How to avoid Gankers.

[Rat Catcher]

I saw you in that FDL at one of the Engineer bases. Gotta say... had a hell of a smirk on my face.

Lovely post. Happy to have you out here, buddy.

I told it as it is - way too much fun out that way to be had

Well, you carelessly left the Coriolis build specs of yours lying around...

 

[Phisto Sobanii]

BGS, powerplay and squadrons were never meant for pvp IMO... You have too many factions, and too many powers, to have meaningful pvp chokepoints around those features. I guess Colonia gameplay makes sense in that context.

I take the "Author is Dead" approach here. Whatever was intended these mechanics lead to some really excellent organic experiences. Whether that's PvP in the strictest sense of the word or not I don't care. It's just too cool.

 

[Bigmaec]

I always used to play in mobius/solo as I really didn't want to be 'bothered' with socialising. It was fine and I have no complaints regarding either mode. with a couple of CG's I've flown a trade ship in open until noticed, interdicted and blown up - then returned to PG/solo and gone on playing - having given a PvP'er some 'content' and had a little fun myself.

Recently a suggestion was put forward from a known 'ganker' as an alternative CG - boost the engineers in Colonia - not a massive take-up on that offer, sadly, but I offered to come along and do my bit to help. Now I'm not suggesting those 'murderhobos' out there have gone soft, far from it, but there is a welcoming community there for those who wish to be part of it.

There are players who will see your hollow square and rush to 'greet' you (in a distinctly unfriendly way), there is arranged 'jousting' too, which even one such as I can join in and enjoy... (I'm at the top level of 'pensioner' play here - I was 30 when the original elite was released )

Strange though it may sound, I play in open now (apart from a recent trip, in a Cylon Taxi donated Sidey to Jameson) rather than PG/solo because of that community - and a serious reassessment of what I 'wanted' from this game. I BH NPC's in a Courier in Colonia, a seriously fun ship, it doesn't do that much damage but does bring a smile...

Those 'murderhobos' have shared their space, and plans for the future, and took the time to settle me in - thanks folks

How to avoid gankers? Don't ask me... (I'm just leaning how to fly my first FDL)

Awesome, I noticed your FdL in your sig... Looking forward to some friendly murderhoboing

 

[Rat Catcher]

Awesome, I noticed your FdL in your sig... Looking forward to some friendly murderhoboing

Never flown one before - so enjoying the 'difference' - and I'd love to

 

[Goose4291]

Awesome, I noticed your FdL in your sig... Looking forward to some friendly murderhoboing

You ain't gonna git me, suckas!

hits 2D powerplant with ratchet

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

I take the "Author is Dead" approach here. Whatever was intended these mechanics lead to some really excellent organic experiences. Whether that's PvP in the strictest sense of the word or not I don't care. It's just too cool.

Well I take the "Author is trying to damage control and just makes things a lot worse" approach myself. We'll see what's brewed for pvp, or putting an end to it, in 2020 I guess.

I'd agree on BGS. It was hand on heart co-opted by all the E-napoleons, seen as that was all we had at the time in terms of metric based dominance. Worse, FDev fuelled that by grading their interactiobs with PF based on how good they were at dominating the BGS.

But I think you're wrong with PP. It seems to be designed (at its heart) specifically for that kind of gameplay.

PP failed hard to condense players around contested systems, because there is far too many of them. Three powers were largely enough, instead of the many pirate/scientologist/space elf flavors we got.

 

[Phisto Sobanii]

You ain't gonna git me, suckas!

hits 2D powerplant with ratchet

Goose... I'm gonna need a Crazy Ivan.

 

[znôrt]

PP failed hard to condense players around contested systems, because there is far too many of them. Three powers were largely enough, instead of the many pirate/scientologist/space elf flavors we got.

could be. imo it did because of the disconnect between the spreadsheet and the action.

such gameplay has usually strategists and action figures that need to be tied together. the strategy part catched up pretty soon. action turned into a grind competition which just isn't fun. grinders just gonna grind and not create any engaging gameplay. frontier created that race, and very specifically promoted it with faction modules. but the grinder is not an action figure, it's the first job you loose to automation, hence bots took over.

making it open-only was the most admirable and brave suggestion sandro ever made. this could have brought the action to an interesting level. i doubt it would have worked straight away because of other issues, but it would have been a step in the right direction and no doubt would have stimulated the community. and eventually, if showing success, could have prompted for a fix of those issues.

but it wasn't meant to be.

 

[amadeus1171]

Being Social is good for the game and the community.

Being Alt-tabbed in a discord channel while watching Netflix on your other monitor in a system with high chance of hostile combat is bad for your virtual bank balance.

Don't kill the vegans; eat them. Yes, eat them alive. It's more humane. lmao

 

[Goose4291]

Goose... I'm gonna need a Crazy Ivan.

You do realise I'm an ex-submariner, right?

 

[amadeus1171]

You do realise I'm an ex-submariner, right?

I'm a Navy veteran. I could make a joke about bubble heads, but I won't. :-D

 

[Phisto Sobanii]

You do realise I'm an ex-submariner, right?

