There might be, sure. But the fact remains that as incomprehensible as it may be to some people, there is a significant portion of the player base that has no interest or desire in playing the game with other people. And I dare say, they continue to play precisely because they can play without other people.
The Majority of Players, Play Elite as a Single-Player Non-PvP Experience?
- Thread starter Obsidian Ant
- Start date
Ok. The poll literally shows 80% of the voters chose a specific option, which literally is the majority.
Even better would be to not post at all. Or even better still, an option to post a thread without a title - then people can imagine their own one.
To be fair though - next time I will say "voters" instead of players.
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![[VR] Zakk](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/64/64104.jpg?1587234982){kind=avatar}
I love the MMO aspect, but Engineers totally killed PvP for me. Not that I really engaged in PvP before, though, to be perfectly honest. I probably had 3-4 PvP dogfights, and only killed another player once - and that was out of sheer cluelessness on my end, not my brightest moment. There still is a thread about it somewhere...
I usually play on Moebius. Best of both worlds.
I usually play on Moebius. Best of both worlds.
I would disagree that this is why people play solo in elite. Dont get me wrong what you mention is a problem, but its not the issue with elite.
Elites main issue is that there is no benefit to playing with people or playing in open. There is no trade system, there is no easy group system, no real reason to group either. Playing in open the only benefit you stand to gain, is just talking with other people, but you have everything to loose.
And most importantly, in ed you stand to loose time, if you are blown up.
I play in Solo and Open depending on situation and mood. But I play as a single player.First up this isn't about solo vs open, so don't even go there.
Its like going to the shopping mall. I like to see people around me, but I don't want to interact with them.
When shopping I am happy to purchase stuff from a cashier, or order food. Pure business transactions. Sometimes leading to conversation, usually not.
If there was pleasant reason to interact with others I probably would. If an ED mission simply required me to have a team-mate I would ignore the mission.
Deleted member 182079
D
I'm a people person gawdammit!
It's obviously not a scientifically valid survey - but I'm sure they do. Pretty much every game that isn't heavily MP focused (like shooters where the single player mode is only a simple bot arena) will have more people playing it as a single player game. Countless surveys and studies have shown that to be true for decades.
No doubt more players would engage in multi player and MMO aspects with more incentive to do so, however, I suspect that if those incentives shoehorned people into it, the game would lose more players than it would gain.
I dropped out of SC entirely because it cranked the social stuff to 11. "Don't like people, don't play an MMO." It's impossible to be a solo player over there. I play solo here because I don't want the chatter on my comms. Space is big and empty... and I prefer it that way. As someone else mentioned, I also despise being obligated. I don't want to be in a group where I have to be on Discord every Sunday at 15:30 to discuss our strategy for the coming week. I don't even want to be in a wing and tied to res work for an hour. Games, to me, should be spontaneous. If I'm pouring over spreadsheets I better be getting paid.
I understand some folks do like these things. That's why we have open and solo modes. I just felt the need to provide my perspective on the question. It doesn't matter how easy instancing is, I will always choose solo.
It's such a big galaxy, I find it hard to really justify playing with other CMDRs especially when I log into the game so sporadically. I did join a Squadron so I had some folks to chat with on my journey into deep space. Elite doesn't really have any systems to incentivize playing with others and I'm personally okay with it. After many years of WoW, SWTOR, GW2 and other MMOs - logging onto discord routinely as well as being a New Yorker where socializing is just a thing - I've enjoyed the somber change of pace of taking my time with a game, taking in the sights and just actually playing a game for its atmosphere rather than run chores on a daily basis or have to deal with people.
I've never zapped another CMDR into smithereens or have been zapped myself besides by an NPC pirate or two. The most socializing I've done in this game was during the gold rushes of last summer during the golden age of New Borran. God that was so fun lol
I've never zapped another CMDR into smithereens or have been zapped myself besides by an NPC pirate or two. The most socializing I've done in this game was during the gold rushes of last summer during the golden age of New Borran. God that was so fun lol
I play 100% solo because of both time constraints and a lack of desire to interact with other players. ED is my escape from having to deal with humanity all day, and when I do get a chance to play I prefer to use that time on pursuing my own goals. PVP has never interested me, and I see little actual reward for playing with a group.
