Remove the hollow player indicator.

[DeckardRunner]

All this talk about Solo/Group/Open is causing a lot of grief. To many threads discuss this.

Why not keep it as it is but remove the player identifier. Let all people and AI look the same.
More people would probably play in open then where they could become just one amongst the many.

This would work for the hunter and the prey, add an extra level of realism.
Prey would have to try and act just like the AI in the way they navigated the systems or approached a station.
Hunters would have to act similarly, not just hanging outside the no fire zones.
Different tactics would be called for.
You would only get notified of a PK after the event.

 

[Globusdiablo]

It's been said before, and can surely be said again. It has it's merits.

 

[Morlock5K]

I agree it would be a good game mechanic but doubt it would happen

 

[Steve50]

I like the hollow box, I can see one coming my way and run away.

Please don't change it

 

[ianw]

It was talked about - Sandro even appeared to be leaning towards it - then it never got mentioned again.

 

[Derpster Frey]

No thanks.
I prefer being able to separate humans and A.I.

Besides, you'd have to remove them from chat panel as well for this to work.

 

[Mephane]

All this talk about Solo/Group/Open is causing a lot of grief. To many threads discuss this.

Why not keep it as it is but remove the player identifier. Let all people and AI look the same.
More people would probably play in open then where they could become just one amongst the many.

This would work for the hunter and the prey, add an extra level of realism.
Prey would have to try and act just like the AI in the way they navigated the systems or approached a station.
Hunters would have to act similarly, not just hanging outside the no fire zones.
Different tactics would be called for.
You would only get notified of a PK after the event.

This has been discussed in the past, FD were considering this but apparently found it either not necessary, not sufficient, or detrimental. Personally, I see the biggest problem with that in that such masking won't work very well against the most experienced players - exactly those who you have to be afraid of the most, will have learnt the telltale patterns that reveal a ship as NPC-piloted, and thus distinguish patterns of behaviour typical of actual players.

Plus, it would disincentivize using chat to communicate, as that would immediately announce yourself as being a player.

 

[Globusdiablo]

I like the hollow box, I can see one coming my way and run away.

Please don't change it

But "they" can't see you... Unless they actively scan you of course.

 

[Jay8ch]

I like it, it's nice to know when other people are around. It would feel even emptier without that indicator of life.

 

[Distance]

It wouldn't work. You can't make the AI act as convincing as players.

Fly to a station, see that asp slowly rotating on it's axis next to the cattle grid? Player or npc?

That pirate in an eagle with out shields demanding 40t of cargo, Player or npc?

That T9 carrying 40t of alge, Player or npc?

The list goes on.

 

[starsphinx]

Please do not change it. It gives me a little thrill every time I boost into a system and see those hollow boxes and know there are other real people doing the same thing in the same place as me especially if I have been exploring or around obscure systems for a while.

 

[S~P]

I prefer it the way it is now, I like to see a difference.

 

[Malfahri]

I could go either way on this. I see no logical reason why a player ship would be more identifiable than a NPC ship on the radar. However, I have no problem with identifying a player after they have been target scanned.

 

[Skuli]

I'd rather they not.

 

[Bortas]

The solution already exists: If you want to hide from other players, play solo.

I really don't understand why you'd want to play open, if you don't want to interact with other players. If you can't identify them, then you can't interact with them in any way. About 99.99% of all ships you see in the game are NPCs. If they masked players as NPCs, they could as well remove open play completely, because chances of a randomly selected ship being a player would be virtually zero.

 

[Jordan Cobalt]

I doubt think it will do much to deter the complaing. The threads will go from "I got killed by a player in open" to "I got killed by a player in open, probably".

 

[jabokai]

Thankfully, this idea seems to have fallen out of favour with the devs - either that or they haven't had the time to introduce their middle ground, opt-in transponder idea. I'm glad they've stuck with player/NPC differentiation.

 

[JeffRyan]

Don't make me get on my bandwagon again. I had this argument a year or so ago.

My argument for keeping the hollow triangle (and I'm very much in the anti-griefing camp) is that people already complain about the game feeling empty and lacking the feeling of a true multiplayer game.

Take away the triangle and most people won't even recognise that there are any PCs. The backlash would be horrendous for the reputation of the game as an MMO. A title many (not me) already doubt the game has a right to.

 

[Crank Larson]

Thankfully, this idea seems to have fallen out of favour with the devs - either that or they haven't had the time to introduce their middle ground, opt-in transponder idea. I'm glad they've stuck with player/NPC differentiation.

I think the transponder idea is an ideal compromise... Just my 2p.

 

[soma]

I see why this has merits. However as long as the skill differences between AI and human pilots are what they are, this is a horrible idea. If I see a "Deadly" pirate in a Python I want to KNOW if he is actually a serious threat or not. Currently the hollow triangle on the radar is needed, otherwise it is impossible to reasonably assess the situation.

Edit: Alternative - have no AI pilots above "Competent" ... but then we would again have a way of knowing if an opponent is human or not.