Modes The Solo vs Open vs Groups Thread [See new thread]

[Robert Maynard]

The playstyle that brought me into this game was that of the "pirate". This game advertised this as something a player could do to in an MMO enviornemt. It's not my fault that I come here and act aggressively towards other players in attempt to get their cargo, that is indeed the game developers fault.

Targeting players is a play-style choice - there are plenty of NPCs out there. I do not remember ever reading advertising material for the game inferring that all of the combative roles would be carried out exclusively (or even mainly) against other players. It seems that some players have made assumptions about E: D based on their experiences of previous games.

 

[jabokai]

The only new mode that might get introduced is Iron Man mode, which is proposed to be forced open with no switching, and with the added risk of perma-death if you don't launch your escape pod in time.

"Proposed" that way only by the community, and even then only by a vocal few of us. As far as FD's proposal went they still had it with subgroups and solo mode.

 

[OVMorat]

And who will fund and moderate these multiple copies of these separate universes? How will that fit with a website galnet feed? Why should then each solo player not have his own instance?

There is one universe. Even in Open the chances of you seeing someone else in space who is influencing your faction is vanishingly small is you are doing missions. Consider how long you spend in supercruise to docking in that system against being out at other systems. Never mind the instancing system, matching, people playing in different time zones...

Even if FDev did this, which would be vastly over complicated, the end result is that you would be worrying over nothing. Other people would still be invisible to you.

The obvious answer is to keep one universe and have everyone play in it together.

 

[Cowboy Bats]

The obvious answer is to keep one universe and have everyone play in it together.

That is never going to happen.

 

[OVMorat]

You can't force anyone into open mode. I would uninstall first, just on principle. I'll bet that I'm far from the only one.

So you're rather give up on the whole game than fly Open? Even though Open is only very marginally more risky than Solo outside the obviously contested systems? There is a whole lot of space to choose from....
Then again, in my experience, as soon as anyone says "on principle" they're no longer prepared to enter into rational debate.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

The playstyle that brought me into this game was that of the "pirate". This game advertised this as something a player could do to in an MMO enviornemt. It's not my fault that I come here and act aggressively towards other players in attempt to get their cargo, that is indeed the game developers fault. This is a game mechanic that was supported by the makers themselves. As a player, I come to this game and when I have nothing to pirate and I find out that traders can hide in solo play it sort of sours my experience. Yet I still spent like $70 US dollars on the game.

I want to support this game, but man don't false advertise your ****.

Piracy is encouraged as a game role. PKing for lulz is not. That much is in the Advertising and the discussion. People don't actually mind proper Piracy. They mind mindless killing (which, as it happens, is absolutely the antithesis of Piracy - you want your supply not to be stymied.) It is the mindless killing that drives commanders in to solo.

Consequently you have become your own worst enemy. You want to be a pirate, but when that was not working out as you liked, you decided to make things worse for yourself. With any luck you will get bored very quickly and leave along with all the other PKers looking for easy target. Then the rest of the player-base can come back in to open and we will have the game that you say you want, but without you.

If I were part of a Pirates guild or group, I would seriously be discussing how to deal with the PKers, not joining up with the PKers cause it's too much to deal with right now. Is the game, as advertised, too hard for you?

 

[OVMorat]

That is never going to happen.

I'm glad you cleared that up. Do you have any more definite predictions for the future?

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

I'm glad you cleared that up. Do you have any more definite predictions for the future?

Summer's coming...

 

[MegaJohnny]

The obvious answer is to keep one universe and have everyone play in it together.

If the chance of meeting a player from a competing faction is vanishingly small anyway, why use that as the justification for removing a feature advertised all over the place (as others have quoted) including the original Kickstarter? Making mountains out of molehills...

 

[Robert Maynard]

The obvious answer is to keep one universe and have everyone play in it together.

It would be easier to get rid of open and private groups and have everyone play in solo - that way there would be no complaints about not being able to get into the same instance as another player....

So you're rather give up on the whole game than fly Open? Even though Open is only very marginally more risky than Solo outside the obviously contested systems? There is a whole lot of space to choose from....
Then again, in my experience, as soon as anyone says "on principle" they're no longer prepared to enter into rational debate.

