Dear Mr. Braben,
First of all, I'd like to thank you for making such an amazing game. I've been waiting for a game like this for a long time, and now thanks to Elite Dangerous that wait is finally over.
I'll do my best to keep this letter as short as possible, as I don't want to take much of your time.
The reason I'm writting this, is because I'm worried about the path the community of the game is taking.
This is a new game, so the community is also new. Right now we have many reports of gratuitous violence, both inside and outside the game (both cases are important since it's the same community after all). And this is only getting worst. Right now it's the time to do something. This is a new community, it's starting to grow... and how it ends up is mostly up to you. This is the time to plant the seeds for a healthy community, before it's too late (see what happened to EVE Online). We need rules, and we need some way to enforce those rules. Right now the security in all systems is virtually non-existant. Maybe a few small system security ships in RES or around the stations, but that's about it. And getting away from those ships is too easy. So the only thing an outlaw has to do is to supercruise to the nearest station and throw some change to pay for his bounty... and that's it. He's free to do whatever he wants, wherever he wants, to anyone he wants once again.
Besides that, we have a divided community. Splitted between Solo, Groups and Open play. So we are practically going from one extreme to the other... either we play alone or in a small group, or we get ganked anywhere and anytime just because "It's open". That doesn't feel right to me. We need safe areas in Open play for people who want's to play PvE cooperatively with others but is not interested in PvP. We need better security. We need sensible consequences for all actions. And we need all of those things now; this is the time to make those changes since the community is just starting to grow. Later it will be too late.
As an example: Just yesterday I was hunting pirates in a RES. I was alone for about an hour, but then a wing of three came, all of them clean. But after a few minutes all of them started to shoot at me at the same time, for no reason at all. It was a lose-lose situation. I had to escape to avoid loosing my ship, and they had to escape too because they were wanted now, and the system security ships started to shoot at them. BUT for them getting back to an empty RES was easy. All they had to do was go to the nearest station, pay a few credits (a lot less than they get for killing a wanted Sidewinder) and go back to the RES. That's it.
Now let's put this in perspective. I was clean. I am a Viscount of the Empire. I was in a high tech Empire system. And even taking all that in account, this still feels like the far west. In my opinion something is missing here since these antisocial actions have no consequences at all.
Thank you very much for your time and again for making such a great game.
First of all, I'd like to thank you for making such an amazing game. I've been waiting for a game like this for a long time, and now thanks to Elite Dangerous that wait is finally over.
I'll do my best to keep this letter as short as possible, as I don't want to take much of your time.
The reason I'm writting this, is because I'm worried about the path the community of the game is taking.
This is a new game, so the community is also new. Right now we have many reports of gratuitous violence, both inside and outside the game (both cases are important since it's the same community after all). And this is only getting worst. Right now it's the time to do something. This is a new community, it's starting to grow... and how it ends up is mostly up to you. This is the time to plant the seeds for a healthy community, before it's too late (see what happened to EVE Online). We need rules, and we need some way to enforce those rules. Right now the security in all systems is virtually non-existant. Maybe a few small system security ships in RES or around the stations, but that's about it. And getting away from those ships is too easy. So the only thing an outlaw has to do is to supercruise to the nearest station and throw some change to pay for his bounty... and that's it. He's free to do whatever he wants, wherever he wants, to anyone he wants once again.
Besides that, we have a divided community. Splitted between Solo, Groups and Open play. So we are practically going from one extreme to the other... either we play alone or in a small group, or we get ganked anywhere and anytime just because "It's open". That doesn't feel right to me. We need safe areas in Open play for people who want's to play PvE cooperatively with others but is not interested in PvP. We need better security. We need sensible consequences for all actions. And we need all of those things now; this is the time to make those changes since the community is just starting to grow. Later it will be too late.
As an example: Just yesterday I was hunting pirates in a RES. I was alone for about an hour, but then a wing of three came, all of them clean. But after a few minutes all of them started to shoot at me at the same time, for no reason at all. It was a lose-lose situation. I had to escape to avoid loosing my ship, and they had to escape too because they were wanted now, and the system security ships started to shoot at them. BUT for them getting back to an empty RES was easy. All they had to do was go to the nearest station, pay a few credits (a lot less than they get for killing a wanted Sidewinder) and go back to the RES. That's it.
Now let's put this in perspective. I was clean. I am a Viscount of the Empire. I was in a high tech Empire system. And even taking all that in account, this still feels like the far west. In my opinion something is missing here since these antisocial actions have no consequences at all.
Thank you very much for your time and again for making such a great game.
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