Open Play experience just blows…

[Sakashiro]

How things get turned around. This whole thread exists because someone doesn't like people playing in Solo (check the title). Now we're selfish if we won't.

This thread exists because someone can't find other players in open and is wondering why.

One of the explanations given was that gankers killed open by pushing everyone else into solo (or PG).

But this is clearly not true. Despite the split between clients 3.8 and 4.0 it is still easy to find other players. When I go to a known hotspot or a CG system, I frequently drop into instances of 10 players or more.

So what's the problem? Why do some people perceive the game as empty?

It could be due to network issues. However, if you're able to instance with one player, you can instance with ten as well. The network isn't stopping you.

Something else is. And that thing could be your blocklist or the blocklist of a player next to you.

It's important to understand what the block function does. It doesn't really block the ganker, it blocks you from entering any instance the ganker is in. The longer your blocklist is, the more likely the game will spawn a segregated instance just for you. While that may be exactly what you want, it may not be what the next player entering your instance wants.

Protip #1: If you want to instance with as many players as possible, keep your blocklist empty!

Protip #2: If you enter a hotspot or CG system but see only one player although your blocklist is empty, the other player's blocklist may be the problem. In that case try this: temporarily block that other player, then re-instance. This will likely put you into one of the more populated instances that the anti-social player is excluding themselves from.

 

[galahad2069]

And you didn't invite me?

Next time I totally will, I promise
But that was in Ody sadly .

 

[nemolomen]

Interesting - as when my altCMDR was there on the day Update 13 dropped (in Horizons) there were no Thargoids to be seen - at all.

Yes, that is unfortunate...

 

[nemolomen]

There is no Open mode without a block feature.

This is also unfortunate...

 

[Robert Maynard]

This is also unfortunate...

That depends on ones perspective.

 

[galahad2069]

You're just flying along, minding your own business when you get blown to bits and laughed at in open chat.

I totally don't get blown to bits and neither does anyone else who prepares for the expectable danger, so it must be a 'you' problem.

If you want warnings, here you are: you can always expect to get pulled in player hotspots like CGs and similar events, Reverskinrarta Dezhra and engineer systems. Anywhere else the risk is very low, in most systems it's virtually nonexistent.

 

[Morbad]

Nobody warns you about ganking you. You're just flying along, minding your own business when you get blown to bits and laughed at in open chat.

There are warnings all over the game, it's promotional matierals, and the manual about the risks of combat. There is also specific mention of being able to encounter other CMDRs on the Open Play button you have to clock to play in Open. Of course, being blown to bits is not something that mandates a hostile CMDR, even if CMDRs have a tendency to be better at it.

There is no Open mode without a block feature.

Since we all know what the game is, you can just assume that anything that describes what it isn't is a hypothetical scenario. In this case, it's a hypothetical scenario with blatantly obvious implications.

In the absence of block, hostile CMDR encounters would be every bit as optional as NPC ones. I don't use block, which means there is no functional difference between how optional CMDR and NPC encounters are. If I don't want to encounter hostile NPCs, I know there are ways I can avoid most, though not all, such encounters...they are essentially the same ways I can avoid nearly all hostile CMDR encounters.

 

[Ferryclacker]

Problem in open is the amount of ***sy's imo.

When i fly in my FDL things are fine, talk/play with other players etc.
Never ever get interdicted, not even by people in a wing.

When i fly in a cargo/passenger/jump ship (no weapons) then i get interdicted constantly and killed by 1 or more players (usually more)

This make's it so i can only fly in open and do things if i am in my FDL.
(And my FDL can only do combat )

 

[Brrokk]

Personally I acknowledge some of the concerns about block. Done indiscriminately it could degrade everyone's instancing. I think it's wise to keep it for people you really don't want to meet again, or whose chat spam you really can't stand.

Used sparingly, its beneficial effects IMO outweigh any occasional effects on general instancing.

This is why I'm against any "Open-only" rewards. At the moment, if you want to be completely undisturbed, the rational choice is to log in to Solo. Let's not create an incentive for minmaxers to play in Open while blocking all other players on sight!

