Horizons Interdictions near North Ring, Tutumu System

[MrFailfactory]

Hello Commanders,

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing Interdictions near the target station for the current CG that involved an inhibiting mass (caused by seemingly nothing, and make you unable to quickly escape), and/or pirates that are at a combat level that you arguably should not be drawing/in ships that you should not be facing.

I don't know exactly what goes into determining what skill level and ship your pirate will have, but I can tell you for sure that in the hundreds of runs that I have done for CG's since August, I have never dealt with Interdictions like these.

Has FD turned up the juice, or am I looking at possible bugged encounters?

Thanks,

Riôt

 

[NascentChemist]

In regards to a local gravity well causing a severe slow down, North Ring orbits a gas giant/brown dwarf that will cut your speed roughly in half if you try to cut through the circle created by station's orbit. That is pretty typical.

You may want to try "planet braking." That's a system used by racers to travel at faster than 75% of throttle when approaching a destination from the far side of the planet, but passing close enough to the planet at an oblique angle to slow down enough when you reach the station's side. (This assumes you're using the "hit 75% throttle button 6 seconds away to smoothly and quickly reach destination.) Either way, you can find much clearer description than mine with a bit of searching.

As to the pirates, I just delivered a couple loads of gold and pyrophyllite without noticing anything different. My recommendation is to just high wake out of Tutumu if a pirate announces their presence as soon as you jump in to the system.

 

[goemon]

if you are playing group or open: while NPC spawns normally depend on your combat rank and shiptype, there can be NPC spawned because of the "host" of the instance and his rank/ship you are jumping into when in group or solo. e.g. if you are "mostly harmless", and jump into a system originally created for a elite player, elite/dangerous npc will be already in the instance, and interdict you.

learned that the hard way when i was trying to help people new to the game :-/

 

[Mikey2305]

@goeman... thats interesting info that i havent heard or considered before

 

[harihoudini]

Hello Commanders,

I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing Interdictions near the target station for the current CG that involved an inhibiting mass (caused by seemingly nothing, and make you unable to quickly escape), and/or pirates that are at a combat level that you arguably should not be drawing/in ships that you should not be facing.

I don't know exactly what goes into determining what skill level and ship your pirate will have, but I can tell you for sure that in the hundreds of runs that I have done for CG's since August, I have never dealt with Interdictions like these.

Has FD turned up the juice, or am I looking at possible bugged encounters?

Thanks,

Riôt

Had the same experience with pirates in the same system yesterday. Normally i just run as i have better things to do with my cargo, but i decided to face my interdictor to see how good it was (NPC). Turns out they had my shields down in two shots and it was touch and go in battle. Finally blew up the FAS with major damage to hull and limped home. Not doing that again.

 

[Jantah]

Had the same experience with pirates in the same system yesterday. Normally i just run as i have better things to do with my cargo, but i decided to face my interdictor to see how good it was (NPC). Turns out they had my shields down in two shots and it was touch and go in battle. Finally blew up the FAS with major damage to hull and limped home. Not doing that again.

Same thing here, but I found in the logs that I was interdicted by a player. I am flying a Cobra III, so decided to do a submit & run. Pirate took my shields offline in two shots and started chewing on the hull. I continued to boost away. Suffered hull integrity <20%, boosters offline etc. I was dead in the water and waiting for the final blow. And then he aborted the attack... Systems went back online and I made it to the station.

 

[MrFailfactory]

In regards to a local gravity well causing a severe slow down, North Ring orbits a gas giant/brown dwarf that will cut your speed roughly in half if you try to cut through the circle created by station's orbit. That is pretty typical.

You may want to try "planet braking." That's a system used by racers to travel at faster than 75% of throttle when approaching a destination from the far side of the planet, but passing close enough to the planet at an oblique angle to slow down enough when you reach the station's side. (This assumes you're using the "hit 75% throttle button 6 seconds away to smoothly and quickly reach destination.) Either way, you can find much clearer description than mine with a bit of searching.

As to the pirates, I just delivered a couple loads of gold and pyrophyllite without noticing anything different. My recommendation is to just high wake out of Tutumu if a pirate announces their presence as soon as you jump in to the system.

