The Majority of Players, Play Elite as a Single-Player Non-PvP Experience?

[ethelred]

I'm Open only, have been since launch of the beta.

I think I might have a couple of times switched to solo for pad blocking reasons.

What makes it hard (for me at least) to engage in group play is the relative lack of in game tools to make it happen. Wing missions are a nice touch but multicrew seems pretty dead.

I suppose I can get my kicks by blockade running at the occasional trade CG or trying to evade interdiction and docking at Deciat.

If only there was some sort of meta game that offered a wide variety of MP activities that marked you as belonging to certain, shall we say "power"?

 

[tanner1ie]

First up this isn't about solo vs open, so don't even go there. This is about how people play regardless of mode.

Here's an interesting stat. Naturally it's from YouTube, so comes with all the usual conditions (non scientific etc).

30k votes so far, representing a sizeable chunk of players.

View attachment 236200


Now, I'm known for being a solitarily exploration player - some of my video content is aimed at that. You would be excused then for assuming that my viewers are naturally similar. So, to balance out the audience, here's a question from Exigeous a very social player who is PvP focused.


View attachment 236201



And finally, another question from Exigeous about PvP.

View attachment 236202

I play in Mobius on PS4, which is basically like playing Solo! .

While i like competitive modes in some games, i prefer solo or co-op modes in most games, but particularly in Elite .

 

[Fishy]

Alone, though these days it's generally in Open. I'm at the point where I have everything I care for, far too many millions for rebuys, so it's not like anything of value will be lost if I get murderhobo'ed, and I like the other random encounters. Met a duo of players at a surface settlement a few days ago, it was fun to inspect each other's ship on foot, then nuke the place together from above. The only time I actually teamed up for real was when I did a bit of PP with the Torval crowd (I like the Lances, so, sue me!), and we did a bit of winged undermining.

 

[Vandal71]

Hang on. Can't anyone with a YouTube account vote?

RIP, pointless poll.

Lol, you realize the polls only go out to subscribers right? Why would anyone, not a part of the Elite community, be subscribed to Obsidian Ant? ED is literally 95% of his channel content. I guess those other 5% skewed it.

 

[Rudal]

I play Elite solo, always solo. None of my friends are interested in Elite.
I would prefer Elite to be a single player game. Maybe it would be more "focused" then...

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

So with that information, Frontier will just continue to bring new gameplay via a multiplayer, group think methodology and push the multiplayer aspect.
Discovery of Thargoids was a group thing with canonn leading the charge. Thargoid combat was pushed initially as a group methodology. Most story line introduced via community goals and released as a group activity. Most activity is discovered via Youtube videos, rather than as a solo experience. In other games a new players can experience all the past events themselves and solve puzzles on their own. In Elite, you get a tourist beacon to catchup on story (that is if you manage to accidently stumble over one). Talking about Frontier not understanding their own audience. Its almost like they don't listen.....hmmm. No wonder why I have been sitting on the sidelines for the past 2 years, and will continue to do so till things change.

 

[CMDR Jayce MacLeod]

This is not surprising - there is almost nothing in this game that would require friends/groups to complete. This isnt a classic MMO like everquest where you needed to join up with 5 other people just to leave town.

I play alone because, well, there is no reason whatsoever to actually "join/wing/team" up with anyone, and I hope that Frontier keeps Elite that way.

 

[dawud]

Finaly, the "Elite is an MMO"-Mythos is dead.
I love to play Elite with friends, but sadly, due to intended design.. i rarely do.
And now with Odyssey, we are all in the same group even.. but we do play alone still.

 

[[VR] Enexemander]

Combat Zones (foot and ship) are fun with people on Discord. I recommend anyone to give it a try sometime.

 

[Brrokk]

I socialise with other players, but mostly via Discord actually.
Our group is also more focused on exploration, or better, space faring in general. There's no political agenda attached, no BGS. We're more like a loose band of free pilots.

Doesn't mean I'm never meeting up with anybody, but I'm mostly on my own in the game.
When it comes to shooting, I do very little of that and never shot another player. My combat rank is at Competent after almost 6 years of playing now.

I'm not entirely sure if that's just the nature of the game I just me. Elite certainly doesn't really invite us to socialise I think. Space is vast, and the chance of meeting a player is very, very slim if not at a hotspot. And if you meet another player that doesn't mean interaction.
But of course there's also the fact, that Elite's social features are not great. Just yesterday I wanted to send a friend request to somebody, but couldn't do that because I can't search for other Commanders. I can only send a friend request if there was contact with them at some point, which is quite annoying (or is that function so well hidden that I didn't find it in 6 years?!)
There's also the chat, which is a bit clunky and hard to use while flying, the fact that we can only be member of one squadron which prevents creating more casual social "places" for events or loose activities and... This list is a bit longer. There's a lot of lost opportunities here for the community to interact ingame.

