General Remove private Lobby and single Player

[angusmadmac1]

So if you are a PC player you would get a higher influence than say Xbox or PS ? Because there is a higher number of PC players so therefore the risk in "open" would be higher ? Makes sense ???

 

[Northpin]

As the title says: Remove private Lobby and single Player. Why? Because right now people are having influences on the galaxy and you can't stop them from having it. Best examples are Community events and Powerplay. My power was expanding into a system and I sat there for over an hour and couldn't find one player, yet the undermining bar goes higher and higher because people are hiding in single Player or private Lobby. This shouldn't be the case, if enemys are undermining a system, we should be able to fight back the undermining (maybe even add Powerplay missions?). Same goes for Community events.

The upside of this would be, that people are getting more encourage and/or forced to interact more with the community, play together and/or thinks twice before they engaging into enemy Powerplay territory or Communty events, having influence while they can't hide in private Lobby or single Player anymore. It would help to make the overall game expierence more realistic; forcing people to equip theier ships more realistic and not going on full cargo racks only. Plus games are much more fun with peoples and achieving things together. No one likes to play or fly alone all day.

The only downside of it, it would give griefers and gankers a bigger play field and newer players an even harder time to get used to the game. But as I always say to developer: The focus should not be on players, who are playing a game for two weeks, leave and never coming back. We simply should not focus on those players for obvious reasons. For griefer/gankers there should be counter measures, for example, that the FSD-Interdictor does not work in systems, where Ingenieurs are placed and/or the security forces are increased (maybe by a lot).

If you want PvP, go play CQC-Arena then!
I do. I've unlocked all achievements and my current rank is "Champion".

But I want to explore and do cargo missions!
You can do this in Open.

But I don't want to get griefed or ganked!
The chances that you find players in this big *** galaxy is super low, as long as you avoid hotspots like Community events, Powerplay systems, etc.. I play in Open for most of the time. Tip: If you find someone out there, send him a wing invite. Is he accepting it, everything is fine. If not and he flys straight to you, you should be becareful. Here is a link to some more tips: LINK. One time I randomly found someone at the Guardian site and I send him an invite. It ended up, that he joined my wing, we did the Guardians together and he gave me some tips about how to get the Guardian blueprints. Remember: Not everyone is your enemy.

You are a griefer/ganker and only want to kill weaker players!
I don't like them either and I am not one of them. I bought this game last year so I don't have the biggest or strongest ships yet. I am all for fair PvP play and realistic piracy, when there is a reason for it.

I have no friends to play with!
Use the ingame chat, ask people you randomly find, join a squadron, (on Xbox) open a multiplayer-post, just generally interact more with the community. They don't need to stay to be your friends, sometimes all it takes is just to play with some peoples together, who have the same goal as you.

Maybe there should be crossplay between different platforms (Xbox, PC, etc.) for population boost, if this isn't the case yet.

I hope this get some attention. This game is designed to be an open multiplayer game and it should treated as such one.
Feel free to add more ideas to make Open play more enjoyable for everyone.

Edit: Man, so many people are upset about getting pulled out of theier comfort zone. If these modes really exist since release (playing since 2020), maybe it's really to late to change this, I don't know. But what definitely should be changed, is the fact that people, who play in private or solo should not have influence on such things as Powerplay, Community events, etc., this should only be doable in Open. As someone mentioned, you fight most of the time against "invisible" players (not including timezones), which you all have to admit, is just simply lame and bad game design.

Edit 2: Man, so many people who are afraid of that they could meet a griefer in over 400 billion star systems, smh. How high are the chances, especially while exploring more of the empty areas of the galaxy? People act like it's the end of the world, when they die and lose cargo or exploration data.

OP should do a search and should also research the kickstarter premises and goals.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

So cater to both? It's not casuals that turn the tide in big powerplay operations, for instance. Easy solution with that patented open-only flavour? Let the first 1000 merits be earned in any mode (module shoppers' sweat subsides), any more have to be in open to affect territory. Don't worry, I think even FDev are more creative thinking than the average forum Status Quo superfan.

