Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
If the proposal was of benefit to all players, not just those who play in Open then there might be less of an instinctive reaction against it.
Expose more info about solo/pg player actions in station info
- Thread starter Disemboweled Ego
- Start date
And yet better local information would undermine that...how exactly? This is about (for me at least) information regards movements across modes so whatever mode you are in, you know whats going on in what I thought was a shared BGS.
If I had better system information I would have saved huge amounts of guesswork and time when myself and Ben Ryder flipped nearly all of Utopia to be the first 100% aligned Power. This took the management of over 100 systems, all the time having to deal with faceless wars where again it was guesswork regards who was fighting us as a Power.
Harassment? How? None of what I'm asking for is anything less than whats already in the game now, just its exposed so we can see it. Not to mention FD have t&cs.
Back in 2015 I'd agree with you, but since then the BGS has become a much greater part of the game. Devs have opened up the black box and now most of it is known, bar the people who are participating.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Information relating to activity aggregated over the three game modes is already published by the game. The level of detail proposed, i.e. including CMDR names, goes too far IMO (YMOV).
The game does not make information at the level of detail proposed, as it relates to individual players, available to other players - only the player themself in their log files, which are not available to other players unless the player specifically chooses to make them available, i.e. it's opt-in. The proposal, like others before it, seeks to remove player choice.
Having Ts&Cs does not stop untoward events happening - facilitating those events is an avoidable mistake.
And to some thats not specific enough, or that the information provided is incredibly sparse existing in a barebones form.
Considering (other than ip details) the information generated is down to what that player is doing in game, the game that everyone has an effect on.
Well FD have rules regards harassment, language etc. Anything else is in game where anything goes in the shared BGS.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Indeed - everyone has an effect on the game, by design - and every single player has the ability to choose to play without other players and without other players knowing what they are doing. That this, like some other design decisions that Frontier have made, is in some way unsatisfactory to some players is neither here nor there - no player has any say in the matter of how others choose to play the game nor a right to know what they are doing in game.
So in essence then you are arguing that modes are unequal, and that its OK for some modes to be effectively anonymous in a game which involves a shared simulation, even though NPCs, NAVs etc scan you and do....nothing with that information? Compare that with Open where you can sight other commanders, and view what they do?
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
No need to argue - the three game modes which share the single galaxy mean that instancing with other players is an entirely optional extra in this game, as sold to us all, even if some of us don't like it. Playing in Open is another choice that some (but not all) players can and do make - it remains their choice.
Who is where is of no concern to anyone. This isn't stalking simulator. An activity report is all that is needed. Whodunit you can do with roleplay and chat.
Tuning back into Reality FM its very much important for groups and especially Powerplay groups to know where people are within their territory, since some groups / people do a lot of damage unchecked.
Sorry- what? This is not an issue of instancing, this is what players do in the game via the BGS and that for you its OK that some players can do activity anonymously while others can't.
Why do you keep wandering back to Open when this (at least from me) is nothing to do with Open, just evening out information in all modes re the BGS?
Could making things more transparent make those groups actually feel less threatened/intimidated by random traffic and thus less likely to not be as negative towards it - actually reducing the risk of harassment/unchecked BGS paranoia?
An activity report does the same thing and as any report it happens after the damage is done so I don't see how any personal info would add to the whole thing. You're not asking for just personal info - you're also asking for realtime info.
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
It is an issue of instancing - because only those who choose to instance with others can be in any way tracked in-game - and no player needs to make their log information available to anyone else, including through 3rd party apps.
The choice of whether to instance with other players, along with any consequences of instancing with other players (including any information as to where the player is or what they might be doing), remains with the player.
I'm asking to expose the data that already exists. Some players are well known enemies and seeing the name is enough to alert groups proactively rather than wait. Not everyone blows things up to attack.
Yes, in short. If you know who is doing what, you instantly cut out the finger pointing and weeks of angst. I certainly wish Powerplay did this.
There is no information gain from that bit of information. When you know there is someone doing something it doesn't matter who they are. You should bother how to counter it.
And besides: Why would this meta information even be in the game?
Robert Maynard
Volunteer Moderator
Ah - but it can be used to specifically target that player, either in-game or out of it.
Its not about instancing- this is about the data players generate that is fed into the BGS but the identity is masked. If someone does a mission thats affecting your faction, why is it you can't know who did it?