You are making an assumption here regarding me, specifically - I don't fear any other pilots
I don't want my time to be wasted by someone else, and that is the end result for me regardless of who is the victor. If I want to PvP, then I will load up the game with that express intent, and engage in it.
Otherwise, it's just in my way, and not of interest to me.
Riôt
Even if PP were limited to Open, some players would still be able to do those activities "without the possibility of being opposed" due to the issues with instancing. Players who are physically far away probably won't be placed in your "instance", so you'll have no opportunity to oppose them. It's difficult to get in the same instance with friends you want to play with.
When I'm returning to the bubble with MONTHS of exploration data, I'm not sure any reasonable bonus multiplier would tempt me into Open. I might do it for a 1000x bonus, but then I'd carefully select a lonely outpost somewhere on the fringes of the bubble. It's unlikely I'd meet any player that way and that sort of bonus would probably knock the exploration rewards seriously out of balance.
Frontier already tried this. 2.1. MoM's changes were strong. People who never considered their ship's survival important (because they had never had to) suddenly did - these changes crossed all modes remeber. AI had an actual rudimental challenge curve; which is normal in every other game I've ever played. The player base, clearly, did not believe "challenge" should exist in Elite. Even when the edge-case engineering garbage was resolved, nope, nerf the AI because they are actually a problem (which they should have always been at times) and this is unacceptable.
Frontier tried an experiment; making the de facto mode a free-for-all. Most other MMO's will actually split PVE and PVP; because this allows both to be better tailored. But that has time and costs associated. It's also not Braben's vision of people experiencing his vision and ignoring each other to just be in awe of the BGS and universe; honestly, David seems a great guy but I can't help but get the impression players are a bit of an impost (some of us probably are, to be fair, including myself).
I'm not sure if the developer was (partly) deluded, or just naive. But this is what we now have; and the odds of that fundimentally changing, well I'd not bet on it. But; for whatever reason, Frontier has this almost flawless knack for sitting on an issue, for so long, when they do eventually decide it's worth progressing a solution for, people have long since adopted the status quo and will therefore resist any change.
There's is a flawed belief that "if AI were just as good as players", it'd solve all the issues. I used to believe that as well. But it's wildly apparent that the player-base is pretty intractable and this sort of change would never last. Frontier are capable of amazing work and I am still, at times, caught by how good a lot of the game is.
But there's one universal constant; Frontier developed a FFA game, then ignored that decision for 4 years; and in fact added their own voice to mocking and deriding open as a bad place to be. In so doing, they cemented the notion that anyone in open is a universal bad egg. When even the developer is a bit guilty of finger-pointing rather than recognise it's a huge area for improvement and actually pledge early on to solve that; it does set a bit of a tone. They mean well. But Frontier, and Elite, is not going to be a good time for a while.
I think 3.0 is their chance to actually, fundimentally reset the game (from a mechanics standpoint) and focus more on the experience. I fear, however, they're once again buried in the minutia, and how important that experience has always been, will once again die on the pyre of "complex solutions to problems no-one actually has" followed by "this isn't working as intended, even though it did last week" and now the new "the mechanics have been disabled whilst we solve the problem" - which has caused quite a lot of grief.
All of which, is happening in live.
There is a lot of good in the new C&P. And there is a lot of good in the challenge curves in the Thargoid and so on. But a lot of that is wasted on how the experience is being eroded in the pursuit of trying to deliver a vision, regardless of whether that's the one the player base shares.
In essence, the OP, Frenotx, is speaking to the experience. It's the one thing Frontier still hasn't got a solid handle on. Instead of the developer embracing it's community and seeking deliver an experience, leveraging solid concepts and reworking clearly repeated trends into the experience, they're too busy playing whack-a-mole and turning stuff off. Because it's not what they want. Commanders agitating is an automatic give-in; but it's still FDev pulling the trigger.
