Game loses something by not forcing Open play

[Divinious]

It would force more solo'ers away from the game completely than it would force into the PVP/open mode which means nobody wins, PVPers don't get the target rich environments they crave and solo'ers don't get a game at all.
I think some people are just going to have to put up with the fact that the game is not tailor made for them and try to get over it & enjoy the game for what it is.

 

[darkcyd]

I think it's great the way it is, I played EvE for a long time, and as fun as that game is i personally don't want the same for ED. There is something refreshingly new and cathartically satisfying about taking power away from the those who love winning over others, and allowing the little guy to ignore them completely. After all no-one is stopping them from tearing each other to pieces if they so wish. Not being EvE is a plus for ED as far as i'm concerned, and i enjoy both games.

I agree, I like that it can stand alone in single player mode. I however don't think you should be able to swap between the two. I really don't understand the logic there. Diablo pretty much had it down. You could play single player all you wanted but you couldn't bring that into battle.net. There seem to be alot of people however who want their cake and eat it too. Want the freedom from ganking/grievers but also want the sense of accomplishment of having achieved it on the open server fighting through the gankings.

 

[T0byJug]

'Levelling'? Wrong game, I think.
Just how much faster do you think people in solo are making money than those in open?
Fly 50ly in any direction and you'll probably be playing on your own anyway.
I'm not playing solo to make money faster, I'm playing it because I want to play on my own.
Even if there were a slight disadvantage to playing solo, I still would.

Dont think many people have a problem with you playing solo! what you should not be a be to do is jump from one to the other with the same pilot.

I will visit the founders (kick starters) world at some point! i will have the risk of being met and destroyed by a real player Quite high as i guess the founders world will have high population of live player. I should not be able to go there go solo go in teh system do what i want then come out and rejoin open play!
when using term levaling i think the poster ment upgrade your ship.

 

[JonnyC0mbat]

My open play experiences have been nothing short of headache inducing nightmares caused by other people and can be described thusly:

Space pirate who snuck up on my empty ship - Pow! Woooo yeah I pwnd you nooblet

Me - Sigh.....

[video=youtube;MhLqPfAylF4]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhLqPfAylF4[/video]

 

[Xin Caine]

I agree with OP. In the long term I do believe this "double the options, double the players" approach will result in a game that is only half as god as it could be.
The emotional response stimulated by the dynamic and random interactions between humans is hard to simulate with AI. Those dynamic and "surprising" elements is what, in my opinion what makes a game interesting over time. The ability to switch between modes and freely avoid these elements might over time lead to a game environment that reinforce individuals to respond to possible averse in-game events with the most basic flight response (switch modes). This freedom might in the short term feel good (avoiding threat, ship is not destroyed etc), but over time and with the lack of challenge and the lack of satisfaction that come as a result of confronting and overcoming these challenges - it is my belief that the ED-universe will be a very, very risk free place and also a very, very predictable, safe and boring universe.
Time will tell! Fly safe (or not).

 

[Waldi]

I agree, I like that it can stand alone in single player mode. I however don't think you should be able to swap between the two. I really don't understand the logic there. Diablo pretty much had it down. You could play single player all you wanted but you couldn't bring that into battle.net. There seem to be alot of people however who want their cake and eat it too. Want the freedom from ganking/grievers but also want the sense of accomplishment of having achieved it on the open server fighting through the gankings.

I spend most time playing open and have seen quite a few cmdrs around (99% of the time i say hello) i can understand why the ability to switch is so controversial but the way i look at it is if i am playing in open log off and come back the next day to play only to log into someplace being ganked/griefed ( i mean just following players and hounding/killing them repeatedly not just rpging a station interdiction) by some players i have away around them. as for group play i think its genius it allows people to play their rpging what ever way they want without forceing it on everyone. so in my opinion its fine the way it is.
I think most people will play open its just more exciting.

