Groups like Mobius are awesome, but they shouldn't have to exist as such outside of open. It's absurd that FDEV, and some community members, don't see that clearly. Elite could be an amazing MMO for all players.
Groups like Mobius are awesome, and well done to players organising it. Any kind of collaborative community effort in Elite is always heartwarming to see and I genuinely wish everyone the best out of their playtime. They
should exist outside of open because of all the things I said above, in my (and many others') opinion. Mainly just so I don't have the unimmersive intrusion of lore-breaking invulnerable players riding balls-out unimpeded over systems I am (for better or worse) invested in.
You don't seem particularly open to the possibility that what's best for you might not be best for others. Extrapolating based on your opinion, and that of a few forum posts is biased. Generally only people with strong feelings one way or another are even going to bother making an account. It's worth remembering that sometimes - most people, one can assume, truck on just fine most of the time.
why not just have a PVE Open server and be done with it? It would be the same as a huge Mobius PG would it not?
I personally would have no major issues with Mobius being made an official mode in principle, although implementing this would be pretty complicated or unattractive from a dev point of view. Some issues I can think of off the top of my head:
- Mobius only works on a trust basis, you
can still hurt people in it, you're just told not to and risk being expelled if you do. I believe there are some rules like if you meet someone on the opposite side of a CZ you're free to engage? Even Mobius seems to acknowledge certain reasons for conflict, and works around it based on the goodwill and understanding of its playerbase. Hard-coding this into a gamemode would probably be pretty laborious, and arguably not super necessary given Mobius exists already.
- Frontier presumably
present Elite as they intend it to be engaged with. Putting a lot of time and effort into programming a 'sanctioned' Mobius mode might not reflect what they want the game to be. That's their prerogative, frankly. For my part I disagree with significant other portions of their design, so I get that it can be frustrating, but it is what it is.
- I would also like to reiterate that I think, to a large extent, this kind of solution is an inelegant patch for a perceived problem that would be better solved through other, preferably diegetic means, and I really do think better for everyone. Tangible differences in system security level, more workable and fair HP balancing, more clearly signposted outlets to channel conflict, more stakes for crimes / better responses from NPC security etc. There's a lot of room for things to be improved in more subtle, interesting ways than slapping godmode on.