Modes The Solo vs Open vs Groups Thread - Part the Second [Now With Added Platforms].

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Logging off and back on in a RES site (or anywhere else in or even near Asteroid Rings) has caused alot of Ships to blow up recently...

Used to be different - but for some reason the spawn there can be very lethal right now.
Thus, logging on-off-on-off-on to find i.e. a nice spawn instance with high-value bounties isn't a very feasible Option anymore.
Rather fly out of the RES and back in. That's the safe way to do it.

I also think that spawn insta-death is no different between Open or Solo - can happen in any mode.

you mean like this
https://youtu.be/AKGmKONFhmQ
 
There is so much information here to sift through.. some good points on either side, mostly garbage though to make one side "more fair" or whatever. I've not seen this idea, so I'm gonna drop it here and would love some feedback...

Make the game 100% open (before you scream, read on). I do play on open and I miss all the interaction of a MMO game. I have yet to see 1 single person in open mode.. Not a single one! here is my suggestion: Like many MMO's before this (and yes it IS a Massively MULTIPLAYER) one, there should be 'safe' zones and free zones. Where if you venture in the designated areas you are free from PvP. When you are comfortable and want to take more risk or go do some pvp, venture out into the OPEN zone.

Now maybe this open zone is all the unexplored places? maybe its a designated portion of all 3 alliances systems? there has to be an equal and balanced result to this. I am not for OPEN so I can go pirate anyone as I'm a trader and explorer by nature. I would like it to be OPEN so that I can see and talk and interact with people! Space is a HUGE vastness that is cold and boring sometimes. It would be nice to see and talk to other people. It would be nice to "hire" another person to guard my trade ships in the wing...

So lets please stop the bickering about making solo harder or open more rewarding. lets come to an agreement to get everyone together so that we can PLAY together! Isn't that the main point of a GAME? lets build a community in game. Not just on these boards.

I was excited when I went to the Empire home world and saw over 600 ships pass through there. I hung out for a good hour hoping to see ANYONE, yet not a soul. Its depressing that I can not even talk to anyone and am forced to play this MMO alone.



TL:DR I want everyone to play open so we can have fun together. play together. Thank you.
 
Make the game 100% open (before you scream, read on). I do play on open and I miss all the interaction of a MMO game. I have yet to see 1 single person in open mode.. Not a single one! here is my suggestion: Like many MMO's before this (and yes it IS a Massively MULTIPLAYER) one, there should be 'safe' zones and free zones. Where if you venture in the designated areas you are free from PvP. When you are comfortable and want to take more risk or go do some pvp, venture out into the OPEN zone.

What if we do it slightly differently? Make the game 100% open but only allow PvP in certain "unsafe" zones. When you want PvP you go into the PvP zones.

Although even that punishes those of us who sometimes don't want any player interaction - PvP, PvE, casual or role-play - without forcing us to be rude and not respond to anyone.
 
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What if we do it slightly differently? Make the game 100% open but only allow PvP in certain "unsafe" zones. When you want PvP you go into the PvP zones.

Although even that punishes those of us who sometimes don't want any player interaction - PvP, PvE, casual or role-play - without forcing us to be rude and not respond to anyone.

Sounds like a very good idea - you could call these unsafe zones "Anarchy Systems" or "Conflict Zones" or something like that :)
 
There is so much information here to sift through.. some good points on either side, mostly garbage though to make one side "more fair" or whatever. I've not seen this idea, so I'm gonna drop it here and would love some feedback...

Make the game 100% open (before you scream, read on). I do play on open and I miss all the interaction of a MMO game. I have yet to see 1 single person in open mode.. Not a single one! here is my suggestion: Like many MMO's before this (and yes it IS a Massively MULTIPLAYER) one, there should be 'safe' zones and free zones. Where if you venture in the designated areas you are free from PvP. When you are comfortable and want to take more risk or go do some pvp, venture out into the OPEN zone.

Now maybe this open zone is all the unexplored places? maybe its a designated portion of all 3 alliances systems? there has to be an equal and balanced result to this. I am not for OPEN so I can go pirate anyone as I'm a trader and explorer by nature. I would like it to be OPEN so that I can see and talk and interact with people! Space is a HUGE vastness that is cold and boring sometimes. It would be nice to see and talk to other people. It would be nice to "hire" another person to guard my trade ships in the wing...

So lets please stop the bickering about making solo harder or open more rewarding. lets come to an agreement to get everyone together so that we can PLAY together! Isn't that the main point of a GAME? lets build a community in game. Not just on these boards.

I was excited when I went to the Empire home world and saw over 600 ships pass through there. I hung out for a good hour hoping to see ANYONE, yet not a soul. Its depressing that I can not even talk to anyone and am forced to play this MMO alone.



TL:DR I want everyone to play open so we can have fun together. play together. Thank you.
And what hapen to the ppl that want to play alone or with their friends only?
 
And what hapen to the ppl that want to play alone or with their friends only?

How would they play alone or with their friends only in any other MMO? group up and go play! with 400 billion stars I'm sure you can find a nice corner to play in without being bothered.

