Great Kid... but don't get cocky

[Lobstris]

To be honest I'd got a bit bored with the mundane shuffling of (admittedly very lucrative) cargo backwards and forwards between a nice high-tech Federal world, and an adjacent dictatorial mining colony, in my shiny Asp, so I decided to check out the local Anarchy 12 light years away. As I've pretty much got used to avoiding interdictions I didn't think there would be any issues exploring the system, so off I popped.
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Five seconds after arriving at the star I'm interdicted, and, giving in to my boredom, I decide to check out whoever it is and see what they want. It's an Eagle. Who wants my cargo (Performance Enhancers), and opens up with a couple of pulse lasers and a multi-cannon. He parks off my nose and lasts less than 5 seconds as I open up with pretty much everything including the kitchen sink thrower. Really bad AI thinks I as I set off again.
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Interdicted again, a few light seconds out from a planetary outpost. Sigh. Submit again, and slam right into an Anaconda. As I spin off the hull, with one shield ring left, I pass over his nose cone and he hits me right in the face with a plasma accelerator, taking shields out, hull down to 47% and cracks the canopy. Cue a frantic minute of me twisting round him, boosting away at 4 pips, resetting power, and waiting for shields to return as the Anaconda closes again... I said waiting for shields to return... why are shields not returning... ah. shield generator is at 0%. Erm, engage 'Brave Sir Robin' manoeuvre. Escape with 17% hull remaining.
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Arrive at outpost. 8 minutes of oxygen left. "Sorry we don't take ships that large here". Ah. Right.
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Jump 12 light years back to the high tech system and begin 5000ls trek to space station. And...
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Get interdicted, and fail to escape... wha...? I tried that time. It's a Sidewinder, who takes me down to 4% hull with his pea-shooters before I can run again.
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Arrive at space station with 2 mins oxygen remaining and manage to dock. 25,000cr repair bill, plus 2,000cr in fuel and 900cr for multi-cannon reloads. Bloomin' good fun though, and more than a little hairy. Did someone up the interdiction rates whilst I've not been playing in the past few days, as this has come closes to the Elite experience I remember from childho... erm... playing FFE a few hours ago.
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Oh, and remind me never to get that overconfident with interdictions again...

 

[MorkFromOrk]

Feels like a game when that happens doesn't it?

whenever I see posts like this about being attacked by the AI I try to picture how it would be described if it was all human players.

i guarantee you there would be a bunch of 'that's why I play Solo' comments straight afterwards. I mean, did that Anaconda pilot ask you politely to drop your cargo before blasting you? The nerve of the guy!

 

[Captain Howdy]

I think more than 50% of combat related deaths could be avoided if people could just keep a cool head.

Well played.

 

[Lobstris]

I mean, did that Anaconda pilot ask you politely to drop your cargo before blasting you? The nerve of the guy!

To be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention to his demands at the time. As for human players, well, this was all in Online Open, so <shrug> that's a possibility you accept isn't it? However, with half-competent human commanders, I'd have a) treated the initial Eagle with a lot more respect - never tried it in the Asp, but I've had very good fights with commanders in Eagles, when I've been in the Cobra, they are agile, but fragile little blighters, and b) I'd have been dead in the initial confusion after meeting the Anaconda, and my over-confidence it that I could take it out, once shields came back. No question.

The story also throws up a couple of current issues though. 1) Ships appearing dead ahead of you the moment after you are interdicted needs to quietly go away, and 2) I'm not sure how I cash in the bounty on the Eagle, in the independent system, without purchasing a smaller ship to get back to the outpost, which seems an unnecessary expense.

I think more than 50% of combat related deaths could be avoided if people could just keep a cool head.

Agreed, I never got all of the anti-pvp sentiment (and I'm not looking to start any arguments about it again, either! ), when the game does bend over backwards almost to give you the opportunities to run.

 

[Avnas]

I think more than 50% of combat related deaths could be avoided if people could just keep a cool head.

Well played.

its funny, my jump drive is good enough that i can actually just submit to interdiction and charge it in the time it takes a player or pirate ai to type their RP spiel

 

[Achilles Maelstrom]

The other night I literally got my behind kicked by a deadly Eagle pilot. I thought I was invulnerable in my Cobra. Lol. Had to run with my tail tucked in like a big dog who just got scared the living crap out of him by a much smaller one.

I LOVE THIS GAME!

 

[Katkon]

Similar thing happened to me a couple of days ago. I was in my pimped out Cobra vs an NPC Cobra. We were both down to 4x pct hull, which surprised me... When my canopy cracked. First time that's happened. Thought it was very cool that space was even darker through the new hole in my windscreen and that the holographic images normally projected on my screen disappear in the hole. I made it with a couple of minutes to spare - was great fun.

 

[DraigUK]

To be honest, I wasn't paying too much attention to his demands at the time. As for human players, well, this was all in Online Open, so <shrug> that's a possibility you accept isn't it? However, with half-competent human commanders, I'd have a) treated the initial Eagle with a lot more respect - never tried it in the Asp, but I've had very good fights with commanders in Eagles, when I've been in the Cobra, they are agile, but fragile little blighters, and b) I'd have been dead in the initial confusion after meeting the Anaconda, and my over-confidence it that I could take it out, once shields came back. No question.

The story also throws up a couple of current issues though. 1) Ships appearing dead ahead of you the moment after you are interdicted needs to quietly go away, and 2) I'm not sure how I cash in the bounty on the Eagle, in the independent system, without purchasing a smaller ship to get back to the outpost, which seems an unnecessary expense.



Agreed, I never got all of the anti-pvp sentiment (and I'm not looking to start any arguments about it again, either! ), when the game does bend over backwards almost to give you the opportunities to run.

Good story. Elite always did have a habit of putting you in the most hairy of situations just when you started to get complacent...ED is no exception, the amount of times I've almost died when not paying attention is high, and that has always been due to me getting all cocky and thinking "I can do this while reading the forum, no worries" then of course panicking when I'm heading for the station mail slot waaaay to fast and not quite in line...just off enough to hit the toast rack....


Anyway, fully agree with (1) it is pretty annoying (although sometimes advantageous, I always fly around in SC with full pips to shields for this reason) it does need to be fixed and for your point (2) I think you can hand it in at any independent, but if not I'd buy a Cobra and park it there and use it to claim. Why a Cobra and not a Sidey? Well, because if you need to go there for any reason, such a mission offering you 100,000 CR to deliver 18 tons of cargo, you can make fast easy cash and top up the Cobra with some other missions or cargo as well. Often the missions that pay well need at least the cargo of a Cobra.

Good luck!

 

[Lobstris]

... and for your point (2) I think you can hand it in at any independent, but if not I'd buy a Cobra and park it there and use it to claim. Why a Cobra and not a Sidey? Well, because if you need to go there for any reason, such a mission offering you 100,000 CR to deliver 18 tons of cargo, you can make fast easy cash and top up the Cobra with some other missions or cargo as well. Often the missions that pay well need at least the cargo of a Cobra.

Ah. I didn't know you could deal with any independent - shows how often I collect bounties! And the rest is good advice. Cheers!