Each to their own - when faced with a removal of choice, everyone is entitled to make their remaining choice as to whether to continue to play the game or not.

If everyone was forced into open, I do not expect that player pirates would fare much better - those who play in solo / private groups may simply change role to something that looks a lot less like prey for the pirates.

 

[Coccolino]

The irony in this post is simply astounding. Without traders to hunt you will have nobody willing to play pirate, and without pirates you won't have many bounty hunters since they hunt pirates.

It's a vicious cycle. If you want to see a good game balance the only way it will happen is if everyone is forced into open mode. Because currently, the traders are all playing in solo. The pirates are getting frustrated with lack of targets and then they leave the game or make a trader in solo mode, the bounty hunters then get frustrated because they have no pirates to hunt down and they leave the game or go trader in solo mode.

This game cannot function properly without all parties doing their thing in the galaxy. It's very easy to understand, the number of pirates playing will always be somewhat relative to the number of player traders they have to hunt. If the number of player traders goes down then so will the number of pirates. If the number of pirates goes down then so will the number of bounty hunters as they will have less people to hunt down.

Chapeau.
That's why I said how could it have even come to mind to allow switching solo/open/group with the same assets. It simply destroys the idea at the base of the game.

I really didn't know about this when I bought the game.

 

[Cowboy Bats]

So you're rather give up on the whole game than fly Open?

No, sell me a single player game and then take it away from me, and yep, I'm absolutely gone. I tried open, it's not for me. Wrong generation of gamer. I still prefer my games to be single player. This one was sold to me as a single player game.

 

[T@F]

So you're rather give up on the whole game than fly Open? Even though Open is only very marginally more risky than Solo outside the obviously contested systems? There is a whole lot of space to choose from....
Then again, in my experience, as soon as anyone says "on principle" they're no longer prepared to enter into rational debate.

Prob A lot of ppl don't just play solo to avoid pvp'ers there's these probs as well.
Bandwidth caps
Slow connection
Poor wireless
Tethering from a phone.
Still on 56k because no broadband in there area.(very rare but still happens)
Sometimes avoiding playing with real players. <--sick of ppl thinking solo is just about this.
Playing solo is much less stress on your connection as well as bandwidth.That's why i play solo mostly.


This is as close we going to get for offline mode,so no way will they take that away from us now.
So you might as well get used to it.

 

[SirGeldi]

So you're rather give up on the whole game than fly Open? Even though Open is only very marginally more risky than Solo outside the obviously contested systems? There is a whole lot of space to choose from....
Then again, in my experience, as soon as anyone says "on principle" they're no longer prepared to enter into rational debate.

I would do exactly the same not on principle but based on the fact i was promised a single player offline game.
I have no interest in seeing other players.
But as i compromise i could live with a seperated solo and open characters so u can't switch back and for.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I really didn't know about this when I bought the game.

That is really unfortunate for you, but the info was there to be read (on the Frontier web page as well not just the KSer bumpf or the forums)

I hope you can learn to enjoy the game for what it is, and can maybe come up with improvements which do not rip the guts out of it for those who DID know about it and actively supported the game because of it.

 

[Robert Maynard]

That's why I said how could it have even come to mind to allow switching solo/open/group with the same assets. It simply destroys the idea at the base of the game.

I really didn't know about this when I bought the game.

The three modes and the ability to group switch between them have been part of the stated game design since the beginning of the Kickstarter over two years ago. These features were included from the outset by Frontier. Many threads have been created on the topic over the last two years and the features have been implemented in the released game - it does not take long on these forums to encounter such threads.

 

[Coccolino]

The biggest issue for me is that players in solo mode or in private group play can affect the influence ratings of my rival factions and be untouchable. I can spend a lot of time working on a faction, only to have it get trolled by players who are in private/solo and I won't be able to do anything about it. If it was open mode, at least I'd have some sort of fighting chance - by actually...y'know...interacting with them directly in space. I could shoot at them, or I could actually SEE them in space and kindly ask them to side with faction x instead of faction y, or I could pay them, or y'know do ANYTHING besides grind till my fingers are numb and hope that I have more time to play than they do.