 

[CaptainTrips]

To the OP - I'll be honest, as I get older my reaction times get slower and I find I am not as able to win battles as I did when I was a younger online gamer.. So I enjoy solo as it gives me a fighting chance - I'm not going to get "better" at games - I'm happy how I am - thats why I like Solo play. It allows me to enjoy the game at my own pace. If I was forced out of solo into open then I wouldn't play it anymore - and thats hardly fair now is it?

 

[Jorendys Targaryen]

I completely agree with the OP, I can't understand the sense of this decision. People are saying things like 'people should be allowed to play how they want', but this is silly because anyone that wants to play a balanced mmo doesn't have the choice to do this, but somehow this wish is superseded by someone else's desire to circumvent any real risk whenever they feel like it, in order to gain assets that can be used in a multiplayer environment. It should just be one save for open, and a separate save for solo, or the game will never be 'dangerous'.

 

[Marcns007]

Sorry I haven't read the whole of this thread.

Question 1:

Can you advance in Solo mode? I have only played gamma for a few hours, as I thought there would be a wipe and need to build a better computer

I don't have any kills to my name in Solo even though I have probably killed 10 ships?

Question 2:

In Battlefield etc when you get shot by the same person and try to get your revenge and fail, in the end you quit and go to another server with new people playing, with ED I don't think you can do that can you?

 

[Robert Maynard]

I completely agree with the OP, I can't understand the sense of this decision. People are saying things like 'people should be allowed to play how they want', but this is silly because anyone that wants to play a balanced mmo doesn't have the choice to do this, but somehow this wish is superseded by someone else's desire to circumvent any real risk whenever they feel like it, in order to gain assets that can be used in a multiplayer environment. It should just be one save for open, and a separate save for solo, or the game will never be 'dangerous'.

From the outset, the stated game design has included a group switching feature (emphasis mine):

How does multiplayer work?

You simply play the game, and depending on your configuration (your choice) some of the other ships you meet as you travel around are real players as opposed to computer-controlled ships. It may be a friend you have agreed to rendezvous with here, or it may be another real player you have encountered by chance. All players will be part of a “Pilot’s Federation” – that is how they are distinguished from non-players – so you will be able to tell who is a player and who is a non-player easily.

You will be able to save your position in certain key places (probably just in space stations, but possibly while in hyperspace too, if we feel it is needed). A save-and-quit option will be freely available at those points, as will the subsequent reload, but there will be a game cost for a reload following player death. Your ship will still be intact in the condition it was when the save occurred, but there will be a game currency charge (referred to as an insurance policy) for this. This is to prevent the obvious exploit of friends cooperating and killing each other to get each other’s cargo. If you can’t pay, then it will accumulate as an in-game debt, and the police may chase you!

There are no multiplayer lobbies, and the game will be played across many servers, augmented by peer-to-peer traffic for fast responses. Session creation and destruction happens during the long-range hyperspace countdown and hyperspace effect (which is a few seconds only), so is transparent to the player.

We have the concept of “groups”. They can be private groups just of your friends or open groups (that form part of the game) based on the play styles people prefer, and the rules in each can be different. Players will begin in the group “All” but can change groups at will, though it will be possible to be banned from groups due to antisocial behaviour, and you will only meet others in that group.

Last updated: Wed, Nov 14 2012 12:52 PM +00:00

 

[Divinious]

I don't understand why it bothers some people so much that they feel the need to dictate how others play the game they paid for and invest so much of their spare time in! You choose how you play & let everybody else decide how they want to play, So what if they can switch back & forth, I hardly think it matters if someone played solo last night because they just felt like it then decides they want a bit more action tonight it's up to them

 

[Marquiz]

I don't understand why it bothers some people so much that they feel the need to dictate how others play the game they paid for and invest so much of their spare time in! You choose how you play & let everybody else decide how they want to play, So what if they can switch back & forth, I hardly think it matters if someone played solo last night because they just felt like it then decides they want a bit more action tonight it's up to them

OK i can understand this, iam not happy with this but i can live with. I propesed eariler that this switching between game modes shouldnt be allowed on the fly. I.E "I fly to station, encounter players pirate and "vanish" to other space [solo play], and appear again 3 minutes later at station dock. This just ridiculous. There should be timer to block hopping between modes. Changeing game mode in combat shouldnt be allowed too.