I'm still playing, massively reduced hours tho (I've gone from streaming it pretty much 7 days a week, to about 3-4); but only a few of my friends are; many are moving on. The number one reason? The inconsistent experience, and the willingness for the developer to just crush any creative approaches, rather than maybe consider they could be reworked to provide a better experience. Mostly, I think they are just tired of being the whacked mole.
Frontier's fast-and-loose approach to solving issues with as much dramatic change as possible, has become exhausting. I don't think the op is alone in their thinking. Not by a long shot.
Frontier already tried this. 2.1. MoM's changes were strong. People who never considered their ship's survival important (because they had never had to) suddenly did - these changes crossed all modes remeber. AI had an actual rudimental challenge curve; which is normal in every other game I've ever played. The player base, clearly, did not believe "challenge" should exist in Elite. Even when the edge-case engineering garbage was resolved, nope, nerf the AI because they are actually a problem (which they should have always been at times) and this is unacceptable.
Frontier tried an experiment; making the de facto mode a free-for-all. Most other MMO's will actually split PVE and PVP; because this allows both to be better tailored. But that has time and costs associated. It's also not Braben's vision of people experiencing his vision and ignoring each other to just be in awe of the BGS and universe; honestly, David seems a great guy but I can't help but get the impression players are a bit of an impost (some of us probably are, to be fair, including myself).
I'm not sure if the developer was (partly) deluded, or just naive. But this is what we now have; and the odds of that fundimentally changing, well I'd not bet on it. But; for whatever reason, Frontier has this almost flawless knack for sitting on an issue, for so long, when they do eventually decide it's worth progressing a solution for, people have long since adopted the status quo and will therefore resist any change.
There's is a flawed belief that "if AI were just as good as players", it'd solve all the issues. I used to believe that as well. But it's wildly apparent that the player-base is pretty intractable and this sort of change would never last. Frontier are capable of amazing work and I am still, at times, caught by how good a lot of the game is.
But there's one universal constant; Frontier developed a FFA game, then ignored that decision for 4 years; and in fact added their own voice to mocking and deriding open as a bad place to be. In so doing, they cemented the notion that anyone in open is a universal bad egg. When even the developer is a bit guilty of finger-pointing rather than recognise it's a huge area for improvement and actually pledge early on to solve that; it does set a bit of a tone. They mean well. But Frontier, and Elite, is not going to be a good time for a while.
I think 3.0 is their chance to actually, fundimentally reset the game (from a mechanics standpoint) and focus more on the experience. I fear, however, they're once again buried in the minutia, and how important that experience has always been, will once again die on the pyre of "complex solutions to problems no-one actually has" followed by "this isn't working as intended, even though it did last week" and now the new "the mechanics have been disabled whilst we solve the problem" - which has caused quite a lot of grief.
All of which, is happening in live.
There is a lot of good in the new C&P. And there is a lot of good in the challenge curves in the Thargoid and so on. But a lot of that is wasted on how the experience is being eroded in the pursuit of trying to deliver a vision, regardless of whether that's the one the player base shares.
In essence, the OP, Frenotx, is speaking to the experience. It's the one thing Frontier still hasn't got a solid handle on. Instead of the developer embracing it's community and seeking deliver an experience, leveraging solid concepts and reworking clearly repeated trends into the experience, they're too busy playing whack-a-mole and turning stuff off. Because it's not what they want. Commanders agitating is an automatic give-in; but it's still FDev pulling the trigger.
I'm still playing, massively reduced hours tho (I've gone from streaming it pretty much 7 days a week, to about 3-4); but only a few of my friends are; many are moving on. The number one reason? The inconsistent experience, and the willingness for the developer to just crush any creative approaches, rather than maybe consider they could be reworked to provide a better experience. Mostly, I think they are just tired of being the whacked mole.
Frontier's fast-and-loose approach to solving issues with as much dramatic change as possible, has become exhausting. I don't think the op is alone in their thinking. Not by a long shot.
