Kill stealing + PvP discouraging open play?

[skypine27]

I'm just starting out. Like many of us, I was not in the beta so have only been playing 5 days now.

Im up to a Viper, and normally I've been camping at a Nav beacon in a close by Anarchy system, scanning all non-player ships and if they have a bounty, attacking them.

Problem is, if I am in Open Play during popular times, there can be quite a few human players at the same nav point doing the same thing. And none of them are helpful.

Example this morning:
Widely down a Python with a 100K bounty down to 7% hull. Took nearly 30 minutes. A player in a Cobra MKII rolls in behind me, lights me up down to critical hull integrity in one pass. I have to peel off the 100K python, and watch him blow it up, and collect the bounty of course, as he then turns to finish me off. Poof. Im dead and lost the 30K in un paid bounties I was carrying around too.

So why would I play open play anymore? I can play solo or group game (with friends who obviously don't attack each other) and would have collected that 100K bounty instead of getting a 15K repair bill and losing my 30K in uncollected bounty.

Don't get me wrong, i think this is a great "game" (Im old enough to have played the originals back in '386 days...). But to me, it really discourages Open World play.

Anyone else feel this way?

 

[blacky75]

yep, to avoid that no option; solo game

 

[Zplintz]

Go solo or join a pve group.

 

[Sptz]

Welcome to Ev... Oops, wrong forum.

Jokes aside, yeah. You you don't want to deal with this kind of people, go solo.

 

[noodle]

It's a very big galaxy. If you're not having fun in systems that are populated by a lot of players, then move on. I've not had a single hostile or annoying encounter with another player since the start of gamma.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

What's with all the "go solo" evangelism? No need for it. Just head to less heavily populated systems. All the fun of human interaction without the grief.

 

[Kernel Kwatz!]

I've just come to accept that such a dynamic is an inevitable consequence of a multiplayer game. Overall I think that a multiplayer potentially offers a far richer experience than a single player game.

Besides all this it's easy to find your own little spot in ED away from other players.

 

[Renegade Roach]

Get out of those busy systems, why are you even trying to hunt there? Even around the busier core systems it only take a few jumps to find somewhere nice and quiet where you won't see a player for hours, if at all.

Jerks who act like the guy you encountered, by their nature, will congregate in busy systems with lots of newer players... it's what they are looking for. Use some initiative, head out and find yourself a cushy little place to base. I'm in a nice cozy anarchy which sees about 30 players a day. It's a couple of jumps from one of the best High Tech markets I've found thus far, has a station close to the main star, good high security and high population systems nearby for pirating npc traders and so on. It's really not hard to find these places

 

[HPB256]

An excellent example of the risk/reward of bounty hunting in an anarchy system!

Surely this has fired you up to build a stronger ship so you can fight a real player for a challenge instead of the NPCs?

Well that's how I've looked upon these situations as the AI is too easy after upgrading a ship (I'm in an A class Viper).

Do you have any shield cells? A must for bounty hunting as they allow your shield to be quickly charged allowing you to escape/continue the fight.

Other suggestion would be to draw the fight away from the main nav beacon entry point so less chance of being spotted by another player.

 

[Araviel]

there is currently a group of alpha backers that is trying everything they can to ruin other peoples fun in open play because they are angry that FD scrapped offline mode.
don't let those people win, just move away to a less busy system

 

[Zhang]

I'm just starting out. Like many of us, I was not in the beta so have only been playing 5 days now.

Im up to a Viper, and normally I've been camping at a Nav beacon in a close by Anarchy system, scanning all non-player ships and if they have a bounty, attacking them.

Problem is, if I am in Open Play during popular times, there can be quite a few human players at the same nav point doing the same thing. And none of them are helpful.

Example this morning:
Widely down a Python with a 100K bounty down to 7% hull. Took nearly 30 minutes. A player in a Cobra MKII rolls in behind me, lights me up down to critical hull integrity in one pass. I have to peel off the 100K python, and watch him blow it up, and collect the bounty of course, as he then turns to finish me off. Poof. Im dead and lost the 30K in un paid bounties I was carrying around too.

So why would I play open play anymore? I can play solo or group game (with friends who obviously don't attack each other) and would have collected that 100K bounty instead of getting a 15K repair bill and losing my 30K in uncollected bounty.

Don't get me wrong, i think this is a great "game" (Im old enough to have played the originals back in '386 days...). But to me, it really discourages Open World play.

Anyone else feel this way?

No. I don't see the problem. What do you want? More hand holding from FD? They've dumbed down the game beyond belief already.

