Why should I play in Open Play when I´m not interested in PVP?

[Priko Phobomanic]

Thank you for all your replies.

I see 2,days are maybe to less time to see the sense of open play.

I will use some of your advises.
For example direct contact and open with a compliment.

(i feel like my dad gave me some advice to pick up girls)

I hope we see us ingame!!

 

[Rauminen]

Why? Because People.



But seriously, with all their faults and problems, people worth being around for. Mostly
I wasn't sure if this will work out as I'm generally against MMOs - feel free to boo me, that's just how I am.
In this game though, the way it is done, you will not see hundreds or thousands of people at the same place. Their numbers are about the limit I can possibly care about.... which is nice.
Also most of them ignore me the same way I ignore them, which is also nice.

When I want to talk & interact though, I usually get an answer - even when just messaging to local. The trick is to format it a little differently than the usual NPC bla, so they can pick it up from the corner of their eye. A "Hi CMDR" is quite effective.

Really all of the people I met were really friendly and polite - then again I fly a combat kitted python so... that might have something to do with it

 

[Parmo]

I just look at it like walking into a bar and chatting up the first girl i see and she ignores me i move onto the next one. OK i find most peeps in open play very friendly

What's your chat-up line?
'Hey girl, wanna play Solo, Open or <wink, wink> Group?'

 

[paganpenguin]

Whenever I'm in an area with other players I generally open local chat and type "morning/afternoon/evening CMDRs" (depending upon my time of day). Sometimes I get a reply, other times nothing - although for some reason I rarely see other players. Perhaps I'm being banished to some mythical anti-social server for the crime of picking my nose (but not eating it... even I wont stoop that low) or originating from Newcastle.

As for PvP - been shot up by a fellow CMDR once (had a FF bounty on my head of a massive 400CR) and shot a fellow CMDR up (he had a 400CR bounty - I forgot to check the bounty out before firing... did try and apologise afterwards mind you). For me open is the way to go...

 

[tomPhoenix]

I play exclusively in open for the constant threat of death. NPC pirates don't scare me like players do. For me it makes the game much more immersive. Not everyone feels this way though so there is always solo. 95% of the time I play in open however it is like you describe, it is like I am invisible, and I'm usually fine with that. I do think being a pirate for a career choice needs some love from the devs so its not like that as often.

Once there's a point to blowing someone up I think there will be more of a point and more people playing open play.

There's just literally no point. Insurance is pretty much cheap enough too that griefing isn't even possible. Players gain ZERO from blowing up other ships. So much that they might as well make an arena to compete in with a ladder system and everything where blowing up doesn't cost you anything in insurance. That would at least then give PvP a purpose (aside from bounty hunting).

 

[Kryfield]

I´m a trader and fly a Type-9.

So I guess you want trading and not combat. And that you're more interested in player interaction than making maximum money. This is what I do. It may not suit you.

Sometimes yes, people will ignore you (specially near rare trade stations as they tend to be in grind mode and just lose focus of everything but the trade run),

Rares traders often wait in stations for 10 minutes, waiting for the next batch of rares to arrive. This is a good opportunity to chat, You can start by asking them about their route. Or if they have seen any pirates.

Park the Type 9 and buy an Asp. A well-equipped Asp is ideal for rares trading. It can escape from almost anything and it's more fun to fly than a Type 9. Mine has no weapons and is built for speed and shields,

The only player interaction I´ve got were the pirates who interdicted me, just want my loot or kill me instand without saying anything.

This is a problem, and I think it's getting worse. If I get interdicted by a player who doesn't communicate, I send a series of messages such as "Please talk to me", "Can you hear me?", "It's very bad manners to shoot without sending a demand and threat". Sometimes it gets a response. You need a key macro program, such as AutoHotkey, so you can send prepared messages quickly while flying.

Not everyone speaks adequate English, but there's no excuse for a pirate not to send a prepared message, even if it's just CTRL-V to paste into the Chat panel.

