My experience with gaming, RPGs and the like, tells me that once you hit max level, and get into some gear, basic environmental NPC's are no threat at all. If you play the Mechwarrior, WoT type games, where all there are is maps and other players, you don;t see that I guess. But, I would have to agree with Stigbob, and Babelfisch, once you have an established max level character, MoBs are nothing. Pretty much the same in E|D.
Do "purple-haired heroes" scare everyone into Solo?
My experience with gaming, RPGs and the like, tells me that once you hit max level, and get into some gear, basic environmental NPC's are no threat at all. If you play the Mechwarrior, WoT type games, where all there are is maps and other players, you don;t see that I guess. But, I would have to agree with Stigbob, and Babelfisch, once you have an established max level character, MoBs are nothing. Pretty much the same in E|D.
Its really simple, ED is entirely optional entertainment. If you don't enjoy your choices you are making the wrong ones, game changes don't effect that sort of pebcak through a refusal to adapt.
The flip-side of that being listen to the enthusiastic people when it comes to hobbies. Which is why whenever I want to know anything Thargoid related I ask Factabulous.
Which in a nutshell is why I think the forum undead are equal parts hilarious and very sad indeed.
Discover that anyway they are valid to have fun that the most important of the Elite
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
PvE is the same in every game mode. The challenge posed by players may be completely absent, through player choice.
Frontier have not chosen to set the challenge posed by the PvE game at the same level as that posed by players - and they are "well aware" that the majority of players don't get involved in PvP.
.... because I expect that Frontier permitted authors to use artistic licence outwith the more important parts of lore.
FPS games you get access to bigger guns/better armor as you go so they generally get easier as well.
Take the stalker games as an example you start out with a Makarov and a hoodie and end up in an exoskeleton with a railgun.
In my experience the enemies / difficulty also scale though which results in a rather linear experience.
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
Totally agree here. I respect that it is hard to do it well enough that it happens naturally without looking obvious however that is the task FD are challenged with. Make the environment challenging for all players regardless of "level" at the same time not putting players off AND keeping any gamey parts like auto levelling of AI behind the curtain so we don't see it.
The 1st part of this must surely be looking at security level of systems and rebalancing those.
Deleted member 192138
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Low cost=low bounty. The Chief is a highly underrated murder boat. Shame that shield and hull mechanics in an age of engineering experimentals and power play weapons basically kills the Chief from competitive play against anyone that's come decently prepared.
I did not claim there are no games that do that. I claimed, if games are designed like that, they get boring quickly.
Agreed, since there is no PvE and a pure matchmaking based MP.
And is that good, while at the same time playing in open can be a thread on an entirely different level?
Is this some kind of meta argument?
A well designed game makes the player use his personal skills and the provided in-game tools and mechanics in order to overcome challenges. If the tools are not suited for the tasks or broken or if the player skills don't matter, because the game provides a simple way of overcoming challenges making all other options redundant, it can be a frustrating experience, it certainly is not a good one.
To be perfectly clear here, I am only referring to game design. What you advise is, defeating the purpose of a number of game mechanics and ignoring designed content. I mean you can always impose limitation on your game style, and this is fine, but it should not be necessary to have fun in a game. To come back to the main point, FDev should close the gap between PvP encounters and PvE encouters, and make sure no one has to apply self-imposed limitations in order to have fun in this game.
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Enemy scaling is usually via numbers because its easier.
I only play in solo when I can't play with friends - like if I'm playing in the same room while the wife is watching TV, or if I'm on the treadmill.
When I can play with friends I play in PG, since at my old age I have no time for greifers, and no desire to play PvP (especially since kids like Harry Potter play for hours every day)
I mean honestly, after a long day at work I don't want to lose any credits to some youngster dodging work ;-)
Even the first Doom game, scaled difficulty by mixing different and adding stronger enemy types, while at the same time providing you with more and different weapons. That way opening up the choices the player can and has to make in order to survive. Later Fps games, like CoD, threw that design choice out of the window, by restricting enemy and weapon variety and leaving the player with a lot less meaningful choices.
I did not propose this. I will now stop repeating myself answering straw man arguments.
Again, you should read or listen Drew's interviews. But it does not matter in the end, because even in-game the game world is portrait with war, piracy, shady military practices, political conspiracy and slavery. Are we really arguing about this?
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Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
From memory that was achieved using a difficulty setting. Something that is omitted from multi-player games for obvious reason.
Yes, but on-top of said mechanics. What is next, will we start argueing that 1+1 equals 2?
How to survive in Open - watch the videos, build a 'better' but less suited to task ship, practice, keep an eye on radar and contacts, don't let em get behind you, loop of shame if necessary, submit & high wake if necessary....You do realise you've turned avoidance skill into a pure repetitive process and I don't play the game to play processes?....or RP you've done these things and just play in the mode you prefer and do 4 more trips per hour chatting to other people working together?
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
I didn't read a proposal - just a question as to the relative challenge posed by the game modes.
Arguing about the quantum not the existence of these things in-game.
Nah - that's far too hard a topic for a Sunday morning.
Then tell me, what kind of dedicated game mechanics good and peaceful systems in ED have?
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Relative peace and quiet to go about ones chosen business - generally unbothered by the attentions of NPCs.
For me, surviving in Open is not the problem (usually). I survived three consecutive attacks by an FDL against my shieldless Hauler, and I didn't even go in for repairs between interdictions. However, this is because I was purposefully "fishing" for griefers, acting as a decoy so serious traders might have a better chance getting through. If I were trying to run the trade route myself, I would grown weary of this gameplay mighty quick. Nor would I have tried this in my very expensive (for me right now) T9.
This is all in the context of the CG, where there are literally DOZENS of gankers swarming SC. If I'm running cargo in a random part of the Bubble, then encountering the occasional purple doesn't bother me, nor does it break my immersion like the absolute silliness happening at the CG right now in Open. I just signed up for Mobius (waiting for approval) specifically for CGs like this, because it's just immersion-breaking mayhem in Open.
Disclaimer - the situation has evolved since I first posted my OP. NOW I do agree with those saying that escorts would somewhat pointless, because the current ganker-to-trader ratio is very unbalanced. I guess I was lucky when I got to have enjoyable and effective escort duty early on in the Interstellar Initiative, when there were more traders and protectors than purples. But to everyone still finding purpose and fun at this CG in Open, cheers!