Suspected player hack/foul play

[munz]

Can someone please point me in the right direction as to what action(s) I can/should take if I have encountered a suspected hacker CMDR in a wing silly enough to interdict me in PvP?

A CMDR once interdicted/destroyed my (pre-engineered) A-rated Corvette for a mere 400Cr (four hundred credit) bounty (~17m rebuy) which I received when I was firing at a "wanted" ship and a police ship flew through my line of fire/sight. Ironically, I was on my way to an interstellar factors office to clear the fine when this happened - but it's still FAIR GAME. This time around, the dynamic was completely different:

I was flying around in a heavily engineered Corvette with (engineered) prismatic shields, (engineered) boosters etc. Upon interdiction by a Cutter in a wing of 3, I encountered multiple FSD failures with my shields still up, running two 5D (engineered) HRPs, two 4D MRPs (I took no hull/module damage) and my FSD recharge was practically standing still even though I was out of mass lock range of the interdicting ship. My drive kept rebooting every time it came close to recharging. Even with the support of 4 NPC police ships which came to assist me while my shields were still up, the other player/CMDR's prismatic shields recharged faster than most bi-weaves I've come across.

In the past 4 years of playing ED I have never experienced anything as extreme as this. I may have when I was a fresh newbie in a sidewinder and would have thought it was just my ship that was the issue.

I should add that I am not aligned with any faction, no outstanding debts or bounties etc (squeaky clean record).

I submitted a report upon destruction of my Corvette, I also received a notoriety discount of approx 7m during rebuy...however I don't see why I should pay the balance (or anything for that matter) if the other party isn't playing fair. I clearly have NO issue losing a ship fair and square, cheating is something I expect the developers won't tolerate and would take swift action against...otherwise what's the point of playing an "open world" game? Any suggestions would be much appreciated and apologies if there's already a thread about this...I kept finding "hacking with SRV" when searching the forum which isn't what I was after. Cheers

 

[Flash_Baggins]

There is a dumbfire missile experimental mod which causes the FSD on the ship that is hit to reboot, so you may have been hit by those causing your FSD to malfunction.

 

[CMDR Redcrest]

Might not have been cheating:
There's dumbfire missiles that cause the FSD to reboot.
A bi-weave shield with rapid recharge special is pretty effective.
Although if it was prismatic then it could be a size 5 shield on the cutter with the legacy mod that allows it to be fitted to a cutter. The smaller shield recharging much faster. I have this mod on my trade cutter and still get 2k Shields with boosters.
What you describe seems plausible with very specific legacy and current engineering.

Maybe he's CMDR "with a very specific set of mods, he will find you and he will kill you" *insert Liam Neeson pic*

 

[munz]

Thank you for the reply Flash_Baggins. If that's the case then I can accept that and I am happy for the thread to be closed (with apologies for taking up everyone's time)...however is there any way to confirm if that is what happened? I only know the time and name of the CMDR...nothing else as I was frantically trying to save my ship and haven't ever had to file a report prior to this.

 

[munz]

Might not have been cheating:
There's dumbfire missiles that cause the FSD to reboot.
A bi-weave shield with rapid recharge special is pretty effective.
Although if it was prismatic then it could be a size 5 shield on the cutter with the legacy mod that allows it to be fitted to a cutter. The smaller shield recharging much faster. I have this mod on my trade cutter and still get 2k Shields with boosters.
What you describe seems plausible with very specific legacy and current engineering.

Maybe he's CMDR "with a very specific set of mods, he will find you and he will kill you" *insert Liam Neeson pic*

Thanks for clarifying CMDR, I remember reading up on said mod. Extremely effective if that is what it is. I guess the whole "I don't know what hit me" factor is what is somewhat unsettling. Is there any way to find out?

 

[Vorxian]

I know it's a long shot, but engage the commander in polite conversation, tell him (or her) that you're dazzled by the effectiveness of their kill boat, and to help you understand the synergy of modules that account for the effectiveness. If you're polite and light hearted you may get the answers you seek.

o7 commander.

 

[Ian Phillips]

Only customer support can really help you, if they investigate their records.

There is a possible alternative, there might be information in your log, but I don't know how you can access that.

 

[Flash_Baggins]

Thank you for the reply Flash_Baggins. If that's the case then I can accept that and I am happy for the thread to be closed (with apologies for taking up everyone's time)...however is there any way to confirm if that is what happened? I only know the time and name of the CMDR...nothing else as I was frantically trying to save my ship and haven't ever had to file a report prior to this.

Probably not unfortunately, but given the ability to build an outfit that works similar to what you described I should think it wasnt cheating. Underhanded certainly attacking in a much larger wing against you, but overall people who are cheating as far as I have come across usually just seem to have builds that dont seem to take any damage, or are more manoeuvrable than they should be etc.

 

[munz]

I know it's a long shot, but engage the commander in polite conversation, tell him (or her) that you're dazzled by the effectiveness of their kill boat, and to help you understand the synergy of modules that account for the effectiveness. If you're polite and light hearted you may get the answers you seek.

o7 commander.

Thanks Vorxian, I tried that while my shields were going down and enquired as to how they were able to reboot my FSD (I was quite shocked so typing as quickly as possible whilst trying to stay alive)...no response to my messages. After the first 2 or 3 messages I cried "foul play" hoping they would at least clarify what was going on and again no reply.

 

[iFred]

lol
rtfm?

 

[munz]

Probably not unfortunately, but given the ability to build an outfit that works similar to what you described I should think it wasnt cheating. Underhanded certainly attacking in a much larger wing against you, but overall people who are cheating as far as I have come across usually just seem to have builds that dont seem to take any damage, or are more manoeuvrable than they should be etc.

