Is the game mainly focused on online solo playing?

[Mu77ley]

The thing to remember is that these instances can actually be quite small. 32 human players, plus however many NPCs all in visual range of each other would actually be very crowded.

 

[Patrick_68000]

In a stellar system there will be dozens, hundreds, thousands, of instances... So ... a space station will be reproduced very many times. The same space station in each instance with different players. Then, the target described by Bromley86 could be also reproduced several times if this target is a NPC, of course ?

 

[trenkaar]

In a stellar system there will be dozens, hundreds, thousands, of instances... So ... a space station will be reproduced very many times. The same space station in each instance with different players. Then, the target described by Bromley86 could be also reproduced several times if this target is a NPC, of course ?

I suppose he, as me, was talking about a PC target. As my point was always about PvP

 

[Bob_H]

Recently I read on another thread something I wasn't aware of: instances will be limited to 32 players per instance.

How is the instance system going to work? If I'm in a group of 30 people and we jump to a system, will we only be instantiated into systems with currently 2 or less people? If so, it seems that travelling always in groups of 17 or more people is going to turn always the tide in your favour, as the others will always be in disadvantage (as number of people concerns).

Also, will not this just kill group PvP? I mean, if you're in a big group, you'll never encounter other players or very few, as there is no "space" in the system for others.

Considering that in almost all (if not all) MMOs, guilds/groups/corps/you name it have often hundreds of members... how is this going to work? People can join a guild, but have to be scattered?

Then I thought to myself; wait a minute, maybe this game is supposed to be played online, but solo or in very small groups :S But then, is there a restriction? If not, we go back to what I said of getting advantage by flying together in big numbers (17 to 32).

What do you think?

ED isn't really designed for large groups of players taking part in PvP combat and fighting over assets and/or territory A.K.A. EVE Online. The game really isn't designed particularly with large organised groups in mind at all. As the design currently stands there is no in-game support for /guilds/clans/corps/organisations at all.

The main design concept is 'one pilot, one ship, one universe' as in individual play within a universe of 400 billion systems where other players are also flying around. Other players are collectively part of the persistant universe and are no more or no less important than the NPC's also flying around the persistant universe. In effect as players we're up against *everything* not just the other players we may or may not come across.

There will be ample opportunities for PvP combat as seen in the combat zones in Aranin system but the idea is you take the side of one of the NPC factions fighting in the combat zone as a mercenary fighting with or against other mercenary pilots depending on which side you've chosen to defend. So grouping with others inside the game is very much an ad-hoc affair as the design is currently intended (them being NPC or PC merc's is irrelevent to the actual battles although how many PCs fight on each side can determine the outcome of the war between the NPC factions overall).

FD have said they MAY introduce guild support at some stage in the future but that is by no means a given that guild support will be introduced. Right now we're all part of the Pilots Federation - an NPC organisation - and that's the way it's going to stay for the forseable future.

 

[Half Giant]

Thanks for the post, I've been thinking along these lines. Personally I think a group limit of 8 to 16 players makes sense (given a 32 player instance limit). The question is specifically can a group protect themselves from another group of players just by their size. I think if a group limit is between a quarter and a half the max instance size then that won't happen.

 

[trenkaar]

Thanks Bob_H. That explains a lot that maybe I got wrong. I assumed E: D was a MMO, and as such it will have guilds. Thanks for the clarification.

PS: Love your signature text. So funny

 

[trenkaar]

Thanks for the post, I've been thinking along these lines. Personally I think a group limit of 8 to 16 players makes sense (given a 32 player instance limit). The question is specifically can a group protect themselves from another group of players just by their size. I think if a group limit is between a quarter and a half the max instance size then that won't happen.

Yes, exactly. That was my point. If there is no limit on groups, then you can protect yourself by grouping always to just more than half of the instance max. First, your friends will have priority in getting into the instance. And second, you'll not find groups as large as yours, because they cannot enter the instance.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Thanks for the post, I've been thinking along these lines. Personally I think a group limit of 8 to 16 players makes sense (given a 32 player instance limit). The question is specifically can a group protect themselves from another group of players just by their size. I think if a group limit is between a quarter and a half the max instance size then that won't happen.

Yes it seems finally more coherent than to fill completely an instance with a unique group. The size of the group which can naturally increase if the size of instance increases in the future

 

[trenkaar]

I just read this post, and now I can understand why the PvP system didn't make sense for me. Isn't supposed to be PvP!

David Braben's own words: Generally speaking we expect players, even beginners, to be more of a challenge than an AI ship, and something that players will tend not to attack, but more cooperate with, and we are designing the bounty system (and others) to discourage PvP and encourage player cooperation.

 

[Vingtetun]

I just read this post, and now I can understand why the PvP system didn't make sense for me. Isn't supposed to be PvP!

David Braben's own words: Generally speaking we expect players, even beginners, to be more of a challenge than an AI ship, and something that players will tend not to attack, but more cooperate with, and we are designing the bounty system (and others) to discourage PvP and encourage player cooperation.

I've got a thread going on just that topic - how we envisage and are expecting to play in a co-operative way.....

If the tools are in place to share info between small groups etc, it will positively encourage that kind of co-operating between us against the evil computer NPC's who are hell bent on making life a misery (whether it is the pirates, or the cops in their vipers).

Linked here if anyone wants to join in the if, maybe, want to and thoughts on how we can cooperate in a PwP environment

 

[Literalyte]

Here is a thread I made about this topic a while back.