Some companies cater to both. They create separate gameworlds (servers) for them.

What usually happens is within a few years the PvP servers are dead, the PvPers are crying there is nobody playing them, and they get shut down while the PvE servers continue.

Its always the same. The PvPers need the casuals. The casuals don't need the PvPers. Its a parasitic relationship, and casuals don't want to be part of that relationship.

Really, watch the video, Joshua goes into this with facts and statistic.

Mixing PvPers in the same environment with casuals is not usually a good recipe for success either. And providing bigger rewards to cater to the PvPers just disenfranchises the casuals who want no part in such gameplay, and again, its the casuals that bring in the money.

Joshua goes into what happened with New World, they catered to the PvPers during the alpha. The feedback was overwhelmingly negative. Now PvP is strictly opt in.

As he notes, you can make PvP centric MMOs, but the market is small. The market for casual/cooperative play MMOs is much bigger. FD are a business, they have to know where their interests lie.

PvPers want to make every MMO all about the PvP, yet if companies listened to them, most would fail. Too small a demographic, not enough money to be made. And PvPers will jump ship fast if another game comes along that offers them a new experience much quicker than casuals will. (I have no proof to back up that final statement, but i think its probably quite true - look how PvPers jumped from PUBG to Fortnite or other games once a new experience came along).

Star Citizen is shaping up to be PvP friendly, but i'd be willing to bet good money that if CIG want SC to grow post-release (assuming it ever releases) they will either need to double down on the PvP friendliness and make it more like EvE or they will start listening to the casuals and the PvP will gradually be eroded with the addition of more punishment for PvP and more safe zones. But if they go the EvE route, it will have to be damn good, otherwise the game will die as the casuals leave in droves.

 

[Ettanin]

Is everyone going to cheat to that degree? I doubt it very much.

LOIC is open source. Wireshark is open source. Anyone capable of googling can do it on their own.

Note though that doing this is illegal in most countries.

 

[Spacerschoice-00]

As the title says: Remove private Lobby and single Player. Why? Because right now people are having influences on the galaxy and you can't stop them from having it. Best examples are Community events and Powerplay. My power was expanding into a system and I sat there for over an hour and couldn't find one player, yet the undermining bar goes higher and higher because people are hiding in single Player or private Lobby. This shouldn't be the case, if enemys are undermining a system, we should be able to fight back the undermining (maybe even add Powerplay missions?). Same goes for Community events.

The upside of this would be, that people are getting more encourage and/or forced to interact more with the community, play together and/or thinks twice before they engaging into enemy Powerplay territory or Communty events, having influence while they can't hide in private Lobby or single Player anymore. It would help to make the overall game expierence more realistic; forcing people to equip theier ships more realistic and not going on full cargo racks only. Plus games are much more fun with peoples and achieving things together. No one likes to play or fly alone all day.

The only downside of it, it would give griefers and gankers a bigger play field and newer players an even harder time to get used to the game. But as I always say to developer: The focus should not be on players, who are playing a game for two weeks, leave and never coming back. We simply should not focus on those players for obvious reasons. For griefer/gankers there should be counter measures, for example, that the FSD-Interdictor does not work in systems, where Ingenieurs are placed and/or the security forces are increased (maybe by a lot).

If you want PvP, go play CQC-Arena then!
I do. I've unlocked all achievements and my current rank is "Champion".

But I want to explore and do cargo missions!
You can do this in Open.

But I don't want to get griefed or ganked!
The chances that you find players in this big *** galaxy is super low, as long as you avoid hotspots like Community events, Powerplay systems, etc.. I play in Open for most of the time. Tip: If you find someone out there, send him a wing invite. Is he accepting it, everything is fine. If not and he flys straight to you, you should be becareful. Here is a link to some more tips: LINK. One time I randomly found someone at the Guardian site and I send him an invite. It ended up, that he joined my wing, we did the Guardians together and he gave me some tips about how to get the Guardian blueprints. Remember: Not everyone is your enemy.

