The intercept attack phase is only run when enabled in the configuration (AllowInterceptAttack). During intercept attack, ships which reach their intercept target attack their target. A ship must fulfill all of the following conditions to be considered for intercept attack:

  1. The ship must have a valid Intercept mission.
  2. The ship must have a cloaking device. ► Note: Only cloak-capable ships can do Intercept Attack. The ship will not - and in fact, can not - cloak during the intercept (the common habit of calling this function "cloak intercept" is therefore highly misleading).
  3. The ship must have fuel. Ships without fuel cannot attack.
  4. The ship must have a primary enemy setting which matches the intercept target, either directly or via the enemies setting.
  5. The ship must not have offered a combat level alliance to the target. Friendly codes must not match.

The intercept target must satisfy these conditions so you can attack it:

  1. The target must have fuel. Ships without fuel cannot be attacked.
  2. The target must not be cloaked. Cloaked ships cannot be attacked.

Interceptors are processed in the correct Order of Battle. When two ships intercept the same target, the one with the lower battle order value attacks first.

(3.4b) In PHost 3.4a and below, as well as in HOST, intercept attack does not honor battle order. Instead, ships fight in order of decreasing interceptor Id.

► Note: Remember that Intercept Attack is only available for cloak-capable ships. Most ships cannot do Intercept Attack.