Why the hate for playing in open?

[Han Zulu]

I'd like some input here as someone who exclusively plays in open. I constantly read while perusing the forums people stating they only play solo or PG and that they won't even bother with open. What's the deal? Are people that afraid of losing their ship and ending back at the rebuy? I get dropping to solo if you can't get a parking spot at a CG or something like that, but to completely ignore he entire galaxy out there seems to go against what this game means.

I don't hate open.

I have two accounts. One is for exploring, and that one I play in Solo or PG. The second account is for combat is I play in Open.

I do drop to solo for returning CG or exit/enter stations because of crowding.

And yes, I am afraid of losing 100 mil of exploration data made from months of exploration just because of a trigger happy teenager in a sidewinder. And no, I can't equip an exploration ship to also be a fully equipped combat ship.

The truth is, many explorers play in PG and they're the ones who are embracing and exploring the entire galaxy. So it's not right to think that those who play in PG are ignoring the entire galaxy or doing anything against what the game means. After all, Frontier made the Solo and PG mode and didn't think it was against what the game means.

Not what I meant. I didn't state people hate me playing in open. I'm asking why so many people; your comment included now, say they play in solo. What drives you away from playing in open? Is it a desire to play by yourself in solo or is it a desire to avoid undesirables in open?

Good question.

I love to play in Solo because

1. It's lonely. I love solitude and doing things on my own. I don't care for social interaction or social media or constantly texting and chatting on the phone. Email, text, phone calls, messaging in game, all of it is rather annoying to me. I love solitude.

2. Performance suffers sometimes when you play in Open. Other player ships rubber banding in supercruise. Removes the feeling of being part of a universe. It becomes a Tetris game. Solo solves this.

3. Also, very important factor for an explorer. Alt-F10 hi-res shots don't work in Open mode. Only in Solo and Group. So, if I'm as an explorer want to take an awesome picture of a planet, I can't if I play in Open.

4. And yes, when you're coming back in a weak shield, thin hulled, jump-optimized exploring ship, the trigger happy teenager who just got their eagle just have to interdict whatever he/she can to prove their worth. I understand. It's part of the initiation of becoming an elite pilot to shoot sitting ducks and fish in barrels, but I don't want to waste months of my life exploring and not get my "first discovered by" mark on the systems I found. Imagine to be the first to find neutron stars or black holes and come back to turn the data in, but someone with railgun up their ... wants to prove that they can take down a non-weaponized anaconda... it's not fun.

5. The meaning of the game isn't Open, but to play the way you want. Don't judge those who play in Solo. It's their business, and it's not against the spirit of the game a single bit.

 

[Curvemn17]

Your pint about explorers is very valid and I completely understand the need for solo or PG for that instance. You shouldn't have to equip your explorer ship for combat as that defeats the purpose of all the ships and limits people t only multirole ships. As for thinking the game loses meaning when played in solo or pg that was more of a lacking on my part to put into context what I mean. Really I was looking for answers as to why people had such animosity when they spoke of playing in open. When browsing the PS4 forum when most spoke of open they would get very angry and had such disdain for it. I was really looking to hear some of the reasons why becuase it seemed to me most of that animosity either can from pC players or PC players that moved to PS4. But I didn't want to just base that opinion off my thoughts, rather hear from those playing why they had that disdain for open.

 

[DocDelicious]

Uh...the hate usually goes the other way. People who play in Open and want to experience the full game, hate people who play in PG and Solo because they reap all the benefits without any of the risk.

That said, I've played exclusively in Open since day one and have never been attacked by another player. A lot of the Solo/PG player's fears are totally unfounded or stem from a single isolated experience.

 

[Zenith]

It helps if you have the format as PNG rather than jpeg.

Native file save format is BMP. EDdiscovery changes that to PNG as I take the image.
If I was in Open, I could only get 1920x1080 images (my screen rez) using F10.
In PG or Solo I can save at 7680x4320 using ALT+F10.

