Hey guys,
I noticed that the Elite playerbase is not very large compared to most "mainstream" games (people are missing out!) and it would be nice to get more people to play in open. Here is my question: Whay mode do you play in? What are your reasons for playing in that mode? If you decided to venture into open, What changes would you like to see to make your gametime more enjoyable?
I always play in open myself. Reason behind my decision? I enjoy human contact regardless if its friendly or hostile! It's what makes this game so enjoyable and challenging. Sure you can be in solo mode and have 1,000,000.000 credits and a A rated cutter, but what is the fun in that? NPC's are really no challenge. Even the Thargoids pose no "great" threat.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Regards
The Running Man
I don't agree that 'people are missing out'- the people who play solo or in PGs seem to be enjoying themselves, from what I read on the forum and from discussions I've had with players in real life, at ED meets. A common point with many/most of them is they left open mode because of negative experiences. Having a different mode to play kept them interested enough to keep on playing Elite. Since their initial experience made them chose another mode, I think your belief that it would be 'nice' to get more people to play in open is incorrect.
Assuming you're not just trolling...
I play in open. I do it because I live in hope that someday I'll actually meet a real pirate. I enjoy bumping into other players and having a chat, if they're up for it. But it's not a particularly pleasant experience to actually meet real players in open, most of the time. Anyone in a lesser build tends to run or even high wake away from me. Turning up at a CG in anything other than a battleship is suicidal. That would make sense at the events that have a combat focus or some kind of conflict as their rationale, but in the ones which are purely about moving materiel it's beyond stupid. My experience of CGs is that the usual suspects turn up in wings of heavily armed combat ships with the sole intention of blasting weaker opponents to bits. When vigilante groups form up to combat them they just run- I've yet to see them stand their ground in their main murderwagons, presumably they're not confident they can defeat similarly armed opponents? The rebuy on an engineered 'Vette must sting a bit...
A decent crime and punishment system would help. A scaled response by system defences with competent AI would be a great start; persistent, multi-system bounties and powerful AI bounty hunters would also be a good idea. Having player killers show on the galaxy map, allowing human bounty hunters to chase them down would allow human players to join the hunt. Having the galaxy map marker dissapear if the murderer jumps into an anarchy system would let the miscreant hide until the heat dies down a little... you get the idea. If there were real, serious consequencies for player killers then CGs could take on their intended character, some focused on combat, others focused on other aspects of the game.
Things might change in 2.4 and if they do you might see fewer new players uninstalling or chosing other modes. Griefers will still find ways to be a pita, but if they're less lethal or expensive to other players their presence would be a lot less irritating.
Hth, man.
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