Do "purple-haired heroes" scare everyone into Solo?

[Old Duck]

No, it's pebcak.

Make an unstoppable killing machine, complain you are bored as its easy. Use the unstoppable killing machine against players who choose not to fight, complain nobody wants to PVP with you.

Min-maxing is like grinding the people who do it never actually seem to enjoy it and think its FDEV's fault they decided to do it.

At the very least, bored players could go nostalgic and fly only a Cobra rather than the oh so boring (due to its popularity) FDL. One can have their leveled up plebcake (wth is that?) and eat it too!

Yet I've only encountered one Cobra PvPer so far on PC, and he was an actual pirate, not a murder-hobo. I get the feeling he's having more fun because of this

 

[Morbad]

1. I am already immersed in that world as he describes. I admit I had a head start as I have been since 1984.

I don't feel that ED is presenting itself as an immersive world, but that it's gone increasingly out of it's way to feel like a game.

2. You misunderstand DB vision for what ED Universe is or will become, what the human bubble is / how it developed and what NPC/historic NPC people do or did within it and why. None of that is improved by PVP action, if anything it hinders it, a lot is improved by wing PVE actions. As imagined by DB I'm afraid.

That PvP/PvE dichotomy that keeps being emphasized is one of many factors that makes ED feel like a game within a game, rather than an experience that can immerse me in the role of my CMDR.

 

[Morbad]

At the very least, bored players could go nostalgic and fly only a Cobra

Not that long ago I spent all day flying my shieldless, unengineered, Cobra III around Shinrarta and Deciat:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5c9NDtrDAlE


Rather predictably, no one bothered me.

Yet I've only encountered one Cobra PvPer so far on PC, and he was an actual pirate, not a murder-hobo.

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=azhzkMW_m6o

 

[Stigbob]

At the very least, bored players could go nostalgic and fly only a Cobra rather than the oh so boring (due to its popularity) FDL. One can have their leveled up plebcake (wth is that?) and eat it too!

Yet I've only encountered one Cobra PvPer so far on PC, and he was an actual pirate, not a murder-hobo. I get the feeling he's having more fun because of this

I've been at deciat in my PVP sidewinder firing o7's at everyone who couldn't get out of the instance fast enough today, its super busy open is definitely not dying.

I don't buy the whole it's FDEV's fault the games unbalanced thing because thinking back over the last few years PVP'ers have told me that all of the following are strictly verboten :

Mode choice
High wake
Block
Speed build
Block
Seekers
Mode choice
Phasing sequence
Elite NPC SLF's
Having report crimes turned on
Mode choice
Block

So they do seem to be able to impose limits on themselves when it suits them (when they are not mat/cash gathering in solo), which sort of defeats the argument that its all FDEV's fault and they've got no choice. I suspect they'd rather just impose limits on other people, which isn't how you get someone to play video games with you.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Yes, and if I decided to stop one from reaching it's destination, or hijack one, I'd succeed almost by default.

Escaping the consequences for ambushing road freight would be the hard part, and is a big reason why it's too risky for this sort of thing to be common today. However, it's quite common in some places, and was common in wealthy nations in the not too distant past. Chicago had 30-40 hijackings a year during the depression and in today's Mexico there are several every day. It's not uncommon for a truck to be stopped, the driver to be killed, and the truck to be driven away by thieves.

Mexican truckers travel in fear as highway robberies bleed economy

Glancing constantly at his rear view mirror, truck driver "El Flaco" journeys the highways of Mexico haunted by the memory of when he was kidnapped with his security detail by bandits disguised as police officers two years ago.

www.reuters.com

More Mexican truckers are driving bulletproof big rigs to fight cargo theft

A growing number of Mexican truckers are armoring up their big rigs in order to keep their cargo safe from hijackers.

cdllife.com

I don't think there is supposed to be any equivalent to delivering TVs to Walmart, on safe well patrolled roads, in ED. Even short, single system routes, still require FTL travel and frequently feature NPCs that will try to stop you.

If this were the equivalent of modern freight within a highly developed nation, criminal interdictions would be virtually unheard of, and flying an unarmored, unescorted, transport would present very little risk, irrespective of mode. One would be safe, not because criminals were hopelessly incompetent, but because it was too dangerous for them to operate.

Most of the Elite setting is supposed to be reminiscent of times and places where one could be set upon by highwaymen or boarded by pirates/hijackers. Flying one of these unarmed, unarmored, trade vessels should be risky in most of the bubble and it's a gross failing of the game that this is not the case.

Problem there mate duck hit on.... Ok so Incan accept the risk for the trucker is meant to be more like wild west America..... But where is the risk for the billionaire "PvP" player with a god rolled ship?.
It is 1 thing to think perhaps the game is a little too easy from a pure PvE perspective but it is hugely blinkered to think there is ANY risk for a high level ship going up against even a well specced cargo ship.
A player playing in solo is exploiting holes I. Game Vance no more than a player in open with a top tier ship.
If you are in an engineered cutter you ONLY get blown up if you choose to.

 

[Old Duck]

Thinking back to my nostalgic Cobra example, in some ways this kinda proves that original Elite wasn't any more "dangerous" than ED, as some have proposed. I mean, I destroyed entire wings of Pythons, Anacondas, and FDLs in my humble E84 Cobra, and some Thargoids as well! Try that in today's Elite. Oh I'm sure someone will come on and boast how they took on a wing of 5 FDLs in their Cobra and won, but I'm not buying it.

I'm with @Stigbob on this, people choose easy-mode the minute they build their G5 FDLs. These FDL griefers are the true care bears, hiding in their fortresses. Give your credits to the poor and switch to a Cobra and see how you do. Frontier was right in giving the ships bounties instead of the players, because it's not player skill winning the day, it's the easy-mode ships you fly

 

[Deleted member 192138]

My Chieftain is much more efficient and takes much less skill for killing poorly fitted traders than my FDL, so there is that.

