Tips for head hunting

[Hollis_Renatus]

So I went and got myself a wake scanner because I was tired of loosing out on bounties I bring down to 10% then decide to skip town. Used it the other day but the bounty was already half way across the system by the time I jumped after him. Eventually caught up in the next system but he disappeared near a station, saw his low wake signal. I figured he was probably headed to the station, though when I came out of SC I didn't see him. Went back into SC and he was no where to be found.

Anyone have tips on how to track these delinquents down? Maybe I didn't use the wake scanner right when he dropped out of SC.

 

[Cryptex]

Tracking actual players can be troublesome. Combat logging aside, there are multiple ways players can avoid being 'hunted' or tracked. Once you use them to avoid pirates, it works the same way to avoid bounty hunters. By this I mean things like jumping into supercruise after an interdiction and then dropping. Then the person hunting you likely wont see your wake because they are still jumping into supercruise. From there, the player can jump to another sector without you even knowing. So even if you are tracking someone, an experienced player will make use of this to simply disappear.

Wake scanners will only help you in tracking someone who jumps to another sector. Often times though, if the target is not jumping for long durations where they would need to pause to fuel scoop, you will have a hard time finding a chance to catch up and interdict them purely from wake scanning. So if you miss out on your target in that first run in, it is unlikely that you will be able to properly track them. Instancing and other issues prevent that. Plus if they combat log, they avoid you altogether.

Unless you get lucky with a wake scanner and they jump directly to another system without performing a double drop, and then you quickly follow them, AND the station is several LS out, then you will be unlikely to manage a second interdiction. It's all a manor of speed on your part, and whether or not your opponent knows how to take advantage of the game's mechanics.. or simply combat logs.