The problem with PvP in Open, imo, is the lack of balance. For "proper" PvP, the game needs to be more like OverWatch: No rebuys, opponents should have similar power and defenses, so that it's a fair match. FD tried that with CQC, which was a good idea in principle, but completely missed the mark.
Unfortunately, this imbalance causes me to avoid playing in Open, because the cost of losing my progress is too high.
One thing that might help, would be to restrict instances so that they only contain "similar" ships, so it's a "reasonably fair" fight. That is, if you have an engineered PvP ship, you would only see other PvP ships with comparable (engineered) build outs. If you are in a wing, you'd only share an instance with other wings. If you want to be a pirate, you'd need to have some empty cargo racks in a ship that is suitable for trading and weapons suitable for disabling a ship, not obliterating it.
Battles which last a few seconds aren't fun for at least one of the parties.
Another possibility would be to treat death from a player differently than death from an NPC. Don't touch NPC interactions, but change what happens when killed by another player, as follows: After a 30 second countdown, respawn in the same place you entered the current system. If the killer has no cargo space, you respawn with all your cargo intact and none is left at the explosion site. If the killer has cargo space, but has recently killed someone and not collected any cargo, you respawn with all your cargo intact. If the killer has cargo space and is acting like a pirate (collecting loot), you only lose as much cargo as the pirate can collect (perhaps less based on RNG). This would balance things somewhat and still allow for proper piracy.
This might tempt more players into Open.
Unfortunately, this imbalance causes me to avoid playing in Open, because the cost of losing my progress is too high.
One thing that might help, would be to restrict instances so that they only contain "similar" ships, so it's a "reasonably fair" fight. That is, if you have an engineered PvP ship, you would only see other PvP ships with comparable (engineered) build outs. If you are in a wing, you'd only share an instance with other wings. If you want to be a pirate, you'd need to have some empty cargo racks in a ship that is suitable for trading and weapons suitable for disabling a ship, not obliterating it.
Battles which last a few seconds aren't fun for at least one of the parties.
Another possibility would be to treat death from a player differently than death from an NPC. Don't touch NPC interactions, but change what happens when killed by another player, as follows: After a 30 second countdown, respawn in the same place you entered the current system. If the killer has no cargo space, you respawn with all your cargo intact and none is left at the explosion site. If the killer has cargo space, but has recently killed someone and not collected any cargo, you respawn with all your cargo intact. If the killer has cargo space and is acting like a pirate (collecting loot), you only lose as much cargo as the pirate can collect (perhaps less based on RNG). This would balance things somewhat and still allow for proper piracy.
This might tempt more players into Open.
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