Dear Frontier,
In light of the ongoing drama over PVP / PVE I'm having trouble understanding both your silence on the matter, and also your inability to solve the problem when so many other games and developers have already done so, providing excellent road maps for you to learn from.
Take for example, Grand Theft Auto V Online.
It's very much a griefers paradise... by design. Yet Rockstar has implemented several mechanics that work by motivating natural human behavior and as such... have balanced the mode so there is a solid risk-reward foundation.
I'll give you one example and then leave it up to you to engage in additional research. Which I sincerely encourage...
In GTAVonline you can harass players in many ways. One of the most common things to do is to destroy an opposing players car should they leave it unattended (or occupied). In the early days when the game first shipped, you could wantonly maraud through the game destroying players cars with no consequence. In the weeks that followed Rockstar patched the game so that destroying another players car resulted in YOU having to pay the insurance premium when that player went to file a claim and restore their vehicle. It would simply debit your account without your permission. And that was the penalty. The more lavish and expensive the car you destroyed the higher the insurance premium. And guess what happened?
I can now drive around in my Bugatti Veyron in an ocean of griefers and mayhem and the instances of maniacs wantonly blowing up my cars has gone down dramatically. You can still do it if you want. It hasn't prevented the "DANGEROUS" wild-west aspect of the game that I think is important to you as developers of Elite (clearly you envision space as a dangerous place) But Rockstar's vehicle insurance system has played in to ambient human behavioral tendencies to dramatically reduce this kind of stuff from happening. Of course it requires that a player invest in insurance coverage and that too has a cost... Again... adding to the balance of the system.
There are many, many other systems and dynamics that Rockstar has employed in GTAVOnline that I strongly suggest you take a look at. I see a lot of parallels between the chaos of that sandbox and Elite Dangerous 'open' mode.
The fact that you guys have been so silent on the matter is a bit disturbing in that it potentially sends an unintended message to the player base that you either can't solve the problem due to lack of ingenuity, or you can't solve the problem due to systemic technical issues. Both of which aren't a good place to be.
Sorry to put the screws to you in such a way. But I get the impression that you're struggling with this issue.
Cheers.
-EJIRO
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Apologies for the giant wall of txt. For some reason the system does not register the breaks in my paragraphs :-/
In light of the ongoing drama over PVP / PVE I'm having trouble understanding both your silence on the matter, and also your inability to solve the problem when so many other games and developers have already done so, providing excellent road maps for you to learn from.
Take for example, Grand Theft Auto V Online.
It's very much a griefers paradise... by design. Yet Rockstar has implemented several mechanics that work by motivating natural human behavior and as such... have balanced the mode so there is a solid risk-reward foundation.
I'll give you one example and then leave it up to you to engage in additional research. Which I sincerely encourage...
In GTAVonline you can harass players in many ways. One of the most common things to do is to destroy an opposing players car should they leave it unattended (or occupied). In the early days when the game first shipped, you could wantonly maraud through the game destroying players cars with no consequence. In the weeks that followed Rockstar patched the game so that destroying another players car resulted in YOU having to pay the insurance premium when that player went to file a claim and restore their vehicle. It would simply debit your account without your permission. And that was the penalty. The more lavish and expensive the car you destroyed the higher the insurance premium. And guess what happened?
I can now drive around in my Bugatti Veyron in an ocean of griefers and mayhem and the instances of maniacs wantonly blowing up my cars has gone down dramatically. You can still do it if you want. It hasn't prevented the "DANGEROUS" wild-west aspect of the game that I think is important to you as developers of Elite (clearly you envision space as a dangerous place) But Rockstar's vehicle insurance system has played in to ambient human behavioral tendencies to dramatically reduce this kind of stuff from happening. Of course it requires that a player invest in insurance coverage and that too has a cost... Again... adding to the balance of the system.
There are many, many other systems and dynamics that Rockstar has employed in GTAVOnline that I strongly suggest you take a look at. I see a lot of parallels between the chaos of that sandbox and Elite Dangerous 'open' mode.
The fact that you guys have been so silent on the matter is a bit disturbing in that it potentially sends an unintended message to the player base that you either can't solve the problem due to lack of ingenuity, or you can't solve the problem due to systemic technical issues. Both of which aren't a good place to be.
Sorry to put the screws to you in such a way. But I get the impression that you're struggling with this issue.
Cheers.
-EJIRO
- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -
Apologies for the giant wall of txt. For some reason the system does not register the breaks in my paragraphs :-/
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