If you want more people in Open, the best way to accomplish it are QOL features to make Open more desirable.

[DemiserofD]

Then use your brain a bit. The point was that people don't like open because of interaction, not because they can't talk to people.

As I've pointed out repeatedly, this is because there are no ingame mechanics that facilitate positive interaction with other players.

If you want people to play in open, you need to give them ways to meet other players in a positive, rather than negative, way.

This has absolutely nothing to do with piracy, because piracy is exactly the sort of interaction these people play in solo to avoid.

I'm not sure how I can make this any clearer. The reason people don't play in open is because they don't want to be pirated, but being pirated or killed are the things that open helps the most, while doing little to nothing for finding new friends.

What the game needs are mechanics that help players meet new friendly players ingame to enhance their gameplay experience. Since meeting new people is the only draw of Open, until people who don't like fighting each other can also benefit equally, they'll feel no reason to join.

Please stop trying to drag your own off-topic interests into threads that have nothing to do with what you want.

Be better.

 

[RamirezKurita]

As I've pointed out repeatedly, this is because there are no ingame mechanics that facilitate positive interaction with other players.

If you want people to play in open, you need to give them ways to meet other players in a positive, rather than negative, way.

This has absolutely nothing to do with piracy, because piracy is exactly the sort of interaction these people play in solo to avoid.

If players wanted positive interactions with players but no negative interactions, then they would just play private group.

The whole point about open is that it allows for both positive and negative interactions with others. Another player might stop by to admire your paint job, or they might just blow up your ship because they don't like Asp Explorers, both are possible and both are welcome in the world of open.

Those that don't want any direct interaction have solo (obviously, indirect interaction via the BGS and powerplay still exists).

And I guess to finish off the final combination, those that want only negative interactions and no positive interactions have their CQC, but we don't generally count that...

 

[Avvie Rayne]

If players wanted positive interactions with players but no negative interactions, then they would just play private group.

The whole point about open is that it allows for both positive and negative interactions with others. Another player might stop by to admire your paint job, or they might just blow up your ship because they don't like Asp Explorers, both are possible and both are welcome in the world of open.

Those that don't want any direct interaction have solo (obviously, indirect interaction via the BGS and powerplay still exists).

And I guess to finish off the final combination, those that want only negative interactions and no positive interactions have their CQC, but we don't generally count that...

I wish I saw the groups like you do. After years of playing this game working for factions, all I see now is:

Anyone in Open = Good job, keep up the good work
Anyone in Solo / PG = Obviously running bots, doing 5C against powerplay superpowers and being general wimps

 

[ManlyVIK]

And I guess to finish off the final combination, those that want only negative interactions and no positive interactions have their CQC, but we don't generally count that...

Git gud for positive interactions.

 

[TiberiusDuval]

As I've pointed out repeatedly, this is because there are no ingame mechanics that facilitate positive interaction with other players.

If you want people to play in open, you need to give them ways to meet other players in a positive, rather than negative, way.

This has absolutely nothing to do with piracy, because piracy is exactly the sort of interaction these people play in solo to avoid.

I'm not sure how I can make this any clearer. The reason people don't play in open is because they don't want to be pirated, but being pirated or killed are the things that open helps the most, while doing little to nothing for finding new friends.

What the game needs are mechanics that help players meet new friendly players ingame to enhance their gameplay experience. Since meeting new people is the only draw of Open, until people who don't like fighting each other can also benefit equally, they'll feel no reason to join.

Please stop trying to drag your own off-topic interests into threads that have nothing to do with what you want.

Be better.

I don't care about piracy for open interaction THAT would be nice to see in action. Typically its either fast o7 in chat, or someone thinking I'm ganker and menulogging/high waking away as soon as they see me in scanners, or someone interdicting and trying to blast me without no comms. Piracy would be fun...

 

[lemon407]

The whole point about open is that it allows for both positive and negative interactions with others.

Agree, except there are no positive interaction that benefit the player monetarily or provide progression in the gam in open while their are plenty of negative interaction that monetarily hurt the player.

Thats the problem, there is no reason to play in open as you dont stand to gain anything in open play that progresses you through the game any faster then playing in solo or PG. That's the big issue that a lot of people dont seem to get or understand. Open offers nothing beneficial at all.
Name one thing that is more beneficial in open then solo or PG?

 

[Jmanis]

Name one thing that is more beneficial in open then solo or PG?

Increasing your insurance claim count?

 

[Vedmo]

Name one thing that is more beneficial in open then solo or PG?

Meeting new people then shooting them in the face.

 

[lemon407]

Meeting new people then shooting them in the face.

I mean i can do that in PG and even solo, lets be honest if im shooting them in the face i dont care if they are real or not lol

 

[Vedmo]

I mean i can do that in PG and even solo, lets be honest if im shooting them in the face i dont care if they are real or not lol

I was full of it anyway, I've never actually shot another Commander.

