Is this normal? Or just a bad day at the Engineers?

[Drokken]

Ok, so i get the invite from Elvira Martuk, head out 500ly to Cheranovsky City, collect 3 Soontill relics, fly another 300ly or so to Khun. After dropping in, i hit the lock/s.c. assist : on, and speed up, 2 seconds later (if that long even)I get interdicted out of flight - having barely left the immidiate vicinty of the star (so like, this dude was hiding in the corona?) - and I get blasted the moment I drop out and stop. After some 'crazy-ivans' i get clear, boost up, hit s.c. ok, and get interdicted again like in 1 second, only this time by 3 tossers (an' i'm in playing in solo....hmmm?), ship blown up, along with @ 1500ly worth of mappings and 30k of 'relics', So, scratch one ASP Ex which i'd tricked out to get 3x more Optimimum Mass than ship weight... cash in my insurance, go back to C/City, pick up 3 soontills, return, same deal, only this time i get away, only to have my badly damaged ship fall apart in re-entry ot Martuck's place...yeah, neat. Not.

Now, i've looked thru the forums and can't find anyone else having/had this problem getting to Martucks chop shop? So much hassle waiting on what should be a basic run - like soontills are now more attractive than running meta alloys or 3 containers of gold? Really? Knee deep in NPC's with a 'kill'em even if they stop' mentality? This has cost me a ton of credits for sod all? I've flown into conflict zones that are easier to handle (37 kills at the last one, nice bounties too) and Khun now needs an 'Elite' combat status to get to/thru safely? You're joking, right? 'Cept i'm not laughing. Grind i can handle, up to a point, but getting swarmed like this just to get a shield upgrade? (not like i opened fire inside a station or anything...although that might change just for the hell of it, and to alleviate current mind-set...lol) .Ain't worth the hassle.

Any suggestions? More heat sinks? More guns/missiles/lasers? Play in Open and take a whole wing? What's been your experience of this run? Always this screwed up? or plain sailing? Be interested to know how/what/why you did to avoid this kinda 'stuff' recurring ad-naseum?
Apart from that, everything else is....okayish.

 

[Darth Wonko]

I'm not sure if it's bad luck, or not. What is the state of that system? It could be it's in a state of Civil War or War and that's causing the NPCs to be more aggressive. Also, if it's a hostile system, that could be a contributing factor.

 

[Drokken]

Seemed ok system wise, not been previously, and not an enemey of any faction there vas far as I know,... i'll check again when i get back, later, from my day's 'real' grind .

 

[SpaceGoblin]

Khun is Low Security, and currently in a 'boom' state:

Could that have any effect on NPC behaviour?

I was there on Saturday (so in the same 'tick' window) in Solo and had no issues at all - couple of visits, plenty of traffic, but none hostile.

Certainly sounds like a regular day visiting Engineers in Open, but a very bad day in Solo!

 

[Northpin]

Any suggestions?

Dont lose the interdiction
It should be rather easy against NPC - but it's almost impossible if interdicted by other players (you did said you are playing in solo, right?)

NPC interdictions are rather common if you are carrying cargo.
They are also rather common even if you dont carry cargo but you are in an Anarchy system or if there is a war in that specific system.
But if you are not carrying cargo (and you dont have any bounties, an NPC interdiction usually results in a harmless encounter)

 

[Zak Gordon]

Sounds actually 'Dangerous', we need more of it in general spread around a little more evenly/gently perhaps? My first thoughts are 'Do you play in Open ever?' and if so are you 100% sure you were in Solo and not accidentally in Open?

 

[SlickPBW]

No offense but here’s the obligatory: Git guuud!

 

[willisit]

You jumped in to a system with something in your cargo hold. That's... well, that's about all it takes, from my experience at least. I can have 500tons of anything and not see a soul, and have 1ton of silver and be interdicted 3 times in a row.

"So the rumours were true"... etc. This can happen 5000LY from the bubble; which is another moan altogether.