It's fun evading and escaping pirates. Sometimes I succeed, sometimes I don't. Check the Chat panel for dangerous ships (especially Clippers and FdL) and watch for suspicious behaviour. Emergency drop from supercruise and boost away from the drop point is a useful tactic if someone is about to interdict you. Or I can let them interdict and either comply or run.

I run the NVIDIA Shadowplay so that after an interdiction I can save the last few minutes and watch it again, to see what I did wrong.

 

[Archvillain]

I play open so I can avoid people. No really.

When I want to, for example, deliver a cargo and I jump into a system -

The process in SOLO:

• Target the station.
• Fly to station.

The process in OPEN:

• Target the station.
• Check the scanner in case there are any other CMDRs in the system.
• Select the CMDR, check what type of ship it is, where is it facing, what is it heading towards, IS IT CHANGING COURSE?
• If red flags are raised by the above, try to get a readout on the ship, but don't look like I'm trying to get a readout on the ship! Fly casual...
• Fly towards station.
• Continue, watching instruments, prepared to evade if a ship changes course...

(I fly with enough armament and upgrades that I should be able to escape a CMDR if it goes sour, but an extremely well-equipped psycho or wing of pirates are a serious threat.)

OPEN feels much more like Firefly and the Reavers, or the Falcon and the Imperials, and I have earmarked some money to pay for re-buy and lost cargo should I someday find myself in over my head and unable to pull off a resolution by wits, skill, seat of pants, or skin of teeth. And besides, I could always switch to SOLO for a bit afterwards to lick my wounds and recover if I end up losing too much money to quickly. But so far, I have lost no money and I'm having great fun figuring out how to watch the space around me better so that I can avoid people

I saw a ship set off all of my red flags and alarm bells, so I started to evade, but I was too late! I was interdicted by what I thought was a pirate wing, I thought I was toast - they outnumbered me and every ship massively outclassed me, but it turned out that they were looking for slaver scum. I don't ever deal in that trade, so they cargo-scanned and jumped back to supercruise, and I'm left sitting there thinking "I'm alive?! I'm still here?! I'M STILL HEEEEERE!!!!"

 

[dayrth]

A lot of commanders will ignore you. Mostly not there fault though. Some, especially new players wont even notice the incoming message. If they are in combat, docking or doing something else that needs concentration it can be difficult to switch to the comms panel. Of course there are some who are just rude and you will get the occasional (though thankfully very rare), psychopath. A few are nice and sociable though (now I come to think about it, this is much like real life).

I play in open because I do get to meat those players who are up for a friendly chat, or even want to team up and go do stuff. It's fun.

Not trying to persuade you to play open though. Just saying why I do. If you like group or solo better, play there. One of the nice things about this game is that it gives you that choice, and it is your choice. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

 

[Kyudos]

I'm not interested in PvP either, and I only play in Open. If you read about Open here on the forums you'd expect to get blasted to smithereens the second you start playing - it just isn't the case. I've never been interdicted by a Cmdr, and I've only text chatted to one once in several months of play. If you have read the forums you'll know the names of a few systems to avoid if you want to minimise the risks of being randomly attacked (or rammed) - but there is plenty of space to do your thing without hassle.

 

[Vegar]

I fly a T9 as well, and constantly fly in open. Was approached by some other cmrds the other day who were trading as well. Together we formed a trade wing and ran the same route. Picked up a few extra crs in trade vouchers

 

[Mack]

No reason to play in open whatsoever.

I've completely and utterly given up on it, but then I have no desire to have any interaction with other players.

 

[tarks382]

Direct chat the commanders, it changes the text color and makes it more likely they will notice it (Normally chat is mainly NPCs going "I can't believe this is happening!" while dieing to station lasers. I've had a lot of good interactions with other players, including pirates. Heck last night at the Azaleach CG I got into a very interesting discussion with several Imperial commanders about the current state of affairs in the Empire and the upcoming power play mechanics.

