To this, I'd answer that the problem is the lack of consequences for criminal acts. And I'm afraid the crime update described last week might not be enough...
I don't disagree with this. I personally want to see the system become a little more robust. Crime in and of itself isn't a problem in my opinion. It is handled poorly in this game as far as multiplayer is concerned.
What you "like" or "dislike" is irrelevant. This is how the game was designed, made, advertised and sold - apart from DB knocking your door, then treating you like an idiot and using small words to describe ED to you. You only have yourself to blame for being part of a game you knew you would not like to start with.
That's quite brazen, and rather rude of you. It's statements like that that add to negative feelings on topics like this. This is an open forum meant for us to share our opinions. Telling someone their opinion is irrelevant because you don't agree with it is just plain disrespectful. Not only are you making a broad and unwarranted assumption about me as an individual you're also simultaneously suggesting I have a lack of intelligence.
Open Mode was always said to be the place where anything goes, the nutters, crazies, selfish and plain mean (disclaimer = not all open players are like that) - it has always been the case that if you want a set play style, make or join a private group. No one controls open, simple as that - if you don't like it being PvP focused, that is your problem - the only way to try and drive PvP players or the aforementioned crazies is to fight them in PvP..... kinda what they want.
Your description of open mode is exactly what I want from open mode. Forced PVP is a non-issue for me as I enjoy being forced out of my comfort zone and having to react.
I would be beyond happy to move my gameplay to a group mode if groups had the ability to use and require unique saves specific to that group. Then pure-open players like myself can create their own group and we would have one simple rule that everyone in that group wants. Think "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.". This might actually be the best possible solution to the problem, to be quite honest. It literally gives everyone, everything they want without forcing FD to make sweeping changes.
If you want an open world, where you can chill, meet people and not worry about forced PvP - see my sig, you'll be welcomed with open arms
I've looked at Mobius. I'm very fond of the idea of the group, interacting with other friendly players. For me however, a game set in a universe like Elite's isn't a complete experience without the risk of forced interaction. The desire for those experiences eliminates my desire to play outside of open. The current Mobius rule set for PVP being limited to CZ's doesn't allow that particular groups rule set to satisfy my particular needs.
The feedback from you two however does have my brain churning as I view something like this thread as a way to end at the most beneficial solution for everybody.
I think the solution to our problem could be a rework of how Elite handles groups. The core functionality of groups should be kept as it is now. Everyone can continue to participate in and create groups. Except instead of a group being tied to a single player, the group is separated into its own entity to enable transfer of group ownership.
Allow groups to the ability to require a unique save be used just for them, and allow groups the ability to automatically accept requests to join. At this point a "Pure-Open" group could manifest itself, and exist without a need for moderators, providing players like me the mode we want.
There's also the tidbit of information gleamed from todays dev update in terms of the account system supporting multiple instances of the galaxy. If they can bite the bullet and get the hardware to support a second galaxy simulation, a "Pure Online" mode being added that just runs on a seperate simulation all together would be a nice choice to add to the plate.
