Why their children go hungry ...

[M00ka]

Here is what happened: In a new location to do some Empire rank boosting so I only have my two Mission ships, a Python and an iCourier. Trolling through the Mission board, nothing really jumped out except a whole pile of courier and data type missions, perfect for the iCourier. Swapped ships, started stacking the missions and yep you guessed it, up popped a nice juicy fetch mission for 90T of Palladium paying just over 5M (5,249,817 Credits to be precise). It was of course rated Elite so I knew I would have a least one NPC Pirate trying to interdict me on the final leg of the mission.

Anyway, put that mission to one side, took off in the iCourier to complete the 9 courier missions I took. As soon as I left the station I got the 'Incoming Enemy Alert' message for the Palladium but didn't think too much as I wasn't going to touch any palladium whilst in the Courier. Actually forgot about that mission while doing the others, finally handed in the last one, and headed back to my new home. You guessed it, as soon as I appeared in my temporary home system the NPC listed appeared (Deadly Anaconda). I had 76ls to get to my station, with 40ls to go the interdiction started. Now I normally beat these with easy but for some reason I just could not shake this guy. He couldn't be beat and I couldn't beat him, twice I had all the red bars gone, twice something happened and I lost control. Eventually got sick and tired of the mini-game, submitted, took a few shots to the shields as I boosted away then low waked out. Within seconds of entering SC, he appeared again and the same thing would happen. This continued for a total of 4 interdictions, each time me getting closer to the station. Eventually I had a gutful and instead of boosting away turned and threw my very lightly armed Courier at this Anaconda. Luckily this time the local constabulary turned up and together we managed to destroy the guy (nice bounty and bonus for the mission when I get around to doing it later tonight lol).

The thing that got me as strange is why didn't the Anaconda recognise that I don't have any of the cargo the generated the mission and why did he say the same stupid lines every time he interdicted me "You're brave flying with all that cargo" line - even though I had no cargo, hell not even cargo racks on the ship. Only this I can think of is that the typical NPC pirate is brain dead or something, whatever they are they are not capable of a coherent thought

Oh for those that are already madly typing away saying I should have high waked out, all that would have done is start the entire process from the start again, it is a scripted process so a high wake would have just reset everything back to the beginning - the NPC interdicting me as soon as I enter the system.

 

[GeneralIdea1964]

I have it on the authority of a friend of mine who is in the police, that intelligence is not the strong suit of most criminals.

Obviously virtual AI criminals are worse!

 

[Nasc]

"How will I survive if you don't give me that" is an idea not limited to the game world..

 

[Viscera]

Possible answer: Are they actully npc recipient's of a wet work mission. They have a target, you, rather than a specific ship. The corny cargo lines are just a bluff to try and get you to pull over to make those kill shots easier.

 

[M00ka]

Possible answer: Are they actully npc recipient's of a wet work mission. They have a target, you, rather than a specific ship. The corny cargo lines are just a bluff to try and get you to pull over to make those kill shots easier.

I could live with that explanation - thank you.

What it has prompted me to test is if I am in that situation again, I will take out a combat specific ship, kill all four of the 'Enemy', then go back, swap ships and finish the mission in peace

 

[Dirtbird]

I thought that it was due to rampant credit inflation, a big mac combo at the local maccas in 3305 is probably 17000 credits.

 

[Iskariot]

Here is what happened: In a new location to do some Empire rank boosting so I only have my two Mission ships, a Python and an iCourier. Trolling through the Mission board, nothing really jumped out except a whole pile of courier and data type missions, perfect for the iCourier. Swapped ships, started stacking the missions and yep you guessed it, up popped a nice juicy fetch mission for 90T of Palladium paying just over 5M (5,249,817 Credits to be precise). It was of course rated Elite so I knew I would have a least one NPC Pirate trying to interdict me on the final leg of the mission.

Anyway, put that mission to one side, took off in the iCourier to complete the 9 courier missions I took. As soon as I left the station I got the 'Incoming Enemy Alert' message for the Palladium but didn't think too much as I wasn't going to touch any palladium whilst in the Courier. Actually forgot about that mission while doing the others, finally handed in the last one, and headed back to my new home. You guessed it, as soon as I appeared in my temporary home system the NPC listed appeared (Deadly Anaconda). I had 76ls to get to my station, with 40ls to go the interdiction started. Now I normally beat these with easy but for some reason I just could not shake this guy. He couldn't be beat and I couldn't beat him, twice I had all the red bars gone, twice something happened and I lost control. Eventually got sick and tired of the mini-game, submitted, took a few shots to the shields as I boosted away then low waked out. Within seconds of entering SC, he appeared again and the same thing would happen. This continued for a total of 4 interdictions, each time me getting closer to the station. Eventually I had a gutful and instead of boosting away turned and threw my very lightly armed Courier at this Anaconda. Luckily this time the local constabulary turned up and together we managed to destroy the guy (nice bounty and bonus for the mission when I get around to doing it later tonight lol).

