Nice. I had no idea this thread existed but great! There's been a re-animation of these issues lately. New blood apparently finding out that they have spotted problems that have been around for a while.
One player's problem is another's feature.
So to summarise my position:
1. private groups are too big if they exceed the 'friends' bracket. I put this at around 25 peeps.
2. Having excessively large private groups is creating a private group sub culture who get all the benefits of playing but do not have to react with the rest of the open players and they still affect the bgs
3. A large sub group of private players can materially affect another players, or group of players, gameplay through invisible manipulation
4. Players do not want to be killed by other players while playing the game
5. Players who want to kill you are also playing the game they way they want to play the game.
6. The crime and punishment system is inconsistent with juxtaposing these two view points because npc's authorities are too easily outwitted by seriously modded player ships
7. The crime and punishment system does not make bounty hunting feasible for players
8. The crime and punishment system does not penalise or react to player piracy with significant magnitude or penalty to marginalise this kind of anti social behaviour
9. If you really want to avoid a player it is possible to do so by addding them to your blocked list and unfriendliness them (apparently)
1) Other opinions vary. For some, Private Groups offer a pseudo Open-PvE mode where they can play without other players attacking them for no reason. The published game design offers the possibility of multiple Open "groups" (i.e. modes) where the rules can be different to accommodate different play-styles. Frontier have not yet chosen to implement these.
2) The three game modes have offered this from the very beginning of the Kickstarter, over four years ago.
3) By design - the BGS works on indirect PvP, as does Powerplay.
4) Indeed - Frontier are well aware that the majority of players do not get involved in PvP.
5) Indeed - however there is no requirement on any player to play as a target in this non-PvP focussed game.
6-8) C&P is a separate matter - however significant improvements to it may encourage some players to play in Open. Only PvP Bounty hunting relies on other players.
9) Not sure on this one - the block feature is, as I understand it, only guaranteed to block comms from a player (unless the functionality has been changed).
![[VR] Mad Mike](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/27/27910.jpg?1553527108){kind=avatar}
