As others have said, NPC interdictions and combat is unfairly weighted in their favour...The problem with that statement is that you assume that pirates don't hunt in groups.
They do.
Whether when they interdict you or when you're hunting a particular target, say you engage in combat with a named pirate or target and you have a tough fight with them, doing them significant hull damage, but they damage you too much as well and you have to bail on the engagement, lick your wounds and either try to reach your destination again or go hunting them again...
When either they find you or you find them again, you'll naturally expect them to still have hull damage or to have used all their heat sinks or missiles etc, but no, they're magically back to 100% like the first fight never happened!!

In response to your earlier reply, as said there have been times I missed a missions' time limit because of persistent pirate attacks (mostly when trying to finish missions I started the night before, but there are normal missions with strict time limits too)...
There's also the fact that the "pirates" that attack you are almost never actually interested in cargo or capturing your ship (not that this games' mechanics let you capture anything, unlike the X series etc), acting more like assassins - attacking you whether you have cargo at all or even when they do act like actual pirates, often annoyingly demanding you drop missions related cargo, which you can't replace and can't drop without failing the mission.
It'd be very helpful if we had a "get out of jail free" card or two to make things easier, whether one that you only get to use once a day or more often based on your reputation or rank etc - maybe, "Don't shoot, I'm carrying vital medical supplies to the refugee camp on Nova three and can't drop a single piece!"...
Maybe they stop firing and say, "I'll let you go, this time!"
Or they stop firing, but demand a bribe instead of cargo or even demand you join their Powerplay faction or do X amount of missions for their clan for their "kindness" or they set a large bounty on you after a day or two if you don't, which you could be planning for and be ready for!

All in, the Devs could make combat more engaging and give us more options to get out of it, rather than just, "Shoot or run!"




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