For Arioch: ""Sounds like a very good idea - you could call these unsafe zones "Anarchy Systems" or "Conflict Zones" or something like that :)"" I catch the sarcasm here. But why not use those like that then? Would you as a solo player buy into that idea?
 
How would they play alone or with their friends only in any other MMO? group up and go play! with 400 billion stars I'm sure you can find a nice corner to play in without being bothered.

For Arioch: ""Sounds like a very good idea - you could call these unsafe zones "Anarchy Systems" or "Conflict Zones" or something like that :)"" I catch the sarcasm here. But why not use those like that then? Would you as a solo player buy into that idea?

Its good that FD already cover of that with the 3 modes isnt it?
 
Its good that FD already cover of that with the 3 modes isnt it?

maybe its just me and I'm completely wrong. But I didn't buy an MMO to play single player. I just can't wrap my head around having a game with billions of systems and wanting to play alone. That just seems wrong. Why have something so vast and not enjoy it with others? make new friends, trade stories, travel together (more than just your local friends).

Maybe you soloers can answer this. What's the single most reason to play solo?
 
For Arioch: ""Sounds like a very good idea - you could call these unsafe zones "Anarchy Systems" or "Conflict Zones" or something like that :)"" I catch the sarcasm here. But why not use those like that then? Would you as a solo player buy into that idea?

Oh, sarcasm was not intended, it's what I hoped Open would be like when I backed the Kickstarter. As a solo & group player I would love to try that, indeed, I've tried Open on a few occasions (unfortunately on each occasion I was destroyed in short order (by other Commanders) despite being Clean, Harmless, no cargo & in a starter ship) to see what the experience would be like.

Pity I didn't bump into some of the pirate chaps from these threads, they sound like they would've provided the experience I was after.
 
Hi Community! :D

I thought I'd chip in on this new Open vs Solo Topic. I read through much of everything under this topic, and I took some notes of what I was thinking about and reading. I'm not saying all these things should be adopted or are our best options. For instance, I'm not too fond of #4, but I thought I'd throw it out there. I think #1 and #7 would yield the best results in balancing the modes. #6 would enhance all modes, but may benefit Solo players most.

1. Let players influence the official formation of a blockade, making it where NPCs join the official blockade to level the playing field across all modes. This won’t make things perfectly even, as actual players and NPCs have a wide gap in difficulty (for the most part). But the Solo players will have to deal with the blockade ships, as opposed to being able to deliver CG items with far less risk in Solo. Perhaps such official blockades could only be brought about during a time of war, lockdown, or an unusually high number of illegal transactions (smuggling), via Community Goals. If X number of commanders sign up for the CG Blockade, then the blockade is up in all modes (or maybe only in Solo since in Open there’s a blockade of human players?).

2. Also, increase smuggling payouts (black market values) in systems in a state of war and a little more during official blockades, especially for weapons. Not an Open vs Solo suggestion, but I think it would go well with the idea of blockades and give smugglers a new, challenging way to make more credits.

3. I favor Open players getting bonuses for trading, combat, bounty hunting, and exploration, and Solo players getting only the normal rate for their actions (simply because more risk should yield more reward).

4. Perhaps Solo mode NPCs should be more difficult, on average, than Open NPCs. This has the potential to hurt Solo, so this idea definitely needs to be weighed carefully, more so than bonuses in Open as more difficult Solo NPCs would add more risk to Solo. I wouldn’t suggest harder NPCs in Solo in combination with bonus payouts in Open. Also keep in mind that some players play Solo not just to “game the system” by gaining advantage. Some either don’t want that level of difficulty as it may not be suited to their abilities and play style, or simply because they don’t want to. Perhaps Solo players should be able to choose a difficulty level, whereas Open is at a set difficulty, or unchangeable?

5. With the idea of Open and Solo carrying different weight with players contributing to Community Goals, I think this could be effective in combination with higher payouts for Open players. Perhaps instead of Solo players’ CG contributions carrying less weight, perhaps Open players’ contribution carry more weight (in other words, Solo players still able to contribute 100T and it still counts as 100T, but Open players get an extra 10% toward their CG contributions). The key here is you want to encourage people to play Open (rewarding for higher risk) but you don’t want to discourage Solo (punish for playing alone/lowering base payouts).

6. One way to encourage Solo Mode play would be to give the NPCs more character. Give players the option of hailing NPCs and interacting with them, in a similar way to Starflight. Some Solo players are inevitably going to feel the game lacks personality at some point. Open mode has the benefit as the only mode with potential for complex, in-depth interactions with other ships. Solo players do not get to experience this level of interaction and immersion, so NPCs that real players can interact with would enrich Solo Mode greatly, and enrich Open (perhaps not as much as it would enrich Solo due to the already present possibility of interaction in Open).

7. The best way to improve Open Mode- Frontier needs to keep trying to deal with rammers, exploiters/cheaters, combat loggers, and other types of unfair or unwanted behavior. There are quite a few who want to play in Open Mode but fear they may be cheated by getting killed in a cheap way. These people who want a fairer Open mode will not be satisfied with the answers, “Go play Solo,” or “Play something else.” Going Solo is not a solution for people who want to play in Open, but have legitimate concerns. I feel that this one would bring back players who are hesitant of playing in Open. And with 1.3’s changes coming, I think that’ll help Open be a fairer experience.

