Perhaps for those PvP people that feel cheated when someone force quits the game during combat. Not just logs out, but effectively pulls the plug to avoid dying. Perhaps the bounty for killing the quitter should still go to the PvPer anyway. Of course, there would be no bounty or kill registered if the winner had attacked a clean player just like now.
They could even penalize the quitter by taking the bounty out of their credit.
That is about the best compromise I can think of to counter those who cheat out of the game without quitting through the menus. Only problem is I'm not sure the server can track combat in this way since it's handled peer to peer. Which is why when you load the game after leaving, you end up near the point that you last exited supercruise.
Trying to force people to play a mode is never going to happen. People should have the choice. The game isn't even really supposed to be competitive the way that many PvP players seems to want it to be. The one time it has been made officially competitive is in the first to Elite competition. I believe in that instance it is open play only and switching between modes voids you from winning the prizes.
But other than that, you are free to play the game as you choose. I find people shirking out of combat by pulling the plug bad too.
I haven't really played open since gamma because after playing other games with chat in the past I really can't be bothered with having to deal with a variety of obnoxious behaviour freedom gives certain people who are lacking in character and or maturity. There might not be that many right now, but as the game populates, meeting them is going to become more likely.
I don't play solo either because I still like to see people going about their business.
So I play in Mobius private PvE group where I see a couple of people every now and then. For me it's nice to see the odd person going about their business and wonder what they are up to, know your not alone in the universe. So far I haven't interacted with any of them, or tried hailing them and they haven't tried to hail me either. And I'm quite happy doing my thing. I don't see the game as being competitive at all. I don't trade rares or illegal stuff, have freed slaves a couple of times for no gain, never attacked anything that didn't have a bounty and am enjoying the game immensely in my Asp.
Only time I'm likely to go open is if I meet up with my War Thunder squadron buddies. So far we have been doing our own thing and probably won't meet up till Wings is released. So looks like open probably won't happen till March.
There are game mechanics that could be introduce that would discourage players from quitting/logging off in the middle of a fight (or rather penalties) - there is no discouragement/ penalty for switching to solo at present.
There are penalties already. You have to quit the game through menus to switch to solo. And if you do, your ship is left stranded with no control, effectively a sitting duck for 17 seconds before it disappears. The problem your talking about is if someone ALT F4's or closes the task from the task manager to force quit the game, the server doesn't register the force quit, so they just disappear.
