Elite Dangerous Blocking System: A Call for Change

[nemolomen]

Yeah. You missed my point, which is that if you choose to play in an environment where you can be attacked at any time, regardless of whether you want to be attacked or are prepared for an attack, there is no point in complaining when it happens. You can't control other people. You don't know their motivations, and their motivations are irrelevant anyway. You can only control how you react to whatever they do.

This is the nature of Open. It always has been. People who are victims of PvP they didn't want to engage in often assail the motivations of those who victimize them, but this is utterly pointless. Would you demand to know why that shark bit you while you were swimming off the coast of South Africa? Of course not. Biting things is what sharks do. What on earth would make you think that you were ever safe, or should be safe, if you go swimming with them?

Player A plays in open, player A gets unwanted PvP interaction from player B, player A blocks player B...possibly player B complains about not being able to find player A any longer, as if they are in PG or Solo...

Seems rather straight forward to me.

Motivations appear to be irrelevant...as you say...

Player A wants to play in open without being harassed.

Player B wants PvP interaction with other players.

Open is definitely not empty...every time I log in there are other players online in Open in my friend list...

In the end, player B has less control over player A than the other way around, which is a tradeoff made in the implementation of the blocking mechanics...

 

[Shabine]

Until you block them

Exactly! Which anyone is free to do. And then our shark roams the waters waiting for the next little fishy who hasn't blocked them yet to come swimming along while being delicious.

In the end, player B has less control over player A than the other way around, which is a tradeoff made in the implementation of the blocking mechanics...

I suppose so, yes. Well said.

 

[TobiasFuzz]

Yeah. You missed my point, which is that if you choose to play in an environment where you can be attacked at any time, regardless of whether you want to be attacked or are prepared for an attack, there is no point in complaining when it happens. You can't control other people. You don't know their motivations, and their motivations are irrelevant anyway. You can only control how you react to whatever they do.

This is the nature of Open. It always has been. People who are victims of PvP they didn't want to engage in often assail the motivations of those who victimize them, but this is utterly pointless. Would you demand to know why that shark bit you while you were swimming off the coast of South Africa? Of course not. Biting things is what sharks do. What on earth would make you think that you were ever safe, or should be safe, if you go swimming with them?

Elite Dangerous is a role-play game. Players are encouraged to choose one of the roles the Pilots Federation has declared as recognized roles (as every cmdr is a member of the pilots federation). Ganker, griefer, psychopath, murderer and jerk are not recognized roles by the PF.

 

[Darrack]

The point is: blocking happens after some bad experience which is in 99% of cases a rebuy.

Do we have to use blocking to counter a (one single) rebuy?

In 2023?

ROTFL

Imho there's no need for blocking at all in the game (given there are enough player modes for solitaires and hermits)... just report players for using bad language, that works better.

Its not just that (cue Demon playing 'Have we been here before'), the times when i play Open with some friends i enjoy it, but its often ruined by a few muppets, griefers, pad blockers.
At this moment in time Block is the only option, sure i play Solo a lot but why should i be pushed into PG with my mates because of some idiots?
They deserve everything they get with the Block feature.

O7

 

[Chrystoph]

Yeah. You missed my point, which is that if you choose to play in an environment where you can be attacked at any time, regardless of whether you want to be attacked or are prepared for an attack, there is no point in complaining when it happens. You can't control other people. You don't know their motivations, and their motivations are irrelevant anyway. You can only control how you react to whatever they do.

Mmmm, topic drift. The thread is looking to force people to play with people they do not wish to play with.

I apologize for using you to respond to the thread at large. I will acknowledge that I used your post to reply to one of the standard points of this topic.

In rebuttal to your quoted statement, I would point out that you just told me that "quid pro quo" doesn't apply since the original post was a grievance that being blocked wasn't fair to the "PvP crowd".

 

[nemolomen]

Elite Dangerous is a role-play game. Players are encouraged to choose one of the roles the Pilots Federation has declared as recognized roles (as every cmdr is a member of the pilots federation). Ganker, griefer, psychopath, murderer and jerk are not recognized roles by the PF.

I disagree with your assertion...

