Another Open Only Suggestion.

[Viajero]

First off, I love Elite, it's the only Sci Fi game out there with a solid grounding in reality. I adore that and it helps me relate to and understand the game.

However, this realism puts folks off as they endlessly complain about the distances and the scale citing games with 120KM diameter worlds as better and those just plain mess with my obsessive scientific nature. I believe that they're complaining about distance and scale because the golden goose that this game has.. had to offer is the emergent gameplay facilitated by the BGS, Interstellar initiatives and powerplay.

These changes would be the deal maker that would have me back in Elite for the Longhaul as I simply love this game, it's aesthetic, design, grounded sense of reality and it's light application of handwavium. However, I find myself unable to invest in the game anymore as I got my ship, I got my engineering and I got good, my friends and I got so good that many of the pilots and groups we fought simply switched play modes.

However, Most any input you have can be mitigated by folks behind an invisible barrier, I've heard all the arguments and I won't be checking back to hear them all again about how wrong and stupid I am, I know you're going to say it.

My suggestion for the perfect Elite Dangerous as it is now:

Powerplay, straight up, Open Only. You can go PG and you can go SOLO to collect rewards but any cargo, any fighting, any hostile actions have to be done in Open Only. Killing enemy power NPC's in Solo or PG should net no merits and no influence, simply bounties or bonds.

Missions collected and conducted in Open should reward influence for that faction as well as cash and reputation. Missions conducted in wing should do so to a greater degree in open to reward playing with your friends, not punish it.
Missions conducted in Solo and PG should give cash rewards and rep but no faction influence.

Exploration should be entirely unaffected by play modes as it is perfect to do solo, with friends or just to relax.

I believe this arrangement with some fine tuning and finishing would accommodate all play styles and yes, some folks would have to compromise but really what's the point in having competitive elements when server limitations and game modes entirely remove the competition from them.

The only real changes to people's game play this would make is you couldn't be in Private or Solo installing a power, faction or superpower that you want, under the noses of everyone who doesn't want it without repercussion. You can still earn money, you can still grind rank, you can still explore, engineer, dogfight, all that and more in private and solo but you can't flag up for PvP and then go AWOL.

I personally do not have many issues with PP being Open only to be honest. Although my preferred option so to not block players from content would be to make PP played in Open to have a certain extra % markup in terms of PP related merits/results progress so there is a clearly stronger incentive to play it in open. Monetary or module rewards kept at the same level for any mode though.

I would not mind that potential compromise extended to the BGS too actually.

 

[CMDR Jowley]

I want my Cobra Mk IV, i demand it to be unlocked.
<insert whatever rational or irrational reason>

Haha!

These are different though.

OP, I think I agree. If you want to mess with a faction another player should be able to stop that.

 

[lenna]

Powerplay, straight up, Open Only. You can go PG and you can go SOLO to collect rewards but any cargo, any fighting, any hostile actions have to be done in Open Only. Killing enemy power NPC's in Solo or PG should net no merits and no influence, simply bounties or bonds.

Too late for that - besides which what you are talking about is tantamount to GTA-Online locking the Enterprise mechanic behind open-only except with an end effect that affects everyone else. In short, given the shared universe state across all modes-instances-platforms your idea would ultimately solve nothing and only serve to irritate at least some existing gamers.

Missions collected and conducted in Open should reward influence for that faction as well as cash and reputation. Missions conducted in wing should do so to a greater degree in open to reward playing with your friends, not punish it.
Missions conducted in Solo and PG should give cash rewards and rep but no faction influence.

Fundamentally disagree - your idea flies in the face of the shared universe state.

Exploration should be entirely unaffected by play modes as it is perfect to do solo, with friends or just to relax.

Don't disagree, but irrelevant given the overall context of what you are presenting.

Ultimately, your idea is ED should be Open Only period except for exploration - which is a ridiculous concept and flies in the face of why some of us bought the game in the first place. The simple fact that we can choose who we wish to play with without sacrificing gameplay options is what sold me on ED in the first place, if this design feature EVER changes I would be pushing FD for a full refund of all the real-world money I have paid them regarding ED plus interest.