 

[Dukeajuke]

It does matter if the solo players get to affect the MMO side of it.. I'm all for an offline mode. But that offline mode should be completely separate from the online mode.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

OK i can understand this, iam not happy with this but i can live with. I propesed eariler that this switching between game modes shouldnt be allowed on the fly. I.E "I fly to station, encounter players pirate and "vanish" to other space [solo play], and appear again 3 minutes later at station dock. This just ridiculous. There should be timer to block hopping between modes. Changeing game mode in combat shouldnt be allowed too.

Wow.. Please tell me this guy is making this up that you can actually switch to offline mode if you are attacked by another player.

 

[Trebor Daehdoow]

Its amazing how many bitter ex-EVE players yelling here against the OP. I tell you something... It was your own fault you got ganked moving billions in your T1 hauler from Jita to Amarr. Get over it.

First of all, "bitter ex-EVE player" is doubly-redundant, because all EVE players -- ex or active -- are bitter.

Second, one thing EVE has going for it is a decent risk-reward balance, and both gankers and gankees have game mechanics available to determine if what they want to do is worth the risk/cost, though they may differ in their evaluation of these factors. And of course, when they do dumb things, hilarity ensues.

When ED has developed game mechanics that address this balance issue, this will be a lot less contentious of an topic.

 

[darkcyd]

I don't understand why it bothers some people so much that they feel the need to dictate how others play the game they paid for and invest so much of their spare time in! You choose how you play & let everybody else decide how they want to play, So what if they can switch back & forth, I hardly think it matters if someone played solo last night because they just felt like it then decides they want a bit more action tonight it's up to them

I don't think its restriction of freedom but a stamp of valor. Online play mode presents additional potential player created challenges a single player system player would not face. Those challenges may be difficult to overcome and should be if elite wants any competitive type of environment for its player base beyond endless npc grinding.

The same arguments were held up when warcraft allowed swapping to PvP servers from PvE servers. Players who had been up to that challenge of leveling on a server where they were constantly at war with players in addition to NPC's and grieved all along the way considered their accomplishment that much sweeter and allowing somebody who had not put in that time and effort was given the same reward (a max level character in this case on a pvp server). It is a strong argument. People want a challenge and they want that challenge to be against other people. People want to be competitive. And they want to be distinguished for taking that challenge. To allow people to swap waters it down.

I think the extremely small playerbase combined with the huge galaxy size will make just finding people near impossible compared to other games and as far as whether it is right to allow players to swap. ED has already chosen. The achievements accomplished in this game will be considered as a single player vs computer. Elite will not at launch be considered muliplayer....only massive and online...which just makes it a MO.

And you know, this game hasn't even launched. I don't know why we can't have two separated ED Servers. One for....well, the classic approach. And one for blood and guts PvPers with no access for single players.

 

[Miklos Atreides]

