I've won every single NPC interdiction since they changed it...

[Deleted member 115407]

let me guess you played with a mouse dont u

Yeah, with mouse and keyboard it's easy cheesy. Like... walk away, go to the bathroom, come back, light up a smoke, take a sip of beer... I'd better get on that escape vector.

 

[DoppelGanger]

Agreed with OP. I was surprised how easy it was to avoid interdictions with fully loaded Anaconda.
The interdictions are fine by itself, but making them more challenging would be great.

 

[Aashenfox]

Since I've never been interdicted when I didn't wnt to be, ever, I don't care what the penalty is for losing, make it death if you like, it won't change anything for me.

 

[Faded Glory]

Actually it's not the AI that's the issue here; it's the variability of commander capabilities. People do still fail interdictions. It happens, believe it or not.

And remember, while it may be easy for you (and perhaps me, I don't know, I always submit and generally destroy the interdictor), FD have metrics, and I would guess that there are players who struggle against NPCs.

The interdiction game is just an invitation to combat, accept it or decline it.

Indeed.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I've had to submit in recent times.... i was in my Type 10 though.

 

[Kayweg]

I always just found them to be nothing but annoyance, now just as well as when they were slightly more challenging.
At least they're not as glitchy anymore.
I can only repeat what i have said about NPC interdictions before, do away with 'em.

 

[Aashenfox]

I've had to submit in recent times.... i was in my Type 10 though.

I wanted to take advantage of some high paying cargo missions, so I bought and outfitted a T9, all D rated with no shield, all cargo, for the task. Of course it wasn't long before the first interdiction and I was thinking...oh crap, I completely forgot about defense...so I'm struggling with the interdiction, the escape vector is not really anywhere near my crosshair, I managed to pass through it a few times, but it's a long way from centre still. I wrestle the stick for a couple more minutes, try spinning (lol, that didn't work), and after what seems like an eternity I manage to anticipate the vector crossing my view and almost follow it with my targeting reticle. The blue bars went ping ping ping all the way up like a pinball machine, and I won. I thought it was luck, but that's how it's gone several times now. I was left thinking what's the point of interdictions if a Viper can't interdict a T9...? Guess I need to try a T10!

 

[Jack Schitt]

What's even more interesting is if you win, they despawn, where submitting and jumping has them chase you.

That depends on the type of NPC. Sometimes the ones that are sent as a result of cargo or passenger missions will keep coming even if you win the minigame. Quite often they respawn ahead of you, which is even more annoying.

It is too easy though. I can't remember the last time I lost one either. I've had a couple of what should have been close calls, when I've completely misjudged the swing and gone in the wrong direction and ended up with half of the red filled in, but even in a slow trader I've always managed to pull those back to victory. And that's with a relatively sluggish HOTAS.

I'm not sure how easy it would be to balance the game for every combination of player and controller, but certainly a mistake like that should be very difficult if not impossible to recover from.

Actually it's not the AI that's the issue here; it's the variability of commander capabilities.

And controllers. I believe mouse and keyboard offers an advantage in the minigame although I've not personally tried it. I experimented with a console controller and found it difficult, but I guess those who are more used to the twitchy analogue controls would fare better. It certainly handled a lot differently than the HOTAS.

I've seen a lot of anecdotal evidence suggesting that many, possibly the majority of, PVP players use mouse and keyboard both for fine fixed weapon alignment and the interdiction game. Not directly related to NPC difficulty of course, but it's another variable in how difficult FD have to make them to cover all combinations of player ability and controller.

Short of tweaking the NPC response according to the currently active controller, it's hard to know how they could balance this one.

But making a mistake in the minigame should definitely be more difficult to recover from. And losing one needs to be painful. Not necessarily ship loss painful, but I'd expect a trade or passenger ship to have serious hull damage, lost cargo and/or angry passengers following a failed interdiction avoidance. I always run unarmed bulk ships shielded, but rarely above the minimum required for the hull mass, and even back when I used to lose interdictions it was rare for an NPC to get in enough shots to drop the shields before I jumped out.

They're not a threat, just an annoyance.

 

[Threeofseven]

Yep, not lost an interdiction in probably a year to an NPC. Players on the other hand....

 

[kofeyh]

They're not a threat, just an annoyance.

This is the logical conclusion to reducing AI relevance, to essentially being 'not'. I don't think insta-gib super-sayan AI is the solution either; but what we have now, are AI that fly into the sides of stations, refuse to actually fight unless you are stationary (sigh) and a host of other eccentricities.

AI is supposed to reflect the rest of humanity (thargoids notwithstanding). It would appear the vast majority of humanity, in the 33rd century, are suffering from a considerable and shared cognitive deficiency. The amount of mental acuity lost, is frankly horrific.

I hesitate to use the phrase , as I don't wish to cause offense to anyone, but the AI, really is a bit dim.

Dear MoM; miss you! Come back.

 

[Shiro Akai]

Same feelings like OPs. Just I hadn't been interdicted even once. Well, I started playing Dec 3302 so I got into "easy mode". Since then I am winning every attempt. Few months ago when I got my Anaconda and took her for a spin I had little doubts. So far I had been using smaller ships, more nimble. Seeing how sluggish Anaconda is, compared to rest of my tiny fleet, I expected to loose.

First interdiction while driving Anaconda was exactly the same when I was driving Asp, DBX, T-6 or Adder. Little circling around, filled blue bar and continue to land as usual. Is interdiction mechanic too easy? Can't say. Is it flawed. For sure. Heavily scripted, predictable and plain boring. It turned from "whoo, I have avoided an interdiction! Wee me!" to PITA in just 3 attempts, which occurred within first 5 hours after I got the game. Since then it's simply annoying.