[EDIT]The only exception to this would be the addition of PvP focused mechanics that are open only and do not affect the single shared universe state outside of Open Mode.[/EDIT]

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

He doesn't know what he's talking about.

This is true generally.

However, I’ve always had the subscription to PP+ (so my kids could get free games), I’m actually horrified that all this time I’ve also been given access to online games because of it.

It was more that it would never have been an issue for me to notice because I have just always had the subscription.

He also doesn't have any bugs on PS4 either. He must have the magical unicorn edition.

I have some bugs but not the ones you have, none that break the game.

 

[Nasc]

Last time I played open I had to wait 20+ mins just to get docking permission for an engineer. And on the way to the pad I was crashed into by a number of ships.
I'd rather be antisocial and solo then get screwed over by 'elite' players.

 

[Janette Vasquez]

Last time I played open I had to wait 20+ mins just to get docking permission for an engineer. And on the way to the pad I was crashed into by a number of ships.
I'd rather be antisocial and solo then get screwed over by 'elite' players.

There was no indication in what I said that Engineering would be affected. I rather implied the opposite by leaving it out of any kind of suggestion or restriction, a huge portion of the game should be accessible in all play modes, there just needs to be a competitive element that can't be cheated by switching play modes, that or the game needs to pick a lane: Content that stands on it's own merit with optional multiplayer or genuine always on risk by forced multiplayer leading to emergent gameplay.

 

[Janette Vasquez]

EDIT]The only exception to this would be the addition of PvP focused mechanics that are open only and do not affect the single shared universe state outside of Open Mode.[/EDIT]

So none of the mechanics currently that affect everyone elses game should be locked to open only but a mechanic should be introduced that affects no one elses game and is open only? It's that kind of logic that saw things like multi crew become a redundant feature the moment it was launched.

 

[Wolf Starslayer]

No effect from the shadows. Open only all the thingz !

 

[Old Duck]

No effect from the shadows. Open only all the thingz !

Wait, are you saying shadows are Open-only?

 

[Han Zulu]

My vote:
Power play in Open Only - yes. And remove the reward modules and put them into some other mechanics.
BGS in Open Only - no.

 

[Misty_Dark]

No effect from the shadows. Open only all the thingz !

Why? I can be working against you in Open and there would in essence be NOTHING you could do against me...

• The easiest way, is to pick the platform you are not playing on...good luck trying to stop me then.
• The other obvious thing, is to play when you are at work/school/etc, it is hard to stop someone that isn't playing at the same time as you.
• I pick my own fringe system, you probably have noticed, and work my way here, how would you stop me doing it at an unknown place?
• I block you in game, this will almost certain keep us apart, so I can go about my business and block anyone that thinks I am interresting in PvP... and you would be none the wiser...
• Network issues, caused by ISP's, that prevents players from instancing with other players...

So please tell me how open only would solve these imaginary issues, that have made up, and then go on in details how you being able to see/interact with me in Open is going to help you to stop what I am doing? Without it coming back negative on you... Lets I aim to invade your "home" system with my minor faction... how would it help your faction if you keep killng me? Please explain how that would work... And then go on with all the other actions... and explain how pew-pew the opposition would be practical way to counter the oppositions work, do not forget that you have to account for 3 platforms, timezones, block list, network issues and explain how you overcome these issues.

 

[Velixar]

So Janette Vasquez are you going to pay for players who can't afford to pay to play in Open for stuff they can do in solo now? If not then your idea is a fails.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

DRINK

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

Why? I can be working against you in Open and there would in essence be NOTHING you could do against me...

• The easiest way, is to pick the platform you are not playing on...good luck trying to stop me then.
• The other obvious thing, is to play when you are at work/school/etc, it is hard to stop someone that isn't playing at the same time as you.
• I pick my own fringe system, you probably have noticed, and work my way here, how would you stop me doing it at an unknown place?
• I block you in game, this will almost certain keep us apart, so I can go about my business and block anyone that thinks I am interresting in PvP... and you would be none the wiser...
• Network issues, caused by ISP's, that prevents players from instancing with other players...

