Blockades - AKA How to kill the game

[CaptainKremmen]

I really enjoy blockade-running play.

Well, as long as the people I'm playing with (ie. Blockaders) keep wanting to play with me.


I stop enjoying myself the minute a fellow gamer tells me that I should go away, and never come back. That if I do try to keep playing with them, that they and others will put me on some permanent people-to-attack list they apparently have.

For me, I just don't get enthused by that. I mean, was I so un-fun to interact with that I was actually ruining their game just by being there? Or was it just bluster that was not meant to be taken at face value?... ie. No "KOS List" actually exists?

Maybe it is just me. I love facing- a challenge in a game, but being told to go away isn't challenging gameplay - it is a bit of a downer for me, if that makes sense...

 

[Roybe]

Trade blockades were supposed to be part of the game. David Braben spoke about them in the dev diaries. Never happened!

Until NPC's traders are part of CG's, you are correct. Once we start getting CG credits for killing NPC traders, 'blockades' will be viable.

 

[Jordan Cobalt]

Out of curiosity, did you have more fun doing a psycho blockade (telling people to go away or be shot down) or a pirate blockade (stealing cargo)? In what a psycho blockade would bring more fun/challenge?

They are really fun in different ways. If blockading kept the same pace id say they would both be equal, but as I said it dropped off a cliff pretty quickly.

Pirating is more rewarding, both financially, and because more traders actually respond and comply. However, it can get pretty boring if it's only me and the traders.

Blockading was fun because it was really role play heavy. I'd always try to send my messaging in character, and it was also adversarial, in nature. Bounty hunters/ blockade breakers showed up, so it became a pvp heavy cat and mouse game. I'd pull over the trader, and I'd either try to get him drop the cargo or kill him before a wing of bouty hunters showed up to kill me.

To answer your question, I still pirate, but I haven't done a cg blockade for 3 months or so. That should tell you all you need to know.

So that day you managed to blockade the open play...apart of killing the open, what's the point of driving away traders during a blockade? Isn't the fun gone once nobody shows up anymore?

Yea it did lose it's fun the last day or two. It was mostly just sitting around in sc, whereas the first day I'd always have a new target with no waiting.

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

I really enjoy blockade-running play.
Well, as long as the people I'm playing with (ie. Blockaders) keep wanting to play with me.

I stop enjoying myself the minute a fellow gamer tells me that I should go away, and never come back. That if I do try to keep playing with them, that they and others will put me on some permanent people-to-attack list they apparently have.

For me, I just don't get enthused by that. I mean, was I so un-fun to interact with that I was actually ruining their game just by being there? Or was it just bluster that was not meant to be taken at face value?... ie. No "KOS List" actually exists?

Maybe it is just me. I love facing- a challenge in a game, but being told to go away isn't challenging gameplay - it is a bit of a downer for me, if that makes sense...

Which is the whole point of this thread.
And I'm glad that somebody with such a rep agrees with me

 

[Cosmos]

Cm'on, solo is what kills E : D!!!

<snip>

Why would you do a blockade rater than piracy then??? One more time, blockades brings nothing more than driving people to solo, and the open mode is already in a pretty bad shape!

*: Don't play fool, you know that they are here to score at the CG and reap the reward, and if they cannot do it in open, they will do it in solo.

I'd imagine that people are blazing their own trail in the hope of getting an interesting and fun experience which they are unable to get from the content that the developers produced. Something devs are happy with apparently.

Unfortunately, as you pointed out, solo is killing the game. Well perhaps more accurately allowing people to bypass anything a little uncomfortable or that requires something of a challenge. Its a big galaxy out there lots of space for everyone except lil Johhny has to be wrapped in cotton wool everywhere he goes.

Brabens got their back, afterall he started all this anti griefing nonsense in the first place. Bravo! An Elite game that puts me to sleep At least no one around here has any hurt feelings coz their imaginery space ship was blown up in a hail of pew pew from another (gasp Horror) *evil* player..

Zzzzzzzzz

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

Blockading was fun because it was really role play heavy. [...] I'd pull over the trader, and I'd either try to get him to blow up, or drop the cargo before a wing of bouty hunters showed up to kill me.

So, that day you did actually a pirate blockade. I take it that you tried to blow up the trader if he would not comply, which is perfectly understandable (he took its chance and must face the consequences).

I am fine with a pirate blockade.
I wish any CG has a heavy pirate blockade going on.

 

[Jordan Cobalt]

So, that day you did actually a pirate blockade. I take it that you tried to blow up the trader if he would not comply, which is perfectly understandable (he took its chance and must face the consequences).

I am fine with a pirate blockade.
I wish any CG has a heavy pirate blockade going on.

well it was drop all of their cg cargo and leave the system or blow up. I wouldn't really call that Pirating. I also didn't scoop it, but that had more to do with it having no value than any other reason.

 

[Jukelo]

The whole point of this thread is that blockades hurt the open by driving players to solo, which has been confirmed by a lot of people here. And it has always been intended that way (also confirmed).

