Interdictions vs Security Ramming

[ingenious]

Why have interdictions become so ridiculous the last day or so. The security ships have stopped scanning and ramming which is nice but I've lost my Anaconda twice now by being interdicted either multiple times in a row (evade, evade, submit) and then an NPC buddy shows up to help do me in or I submit and more npcs come to help. Don't get me wrong, I am good at evading. Just lost my conda again. Was interdicted 4 times in one system and lost the 'game' 1.3M from the station. I became wanted for shooting too soon (my fault) but, I escaped to another system with serious damage and on oxygen. Jump to my main system where a station is close to point of entry and get interdicted twice more by the same guy. The time it took to successfully evade both without a canopy used up all my time. I had just entered the station when my oxygen depleted and I blew up.

So, FD, seriously, being interdicted six times in under 5 minutes is just ridiculous and it takes ALL of the fun out of this game. You all have put a lot of hard work into making this wonderful environment but so many interdictions it isn't worth playing. I've lost my conda twice now for about 36 million credits total. I have to a LOT of hauling to make that money back and of course I will be getting interdicted constantly when making those runs.

I am sure there are those that will say the interdictions are fun or they keep it interesting or whatever. Don't care. Not fun for me and it is not interesting at all to submit to a lowly Python only to discover that five minutes of constant barrage from 8 overcharged multi-cannons never even takes down the shields. When security finally arrived, we managed to get him in another 4 or 5 minutes. 10 minute battle and I got about 85k in credits. Damage to my ship? 450,000. So, not worth it to submit when I am in hauling mode. Very difficult to evade in a fully loaded conda too I might add so sooner or later, the slow pitch and yaw rate catches up to you and you just have to submit.

At any rate, there is just too much of this going on. Please bring the ramming cops back. That was infinitely more preferable to the sudden spike in interdictions.

Update: Rebought my ship and went back to a station to get most of the cargo I had lost so I could complete missions. I was interdicted twice and my cargo hold was empty. Once I bought the commodities I needed, I had just one jump to make and a quick run of around 250Ls to the station for mission turn in. I was interdicted 4 times in that short run. Evaded all of them IIRC.

How can I add the screen shots I took for this latest interdiction fiasco?

 

[Mano d'Oro]

Sorry to hear you're having such a hard time of it. Reading through what you've posted you're running hauling missions, rather than general trade. What's the suggested level of the missions you've taken? Higher ranked missions will result in harder NPC's being thrown at you. Also, mission-giving factions will often update you to say enemies are out to disrupt the mission, so taking multiple missions can often mean several NPC's are lining up to take a pop at you. Beating an interdiction will throw that NPC off for a while, but by the time you've evaded the 4th/5th, the first guy will likely have got his act together and be coming at you again, so it can feel, or rather is, continuous.

Apart from the mission parameters, what's the security level of the system(s) you're hauling to/through? You tend to get less interdictions in Medium/High security systems, and the system cops react faster/are more efficient. Going through/into a Low sec is obviously worse, and Anarchies almost guarantee being attacked. Also, both the BGS state of systems and Power Play have an effect here, for example systems in Civil Unrest/Civil War/War tend to have their Security lowered temporarily, and Imperial/Alliance/Independent systems in Hudson-aligned space have their Security status reduced as they're deemed less important to protect than Fed systems. I'm no BGS/PP expert, so other CMDR's will be able to give you better pointers on the effects they have if you post a follow-up thread about those issues, or just search the forums.

And finally, you have already mentioned the other factor in avoiding interdiction here, your ship. A 'conda is a great multipurpose big ship, but it's never going to handle like a Python, a FAS, an Asp, and certainly not an FDL! If you've not been flying that long then rushing out to buy the biggest ship you can as soon as possible is only going to hamper you, especially if it isn't well specc'ed. I'd suggest instead the Python which, in cargo fit, can carry almost 300 tons, and is far more responsive/easier to manoeuvre in SC if hauling is your 'thing'. You might also try the T-7 which, although it looks like a flying brick, I've found is actually pretty responsive (again, dependent on specifications/loadout), at only a third the cost of a Python, and almost a tenth of the cost of a 'conda! Ofc, it can't fight for toffee, but then it was never meant to!