The thing that got me as strange is why didn't the Anaconda recognise that I don't have any of the cargo the generated the mission and why did he say the same stupid lines every time he interdicted me "You're brave flying with all that cargo" line - even though I had no cargo, hell not even cargo racks on the ship. Only this I can think of is that the typical NPC pirate is brain dead or something, whatever they are they are not capable of a coherent thought

Oh for those that are already madly typing away saying I should have high waked out, all that would have done is start the entire process from the start again, it is a scripted process so a high wake would have just reset everything back to the beginning - the NPC interdicting me as soon as I enter the system.

FDev could considerably improve the experience if they made the script a bit smarter, but also the interdictions a bit less obligatory and more random. Why can't a single high ranked mission go without interdiction? It should be less predictable. Predictability causes boredom.

 

[Dr Seuss]

NPC's are like Gankers "You have all that cargo" is there way of saying "Your in Open Im giving you content"

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

…
Only this I can think of is that the typical NPC pirate is brain dead or something, whatever they are they are not capable of a coherent thought
…

They lost their capability of any thought - coherent or not - a while a go.

It's one of the most annoying bugs in the game for me currently. NPCs using completely wrong messages. And it's not just pirate NPCs, it's all NPCs.

Getting a follow up mission? You get the NPC-blurb for donation missions - doesn't matter what mission you did that triggered the follow up mission.
To be honest this can be quite hilarious - once got a notification from the mission giver that thanks to my donation they where able to produce 2t of bio waste.
Getting a NPC pirate (?) for a follow up mission - NPC talks something about abandoned.

The usual "wedding vows" "top liner" and "tasty cargo" chatter form NPCs is equally annoying, but easily ignored. But completely wrong text - that's just a sign of the extremely bad shape ED is in.
Long ago I was fascinated by all the small details ED had (even the missiles have nice textures - something almost nobody will ever see), but that time is long since gone. It's a shame.

What surprised me was the return of the slavery offers in 3.0 for passenger missions. Now some braindead NPCs are offering me 100.000 cr for passengers who pay me 5.000.000 cr for my services.

 

[Old Duck]

"Why their children go hungry" - every time I see this line, I respond with "Just sell your fancy ship and you'll eat for a lifetime!"

 

[IndigoWyrd]

The thing that got me as strange is why didn't the Anaconda recognise that I don't have any of the cargo the generated the mission and why did he say the same stupid lines every time he interdicted me "You're brave flying with all that cargo" line - even though I had no cargo, hell not even cargo racks on the ship. Only this I can think of is that the typical NPC pirate is brain dead or something, whatever they are they are not capable of a coherent thought

The mission generated the contact, not the cargo. Way back when, when I use to do missions, I figured this out early on, and would take on these kinds of missions in my best warship, with it's whopping 2t of cargo, just so I could take the missions, then I'd fly around for a while, attracting all the NPC Pirate Scum I could and promptly take them out, then switch to a freighter and haul in peace.

It's just a function of how these kinds of missions are designed - it's not that great of a design, but it works.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

"Why their children go hungry" - every time I see this line, I respond with "Just sell your fancy ship and you'll eat for a lifetime!"

My response has always been: "They'll be orphans in the morning." - right before I light up their fancy ships with a volley of plasma.

 

[zimms]

I assume the kids go hungry voluntarily. No matter how often their parents repeat it, biowaste isn't tasty!

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I assume the kids go hungry voluntarily. No matter how often their parents repeat it, biowaste isn't tasty!

Have you actually tried biowaste? People probably say the same thing about scorpion-on-a-stick, but a quarter trillion Southeast Asians disagree....

 

[Demascus]

Let them starve, you can always make more children.

 

[Fenwe]

I could live with that explanation - thank you.

What it has prompted me to test is if I am in that situation again, I will take out a combat specific ship, kill all four of the 'Enemy', then go back, swap ships and finish the mission in peace

This actually works.

 

[SciTrekker]

I could live with that explanation - thank you.

What it has prompted me to test is if I am in that situation again, I will take out a combat specific ship, kill all four of the 'Enemy', then go back, swap ships and finish the mission in peace

Or use the Python for all but Kill missions. Or change out a Utility for a Heat Sink and an Optional for a SCB and do those too. Win-Win-Kill-Kill

 

[rrobes]

They say "You scratched my paint" when they're at 0% hull and blowing up or "You fight good" under the same circumstances.

They should be screaming for mercy or just screaming as they get blown out to nothingness.

I don't get the cartoonish dialogue. This has come up before long ago, FD is silent on this. However, they did change the NPC naming conventions which does help.

 

[M00ka]

They say "You scratched my paint" when they're at 0% hull and blowing up or "You fight good" under the same circumstances.

They should be screaming for mercy or just screaming as they get blown out to nothingness.

I don't get the cartoonish dialogue. This has come up before long ago, FD is silent on this. However, they did change the NPC naming conventions which does help.

The ones that get me is when an NPC will scan me then abuse me for not having a ship full of gold when I am in the middle of a fight in a Res. I just think, take a number bozo, I will get to you when I finish this one off .....

Just once I would like to see an NPC say "Don't worry this scan won't take lo... oh sorry Sir, I didn't realise you were taking on that Elite Anaconda by yourself and have it down to zero shields and 45% hull. Umm I will leave you in peace, apologies if I offended ....."

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

You accepted both a cargo mission and some data missions. How is the informant who gets a piece of the pirates action suppose to know that you switched ships and postponed the cargo till another time.