I have just played solo but would like to play open.
Reading the forums it seems like a gank fest.
What is your opinion?
The nature of open really depends upon three things:
1)
Where you go in the game. Wherever large numbers of players are likely to congregate (CGs, Engineers, Shinrarta Dezhra, starter systems, major events) so too are the GIFT-ed, who
require an audience for
their idea of fun.
2)
When you play the game, relative to your local "prime time." The way instancing "works" in this game, is the farther you are away from someone geographically in the real world, the less likely you are to be instanced with them unless
both players are actively cooperating to do so. You are
far more likely to encounter the GIFT-ed during your local prime time than at other times of the day.
3)
How you build your ship. Unless you're building a ship for Buckyball Racing or extreme jump range exploration, there's no reason
not to install on your ship both powerful engines and strong shields.
Any ship, be it explorer, mission runner, passenger ship, or trader, benefits from having them. In the case of engines, you're "sacrificing" at worst half a light year of jump range for greater speed and maneuverability, both of which are useful to have even when
not being attacked. In the case of shields,
tripling your shield strength, at the expense of 50,000 less profit per trip, simply makes sense when you've got tens of millions of rebuy and cargo on the line, let alone hundreds or even
thousands of millions exploration data.
And, of course, there are other basic precautions you can take as well:
1)
Never follow the common forum wisdom of throttling down to avoid the "loop of shame" at your destination. The "loop of shame" is both
safer and
faster than throttling down. Safer and faster
still is mass lock braking, getting as close to the body your destination is orbiting without hitting the orbital cruise or exclusion zone, but you do risk damaging your ship a bit if you cut your approach too fine. I'm almost convinced that the "throttle down at seven seconds" method is spread around by would be "pirates" to make their lives easier.
2)
Never fly straight to your destination. Instead, fly out of the orbital plane, and return only when your near your destination. Not only is it
faster thanks to avoiding most of the mass in a system, both seen and unseen, but it's also
safer, because it gives you room to follow the next bit of advice.
3)
Never let an unknown Commander into your six. If you see a Commander you don't know moving towards your six, target them, and then maneuver to keep them out of your six. If you followed #2, there's only two reasons for them to be in the same region of space you are. The first is that they're following the same path you are for the same reasons, so they'll continue on to their destination when
you change course. The second is that they're there for you, and will alter course as well. Whatever they do, you'll know their intentions.
4) If someone
is moving to interdict you, you have three options. The first is to jump to a nearby star, and then jump back. Unless they decide to do the same, they will be out of position to try to interdict you a second time. The second is to continue to lead them out into deep space, until they get bored. While they're wasting their time trying to chase you, everyone else in the system is enjoying a free passage through the system. The final, but
much riskier, option is to try to scrape them off your six by making a close pass by a planet. They may be concentrating on you that they don't even notice the planet that's in their way. [woah]
5) If they
do succeed in getting an interdiction tether on you,
never run away from them[SUB]1[/SUB]. Maneuver to get into
their six while you wait for your FSD to cool down and then charge. They can't shoot you if you're not in front of them, after all. Only
after you're ready to jump should you align with your destination, using boost to do so quickly.
6) If you were out out exploring, remember that you don't have to
deliver the data with the same ship you
gathered it with. Use a fast and maneuverable data running ship instead, carrying maximum shields.
_____
1Unless you're
really interested in wasting their time.
Pretending to not know what you're doing by running from them and then low waking can tempt them to repeatedly interdict you. As long as you don't have anything particularly important on the line, it also gives you the opportunity to test your evasion skills.
