.