I've said it already and say it again - the best way to get people into open play is to make rebuy and repair cost from PvP deaths free. Bets to also not fail missions, erase bounty vouchers or exploration data. I am not being sarcastic here. Lots of MMOs function exactly this way - you die, you respawn, you continue. Minor inconvenience, nothing more.
The PP modification Sandro has proposed is fair and fixes an actual imbalance in the modes currently, and evidently FD has the data that shows there IS an imbalance in the modes when it comes to PP. Not that we need to know that, we can see it ourselves, there's a reason people do PP in Solo/Group instead of Open, we've known that since shortly after PP was added, it ain't news nor a secret. This fixes that, which is all it's meant to do. I don't like it for reasons that have nothing to do with it's effectiveness, but it IS an effective and logical fix to a real and present problem, and has nothing to do with getting people to play in Open over Solo/Group.
All modes are supposed to be equal, remember? PP, that isn't the case, so why are people who demand that equality in all modes so against it? Maybe because they don't really want equality in modes, they want some modes to be more equal than others?
> I'm not a developer or anything, but I would think a little tweak to how AI ships are outfitted would be a huge step in the right direction. I'm usually in a HAZRES doing some pirate popping, and I'm often surprised about how the ships are outfitted. You can immediately tell when a NPC ship is properly outfitted or not. Vutlure's and Anacondas are the most obvious to me. When it's a proper loadout, Anaconda's can almost be dangerous depending on what I'm flying; but if they got outfitted in Sillyville Station, its a complete and utter push-over.
But as you say, because of Sandro's comments, we can assume a majority of PP is taking place inside of groups and solo because of the added risk to playing in open. So lets say that, in general, because of the risk of, and occasional loss, those participating in PP in open, only contribute about 75% of the merits that their counterparts in PG or Solo do, and I feel that this is the case. Because of this, the developers are considering giving a 30% (made up) bonus on merits turned in/collected in open so that open players can contribute the same % of weekly merrits as their PG and solo counterparts.
There's tens of thousands of Merits dumped into the nearest, over-fortified system without consideration for the "group vs. group" part of PP. There's dozens of over-undermined systems, because people don't really care about anything but their pew pew.
There's no in-game tools to organize PP actions and people are somehow too lazy to read up on all that stuff that's actually going on here or on reddit, so instead of playing PP, they think they play PP and waste huge amounts of "effort" into nothing.
How much bonus do we have to add for ignorance and lazyness?
Currently, the mechanics in place seem to be encouraging Killers while punishing Achievers and Socializers
http://everydayfeminism.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/Untitled1-300x225.png
Consider the above image, except, consider than the "shorter" child is the Open Power-Player, and that, instead of being born shorter than his taller, solo counterpart, he has simply decided to hack his lower leg off at the knee, and then whinge about needing an extra box because he doesn't have shins.
Every post you make, makes me wonder about you.
So is Open full of people or not?
If its FULL of people then, why is this even an issue?
If its NOT full of people, where are they?
3 Options
No longer playing the game
In Solo
In Private.
Open is the main mode. Argue all you want, throw about thousands of quotes, stamp your little feet.
If it wasn't you guys wouldn't be lobbying for a PVE version of Open. You would be happy with what you got from Kickstarter.
I worked at Game Head Office for 2 years and I know the target audience we had. I cannot imagine it has changed that much to this day and I can remember the games that sold the best. ( Hint they were not long slow grinding games )
Also no matter what percentage of the player base is Open only and PVP based, it is a percentage that FD as a company wants to keep.
So they are going to have to cater for them with stuff, WE want and Arena isn't it.
Other games are coming out that are space related and ED is going to lose players to it.
All of this is why I think they are starting to realise they need to do some thing to keep Open players, not only in Open but in the game.
Majinvash
The Voice of Open
Problem is, people weren't demanding this change from FD, this was something Sandro came out with, based on the data FD has which shows that there is an imbalance between Solo/Group and Open in PP, he's stated that himself, it's based on the data they have, there IS a problem there and this is one possible for fix it. He actually proposed a 2:1 Power payout for Open:Solo/Group, which would indicate the imbalance is pretty damn big.