It would be a shame if following that FD were to look at the number of players taking part in open and realized maybe letting people avoid at will 100% of the risks involved in a multiplayer environment doesn't make much sense.
Maybe they'd even go as far as to take action, one way or the other...

 

[smokingrabit]

you could go to groups, no need to play alone if you don't want to.

Why do people always forgett about groups?

i dont see the point of groups if you got back up

 

[William Eliot]

Everyone can say what they want, but I think that the real problem is FDev's refusal to put in a real (offline) solo mode, combined with their inability to get instancing working properly. If instancing worked then that would take care of most problems for people who just want pvp, but there's still really no reason that anyone who wants no interaction with others (solo players) or want interaction only of a specific type (private group players) need to share a world state with open mode and influence the background sim, powerplay, etc, or bring their fancy new ships they earned at zero risk into open mode. These things are inherently cooperative/competitive activities; if you want to be part of them then you should absolutely be forced to accept interaction from other players, and not just on your own terms. Just my two cents.

 

[xondk]

2. Apparently this needs to be repeated, senseless murder is a legitimate act in ed. Fdev have said countless times that murdering other commanders is not griefing or against the rules or anything. The fact that people in this thread are saying anyone who does something like this should be banned shows a gross lack of understanding about this game.
4. If you think fdev are in agreement with you and we're all gonna get shadowbans, well I hate to burst your bubble but you are woefully mistaken. You need only to look at bd+03 2338, when fdev rewarded our work blockading the system by delaying the deployment of the nevermore, top prove fdev does not deplore this behavior like many of you claim they do.

I would like to comment to these points.
2: Murdering other commanders is part of the game yes, unfortunately though, some people take that because you 'can' run around and kill those that have absolutely no chance against you, without interacting with them, you should, killing someone out of the blue for no reason, no explanation or anything, and doing it repeatedly against those that clearly have no chance, is griefing, is it 'allowed' yes, does that mean people doing it aren't being immature/powerhungry/wanting to beat down those that are defenseless, no, it does not, just because something is allowed does not remove the fact that it takes a person who is immature at the very least to repeatedly attack and kill those that can't defend themselves. People dislike these kinds of people and as such, yeah, hate is strong towards pirates because many of these people hide under "I'm a bad guy" "i'm a pirate" e.t.c. A pirate wants profit, a destroyed ship is a waste of ammo for a pirate, instead a pirate would disable the person, get their cargo, and leave them to limp home. Of course in a blockade situation, especially if it is an RP situation, it is still a bit lopsided, say you blockade a high security system in such a way that it cannot get something that it would want, system security forces should be after you for that, right now system is lopsided, hopefully will get fixed.

4: That just proves you are doing it correctly, and not acting like those described above, hope to see other people around that actually interact with people rather then blowing them out of the sky.

 

[Dhan]

So, that day you did actually a pirate blockade. I take it that you tried to blow up the trader if he would not comply, which is perfectly understandable (he took its chance and must face the consequences).

I am fine with a pirate blockade.
I wish any CG has a heavy pirate blockade going on.

Then tell FD to make trading CGs that actually require expensive material. Otherwise, people aren't going to waste their time scooping up worthless junk.

 

[deathmagnet]

Then tell FD to make trading CGs that actually require expensive material. Otherwise, people aren't going to waste their time scooping up worthless junk.

The one in Eleu required medicine which includes Performance Enhancers and Progenitor Cells.

 

[Dhan]

I would like to comment to these points.
2: Murdering other commanders is part of the game yes, unfortunately though, some people take that because you 'can' run around and kill those that have absolutely no chance against you, without interacting with them, you should, killing someone out of the blue for no reason, no explanation or anything, and doing it repeatedly against those that clearly have no chance, is griefing, is it 'allowed' yes, does that mean people doing it aren't being immature/powerhungry/wanting to beat down those that are defenseless, no, it does not, just because something is allowed does not remove the fact that it takes a person who is immature at the very least to repeatedly attack and kill those that can't defend themselves. People dislike these kinds of people and as such, yeah, hate is strong towards pirates because many of these people hide under "I'm a bad guy" "i'm a pirate" e.t.c. A pirate wants profit, a destroyed ship is a waste of ammo for a pirate, instead a pirate would disable the person, get their cargo, and leave them to limp home. Of course in a blockade situation, especially if it is an RP situation, it is still a bit lopsided, say you blockade a high security system in such a way that it cannot get something that it would want, system security forces should be after you for that, right now system is lopsided, hopefully will get fixed.

4: That just proves you are doing it correctly, and not acting like those described above, hope to see other people around that actually interact with people rather then blowing them out of the sky.

It's simpler than that. If you want to play the game going around murdering people for fun, you should. That's all there is too it. You shouldn't play in a way you dislike just because it's "the right thing to do" or "good for the community." There are no right or wrong playstyles in my eyes.

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

Then tell FD to make trading CGs that actually require expensive material. Otherwise, people aren't going to waste their time scooping up worthless junk.

Yeah...wondering why FD does not push hauling valuable more often... Actually, I'm wondering a lot of things about wy FD takes so bad decisions regarding CGs lately...hopefully very soon a CG based on rare trading where the value counts instead of the tonnage...