There are other methods to deal with interdiction (submit, boost, boost, wake out), but the above may explain why it feels like you're being interdicted all the time. If you just want to haul cargo, my advice is not to load up on missions until you have a much better feel for the particular ship you're flying, and just find a profitable trade loop i.e. Food items from an agricultural economy to a refinery, load up there with minerals/metals to go to an industrial economy, from which you can take machinery to a high-tech system, then taking consumer goods from there back to the agricultural system, it may take a little while to figure out what sells best where but that's half the fun of hauling! You can filter for these, and various trade flows, on the GalMap.

I hope you've found some of this useful. o7!

 

[Flin]

Interdictions and their frequency is a consequence of your choices.

If you want to minimize interdictions due to missions, avoid fetch missions. They seems to attract more enemies than other mission types. Try deliveries and bulk passenger transports instead.

If want tips on how to deal with these situations, here are some that worked for me (not saying I'm the expert on this subject).

My basic tactics (for PVE):
* Get a good thruster, G3 Dirty Drive is enough.
* Get some long range weapons, G4 Pulses is easy enough to get.
* Submit, boost, flight-assist off, flip around, target and let your long range weapons drain it's shield. [Note, in FA-off you'll be reversing at full speed] manage throttle to keep the right range.
* Finish off with some kinetic weapons like overcharged mulitcannons.

Tactics for multiple enemies (PVE):
* Keyboard & mouse is great for the interdiction mini-game
* Else, boost, boost and wait for multiple enemy to drop in, then low wake if at last 1/4 way to station. High wake otherwise. They generally won't be able to catch up with you.
* Drop to station, move out of the exclusion zone, wait for enemies to catch up, scan, start firing. Security ships will assist in due time.

Lastly, the increase in interdiction is likely RNG and your choice+rank of missions.

My max far are:
3 chained interdiction
4 enemies in one low wake drop.

Hope you find these tips helpful

 

[justhanging]

My basic tactics (for PVE):
* Get a good thruster, G3 Dirty Drive is enough.
* Get some long range weapons, G4 Pulses is easy enough to get.
* Submit, boost, flight-assist off, flip around, target and let your long range weapons drain it's shield.
[Note, in FA-off you'll be reversing at full speed] manage throttle to keep the right range.
* Finish off with some kinetic weapons like overcharged mulitcannons.

Awesome tips Master. The long range weapons one is gold. Thank you sirrrrr!

 

[ingenious]

I've been trading between HIP 106213 (boom/high) and Balmung (none/medium). Majority of these interdictions are in HIP 106213. Not really sure on the mission levels but probably low ranking missions. I am doing them for the semi-decent profit and empire rank though I am Fed. Straight trading for the most part working on Elite trade rank. Currently 23% Tycoon and I mix it up some with delivery missions to do something different for a bit. I have had the Anaconda for a number of months now and am extremely well versed with it in both flight and combat. It is heavily engineered in pretty much every module except life support. When rigged for combat, the only thing I have ever gone against that can take me down is another 'conda or a very heavily tanked Python. FAS, FDS, FDL, or AspX are not a problem. Unless I am against multiple hostiles and even then I have beaten four attackers at once at least a few times when I have my fighter. So, it isn't the ship or a skill level thing. You are right that some of the missions I took did warn that ships may be sent against me. I will try to look at that more but, nearly every mission I've taken lately for boom delivery warns about being attacked and it is never just one ship. If I evade, they just interdict again. At HIP 106213 about an hour ago, I was within a few million meters from the station and was interdicted twice. By the time I had evaded both, I was further away from the station than when I entered the system. I've had it happen today where I am pulled away so much that by the time I get lined up with the station again, I am just being interdicted again. To counter this a bit, I think I will install the fighter bay again despite that taking away some cargo space and maybe add a couple more shield boosters.