You are a griefer/ganker and only want to kill weaker players!
I don't like them either and I am not one of them. I bought this game last year so I don't have the biggest or strongest ships yet. I am all for fair PvP play and realistic piracy, when there is a reason for it.

I have no friends to play with!
Use the ingame chat, ask people you randomly find, join a squadron, (on Xbox) open a multiplayer-post, just generally interact more with the community. They don't need to stay to be your friends, sometimes all it takes is just to play with some peoples together, who have the same goal as you.

Maybe there should be crossplay between different platforms (Xbox, PC, etc.) for population boost, if this isn't the case yet.

I hope this get some attention. This game is designed to be an open multiplayer game and it should treated as such one.
Feel free to add more ideas to make Open play more enjoyable for everyone.

Edit: Man, so many people are upset about getting pulled out of theier comfort zone. If these modes really exist since release (playing since 2020), maybe it's really to late to change this, I don't know. But what definitely should be changed, is the fact that people, who play in private or solo should not have influence on such things as Powerplay, Community events, etc., this should only be doable in Open. As someone mentioned, you fight most of the time against "invisible" players (not including timezones), which you all have to admit, is just simply lame and bad game design.

Edit 2: Man, so many people who are afraid of that they could meet a griefer in over 400 billion star systems, smh. How high are the chances, especially while exploring more of the empty areas of the galaxy? People act like it's the end of the world, when they die and lose cargo or exploration data.

Regarding edits: Other games that have community goals often don't lock them to "open" only. Ghost recon wildlands and middle earth shadow of war.

And people get their nose out of joint if someone dares login in anything but open. Spends hours on forums insisting we care.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

Some companies cater to both. They create separate gameworlds (servers) for them.

What usually happens is within a few years the PvP servers are dead, the PvPers are crying there is nobody playing them, and they get shut down while the PvE servers continue.

Its always the same. The PvPers need the casuals. The casuals don't need the PvPers. Its a parasitic relationship, and casuals don't want to be part of that relationship.

Really, watch the video, Joshua goes into this with facts and statistic.

Mixing PvPers in the same environment with casuals is not usually a good recipe for success either. And providing bigger rewards to cater to the PvPers just disenfranchises the casuals who want no part in such gameplay, and again, its the casuals that bring in the money.

Joshua goes into what happened with New World, they catered to the PvPers during the alpha. The feedback was overwhelmingly negative. Now PvP is strictly opt in.

As he notes, you can make PvP centric MMOs, but the market is small. The market for casual/cooperative play MMOs is much bigger. FD are a business, they have to know where their interests lie.

PvPers want to make every MMO all about the PvP, yet if companies listened to them, most would fail. Too small a demographic, not enough money to be made. And PvPers will jump ship fast if another game comes along that offers them a new experience much quicker than casuals will. (I have no proof to back up that final statement, but i think its probably quite true - look how PvPers jumped from PUBG to Fortnite or other games once a new experience came along).

Star Citizen is shaping up to be PvP friendly, but i'd be willing to bet good money that if CIG want SC to grow post-release (assuming it ever releases) they will either need to double down on the PvP friendliness and make it more like EvE or they will start listening to the casuals and the PvP will gradually be eroded with the addition of more punishment for PvP and more safe zones. But if they go the EvE route, it will have to be damn good, otherwise the game will die as the casuals leave in droves.

Yeah well, I'm not for a split universe, and I have already acknowledged above the idea that there's merit in casuals and more hardcore players having some possibility of separation.

So I'm not sure who you're arguing with. Maybe the open-PvE mode advocates? Whose suggestion of a no-PvP open mode in parallel with the current open mode is, according to your link, simply a strategy to kill the latter, supplanting it with the hug-gated version.

