Modes The Open-Only Spectator

vanFace

V
Sounds like a newspaper name, right? Well, it is not, or at least it is not intended to be that.

Basically, it's more like a social experiment. You've certainly heard about how ugly open mode is because of all the griefers and gankers and whatnot. Some say that's B.S., some say of course it is. This here will simply put it to a personal test: run an alt account only in open mode, see how far you can get, document all the salt or fun in a thread.

To make it a bit more interesting, I'll post what I intend to do in a session before I boot up the game. System names, routes, cargo manifest and such. Invitation for desaster? Well, maybe, but we'll see.
I'll try to also give a quick summary after the session, so every encounter of positive or negative kind will see its line. No naming (and shaming), of course, neither of baddies, nor of buddies.

Some corner-stones:
  • No blocking of any kind.
  • Open mode only, even in CGs and other crowded situations (e.g. pad blocks).
  • If a CMDR engages in communication (written or pew-pew form), I'll send a friend request.
  • No voice (because no mic here).
  • Usage of 3rd-party sites like Inara. It is just too cumbersome without them.
  • No specific career focus. Will start exploring, but we will see where it will end up.
  • Currently Horizons only (not legacy), because this is an Epic free alt without Odyssey. Maybe I'll pick that up later.
  • No help from the main account (e.g. money transfer, mats and/or cargo, FC transfer, etc.).
The CMDR name is Open-Only Spectator, and he already got his license, as well as his first mission handed in in Dromi (so still starter zone). Players encountered in this short session: approx. 7.
 
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vanFace

V
Ok, so first real session, as I have some time between the Xmas duties. For starters, I'll visit all 10... well... starter systems in order to surface map whatever is there, once I can get my hands on a surface scanner. Seems like no station in the starter systems sells that, so I'll just outfit a decent FSD and leave that permit-locked area. All in the lone sidewinder.
Or you know what? Seems like Inara doesn't have much information about the starter area, anyway, I'll do it the old-fashioned way and search myself.
 
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Lhorndra

Lhorndra
Nice idea! I'm really curious to see how your adventure will continue.

vanFace said:
Seems like Inara doesn't have much information about the starter area, anyway, I'll do it the old-fashioned way and search myself
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That's because the starter zone isn't accessible anymore, as far as I know. How did you get to start in there? Do new CMDRs without Odyssey still start out there? If you start a new CMDR with Odyssey installed, you'll be placed somewhere else, and you won't have the permit to the traditional starter systems.
 

vanFace

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Lhorndra said:
That's because the starter zone isn't accessible anymore, as far as I know. How did you get to start in there? Do new CMDRs without Odyssey still start out there? If you start a new CMDR with Odyssey installed, you'll be placed somewhere else, and you won't have the permit to the traditional starter systems.
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I just created a new commander and selected the "allrounder" loadout, which is sneakily to the far right side of the selection list you get. There you will also see all the prebuilds available with ARX. It woke me up in Matet, at the Coelho station, and immediately gave me a mission to go to the Dromi system. In contrast to my real first steps years ago, this experience was rather nicely narrated IMHO.

BTW: last session ended with many courier missions done between the starter systems to get some credits. Now I've already been promoted in trading, so the initial zero rebuy is gone. The sidey is now D-rated, but just because I don't find any higher modules in the stations I've looked. Interestingly enough, there are also linked missions for those courier ones that give you 100k for simply flying out of the starter zone.

I'm already in for the next session, which will hopefully see me completing my visiting run of all the starter systems, then heading out to the dangerous world. The zone is pretty calm, but it is also funny to see all the beginners struggling with their ships, especially in the starting stations like Coelho and that one in Dromi. Encounters: approx. 10 in the last session. Nobody tried to talk to me, but that may be because I almost scratched the paint off of somebody's ship while overtaking a fat T9 (or was it a 10? Don't remember.) stuck in the mail slot.
 

vanFace

V
Ok, starter zone is in the rear-view. Visiting everything there from Matet down to Sharur, I can tell you there is nothing worth of note. I've only seen some folks around Dromi and Matet, as already written above, but close to nobody further down the road to Sharur. At Wolfsegen with its lone detention center, there was one CMDR in a sidey looking at me strange sideways, but nothing really happened.
Once the last delivery contract in Sharur made me worth half a million and earn a promotion to Peddler, I headed out to Lauma (outside the zone) to hand in the first of the 4 stacked 100k "gift" missions by Pilots Federation. Once out in the wild, I had the (also) wild number of 0 (in words: zero) encounters.
Luckily, that gave me enough time to explore in peace along the way, making me enough money to eventually buy that DSS, and making me even more money mapping already discovered worlds. Once I reached the last stop for today (Celsius Hub in HR 6828), I handed in the carto and last mission, and was left with a nice budget of 6.7M, as well as with a promotion to Trailblazer, giving me Farseers invitation.

My last action was to buy a Hauler, nicknamed "Volkswagen". Why? It remembers me of a VW Caddy, that's why. Oh, you mean why a Hauler at all? Well, it gives a superb jump range without engineering, costs almost nothing, and is fast and nimble. Ok, that's not at all how I remember the Caddy, but at least it looks just as ugly to me.
Having A/D-rated that thing for exploration, I'm ready for tomorrows mission: helping out Sandra Corrs. That should make me see some people for sure :D .
 

