Well, I finally had sleep, and back once again in the office, head again in this comps sheet.. and back in my favorite forum!
There's a TLDR at the end if one wishes to save their eyes bleeding!
It serves the purpose to show how separate play styles can be in ED. None are wrong, but at the same time how one mode can be detrimental to the other.
So Shaamaan, as a fuel rat, I have to salute you and your team.. Just to lay the picture, the fuel rats have progressively built a reputation for being a positive asset and boon to the PvE community. There are no game mechanics to reward someone flying 2000ly across space to solely supply a bunch of fuel bars to someone that happened to get stuck and stranded in space. Usually an explorer may have weeks / months of exploration data in their ship, and should they come a cropper and become stranded and out of fuel, these guys will use their own unrewarded game time, to go out of their way to supply that all important life blood to help them get back on track and refill at the nearest scoopable star.
A service like this is absolutely the stark contrast of players playing their game of player pew pew. Neither are wrong ways to play, but they are incompatible... and here's the ultimate sting...
In the video of the attempted fuel rat gank, you have a player that is a complete player helper. It's likely he was called out to a remote location to help someone he thought was in trouble, and he wanted to make that players day a whole lot brighter, help them get home, help them get that valuable data back to station. BUT ying yang, the helpful player is lured, and baited into a situation that he does not subscribe to. The scenario unfolds that the person he goes to help, is nothing than part of a gank squad, a player intent in ruining someones day. So here the immovable object hits the irresistible force (using physics terms). Since A - the fuel transaction cannot be accomplished in SOLO (for obvious reasons), and the transaction would be stupid to do in OPEN, the only possible mode would be in a private group. Generally it appears the fuel rat enters the group of the 'patient in waiting'. This private group, aka in the video may just be nothing other than a pointless gank trap. The video exclaims the gank is part of an 'induction'.. which is fair enough, I can see why groups would have tests for new recruits, and again i'm not saying they're wrong.. So in one hand, you have a group having some kind of in game ceremony, an in the other, someone going out of their way to help what they think is someone in distress and in need... what happens? Well, the fuel rat arrives to help, and the ceremony takes place, and the victim is attacked, the instant kneejerk reaction to this unanticipated, unprovoked attack? a combat log. It's the only possible and viable way that unwanted encounter could have been countered.
I'm not going to endorse a combat log usually, but in this case I cannot help feel that
a) taking into consideration that there was no other possible game mode for the fuel rat to make this rescue attempt possible other than the gank squad's own instance
b) there was no need to falsely lure a player into a situation that is against the spirit of a profit free organisation, solely there to help commanders in need
c) a ritual that could be accomplished against a more challenging opponent (why an unarmed, refueling service?)
d) there was no other game mode viable for a player to help another without being bated like a fly into a web
I'm sure the group involved was pretty gutted to see time an effort, pre planning and what was probably a very clever lure vanish in a puff of smoke.. BUT my argument stands that a combat log does ruin game play for some.. equally as much as a pointless gank ruins the game play for others. The combat log IS illegal, ofc it is, no one can deny that fact. BUT as Genar demonstrated in one of his own videos, blowing up commanders, exploiting station mechanics and shirking station defense logic to exact free, pointless kills for lol's... to me; SHOULD be equally illegal, and feels equally against the spirit of the game.
Clearly the game must adapt and evolve with the way players play ED. Solo is good for lonesomeness. OPEN is good for chaos, anarchy, challenge and pitting yourself against the unpredictability of other players in ED.. Group remains a limbo state, good if you want to team up with a friend.. but nowhere right now is there a game mode where players can openly and exclusively interact with each other in a positive way only. The call for a PvE OPEN mode is very much a valid one, and, will improve the quality of game experience for many many people. PvP and PvE players equally.
My proposal is for FDEV to sport an experiment. A beta test as it were. Lets test the viability of an OPEN PvE server.. Does it work? Does it solve all the problems being argued? Can it be implemented fairly easily? Does switching off player damage actions to other players actually work in practice? Many of these questions cannot be answered unless it's at least tested and tried. It might be a total flop, and not work in practice, or, it might work better than expected, and actually add a lot of opportunities for positive player interaction aka fuel rats. It should weed the combat logging out of OPEN, it should ease the pressure from Mobius.... Many many roads converge on this.. It'll be a very interesting time ahead indeed should we get to test this.
Wow that was a wall of text. no doubt full of glaring typos etc...
a TLDR, video evidence proves that unwanted player interaction leads to disappointment on both sides, ED does not have a game mode where folks can freely work together without falling victim to unwanted interaction. About time this hole was filled, and OPEN PvE implemented / tested for viability.
