Upgraded FSD Interdictor (Experimental effect) - “Tractor Lock Stabilizer” — Quality of Life Upgrade for Piracy

[0bSol33t]

I have thought about this long and hard. I am NOT trying to encourage ganking or grieving, but there is a HUGE Pain when it comes to Piracy, even for PvE. And I could lay out a LIST of challenges, ship expectations, skill level required, and problems with the Black Market.... Please hear this out, and add comments for a simple Quality of Life Improvement.

Feature Title:

Add a "Tractor Lock" effect to the FSD Interdictor (or a new variant), to stabilize spinning, engine-disabled ships for better piracy and cargo recovery.

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Background & Problem:​

In Elite Dangerous, Piracy is one of the most difficult and under-supported roles in the game:

• It requires a highly specialized multi-role ship loadout: interdiction, wake scanning, manifest scanning, hatch breaker, collector limpets, module-targeting weapons, and strong thrusters.
• A skilled player must disable key modules (FSD, Thrusters) without destroying the hull.
• But even after all that work... the hardest part comes after successfully disabling a ship:

The ship begins spinning wildly out of control, flinging its loot across kilometers of space, making clean recovery near impossible.

This is immersion-breaking, frustrating, and anti-rewarding.

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Suggested Solution: Add a “Tractor Lock” function to the FSD Interdictor​

• Add a secondary fire mode or passive effect to FSD Interdictors (or a new variant):
  • When a target's engines or thrusters are disabled within 3 km, the Interdictor can stabilize the target ship.
  • The ship stops spinning and begins drifting slowly, making loot recovery much more viable.
• This would simulate a tractor beam lock, consistent with the Interdictor’s ability to forcibly pull ships out of Supercruise.
• This avoids the need for:
  • A new module
  • Additional optional slot burden
  • Complicated interactions
  • A separate limpet system (which would take another slot)
    

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Why This Makes Sense:​

• The FSD Interdictor already manipulates ships in Supercruise, so adding a “gravity lock” on disabled ships is lore-friendly and intuitive.
• It rewards piracy skill with actual recoverable cargo, instead of losing half your loot to a spinning wreck.
• It could even encourage non-lethal piracy, increasing immersion and community RP.
  

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Optional Balancing Ideas:​

• Add a heat cost, power draw, or short duration cooldown.
• Make it available only to Advanced Interdictors or new engineered variant.
• Allow it to be manually toggled like Silent Running or FA-Off.

 

[Capt. Hook]

I think it all sounds fair and well argued; to be fair though the target should have the option to be able to deploy counter measures that negate the above. If the trader (target?\) chooses not to fit them on their build thats their call. Personally wouldn't mind an ion cannon that would call all sorts of shenanigans!

 

[metatheurgist]

Tractor limpets. Defense: PDT.

 

[aRJay]

I think it all sounds fair and well argued; to be fair though the target should have the option to be able to deploy counter measures that negate the above. If the trader (target?\) chooses not to fit them on their build thats their call. Personally wouldn't mind an ion cannon that would call all sorts of shenanigans!

I don’t know an Ion cannon sounds a bit Tie Fighter.

 

[rootsrat]

AI written content aside, this could work as an engineering modification, from G1 to G5 having a better stabilisation effect. (Rather than a passive extra functionality).

But only if the victim can have some counter for this, for example... Interdiction Disruptor!

 

[Screemonster]

I'd just have attached hatchbreakers (which you're using anyway for NPC piracy) expend the remainder of their fuel as counterthrust to stop the ship from spinning.

 

[0bSol33t]

Yeah, I want the idea to be fair....
I wasn't looking to make it exploitable, where someone could hold another person with a Tractor Beam, while a friend ganks them. Lets just keep it simple with the idea of the Engines have to be Disabled, and no Thrust, or if the Pirate tries, it cause ship / hull damage to them, as it tries to actively stop a moving object with propulsion. FDEV loves to use math and realistic calculations. They can even go so far as to have the MASS of a ship be a factor. Like, trying to stop a Disabled Anaconda, with a Sidewinder and tractor beam, would be harder and take longer, while the opposite could happen if the Pirating ship was far larger than the Trade ship.

BUT, lets think of this logically or even scientifically. If there is a module on a ship (the FSD Interdictor), that can PULL another ship out of Super Cruise while it is going multiple "c" light years in speed....I am pretty sure that same device should be able to stop a ship that already has its engines disabled.

to the idea of the Trade ship (or whomever) have a defense for it? Pretty sure, dropping their shields, destroying their FSD, and Disabling their Engines/Thrusters leaves them dead in the water (or space I guess). An NPC would be doomed to spin off into oblivion, while a Player would try and Reboot their Ship in order to gain thrust.

I think making an Experimental Effect on the current FSD Interdictor module would be the best and easiest solution.
We certainly don't need more to make new items, or take up more module slots for either ship IMHO.

 

[Nidoboros]

I don’t know an Ion cannon sounds a bit Tie Fighter.

Um, ackshually, the TIE Fighter uses normal lasers, the TIE  Defender has Ion weapons. /nerd voice

I'd just have attached hatchbreakers (which you're using anyway for NPC piracy) expend the remainder of their fuel as counterthrust to stop the ship from spinning.

Collector limpets feel like the better way to go (ignoring how all limpets are the same thing, honestly why they aren't ammo for the specific controller is beyond me), since they are basically the in-setting version of tractor beams.

Alternatively, go proper crazy space pirate with HARPOONS.

 

[0bSol33t]

Um, ackshually, the TIE Fighter uses normal lasers, the TIE  Defender has Ion weapons. /nerd voice


Collector limpets feel like the better way to go (ignoring how all limpets are the same thing, honestly why they aren't ammo for the specific controller is beyond me), since they are basically the in-setting version of tractor beams.

Alternatively, go proper crazy space pirate with HARPOONS.

I like the idea of using an 'existing' Limpet, but yeah, there are already WAY too many Limpets in the game to make us take up another module slot for.
and yeah....why is it that 1x Limpet takes up 1 TON of Cargo space, that is crazy.
I agree with your comment on use it like ammo, instead of cargo space!!!

HARPOONS....now, that would be pretty sick !
lol maybe a Community Goal reward

 

[Ashnak]

Agree with @rootsrat up there - if you add QoL for the attacker, this needs to beb balanced by something on the defender side. Although my first idea wasn't about some sort of interdiction breaker but instead a (passive?) sort of mine that could be employed against the attacker.
Like:

• if we postulate some sort of tractor beam, the beam gets a certain probability to latch onto a mine instead and pulls it from the target ship
• defensive limpets, similar to hatchbreakers, which would transport an explosive charge towards the target (targeting the cargo hatch?). Like hatchbreakers, avoidable through speed and/or PD, but somewhat disruptive to the attack
• camouflaged charges which would look like a cargo container on a scan, but instead deal some damage to the attacker when they're pulled in using a collector limpet or through the cargo hatch. Localised damage to the hatch maybe, so that after several of them you'll need to repair your hatch in case you got too greedy....