I did not! And I love that movie!

bromance intensifies

 

[Bigmaec]

I did not! And I love that movie!

bromance intensifies

Every end of the hour Goose makes a crazy ivan to starboard.

 

[Schmack]

Please qualify this accusation. What about my subjective opinion is 'inaccurate'? Either provide evidence or apologise and retract.

You do realize these forums aren't for formal debate, right? I mean, let's not break out the logical fallacies list when most discussion here is informal.

 

[[VR] M4st0d0n]

could be. imo it did because of the disconnect between the spreadsheet and the action.

such gameplay has usually strategists and action figures that need to be tied together. the strategy part catched up pretty soon. action turned into a grind competition which just isn't fun. grinders just gonna grind and not create any engaging gameplay. frontier created that race, and very specifically promoted it with faction modules. but the grinder is not an action figure, it's the first job you loose to automation, hence bots took over.

making it open-only was the most admirable and brave suggestion sandro ever made. this could have brought the action to an interesting level. i doubt it would have worked straight away because of other issues, but it would have been a step in the right direction and no doubt would have stimulated the community. and eventually, if showing success, could have prompted for a fix of those issues.

but it wasn't meant to be.

Open only would have been a disaster. It was not a brave and bold design decision, just a continuation of having the game as a service. It was also very trollish and poorly phrased with the "consensual pvp" stuff, and I know what I'm talking about. I imagine having those same bots consensually and organically parked 24/24 blocking each and every station pads.

 

[Schmack]

Organic pvp in Elite is certainly the most ridiculous way of using "organic" as an adjective. It got electrolytes too? Casual pvp while describing griefing is as ridiculous. It's just not working. Even Fallout 76, as disastrous as the game is, has a pvp switch.

Everytime people use those term, as well as "emergent" to describe a lack of feature leading to people turning on each other due to a lack of content, they should just slap their forehead and realize they became product evangelists, apologizing and trying to find and name virtues for a placeholder feature in a videogame with a development hiatus.

This is a good point, but what do you suggest PvPers do since they aren't developers and only can play the game they have available to them?

Ganking and griefing aren't the same things. If you are griefed by unwanted combat then you should absolutely fly in a different mode. Even PvPers though get ganked and being ganked isn't necessarily a negative experience, if you like that sort of thing and you aren't focused on PvE stuff.

 

[Schmack]

Yeah, it can be a cop-out; not as bad as "Git gud, scrub".

Some of the advice that I consider useful I've learned about situational awareness in avoiding encounters you aren't prepared for so far...
(should be obvious)
CMDRs are hollow blips on your radar; NPCs are predictable, CMDRs are not.
If you're doing PowerPlay and in hostile territory, be alert.
(maybe less obvious)
If a CMDR is "Wanted" or "Hostile" (if you PowerPlay), assume that it's accurate and keep your distance.
If you're in a social hotspot like a CG, Engineer, special system (e.g. Sol, Shinrarta Dezhra, etc), be extra alert, like you're walking down a dark alley.
If you see hardpoints deployed (triangle blip), keep you distance and stay alert.
If you're in Lawless / Anarchy space, stay alert.
If you see CMDRs in SuperCruise following, scanning, and especially interdicting other CMDRs, then yes, expect that it could happen to you as well.

Anything useful to add that can be generally or even situationally useful?

Careful with the dark alley analogy. It leads to hockey and basketball.

 

[Goose4291]

Careful with the dark alley analogy. It leads to hockey and basketball.

+1 infraction for playing a competitive sport

 

[znôrt]

Open only would have been a disaster.

why?

It was not a brave and bold design decision, just a continuation of having the game as a service. It was also very trollish and poorly phrased with the "consensual pvp" stuff, and I know what I'm talking about. I imagine having those same bots consensually and organically parked 24/24 blocking each and every station pads.

sandro trolling the community really doesn't sound like a thoughtful analysis on your part he tried. it was an attempt to salvage pp, and imo sandro had very little allies in that. the idea of pp being pvp centric in nature is sound, it's just that the pvp implementation was barely more than a tick in a box, not really functional. that was not sandro's fault (and he likely even lacked the insight).

the idea is good in theory, he was probably oblivious at the start of the difficulties it would bring up in practice. 24h pad blocking is just a trivial example. most devs knew that pvp has never been but a bolted on feature. he was right, the 'pvp ethos' in the game was there, braben himself had pontificated on this more than once, and it is how you would expect open conflict to work ... the implementation just doesn't cut it, so frontier themselves shot the idea down.

how much this had to do with sandro leaving has had me wondering since.

 

[Schmack]

The problem with open only is the difficulty following or participating in a storyline. If you want to follow the storyline with your group, and work on a goal, you cannot calculate the griefing that seems to substitute for legit role play in this game. An example would be someone flying 20K LY to grief someone doing a storyline mission and streaming it. The griefer would get more love here than the person trying to provide the content. So Solo or private has to exist. If we wanted Fortnite we would be playing that instead.