Seems like they could find a better balance to the system. It's bad enough that 75% of the universe are pirates and most of them have a tanked ship with all the scanners they can hold but, that should not have to equate to players 'feeling very lucky' when one successfully makes it to a station without being interdicted. I truly hate the whole interdiction thing. Especially when I am not even carrying one ton of cargo. They need to work on their logic for it. IMO, if I have evaded Pirate X, he should not try to interdict me again for, like, a day or something. Basically, when I successfully evade, I am using skill to get out of the interdiction. The pirate got beat. He tried, he failed. I was the better pilot that day and all that jazz. That's what the mini-game is all about and it should be rewarded. Repetitive attempts by the same just es me off and I can't make any headway to my destination so I wind up just submitting eventually. And that is what makes the mini-game pointless. If the pirates are configured with the tenacity of a shark then just get rid of the mini-game and let everyone get interdicted all the time. FD won't do that because that is not the environment they want. If they wanted to build a straight space battle game, they could have done that. The problem is that while we all try to do all of the various tasks and adventures in the game, being interdicted all the time is just a PITA. It's like if you were walking to work every day and every trip to and from work one or more a-holes trips you, you would get tired of that crap real quick. You can stop and fight them and maybe you will win and maybe you won't. But, tomorrow, on your next trip, there will be more trying to trip you. How long before you decide to work from home?

I appreciate your response and you had no way of knowing how experienced I am in the game. If nothing else, your post points out to me that I should abandon the delivery missions. Not worth the effort as a diversion to my grinding back and forth in a pure buy/sell mode. I don't get interdicted quite as often when pure trading. Still happens but not 8 times in 6 minutes like I've seen. Guess that was my fault for taking missions that had hostiles coming after me. That kills mission stacking. Wonder how many pirates I could get at one time. The record is three that I've seen. Submitted to one and then two others showed up. Unsure why the game mechanics don't have the pirates attacking each other, instead, they all attacked me. Maybe there is pirate code after all.

 

[Schmack]

Surprised someone hasn't commented about having an anaconda and not being able to defeat an NPC in combat.

 

[Flin]

Surprised someone hasn't commented about having an anaconda and not being able to defeat an NPC in combat.

I, and many like me, traded our way to an Anaconda. Now that my trade rank is higher, the enemies getting sent via higher mission is tougher, so am working on armed trader combat tactics and skills.

 

[Flin]

I've been trading between HIP 106213 (boom/high) and Balmung (none/medium). Majority of these interdictions are in HIP 106213. Not really sure on the mission levels but probably low ranking missions. I am doing them for the semi-decent profit and empire rank though I am Fed. Straight trading for the most part working on Elite trade rank. Currently 23% Tycoon and I mix it up some with delivery missions to do something different for a bit. I have had the Anaconda for a number of months now and am extremely well versed with it in both flight and combat. It is heavily engineered in pretty much every module except life support. When rigged for combat, the only thing I have ever gone against that can take me down is another 'conda or a very heavily tanked Python. FAS, FDS, FDL, or AspX are not a problem. Unless I am against multiple hostiles and even then I have beaten four attackers at once at least a few times when I have my fighter. So, it isn't the ship or a skill level thing. You are right that some of the missions I took did warn that ships may be sent against me. I will try to look at that more but, nearly every mission I've taken lately for boom delivery warns about being attacked and it is never just one ship. If I evade, they just interdict again. At HIP 106213 about an hour ago, I was within a few million meters from the station and was interdicted twice. By the time I had evaded both, I was further away from the station than when I entered the system. I've had it happen today where I am pulled away so much that by the time I get lined up with the station again, I am just being interdicted again. To counter this a bit, I think I will install the fighter bay again despite that taking away some cargo space and maybe add a couple more shield boosters.