Although it's interesting that what Elite in its current form does is keep at least a good portion of PvPers and casuals interested in the same activities (e.g. powerplay, CGs) while giving them options to play their way. I guess something I move toward is the idea that part of the optionality of a way of playing is the choice you make of how invested to be. And that the pushback you get could be optionally players or NPCs. Did 50000 merits in powerplay last week? Well, either the majority need to be done in open, or, in an alternative version, you've opted in to some much harder NPC pushback.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Although it's interesting that what Elite in its current form does is keep at least a good portion of PvPers and casuals interested in the same activities (e.g. powerplay, CGs) while giving them options to play their way. I guess something I move toward is the idea that part of the optionality of a way of playing is the choice you make of how invested to be. And that the pushback you get could be optionally players or NPCs. Did 50000 merits in powerplay last week? Well, either the majority need to be done in open, or, in an alternative version, you've opted in to some much harder NPC pushback.

While players from different subsets of the player-base may be interested in the same activities, the complaints that those who don't engage in PvP are "permitted" (just as those who enjoy PvP are "permitted") to affect the game persist. We've all been told to "blaze your own trail" and to "play how you want to" - yet some can't accept that others don't choose (or need) to play the way they want them to.

There's no current requirement to earn merits in Open whatsoever - and Frontier set the challenge posed by NPCs in all game modes (and don't set it as high as some want it to be)..

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Yeah well, I'm not for a split universe, and I have already acknowledged above the idea that there's merit in casuals and more hardcore players having some possibility of separation.

So I'm not sure who you're arguing with. Maybe the open-PvE mode advocates? Whose suggestion of a no-PvP open mode in parallel with the current open mode is, according to your link, simply a strategy to kill the latter, supplanting it with the hug-gated version.

Although it's interesting that what Elite in its current form does is keep at least a good portion of PvPers and casuals interested in the same activities (e.g. powerplay, CGs) while giving them options to play their way. I guess something I move toward is the idea that part of the optionality of a way of playing is the choice you make of how invested to be. And that the pushback you get could be optionally players or NPCs. Did 50000 merits in powerplay last week? Well, either the majority need to be done in open, or, in an alternative version, you've opted in to some much harder NPC pushback.

I actually posited two variants. Split or merged. I highlighted the issues with both as well as the issue with catering to the PvPers who want things to be the way they want.

 

[Zieman]

There's no current requirement to earn merits in Open whatsoever - and Frontier set the challenge posed by NPCs in all game modes (and don't set it as high as some want it to be)..

For PP the NPCs should absolutely be harder, regardless of mode.
Easy-peasy: you're pledged - PP enemies will harass you, you're not pledged - no PP enemies (aka as it is now).

 

[Robert Maynard]

For PP the NPCs should absolutely be harder, regardless of mode.
Easy-peasy: you're pledged - PP enemies will harass you, you're not pledged - no PP enemies (aka as it is now).

As mentioned earlier, Powerplay NPCs used to harass pledged players all the time - that was changed after player feedback early on.

.... and I have no issue with Powerplay NPCs being made more challenging - the question is how much and in what situations.

 

[Koma Pahu]

Its always the same. The PvPers need the casuals. The casuals don't need the PvPers. Its a parasitic relationship, and casuals don't want to be part of that relationship.

This is exactly it. I don’t actively PvP but I do mostly play in Open and have played on many PvP servers in various games as I enjoy the extra risk. I think the majority of PvPers are decent folk, but there’s a very vocal minority (of an already minority player group) who rely on taking away other people’s enjoyment to get their kicks, who spoil it for everyone.

Star Citizen is shaping up to be PvP friendly, but i'd be willing to bet good money that if CIG want SC to grow post-release (assuming it ever releases) they will either need to double down on the PvP friendliness and make it more like EvE or they will start listening to the casuals and the PvP will gradually be eroded with the addition of more punishment for PvP and more safe zones.