Just one thought: I think it is possible to search for someone by name and send a friend request, but only from the social section in the main menu, not in-game. I'm not quite certain because I haven't done it myself.

 

[Thardem]

Solo or group, no open (anymore).

Best open situation: beeing an unarmed asp rare smuggler, great RP from pirate CMD to let go my cargo, then chatting 10mins
Worst open situations: the other 43 times beeing shot to pieces by large ships without one word, even if you give up instantly, stop and jettison all cargo.

 

[CMDR Maxus]

Interesting. Been playing x4 for the 1st time im surprised how good it is and considering I play elite solo I can't believe I never tried it before. Right up my alley.

 

[SP_Predicador]

Open only until 2.1 Engineers, mainly Private after

Also, is well known that in mmorpg typically players most of the time play alone (doing farm and level up)

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Lol, you realize the polls only go out to subscribers right? Why would anyone, not a part of the Elite community, be subscribed to Obsidian Ant? ED is literally 95% of his channel content. I guess those other 5% skewed it.

Cool. Let me just make a load of accounts and sub.

See? With respect, YouTube polls cannot ever be trusted.

I'm not saying that is what happened, but you cannot say for certain it isn't either.

 

[shadowhand]

What those poll numbers tell me for sure, is that the majority of players don't go to some random youtube channel and vote everytime someone puts up a poll.

Just like most players don't make youtube videos about every tiny issue they find in a video game. But, that's just how I choose to read those results and I'm not a statistician, so what do I know.

 

[Brrokk]

Well, the percentages in the poll seem to match the responses in this thread. I'd say it agrees with what I learn from people I know who play too.

 

[Old Duck]

I'm in Open 99% of the time (usually switching to Solo to avoid framerate issues at crowded CG stations), but I'm mostly a lone wolf player. I tried being part of a player group and squadron, but it just didn't fit me. People tended to socialize in Discord as gamers rather than CMDRs, and I play games to get away from news, politics, and other real world ramblings. Nothing ruins my immersion more than a bunch of old men and women complaining about 2020 earth politics and religion over the 3307 comm channel.

I do enjoy winging up with random people to fight in CZs, however. My combat playstyle leans to collaborative wing combat rather than one ship take on 100 ships like Rambo. Unfortunately NPCs don't think this way, so even in a combat zone or installation defense, my NPC teammates never "have my back", unless I bring my own SLF.

As for PvP, I enjoy it when the odds are relatively even. I have ZERO interest in G5 godship PvP. For me, the best PvP is found in CG CZs where enough people gather to even the odds so I can enjoy some sparring in my more humble ships.

My dream game is one where the NPCs are so realistic that they almost feel like real people. I'm not just talking piloting skills, but things like comm chatter, "loyalty", and other social behaviors. Skyrim and Dragon's Dogma came pretty close to giving me this. When that game comes, I could happily live in that offline universe and never talk to a real human being ever again

 

[nevim]

Well I would not play ED for a long time if there was no socialization. I am in squadron and have some closer friends. We can always come up with something to do. I feel there is no content when playing alone - just repetitive stuff and grind.

I see one big problem with multiplayer and it is instancing - sometimes it works ok, sometimes it is a nightmare. You cant simply count on it. When your friend in wing is in problem (too good NPC interdicting, whole settlement chasing you on foot, wing jumping to high threat signal etc.) and you rush to help him - you end up in another instance - this completely ruins the multiplayer gameplay.

Another problem - avoiding openplay. Why? Gankers... FD should make their life a little harder. They should be chased hard by local security forces after the player kills. I never really understanded how can someone be the whole evening in Deciat shooting every player they see droping out of glide over the settlement.

 

[Frankymole]

I played as part of a squadron for a long time, the needed a break as the politics were getting too internal. Now I tend to play solo (in Open) again as I did for the first few months in 2015-16. But I needed some money for Fleet Carrier use and did wing missions for a while earlier this year.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Hang on. Can't anyone with a YouTube account vote?

RIP, pointless poll.

Did you not catch the very similar result from the other channel? That focus much more on PvP! with similar results!


Or do you suggests that many non Elite players watched both channels and then decided to vote?