Now if you happen to see a T6 full of progenitor cells/performance enhancer, you can still scoop a hundred of these things via 4 collectors...better than blowing the ship to pieces or telling him not to come back...

 

[Herik]

Actually i think open kills ED, because of ppl that want push ppl to PvP or just grief em.
I see ED as a solo game for me, if i want to play with ppl i will do a group with friends.
Afters years of playing MMO RPGs i have no wish to play open to encounter that PvP ppl again.

On a side note PvP is also the main reason for botting, real money trades and cheating.
A PvE player would just enjoy the grind and progress he makes, while a PvP Player needs the best stuff fast to be on the top.
After the PvP player has all stuff he wanted he gets bored and start grief ppl to get PvP.

I dont say play vs other players is bad but in Elite Dangerous its only a loss game. If you play Command and Conquer or Starcraft for example thouse games are made for player vs player.

I agree pvp is part of ED, but that makes the whole game not a pvp only game.

But i can also see open mode for PvP while solo and group is for PvE. If thats the intension Frontier had with thouse modes and open is suffering that bad, you can tell that a lot ppl dont want to PvP in this game.

Good points; probably accurate analysis. Also, it reflects a poll made over a year ago on player mode preferences....

 

[Darth Ender]

The issue here isn't the existence of blockades. It's the ability to switch modes on the fly to solo/group. That kind of mode switching is the gameplay breaker and problem. Not "blockading" a system.

The game will survive regardless, mostly because it will evolve over time and can adapt to anything that actually has a drastic effect on the playerbase's numbers. What else are you going to play in this genre? Eve or star citizen? Haha.

 

[Darth Ender]

Good points; probably accurate analysis. Also, it reflects a poll made over a year ago on player mode preferences....

he misses the point.

The problem is not that solo exists. It's not that open exists. It's that you can freely switch between them and to a lesser extent, that they exist in the same "universe". No matter what kool aid you want to drink, a solo game is not the same as open, especially not in any of the aspects that anyone would care about. they have no business being interchangeable since the non-multiplayer game is trivially easy and bypasses emergent gameplay completely.

 

[Zoff]

EDIT: First of all, to make it clear:
- My problem is not being blockaded.
- My problem is seeing players switching to solo / group because of blockades.
- I am not talking about real pirates here. By blockades, I mean people who tell traders not to come back, or simply kill them on sight.
- I like to be interdicted by psychos/blockaders since the ships I fly allow me to slip, fight back, or jump away if outnumbered. I am not whining here. Unfortunately not everybody is like me.

I, as well as some other people, have already mentioned that many times. We do understand you have fun doing blockades, but simply, don't.

Don't get me wrong, I love both ways of piracy: when I pirate traders, and when I am being pirated. It's all fun/challenge to me! Now, the point of a blockade? Telling traders not to come back or being killed on sight? AKA switching to solo*? Cm'on, solo is what kills E : D!!!


I do understand that blockaders are looking for PvP interaction...but then they should do real piracy instead:
- Either your preys comply and drop cargo (feel free to collect it or leave it there)
- Or they attempt to flee and you can shoot them down (you are already doing that)
- Or they open fire at you straight and here you have the fight you wanted (you are already doing that)


Why would you do a blockade rater than piracy then??? One more time, blockades brings nothing more than driving people to solo, and the open mode is already in a pretty bad shape!

*: Don't play fool, you know that they are here to score at the CG and reap the reward, and if they cannot do it in open, they will do it in solo.

Actually we had many people showing up to challenge the blockade and enjoying every minute of it, traders and combat wings both.

Just because some people don't like a blockade, and think it ruins the game, does not mean it does. I saw more commanders during the blockade than I normally would in a week, we didn't scare people away, we enticed them to come somewhere they knew it would be exciting and dangerous.

People are posting youtubes of battles they had with us because they loved it, and some people got so into the role playing side of it the whole thing was made even better.

Just because traders have to leave ONE system, for 2 days, does not mean they go into solo, in the same way there are killers in Lave cluster who shoot on sight (and yes they shoot me too) people still go there, they just accept that area of the galaxy is dangerous. Eleu will be back to normal already, we are gone, the blockade is over, the traders can resume whatever they were doing.

We await our next contract.

 

[Zoff]

If they wanted good PvP they could easily find people up for it. Go to Leesti for example. My feeling is they simply get their kicks telling unarmed traders what to do. I highly doubt they are interested in having challenging PvP fights.

Did it occur to you that the people who backed this game on kickstarter and after that in beta might want to play the game they way they want, in the game they paid for the creation of, and not they way all the carebears think it must be played?
There are countless "safe" games available for those that like that sort of thing. I think people who backed the game deserve a dangerous game, that is what we wanted, that is what we got.
We have challenging PvP fights as often as possible, and we sometimes lose ships. We spend a LOT of game time grinding credits to support our in game choices, because PvP is not very lucrative.
If you don't like to fight other players, that is fine, it is a big game and room for everyone, just don't expect people who put hundreds of £s into the game to really care about people whinging they lost a ship while doing a CG.