There's a TLDR at the end if one wishes to save their eyes bleeding!
It serves the purpose to show how separate play styles can be in ED. None are wrong, but at the same time how one mode can be detrimental to the other.
So Shaamaan, as a fuel rat, I have to salute you and your team.. Just to lay the picture, the fuel rats have progressively built a reputation for being a positive asset and boon to the PvE community. There are no game mechanics to reward someone flying 2000ly across space to solely supply a bunch of fuel bars to someone that happened to get stuck and stranded in space. Usually an explorer may have weeks / months of exploration data in their ship, and should they come a cropper and become stranded and out of fuel, these guys will use their own unrewarded game time, to go out of their way to supply that all important life blood to help them get back on track and refill at the nearest scoopable star.
A service like this is absolutely the stark contrast of players playing their game of player pew pew. Neither are wrong ways to play, but they are incompatible... and here's the ultimate sting...
In the video of the attempted fuel rat gank, you have a player that is a complete player helper. It's likely he was called out to a remote location to help someone he thought was in trouble, and he wanted to make that players day a whole lot brighter, help them get home, help them get that valuable data back to station. BUT ying yang, the helpful player is lured, and baited into a situation that he does not subscribe to. The scenario unfolds that the person he goes to help, is nothing than part of a gank squad, a player intent in ruining someones day. So here the immovable object hits the irresistible force (using physics terms). Since A - the fuel transaction cannot be accomplished in SOLO (for obvious reasons), and the transaction would be stupid to do in OPEN, the only possible mode would be in a private group. Generally it appears the fuel rat enters the group of the 'patient in waiting'. This private group, aka in the video may just be nothing other than a pointless gank trap. The video exclaims the gank is part of an 'induction'.. which is fair enough, I can see why groups would have tests for new recruits, and again i'm not saying they're wrong.. So in one hand, you have a group having some kind of in game ceremony, an in the other, someone going out of their way to help what they think is someone in distress and in need... what happens? Well, the fuel rat arrives to help, and the ceremony takes place, and the victim is attacked, the instant kneejerk reaction to this unanticipated, unprovoked attack? a combat log. It's the only possible and viable way that unwanted encounter could have been countered.
I'm not going to endorse a combat log usually, but in this case I cannot help feel that
a) taking into consideration that there was no other possible game mode for the fuel rat to make this rescue attempt possible other than the gank squad's own instance
b) there was no need to falsely lure a player into a situation that is against the spirit of a profit free organisation, solely there to help commanders in need
c) a ritual that could be accomplished against a more challenging opponent (why an unarmed, refueling service?)
d) there was no other game mode viable for a player to help another without being bated like a fly into a web
I'm sure the group involved was pretty gutted to see time an effort, pre planning and what was probably a very clever lure vanish in a puff of smoke.. BUT my argument stands that a combat log does ruin game play for some.. equally as much as a pointless gank ruins the game play for others. The combat log IS illegal, ofc it is, no one can deny that fact. BUT as Genar demonstrated in one of his own videos, blowing up commanders, exploiting station mechanics and shirking station defense logic to exact free, pointless kills for lol's... to me; SHOULD be equally illegal, and feels equally against the spirit of the game.
Clearly the game must adapt and evolve with the way players play ED. Solo is good for lonesomeness. OPEN is good for chaos, anarchy, challenge and pitting yourself against the unpredictability of other players in ED.. Group remains a limbo state, good if you want to team up with a friend.. but nowhere right now is there a game mode where players can openly and exclusively interact with each other in a positive way only. The call for a PvE OPEN mode is very much a valid one, and, will improve the quality of game experience for many many people. PvP and PvE players equally.
My proposal is for FDEV to sport an experiment. A beta test as it were. Lets test the viability of an OPEN PvE server.. Does it work? Does it solve all the problems being argued? Can it be implemented fairly easily? Does switching off player damage actions to other players actually work in practice? Many of these questions cannot be answered unless it's at least tested and tried. It might be a total flop, and not work in practice, or, it might work better than expected, and actually add a lot of opportunities for positive player interaction aka fuel rats. It should weed the combat logging out of OPEN, it should ease the pressure from Mobius.... Many many roads converge on this.. It'll be a very interesting time ahead indeed should we get to test this.
Wow that was a wall of text. no doubt full of glaring typos etc...
a TLDR, video evidence proves that unwanted player interaction leads to disappointment on both sides, ED does not have a game mode where folks can freely work together without falling victim to unwanted interaction. About time this hole was filled, and OPEN PvE implemented / tested for viability.
