Can you please restrict NPC indications for Trade Missions to 1 or 2.

[Red Anders]

Has the interdiction game changed recently? I know that over the course of various updates it has been tweaked to be more or less difficult, but the last time I played, which was a while ago, they nerfed it all the way to "you will always win unless literally asleep at the wheel" levels. Since that seemingly final nerf, I've been able to consistently win the minigame even in a T9 with a laptop trackpad, and without much difficulty, either. (prior to this it was often a serious tossup as to whether or not I'd succeed. I'm. Not. Good.)

I haven't seen anything about changes to the interdiction game in any patch notes since then.

Would like to humbly suggest that you keep flying your build of choice and err on the side of trying to escape interdictions whenever possible. You will almost certainly win most of the time, at which point you won't have to deal with repeats for that particular mission; and so long as you have enough survivability to escape the rare occasions when "the game is rigged" as you say, then yes you'll maybe get a repeat interdiction from that same ship but I bet you'll win it the second go round.

Also I mean without interdictions in trading how much "game" is really left at that point?

It hasn't changed recently. It's been literally years since I was successfully interdicted in my T-9. no idea what OP's problem is but I'd take a guess at trying to chase the recticule rather than intercepting its path.

The way to avoid being interdicted ten times by an npc is to beat the interdiction but OP's been told that several times already and his only response is to tell us all what an ace pilot he is. I guess I've just been lucky. For several years now.

 

[TiberiusDuval]

No, but if you're "good" at it, it's not a problem.

Annoying? Sometimes. Game breaking? No. Not at all. That's part of the price you pay for being a trader or carrying anything of value. You can also mitigate it a great deal by where you trade and the routes you take.

Frankly, I can't remember the last time I was interdicted on a trade route. It's been weeks at least.

Typically I just submit and destroy them Edit : Though that is not hard to do with g5 Cutter....

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Typically I just submit and destroy them

I do that in my Type 9 just for the LOL's.

My Type 7 is so fast and maneuverable it has never been successfully interdicted. Ditto that with my Imperial Cutter.

 

[tanner1ie]

If you low-wake (jump to Supercruise in the same system) they'll just follow you, yep.

Try high-waking to another system, then you'll shake them (for a minute).

The best is to evade the interdiction by winning the mini game. Or submit and blow them up. It's part of the game you get used to after a while. It only bothered me when I first started playing. Now it's not an issue.

The big problem is if you have to land at a specific station within a specific system and have to do so within a strict time limit...

Sure in many missions, you won't even see a pirate or might have one attempted interdiction, but in others, the pirates can be incessant and it can be even worse if you're stacking missions as most people do.

The worst part is that you often get interdicted when you're slowing down to land at your target station or planet, which can sometimes makes the interdiction unavoidable (often pushing you into a planet's emergency drop zone, which acts the same as failing an evasion attempt), though will more likely make you miss your landing window, which if it happens enough can result in you failing your mission!

The worst thing for me is when an interdiction pushes you into the emergency drop area of a star, meaning your forced to fight likely several pirates while also fighting building heat from your close proximity to the star!

All in interdictions and pirate attacks are still quite broken in this game, though as others have said, it likely won't change this long into the games' lifecycle

 

[Marvin the Martian]

The big problem is if you have to land at a specific station within a specific system and have to do so within a strict time limit...

Never seen that. A time bonus, yes. A "strict limit", no. Never seen that one at all.

Sure in many missions, you won't even see a pirate or might have one attempted interdiction, but in others, the pirates can be incessant and it can be even worse if you're stacking missions as most people do.

That's called "random". The fact that you don't get interdicted MOST of the time should tip you off that it is not a problem. In fact, that statement alone is you saying that it is not a problem.

The worst part is that you often get interdicted when you're slowing down

Correct. It works that way every time because that's when they catch up to you. Surely, you have bounty hunted and tried to interdict a pirate at some point in your 5 years of playing that game, haven't you?

All in interdictions and pirate attacks are still quite broken in this game

Says pretty much nobody but you.

 

[Maolagin]

Coming at this from a slightly different angle, here's the thing - if you've jumped back to supercruise, there's no sense in which you've "escaped". Assuming the pirate still has a functional fsd, you're at most a few ls away by the time they get back into cruise, why wouldn't they follow you and try again?

What makes it feel off is just the core problem that keeps many interactions from feeling natural. With most game state tied to instances, everything resets when you jump. So in most cases you're followed by a pirate who doesn't keep any damage you inflicted, and system security never appears because their timer resets each time. In an ideal world you'd jump back to supercruise and sure the pirate follows you, but you see their reduced shields and you see security ships inbound on your location. In that situation there would be the possibility of meaningful tactics beyond simply always trading in a build that can pop pirates or survive until security shows up to do it.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

Coming at this from a slightly different angle, here's the thing - if you've jumped back to supercruise, there's no sense in which you've "escaped". Assuming the pirate still has a functional fsd, you're at most a few ls away by the time they get back into cruise, why wouldn't they follow you and try again?

The problem with that statement is that you assume that pirates don't hunt in groups.

They do.

 

[zikolach]

The problem with that statement is that you assume that pirates don't hunt in groups.

They do.

From my observation not the ones interdicting traders. Those who attack space installations do.