From the (https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Elite_Dangerous_FAQ)

From the kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous)

 

[Shabine]

Elite Dangerous is a role-play game. Players are encouraged to choose one of the roles the Pilots Federation has declared as recognized roles (as every cmdr is a member of the pilots federation). Ganker, griefer, psychopath, murderer and jerk are not recognized roles by the PF.

I have no clue what this means. Are you trying to say that players who gank are breaking a rule of some kind? If so, please point to the rule that they are breaking. If not, are you trying to say that they have some sort of moral imperative to not kill you for no reason other than that they want to? And that you believe their aggtessive actions cross some kind of soft boundary?

I just don't get it. Again, it's like screaming at the wind to make it stop blowing. In Open, you can be attacked for any reason. Attempting to rationalize behaviors and dispute this reality is utterly pointless.

 

[Chrystoph]

Disagree with the A s$a s$in claim, as I have already discredited the argument that PvP is a profitable passtime. A s$a s$ins are killers for Pay.

 

[rootsrat]

I disagree with your assertion...

From the (https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Elite_Dangerous_FAQ)

View attachment 346652

From the kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous)

View attachment 346653

There are 3 (ship) PF ranks: combat, trade and exploration. Neither increases when a PF member kills another PF member.

So no, a murder psycho is not a role recognised by PF.

 

[TobiasFuzz]

I disagree with your assertion...

From the (https://elite-dangerous.fandom.com/wiki/Elite_Dangerous_FAQ)

View attachment 346652

From the kickstarter page (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1461411552/elite-dangerous)

View attachment 346653

Assassine is indeed one of the recognized sub-roles of the combat-pilot role. Your targets in the other hand must be provided by a faction and you must get paid for it. Other PF members are surely not legitimate targets... what is more then clear as neverever is any faction gives an assassination mission for a PF cmdr.
Thats by the way exactly why the block-function is in place. To block players who dont act accordingly to the PF rules. Of course thats a little lazy solution provided by FDev, i suppose they did it because all other possible solutions (permaban by mods, programming C&P) are too difficult to implement.

 

[Shabine]

I have already discredited the argument that PvP is a profitable passtime.

Who said it had to be profitable?

I'm so confused by some of these responses, because they are increasingly irrational.

So no, a murder psycho is not a role recognised by PF.

What the hell does this mean, roo? What does "recognized" mean? Again, is some rule being broken by gankers? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

 

[Chrystoph]

Assassine is indeed one of the recognized sub-roles of the combat-pilot role. Your targets in the other hand must be provided by a faction and you must get paid for it. Other PF members are surely not legitimate targets... what is more then clear as neverever is any faction gives an assassination mission for a PF cmdr.
Thats by the way exactly why the block-function is in place. To block players who dont act accordingly to the PF rules. Of course thats a little lazy solution provided by FDev, i suppose they did it because all other possible solutions (permaban by mods, programming C&P) are too difficult to implement.

Misrepresent much? You specifically went exactly the opposite direction of my statement that PvP is not profitable. I never said anything about Contract Killers being a role.

NOTE: PvP does Not use a contract, does Not include a payoff, and normally costs more than could be recouped unless the person has a bounty (which most targets do not).

 

[TobiasFuzz]

Who said it had to be profitable?

I'm so confused by some of these responses, because they are increasingly irrational.


What the hell does this mean, roo? What does "recognized" mean? Again, is some rule being broken by gankers? I feel like I'm taking crazy pills.

Perhaps you should read some literature about the Pilots Federation and their organization, rules and background. You know that you as a cmdr are a always a member of the PF, yes?

 

[Chrystoph]

I'm so confused by some of these responses, because they are increasingly irrational.

Maybe, if you stopped cherry picking, it would make more sense, or is it just that, by attacking Me, you can ignore the argument.

 

[Shabine]

Perhaps you should read some literature about the Pilots Federation and their organization, rules and background. You know that you as a cmdr are a always a member of the PF, yes?

No Tobias, I understand that you are roleplaying and you want everyone to roleplay the way that you do, because the Pilot's Federation says they should.

What I'm saying is that there is nothing in the rules of this game or the Open format that prevent you from being killed for absolutely no reason. At all.

