While there are three modes, it's not really possible for some to get the experience they want from any of them. I mean, Open is great for seeing other players and meeting new people, but they might not be friendly. They usually and overwhelmingly are friendly or at the very least leave you alone, but then it just takes one to ruin your day. It's not fun being killed by someone who totally and utterly outmatches you. There's NO gameplay, immersion or any positive experience for the victim of such attacks. A more even match-up? Sure, perhaps that's fun. Genuine Piracy and be on your way? Sure, that's immersive. Going into Mobius, which has over 20k members in my region, is largely dead. I rarely see any others players as I fly around, even in places like Shinrarta or Engineer systems. I don't understand why it's so very empty with 20k members, but then I don't know how the instancing works. Did see a commander the other day, which was great. What was the interaction? Just a quick o7 as we passed each other in super cruise. I love that, feels good.
Regarding an earlier comment about how PvPer's have perhaps undertaken activities they don't like to get their ships to where they are, now the victim is exposed to an activity they don't like by the attacker. I don't see how that might be considered some sort of parity. I mean, in my specific example, I did all the regular grind to get my ship set up for its role, just like the PvPer did. I did boring activities for the pay or the materials or the rank or the Engineer unlock etc. However, once combat was initiated, it was totally one-sided from a who's going to win and who's going to have to pay the cost of the rebuy (hopefully trivial) and most importantly time wasted on an activity they did not want to partake in.
Look, I get PvP is a thing, it's in the game etc. etc. Doesn't mean I want to take part in it, even if it's allowed. There are MANY activities in the game, but PvP is the one that can be forced upon us by other players. I can't force someone to mine, trade explore, go out on foot etc. they may do that and not like it - means to an end - but they're never forced in a certain moment to drop everything else and engage in that one activity until death. That's exactly what such miss-matched PvP like this is. Force someone else to partake in your gameplay until they die. If the ships were more evenly matched with both being made for combat rather than one being a Trader / Explorer / miner, that's a different story. Sure, go to PG / Solo is often the answer and it's not a terrible answer but those modes don't offer the same positive experiences as Open can due to population. But that's just saying that I - and others who prefer co-op play - have to miss out on part of the game (that populated feeling of open, and the positive interactions that facilitates) just because we don't want to PvP. If Mobius felt as populated as Open - why doesn't it? 20k players after all - there would be no problem.
I do wonder if this other commander perhaps considered my Anaconda configured as a combat vessel? It sort of is, I suppose. I mean, it has shields and weapons. The shields are good (dunno if another player can see my shields stats? I assume not) but it has turrets, they're terrible lol. It had an SLF of course, but I thought that prudent on a trading ship that really cannot defend its self, SLF's are pretty good vs. NPC's. I was primarily using this ship as I was struggling to fly at the time due to injury, and it's my lazy-build where I'm protected (against NPC's) from my lack of flying ability. Though the ship is still about cargo and material collection. You don't rely primarily on turrets for a combat build. So, I don't really think he could of possibly considered my ship in any way a challenge to his. Just and easy target.
I will reiterate once again, not because I feel anything was specifically directed at me, but people do keep mentioning Combat Logging to escape death is wrong, and I agree. I did not do that, I menu logged (which is allowed under the ToS) but NOT to escape death. I genuinely believed I was dead, so just exited the game to get back in quickly - and in to the right mode lol. I felt a bit daft realising I was in Open and wanted to get back into Mobius and be on my way as quickly as possible. As it was, I ran out of play time and only came back later. I mean, why sit there, totally unable to do anything (my ship's panels were inaccessible) for the next five seconds (my hull was dropping that fast, this is a cargo ship), let's just get it over with, get to that rebuy screen and move on. Do I think there's anything I could have done if my ships panels hadn't locked up on me? Nope, very much doubt it. I'm still surprised my ship survived. I can only assume the network (I'm guessing that's what it was) issues that were causing the other weirdness when we instanced together are perhaps to blame. As I mentioned, the initial couple of seconds of attack did no damage to my shields, they remained showing as 100% Then suddenly I had zero shields. 100% to no shields in a fraction of a second. Myself and my regular Wingmate have observed oddities when other commanders have shown up in our instance in Open before. While we appear to be issue-free these days (good PC's, excellent internet connections) when it's just us, others who turn up - perhaps due to where they are in the world - do introduce issues with NPC ship damage not updating properly, obvious rubber banding etc.
Talking that shield damage, when mine suddenly dropped to zero from 100% in under a second... I actually tested this with reverb cascade torpedoes vs. various NPC Anacondas and, while my Torpedoes were hitting the target, I never once managed a 100% shield to zero like that. They'd drop to 50% after a couple of torpedo hits, finally wiping out after a couple more. Is there a degree of RNG involved in the chance of a hit totally wiping the shields by destroying the shield generator?
Oh, one other thing I remembered that's perhaps a little odd. When I submitted to Interdiction - before I realised it wasn't my friend of course - the other Commander appeared in front of my ship, facing me at close range, under 500m from my perspective. When I submit to an NPC interdiction, they're invariably behind me and not so close. Perhaps they moved so fast in front of me I didn't notice, perhaps they rubber banded there so it appeared that they were just suddenly there. Don't know.
This whole encounter phased me somewhat, mainly because the attack was so unexpected - me thinking I was in Mobius of course and distracted doing other things - I was AFK techincally, on the PC next to my gamer watching Youtube after pointing my ship towards the station. Plus my initial thought that it was just a buddy messing with me when I got interdicted. Then to be attacked with the attacker already right in front of me, then to oddly not appear to take any shield damage from the first few shots, then to suddenly see my shield go from 100% to dead, then to lose access to my ships panels where nothing worked. I couldn't check my modules, I couldn't reassign priorities once my Power Plant taken out. All of this in just a few seconds. So, me in a disabled ship with 27% hull, no access to the ships menu panels, I press Esc to bring up the main menu and wait 15 seconds to exit. I assumed I was dead before the count-down ended but I could not see what was going on of course. I've never died while in a menu before, so I didn't know if it'd take me out of that menu to show my ship explode, I assume not. I logged back in (to Mobius, I'm sure this time) go that one-sided exchange from the other guy and that was the end of my Window of time, so had to get on with some real-world stuff. A jarring experience for me.
