Judging by what I've seen in CQC, there are plenty of ways to mess with instancing to the detriment of the players (it's why I stopped playing that mode).
One thing these folks trying to force themselves into other people's games have overlooked is that there are plenty of ways folks can make their game experience just as miserable for them as they are making it for others. And when I've explained it previously, all we get back is "I'll report them" - report to whom, FDev don't employ GMs and judging by how long it went on they don't seem to have the ability (or willpower) to deal with that type of nastiness.
Imagine the kicking and screaming we would see on here if every time the PvP'ers pulled someone out of Supercruise, they got a sudden lag fest until that person had jumped out. I don't condone it and never would, but it would happen if people were forced to play in a way they didn't want to.
I’ve explained it numerous times myself, and the other type of response I’ve gotten is “You don’t
know that will happen. It’s not happening in
this game.” Which is kind of ironic, considering that some have admitted that this is their first ever MMO.
Elite Dangerous is doing something practically unique in my experience: rather than a PvP switch or dedicated PvP server to keep the usual suspects away from those with
zero interest in PvP, Frontier has allowed players an unprecedented and unbiased choice in
who they play with. This has resulted in the Holy Grail of MMO development: A PvE game without any artificial barriers to PvP, that isn’t hemorrhaging players and profits due to the behavior of the usual suspects.
I may not
know if coercing players into Open will bring back the usual suspects, anymore than I
know the sun will rise in the morning. But there is plenty of precedent, and the only successful counter example makes the usual suspects a feature, not a flaw, so I wouldn’t touch it with a ten foot pole. But if my previous experiences during the early days of Open PowerPlay are any indication, it
will.
I’m not a combat junky, so I just concentrated on hauling. By the time I decided I’d have far more fun going back to manipulating the BGS with a focus on overthrowing favorable fortification Federation factions, primarily against Hudson, I only encountered
hostile pledged players
twice. The
Unpledged hostile players, who hung out in Kamadhenu intercepting
empty cargo ships, outnumbered them ten to one. And weirdly enough, they vanished a few weeks after the start of PP, while it took me three months to decide I
really wasn’t having fun hauling over the same old routes. And both hostile pledged encounters happened
after the usual suspects disappeared.
It could very well be that the usual suspects disappeared because the PowerPlayer-base is
significantly less likely than the general player-base to choose a mode other than Open, despite the near universal statements to the contrary. If that’s the case, coercing players into Open is not going to create a fun environment in Open. The type of player who would choose Solo/PG for
efficiency’s sake, rather than a strong dislike for PvP, is just the sort of player who’ll
weaponize the fact that this game’s networking architecture isn’t designed for PvP.
