Question for Open players who don't like PVP/ganking... help me understand
- Thread starter Danquememe
- Start date
Don't ask.
No really, don't ask.
'Game' used in it's loosest possible sense. I actually annoyed several hundred people in that game over a period of about four years, as did you come to that. Mainly by making them explode repeatedly.
Unpleasant Canadians.
2020, man.
2020, man.
You might be surprised to learn how common it is for people to be flying in builds that are weaker than NPCs.
And I'm not just talking about the prototypical shieldless T-6 or whatever, I mean expensive ships like Anacondas and whatnot.
One fact of this game is that there's a lot to learn, across a wide spectrum. Ship builds are essential to success, but many people have little idea what they're doing. And because of that, when faced with genuine opposition - a strong NPC, or a ganker, or even a high-G planet - they get destroyed quickly. So quick they don't have time to effect the correct maneuvers required for survival.
Without meaning to sound condescending, this is part of learning the game, and we all have to master it. There's nothing built into the game to warn you that your build is awful - except for these kinds of interactions. So when you get blown up in seconds, I guess it just takes some self-awareness to reflect on what just happened, and wonder what you can do differently to adapt and succeed next time. That is very much what video games are about, after all.
Well, mostly, the answer is - remove all of the equipment I use to interact with the game world besides PEW BOOM, and replace it with engineered hull reinforcements.
It's amazingly deep, man.
"They do a thing that no other art form does. You cannot be bad at watching a movie. You cannot be bad at listening to an album. But you can be bad at playing a video game and the video game will punish you and deny you access to the rest of the game."
I mean, you're liable to get your modules sniped out if you run only hull reinforcements and don't do any shield engineering or add any module reinforcement.
But a decent shield with some engineering, some engineered armor, and decent tactics, and you should be able to survive a close encounter with a murderhobo OK.
FWIW I still manage to run fuel scoops, detailed surface scanners, and similar "non pew pew" equipment on my builds. To each their own, though.
Honestly, this thread has been very helpful to enrich my perspective on the game. I sincerely mean that.
Yeah. I've taken a couple of people out in PvE conflict zones, and... aside from the guys from G4NK and SPEAR that showed up when I went to Riedquat, anyone I've bumped into in BGS wars has fallen apart in seconds.
There was a guy ganking in Borann in a courier of all things and I decided to be a good boy and pitch in, and that courier gave me a better fight than the anaconda I ran into when I was fighting a war near Diaguandri. He actually flew evasively for a start. Oh, and actually noticed a hollow triangle moving to intercept and turned to face me before I attacked, rather than panicking. (Oh no! I'm in a warzone and someone is shooting at me! How could I have forseen this situation?)
As for actually being pulled in supercruise, I've not actually managed to send any of them to the rebuy screen. They always seem to be outfitted to survive long enough to high-wake when I shoot back. Funny that.
Well yeah I was being intentionally reductive.
What I was really saying was, the difference between a ship built to crush other ships, is so massively more powerful and resilient, than any ship you might build to "just play the game"
Which bothers me, because it means I have to choose if I'm going to do "stuff" or FIGHT TIME.
I'd prefer it if you could make your ship better for fighting, but not so much that if you're outfitted any other way, you just want to survive long enough to escape, literally no point in fighting.
Actually, it's not too difficult to survive a gank in a completely unengineered ship.
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You're not wrong, and in addition to this - and this isn't me trying to gatekeep or enforce a playstyle, just acknowledge reality - you need to be willing to use Solo and/or PG in instances where your progress can be hampered by hostile players.
I'd say my biggest takeaway from this thread has been a real skepticism around the wisdom of forcing co-op -seeking PVE players into the same game mode as combat -seeking PVP players, in a game world where there are few if any meaningful consequences for killing other players.
Unfortunately, what this means - at least to me and most experienced players I speak to - is that part of "learning to play" involves learning when to use the less social modes of gameplay to achieve your goals / prevent your progress from being lost. And this is not what any of the players seeking social game modes wants, whether they're PVP-focused or PVE-focused. It's a shame, really.
I mean, running a single 1D MRP will make a massive difference when it comes to surviving long enough to high-wake. Even on an anaconda that's 70 extra module HP they'll have to chew through, and while they're chewing through it your thrusters and FSD are taking 60% less damage. Shove two MRPs in there, even in the smallest slots, and you've nearly doubled the amount of damage they'll have to inflict before whatever module they're targeting fails. No engineering on MRPs either.
And that's literally the skill that Sir Ganksalot teaches people. Build the ship strong enough to give yourself the time required to select a system and highwake away, while simultaneously flying evasively enough to prevent getting melted.
It's a skill that gankers have to learn quickly, because they are themselves one of the primary food groups that other gankers prey on. Honestly, as much as Deciat seems hostile to newbies, it's just a straightup nonstop furball for everyone, at least during peak hours. You drop out of one fight and are almost immediately in another.
I have in my logs a record of an afternoon where I apparently spent over 3 hours going from one gank escape to the next. Deciat do be like that, sometimes.
Even PvPers spend a lot of time in PvE.
To grind mats, to play the BGS, to transfer, hell, even to explore.
The stereotype of PvPers just blowing up 3D shielded Asps is a joke.
Not saying there aren't some, but take Loren's Reapers.
We play the BGS in our systems. We acquire money for the carriers in our squadron.
We trade, partially for BGS, partially for materials, and sometimes even for the thrill of running a T9 in open.
We do surface missions, megaship piracy, player- and nonplayer piracy.
We grind the engineers up in Colonia.
And sometimes we blow ourselves or others up, just as the mood is.
In fairness, I've known some people (usually disinterested moms) who are bad at watching movies.
"Oh, I'll just listen to it from the other room."
Yes, in fact, among the PVPers and gankers that I've met, it's actually pretty common that they've come to PVP after having spent a lot of time doing everything else in the game. Most all of them are extremely experienced players and therefore, very good teachers or at least sources of information.
It turns out that I'm a bit unusual, in that I came to the game expressly for PVP and went directly to ganking. I've never played a "villain" role in a RPG-style multiplayer game, and was curious about it. It's been... an experience, to say the least. And yes, it's purely roleplay for me; I am not an actual sociopath IRL nor do I condone such behavior outside of a videogame fantasy context.
Anyways, there is a ton of content in the game I've never seen. I only just went to a Thargoid base for the first time the other day - it was super cool! I look forward to learning more about this side of the game in my next however many hundred hours.