I am all for people doing what they want in a game like this, so if they are looking for wing activities or PVP they should be available. For myself, I prefer the solitude that space gives.
I am all for people doing what they want in a game like this, so if they are looking for wing activities or PVP they should be available. For myself, I prefer the solitude that space gives.
I usually play in open, trading I rarely see anyone.
I do see other players at Shinrata when I'm setting up a new ship of course, as well as when I was doing AX stuff or in the closer Guardian sites.
Closest I've come to PVP is being the intended victim of ganks at CG systems though none actually succeeded and the offenders were blocked immediately afterwards.
I'm surprised the 'killed 10 or more players' result is so high, I was expecting 4%.
So alone in Open most of the time.
I do see other players at Shinrata when I'm setting up a new ship of course, as well as when I was doing AX stuff or in the closer Guardian sites.
Closest I've come to PVP is being the intended victim of ganks at CG systems though none actually succeeded and the offenders were blocked immediately afterwards.
I'm surprised the 'killed 10 or more players' result is so high, I was expecting 4%.
So alone in Open most of the time.
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Yup. There are already "benefits" to multiplayer. I could make more money in a wing or with a fighter pilot. I still choose not to. But as I mentioned in my previous post, I dropped out of SC because it was impossible to play unless you were part of an "org". Multicrew is a thing over there. So a solo player can only fly solo ships. Good luck making money in a solo ship vs multicrew pirates. Think Adder vs turreted T10. That's why I so vehemently oppose "improving" multicrew here. It can't be made to work with solo players.
Forgot to add-
I would definitely drop out of ED if they did anything to punish people for playing alone.
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Long time Solo player here, Frontier: Elite II was what started me off 25 years ago and it's nice to be in your own little universe. But something unfortunate happened to me the other day after restarting my character save for EDO...
On creating a new character save, you're put automatically into Open, something which I didn't realise, even after playing ED since its' 2014 release. Spending a few hours doing my own thing, I then got a Restore mission, got to the settlement, killed all the raiders, put the Power Regulator thing into the other... thing, settlement powers up and I start running around refreshing the atmosphere in the multiple buildings.
In among all this, there's one NPC left, I can hear him outside while I'm trying to put the 2nd fire out. Fire out, ok. Then, there's an alarm that the settlement is being powered down. NPC must be trying to stop me, ok, back to the PWR building.
Get there, trying to figure out what's going on, then I see the NPC lurking about. Start firing, his shield will not go down. He fires back. We scrap, he eventually kills me without a mark on him.
It's then I find out that wasn't an NPC but a CMDR. I have no idea why they were there, but I'm assuming it was them who'd removed the Power Regulator. I'm dead with a 100k fine (which I couldn't afford and had effectively locked me out of the starter system) for quite innocently firing on them first believing them to be an NPC, and a mission I'd spent over 40 minutes on ruined.
Because this can happen in Odyssey (people turning up at locations where there is a mission occuring and being able to interfere), I'll be staying in Solo. Sure, it's "emergent gameplay", and it is cool in a way that it's possible, assuming it's not just griefing, but if you just want a quiet life like me, Solo - or a private group with friends - is the best place.
On creating a new character save, you're put automatically into Open, something which I didn't realise, even after playing ED since its' 2014 release. Spending a few hours doing my own thing, I then got a Restore mission, got to the settlement, killed all the raiders, put the Power Regulator thing into the other... thing, settlement powers up and I start running around refreshing the atmosphere in the multiple buildings.
In among all this, there's one NPC left, I can hear him outside while I'm trying to put the 2nd fire out. Fire out, ok. Then, there's an alarm that the settlement is being powered down. NPC must be trying to stop me, ok, back to the PWR building.
Get there, trying to figure out what's going on, then I see the NPC lurking about. Start firing, his shield will not go down. He fires back. We scrap, he eventually kills me without a mark on him.
