Open mode is a lot of fun. Wish I had done it earlier.

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.
 
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.

Open is super easy, just avoid the usual suspects places, Sol, Shinrata, Leisti and Maia. Griefers are lazy people.
 
Welcome to Open. Open is a lot of fun and a vibrant community where 99% of people you meet are friendly as you experienced. I join you in encouraging solo players to come on over. Don't let one negative encounter, or forum stories, keep you from experiencing the full richness of the game. Especially now that we have an easy block feature (although not perfect) to assist in helping you not to encounter the undesirables.
 
A nice positive honest thread. :D

It has its bad moments and my choice is made mostly by the amount of re-buys I have for the ship I am flying at the moment.

I would say that about 98% of my time in open has been positive; mostly because I rarely see other players and because 80 to 90% of said players are friendly, helpful and non threatening. CGs after a couple of days, can get a bit silly with kiddie gangs trying to kill everything they lay eyes on; but generally, open is not a scary place. Far from it.
 
The perception just comes down to a luck of the draw 1st impression. If you go into Open and have a good time like the OP has, then of course you will regard Open in positive terms. But if you make your first foray into Open and immediately get ganked by a griefer, obviously your 1st impression is going to be a heck of a lot different than the OP.

An intensely negative 1st impression of anything is VERY hard to ever over come. A good chunk of players in Solo arrived there after something nasty happened to them in Open. Good luck getting those players to join you. ;)
 
The perception just comes down to a luck of the draw 1st impression. If you go into Open and have a good time like the OP has, then of course you will regard Open in positive terms. But if you make your first foray into Open and immediately get ganked by a griefer, obviously your 1st impression is going to be a heck of a lot different than the OP.

An intensely negative 1st impression of anything is VERY hard to ever over come. A good chunk of players in Solo arrived there after something nasty happened to them in Open. Good luck getting those players to join you. ;)
I have to say that my first impressions of open were very negative. First day; sidewinder: Boom. Waited until I had my Cobra III fitted the way I wanted it; second attempt, but still basically near the starter system. Boom again and again and had to leave due to shortage of re-buys. Plus I have to say, there was no conversation during any of those encounters. So agreed; not a good first and second or initial impressions for playing in open. First lesson learned after some thought; get away from the starter systems.
 
I've had the same experience as you, except for the "running into tons of players" part. We live in a virtual wasteland here down under :)
Although almost all of the people I've met here are indifferent, with very few bothering to answer hails.
 
It's worth remembering that griefers don't tend to target "fully engineered death machines".

Genuinely glad you're enjoying playing your way. But people who enjoy playing other ways don't need to be incentivised to play differently.

Well, I would have played in open earlier, had I had an incentive. And since open involves other players, I want to see more people there, as it will further enrich my gaming experience. Selfish?....perhaps. :)
 
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Surprise !
 
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.

I completely agree. Reading the forums and reddit, I expected a My Lai massacre in front of every station or at every engineer. Is not like that at all.

And not only does the game not give rewards for playing in open, it intensives play in ez-mode solo or private. Same rewards but absolutely no risk.

I did this past CG for cargo in open in a lightly engineered T7. Was not killed once. Sure, I was interdicted plenty, but never lost more than ring and a half of shields. I friended every SDC member whose name I knew to try and help me instance with them. For the most part, they were more interested in fighting other ships, not some random trader.

I actually did get interdicted by one SDC guy, but he sorta pirated and talked to me. Didn't fire a shot.

Got pirated a few times too, which added to the fun. And shot at lot, but was always able to highwake. I honestly don't know how you could get killed if your ship is anywhere near prepared. The one qualification to this, is I was only interdicted by single ships that were not using FSD rebooting missles. I have point defense, but wasn't able to test it because I don't think anyone ever shot missiles. Even if I was interdicted by a wing, I'm pretty sure I would have been seconds away from high waking by the time the wing mates got in.

That said, there was no way I could compete in terms of percentage rank with people running in solo in shieldless cutters in solo. I'd like to know how many people that end up in the top 10 or top 10% are doing it in open.

That being said, there is no way I would mine the 50 tons of Bromellite for Bill Turner and try to deliver it in open. To0 much risk losing hours of mining for no reward.

I am in the process of redoing my run around DBX so that it is not so min/max'd for jump range to give it more survivability in open.
 
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Minonian

Banned
Open is super easy, just avoid the usual suspects places, Sol, Shinrata, Leisti and Maia. Griefers are lazy people.

Ahem! :) Excuse me, but you really think to simply not go there because there are griefers are a resolution?

And more importantly? First they kept saying there are no griefers, and kept saying if you don't like it don't go to open, (these 2 are somewhat contra dictionary don't you think?)
Now they are saying oh there are only griefers in the trouble spots. (still too much!)
The only thing I'm wondering about what will be their next line of defense?

Yup... This is just another excuse from their part, and a transparent one if i might add.
 
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I waited until I got a Cobra III to try open, because I thought I at least might have a chance of surviving the bloodbath, then, it was almost a week before I saw another player. Now, if I get interdicted, my auto-escape procedure is so automatic, I'm usually charging my FSD by the time I realize it's not an NPC.
 
I love open. Sure I've been "griefed" but I loved every second of it. Just like in real life you have to know which streets to avoid and if you do go on those streets then you better know how to act. Most of the time other commanders are considerate and kind people.
 
As far as I can tell, other than stream sniping, there is no griefing in Elite. Just people playing the game and bad game mechanics.
 
I waited until I got a Cobra III to try open, because I thought I at least might have a chance of surviving the bloodbath, then, it was almost a week before I saw another player. Now, if I get interdicted, my auto-escape procedure is so automatic, I'm usually charging my FSD by the time I realize it's not an NPC.

See, I wish I had done that. I waited until I had...sigh...a cutter and two anacondas and a clipper and a vulture and 2 couriers and an Asp-X and a DB-X. And, a sidewinder. EDIT: and an orca, forgot that one, and a python.

I regret not starting earlier. It's fun.
 
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Welcome to open! Do you trade shieldless btw? Whats you're usual trade route? ;)
And where do you camp? Asking for a friend. :D

- - - Updated - - -

See, I wish I had done that. I waited until I had...sigh...a cutter and two anacondas and a clipper and a vulture and 2 couriers and an Asp-X and a DB-X. And, a sidewinder. EDIT: and an orca, forgot that one, and a python.

I regret not starting earlier. It's fun.

Much better than grinding ain't it
 
Yup, I agree with most of the things in this thread.

Things like 'griefing,' in open and the bloodbath of it all? I was playing in open for a year before I read about those things, on this forum, and wondered if I'm simply playing a different game to everyone else.
 
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Yup, I agree with most of the things in this thread.

Indeed. Where you tend to go is probably relevant - I've never been drawn to CGs which seem to become great places to die - and the first impression aspect can't be overlooked.
Close to 3000 hours now, say 80% in open. Trading and BGSing, never in "an engineered death machine" that anyone would avoid ganking. Clipper to Conda to Cutter, all frail and trade-built, and now usually just in my trusty go-anywhere Python. Attacked all of once two years ago by a CODE pirate who, it turned out, wasn't prepared to catch a Clipper.

Note: I was attacked and killed another time early in Powerplay, but I was looking for combat at the time in a widely-known expansion. Doesn't count.

The argument that "avoiding a place because of PvPers isn't an answer" defies the logic of every multiplayer game where PvP is possible. There'll be somewhere that campers/gankers/whatever congregate in. Not going very much is a valid answer, much like not walking through Detroit alleyways at 4AM or any given minefield.
 
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