Keep in mind, they can see all the data, and this was brought about by that data, not PvPers demanding that FD give them a bonus to PP, most PvPers don't care about PP, it's a pure grind mechanic for some toys. They do it long enough for the various Powers to get the best toys, and that's it, because it's just a grind. 50m a week! Yeah, that's 5 hours of trading for me, takes more times than that to grind out the merits to make that salary...NOT an effective use of my time now is it if I just want to make credits. The toys, well, you get them and that's it, no reason to stick around doing all that grinding once you've got them. There's no reason for PvPers to want PP to be better in Open, it's easier for everyone to do it in Solo or Group...even the PvPers do that ya know....so...
This all came about due to the data FD has, not due to the players demanding it....might be folks need to consider that fact before making silly statements about PvPers being catered to....
Problem is, people weren't demanding this change from FD, this was something Sandro came out with, based on the data FD has which shows that there is an imbalance between Solo/Group and Open in PP, he's stated that himself, it's based on the data they have, there IS a problem there and this is one possible for fix it. He actually proposed a 2:1 Power payout for Open:Solo/Group, which would indicate the imbalance is pretty damn big.
Keep in mind, they can see all the data, and this was brought about by that data, not PvPers demanding that FD give them a bonus to PP, most PvPers don't care about PP, it's a pure grind mechanic for some toys. They do it long enough for the various Powers to get the best toys, and that's it, because it's just a grind. 50m a week! Yeah, that's 5 hours of trading for me, takes more times than that to grind out the merits to make that salary...NOT an effective use of my time now is it if I just want to make credits. The toys, well, you get them and that's it, no reason to stick around doing all that grinding once you've got them. There's no reason for PvPers to want PP to be better in Open, it's easier for everyone to do it in Solo or Group...even the PvPers do that ya know....so...
This all came about due to the data FD has, not due to the players demanding it....might be folks need to consider that fact before making silly statements about PvPers being catered to....
As I said, it won't cause everyone to want to play in Open, but it would make Open less un-appealing for at least 1 player (me). Based on the posts I've read, I don't think I'm alone.Fixing the crime and punishment system won't bring people into Open, people avoid other players because they don't want to deal with other players, that's it. Be it because they want a solo game like some do or because they aren't afraid of the NPCs and fear players, it doesn't matter, they won't go to Open.
Fixing the crime and punishment system IS going to make a lot of the Solo/Group players unhappy however, because they do things all the time that break the law and NOW they'll actually have repercussions to that, which effectively don't exist right now. Combine that with upping the actual threat NPCs present and...firestorms acomin ma!
As I said, it won't cause everyone to want to play in Open, but it would make Open less un-appealing for at least 1 player (me). Based on the posts I've read, I don't think I'm alone.
Maybe, but this isn't true for me. I would welcome an increase in NPC difficulty as long as it made some sense and wasn't on-off like NPC Anacondas that can't even be bothered to return fire and then suddenly can out-turn an FDL.![]()
Problem is, people weren't demanding this change from FD, this was something Sandro came out with, based on the data FD has which shows that there is an imbalance between Solo/Group and Open in PP, he's stated that himself, it's based on the data they have, there IS a problem there and this is one possible for fix it. He actually proposed a 2:1 Power payout for Open:Solo/Group, which would indicate the imbalance is pretty damn big.
Keep in mind, they can see all the data, and this was brought about by that data, not PvPers demanding that FD give them a bonus to PP, most PvPers don't care about PP, it's a pure grind mechanic for some toys. They do it long enough for the various Powers to get the best toys, and that's it, because it's just a grind. 50m a week! Yeah, that's 5 hours of trading for me, takes more times than that to grind out the merits to make that salary...NOT an effective use of my time now is it if I just want to make credits. The toys, well, you get them and that's it, no reason to stick around doing all that grinding once you've got them. There's no reason for PvPers to want PP to be better in Open, it's easier for everyone to do it in Solo or Group...even the PvPers do that ya know....so...
This all came about due to the data FD has, not due to the players demanding it....might be folks need to consider that fact before making silly statements about PvPers being catered to....
Why do we even have a Solo option at all?