If it’s reached the point where you’ve been
unwillingly interdicted, you’ve actually failed a number of times. This is true for PvP
and PvE, but PvP gives you more options to deal with this scenario.
- Your first failure is that you’ve chosen a direct route to your destination. The direct route is bad for a couple of reasons:
- It’s the slowest. It usually keeps you near the arrival star where speeds are slowest. It also takes you through the plane of the ecliptic, which is full of mass, some of which may be unseen, which will also slow you down.
- It’s full of stuff on the scanner, making it easier to miss something.
- Speed = Sensor range. The faster you are going, the more ships you’ll see.
- It usually gives you a bad angle of approach to your destination, taking you past unnecessary moons, a bad view of its layout, or both.
- You’ve failed at awareness. You’re out of the plane of the ecliptic, and gaining speed. Now it’s time to take stock of the situation.
- Go to the comms panel, and open the players panel. That’s your first clue that you’re not alone in this instance.
- Orient your ship so that all the mass of the system is on one side of your display.
- All NPC, and most player, traffic will be in the plane of the ecliptic. If you see a ship rising out of the ecliptic, it might be after you if it’s a player, and it will be after you if it’s an NPC. If it's an NPC, proceed to your destination, and gravity brake at the end. You'll have more than enough of a lead at this point that they won't catch up unless you follow the horridly slow "six second rule."
- You've failed to assess the situation correctly.
- You potentially have a hostile player in your vicinity. It's time to determine if they're actually hostile.
- Head directly away from the ecliptic plane. You want both time and distance to assess the situation, and this'll give you both.
- Target the ship.
- If it isn't a combat ship, then it's likely not a threat. Proceed to your destination. Keep them targeted just in case.
- If the ship isn't pointed at you, then it's likely they're en route to their destination. Proceed to your destination. Again, keep them targeted, just in case.
- If they are pointed at you, you've got a hostile player behind you.
This is the point where it's no longer a "ganker and victim" scenario. It's a PvP scenario.
You have the initiative and the higher ground.
You're in control of the scenario.
You're rocketing towards deep space, and there's nothing they can do to catch up, until you reach speeds of 2001c. It's time to decide what to do about it.
- You can simply jump out of the system. They'll be out of position for a while, or they'll jump out and back. Either way, you'll hopefully have enough of a lead to reach your destination this time.
- You can head out into deep space. You have a "ganker" on your six, and you're safe for a long while. If you're in a CG system, while they're futilely chasing you, they're not attacking others. So see who'll get bored first. Feel free to strike up a friendly conversation with them if you're so inclined.
- You can proceed to your destination anyways, knowing that they're behind you. It's a rare ganker that can successfully interdict someone who's gravity braking. They're more likely to plow into the celestial body, or overshoot, instead. Just don't throttle down and submit accidentially.
- You can fake a jump out at any point. Spool up your FSD while targeting a star behind you. Then do an emergency drop out of Supercruise. Chances are they won't notice the difference, will be slow to react even if they do, so you can orient yourself towards your destination, and reenter Supercruise that way.
- You can look at this as a learning situation, and let them try to interdict you a few times. Unfortunately, there's no counter to the huge advantage an engineered FSD has, but still it's good practice either way. Once they succeed, you'll also get valuable experience trying to stay in theirsix while evading their hostile fire. If you're in good shape, feel free to low wake out, and let them try again.
- Most of them will get the message after a couple of futile attempts to destroy your ship, and leave you alone after that. Most. I had one genius do this to me seven times, before I got bored of the whole situation and messaged them, "You realize I'm willing to do this all the way to the station, right?" There wasn't an eighth.
Naturally, if you chose the last option, you should be flying a ship that's more durable than wet toilet paper, and more nimble than a beached whale, which is a good idea in general. But the most important thing is, you're
aware of the threat
, and you're
willing to be in this situation. You won't be wasting those precious few seconds after you drop, startled and confused. And that can make all the difference in the world, especially if you don't make an easy target of yourself by following the common forum advice of "boost boost boost jump."
Oh, and I've mentioned "gravity braking" a few times. It's a way of getting to your destination faster than the common forum advice of the "six second rule." Here's a comparison video below.
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy4zca1yjKw&ab_channel=furrycatvideos
thanks for the headsup!
