Solo Mode / Private Group Will Kill This Game-THE END?

[James J. Jameson]

It doesn't work like that; it's not a traditional client/server architecture with a central server.

We all log into "matchmaker" servers that feed the background stuff like Galnet news and economy data, but the main connection between players is P2P, directly between player computers. If that connection is healthy enough (low enough lag, high enough router throughput, no ISP throttling), then two or more players see each other, up to the shared instance limit of 32 players.

In essence, this system is basically "all or nothing" for combat advantage between players. If the matchmaker servers decide there is too much lag or other connection problems, they simply won't co-locate players in the same instance. If you can see another player at all, the P2P connection should be healthy enough for low-lag and high frame rate combat.

The laws of physics and the network architecture still mean that players in Australia may have trouble getting into combat with players in the UK, but they should have no trouble playing with other Australians. In theory, at least. The network systems is still a work in progress.

Thank you for laying that our for me, that is what I understood, that it SHOULD WORK THIS WAY, and if it isnt, then give it time.

 

[eeps]

Lol, calm down friend, nobody said that it wasnt real, I just asked if you knew then first hand or not.
I just feel if that the problem, rubberbanding, then that a different issue. Also I know this is a game issue, being a game designer myself. Although again, it has nothing to due with this issue or acceptable solution to the OP concern.

Lol, ok, thought you were revving up your troll engine ..

Its not something that can be easily addressed (unless a game server is installed locally in Oceania as mentioned above - it aint gunna happen) and is no ones 'fault' per se.
But it can and does affect pvp interaction (in any game) and is not a level playing field. For that reason I'm tipping many Aussies prefer trading or closed groups to avoid this (although still happens with npc's) many Australians have crashed their ship simply exiting a station .. moving toward the letterbox .. moving .. approaching exit .. passing thru opening .. wall wall wall .. crash... rage .. lol. Heard it too many times, it just is what it is.

The laws of physics and the network architecture still mean that players in Australia may have trouble getting into combat with players in the UK, but they should have no trouble playing with other Australians. In theory, at least. The network systems is still a work in progress.

P2P, yes, agree .. but lemme tell you its not great. Rubber banding still occurs in private groups, on same server, with only 2 people in the group. SO yep, in theory, but not always in reality. Anyways, sorry for thread hijack

 

[Jarek Storm]

P2P will never work perfectly because connections and bandwidth are dynamic and changeable from moment to moment.

You may get peered with a great ping and bandwidth one minute, then have tons of latency the next.

 

[James J. Jameson]

In order for there to be an acceptable solution there needs to be a problem to be solved, which there isnt.

Acutally I think being able to duck people by logging of and back on to solo is kinda a problem for me, but then again I know it's not finished, so tell I see something official saying that this is the end result and it will always be like this then I think it's reasonable to say it's a issue that some players want solved.

There is zero evidence that people play solo, farm credits and move to open anyway (other than the troll types who say they will do that to prove a point that it should be changed). Theres no point, its as easy to do that in open safely. Solo players, play solo and (as FD stated) aren't part of the equation. Some open players need or like to play solo occasionally.

I would ask though, if there are no pirates in open because there are no traders, and therefore assuming no BH either, what is everone doing?

Well tell I figured out I can do the same thing on Solo play, Yes I will be playing solo to get credits then go over to open when im done trading and have enough cash to fight and pirate, then as soon as im low on cash it's back to solo for me. I'm not sayign this to troll, im saying this because giving the current game mechanics it's the SMART thing to do if you like to get trading done without hiccups.
The no pirates and no traders comment, I would say most of them don't know you can switch, atleast the new guys who havent been keeping up with the game. When i saw the choice between open and solo I would have never dreamed in a million years that they would both share the same ships/credits. Or why would I struggle at first and get robbed when their is not need to get robbed. And yes I got robbed by players a few times. So yea there is people flying around, but most have really nice ships and much bigger then mine. Granted I can win a few of them due to bad pilots, it still made me wonder why i didnt see many smaller ships, and then when i got on the forums, i now see why.

So having said that, it may not be a bad thing I guess, if it's used to help new players get off the ground and into better equipment. Kinda leaves the end game to Pvp also... maybe it's a good way to not get newb farmed...I'm starting to see some advantages...just seems kinda experience breaking to me though..but hey ill see how it plays out

 

[Majer]

what is everone doing?

Nothing. Nothing noticable. Some went exploring just to return and get money. Some grind trading/killing NPC's.