It’s difficult to judge with SC as there’s little content, but the current focus on multi-crew seems to be a good move - Griefers don’t tend to play well with others - but everyone wants to be the Captain of their own ship, and even when I was an officer of a (multi-game) player group there were times I didn’t want to bother with other players and do just my own thing.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

While players from different subsets of the player-base may be interested in the same activities, the complaints that those who don't engage in PvP are "permitted" (just as those who enjoy PvP are "permitted") to affect the game persist. We've all been told to "blaze your own trail" and to "play how you want to" - yet some can't accept that others don't choose (or need) to play the way they want them to.

There's no current requirement to earn merits in Open whatsoever - and Frontier set the challenge posed by NPCs in all game modes (and don't set it as high as some want it to be)..

Game is one way, some see better way (great song by Quo), suggestions exist.

 

[Robert Maynard]

Game is one way, some see better way (great song by Quo), suggestions exist.

Indeed - and we don't all want the same changes even if we bought the same game (which contains particular features that some can't accept).

More equitable to split the game in two rather than actively exclude players from existing pan-modal base-game content by PvP-gating it to Open only, in my opinion of course.

 

[[VR] Bulbulunufus]

Indeed - and we don't all want the same changes even if we bought the same game (which contains particular features that some can't accept).

More equitable to split the game in two rather than actively exclude players from existing pan-modal base-game content by PvP-gating it to Open only, in my opinion of course.

I think really, you want to split the game, and try to present that option as the equitable, not just one possibly equitable way (and given AgonyAunt's post, one that doesn't sound so equitable after all).

 

[Robert Maynard]

I think really, you want to split the game, and try to present that option as the equitable, not just one possibly equitable way (and given AgonyAunt's post, one that doesn't sound so equitable after all).

Some want players not to be able to play at all in any game mode other than Open, e.g. the OP.

Some want players who have the temerity to not play among others to be penalised for doing so (in a game where other players are an optional extra and where all players affecting the unique connected galaxy continues to be a selling point in the advertising as it was in the game design when published).

I'd rather see the game split than players lose the ability to equally^[1] affect game features from all three game modes. Michael Brookes was characteristically terse in his response to the question as to whether the game would ever be split, i.e. he said simply "No.". He was equally clear when he said that Frontier consider all three game modes to be equal and valid choices. If it were proposed that the second were no longer to be the case then why should the first be considered to be sacrosanct?

[1]: each player action affects the game the same regardless of game mode, noting that each player's choice of whether or not to to play among other players may mean that they are impeded in completing actions by the other players they chose to play among.

 

[Brrokk]

I think really, you want to split the game, and try to present that option as the equitable, not just one possibly equitable way (and given AgonyAunt's post, one that doesn't sound so equitable after all).

I would love to see the game spilt into two complete galaxies, one Open-only and one for PvE play with the three modes, for the single reason that it would end this tedious debate forever.

Given AgonyAunt's post I think we know how it would turn out. To put it mildly, the PvP enthusiasts still wouldn't have what they want. At least they'd no longer be able to blame anyone else though.

However, all this would involve FD having the extra costs of running two galaxies and losing some (mostly PvP) players, so I don't expect it to happen. Especially as we already have the simple, elegant and innovative solution which satisfies most players.

 

[Robert Maynard]

I would love to see the game spilt into two complete galaxies, one Open-only and one for PvE play with the three modes, for the single reason that it would end this tedious debate forever.

It wouldn't end the debate, in my opinion - there would be those in the Open only galaxy who would bemoan the fact that players didn't need to play with them to enjoy the game, much as happens at the moment.

 

[Brrokk]

It wouldn't end the debate, in my opinion - there would be those in the Open only galaxy who would bemoan the fact that players didn't need to play with them to enjoy the game, much as happens at the moment.

Yes, but they'd be in "a galaxy far, far away".

 

[Robert Maynard]

Yes, but they'd be in "a galaxy far, far away".

Conjoined by the forums....

 

[Brrokk]

Conjoined by the forums....

Uh, yes, I suppose so. At least I wouldn't have to join in anymore though as my play would be unaffected.