Lhorndra

Lhorndra
vanFace said:
It woke me up in Matet, at the Coelho station, and immediately gave me a mission to go to the Dromi system.
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Interesting. That was exactly the standard experience for new CMDRs when I started in 2020, because the "Pilots’ Federation District" and the missions with Tanya Blaine were added with the "April Update" 3.4 in 2019. I think right after the Live/Legacy split with Update 14 (or maybe before), FDev changed that and closed off the starter area. Good to know it's back.

vanFace said:
Interestingly enough, there are also linked missions for those courier ones that give you 100k for simply flying out of the starter zone.
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Yes, I remember those!

vanFace said:
Oh, you mean why a Hauler at all? Well, it gives a superb jump range without engineering, costs almost nothing, and is fast and nimble. Ok, that's not at all how I remember the Caddy, but at least it looks just as ugly to me.
Having A/D-rated that thing for exploration, I'm ready for tomorrows mission: helping out Sandra Corrs. That should make me see some people for sure :D .
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Great choice! I flew a Hauler to Colonia once, it's an underrated ship.
 

vanFace

V
Another day, another try. This time I'll fly the Volkswagen to Njambalba to assist Sandra Corrs. Let's see how bad the pads are hogged there and how often I'll lose my festive gifts.
 

vanFace

V
All done and delivered. Well, except for one, but the system gave the 20M already for 5 deliveries, so I skipped the furthest one. With that - and the 20M of the last delivery - I was able to buy me a shiny DBX "Pioneer" and B/D-rate it (no A-modules available around, except for the thrusters).
Encounters: practically zero. Only at Celsius Hub I've had somebody in the contacts log of the comm screen, but never on radar or visual. Kind of anticlimactic, really.
At least all that scanning and delivering got me yet another promotion: Pathfinder and Dealer. If I interpret Inara correctly, current net worth is around 50M. Not bad for essentially day 2 of casual flying.

Next step will be either a "real" CG - if the tick reveals one - or unlocking Farseer. Along with A-rating the Pioneer, ofc.
 

Don Euclid

D
If you're going to go exploring, you should consider getting Odyssey - exobiology money is no joke, esp if you know where to look.
 

Easy

Easy
So I truly want you to continue with this project. Don't be afraid to screen cap or post vids along the way.
 

vanFace

V
Yesterday's session saw the Pioneer traveling to Maia for the purchase of 1 ton of meta-alloys. No problems along the way, exploring in peace. Also the return leg was quiet, besides the usual NPC pirate showing up to get "all that tasty cargo". That pirate never even came close to interdicting, anyway.

I did a short stop in one of the nearby stations of Deciat, just so I wouldn't have to travel back again if some nasty kills me around the engineer. That meta-alloy I would have gathered from a nearby carrier, then. But again, this was an unnecessary precaution, because Deciat was empty. No encounter except for a passing-by lone Eagle CMDR in Garay Terminal, where I finally fully A/D-graded the Pioneer after delivering that unlock of Farseer.

That left me with a challenge: where to get the initial mats for a good engineering start? And my idea was: all that tasty care-packages! So I pledged to Arissa, basically because this is the power whose territory I was already in. I did my first 5 deeds, and that got me 2 packages with various mats in it, that I am now in the middle of trading across to get some G1 engineering on things. While drifting along the systems, I came across one HGE as well, and managed to get a full stock of Proto Radiolic Alloys, which I will put to good use while trading.

While doing the PP stuff, I often had the urge to check the pause screen for my mode really being open, because I never saw a single soul. Not even in that creepy old lady's territory, where I had to do undermining work. But then again, who would pledge for that, anyway? :p
 

Lhorndra

Lhorndra
vanFace said:
While doing the PP stuff, I often had the urge to check the pause screen for my mode really being open, because I never saw a single soul.
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Well, it's a big galaxy and 'tis the season to be in a food coma or in a vacation destination without gaming PCs. I can assure you there were real-life CMDRs in Sol yesterday.
 

vanFace

V
Lhorndra said:
Well, it's a big galaxy and 'tis the season to be in a food coma or in a vacation destination without gaming PCs. I can assure you there were real-life CMDRs in Sol yesterday.
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Sure. Can't go to Sol just yet, will have to increase Fed rank to... petty officer, I guess?
 

vanFace

V
[VR] Bulbulunufus said:
I'd be shocked if you see anyone outside of the starter zone and any CGs (or CG-like situations like Sol this week), in Horizons.
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Then put up your best impression of it, because today I've seen exactly one CMDR with a Mandalay, although only for a few seconds while approaching Farseer's. I've done some engineering there, and also - to my surprise - got invitations to the other first-level engineers as well. Interestingly enough, the in-game engineer descriptions shows all of them with 3 checkmarks, as if I've done the initial grind already (which I ofc haven't). I will check that in my next session coming tick (for more care-package goodies).
 

vanFace

V
After some rest, CMDR Spectator will today do some PP2 duties again in order to gather mats and merits. The weekly tasks involve bounty hunting and commodity delivering in reinforcement systems, as well as rare goods hauling to CD-49 3617 system, which will be my main stay for this session.
 
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