I wish that solo players got their own version of the universe that has it's own influence ratings, that don't effect those in open play. And vice versa. This is the the same issue for those who want to play solo - they don't want to have to deal with people in open play screwing around with their influence ratings. I say, give the solo/private group players their own copies of the universe with it's own influence ratings, and give those of us who want player-to-player interaction an open world where only those in open play can have any effect on the influence ratings.

+1, well said. Solo mode with "Open" consequences is just like cheating. If you can affect my universe, take your risks.

 

[Cathalo]

Piracy is encouraged as a game role. PKing for lulz is not. That much is in the Advertising and the discussion. People don't actually mind proper Piracy. They mind mindless killing (which, as it happens, is absolutely the antithesis of Piracy - you want your supply not to be stymied.) It is the mindless killing that drives commanders in to solo.

Consequently you have become your own worst enemy. You want to be a pirate, but when that was not working out as you liked, you decided to make things worse for yourself. With any luck you will get bored very quickly and leave along with all the other PKers looking for easy target. Then the rest of the player-base can come back in to open and we will have the game that you say you want, but without you.

If I were part of a Pirates guild or group, I would seriously be discussing how to deal with the PKers, not joining up with the PKers cause it's too much to deal with right now. Is the game, as advertised, too hard for you?

So piracy is encouraged, but when targets do not give in to my demands I become a Pk'er? How is the pirate supposed to "pirate" anything when this is the rule? Personally, I would never kill a trader who dropped me valuable cargo to loot. But this only happens about once out of every 2 hours of gameplay and only from NPCs. How am I supposed to keep interested in this game if I cannot make a living off a career that was offered to me by the developers themselves? They lied.

I'm A PIRATE! I DO NOT WANT TO LOOT USS'S OR CLAIM BOUNTIES!!! YET THIS IS WHAT IM FORCED TO DO RIGHT NOW IF I WANT TO SUSTAIN MY LIFESTYLE AS A PIRATE! BECAUSE BEING A PIRATE IN ELITE IS SO UNPROFITABLE THAT I CAN MAKE MORE MONEY DOING ALMOST ANY OTHER ACTIVITY INCLUDING JACKING MYSELF OFF WILL MAKE MORE MONEY. Thanks, Im' done.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

So piracy is encouraged, but when targets do not give in to my demands I become a Pk'er? How is the pirate supposed to "pirate" anything when this is the rule? Personally, I would never kill a trader who dropped me valuable cargo to loot. But this only happens about once out of every 2 hours of gameplay and only from NPCs. How am I supposed to keep interested in this game if I cannot make a living off a career that was offered to me by the developers themselves? They lied.

I'm A PIRATE! I DO NOT WANT TO LOOT USS'S OR CLAIM BOUNTIES!!! YET THIS IS WHAT IM FORCED TO DO RIGHT NOW IF I WANT TO SUSTAIN MY LIFESTYLE AS A PIRATE! BECAUSE BEING A PIRATE IN ELITE IS SO UNPROFITABLE THAT I CAN MAKE MORE MONEY DOING ALMOST ANY OTHER ACTIVITY INCLUDING JACKING MYSELF OFF WILL MAKE MORE MONEY. Thanks, Im' done.

if you are truly done then you wont read this but... you can target the cargo hatch and then they forcibly drop goods...... also you can damage their ship so much that it costs them a fortune to repair, more than a few cans of cargo, so next time you see them they will hopefully have learned.

PS I didnt realise about the self love career choice. maybe I should check that one out, esp as I have an oculus rift, that sort of thing sounds like it may be better in VR

 

[Coccolino]

Personally, I don't care, as long as you retain the solo mode.

My ideal would be:

1. Additional commander saves for each account.
2. Each commander starts in either open or solo mode (they must choose).
3. Commanders who start in solo mode have to stay there.
4. Commanders who start in open mode, can switch to solo, but they can't switch back to open.

Osito

5. Solo behaviour does not affect Open universe, factions, reps, etc. Solo should be = local, single player.