Luckily due to low difficulty it's just few seconds of stick moving before I can cash in my mission. I may start treating it like a quick stretching exercise.

 

[BaronDeKalb]

the skill of the npc pilot should be determined by his equipment and skill level, generally a elite pilot should pose a elite challenge. but i remember when this balance was way too far in the hard direction so i imagine it may not be so easy to balance correctly.

 

[biohazard15]

Interdiction was always hard to balance due to it being tied to server-client connection. Remember those glitches when you're suddenly at 90 degrees from the blue ring? That was something going wrong between client and server.
Finding it almost impossible to balance right, FD simply dialed the difficulty all the way to "very easy" and left it there.

 

[UnhappyDev]

FD simply dialed the difficulty all the way to "very easy" and left it there.

Yes. It's a shame though, I thought the balance was about right a few patches ago: interdiction difficulty depended on the SC handling of the ship you were in.

 

[TWitko]

I believe it's balanced quite well ... even now it's quite stressful experience for beginners and thus not easy for them to evade with their limited knowledge and skills. But they have a chance to win .. and be happy and enjoy game. Make interdiction harder and it would probably destroy their game ... and yes, more experienced pilot has no problem to escape ... that's OK. It's just "unpleasantness" which happens sometimes and only delay my SC trip for several seconds ...

And as was said already ... if you find it too easy and need some extra challenge, just submit and fight

TW

 

[Steelbreeeze]

Don't change a thing

I LIKE IT just the way it is - please don't change it!

I am over 60 and play this game to relax, not for any "adrenaline rush" (I get enough of that IRL). So I am happy that I can choose when/whether to engage in combat. "Forge your own path..." and all that!

Having started during the premium Beta, I did quit the game for six months when interdiction was made harder to beat and I therefore lost every single time. That took all the fun out of it for me.

Actually I am really glad to see this thread, as I was wondering whether all interdiction mini games are (fairly!) easy to win purely because of my "Novice" combat rating. I was afraid to do anything to increase that rating in case it spoilt it again. Now I can see that it is the same for all combat ranks, I am more willing to try to rank up. You never know, maybe I will actually "git gud" before I reach my 90th birthday...?

So, a big thank you to the OP for raising the topic.

 

[Achilles7]

Yes. It's a shame though, I thought the balance was about right a few patches ago: interdiction difficulty depended on the SC handling of the ship you were in.

I don't recall that having a decisive bearing on the mini-game. I will say however, that back in the dim & distant, Frontier did have the challenge set at the perfect level from a personal perspective, in that I would only win if I was absolutely focused; if I was in one of my 'can't really be bothered' gaming sessions, I'd lose 100% of the time. Oh & occasionally - about 1 in 10 - I'd have no chance to win whatsoever because it appeared predetermined no matter my % focus.

Again, this was my personal experience with my Hotas X & iirc, the forums were in meltdown about interdictions at the time, largely stating they were impossible to win.

I remember - like the OP - the 'zero chance of winning' patch too, where I had no choice but to submit & I also remember a cmdr posting a vid at the time of him successfully winning three interdictions in a row using 'relative mouse'! Hence 'meh - nothing to see here!'...or YMMV!

 

[koop26]

I LIKE IT just the way it is - please don't change it!

I am over 60 and play this game to relax, not for any "adrenaline rush" (I get enough of that IRL). So I am happy that I can choose when/whether to engage in combat. "Forge your own path..." and all that!

Having started during the premium Beta, I did quit the game for six months when interdiction was made harder to beat and I therefore lost every single time. That took all the fun out of it for me.

Actually I am really glad to see this thread, as I was wondering whether all interdiction mini games are (fairly!) easy to win purely because of my "Novice" combat rating. I was afraid to do anything to increase that rating in case it spoilt it again. Now I can see that it is the same for all combat ranks, I am more willing to try to rank up. You never know, maybe I will actually "git gud" before I reach my 90th birthday...?

So, a big thank you to the OP for raising the topic.

I 100% understand where you're coming from. I think the idea of "forging your own path" and allowing you to work within a galaxy at your own skill level is important. Which makes the whole interdiction minigame a bit odd to say the least. As others have pointed out since my OP, there's a wide variety of control styles and skill levels. So no matter how this mini game is tuned, there's a large swath of players who aren't going to like the end result.

So maybe we need to do away with the mini game all together. We need to tier difficulty and A.I. by the system we're in. Anarchy systems should be dangerous, with difficult interdictions and A.I.. They should also have the more rare engineering materials and payouts. High/Medium security systems should have almost no interdictions at all, fairly easy A.I. and an aggressive police force.

New players and casual players can operate within the safety of secure systems, and when comfortable can dip their toes into civil war / unrest / anarchy systems that are more dangerous and lucrative.

 

[MarkAusten]

Wouldn't it be nice if the level of difficulty of NPC interdictions were tailored to your own skill level on an adaptive basis. Win too many and the difficulty goes up. Loose too many and it goes down.

With a random factor thrown in at random intervals just so that things don't always seem to be the same.

Perhaps with an additional modifier to too easy being win fast and too difficult being either win very slowly or fail too often.

No one size fits all.

I wouldn't like to be the developer to code that algorithm, though!

 

[GG7]

I tend to drop out and blow up anyone who interdicts me, but yeah... It is much easier to avoid getting pulled down now than it use to be. Although if you had enough practice with the old system, you could still evade 99% of the time. Unless you were in a Slug ship like the T-9 or a Cutter. Then it was harder due to glacial SC handling.

Larger ships tend to fair better at evading than smaller ships provided they have decent SC handling performance.