Tell me my friend. What actually happen in game already? I mean. Despite that meaningless internal war in very few systems which was mostly fought between BOTS. What did players achieve? OK few found Voyager space probe I'll give you that. Plenty killed generic General Randomname in his Anaconda which has no impact on anything whatsoever. No real impact on economy. Well actually nothing happend. No alliances have formed. No famous pirates have risen. Nothing had been built and nothing will be. Game which is focused on unit makes it remain anonymous as game remains pointless. Some will get Elite status on their window screens. Is that point of the game? To get some statistics? I thought this game is about experiencing things, not getting them.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

I'm grinding my firewall rules to have them hotkeyed in addition to my sig before I go Open for any significant period of time.

I understand your thinly veiled troll post (and Sig), what I dont understand is why you think simulating solo mode in the open play environment makes a statement. Surely its far less hassle to click solo than cofigure your router to block p2p traffic and kill the process if / when you see anyone (which you won't). What is your point? Genuinely interested.

Nothing. Nothing noticable. Some went exploring just to return and get money. Some grind trading/killing NPC's.

Tell me my friend. What actually happen in game already? I mean. Despite that meaningless internal war in very few systems which was mostly fought between BOTS. What did players achieve? OK few found Voyager space probe I'll give you that. Plenty killed generic General Randomname in his Anaconda which has no impact on anything whatsoever. No real impact on economy. Well actually nothing happend. No alliances have formed. No famous pirates have risen. Nothing had been built and nothing will be. Game which is focused on unit makes it remain anonymous as game remains pointless.

I can only speak for myself, but ive been almost exclusively trading in around a 200ly area from eranin, ive not done anything with the story at all. Game hasnt been out 2 weeks yet, one of which was Xmas!.

 

[Tempered]

I think a large asteroid the size of Manhattan will kill ED. Or maybe global warming and sea level rise.

 

[James J. Jameson]

Nothing. Nothing noticable. Some went exploring just to return and get money. Some grind trading/killing NPC's.

Tell me my friend. What actually happen in game already? I mean. Despite that meaningless internal war in very few systems which was mostly fought between BOTS. What did players achieve? OK few found Voyager space probe I'll give you that. Plenty killed generic General Randomname in his Anaconda which has no impact on anything whatsoever. No real impact on economy. Well actually nothing happend. No alliances have formed. No famous pirates have risen. Nothing had been built and nothing will be. Game which is focused on unit makes it remain anonymous as game remains pointless. Some will get Elite status on their window screens. Is that point of the game? To get some statistics? I thought this game is about experiencing things, not getting them.

Ouch, thats a really good point...

 

[Dabba]

Ouch, thats a really good point...

Indeed. Commander Shepard isn't swooping down to pick you up so you guys can save the galaxy and be the big heroes. This isn't that kind of game. You are a speck of dust in a vast galaxy.

To me the point of the game is flying around in my current choice of spaceship and doing the things I decide to do. Doing some trading today, might do some bounty hunting tonight, might go exploring tomorrow, look for a black hole, or an earth type inside a nebula, maybe a fast spinning neutron. Its all out there to be found and experienced, you just have to decide to do it.

 

[kurush]

I understand your thinly veiled troll post (and Sig), what I dont understand is why you think simulating solo mode in the open play environment makes a statement. Surely its far less hassle to click solo than cofigure your router to block p2p traffic and kill the process if / when you see anyone (which you won't). What is your point? Genuinely interested.

I am only genuinely interested in solo play, offline preferably Now, after pledging to the game on kickstarter I got an unusual and unexpected bonus considering how many PvPers are crying here that the game isn't working as they expected. So, I basically just trying to put some gasoline into the flame, otherwise playing solo I am that kind of person you would find botting in a warzone in other MMO, anything bad for the PvP crowd makes me happy. They squeal so loudly when displeased
And the firewall configuration can make things even more interesting to the PvP crowd, if hotkeyed. There would be no way in hell for Frontier or anybody else to tell what happened. Server DCs can be tracked and somehow punished, p2p dc - very unlikely.

 

[James J. Jameson]

Indeed. Commander Shepard isn't swooping down to pick you up so you guys can save the galaxy and be the big heroes. This isn't that kind of game. You are a speck of dust in a vast galaxy.

To me the point of the game is flying around in my current choice of spaceship and doing the things I decide to do. Doing some trading today, might do some bounty hunting tonight, might go exploring tomorrow, look for a black hole, or an earth type inside a nebula, maybe a fast spinning neutron. Its all out there to be found and experienced, you just have to decide to do it.