 

[Han Zulu]

Your pint about explorers is very valid and I completely understand the need for solo or PG for that instance. You shouldn't have to equip your explorer ship for combat as that defeats the purpose of all the ships and limits people t only multirole ships. As for thinking the game loses meaning when played in solo or pg that was more of a lacking on my part to put into context what I mean. Really I was looking for answers as to why people had such animosity when they spoke of playing in open. When browsing the PS4 forum when most spoke of open they would get very angry and had such disdain for it. I was really looking to hear some of the reasons why becuase it seemed to me most of that animosity either can from pC players or PC players that moved to PS4. But I didn't want to just base that opinion off my thoughts, rather hear from those playing why they had that disdain for open.

Fair enough.

Personally, my "hate" to Open isn't a hate, but rather a severe annoyance that there's been so many threads started with Open players arguing that Solo players are playing it wrong, are cowards, are missing the point of the game, not participating in the real game, or even are missing out of meeting other people and socializing. And I think there's plenty of Solo/PG players who are getting a little fed up with those threads. At some point, the Open-only players should come to a realization that there's more to playing the game than just PvP. There's plenty of people playing for the experience of "flying in space". Not just combat and defending themselves from every little brat.

And when it comes to the argument that this is after all Elite Dangerous and not Elite Safe, I think it's a bad argument. Open is sometimes more of Elite Insane or Elite Dumbheads, because if the ELite universe was real and we were in there as actual pilots, there wouldn't be griefing. The risk, the chance of losing life and ship and money, only just to shoot down a big ship that doesn't have cargo, value, or bounty, is a sign of extremely bad judgment. Those will eventually get killed and win the Darwin awards. Also, in such a universe, people wouldn't be able to so easily interdict and kill each other. It's really a game, and the "Dangerous" part is just a name that's part of the game. The danger would be more real if the griefers also felt the danger in what they were doing, but they don't. There's no much they lose. If they get killed. It's a few minutes of fixing and not much credits lost. While the victim tend to lose quite a bit. It's more of Elite Unfair in those cases.

Now, with that said, I don't think there needs to be done anything to Open to change this. I don't mind the griefers, trolls, gankers, and such. To me, that IS the part of Open. And playing Open, you know that this is the risk. So when I do play in open, I consider it more of "survival" mode of other games. It's the time you play because you do want an adrenaline rush and the risks. So keep Open as it is to play Elite:Ganking, but keep Solo and PG to play Elite:Make-Sense.

 

[Tel Prydain]

I mostly fly in open - but not when flying back from exploration. I've seen too many explorers loose days, weeks or months of exploration data for no reason to ever consider flying back to the bubble in open. For a while there, there were people hanging out at Colonia, shooting unarmed/unshielded explorers who had flown 22.4k ly to get there. Which is bullcrap.

Plus in open I wouldn't use my Elite SLF pilot in open. Happy to pay a rebuy, not keen on retraining a NPC.

 

[Han Zulu]

Uh...the hate usually goes the other way. People who play in Open and want to experience the full game, hate people who play in PG and Solo because they reap all the benefits without any of the risk.

That said, I've played exclusively in Open since day one and have never been attacked by another player. A lot of the Solo/PG player's fears are totally unfounded or stem from a single isolated experience.

Experiences are so different. I've been killed twice this year in Open. One by a FDL and once by an Anaconda, don't know who it was and don't care, but it does happen. I didn't lose much in either case, but it did teach me a lesson that I can't defend myself unless I'm out just to combat in a fight capable ship.

I mostly fly in open - but not when flying back from exploration. I've seen too many explorers loose days, weeks or months of exploration data for no reason to ever consider flying back to the bubble in open. For a while there, there were people hanging out at Colonia, shooting unarmed/unshielded explorers who had flown 22.4k ly to get there. Which is bullcrap.

Right. Wasn't there a gang of gankers at Sag*A recently? Killing explorers going there.

 

[Curvemn17]

Zulu thanks for your input. I believe from reading one of your comments that you play on the PC. No issue there, just answers why when I am reading comments on the forum I see the disdain for open. Not saying you have this disdain, but rather that the forum is more of a collection of ED players and not specific to those playing on PS4. That's probably why I haven't stumbled across all the open is the only way to play threads as I have not ventured outside the PS4 part of the forum. I figured I wouldn't be contributing much to the forum outside of the PS4 section as I've only been playing this game since it launched on PS4. As a matter of fact I had never heard of it until it launched on PS4.

