Newcomer / Intro Interdiction

[Iggy Aeronef]

I'm about as green as they come so maybe I'm not paying attention.

Need some help with npc (or otherwise) interdictions. Have been interdicted a small number of times. Usually I just submit and then run away and that's been fairly successful.

My question is this: Am I able to see an interdiction situation arising on my sensors? In other words I see the enemy ship icon and can see it trying to get into position behind me? Maybe this is happening and I'm just too lost as a noob to see it. That sensor disc is hard to read and it's cluttered with a bunch of stuff I don't really need. I could use a filter to remove those planet and star orbs off there.

Please tell me that the game doesn't just decide that it's time for an interdiction so a ship pops into existence back there and lassos me which is what it sort of feels like.

On a related note is there a play log that will show me after the fact who interedicted or destroyed me? I'd like to see if it was an npc or player that got me.

Thanks

 

[metatheurgist]

The ship definitely needs to get behind you. The range is based on seconds apart in SC. You should be able to see someone maneuvering to interdict. NPCs will sometimes pop up right in the perfect spot to interdict, particularly if you left an interdiction without killing them.

You can recognize players by the fact that they are hollow squares or triangles. Players will often have intedictors with wider arcs so they don't even need to get behind you. That and player interdiction is much harder to beat.

 

[Iggy Aeronef]

Thank you.

You wrote this: "NPCs will sometimes pop up right in the perfect spot to interdict, particularly if you left an interdiction without killing them."

Just to be 100% clear...It's true that an npc simply pops into existence directly behind my ship?

I don't see them coming. I can't react. They are just suddenly there putting the brakes on me. If I'm in a noob ship that's inferior to the npc and they start firing right away then I'm just cooked. I can't out turn them. I can't out run them. The game decided it was time for a rebuy. That's part of the ED experience?

 

[SlickPBW]

In supercruise ships only show up when they are within 40 seconds of interception. Of course this detection range increases with your speed. So sometimes if you are going slow the other ship can see you on the scanner but you can’t see them. It’s kinda weird but that’s how it is.

 

[Iggy Aeronef]

Thank You

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

Pirates and mission related NPCs will usually say something corny before interdicting you.

I think the only exception might be military ships in systems at war, you'll get a 'This is a military interdiction' message just as they begin the interdiction, instead of before.

 

[Robert Rockbite]

Try using the "supercruise assist trick" to approach a station more quickly. There are some videos around that show how to do this. Basically you install a supercruise assist module (if not installed), go to right-hand panel => ship => SuperCruise and set "Manual throttle" or something like that.

With that, you can race towards the station and the supercruise assist will (often) be able to drop you at the station even if you are way too fast.

You will not only save time but also make it harder for pirates to catch you. Quite often, by the time the pirate will catch up to you, you will already be at the station and the pirate will often wake out without attacking.

 

[Codger]

Please tell me that the game doesn't just decide that it's time for an interdiction so a ship pops into existence back there and lassos me which is what it sort of feels like.

The game does in fact decide it's time for an interdiction. At that point a ship is spawned in to attack you. Usually it's a ways off and you can in fact see it approach. However, maybe depending on lag or something, the ship will spawn right behind you, or even right in front of you. It's not a perfect system, by any means. Usually an NPC will message you before the attack, which can give you time to react.

It took me a little while to get the hang of it, but now I just evade the interdictions rather than submit. That way I can just go on my way, no issues. So that's my suggestion. Learn to evade, it's not super hard.

 

[Iggy Aeronef]

Thanks all.

 

[Teiri]

With experience and more interdictions you'll get a hang of all of this. Basically ye, ship spawns, but no, not exactly behind you - can be anywhere. If you keep an eye on your radar, however, at some point, if that one spawned on the left for example, you'll see him "jumping" (that's moving, but radar has range and moving is fast) behind you with a little "chime" sound (idk how to explain, just next time keep an eye on the radar, you'll hear it, it's noticeable). Then, either this sqare will be going off soon (wasn't pirate, just someone passing buy), either they'll stick to you - then ye, ok, they're intrested. After a while you'll get a habit of looking at your radar every time after this "chime" sound in case you care to see what's happening around.

