Mass lock question

[Crimson Kaim]

Me again (sorry D.

After 1.3 I noticed that I get mass locked by plenty of ships in a Dropship ... which is actually one of the heaviest ships besides the T9. Even my friend who owns a T9 says he gets interticted, though it is THE heaviest ship ingame.
Note: The masslock only applies for single ships in this case, not in asteorid fields or combat zones, the masslock there would be obvious.


I wanted to ask how mass lock actually works. My Dropship being 1100 tonnes heavy is masslocked by a python being 770 tonnes heavy, which makes no sense if it really is a 'mass'-lock.

Anyone knows something?

 

[Dbrn47]

Ships have a Mass Lock Factor, if it is bigger than yours, it disrupts you. The Dropship has an MLF of 14 and the Python has 17. A Type-9 has 16. www.edshipyard.com shows you these values. Hyperjumping is not subject to MLF only jumping to Supercruise is.

 

[mbar]

Has any reason been given from FDev as to why mass lock factor has no coloration to the mass of the ship? Why an anaconda has a larger MLF than a Type-9 or dropship?

 

[Para Handy]

What bothers me is that mass-locked ships can still high-warp away (it is really annoying). Surely if the frame-shift drive is mass-locked it should be that way for supercruise and hyperspace jumps equally?

 

[h347h]

What bothers me is that mass-locked ships can still high-warp away (it is really annoying). Surely if the frame-shift drive is mass-locked it should be that way for supercruise and hyperspace jumps equally?

Yeah it makes pvp pretty dull. Just press one and target a random system and jump.

 

[Brujah]

Yeah it makes pvp pretty dull. Just press one and target a random system and jump.

I hate the mass-lock system.

I think it would be better for ships to be able to equip some kind of 'Frame Shift inhibitor' at varying classes; the higher class, the higher the inhibition factor. That way at least the aggressor has to make some kind of compromise if they want the effect.

I figure that factor could be opposed by the rating and class of the target's Frame Shift Drive, so even an A-rated C2 Frame Shift Inhibitor wouldn't do anything to an A-rated C4 FSD, but would inhibit, perhaps, a B-rated one. Though to a lesser extend than it would inhibit an E-rated C2 FSD.

It would make the whole thing slightly more involved.

- - - Updated - - -

In terms of the OPs actual question, the answer is 'for gameplay purposes'.

If you're in a trading vessel, even though your mass is higher, your mass lock rating is lower so that aggressive pirates/killers have a better chance of killing you before you can escape.

I'm sure pirates and killers would argue that 'better' just means 'any' chance, and that's probably true enough.

Though with my above suggestion, I feel it would be fairer, in hindsight, to tweak it so the inhibitor actually struggles to inhibit vessels considerably less massive than the one doing the targeting (so Pythons can't inhibit Sidewinders, but can inhibit Asps, for example).