As for the lack of griefers I have encountered that either is becuase there is a low volume of players on PS4, I just haven't been in the right place, or it's too new of a community for people to be bored and looking to wreak havoc. Hence why I posed the question in the first place to understand why people had that animosity toward open play. Which reading through now and understanding the cooperation of the different platforms will obviously allow one to understand the different sentiments one has for the way they play the game.

 

[BusterSSNS91]

Go to Maia.
They’ll find you.

 

[Han Zulu]

Zulu thanks for your input. I believe from reading one of your comments that you play on the PC. No issue there, just answers why when I am reading comments on the forum I see the disdain for open. Not saying you have this disdain, but rather that the forum is more of a collection of ED players and not specific to those playing on PS4. That's probably why I haven't stumbled across all the open is the only way to play threads as I have not ventured outside the PS4 part of the forum. I figured I wouldn't be contributing much to the forum outside of the PS4 section as I've only been playing this game since it launched on PS4. As a matter of fact I had never heard of it until it launched on PS4.

As for the lack of griefers I have encountered that either is becuase there is a low volume of players on PS4, I just haven't been in the right place, or it's too new of a community for people to be bored and looking to wreak havoc. Hence why I posed the question in the first place to understand why people had that animosity toward open play. Which reading through now and understanding the cooperation of the different platforms will obviously allow one to understand the different sentiments one has for the way they play the game.

[up]

I have a PS4 account as well, but haven't played much on it yet. I bought it only because I have a PS4 and wanted Elite on it, but no other reason. Perhaps I should become a pirate on that account?

So yes, I play mostly on PC.

And I think you got a good point there that there aren't as many players on PS4 so perhaps there isn't as much of an issue of griefers and gankers there? That would be good news and people having problems with Open might be mostly on PC. It wouldn't surprise me. SO maybe I should log on my PS4 and become one... Just kiddin.

Good talk anyhow.

 

[Curvemn17]

[up]

I have a PS4 account as well, but haven't played much on it yet. I bought it only because I have a PS4 and wanted Elite on it, but no other reason. Perhaps I should become a pirate on that account?

So yes, I play mostly on PC.

And I think you got a good point there that there aren't as many players on PS4 so perhaps there isn't as much of an issue of griefers and gankers there? That would be good news and people having problems with Open might be mostly on PC. It wouldn't surprise me. SO maybe I should log on my PS4 and become one... Just kiddin.

Good talk anyhow.

Hahaha oh man, we have our first ganker, just kidding. It's funny I opened up the main forum page and the last topic commented on was a huge thread about a tool being developed for the PC to track and report or warn I guess about griefers in open. So I guess I should get out more? Hard to contextualize it tho as none of those tools work or apply to those of us on PS4 and I haven't ever been a PC gamer so some of it is beyond me.

Personally I've decided at the moment to take a more criminal with morals based approach. I started up the Black Void Syndicate on Inara and we have a few players. I really just wanted to operate outside of the confines and structures of the establishment. Answer to no one, but at the same time why kill other players needlessly? That's what I mean by having morals, pirate sure but kill for sport? No. As for the gankers ln PS4 I haven't even seen those at CGs or when I was in Maia the other night. I was in Maia with my 400k bounty and saw about 8 cmdrs. A few salutes, some sent over some small talk, but that was the interactions I had.

 

[Tel Prydain]

Right. Wasn't there a gang of gankers at Sag*A recently? Killing explorers going there.

There have been - it's always a risk at Sag A

 

[Han Zulu]

Hahaha oh man, we have our first ganker, just kidding. It's funny I opened up the main forum page and the last topic commented on was a huge thread about a tool being developed for the PC to track and report or warn I guess about griefers in open. So I guess I should get out more? Hard to contextualize it tho as none of those tools work or apply to those of us on PS4 and I haven't ever been a PC gamer so some of it is beyond me.

Yeah. I saw that one too. You know it's not just a small little thing happening now and then when there are people who actually put in an effort to write a software to help you avoid the danger. What's to avoid if there isn't any? Obviously it's enough to be an issue.

