Reading on this forum and on Reddit, it appeared to me that Open mode was a wild bloodbath of villany at every turn (and to be fair I'm sure some places are). Being that there was no in-game reward to open mode and I was still building up, I spent a lot of time honing my skills, engineering my ships, looking at videos and reading on here. Got the hang of flying FA off, using boosters and boosting at the right time, rapid pip management through mapped keys, turning off and on gimbals. And so on. I had limited PVP from just a few experimental encounters in a ship too fast to catch (Courier with 825 speed).
Finally, starting to feel like I should do it, I ventured into open in my fully engineered death machine, ready for the bloodbath that was sure to ensue. Heart was pounding as I left the dock of my busy home base, checked my weapons, checked my keys and drilled FA off maneuvers in my head, made sure I had hotmapped the next system so I could run fast as I would immediately be jumped by 5 elite PVPers in maxed out wings of FDLs and Corvettes with complimentary weapons, as the forums ensured me would happen. Here it goes, time to fight in the madness. Lots of other players around in my home port.
Nothing. No interdictions, no attacks. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. I ran into tons of players, they were nothing but nice. The only PVP battles were the ones I myself initiated in nefarious fashion. The early PVP battles went well.
So I just kept playing in open and have met all kinds of cool people, started up conversations, and basically have just plain had a good time. I wish I had done this from day 1 - open isn't as scary as everyone makes out for the most part. I wish that the game gave an advantage to playing in open to reflect the greater danger (that...uh...I guess I brought) with greater profits - shouldn't be hard as the powerplay modifiers already include the basic means for it. Strangely, I've gotten much better at combat in the time I've been playing in Open - it really made me want to improve - and now I'm designing several purpose-designed ships for PVP.
The point of this thread is that I just wanted to encourage other solo players to play in open. I'm sure there are tons of people, like me, who read this forum and think open is just beyond them...it isn't. It's fun and adds interest and DEPTH to the game. And, it would be easy to get more players in open by making some rewards for playing there.
Finally, starting to feel like I should do it, I ventured into open in my fully engineered death machine, ready for the bloodbath that was sure to ensue. Heart was pounding as I left the dock of my busy home base, checked my weapons, checked my keys and drilled FA off maneuvers in my head, made sure I had hotmapped the next system so I could run fast as I would immediately be jumped by 5 elite PVPers in maxed out wings of FDLs and Corvettes with complimentary weapons, as the forums ensured me would happen. Here it goes, time to fight in the madness. Lots of other players around in my home port.
Nothing. No interdictions, no attacks. WHAT IS GOING ON HERE. I ran into tons of players, they were nothing but nice. The only PVP battles were the ones I myself initiated in nefarious fashion. The early PVP battles went well.
So I just kept playing in open and have met all kinds of cool people, started up conversations, and basically have just plain had a good time. I wish I had done this from day 1 - open isn't as scary as everyone makes out for the most part. I wish that the game gave an advantage to playing in open to reflect the greater danger (that...uh...I guess I brought) with greater profits - shouldn't be hard as the powerplay modifiers already include the basic means for it. Strangely, I've gotten much better at combat in the time I've been playing in Open - it really made me want to improve - and now I'm designing several purpose-designed ships for PVP.
The point of this thread is that I just wanted to encourage other solo players to play in open. I'm sure there are tons of people, like me, who read this forum and think open is just beyond them...it isn't. It's fun and adds interest and DEPTH to the game. And, it would be easy to get more players in open by making some rewards for playing there.