The only people on my block list are self-confessed DG2 griefers and people who've thought it worthwhile to explode an unarmed, clean, cargoless Sidewinder in Deciat.

 

[Jack Winter]

That depends on ones perspective.

I'm not sure about that. A block function to exclude a particularly annoying player seems mandatory, but if masses of people start blocking people in an effort to turn open into some kind of open PvE mode, we'll surely all suffer for it..

And I still ask myself what kind of cooperative gameplay people are looking for in open...

 

[TiberiusDuval]

Problem in open is the amount of ***sy's imo.

When i fly in my FDL things are fine, talk/play with other players etc.
Never ever get interdicted, not even by people in a wing.

When i fly in a cargo/passenger/jump ship (no weapons) then i get interdicted constantly and killed by 1 or more players (usually more)

This make's it so i can only fly in open and do things if i am in my FDL.
(And my FDL can only do combat )

Going to test it soon, have an FDL waiting couple of modules to transferr

 

[ethelred]

When i fly in a cargo/passenger/jump ship (no weapons) then i get interdicted constantly and killed by 1 or more players (usually more)

This make's it so i can only fly in open and do things if i am in my FDL.
(And my FDL can only do combat )

Where's this?

 

[Morbad]

And I still ask myself what kind of cooperative gameplay people are looking for in open...

Mostly this kind of stuff:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coTKmwrlpjI

 

[Old Duck]

Next time I totally will, I promise
But that was in Ody sadly .

Yes Odyssey has ruined this game, LOL.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Since we all know what the game is, you can just assume that anything that describes what it isn't is a hypothetical scenario. In this case, it's a hypothetical scenario with blatantly obvious implications.

There are likely as many views on what would constitute an improvement to players' gameplay as there are players - as we don't all want the same things.

 

[Robert Maynard]

And I still ask myself what kind of cooperative gameplay people are looking for in open...

Playing among other players without engaging in combat with them, often towards a common goal.

 

[galahad2069]

4) there's a failure to agree as to the efficacy of the block feature in improving the game experience of those who don't enjoy unwanted player interactions in either of the multi-player game modes.

As long as the efficacy of the block feature is not 100%, which it isn't (since you cannot possibly block every single player), it will never make players 'entirely optional' in Open.
Unless there is some special definition of 'other players being entirely optional' other than 'reducing the chance of instancing with them to exactly zero'.
Choosing Solo mode can do that, blocking can't.

 

[Sakashiro]

Problem in open is the amount of ***sy's imo.

When i fly in my FDL things are fine, talk/play with other players etc.
Never ever get interdicted, not even by people in a wing.

When i fly in a cargo/passenger/jump ship (no weapons) then i get interdicted constantly and killed by 1 or more players (usually more)

This make's it so i can only fly in open and do things if i am in my FDL.
(And my FDL can only do combat )

Weird, I see FDLs getting interdicted all the time. Sometimes I do it myself.

 

[Robert Maynard]

As long as the efficacy of the block feature is not 100%, which it isn't (since you cannot possibly block every single player), it will never make players 'entirely optional' in Open.
Unless there is some special definition of 'other players being entirely optional' other than 'reducing the chance of instancing with them to exactly zero'.
Choosing Solo mode can do that, blocking can't.

I expect that we can agree that the block feature significantly reduces the probability of encountering blocked CMDRs, as it is designed to do.

 

[Morbad]

There are likely as many views on what would constitute an improvement to players' gameplay as there are players - as we don't all want the same things.

That's also beside the point of this line of discussion, which was about the optionality of NPC vs. CMDR encounters. With block, CMDR encounters are more optional, and less contextually optional. Without block, they are the same kind and similar degrees of optional.

Weird, I see FDLs getting interdicted all the time. Sometimes I do it myself.

My CMDR's FDLs and other combat ships get interdicted considerably more often than his non-combat ones, probably because people (usually correctly) assume that my combat fit vessels will stick around and fight, while my non-combat vessels will just dump a heatsink and go evasive for the twelve seconds it takes to leave.