 

[cmdr milesred]

the mining missions require a trigger to make the interdictions start.
once triggered, depending on the mission, 6 to 9 ships will be listed on the mission for interdictors. 1 name at a time

unlike others and mainly source & return missions
These interdictors will follow you to any system in the galaxy.
and the longer you stay in SC the more of them show up. 4 of these and 1 random is often the best collection I get.
if any are from same faction they will wing up.
your rep can make this better or worse..as in the random ones can overwhelm by sheer numbers..very rare unless you are hostile everywhere...

fwiw even as a mercenary/bounty hunter that kills everything all the time, it pays to be allied with everyone.


all of them including random interdictors will interdict if you do or if you don't have any cargo.
just having the mission is enough for the random interdictor
all missions with interdictors will give you big blue letters across your screen telling you there is a mission update. read the update in the mission or the inbox. it is not always in the inbox but is always in the mission.
all but the mining missions are usually triggered by going into supercruise in the origin system or by entering either the destination, or by entering a mission related system.

knowing all this means you can accept the missions, don't touch any cargo yet.
go get a fighting ship and kill them all
then move the cargo

 

[Greasetrap42]

In an ideal world you'd jump back to supercruise and sure the pirate follows you, but you see their reduced shields and you see security ships inbound on your location. In that situation there would be the possibility of meaningful tactics beyond simply always trading in a build that can pop pirates or survive until security shows up to do it.

... or while you were monkeying around with one pirate in normal space he calls all his buddies to help out and you get swarmed. Even returning to supercruise you would get chain interdicted ad nauseum unless you killed every last buddy.

Ed.And imagine them all dropping into normal space at the same time space to help kick your butt. I like stacking missions, but i would not be able to handle +10 pirates sumulateously in normal space. Especially in a trade ship.

I suck at combat so I'm glad I only need to fight 1 maybe 2 pirates at a time.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

From my observation not the ones interdicting traders.

Yes, they do. One will drag you out. The other two will circle and the instant you get back into SC you get hit again with an interdiction. That's not the old pirate chasing you down again that fast. That's his partners in crime that were waiting the whole time.

 

[Rubbernuke]

Now if only we had some way to fly with others.....'wing' up so to speak and have one guy in a combat ship intercept these pirates while the trader flies on.

But FD would never allow that...

 

[zikolach]

Yes, they do. One will drag you out. The other two will circle and the instant you get back into SC you get hit again with an FSD. That's not the old pirate. That's his partners in crime.

That is your imagination I guess Recently someone wrote on the forum that large ships use cargo ports at outposts to rationalize their appearance, but it is also just illusion they wanted to believe to.

 

[Marvin the Martian]

That is your imagination I guess

Really?

Because when I go hunting pirates, they quite often travel in groups of two and three patrolling the shipping lanes.

 

[zikolach]

Really?

Because when I go hunting pirates, they quite often travel in groups of two and three patrolling the shipping lanes.

Do they have interdictors equipped? At least one of the group? The ones I usually hunt are sitting in instances with traders and nap waiting for me to drop. There is another sort of pirates you usually hunt who fly with interdictors, but they are flying alone.

It would be actually interesting to gather some statistics of the modules pirates use by type. I wonder if there is such information available in player log.

 

[Brrokk]

It hasn't changed recently. It's been literally years since I was successfully interdicted in my T-9. no idea what OP's problem is but I'd take a guess at trying to chase the recticule rather than intercepting its path.

The way to avoid being interdicted ten times by an npc is to beat the interdiction but OP's been told that several times already and his only response is to tell us all what an ace pilot he is. I guess I've just been lucky. For several years now.

There's been a wealth of good advice and useful information in this thread, but unfortunately OP hasn't been here to read it.

 

[Maolagin]

Really?

Because when I go hunting pirates, they quite often travel in groups of two and three patrolling the shipping lanes.

That'll be the background traffic pirates. They often travel in wings, just like they often appear in wings in Rez sites and nav beacons.

Mission pirates, it's literally the same pursuer - same ship, same name - appearing right on your tail. They appear out of nowhere, but it's presumably meant to give the impression that they're jumping out of the same real space instance you just left. Mission pirates do appear one at a time, although you can still get swarmed if you have a bunch of stacked missions each with their own pursuers, or if the background traffic pirates decide to join in the fun.

 

[Felix DiCestria]

I wasn't aware about this gameplay feature. How do you trigger it?

In systems with the war or civil war state the factions involved offer refugee missions under the passenger lists.
These can be taken usually with neutral rep.
The opposing faction is highly likely to send ships to intercept the refugees. A T10 can deal with this rather well generating manufactured mats to scoop up, bounties for dealing with the interceptor(s), a bonus from the refugee's faction, 10,000 credits for delivering them to their destination and possibly the quickest rep gain going, and can be performed with both factions involved.
Every so often you'll also get a tip-off mission as well.

 

[V'larr]

You don't actually "need" to stack missions, the problem you have is you "want" to stack mission to get higher rewards, but don't want to deal with the added danger that comes with stacking missions for higher reward, you want everything for nothing!

Nonsense. To unlock ships locked behind rank-gates, you need to complete many, many, many missions. You can do them 1 at a time, or 24 at a time (or more realistically, some amount in between).

I can't speak for you, but taking anywhere from 5 to 24 times as long to do a repetitive thing is not fun for me.

Note I haven't said anything whatsoever about the added danger aspect. Having NPCs act in immersion-breaking and un-authentic, gimmicky ways in order to brute-force that danger is not the right way to go about having it.

 

[V'larr]

No, but if you're "good" at it, it's not a problem.

Annoying? Sometimes. Game breaking? No. Not at all. That's part of the price you pay for being a trader or carrying anything of value. You can also mitigate it a great deal by where you trade and the routes you take.

Frankly, I can't remember the last time I was interdicted on a trade route. It's been weeks at least.

I don't trust your ability to correctly judge what is the correct price to pay for anything.