First of all ED isno MMO. If you are on a different point of view I'd recommend to watch thevideocasts of DB.
It has MMO Elements,yes, but it isn't one and it isn't meant to be one.
Secondly it is fine how it is now. It gives all players all the freedom they want to have. If youwant to go solo, fine.
You're looking for human interaction, fine too. You can decide about how and when you want to play which game .
You can do it all with your one Avatar and it is good not being forced to manage multiple Avatars.
For those who fear solo gives an advantage in development of your Avatar, be sure the worlds are compareable.
If there is any advantage, it is very minor and you do not need to consider it. In this thread are a lot of statements
from Pro PVPers that wil ltell you the same.
If you want to attract more players into Open Play you can realize this only by content, not by force, otherwise the
players will stop playing and look for another game that is fullfilling their needs. So do not force the solo players to
loose their options, which is making their world richer. There are plenty of features that might come, which are only in
an open world senseful like user created missions.
For those which are afraid of being cut of a combat they might win. Today you also fight against those log-off-if-you-loose
players, but you can't stop them either. In doubt they might pull the plug. So you have to live with it. If you can't, I am in
doubt if ED is finally the right game for your convenience. But to be honest Iwas never aware that you can switch modes
during combat. I can imagine for example if this option is available only while you are docked. I think a solutionlike this would
be pretty fair, but it is due to the developers, if they believe balance is needed here.

Regards,
Miklos

 

[darkcyd]

First of all ED isno MMO. If you are on a different point of view I'd recommend to watch thevideocasts of DB.
It has MMO Elements,yes, but it isn't one and it isn't meant to be one.
Secondly it is fine how it is now. It gives all players all the freedom they want to have. If youwant to go solo, fine.
You're looking for human interaction, fine too. You can decide about how and when you want to play which game .
You can do it all with your one Avatar and it is good not being forced to manage multiple Avatars.
For those who fear solo gives an advantage in development of your Avatar, be sure the worlds are compareable.
If there is any advantage, it is very minor and you do not need to consider it. In this thread are a lot of statements
from Pro PVPers that wil ltell you the same.
If you want to attract more players into Open Play you can realize this only by content, not by force, otherwise the
players will stop playing and look for another game that is fullfilling their needs. So do not force the solo players to
loose their options, which is making their world richer. There are plenty of features that might come, which are only in
an open world senseful like user created missions.
For those which are afraid of being cut of a combat they might win. Today you also fight against those log-off-if-you-loose
players, but you can't stop them either. In doubt they might pull the plug. So you have to live with it. If you can't, I am in
doubt if ED is finally the right game for your convenience. But to be honest Iwas never aware that you can switch modes
during combat. I can imagine for example if this option is available only while you are docked. I think a solutionlike this would
be pretty fair, but it is due to the developers, if they believe balance is needed here.

Regards,
Miklos

And its for these reasons that I am realizing there are two groups of players here with different ambitions.

One group yearning for the single player Elite of old with some added socializing when they feel it.

Another group actually wanting a challenging competitive multiplayer combat game.

Elite can't do both on the same server. Why not just fork the servers to allow both groups to win?

It'll be either that or you are very right, this game will become grandpa's space sim and the rest of the people will try to keep our hopes alive in star citizen to provide something more combat oriented.

 

[Horsk]

I found it very rare to meet anyone to chat with during beta while i was back in the UK , now im in Japan for the next 6 months ill play solo or in a private group as im fairly sure I will have lag issues.
At some time in the future when they bring in avitars and allow people to meet up on planets or inside stations people will gravitate towards more online play.

I played Everyquest in the good old days with dial up waiting for 6pm cheap rate on PVE, tried PVP and hated it. Same with WOW when it arrived.

Everyone wants something different from their gaming, Im fairly sure that Gankers will find enough fellow gankers but lots of people want to enjoy the game as traders and exploreres and dont want someone sitting their waiting for them to jump into a system and get ganked.

Given the amount of people who will play the game you can be fairly certain it will fill up with all kinds of players so before you get worried about us grandpa`s in our Zimmerframe ships just have the patience to see how the games player base develops.

Horsk

 

[Mephane]

Wow.. Please tell me this guy is making this up that you can actually switch to offline mode if you are attacked by another player.

You can't. When there are hostiles nearby you get a countdown timer until you can exit to the main menu. You must keep the timer open, it is cancelled if you close the menu again, and while it is open you cannot control your ship and just keep moving in a straight line.

 

[Ghost1]

People need to stop crying about this already. The game is gonna be fine, stop worrying about it. Open play will make this game more fun.