 

[gorankar]

The greatest impediment to seeing large numbers of people in open, is not modes, time zones, block lists, platforms, or even the questionable networking choices made by fdev, and it is certainly not the lack of some QOL features. It is the size of the galaxy. There are more inhabited systems than there are concurrent players. Having such a large galaxy to explore is awesome, and one of the draws to the game for me, but it does make it seem empty at times. Shindez, engineers, PP, and CG, popular money/mats/rep grinding spots, and other events, are what bring people into contact with each other.
I am not going to complain if they add some QOL changes that make communicating and finding people to play with easier, but lack of those is not the problem and is unlikely to help with the lack of players in a given place in open.

 

[DemiserofD]

If players wanted positive interactions with players but no negative interactions, then they would just play private group.

The whole point about open is that it allows for both positive and negative interactions with others. Another player might stop by to admire your paint job, or they might just blow up your ship because they don't like Asp Explorers, both are possible and both are welcome in the world of open.

Those that don't want any direct interaction have solo (obviously, indirect interaction via the BGS and powerplay still exists).

And I guess to finish off the final combination, those that want only negative interactions and no positive interactions have their CQC, but we don't generally count that...

It's not about exclusively getting positive interactions, it's just having the necessary QOL tools to allow for equal or more positive interactions versus negative interactions.

The current model is heavily biased towards negative reactions, which inspires an attitude of fear whenever you meet someone new. By adding methods of more consistently meeting new friendly players, especially if these tools are visible in Solo, allowing players to switch freely between the two to achieve maximum benefit for their own personal needs, it makes the game mode exponentially more appealing to this group of players.

 

[DemiserofD]

Agree, except there are no positive interaction that benefit the player monetarily or provide progression in the gam in open while their are plenty of negative interaction that monetarily hurt the player.

Thats the problem, there is no reason to play in open as you dont stand to gain anything in open play that progresses you through the game any faster then playing in solo or PG. That's the big issue that a lot of people dont seem to get or understand. Open offers nothing beneficial at all.
Name one thing that is more beneficial in open then solo or PG?

There actually are. Wing missions are just one example, but many activities stack beneficially. Mining, for example, bounty hunting in general, AX combat...heck, even exploration can be done in a wing if you want, with players jumping in parallel and then converging when a high-value system is found.

What is lacking are ingame systems to get these players together. Two solo players might be doing the same thing 20ly apart, but they'll never find each other.

That's where these sorts of suggestions would particularly help.

 

[DemiserofD]

The greatest impediment to seeing large numbers of people in open, is not modes, time zones, block lists, platforms, or even the questionable networking choices made by fdev, and it is certainly not the lack of some QOL features. It is the size of the galaxy. There are more inhabited systems than there are concurrent players. Having such a large galaxy to explore is awesome, and one of the draws to the game for me, but it does make it seem empty at times. Shindez, engineers, PP, and CG, popular money/mats/rep grinding spots, and other events, are what bring people into contact with each other.
I am not going to complain if they add some QOL changes that make communicating and finding people to play with easier, but lack of those is not the problem and is unlikely to help with the lack of players in a given place in open.

This is exactly why these sorts of QOL suggestions are so important. If you're doing something in one location, and there's another player even a lightyear away, you'll never realize they're there, and even if you do, you'll have no idea what they're doing.

By letting players share missions and whatnot, it lets these vast distances be bridged, letting players work together to achieve superior results.

Gankers and pvpers don't care what others are doing, they'll kill them all the same. But everyday players need extra information to know who would be a good person to play with. These QOL features would provide that information.

 

[varonica]

Piracy is not a problem, problem is that it is very very hard to distinquish honest pirate from ganker.

Filthy pirates? I don't distinguish, pirates are crims, you either destroy them or run, you don't talk, that just encourages them to continue pirating!

 

[Chaparral]

Shown below are the of access tools for communication in a typical AAA MMO with central servers capable of hosting dozens of players at a time.

Each channel can be active, or set to ignore.

Notice I said AAA MMO. ED is not a AAA MMO, it is a p2p multiplayer gaming service.

The multiplayer aspect is a feature of ED and not the focus of the game design as it is in an MMO.

These communication features illustrated below emphasize socialization and team building.

There are extremely light versions of these tools in ED, and as with most elements of ED, 3rd party tools are required to make the game accessible.

This doesn't make ED bad, it is just inappropriate to call it an MMO given the actual industry standard communication design elements of real MMOs.

\

 

[varonica]

Shown below are the of access tools for communication in a typical AAA MMO with central servers capable of hosting dozens of players at a time.

Each channel can be active, or set to ignore.

Notice I said AAA MMO. ED is not a AAA MMO, it is a p2p multiplayer gaming service.

The multiplayer aspect is a feature of ED and not the focus of the game design as it is in an MMO.

These communication features illustrated below emphasize socialization and team building.

There are extremely light versions of these tools in ED, and as with most elements of ED, 3rd party tools are required to make the game accessible.

This doesn't make ED bad, it is just inappropriate to call it an MMO given the actual industry standard communication design elements of real MMOs.