Sometimes yes, people will ignore you (specially near rare trade stations as they tend to be in grind mode and just lose focus of everything bu the trade run), but on the whole I normally get a response, RPing I found makes it more likely to get a response.

This rings true.

My own chats are often curtailed because, typically, they take place around a station. During that time I'm usually hands on doing something (landing for instance) so a bit of the old in-depth is usually out of the question. And, as Mr Obtuse says, it's also often the case that goals, quests and missions can sort of narrow your bandwidth.

But keep chatting - someone will respond and you'll be pleasantly surprised.

 

[Muzz UK]

I play OPEN but rarely goto player heavily populated systems. I just like the fact of occasional human interaction. I've had chats with guys whilst waiting to dock, I've have skirmishes in asteroid fields and I find the NPCs frankly dull and boring. OPEN will always mean a chance of being killed, trolled or loses but thats part of the game and why I like it! Who wants to feel safe all the time Elite is about blazing a trail, sometimes that trail is full of danger.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[peteuplink]

I'm a trader. I don't search for PvP, yet I play in open. Why? Because human players are far more unpredictable than NPC's.

At the moment the games NPC's aren't aggressive enough. Sure, they attack sometimes, but mostly they ignore you. Even travelling through low security anarchy systems leads to no encounters a lot of the time.

Some systems should have an ever present danger of attack. Systems at war are one example. Systems with a large pirate population another.

Players add to the uncertainty. Even in "safe" systems, you never know if that passing player will try to interdict you.

It puts the danger into Elite Dangerous.

I've played since premium beta and I used to travel far and wide, not staying in any one system for very long. Eventually this took me very far away from other people and all I encountered were NPC's and I got bored. So I recently reset my save and I'm now operating out of Wolf 359. I see a few players, most so far have been friendly, and I'm enjoying the game more than I ever did previously.

This of course is just my opinion on the game and it works for me. Others are free to play in any way they like. I really don't know why we have to keep having all these threads discussing why one is better than the other.

If you like open and people are playing solo, let them. They're not directly interfering with your game.

If you like solo and people are playing open, let them. They're not directly interfering with your game.

 

[Matzov]

Just to bring together a couple of points that others have raised, but which I feel are related...
Use direct chat, as that stands out more.
Keep trying, and you are sure to meet folks, and then you can befriend them ingame - at which point you can chat wherever you both are, so long as you are both online.
Sometimes folks are just busy and miss the chat pop-up (if when you got a direct message the ping was louder or more obvious, that would help, or the last direct message remained on screen until manually cleared).
Sometimes folks have their hands full with buttons, with real life and are afk for a few minutes. Sometimes they are using DK2 and that can make typing really tricky.
--
All in all, I try to assume I am not being actively ignored, but that if I have no reply its because the other person has something going on, or is in a hurry. But I keep trying. Feel free to in game friend me, and i will happily chat.

 

[Vasious]

Wow. This has to be the single worst piece of advice ever... I'm just sayin'

Huh

How is play the mode you want to play and don't worry about it the worst advise

 

[Muzz UK]

So I'm curious if FD do an overhaul on NPCs and make them more of threat are non OPEN players going to complain? At the moment the NPCs are pretty dull but it wouldn't take a lot to make them harder, more harsh and much more of a treat. You might find in your Type 9 getting interdicted by a wing of 4 NPC Vipers isn't much fun and there's no line between open and private anymore.

 

[CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost]

So I'm curious if FD do an overhaul on NPCs and make them more of threat are non OPEN players going to complain? …

I bet they will still complain. It's strange as open mode can be "easy mode" without a big problem. Don't fly around big player hubs and it's "easy mode" with only one or two CMDR contacts every 4 hours (in T-9 docked in a station).

I really don't know why people want to force others into open mode. It makes no sense to me.

 

[znôrt]

Even when I rammed other players and wrote "Sorry, Cmdr" in the chat i got no response.

how unpolite! if you ram me, i will always ram you (gently) back.

seems you were unlucky. i can tell you there are many friendly folks in open.