Im trying to make sense of what your saying, I just don't see how your comment is meant to make me understand anything except that you don't understand. Yes you can do what you want to do, with almost no risk what so ever then, when your credits are big enough, jump in with the people who have been actually taking risks..hmm. yeah i don't get it.

 

[Jonney Napalm]

Not really. The journey is the destination in Elite. It doesn't matter what you or anyone else has. PvP is a quite niche interest in Elite: Dangerous.

+1 Rep given. This game is truly about the journey, not the destination.

 

[{SAS}Stalker]

I am only genuinely interested in solo play, offline preferably Now, after pledging to the game on kickstarter I got an unusual and unexpected bonus considering how many PvPers are crying here that the game isn't working as they expected. So, I basically just trying to put some gasoline into the flame, otherwise playing solo I am that kind of person you would find botting in a warzone in other MMO, anything bad for the PvP crowd makes me happy. They squeal so loudly when displeased
And the firewall configuration can make things even more interesting to the PvP crowd, if hotkeyed. There would be no way in hell for Frontier or anybody else to tell what happened. Server DCs can be tracked and somehow punished, p2p dc - very unlikely.

Ok well you kind of sound like you know what youre doing, and also nutts. As you were.

Im trying to make sense of what your saying, I just don't see how your comment is meant to make me understand anything except that you don't understand. Yes you can do what you want to do, with almost no risk what so ever then, when your credits are big enough, jump in with the people who have been actually taking risks..hmm. yeah i don't get it.

There is no more risk in open than solo unless you want risk. You can play open 100% isolated. Open is not a spamfest of death, you can go days, weeks without seeing a single human player.

 

[eeps]

There is no more risk in open than solo unless you want risk. You can play open 100% isolated. Open is not a spamfest of death, you can go days, weeks without seeing a single human player.

Not entirely risk free, but your point is valid. I average about 2 players per week, maybe thats just where Im hanging out tho..

 

[kaivalagi]

Maybe what's needed is a combat sandbox mode modeled on several systems only with the ability to start using a fighter, bomber with your choice of weapons, that has no impact on the galaxy economics, where pvp'ers can do there own thing defending and attacking capital base ships and be happy!

hen the rest of us can play in open and be happy too with the lack of griefers in busy areas....

 

[Fallout300]

Yes I propose all cheese consumption be banned whilst playing Elite.

But what if you had a 10 year old bottle of port and a nice Stilton, could we still play? Please!

 

[LtCasey]

Why should solo/group play kill E?

 

[Lanatir]

Poll not showing the result you expected, huh, OP?

 

[TheEponymousBob]

Well tell I figured out I can do the same thing on Solo play, Yes I will be playing solo to get credits then go over to open when im done trading and have enough cash to fight and pirate, then as soon as im low on cash it's back to solo for me.

If that's what you want to do, go ahead. But you're wasting your time—any earnings you can make in solo you can get just as easily in open.

I'm not sayign this to troll, im saying this because giving the current game mechanics it's the SMART thing to do if you like to get trading done without hiccups.

Nope, just seems that way if you spend your time thinking about hypotheticals. Play the game more, and you'll see there is negligible difference.

So yea there is people flying around, but most have really nice ships and much bigger then mine. Granted I can win a few of them due to bad pilots, it still made me wonder why i didnt see many smaller ships, and then when i got on the forums, i now see why.

I still see lots of Eagles and Sidewinders myself. Either way, there's no reason to suspect those with tricked out ships bought them with credits from solo. I have mine through open play only.

Yes you can do what you want to do, with almost no risk what so ever then, when your credits are big enough, jump in with the people who have been actually taking risks..hmm. yeah i don't get it.

Solo isn't without risk, and open only isn't noticeably riskier if you don't want it to be.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

I wouldn't know how Private Groups or Solo play could hurt the game.

The only caviat I still see is the ability to flip-flop rather seemingless between Solo and Open Play with all Player assets. Never quite understood what this was about, as I naturally assumed Solo Play would be with a different CMDR and entirely sepearate in terms of assets/career.
But even with that Option, I don't feel like we'd ever have ten thousands of Players actually Quitting to Menu, log back into another mode - and back and forth.

When it comes to Groups - just see how difficult it is to even find folks for your friends list. Of the many many thousand CMDRs I've seen in Stations or Systems, I only ever got 2 in my list - and haven't seen any of them online again (so I actually removed one already, assuming that guy stopped playing alltogether).

If Options exist for some people to use - let them.

I'm not aware of any Option for others that could harm a normal Player, let alone endanger the entire Game (??)