Underhanded I can also accept...it would bother me if it were anything else however from the general feedback to this thread it seems extremely unlikely that it was cheating. A short but succinct report (similar to multi-crew reports at the end of a session) would be nice and clear up any doubt.

Only customer support can really help you, if they investigate their records.

There is a possible alternative, there might be information in your log, but I don't know how you can access that.

Thanks Ian, hopefully they'll look into my report, considering it's the only one I have submitted since buying the game I hope they can clear it up.

 

[munz]

lol
rtfm?

Lol which version? [big grin] [haha]

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Actually there are two weapons that can do that; the aforementioned dumbfire missile engineering special and the Yuri Grom FSD interrupt missile.
They can actually be combined for a slightly longer effect too(a whole 2 secs!).

That said, there is supposed to be a 29 second cool-down that should apply to all attackers/sources, unless I'm mistaken.
If the wing was able to alternate and avoid the cooldown, then I think that's a bug.

Covas will tell you when you have the FSD malfunction, and it shows up on your HUD too: Frame Shift Cancelled: Drive Disabled.


https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/432014-Truesilver-s-Tests-No-7-FSD-Disruption-Missiles


You can see it in use at about 6:00 here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkmgrFet5ac

 

[iFred]

Lol which version? [big grin] [haha]

You´re Right Elite Dangerous is managed by hiding Information

 

[Nick Sticks]

Only customer support can really help you, if they investigate their records.

There is a possible alternative, there might be information in your log, but I don't know how you can access that.

The logs are usually stored here on PC:

C:\Users\<username>\Saved Games\Frontier Developments\Elite Dangerous

I'm not sure if the weapon used to destroy your ship will be in it but it's worth a look.

 

[munz]

Actually there are two weapons that can do that; the aforementioned dumbfire missile engineering special and the Yuri Grom FSD interrupt missile.
They can actually be combined for a slightly longer effect too(a whole 2 secs!).

That said, there is supposed to be a 29 second cool-down that should apply to all attackers/sources, unless I'm mistaken.
If the wing was able to alternate and avoid the cooldown, then I think that's a bug.

Covas will tell you when you have the FSD malfunction, and it shows up on your HUD too: Frame Shift Cancelled: Drive Disabled.


https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/432014-Truesilver-s-Tests-No-7-FSD-Disruption-Missiles


You can see it in use at about 6:00 here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkmgrFet5ac

Thank you Bob Lighthouse, iFred and Nick Sticks - There's still so much strategy I wasn't aware of about the game...so much for feeling secure in my tanked up Corvette lol

@Bob Lighthouse and anyone else who might have some feedback: Any ideas how I would go about countering said attack in the future or, at the very least an escape strategy? In this situation I was out gunned against 3 ships, out manoeuvred as I'm still practising how to play with FA off and against a Cutter that can effortlessly close the gap even with my 7A Thrusters/G5 Dirty Drives whilst being bombarded with FSD disabling missiles. My first thought was to add a point defence to cover my aft while escaping but that will do no good as my weapons must be stowed in order to engage the FSD. I already have a forward pointing point defence so should I fight for my life? In hindsight, I should have been able to take at least one of the smaller ships out but it all happened so fast I didn't even get a good look at the other two ships and was focusing on the Cutter.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Thank you Bob Lighthouse, iFred and Nick Sticks - There's still so much strategy I wasn't aware of about the game...so much for feeling secure in my tanked up Corvette lol

@Bob Lighthouse and anyone else who might have some feedback: Any ideas how I would go about countering said attack in the future or, at the very least an escape strategy? In this situation I was out gunned against 3 ships, out manoeuvred as I'm still practising how to play with FA off and against a Cutter that can effortlessly close the gap even with my 7A Thrusters/G5 Dirty Drives whilst being bombarded with FSD disabling missiles. My first thought was to add a point defence to cover my aft while escaping but that will do no good as my weapons must be stowed in order to engage the FSD. I already have a forward pointing point defence so should I fight for my life? In hindsight, I should have been able to take at least one of the smaller ships out but it all happened so fast I didn't even get a good look at the other two ships and was focusing on the Cutter.

Being outnumbered is always a dicey proposition.
The more experienced players I've asked generally suggest to take out the smaller quicker ships first.

Missiles are slow and both of those are dumbfires.
Pay attention to the missile alert and your scanner.
You should be able to outrun/evade them in many ships but to be fair, a Vette is kind of a sitting duck and a really big target.
PDTs can help but a good player will try to be close enough so the PDTs won't work.
Think about which slots you put them in too, they have a limited firing arc.
I use two on the back/top of my FGS and Vette, since both are kind of slow, lol...

You can actually shoot the missiles too, but maybe not in a Vette.

 

[Hossi]

Any ideas how I would go about countering said attack in the future or, at the very least an escape strategy?

Thats easy: High Wake.

Their tactic only worked beacause the cutter mass locked you, which increases fsd-boot time. If this time is long enough they can reset your fsd again with a missile.
High waking has no masslock, and the cooldown of the fsd-reset effect is to long to reset you twice.

 

[Bob Lighthouse]

Thats easy: High Wake.

Their tactic only worked beacause the cutter mass locked you, which increases fsd-boot time. If this time is long enough they can reset your fsd again with a missile.
High waking has no masslock, and the cooldown of the fsd-reset effect is to long to reset you twice.

Watch the Hazzmango vid I linked above.

 

[Hossi]

Watch the Hazzmango vid I linked above.

Yep, that video shows exactly what I was talking about. High waking breaks the fsd-reset-cycle.
It doesn't make you invinicible of course. But since op was in an engineered corvette and not a aspx, high waking would have saved him