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Dear Commanders and Commandrettes,
After years of meticulous research, the Lanley Institute for Engineering (LIE) proudly presents: AID - the Anti Interdiction Device!
Are you tired of getting interdicted whenever you want to take the family out for a weekend joyride to that beautiful ringed planet where you once found these shiny void opals? Or when you just wanted to space-walk the dog around that engineer workshop's site?
Fear no more - Lyle Lanley and the friendly folks at LIE are here to help! We developed a device that makes it virtually impossible to interdict your ship. No matter if the interdictor carries a Pilots Federation membership card or not.
How does it work?
We developed a technology to redirect shield energy to react with particles stored in the compartment your AID is installed to. When a baddie attempts to interdict you, the AID will trigger automatically (or manually, if you wish) and inject the mass resulting from the process into the FSDI beam of the attacking ship, overwhelming it and voiding the interdiction attempt. You are safe to continue your journey.
In fact, most baddies won't even interdict you anymore, as they can see from your ship's signature that you have an active AID installed. So chances are they won't even bother trying.
(For the sake of transparency - we have been forced to provide a backdoor override procedure, but that will be only available to authorities.)
What do you need?
An aptly sized shield generator, and a similarly sized (for most ships) optional internal compartment slot to install the AID into. While idle, the weight is similar to a fully laden cargo compartment of the same size - our engineers at LIE challenged the laws of physics to minimize the impact AID has on your ship's jump range and outfitting options.
And what's 256 tons less cargo capacity during a painite mining run, compared to the peace of mind knowing that nobody can interdict your T-9 on the way back to base? And just between us - we know that you know you cannot trust your wingmen to protect your valuable cargo - don't worry, we won't tell them that you told us!
Don't wait up - get your AID today! Available at more and more stations throughout the bubble (subject to the certification that is still in progress, but should be completed any day).
/lore
An idea for a "forced open" scenario. I know the hardcore players will cry "foul!" immediately, but let's face it - there are a lot of players out there who simply do not want to be interdicted.
Other MMO games have systems in place that allow the player to avoid PvP action. This is an approach for an immersive solution for Elite Dangerous. You can avoid getting interdicted by installing a device. That will cost you a slot (or 2 actually, if the AID would require a shield generator to be present, which I'd recommend). That means increased weight, reduced cargo capacity and/or outfitting options, so the solution does not come without a price tag (and I'm not just talking CR here).
An individual approach may be required for each ship, to properly balance the compartment requirements. Installing a no-interdiction guarantee should hurt a little, but it shouldn't completely kill the usability of the ship, either.
The AID leaves the commander with a choice - they can sacrifice progress speed for more safety, if they wish.
The AID would work against NPC pirates as well. I'd include a settings option, "auto" or "manual". In "manual", NPCs would still attempt to interdict you, and you can decide every time whether or not to accept the fight. In "auto", NPCs wouldn't even try anymore.
For PvP, ships with an active AID could be displayed in a different colour on the radar, so that human pirates know it may be futile to try and interdict them.
The AID could replace the current "escape vector" minigame, that I honestly find neither entertaining nor immersive (where does the interdicting ship vanish to when I successfully avoid the interdiction?).
Hence, the AID. Love it, hate it - it's just an idea, and probably won't ever make it into the game anyway. It's not like this idea qualifies for the Nobel Prize for Outstanding Game Feature Ideas. I still wanted to share it. You never know.
And to reply to the shots that will inevitably be fired - no, I wouldn't install AID myself. I indeed love interdictions and always respond to them by throttling down to zero. I just respect that there are a lot of players who don't like them, and I don't see how ED becomes a better game by forcing these players to accept being interdicted, avoid NPCs with an arcade-like minigame that doesn't really add anything to the game, or avoid PvP by hiding in solo, thus making an already empty galaxy even emptier.
Stay safe, CMDRs! o7
After years of meticulous research, the Lanley Institute for Engineering (LIE) proudly presents: AID - the Anti Interdiction Device!
Are you tired of getting interdicted whenever you want to take the family out for a weekend joyride to that beautiful ringed planet where you once found these shiny void opals? Or when you just wanted to space-walk the dog around that engineer workshop's site?
Fear no more - Lyle Lanley and the friendly folks at LIE are here to help! We developed a device that makes it virtually impossible to interdict your ship. No matter if the interdictor carries a Pilots Federation membership card or not.
How does it work?
We developed a technology to redirect shield energy to react with particles stored in the compartment your AID is installed to. When a baddie attempts to interdict you, the AID will trigger automatically (or manually, if you wish) and inject the mass resulting from the process into the FSDI beam of the attacking ship, overwhelming it and voiding the interdiction attempt. You are safe to continue your journey.
In fact, most baddies won't even interdict you anymore, as they can see from your ship's signature that you have an active AID installed. So chances are they won't even bother trying.
(For the sake of transparency - we have been forced to provide a backdoor override procedure, but that will be only available to authorities.)
What do you need?
An aptly sized shield generator, and a similarly sized (for most ships) optional internal compartment slot to install the AID into. While idle, the weight is similar to a fully laden cargo compartment of the same size - our engineers at LIE challenged the laws of physics to minimize the impact AID has on your ship's jump range and outfitting options.
And what's 256 tons less cargo capacity during a painite mining run, compared to the peace of mind knowing that nobody can interdict your T-9 on the way back to base? And just between us - we know that you know you cannot trust your wingmen to protect your valuable cargo - don't worry, we won't tell them that you told us!
Don't wait up - get your AID today! Available at more and more stations throughout the bubble (subject to the certification that is still in progress, but should be completed any day).
/lore
An idea for a "forced open" scenario. I know the hardcore players will cry "foul!" immediately, but let's face it - there are a lot of players out there who simply do not want to be interdicted.
Other MMO games have systems in place that allow the player to avoid PvP action. This is an approach for an immersive solution for Elite Dangerous. You can avoid getting interdicted by installing a device. That will cost you a slot (or 2 actually, if the AID would require a shield generator to be present, which I'd recommend). That means increased weight, reduced cargo capacity and/or outfitting options, so the solution does not come without a price tag (and I'm not just talking CR here).
An individual approach may be required for each ship, to properly balance the compartment requirements. Installing a no-interdiction guarantee should hurt a little, but it shouldn't completely kill the usability of the ship, either.
The AID leaves the commander with a choice - they can sacrifice progress speed for more safety, if they wish.
The AID would work against NPC pirates as well. I'd include a settings option, "auto" or "manual". In "manual", NPCs would still attempt to interdict you, and you can decide every time whether or not to accept the fight. In "auto", NPCs wouldn't even try anymore.
For PvP, ships with an active AID could be displayed in a different colour on the radar, so that human pirates know it may be futile to try and interdict them.
The AID could replace the current "escape vector" minigame, that I honestly find neither entertaining nor immersive (where does the interdicting ship vanish to when I successfully avoid the interdiction?).
Hence, the AID. Love it, hate it - it's just an idea, and probably won't ever make it into the game anyway. It's not like this idea qualifies for the Nobel Prize for Outstanding Game Feature Ideas. I still wanted to share it. You never know.
And to reply to the shots that will inevitably be fired - no, I wouldn't install AID myself. I indeed love interdictions and always respond to them by throttling down to zero. I just respect that there are a lot of players who don't like them, and I don't see how ED becomes a better game by forcing these players to accept being interdicted, avoid NPCs with an arcade-like minigame that doesn't really add anything to the game, or avoid PvP by hiding in solo, thus making an already empty galaxy even emptier.
Stay safe, CMDRs! o7
