I think the biggest mistake FD have made about the modes in the game is allowing open mode to simply become a playground for PVP. By saying that I do not mean I am opposed to players engaging in PVP combat. What I mean is that the only difference Open mode currently offers in the game that the Private mode does not is actually PVP.
This is a fundamental problem. FD have gone to the trouble of building a game where the only way players have to interact with each other is on the basis of combat. In doing so they have created a game where when two strangers meet all they can do is engage in combat. They have no other ways to interact. This has created a situation where the concept of even talking to another player is the furthest thing from their mind and they see everyone as an enemy.
I have said it many time in other threads that the only way you have to interact with other players in this game is with your trigger finger. FD need to make moves toward adding things to the game where players need to interact for mutual benefit. Things they cannot do alone. They need to break this cycle they have created.
The coming looting system and the current synthesis feature seem like a very small but good place to start. Currently materials are not lost when a player dies. The only way to acquire them is through the hard slog of searching for them. I think that players shoud be able to trade these items in much the same way you can transfer cargo in the game. By doing so the prospect of trading materials with other players would present itself and it would be a baby step toward strangers not always eyeing each other as an enemy.
When you compare ED to the likes of DayZ anyone who has played that game will know what I mean. PVP is always going to exist but unlike DayZ your killer is not in a position to loot your carcass when he kills you. If he wants what you have he needs to talk to you and be civil. This would also help to create drama and cagey situations just like those that happen regularly in DayZ when players meet. Is this person thrustworthy? What are they really after?
FD has so far done little to create a game where groups of players can interact socially. I am not saying people do not do that. They do! But the game itself does not lend itself well to encouraging this. The biggest problem is that the game currently is too central and focuses on the earning of credits to buy ships. Players pretty much focus on themselves and so see no reason to play in Open. Shallow, but that is currently the strongest (or weakest depending on your point of view) motivation to play for many people playing in this game. The game needs to create new ways for players to work toward common goals. Personal goals. Goals that actually encourage players to be social and cannot be achieved alone. Community goals are an attempt to address this problem but fall flat because there is absoloutely no need or reason for a player to ever talk to another player while doing them. Again, they just encourage introverted play.
The strongest card FD has to play is the BGS and the expansion of that module of the game. It needs greater detail added where players can effect true physical change on the systems they work to improve, grow and culture to become co dependent on one another. Something players can achieve outside of personal gain. Something that allows them to be part of a team, again another place Power Play falls flat.
If FD can do these things they will see their Open Mode shine and a real living galaxy start to emerge.
This is a fundamental problem. FD have gone to the trouble of building a game where the only way players have to interact with each other is on the basis of combat. In doing so they have created a game where when two strangers meet all they can do is engage in combat. They have no other ways to interact. This has created a situation where the concept of even talking to another player is the furthest thing from their mind and they see everyone as an enemy.
I have said it many time in other threads that the only way you have to interact with other players in this game is with your trigger finger. FD need to make moves toward adding things to the game where players need to interact for mutual benefit. Things they cannot do alone. They need to break this cycle they have created.
The coming looting system and the current synthesis feature seem like a very small but good place to start. Currently materials are not lost when a player dies. The only way to acquire them is through the hard slog of searching for them. I think that players shoud be able to trade these items in much the same way you can transfer cargo in the game. By doing so the prospect of trading materials with other players would present itself and it would be a baby step toward strangers not always eyeing each other as an enemy.
When you compare ED to the likes of DayZ anyone who has played that game will know what I mean. PVP is always going to exist but unlike DayZ your killer is not in a position to loot your carcass when he kills you. If he wants what you have he needs to talk to you and be civil. This would also help to create drama and cagey situations just like those that happen regularly in DayZ when players meet. Is this person thrustworthy? What are they really after?
FD has so far done little to create a game where groups of players can interact socially. I am not saying people do not do that. They do! But the game itself does not lend itself well to encouraging this. The biggest problem is that the game currently is too central and focuses on the earning of credits to buy ships. Players pretty much focus on themselves and so see no reason to play in Open. Shallow, but that is currently the strongest (or weakest depending on your point of view) motivation to play for many people playing in this game. The game needs to create new ways for players to work toward common goals. Personal goals. Goals that actually encourage players to be social and cannot be achieved alone. Community goals are an attempt to address this problem but fall flat because there is absoloutely no need or reason for a player to ever talk to another player while doing them. Again, they just encourage introverted play.
The strongest card FD has to play is the BGS and the expansion of that module of the game. It needs greater detail added where players can effect true physical change on the systems they work to improve, grow and culture to become co dependent on one another. Something players can achieve outside of personal gain. Something that allows them to be part of a team, again another place Power Play falls flat.
If FD can do these things they will see their Open Mode shine and a real living galaxy start to emerge.