The gravity well from what North Ring orbits isn't the issue, or shouldn't be. The issue is that once I have submitted (so far always within 30ls of North Ring, which is like 200ls or more from anything else), and I try to boost and run, the FSD encounters an inhibiting mass, taking the charge from less than 10s to well over 60s, and you are likely to be killed if you are unable to extend before escaping.

if you are playing group or open: while NPC spawns normally depend on your combat rank and shiptype, there can be NPC spawned because of the "host" of the instance and his rank/ship you are jumping into when in group or solo. e.g. if you are "mostly harmless", and jump into a system originally created for a elite player, elite/dangerous npc will be already in the instance, and interdict you.

learned that the hard way when i was trying to help people new to the game :-/

Almost 100% solo mode - I don't even really mission stack, because I don't want to forget that I am in Open.

It just seems to me that either something is wrong, FD has turned it up a notch to force engagement and disallow quick escapes (Explorers should start going armed, etc), or players have somehow found a way to Interdict those in Solo instances.

Riôt

 

[Mike Reacher]

The gravity well from what North Ring orbits isn't the issue, or shouldn't be. The issue is that once I have submitted (so far always within 30ls of North Ring, which is like 200ls or more from anything else), and I try to boost and run, the FSD encounters an inhibiting mass, taking the charge from less than 10s to well over 60s, and you are likely to be killed if you are unable to extend before escaping.



Almost 100% solo mode - I don't even really mission stack, because I don't want to forget that I am in Open.

It just seems to me that either something is wrong, FD has turned it up a notch to force engagement and disallow quick escapes (Explorers should start going armed, etc), or players have somehow found a way to Interdict those in Solo instances.

Riôt

That middle line almost 100% .... etc. Please explain the comment at the end eg: I am in Open.

Also how can you tell if a human player is in your instance if you are in solo? I always play solo, so I'd like to know this please.

 

[MrFailfactory]

That middle line almost 100% .... etc. Please explain the comment at the end eg: I am in Open.

Also how can you tell if a human player is in your instance if you are in solo? I always play solo, so I'd like to know this please.

Mission stacking involves switching modes to cause the Mission board to refresh much faster than it normally does if you stay in the same game mode. I can't say that I am always in Solo, because I have mode switched a few times to try to stack easy missions for gaining Imperial/Sirius rep.

I don't do it often, or as a matter of habit, because that is how *forgetting that I am in Open* would happen. I take the last few missions from Open, and forget to switch back to Solo before taking off, thereby running the risk of getting griefed or ganked by other players.

The only way you could tell if another player has somehow infiltrated your Solo instance would be their name (or if they seem to fly a lot better) - I believe it is prefaced by the word Commander, which NPC's don't get.

Riôt

 

[NascentChemist]

The gravity well from what North Ring orbits isn't the issue, or shouldn't be. The issue is that once I have submitted (so far always within 30ls of North Ring, which is like 200ls or more from anything else), and I try to boost and run, the FSD encounters an inhibiting mass, taking the charge from less than 10s to well over 60s, and you are likely to be killed if you are unable to extend before escaping.

Riôt

Interesting. That does sound more like a bug. Are you given a warning for a certain mass lock factor? 23 for a 'conda, for example? If you're in any smaller trader, you can get mass locked by stupidly small ships. A T-9 getting mass locked by a Python? Really?

 

[MrFailfactory]

Interesting. That does sound more like a bug. Are you given a warning for a certain mass lock factor? 23 for a 'conda, for example? If you're in any smaller trader, you can get mass locked by stupidly small ships. A T-9 getting mass locked by a Python? Really?

Both ships in question are Anacondas (as is my ship), but this is the only place I have ever gotten mass locked (seemingly) by a ship, and I've done almost every cargo CG since August, with quite a few Interdictions in each one. It was a 23 mass inhibitor both times, by the way.

Additionally...if I can get mass locked by another ship, shouldn't I get mass locked by every single anchor star in the game? I mean, there is no comparison in mass between any ship and any star, and any kind of speed-jumping should be impossible.

Riôt

 

[JetsonRING]

Pairs of interdicting CMDRs in high-powered ships . . .

Interdicted yesterday by a couple of CMDRs in "level 29" ships, a corvette and an anaconda, flew up behind me and between the two of them Alpha damage had my ship's shields down, hull to 0% and canopy cracked in a few seconds. One of them managed to exit SC right on top of me and immediately rammed me, neat trick but now I am motivated . . . to bring gold to North Ring in 544 ton batches. The 30 million top-10% payout should just about cover the rebuy. [up]

 

[NascentChemist]

Unless you've got D rated thrusters, I'd recommend boosting away until the enemies are ~5km away. At that point you can low wake out; the mass lock factor will not be an issue at that range.