Seems like they could find a better balance to the system. It's bad enough that 75% of the universe are pirates and most of them have a tanked ship with all the scanners they can hold but, that should not have to equate to players 'feeling very lucky' when one successfully makes it to a station without being interdicted. I truly hate the whole interdiction thing. Especially when I am not even carrying one ton of cargo. They need to work on their logic for it. IMO, if I have evaded Pirate X, he should not try to interdict me again for, like, a day or something. Basically, when I successfully evade, I am using skill to get out of the interdiction. The pirate got beat. He tried, he failed. I was the better pilot that day and all that jazz. That's what the mini-game is all about and it should be rewarded. Repetitive attempts by the same just es me off and I can't make any headway to my destination so I wind up just submitting eventually. And that is what makes the mini-game pointless. If the pirates are configured with the tenacity of a shark then just get rid of the mini-game and let everyone get interdicted all the time. FD won't do that because that is not the environment they want. If they wanted to build a straight space battle game, they could have done that. The problem is that while we all try to do all of the various tasks and adventures in the game, being interdicted all the time is just a PITA. It's like if you were walking to work every day and every trip to and from work one or more a-holes trips you, you would get tired of that crap real quick. You can stop and fight them and maybe you will win and maybe you won't. But, tomorrow, on your next trip, there will be more trying to trip you. How long before you decide to work from home?

I appreciate your response and you had no way of knowing how experienced I am in the game. If nothing else, your post points out to me that I should abandon the delivery missions. Not worth the effort as a diversion to my grinding back and forth in a pure buy/sell mode. I don't get interdicted quite as often when pure trading. Still happens but not 8 times in 6 minutes like I've seen. Guess that was my fault for taking missions that had hostiles coming after me. That kills mission stacking. Wonder how many pirates I could get at one time. The record is three that I've seen. Submitted to one and then two others showed up. Unsure why the game mechanics don't have the pirates attacking each other, instead, they all attacked me. Maybe there is pirate code after all.

More tips:
* Get good shields and boosters.
* Find an area with lots of high security systems to do missions between.
* Keep at it. With the help of system security, you'll learn to handle multiple smaller ships and evade larger ones.
* When submitting to interdictions, keep going straight until half way to red before submitting. This way you'll be closer to the station when you next low wake.

Treat interdiction has part of the game. If you become hyper-focused on getting to the station asap, then can become a grind.

I use these interdictions to practice my combat skills. It's one on few instead of the more messy high res or combat zones.

 

[Flin]

Awesome tips Master. The long range weapons one is gold. Thank you sirrrrr!

If you're earning ranks via data missions, you can use a fast ship like a Cobra or iCurrier and learn some combat tactics. Using long range weapons, you can learn how to keep out of their weapon range.

iCurrier is great as it has great shields and 3 medium hard points. Good pilots can take on Anacondas with it.

Another tip on learning to evade interdictors: when being chased, don't follow a linear path to the station (e.g. don't let them get behind you). Change angles and speed; they won't be able to get behind you to start the interdiction. It becomes an interesting game when you are avoiding 4 of them.

 

[Tikigod]

I'm not sure if this is still a thing, but for a very long time at least it used to be the case that until you leave a system often NPC spawned by a mission or another kind of 'persistent encounter' could essentially stack if not properly dealt with.

So if a NPC was triggered to go after you and interdicts you, and rather than kill them you just jump back into super cruise and carry on to your destination the next time you're pulled out of supercruise by someone else looking to attack you the same NPC from the previous attack might be dumped back into the area after a short while.

Used to get rather silly sometimes with the amount of stacking that could happen. So as a general rule I always deal with any ships that attack rather than just jumping out to try save time, just in case Frontier still have silly things like that going on.

 

[Flin]

I'm not sure if this is still a thing, but for a very long time at least it used to be the case that until you leave a system often NPC spawned by a mission or another kind of 'persistent encounter' could essentially stack if not properly dealt with.

So if a NPC was triggered to go after you and interdicts you, and rather than kill them you just jump back into super cruise and carry on to your destination the next time you're pulled out of supercruise by someone else looking to attack you the same NPC from the previous attack might be dumped back into the area after a short while.

Used to get rather silly sometimes with the amount of stacking that could happen. So as a general rule I always deal with any ships that attack rather than just jumping out to try save time, just in case Frontier still have silly things like that going on.

This still occurs. Sometimes high-waking doesn't shake them. And they come back in full health or a different ship/loadout.

This is balanced by helpful security ships in High and Medium security systems coming out of no where to support.

 

[Mano d'Oro]

Wonder how many pirates I could get at one time. The record is three that I've seen. Submitted to one and then two others showed up. Unsure why the game mechanics don't have the pirates attacking each other, instead, they all attacked me. Maybe there is pirate code after all.