View attachment 206593\
View attachment 206594
View attachment 206595

It's also a game with a relatively small play area and event points that bring players into constant contact where these systems can be properly utilised.

This doesn't make ED bad, it is just inappropriate to call it an MMO given the actual industry standard communication design elements of real MMOs.

Well this is just wrong isn't it, just because you think the communication design elements of ED are nothing like "Game X" has nothing to do with whether or not ED is a real MMO, the only thing that defines an MMO is the fact that it fits that description MMO, it says nothing about the communication elements. I have played many MMO's, some with better and some with worse systems than GW2, that doesn't make them any less an MMO even as the games with better systems than GW2 don't make GW2 any less an MMO.

Personally I think the communication system in ED is very poor compared to a lot of other games, but that has nothing whatsoever to do with whether or not it is an MMO so how about you forget that approach because it's just a rubbish argument!

 

[Rubbernuke]

As I've pointed out repeatedly, this is because there are no ingame mechanics that facilitate positive interaction with other players.

If you want people to play in open, you need to give them ways to meet other players in a positive, rather than negative, way.

And perhaps you need to actually think about that- the only way thats going to happen for some people is in PG with specific rulesets that disallow PvP interactions.

This has absolutely nothing to do with piracy, because piracy is exactly the sort of interaction these people play in solo to avoid.

It has everything to do with piracy- once people are in Open its the sort of thing in their heads they don't want to see, take part in or contemplate. Its this which prevents people coming in- not the positive interactions but the negative ones they can't avoid while they are in that mode. PG this is easy (since its just a preset group) but in Open its uncontrolled.

I'm not sure how I can make this any clearer. The reason people don't play in open is because they don't want to be pirated, but being pirated or killed are the things that open helps the most, while doing little to nothing for finding new friends.

What the game needs are mechanics that help players meet new friendly players ingame to enhance their gameplay experience. Since meeting new people is the only draw of Open, until people who don't like fighting each other can also benefit equally, they'll feel no reason to join.

And I get what you say, but you misunderstand solo players and what they want. It does not matter if Open helps them with pirates, they don't want that interaction or danger to begin with. You are better off suggesting for PG improvements where they can pick who they play with, because then they have full control.

Please stop trying to drag your own off-topic interests into threads that have nothing to do with what you want.

Sorry, discussing your topic.

Be better.

I'd have thought the first time you posted this idea you'd have learnt by now, but obviously not. What is this, the second time without changes?

 

[varonica]

And perhaps you need to actually think about that- the only way thats going to happen for some people is in PG with specific rulesets that disallow PvP interactions.

It has everything to do with piracy- once people are in Open its the sort of thing in their heads they don't want to see, take part in or contemplate. Its this which prevents people coming in- not the positive interactions but the negative ones they can't avoid while they are in that mode. PG this is easy (since its just a preset group) but in Open its uncontrolled.

And I get what you say, but you misunderstand solo players and what they want. It does not matter if Open helps them with pirates, they don't want that interaction or danger to begin with. You are better off suggesting for PG improvements where they can pick who they play with, because then they have full control.

Sorry, discussing your topic.

I'd have thought the first time you posted this idea you'd have learnt by now, but obviously not. What is this, the second time without changes?

That sums it up nicely I think. The OP has convinced himself he knows the reason why people play solo instead of Open, every suggestion he puts forward is aimed at that reason, whereas if he actually asked solo players he would get a different reason that he is doing nothing to address, well he gets them anyway, he just doesn't accept them.

If the OP just wants more players in Open the best way to do that is to provide a consensual PvP environment, like most other MMO's out there. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part you need to actively allow other players to attack you either by taking part in a war or similar construct or activating a PvP flag.

That wouldn't get everyone out of solo of course because it certainly doesn't address all reasons, some people are just anti-social and don't want to deal with constant chat requests and all that entails.

The problem with the consensual PvP flag is of course it brings people into Open, but it doesn't make them targets! So since he is ignoring the best method to bring people to Open I can only assume his motivation for having more people in Open isn't the fun interaction, you could get that with a consensual PvP flag just as easily, it's that he wants more targets.

 

[Brrokk]

That sums it up nicely I think. The OP has convinced himself he knows the reason why people play solo instead of Open, every suggestion he puts forward is aimed at that reason, whereas if he actually asked solo players he would get a different reason that he is doing nothing to address, well he gets them anyway, he just doesn't accept them.

If the OP just wants more players in Open the best way to do that is to provide a consensual PvP environment, like most other MMO's out there. There are exceptions of course, but for the most part you need to actively allow other players to attack you either by taking part in a war or similar construct or activating a PvP flag.

That wouldn't get everyone out of solo of course because it certainly doesn't address all reasons, some people are just anti-social and don't want to deal with constant chat requests and all that entails.

The problem with the consensual PvP flag is of course it brings people into Open, but it doesn't make them targets! So since he is ignoring the best method to bring people to Open I can only assume his motivation for having more people in Open isn't the fun interaction, you could get that with a consensual PvP flag just as easily, it's that he wants more targets.

Very nice summary and analysis there.