I only trade in my T-9, so running in normal space is never an option...

Don't try to make sense of a ship's mass lock factor. The numbers are arbitrary.

 

[MrFailfactory]

Unless you've got D rated thrusters, I'd recommend boosting away until the enemies are ~5km away. At that point you can low wake out; the mass lock factor will not be an issue at that range.

I only trade in my T-9, so running in normal space is never an option...

Don't try to make sense of a ship's mass lock factor. The numbers are arbitrary.

I was not able to extend any kind of distance - they both stayed pretty much right at 1.6km on my tail, boost or no. Like I said, none of my past Interdictions were like these; I could run or fight as I chose, but not with these.

In any case, once this CG finishes, a refit is in the books, and set as a high priority.

Riôt

 

[Jack Schitt]

if you are playing group or open: while NPC spawns normally depend on your combat rank and shiptype, there can be NPC spawned because of the "host" of the instance and his rank/ship you are jumping into when in group or solo. e.g. if you are "mostly harmless", and jump into a system originally created for a elite player, elite/dangerous npc will be already in the instance, and interdict you.

First I've heard about this, although it doesn't surprise me. I'll just add it to the list of problems with the ridiculous "rate bracketing" concept that FD came up with to "balance" NPC encounters. It was bad enough having to headcanon why NPCs would not choose the easy win of pirating ships of a lower combat rating, but now it turns out they will but only if they're already there because another player spawned them.

There's simply no way to work that into the fiction other than "bad luck". It's a pure game mechanic, and one that's arguably broken in this case. Has it been acknowledged as a bug, or is it WAI?

 

[goemon]

First I've heard about this, although it doesn't surprise me. I'll just add it to the list of problems with the ridiculous "rate bracketing" concept that FD came up with to "balance" NPC encounters. It was bad enough having to headcanon why NPCs would not choose the easy win of pirating ships of a lower combat rating, but now it turns out they will but only if they're already there because another player spawned them.

There's simply no way to work that into the fiction other than "bad luck". It's a pure game mechanic, and one that's arguably broken in this case. Has it been acknowledged as a bug, or is it WAI?

in my understanding they tried to work around it by not allowing high ranked npc to interdict players below a certain threshold, depending on security level. but yes, the whole ship/rank depending mechanic is very gamey.

 

[Wood67]

Interesting discussion. I posted something (sort of similar) in the Tutumu CG thread earlier today. I switched to Mobius for a run to the North Ring and was instantly pounced on by a pirate within 4km of the letter box. No interdiction, he was waiting at the station and had me down to 0% within about 3 seconds. I assumed it was a player CMDR as I have never been hit that close to a station by an NPC before. It was over too quick for me to scan who it was so I'm checking the logs later.

It's possible the BGS has driven stronger NPC Pirates there - in which case fine, but I don't think there was any announcement to that effect. Switching back to Solo for the remainder of my session and all went back to normal.

 

[Sorbicol]

Interesting discussion. I posted something (sort of similar) in the Tutumu CG thread earlier today. I switched to Mobius for a run to the North Ring and was instantly pounced on by a pirate within 4km of the letter box. No interdiction, he was waiting at the station and had me down to 0% within about 3 seconds. I assumed it was a player CMDR as I have never been hit that close to a station by an NPC before. It was over too quick for me to scan who it was so I'm checking the logs later.

It's possible the BGS has driven stronger NPC Pirates there - in which case fine, but I don't think there was any announcement to that effect. Switching back to Solo for the remainder of my session and all went back to normal.

There were quite a few odd mechanics while the CG was ongoing in Tutumu - I frequently had situations where I was interdicted by an NPC from random in game encounter, evade it only to be immediately interdicted again by a NPC agent chasing after me due to the mission(s) I was performing at the same time. Often the mission related NPC would then be waiting for me when I dropped in on the station, especially if more then one had been sent after me. That actually was a bonus for some of them (they were rated much higher than me and in a straight fight I would have been cut to ribbons) but the station and friendly security forces would instead blow them out of the sky before they had a chance to blow me up. dropping mines on them often got me the bounty too.

The main thing was the interdictions were happening before the game jumped the NPC into the system. That was a little confusing because I couldn't find out the rank of the NPC and then determining if it was worth submitting and destroying them myself (anyone below competent) or evading and running like hell (Master or above) if I could manage.