I once had a few 'mission-spoilers' after me in my T-7, having taken a couple of small cargo missions while taking part in a hauling CG. The first I saw lining me up was a Dangerous-rated FDL. Thought "I don't fancy that much!", beat him in the mini-game, and went on my merry way. Next to announce himself was a Competent-rated Eagle. I was armed with efficient-engineered, small beam lasers with various effects I'd stripped off my AspX, so I thought "Why not? I can hand the bounty in at the CG station and get a little credit for the BH one as well!" So I submitted, turned before the Eagle had dropped in, and started stripping his shields as soon as the scan completed and showed him as 'Wanted'.... when the Ferdie dropped in again. IMMEDIATELY started spooling the FSD but I'd barely got turned to try and boost/wake out when I found myself sucking space, shortly followed by the rebuy screen, having lost the few bits of cargo for the missions but far, far worse, was the loss of ~190 tons of palladium for the CG... so yeah, I get you, it thoroughly sucks! On a happier note, congrats on Tycoon, not far until Elite now (even though it'll feel like FOREVER!), hang in there! o7 CMDR![smile]

 

[d8veh]

Whenever I'm hauling or running missions in a slow ship, like an Anaconda, I never have weapons. Instead, I fit it out for speed and the best (charge enhanced) PD I can get. I always submit and keep boosting with 4 pips to engines and 2 to shields and I've never lost my shields. I have chaff and point defence in case of sustained fire, but I rarely use them. Another thing that helps is a FSD engineered for fast charge if you don't have too many jumps to make. That's really useful in a weak ship, like a Sidewinder.

My record was 49 chain interdictions between the star and the station. Here's an extract because the whole thing would be boring. I only kept it going to see if the NPC would give up, buthe didn’t.

[video=youtube;bp34PM_-jLk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp34PM_-jLk[/video]

 

[ingenious]

This is exactly what is happening so it is still a thing apparently.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

IMHO an Anaconda should eat a Python NPC for breakfast, especially with Engineered Weapons.

MultiCannons (unless with a Special Effect) aren't the best choice against Shields. Kinetic Resistances of default Shields are quite high. Easy on the Power Distributor but not very effective.
Try putting Incendiary Rounds onto some of them, if a pure MC loadout is desired, plus a single (i.e. Class 1) with Corrosive Shell. That should help.

Other than that, the question always remains : Shields & Hull strenght.
A Fighter Bay might also easen the difficulty, if fighting is not your thing.

 

[SpeakerToAliens]

How can I add the screen shots I took for this latest interdiction fiasco?

To post pictures...
Go to https://imgur.com.
Upload the files.
Move the mouse *down* onto the picture and a little menu appears with "Copy" and a down-arrow.
Click the down-arrow and select "Get share links".
Click the "copy" button for "BBCode (forums)".
Go to the Frontier forums and click the Insert Image icon then press <CNTL><V> in the "URL" edit line then click OK.
*You* will see something like this "([IMG)(img)https://i.imgur.com/46vGb8P.jpg(/img)(/IMG)" but with [] instead of (). However, if you click "Go Advanced" you'll see the posting *with* the image.

 

[ingenious]

To post pictures...
Go to https://imgur.com.
Upload the files.
Move the mouse *down* onto the picture and a little menu appears with "Copy" and a down-arrow.
Click the down-arrow and select "Get share links".
Click the "copy" button for "BBCode (forums)".
Go to the Frontier forums and click the Insert Image icon then press <CNTL><V> in the "URL" edit line then click OK.
*You* will see something like this "([IMG)(img)https://i.imgur.com/46vGb8P.jpg(/img)(/IMG)" but with [] instead of (). However, if you click "Go Advanced" you'll see the posting *with* the image.

Ahh. Thank you very much!

 

[Bomba Luigi]

Npcs can be quite stubborn and when you have multiple mission you can many come after you. What helps best to get rid of them is sticking to medium and high security and then go for the kill. Just stall your enemy a bit till the cops show up and then it shouldn't be much of problem since you will outgun him heavly with all the cop ships.

Works a charm, did just destroy a deadly conda in my t9 with some friendly help from the cops.