A question: Are you a lone flyer or do you move with friends?

[Schmack]

I fly alone mostly because my work life is very travel heavy, I am all over the world. As such I cannot commit to a specific time or event. I just play when I can. I don't mind a few friends in the game though, someone who can either share in what I've found or point me toward their discovery. Sometimes you'd like to have that other commander there on pirate lord kill missions to deal with the pests. Lending a hand, that's what it's about. When you have enough credits and your ships are pretty much good to go, you can just look for opportunities to lend a hand.

This is one of the few games where you cannot just log in and begin playing with friends though, unless you all arranged it ahead of time. This is because the galaxy is huge and the odds you will be within a couple hundred light years from one another are slim. Most people don't feel compelled to hang around and wait while the other person jumps and scoops for 30 minutes or however long. They tried to provide some relief for that with multicrew but that's half baked. So you almost need to have a squad who has a schedule and a list of squad goals you can work toward. Since that sounds like work I wouldn't participate much. I also don't care for the discord or other talk methods online.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I work alone, yeah
With nobody else
I work alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I work alone
I prefer to be by myself.

Now every morning just before breakfast
I don't want no coffee or tea
Just me and good buddy Wiser
That's all I ever need.

'Cause I work alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I work alone
I prefer to be by myself.

Yeah, the other night I laid sleeping
And I woke from a terrible dream
So I caught up my pal Jack Daniel's
And his partner Jimmy Beam.

And we worked alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I work alone
I prefer to be by myself.

Yeah, the other day I got invited to a party
But I stayed home instead
Just me and my pal Johnny Walker
And his brothers Black and Red.

And we worked alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I work alone
I prefer to be by myself.

Yeah my whole family done give up on me
And it makes me feel oh so bad
The only one who will hang out with me
Is my dear old Granddad.

And we work alone, yeah
With nobody else
Yeah, you know when I work alone
I prefer to be by myself.

Yeah, you know when I work alone
I prefer to be by myself.

I work alone.

But play... I can, and I will play with others, when asked. I've come to the aid of others when they've asked, joined in bounty hunts because kill-stealing is just plain annoying to everyone, and there are fun games to play with others, like Interdiction Tag, or SRV racing. I'm also possessed of an excess of humor and I'm glad to share. Then there are times that it's just nice to say "Greetings" to someone half the galaxy away.

So, I suppose I'm a bit of both.

 

[DNA-Decay]

I am social animal.

Member of significant group.

Scores of ‘friends’ plenty of enemies.

I recognize CMDRs and am recognized.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Alone, in open, try to say hi to peeps, normally they dont reply. I shall persevere however. Fly safe in the black you crazy kids!

People prolly think I am rude. I rarely reply to folk, but it is because I usually miss their hails and playing in VR the text Comms is a pita, and I don't to mic chat in general

 

[Arry]

I have been looking for an answer and this thread came up, after my search.

So. Friend requests, within the game: How do we find out any information, about the one requesting, to become our friend? I mean there is nothing and so they could be anybody; from a generous benefactor to a serial killer. Some form of profile clue would be good; because we don't even know what faction, or power that they work for. All we have is a name.

I ask, because the way I see it is this. Having some one as friend in the game, is a simple means of tracking them etc. with all that entails.

 

[Iskariot]

I tried doing a few missions with other players and came to the conclusion that I find playing with/against the game to be much more satisfying.

In my own defense, I didn't grow up in the Internet Generation where sharing keystrokes with a stranger makes them a 'friend'. Right.

I would much prefer NPCs on my ships who can take orders and fly cover during missions. But that's just me.

That is not just you. A lot of gamers feel that way.

 

[RamirezKurita]

Generally alone, it's not often that any of my 3 ED friends are online when I am and whenever one of them is online there's a good chance that we are not within 200 ly of each other and/or not aiming to do the same activity.

 

[Mohrgan]

I've had both experiences, and I prefer to fly alone. I am not on a steady schedule, so I can't/won't be available at regular times. I share the living room while I play so discord is troublesome. But, mostly I want to be able to do what I like, and when. I have other games for that group-up stuff.

 

[Codger]

I'm a lone wolf. I'm much too headstrong to follow anyone else, and too chaotic (or slow) for others to wish to follow me. Except for my wife. She's the one exception, lol.

 

[Marco Santos]

Loner so far...

 

[Druner]

I played with friends on ps4 but they mostly stopped playing.
Hoping 2020 update brings them back.
Some said are only comming back once space-legs are implemented.