It's then I find out that wasn't an NPC but a CMDR. I have no idea why they were there, but I'm assuming it was them who'd removed the Power Regulator. I'm dead with a 100k fine (which I couldn't afford and had effectively locked me out of the starter system) for quite innocently firing on them first believing them to be an NPC, and a mission I'd spent over 40 minutes on ruined.
Because this can happen in Odyssey (people turning up at locations where there is a mission occuring and being able to interfere), I'll be staying in Solo. Sure, it's "emergent gameplay", and it is cool in a way that it's possible, assuming it's not just griefing, but if you just want a quiet life like me, Solo - or a private group with friends - is the best place.
I believe that frontier failed on the multi player side of development. The game is pretty crap if you are here just for the multi player. Its a major reason my interest has declined. Instancing is a joke. Half the time my wingmates are just a low wake icon jumping around in supercruise. Other times the interdiction drops both people in different dimensions. I cant even talk about multi crew without tasting bile. Such a large portion of the playerbase being primarily solo players is probably anyone who came for the multi player got fed up and quit. Ship balance and mission format also plays a role too. Say for example, i want to fly a freighter through dangerous space. In a well designed game, this would be risky without fighter escorts. I might be incentivized to get my buddies into vipers and eagles to fly with me for protection. I would pay them to help keep me alive and i would make money by delivering the freight. In elite this doesn't actually work though. Unless you role play or something. The interdiction is easy to beat, the "fighter" class small ships have nothing but pea shooters, theres no reason for your wingmen to use anything other than pythons or cutters to help you trade. The entire ship/trade/mission generation economic ecosystem is so obtuse and shallow that compelling multi player gameplay is pretty limited to those who either don't care about credits or are just role playing. And since alot of folks like the illusion of progress that comes from amassing wealth, they just play alone.
I played both. Years solo and with small groups.
Ill tell you what though. When the game was played out and I eeeked all the hours I could, getting back into it with the right people began a new book for me.
Still find reasons to go off alone. Elite can be many things simultaneously and that's one of the reasons I loved it.
Because of its p2p nature Elite isn't as social as it could be.
Interesting stats though. Always fun to see OA.
Ill tell you what though. When the game was played out and I eeeked all the hours I could, getting back into it with the right people began a new book for me.
Still find reasons to go off alone. Elite can be many things simultaneously and that's one of the reasons I loved it.
Because of its p2p nature Elite isn't as social as it could be.
Interesting stats though. Always fun to see OA.
I think FD needs to think about these stats just from a profit standpoint. If they made it easier for players to play together (tone down the grind, improve networking, fix multicrew etc) they would end up selling a lot more geegaws from the frontier store. People would want to show off their new skins.
One of the things that irks me about playing with others (and im guilty of this myself) is that people are focused on mat gathering for engineering and it taints the experience. Easing up on the grind alone would make playing with others more fun and more people would likely do it.
Just as an example of the kind of problems you run into playing with others, yesterday after a conflict zone, i couldnt recall my ship.
No message about not being far enough out of the settlement or anything, it just didnt show up. I got on a friends ship to ride back to the station and got stuck in supercruise, while he, in the same ship traveled to the station. I had to log into horizons to get back into odyssey without error and ended up in my ship in orbit around the conflict zone planet.
One of the things that irks me about playing with others (and im guilty of this myself) is that people are focused on mat gathering for engineering and it taints the experience. Easing up on the grind alone would make playing with others more fun and more people would likely do it.
Just as an example of the kind of problems you run into playing with others, yesterday after a conflict zone, i couldnt recall my ship.
No message about not being far enough out of the settlement or anything, it just didnt show up. I got on a friends ship to ride back to the station and got stuck in supercruise, while he, in the same ship traveled to the station. I had to log into horizons to get back into odyssey without error and ended up in my ship in orbit around the conflict zone planet.
For me it's mostly the P2P connection. So I'm treating this game as a solo game (with some exceptions every now and then).
You would love SC. Everything is built around multicrew over there. And trade ships are called "loot piñatas" because they're so slow and weak it's generally considered stupid to fly them anywhere without an escort.
I just used that example because its literally straight from an elite dangerous trailer promoting multi player gameplay.