So it's not only the game decided it's time to interdict, it's also that a pirate spawned in the system, a pirate moved behind your ship ("chime"), and now any time you drop your speed an interdiction will happen, as they'll catch up with you. At this point you can decide on countermeasures and pick one of the following.

• Jump to another system. There's even a key binding for that, a good one, remember this key, have another system in your galmap picked in case you wander to unsafe places.
• Fight interdiction. Minigame is easy vs NPC if your ship has good maneuvrability. Idk at which point you're with ships, but let's say if you go cobra-asp-krait, just try it, it'll usually be easy enough, and you can always start and see how it is, and then throttle to zero if no any good.
• Submit. Either fight, either boost away then. I've heard somewhere, that those usual uningeneered pirates tend not to be able to fly faster than 300 m/s, and from my own xp if your speed at least is closing to 400, you're fine to boost away. Well you can also give em cargo if they're after cargo this time, but here idk, never tried.

And on the matter of cluttered disk - no, it's ok, you'll get used. Planets are as important as ships - pirates slow you down and planets slow you down too. So in all (ok maybe someone will come and correct but idk) cases you can see the interdiction is coming and you have an amount of time (sometimes short) to address that. Even if that ship spawned behind you this time. Later in the game you'll even learn how to cure all this with maneuvers around planets (stars) to stop (burn) your followers.

For the log it's posssible, but you'd need an external utility to make it real. Well, you can go to your logs and see manually, but this won't be easy. EDDiscovery, Inara, whatever else will list that in your combat log. Then if you see Totalli Moroni listed - ye, probably that's an NPC. But bassically again, you'll get xp. You'll see hollow squares on your radar and spot them very fast with time. You'll also see the difference between an NPC interdiction and a player's one just after a couple of times. Basically for now if you in any doubt that was a player, then that's NPC, for sure.

 

[metatheurgist]

Thank you.

You wrote this: "NPCs will sometimes pop up right in the perfect spot to interdict, particularly if you left an interdiction without killing them."

Just to be 100% clear...It's true that an npc simply pops into existence directly behind my ship?

I don't see them coming. I can't react. They are just suddenly there putting the brakes on me. If I'm in a noob ship that's inferior to the npc and they start firing right away then I'm just cooked. I can't out turn them. I can't out run them. The game decided it was time for a rebuy. That's part of the ED experience?

This only happens when a mission interdictor interdicts you and you leave the encounter without killing them. They will often respawn directly behind you. But NPC interdictions are actually easy to beat with a bit of practise.

As others have said the usual procedure is they will squawk a line about finding you then you will see them try to move into position. The other type are random NPCs already in the system, if you're paying attention you will often see them take an interest in you.

 

[Ashnak]

Interdiction: ships that interdict you may pop up from wherever they were waiting for you. Of you are simply running after a successful interdiction, they still are there and just have to pop back into SC - which of course will be right behind you. In addition, the dynamic range of the scanner will have other ships appear or disappear, depending on their and your speed.
The one thing different between players and NPCs is that the latter aren't persistent between instances: you can leave your opponent half dead in real space, but when they reappear in SC they're back at full health.
Log: yes, there is. It's readable XML/JSON, but it's easier to simply install e.g. EDDiscovery and let that one convert the logs into plain text.

 

[Miscellaneous]

I'd like to see if it was an npc or player that got me.

Iggy, I believe on the whodunnit screen it will say CMDR if it was a player. But also and for certain in the recent contacts tab, in the communications a couple tabs to the right of messages and communications, it will say so-and-so KILLED YOU there, if it was a player. And finally, pewpewlasersjust kidding welcome and good luck