 

[Rampant]

Elite Dangerous, for me, is a solo venture.
That doesn't mean I fly in Solo mode, because I don't...
Although I do tend to eschew Open in favour of Mobius and for the time being, on my return trip from Beagle Point, the PS4 DW2 PG.
The reasons are 2-fold.
Firstly, I don't like any other MMO or PvP shooter game. In fact I'd really hate them. And for me, as an original '84er, the Elite galaxy is a single pilot endeavour. I have winged up on my PC account in the past, but only really for HazRes sites so that nobody is "kill stealing" and everyone gets the bounty no matter how you fly in that wing... But a wing is only a temporary arrangement and I'll go back to single pilot endeavours as a matter of course.
Secondly, less of a mindset "issue" and more of a practical limitation is that I am UK based and normally fly between 0530 and 0645 weekdays, before getting ready for work, when not many players are online. Weekend game time could be anywhere between 0700 and 1000, when I'm free of real life commitments...

Single player ops suits my mindset better, do those game times work on both a practical and personal level.

Yours Aye

Mark H

 

[Bloodsign]

I have been looking for an answer and this thread came up, after my search.

So. Friend requests, within the game: How do we find out any information, about the one requesting, to become our friend? I mean there is nothing and so they could be anybody; from a generous benefactor to a serial killer. Some form of profile clue would be good; because we don't even know what faction, or power that they work for. All we have is a name.

I ask, because the way I see it is this. Having some one as friend in the game, is a simple means of tracking them etc. with all that entails.

That's why I always have Inara up on my phone while I fly. It's sort of like the Pilots' Federation database for serious CMDRs. Serious CMDRs will likely have an account there.

BTW, all you lone wolves are welcome to join the Order of the Prismatic Sparrow; we make no demands on our CMDRs' time or activities. It is only expected that you stay friendly with Aisling and oppose ganking.

 

[Bloodsign]

When it's just me and loyal NPC followers, the whole team (of up to 4) knows exactly what the plan is. And unlike humans, NPCs usually follow orders. Usually....

What I would give for Dragon's Dogma's pawn system (that's what they call NPC followers) in ED!

Great game. Only thing I didn't like about it was the stagnant pawn levels, forcing you to swap them out regularly (except for your main).

 

[Chaparral]

Alone except for BH or CZ CGs - usually wing up with randos. My 4 close friends that used to play have long since burned out and have moved on to other things. I totally agree with Duck, this game needs onboard npcs.

 

[Riverside]

I have been looking for an answer and this thread came up, after my search.

So. Friend requests, within the game: How do we find out any information, about the one requesting, to become our friend? I mean there is nothing and so they could be anybody; from a generous benefactor to a serial killer. Some form of profile clue would be good; because we don't even know what faction, or power that they work for. All we have is a name.

I ask, because the way I see it is this. Having some one as friend in the game, is a simple means of tracking them etc. with all that entails.

You don't need to accept or deny a friend request straight away. If you think it might be someone with an ulterior motive and you are concerned about revealing the location of a system you have an interest in just fly to another system & accept the friend request, then send them an o7 & a polite query. You can always un-friend them again

I get unsolicited friend requests occasionally, usually I just google their Cmdr name & if nothing comes up I'll do the above. I value my privacy but sometimes I get people wanting to chat about some system I tagged or something, it's usually benign.

 

[Stealthie]

S'funny...

I like to be a very social player, I'm always quite happy to stop what I'm doing and go and help somebody with whatever they want to do, and I wish ED had more stuff that required co-op play to accomplish objectives.

But, OTOH, I spend 99% of my time either doing my own thing or actively declining offers to go and do co-op stuff or join wings/squadrons.

I dunno.
If there was more "structured co-op" gameplay in ED I'd be more interested in participating.
As it is, I'm just not really interested in doing stuff with other people that could just as easily be done alone.

If there were missions where you had to, for example, raid a surface base and one player had to take out a generator and then deal with defending ships while another player went inside with an SRV or, perhaps, raid an orbital installation and one player had to shoot/hack something on the outside of the station to open/close internal doors so another player could reach some objective then I'd be all over those missions like a rash.

 

[Lightspeed]

If there were missions where you had to, for example, raid a surface base and one player had to take out a generator and then deal with defending ships while another player went inside with an SRV or, perhaps, raid an orbital installation and one player had to shoot/hack something on the outside of the station to open/close internal doors so another player could reach some objective then I'd be all over those missions like a rash.

That's how DB presented it when Horizons was launched .... co-operative attacks on bases.

 

[Bloodsign]

Having large overarching grandiose plots and adventures seems to be the best way to pull CMDRs together in ED from what I've seen. I'd like to see more of this. I wish FDev could orchestrate some PP interfaction wars occasionally, where Powerplay factions, instead of just being in "rival" mode like we usually see, go into a sort of curated all-out war. After a couple months, based on CMDR involvement, a winner is decided and the faction standings adjust significantly based on the war's outcome. I'd like to potentially see PP factions losing half their territory as part of cease-fire treaties. You know, make the stakes high enough to be interesting.

 

[ebbrell]

This game is best with others, don't get me wrong alone stuff is good. But seeing multiple cmdrs in game is best.

I see other from my squadron all the time, which is very good indeed