 

[Stigbob]

My Chieftain is much more efficient and takes much less skill for killing poorly fitted traders than my FDL, so there is that.

Well done you, I guess.

 

[Old Duck]

My Chieftain is much more efficient and takes much less skill for killing poorly fitted traders than my FDL, so there is that.

No NPC has bothered with my truck full of poo, since any sensible NPC has neither interest in poo nor starving to death (we're saving the galaxy from famine, after all). Only bored immersion-breaking CMDRs blow up ships for no reason at all, and thankfully you don't exist in my universe

Now if we get a proper PvP CG and we end up on opposite sides, you can blow me up all you want and I'll not complain!

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

My Chieftain is much more efficient and takes much less skill for killing poorly fitted traders than my FDL, so there is that.

It really is an excellent value.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

"Fair" would be filling buckets all in the same mode, where I could have the option of looking up from my milking station and seeing you at your milking station with your sleeves rolled up and sweat running down your face just working the heck out of those teats and say to myself "Godamm, is that CMDR Mohgran over there milking that cow??? He works for another faction and I don't want them having any of that milk!" dropping what I'm doing, grabbing my bazooka and blowing you, your bucket and your cow up. Or not.

So killing open and just playing PG or solo would be "fair" as well then?.
I dont want FD to do that but you need to realise that open is and always has been an optional mode for those who want it. Essentially ED is a competitive PvE game.
You are free not to like it..... But that is have it was advertised if you looked beyond the headline.
Now, I would love the environment to have more teeth and the AI to be a bit better (without cheating) but I am done with PvP games outside a bit of arena shooting .
This is even more so as long as engineering is going to be as overpowered as it is.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I don't really agree with any of this assessment. It fails to represent my position in so many ways that I'm at a loss as to where to begin to correct it.



Ideally, multiple accounts should not be allowed, especially if they seem to only exist for metagame purposes like BGS manipulation or cargo storage.



Balance or challenge at the expense of verisimilitude is not what I want.

I want a game, that, from the perspective of the character I'm playing, doesn't look like a game. Artifical balance or difficulty that stems from anything other than cause and effect, with some room for plausible levels of chance, is the opposite of this.

If the strings are too visible, or that forth wall too transparent, I'm going to view it as a problem.



How is security level supposed to work on a per-system basis when travel is so quick and easy?

Can barely patrol anything, can't really pursue anything...even the token difference in security we have already stretch the bounds of belief because we can all teleport 30ly in the blink of an eye. There is no strategic depth, so most assumptions regarding security based on any real-world analog aren't going to apply. Combine this with an utter lack of meaningful consequence, and it's no wonder that security level doesn't mean much.

This is mostly due to the fault of the game being multiplayer. It worked my h better in the original games because they used accelerarted time we didn't ping around the place in no time. At all

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I'm quite certain that it won't and that the problems I perceive with the direction the game has been going for the last four and a half years are all but set in stone, but that doesn't change my opinion.

I do feel you here and sympathise. I too wish the game was going in a different direction just not the one you want. I liked the DDF game much better

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

You’re supposed to be an ‘Elite’ when they issue that permit.

You’re expected to be competent enough to survive.

I am not elite but I fly there...... Sinrata is the home of the PF and in any sensible universe they would not want their members blowing each other up for giggles when they foot the bill for the ships

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

If you don’t have an Elite rank of any kind, but have access to Shinrarta, that probably means you’ve been around long enough to handle yourself.

Early backers have access to that sort of thing, correct?

It’s been like, five years, guys.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

If you don’t have an Elite rank of any kind, but have access to Shinrarta, that probably means you’ve been around long enough to handle yourself.

Early backers have access to that sort of thing, correct?

It’s been like, five years, guys.

I can handle myself in every way which matters in ED to the way I play the game. I do everything except PvP

 

[Robert Maynard]

If you don’t have an Elite rank of any kind, but have access to Shinrarta, that probably means you’ve been around long enough to handle yourself.

There's no requirement to "handle yourself" in PvP in this game - regardless of how long one has been playing.

 

[CMDR Cknarf]

You don’t have to be a PvP ace to be competent.

Glad you got things figured out.

The point I was trying to make, is it’s silly to go to a place where veteran players tend to congregate, and complain when something bad happens.

If you’re visiting Shinrarta, you should probably be prepared for whatever comes next.

 

[Robert Maynard]

The point I was trying to make, is it’s silly to go to a place where veteran players tend to congregate, and complain when something bad happens.

Indeed.

One should always choose a game mode that is appropriate for the experience that one wishes for that game session.

 

[Morbad]

But where is the risk for the billionaire "PvP" player with a god rolled ship?

There is no risk, no consequences, for almost anyone, but there should be.

I don't recall ever suggesting anything that would imply less risk for these types.

I'm with @Stigbob on this, people choose easy-mode the minute they build their G5 FDLs.

The game allowing this to constitute easy mode is a problem.

Difficulty should depend on one's actions, which dictate the reputation and profile of one's CMDR, as well as the apparent threat they represent. If the authorities, or the local pirate faction, know my CMDR is flying around in an advanced warship, they should take that into account, either avoiding him, or allocating resources that would rationally be able to drive off my CMDR or put him down...and if they accomplish the later, they should not buy back all his stuff for him, rearm him, and send him on his way after a five minute timeout.

It should be hard to get that G5 vessel without also accruing a certain degree of fame and notoriety, both of which should be liabilities at least as often as they are assets.

This is mostly due to the fault of the game being multiplayer.

The game could remain multiplayer while still have meaningful travel times and more opportunity for interaction.