 

[Adept]

OP. The design goals as outlined by David Braben are very different. We are still waiting for them to implement _harsh_ penalties for that kind of behaviour. The "last hit gets the bounty" mechanic seems to be the darling of the devs, but it's hella stupid IMO.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

there is currently a group of alpha backers that is trying everything they can to ruin other peoples fun in open play because they are angry that FD scrapped offline mode.
don't let those people win, just move away to a less busy system

Alpha backers? Really? Can you PM me a few names. There are not that many alpha backers, and I'd be very interested in hearing who among us is behaving like that

 

[Ethurian]

Some of my favorite encounters against hostile players have been in those very situations. I don't fire upon a player in a Nav Beacon unless they attack me, or make too many unfriendly gestures. I had a viper - "soft ram" me today. Once he realized I wasn't playing nice and followed him with my guns trained on him for a few minutes he eased away. I wasn't sure what his intention was, nor did I want to kill him if it was a harmless mistake, but his flying indicated otherwise to me. But he wisely thought better of it, and he gave me plenty of space there-after.

This is why I play Open Play, for a more thrilling, dangerous and lively experience that Solo play can't offer.

 

[Jackboot]

PVP is by far the most exciting and challenging part of this game. It is also the most dangerous. I'm kind of jealous of the experience you had, I bet it was exciting while it was happening.

I work almost exclusively out of an Anarchy system with a nav beacon I hunt at, when I'm not running empire rep missions in the system next door, but I hardly ever encounter anyone.

If you are looking to make this kind of thing less frequent, instead of running away to solo play, you could just find a system with a lot less traffic. You can see how popular a system is at the local station in the traffic report.

There are 400 billion stars out there after all, you should be able to find a home to suit your needs somewhere.

 

[bitstorm]

there is currently a group of alpha backers that is trying everything they can to ruin other peoples fun in open play because they are angry that FD scrapped offline mode.
don't let those people win, just move away to a less busy system

Is this true? How do you know?

I wondered if this might happen during the offline kerfuffle, while I empathise with those genuinely backing for offline some of the "offline crowd" seemed really quite bitter people and the type to hold a grudge [aka not nice people].

 

[Lobstris]

there is currently a group of alpha backers that is trying everything they can to ruin other peoples fun in open play because they are angry that FD scrapped offline mode.
don't let those people win, just move away to a less busy system

As an Alpha backer who was very annoyed that the offline mode was scrapped, I'd be very disappointed if this was the case. I would hope that most Alpha backers would want Elite to succeed in whatever form it appeared, because... well... it's Elite. If people are having problems with other players, it is a big galaxy out there... move?

 

[Adept]

Is this true? How do you know?

I wondered if this might happen during the offline kerfuffle, while I empathise with those genuinely backing for offline some of the "offline crowd" seemed really quite bitter people and the type to hold a grudge [aka not nice people].

Frontier have shown they are collecting _lots_ of metrics on us. I hope any bitter griefer like that will get sent to bansville rather quickly. If the hellbanning group is ready, then just put them there to grief each other.

 

[Tigga]

If you're in an anarchy system then don't complain about PvP. Much safer in a system with laws, as then they'll pick up a big bounty. It's easy enough to avoid - play solo or go a couple of hundred LY away from the starting sector. Even if we assume everybody stays in-plane (I don't think many go up and down), going 200LY away you'll see a quarter of the amount of players you'll see 100LY away, and you won't see many 100 LY away.

Said as somebody who has a few player kills from anarchy nav points doing almost exactly that. Letting somebody do the work, killing him, killing the target. I wouldn't do it in non-anarchy because I don't want a bounty, but anarchy systems... are anarchic. I really don't think there's a problem here.

Same goes for PvP in general actually. I go soft on people in sidewinders, especially if they look stock, but other than that, if the best way for me to make money is by corpsifying you, I'll corpsify you.

 

[speighty]

Only one way to deal with people like this ........ take his name and kill him first next time.
I already have a list of 'unsavoury' characters to watch for.

Its a tough lesson, but welcome to the diverse world of Elite.


To the person who reckons there are a 'group of Alpha backers' spreading mayhem in the Elite.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

As an Alpha backer who was very annoyed that the offline mode was scrapped, I'd be very disappointed if this was the case. I would hope that most Alpha backers would want Elite to succeed in whatever form it appeared, because... well... it's Elite. If people are having problems with other players, it is a big galaxy out there... move?

I think it'd be a great idea.

A group of disgruntled players, causing mayhem and anarchy.... OMG it'd be a like a group of pirates and anarchists!!!
People can choose to play the game as they wish....

 

[Araviel]

Is this true? How do you know?

that its an organized effort i only know from third party, but to me it sounds quite founded and its getting quite obvious when you see groups of anacondas ramming sidewinders on purpose at the docks in the starting systems. i heard on TS that they were in chemaku just 30 minutes ago

 

[bitstorm]

Yeah but is it actually happening? How does the poster know?