Now, what would have been the difference to Solo Mode?
Jay, nothing „bad“ happened in Open, but at the same time it was just like Solo from what you wrote.
The problem with Open Mode is not that „something bad“ could happen or that „something bad“ happens all the time. The problem is that there is nothing that makes Open Mode interesting beside „something bad“ could happen, maybe, there is a tiny chance…
In short it‘s pointless to the point that it hurts.
The dangers of open are wildly exaggerated. Yes there are systems,
a handful, that present a clear and present danger from pvp, pirates or 'gankers'. But they're few, and easily avoided. Solo is there if those systems and accessing whats in them concerns you, a quick menu flip and problem avoided. For the most part I hardly even come accross other CMDRs traveling around the bubble, I mean seriously, the place is huge!
The risk of encountering a hostile player in my travels
does add something interesting to the game though. Having to expand my skill set, to either get away from or engage them, and requiring situational awareness, adds an another layer to the gameplay which I enjoy. So does understanding how to build ships that can. I'm still learning things, and to me that's the definition of 'interesting', learning! It has made me a better player than I would be had I avoided open play.
I've also met plenty of friendly, helpful people in open that I fly with regularly. And that is the difference from solo mode, other people in an online multiplayer game...
And I'm not saying PG's don't have their place, I mean if you're advertising a couple hundred stripped down cargo ships on a station repair mission this saturday between 8am-8pm, obviously!
The problem with open mode is that so many people cannot deal with a death in a video game without losing their mind, or believe that the people raving about how open equates to wings of gankers at every turn in these forums is accurate, that they just won't even try to play in open for fear of it.
I don't see it happening but I wish Fdev would simply make the system security levels actually mean something. From high sec. ( near instant ATR response and overwhelming force. Let's pretend that they have sensors that picked up an interdictor pulse that didn't have their signature, spawn with the instance like how pirates drop in beside you when mining ), med and low with decreasing response times or something, down to anarchy ( anything goes ) so that people not wanting to encounter pvp could and would still play in open. Want to go somewhere? Well then, plot a longer route through high/med sec. systems, or plot a shorter route that might go through one or more lower sec. systems. Time vs Risk.
