Well right now, its because who ever has the most time to put into their ships auto wins with stats. And it takes a LONG TIME to max out to be anywhere near our level.
But with 3.0 on the way. ALL OF THAT CHANGES. The playing field is now level. Lots of people will feel more comfortable because it doesnt take near the amount of time to reach max stats.
Also people dont PVP when it comes to powerplay and BGS because all of it is done with Hauling, and you can use solo and private for it.
The ship build for Open is at an disadvantage compared to what youd outfit for solo and private.
In solo and private you can strip all defenses, only engineer a FSD, and get triple the cargo space in a python in the just the 3 size 6 slots alone.
So there is no meaning to PVP here, even though if I were to kill you, not only would you lose rebuy, you would lose Rep for your faction and %'s for influence as well as time wasted for stacking missions. PVP does hold LOTS OF WEIGHT when it comes to powerplay and BGS.
But no one around here can put that together because they either dont take part in it. or use the modes for the lesser risk against the people you are fighting against.
Thats why people dont PVP. BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE OPTION. Even though Ive ran across lots of people that ive have fought and are capable of PVPing. But they dont, because they cant keep up with the crew min maxing their ships in private and solo because of that META that exists where open is at a disadvantage.
Now here is where you probably didnt read any of that. Or will deny it. Even though I've literally given you the math behind whats going on here.
And A lot of us didnt get what was advertised. It didnt come with a OH BY THE WAY GUESS WHAT PVP is only for SALT because you can do everything against everyone else in private and solo.
Thats not my fault. Thatd Fdevs fault. They advertised that. And Sandro literally just said less that 2 months ago. That powerplay was meant to be a consensual PVP program.
What you posted there is pretty interesting because it's actually put together for me one of the main reasons I don't bother with PVP and made a connection I hadn't really thought about consciously before.
First thing to say is that I didn't buy Elite Dangerous thinking about PVP primarily, or even mainly; it was never where the central appeal of the game lay for me and it never will be.
However I'm not in any way anti-PVP, I've been involved in PVP in games previously and enjoyed it and in a game I've been playing for over 2 years, which includes PVP, doesn't have any additional real-world cost associated with participating in it and in which I've got enough game cash to rebuy even my more expensive ships several times over, it's pretty bizarre that I've never found the motivation to even dip my toe in the water.
Your post made me realise, it's basically because the game just doesn't give me any
reason to do it.
For most of my usual gameplay, a properly built PVP ship is about as much use as an ashtray on a motorbike. Forget engineering requirements as they are now (pre-3.0) that doesn't even enter the equation to be honest - I've done grinding before in games and if the underlying motivation was there I could have done it in this game. Most of the time I'm not looking for combat when I play and although OK, I
might run some missions that require it like assassinations or massacres, I don't need to use anything resembling a PVP-capable combat ship for those.
I don't fly around in shieldless ships or anything and although not all of my ships have weapons, they're all either built to be able to engage in combat or built to be able to evade it but regardless, every one of them would need significant compromises that would affect their effectiveness at doing the job I'm trying to do in them in order to make them viable for PVP. Note, by PVP I don't mean submitting and high-waking because that's not PVP, it's avoiding PVP. I mean actually taking on someone who interdicts me.
So given that there's pretty much no situation that would see me just flying around in a PVP capable ship whilst enjoying my everyday gameplay, that leaves us with gameplay that could prompt me to jump into a specifically built PVP ship.
So yeah. Where is it?
Powerplay is where I thought it would be when I started playing. Then I actually read up on it and realised that much of it has nothing to do with combat and is basically hauling. Considering that A > B trading is probably the activity you're least likely to find me doing, not a promising start. Then we have undermining, OK this is combat related. Oh but what's this, you can also do that in private or solo, against NPCs only?
Riiiiight. So basically, the only content the game provides which is even close to being specifically aimed at PVP can also be done without engaging in PVP at all and since it's obviously far easier against NPCs, the only things you change by doing it in open and looking for PVP are:
1) You significantly reduce the number of potential targets
2) You significantly increase the potential difficulty of any encounter
3) Due to both of those things, you ensure that you're going to be much less effective at it than someone doing it in private or solo
It's the last one that's the killer. 1) Isn't a problem if you're specifically looking for PVP because it doesn't matter how many NPCs are flying around, that's not what you're looking for anyway. 2) Is not only not a problem if you're looking for PVP, it's the entire point of it. 3) Is a problem though because the whole point of Powerplay is that it's supposed to be competitive, so you're in a situation of having to
deliberately reduce your effectiveness at what you're trying to do in order to incorporate PVP.
All of which is the reason that I've always maintained PVP is either a complete afterthought in this game, or a victim of the game being designed by a company who admit they had no experience whatsoever with online gaming back at day one. The game actually provides disincentives for PVP in almost every conceivable situation.