And yes... the more I think of it... it's tempting to become the first griefer on PS4... hmmm.... LOL! First thing that would prevent me from becoming one is that I'm not a good fighter pilot. Secondly, I have waaaay too much of a moral compass in me. I feel guilty killing "people" in games as it is. Almost every shot should be stamped with "Sorry!" So I don't think it's even possible.

Personally I've decided at the moment to take a more criminal with morals based approach. I started up the Black Void Syndicate on Inara and we have a few players. I really just wanted to operate outside of the confines and structures of the establishment. Answer to no one, but at the same time why kill other players needlessly? That's what I mean by having morals, pirate sure but kill for sport? No. As for the gankers ln PS4 I haven't even seen those at CGs or when I was in Maia the other night. I was in Maia with my 400k bounty and saw about 8 cmdrs. A few salutes, some sent over some small talk, but that was the interactions I had.

I like it. I actually was thinking about it a few minutes ago. What is a griefer to me? It's a pirate that kills without reason and without having any rewards for it except the "fame" of being a jerk. A true pirate or the conscientious pirate would be the one who would leave the target alone if they don't have any cargo to provide. Don't kill your food source. Don't bit the hand that feeds you.

Perhaps I should join your pirate gang on PS4?

 

[Han Zulu]

There have been - it's always a risk at Sag A

Always? Didn't know that.

 

[Curvemn17]

I like it. I actually was thinking about it a few minutes ago. What is a griefer to me? It's a pirate that kills without reason and without having any rewards for it except the "fame" of being a jerk. A true pirate or the conscientious pirate would be the one who would leave the target alone if they don't have any cargo to provide. Don't kill your food source. Don't bit the hand that feeds you.

Perhaps I should join your pirate gang on PS4?

Come on over. Contribution is solely up to the cmdr. Really it's a place to share ideas and tips for smuggling runs or places to fence stolen goods or places to pirate for good payouts. When I decided to give this a go it seemed like it was either a closely guarded secret or there was just a lack of info on it because it was felt it wasn't profitable enough. The credits can stil be found but it's harder and not gong to be high like your scanner or passenger missions. I made about 1.5m in an hour of pirating NOCs the other day.

 

[Strangepork]

I'd like some input here as someone who exclusively plays in open. I constantly read while perusing the forums people stating they only play solo or PG and that they won't even bother with open. What's the deal? Are people that afraid of losing their ship and ending back at the rebuy? I get dropping to solo if you can't get a parking spot at a CG or something like that, but to completely ignore he entire galaxy out there seems to go against what this game means.

I do play exclusively in open, though I do dislike the idea a child, who's dad is bullying him or her, takes that displeasure out on me virtually, rather than having the skills and ability to direct that animosity in the correct direction.

 

[Curvemn17]

I do play exclusively in open, though I do dislike the idea a child, who's dad is bullying him or her, takes that displeasure out on me virtually, rather than having the skills and ability to direct that animosity in the correct direction.

First and foremost hats off to you on the Strangepork! I couldn't stop laughing st that. I agree, I totally understand the angst of some immature brat taking that frustration out on you.

 

[Zeeman]

It's actually very simple. People like different things, and some people simply don't like interacting with others, or prefer to not be used as a potential punching bag. Some people like burgers, some don't. Some eat meat, some don't. Whatever, live and let live.

Me being in open doesn't hurt them, and them being in solo/PG doesn't hurt me. Let's all just get along and enjoy the game.

Z...

 

[Strangepork]

First and foremost hats off to you on the Strangepork! I couldn't stop laughing st that. I agree, I totally understand the angst of some immature brat taking that frustration out on you.

When I take them out, like a daddy, I do feel thier pain.

P.S. I type on the forum under a nomaclure. My real cmdr name is xxxxxx.

 

[Strangepork]

It's actually very simple. People like different things, and some people simply don't like interacting with others, or prefer to not be used as a potential punching bag. Some people like burgers, some don't. Some eat meat, some don't. Whatever, live and let live.

Me being in open doesn't hurt them, and them being in solo/PG doesn't hurt me. Let's all just get along and enjoy the game.

Z...

Really, apart from really cool girls you meet in RL, who likes to be used?