So please tell me how open only would solve these imaginary issues, that have made up, and then go on in details how you being able to see/interact with me in Open is going to help you to stop what I am doing? Without it coming back negative on you... Lets I aim to invade your "home" system with my minor faction... how would it help your faction if you keep killng me? Please explain how that would work... And then go on with all the other actions... and explain how pew-pew the opposition would be practical way to counter the oppositions work, do not forget that you have to account for 3 platforms, timezones, block list, network issues and explain how you overcome these issues.

You don't understand! If everything was Open-Only it would magically solve all those problems, fix instancing, the economy, and PvP balance and TTK, then we'd all be having epic space battles and running blockades and stuff.

The fact that it's perfectly possible to fly around in Open for hours and not meet a single other player is irrelevant.

 

[Velixar]

You don't understand! If everything was Open-Only it would magically solve all those problems, fix instancing, the economy, and PvP balance and TTK, then we'd all be having epic space battles and running blockades and stuff.

The fact that it's perfectly possible to fly around in Open for hours and not meet a single other player is irrelevant.

You don't understand if everything was open only. A lot of players would not be able to play Elite Dangerous.

 

[Skip Rockbounder]

Was a game where the player could keep as many save games as they wished and revert to any of them at any time "truly dangerous"?

Some of us... (and if you stick around long enough will include you) are feeble, old and arthritic, others have different mobility and or visual issues, perhaps we should just sit in our chairs waiting to die?
Some of us would have liked FDev to have continued along the original lines of Off line so we'd not be bothered by keyboard wiz kids, alas it's not to be, so telling us that the old Elite game was not dangerous is a moot point, many of us didn't get ED to be in danger (some of us have that in RL) some of us want to enjoy the game with all it's features to the best we can... on our equal preferred terms.

 

[dm06]

As solo player I'm OK with the suggestion. Because with these changes SOLO mode can be completely offline! yay!

 

[Delfino]

Powerplay in solo makes little sense. And I don't get the argument about subscription. It's like saying let's remove PvP because I need subscription. I don't really care about your subscription. It was your choice to buy a platform that requires subscription to play multiplayer. If you can't bear it play on PC.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Powerplay in solo makes little sense. And I don't get the argument about subscription. It's like saying let's remove PvP because I need subscription. I don't really care about your subscription. It was your choice to buy a platform that requires subscription to play multiplayer. If you can't bear it play on PC.

.... and it was each console player's choice to buy a game where there is no platform related subscription requirement to be able to affect the shared galaxy state, Powerplay, etc..

Just as it was Frontier's choice to offer such a game.

 

[Janette Vasquez]

And chew on this before you respond - if you insist I be in Open to play the BGS, then you better buy a PS4 if you're looking to use PvP combat to somehow thwart me. And let's face it, that's what this thread is really about, not the BGS, but rather forcing PvP on people not interested in it.

Not about forcing PvP, It's about making PvP, PvP. Affecting the gameplay of other players should be something that other players can affect. Running the BGS without a PvP option essentially comes down to running a big shieldless cargo ship and having more free time.

I also didn't exclusively say it was about the BGS, more about Powerplay being a PvP gameplay mode since almost the entire rest of the game functions without power play.

Well that what the console users have to deal with. I don't think people like the OP cares.

It was a suggestion aimed at PC, I didn't know the limitations of console but given that most console players that have responded seem to be dismissive, it's not much incentive to consider the console plight. Frontier didn't have to release the game on Console, they could have focused on the PC and expanding that but the choice to go Console I suppose would mean inherent limitations in the games design and complexity, Frontier would rather go with pleasing the lowest common denominator instead of taking the riskier move of selling to a niche market.

On reflection I see that Frontier's business model is to " play it safe " and also cast that game plan as far and wide as they can rather than focus a niche. Shame, I guess Elite just wasn't the right game for me after all and to hope for it to change is futile Ah well At least I've got Starfinder.