If the developers are trying to create an immersive experience of being a starship commander, why do we need the immersion breaking feature of representing NPC and Players differently in the game world? It serves no benefit what so ever to the majority of players but does serve to benefit one small subset of players, the PKers. Now if Elite was designed primarily as a PvP game with low death penalty costs, this would make sense, but it was not; it was designed as a multi-player game with allowed PvP.
This is one of the primary reasons why open play is just a big draw for PK focused players and why many of us why welcome the risk of PvP choose to instead just avoid open play. We accept that we could become the victim of a bit of random violence, but do not want to fly around space with huge targets on or backs. Please don't get me wrong, in no way do I want to restrict the chosen play styles for those who with to just watch the world burn. That is entirely their choice. I just don't want to stand out. Its no different then forcing any group of people in the real world to openly display their differences, thus making them easy targets for those wishing to do them harm.
The solution to this inequality could be resolved in three steps, two of which should have a low dev cost. Step one would be to replace the open icon representing players with the closed icons of NPCs. Step two would be to either remove CMDR form player pilot names or add it to NPC pilot names. After All we are all part of the same Pilots Federation. The final step would be to increase NPC traffic around stations. An additional step which would have a higher dev cost would be to add all local NPCs to the local comms screen.
It would still be possible for a player to tell the difference between an NPC and Player by bringing up the comm screen and looking at the interaction options as we can't currently open comms with NPC but it would now require a little effort to single out players from NPCs. This in itself would reduce the risk of random or targeted aggression that players face in Open Play enough, to bring many players currently playing in Private Groups or Solo, back to Open Play. I don't have a problem running a blockade to bring goods to market, but I do want even odds, just like every other in game entity.
This is one of the primary reasons why open play is just a big draw for PK focused players and why many of us why welcome the risk of PvP choose to instead just avoid open play. We accept that we could become the victim of a bit of random violence, but do not want to fly around space with huge targets on or backs. Please don't get me wrong, in no way do I want to restrict the chosen play styles for those who with to just watch the world burn. That is entirely their choice. I just don't want to stand out. Its no different then forcing any group of people in the real world to openly display their differences, thus making them easy targets for those wishing to do them harm.
The solution to this inequality could be resolved in three steps, two of which should have a low dev cost. Step one would be to replace the open icon representing players with the closed icons of NPCs. Step two would be to either remove CMDR form player pilot names or add it to NPC pilot names. After All we are all part of the same Pilots Federation. The final step would be to increase NPC traffic around stations. An additional step which would have a higher dev cost would be to add all local NPCs to the local comms screen.
It would still be possible for a player to tell the difference between an NPC and Player by bringing up the comm screen and looking at the interaction options as we can't currently open comms with NPC but it would now require a little effort to single out players from NPCs. This in itself would reduce the risk of random or targeted aggression that players face in Open Play enough, to bring many players currently playing in Private Groups or Solo, back to Open Play. I don't have a problem running a blockade to bring goods to market, but I do want even odds, just like every other in game entity.
J/K ). We can't allow players to turn on and off their player markers at will otherwise it would allow them to hide as an NPC until they want to pounce and if you think it's a NPC near you then you're likely to be more relaxed than a PC. There's already "stealth" in the game for this purpose and the appropriate use of stealth takes some skill and patience to balance heat appropriately.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