 

[Arsen Cross]

@Imperator93-Imp ok so the first thing I’m going to point out is that an Asp X that’s been ‘tricked out’ for optimal mass is not tricked out. The Asp X is already a bad ship if you look at it objectively for anything other than traveling/exploring. Tweaking it to maximize jump range at the expense of everything else results in these kinds of experiences.

if you insist on equipping your ship(s) in this way (which you are not alone in, an alarming percentage of the community equips the same way then gripes upon loss) I suggest following these bits of advice, some will be repeated:

• Avoid carrying cargo whenever possible. Obviously not avoidable in the scenario you’ve outlined though
• Pay attention to your chat. Direct messages from NPC’s will indicate their intent to interdict you before they’ve lined up to tether you and pull you out
• Do NOT allow an NPC to pull you from cruise. If you submit to an NPC and then jump back to cruise they will follow you back into cruise. If you win the interdiction they are put in the same 45 second time out a player is when failing interdiction and this is typically enough time to get to your destination without THAT NPC or it’s wing harassing you
• Do not fail an interdiction, if you can’t win, submit by throttling to zero. Failure as mentioned above means you’re stuck in normal space with your attacker for 45 seconds before you can begin charging FSD to escape and if you try to re-enter cruise you are subject to mass lock further lengthening the time so high wake by jumping to a different system to escape if you find yourself in this situation. The cooldown timer is present in the bottom right of the screen
• Avoiding an interdiction by emergency dropping from cruise before you are tethered and leaving and re-entering the system is OK. Just double tap the supercruise key and you’ll drop out, take a small amount of damage and be safe for a short time while your aggressor is forced to manually drop on your wake instead of tethering you (if you are using the combined jump key for cruise and hyperspace unbind it and switch to dedicated keys for each).
  
  
• When landing on high gravity planets (or anytime you don’t know the gravity level) ensure that your ship is level at the end of the glide as there is a brief period of ‘immunity’ to gravity that halts your downward velocity if you level out at the end of the glide
• Treat your ship like a plane when operating in 1g or higher, maintaining forward momentum and dropping altitude by tilting your nose down a few degrees at a time. The higher the gravity though the more careful you need to be, even to the point of needing to fly some ships like they are a naval ship and not a plane, as some ships when rolling to turn like a plane with drop out of the sky like a brick. Use rudder to steer if the gravity is high enough to do this to your ship
• Practice high gravity flight in achenar at planet 4 (iirc?) where you can experience 6.77g’s and practice high gravity flight and landing. Master it here and your golden everywhere as long as you don’t fail to notice the gravity level
• If you are using digital keys for your downward thrusters (dorsal thrusters that push your ship down toward the ground) do not use them in extreme gravity, as they will immediately be at 100% thrust and a single tap will cause you to lose control and plummet to your death unless you are at extremely high altitude with time to recover (almost never). Properly equipped ships can often survive this but optimal mass maxed ships for jump range are almost guaranteed to die every time even with ‘bumper shields’, which don’t do squat for anything other than a light scrape. Bind vertical thrust to analog input if possible. The longer the axis the more control. Don’t use it unless you can control your vertical thrust with 1ms control accuracy as seen on your in game throttle when using it
• If analog is not possible, temporarily toggling flight assist off to complete touch down (off then rapidly back on) is often used but also tends to result in damage.
  
  
  
  

 

[Zak Gordon]

You jumped in to a system with something in your cargo hold. That's... well, that's about all it takes, from my experience at least. I can have 500tons of anything and not see a soul, and have 1ton of silver and be interdicted 3 times in a row.

"So the rumours were true"... etc. This can happen 5000LY from the bubble; which is another moan altogether.

Ahh, i often transport 100 tons of silver at a go, and get that message, so that is why i get those interdiction's even if not everytime. It's the silver, and the 'whispered' intel from the markets i bought them from.

 

[Drokken]

Hi CMDRs. thanx for the responses and advice! Yeah, i was in Solo, which is why the intensity of the interdictions surprised me somewhat. I'd got a low heat signature on the ASP, but on reflection, probably not enough. So after some thought (I'd been exploring for a good while before this, so probably got complacent...my bad...) i dusted off my DBX, took weapons and everything else i could lose, added another heat sink and 2 shield gens, stopped at last but one star, turned off everything else i could and jumped in last night. As CMDR SpaceGoblin noted, it was still in boom mode, lot of traffic, but after i jumped in, i moved away using the sinks as required, lined up and SCA'd to target, passing a few other signals on way in, but no hassle this time, managed to land okay by careful use of thrusters towards the end and made a bumpy if okay landing. Got sorted with some new upgrades - extended FSD range as i'm heading back into the black - and flew out okay. Maybe I just hit a bad patch on the first three attempts. Still, its a learning curve and i'll keep at it. Thanks to all for the advice, esp CMDR Arsen Cross - lot of good tips there which i'll use in future!

 

[Arsen Cross]

Glad you found it helpful!