The list is just my thoughts so far. I'll keep thinking on it and reading, and try to come up with some more ideas :)

While you've obviously put some time and thought into this, I'm not sure your suggestions are going to move things in the right direction. Four of your suggestions are going in the direction of modes being essentially different games, making it more rewarding for one mode, or harder for another. I don't believe this will unite the player base.

I've said often that personally I don't care if players in open were to get 'more rewards' for doing the same thing that someone in a different mode gets. Personally, I make enough credits to be able to play the game in the way I want, even though I cannot afford all the ships, or even to A rate everything I have. I know lots of CMDRs have way more than me. I don't care, because I'm not playing against them. However, the more this argument gets brought up, the less I like it, and it's never going to be as simple to implement as proponents for it make out. So, someone in Open should get more for destroying the same NPC as someone in Solo? Just because they are in Open? By all means, if there's a way to make CMDR bounties higher, then go for it, but otherwise leave well alone. Same for trading. Open player gets x% more because they are in Open. What if they happen not to see another CMDR, let alone get interdicted by one? Should the bonus only apply if you survive a PvP encounter? You might attract some people into Open for the extra 'rewards', but I reckon they will be people who know how to exploit the networking system, rather than players who would otherwise be too apprehensive about playing Open. The risk vs reward argument is a bit silly really. It's a computer game, and with persistence pretty much anybody who starts to play it can get enough rewards to do what they want in game, and if some do better than others, it's really not a big deal since it's not a competition. :)

I've posted regarding CG's before, as that is one area where FD seem to be promoting competition, which is odd, since a community goal is not by definition competitive. So, if they want to make them Open only, and think there is enough of a demand for that, then they can do so.

I know you aren't that keen on number four anyway, but suffice it to say, there's no need to make NPC's harder in one mode than another, (and give the player in Open mode a bigger reward for destroying a less competent NPC?), and then give players the choice of how hard the game should be for them. Apparently Open is already harder, so anyone wanting either the challenge and / or the interaction will probably already be there. ;) I accept that most NPC's are fairly easy to dispatch, especially once you have a bit of combat experience and a pair of class three lasers. Big deal, they are there for our entertainment, not to destroy us every time we leave a station. Not everyone playing this game is in it for nail biting edge of the seat competitive combat, and those that are have the means at their disposal, if they wanted to, to set up PvP groups for just that reason, but they never seem to do it.

I'm all for FD making Open fairer, although it won't impact me at all. I just don't want to play computer games with other people, and I'd guess there are others just like me, so whether it will encourage lots of others currently hiding in Solo to come into Open is by no means certain. Are there really lots of people who would just love to be in Open but don't want to get destroyed in a cheap way? There may be a few, but more likely, there are lots of people who do not wish to engage in PvP action, although they'd be happy to have human interaction, and since Open mode will (presumably) always allow non consensual PvP, those players will find other ways to play the game, such as in a PvE group.

Your points about better rewards for smuggling and better interaction with NPC's are good ones, and hopefully they will come over time. There's lots of ways that FD will improve this game, including making Open a better environment for people who want to play there. :) However, rewarding one mode is the same as penalizing another mode, and I don't think that will improve the game.
 
How would they play alone or with their friends only in any other MMO? group up and go play! with 400 billion stars I'm sure you can find a nice corner to play in without being bothered.

The thing is though, this isn't any other MMO and players who want to play alone don't have to rely on scraps thrown to us by other players. Can I choose my own little corner or will you choose it? Can I have two systems with rares ~160lys apart please? Pretty please?
 
Oh, sarcasm was not intended, it's what I hoped Open would be like when I backed the Kickstarter. As a solo & group player I would love to try that, indeed, I've tried Open on a few occasions (unfortunately on each occasion I was destroyed in short order (by other Commanders) despite being Clean, Harmless, no cargo & in a starter ship) to see what the experience would be like.

Pity I didn't bump into some of the pirate chaps from these threads, they sound like they would've provided the experience I was after.

I wish I had that luck. Since the game went live, I've yet to see a single person out there. That's no joke. Not one single living person. Its kind of depressing, but I guess that's what happens to all games... the 1% of griefers ruin it for 99% of the players. Now legitimate open players can't interact with people, and solo players are forced to hide in the shadows. Its a lose lose...... I'm curious to see how Star Citizen is going to go about this same issue...
 
I wish I had that luck. Since the game went live, I've yet to see a single person out there. That's no joke. Not one single living person. Its kind of depressing, but I guess that's what happens to all games... the 1% of griefers ruin it for 99% of the players. Now legitimate open players can't interact with people, and solo players are forced to hide in the shadows. Its a lose lose...... I'm curious to see how Star Citizen is going to go about this same issue...

What systems are you visiting? You may have networking issues.
 
What systems are you visiting? You may have networking issues.

What he said...

And stop it please. Solo players are not hiding in the shadows. They are simply playing the game the way they want to play it. If Open proponents stopped insinuating that people in Solo or Group were too scared to play a computer game with them, things would be much better. :)
 
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