You can be mad about it all you like, but it doesn't change the fact that you may be killed in Open for no particular reason and not a single rule will have been broken by the pilot who killed you. That's reality. That's Elite.

You can argue all day that it isn't; that Elite is what you and an npc faction says that it is. The gankers don't care, and clearly, neither does Frontier. If they did, things would be different after almost a decade. But they aren't.

 

[Brrokk]

Yeah. You missed my point, which is that if you choose to play in an environment where you can be attacked at any time, regardless of whether you want to be attacked or are prepared for an attack, there is no point in complaining when it happens. You can't control other people. You don't know their motivations, and their motivations are irrelevant anyway. You can only control how you react to whatever they do.

This is the nature of Open. It always has been. People who are victims of PvP they didn't want to engage in often assail the motivations of those who victimize them, but this is utterly pointless. Would you demand to know why that shark bit you while you were swimming off the coast of South Africa? Of course not. Biting things is what sharks do. What on earth would make you think that you were ever safe, or should be safe, if you go swimming with them?

Yes, this is actually the motivation of all these threads, because your characterisation of Open isn't accurate. You're describing what you want Open to be.

Open is actually the mode where you can be attacked at any time by each other player once only. After that, it's your choice whether they can attack you again or not.

It's also the mode where you have to play in a reasonable fashion around other players if you want to continue enjoying that privilege.

Some people don't like this design as we see here. Others think it's brilliant.

 

[Rebel Yell]

Its not just that (cue Demon playing 'Have we been here before'), the times when i play Open with some friends i enjoy it, but its often ruined by a few muppets, griefers, pad blockers.
At this moment in time Block is the only option, sure i play Solo a lot but why should i be pushed into PG with my mates because of some idiots?
They deserve everything they get with the Block feature.

O7

I admit, pad blocking is quite annoying when it happens intentionally... but I hope that FDEVs introduce some tweak for that (i.e. ship is automatically sent to the hangar after XX seconds on the pad and there's a cool down time of XX seconds before being able to go back to the pad).

 

[TobiasFuzz]

You can argue all day that it isn't; that Elite is what you and an npc faction says that it is. The gankers don't care, and clearly, neither does Frontier. If they did, things would be different after almost a decade. But they aren't.

Oh, Frontier does care a lot. That's why there is a block function. Every RP player can (and should) exclude non RP players. Frontier gave us this possibilty because they right fully anticipated that not all players would get the sense of the game. The solution is not perfect but works... and ensures (very smart of Frontier) that even people who bought ED without understanding of its in-game purpose pay for the game, but can not disrupt it for all the other players who seek a enjoyable, social and fun game experience.

 

[Darrack]

I admit, pad blocking is quite annoying when it happens intentionally... but I hope that FDEVs introduce some tweak for that (i.e. ship is automatically sent to the hangar after XX seconds on the pad and there's a cool down time of XX seconds before being able to go back to the pad).

I will settle for the ship self destructing after 2 mins

O7

 

[nemolomen]

Disagree with the A s$a s$in claim, as I have already discredited the argument that PvP is a profitable passtime. A s$a s$ins are killers for Pay.

There are 3 (ship) PF ranks: combat, trade and exploration. Neither increases when a PF member kills another PF member.

So no, a murder psycho is not a role recognised by PF.

I apologize for my lack of effective communication. The part I have the issue with is

...Players are encouraged to choose one of the roles the Pilots Federation has declared as recognized roles (as every cmdr is a member of the pilots federation). Ganker, griefer, psychopath, murderer and jerk are not recognized roles by the PF.

Players are encouraged, but not required...if they were required to conform, then this conversation, and many others like it, would be moot...

I'm not trying to be argumentative or side with any other player or perspective beyond what the game allows. It allows gankers, greifers, etc... and it allow other players to block them once their "perceived" intentions/motivations appear to be known to the blocking player...

I get as miffed at being ganked or griefed as the next person, though I purposely choose a strategy of avoiding/mitigating those situations that does not include blocking because I'm aware that it can prevent me from instancing with players whom I have NOT specifically blocked.

Both Ganking/Griefing and blocking are allowed by the game implementation, right wrong or otherwise, and players are free to choose to do them...or not...whether I like it or not...which is really my only point...