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

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What, one player invading and breaking the rules of an arbitrary group proves your point? In a discussion involving the entirety of the playerbase you'll base your generalizations on the actions of one. What, is Mobius under massive PvP invasion all day, every day? Come on.

And I'm still waiting for a serious answer to my question.

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And do tell me where have I or others said that they should not be allowed to do this? Have I called for solo mode to be terminated?

Or have I called for a new ruleset which takes gameplay differences of solo and open modes into account, specifically in the context of community goals progression, in order for ALL players to be treated equally and have an equal chance of scoring points, ranking in the goals and contributing to them.

Read the above and tell me where I am in the wrong.

Thankfully it's a pretty rare occurrence, at least as far as I'm aware. Ive seen a few members talk about it happening on different occasions but I have been fortunate to not experience it. Also in this case it was 2 as Majinvash had a buddy with him which was something he failed to mention when bragging about his awesome combat skills, seems like he only wants to take people on when he knows he outnumbers them.
 
It's the opposite. As the game is designed, it is the solo players who are treated as something special. But I'm not surprised that you cannot see it, this kind of hypocrisy seems to be firmly embedded in the kind of passive-aggressive PvE mindset many here share.

We're not out to get you. We don't care how you play. All we want is equal opportunity to affect community goals, and the game right now favours solo/private PvE groups heavily in that regard. That's not fair, and that's what I'm arguing about.

Fair or not - and that's a very subjective judgement - it's how FD want it. You'd probably own my Asp in PvP play, I enjoy it but I'm not that good at it. I've the greatest respect for both the hardcore PvPers and the equally hardcore PvE crew. I kinda float between the two and will probably never excel in either. There is no passive-aggressive attitude here. There are PvE folks calling out people that want to PvP with them when that is not their preferred play style, there are PvP folks grumpy that PvE folks can avoid them and have an equivalent impact on the game. If everybody is equally peeved at some aspects of the game, different aspects and for different reasons, to me that smells fair.
 
Thankfully it's a pretty rare occurrence, at least as far as I'm aware. Ive seen a few members talk about it happening on different occasions but I have been fortunate to not experience it. Also in this case it was 2 as Majinvash had a buddy with him which was something he failed to mention when bragging about his awesome combat skills, seems like he only wants to take people on when he knows he outnumbers them.

Well, the actions of few do not justify generalizations of such sweeping grandeur. The vast majority of PvP players in Open really, *really* don't care about solo and PvE players. We're interested in playing our game, not ruining yours.

Put yourself in our shoes. Imagine that, in order to be able to score to top 5% of a goal, or see your side win, you have to go into Open and play there. Solo players are, due to the way PvP and PvE works, far more efficient in scoring for community goals. Something has to change in order to balance that with the way Open works. Whether some kind of weighting for solo/group/open scores or a different design of the entire community goal system which alleviates the problem altogether, I don't really care.

But if you guys want a fair game for everyone, you shouldn't have a problem with what I'm saying.

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Fair or not - and that's a very subjective judgement - it's how FD want it. You'd probably own my Asp in PvP play, I enjoy it but I'm not that good at it. I've the greatest respect for both the hardcore PvPers and the equally hardcore PvE crew. I kinda float between the two and will probably never excel in either. There is no passive-aggressive attitude here. There are PvE folks calling out people that want to PvP with them when that is not their preferred play style, there are PvP folks grumpy that PvE folks can avoid them and have an equivalent impact on the game. If everybody is equally peeved at some aspects of the game, different aspects and for different reasons, to me that smells fair.

Frankly, it's difficult to debate balancing issues in a very specific area of the game when everyone seems so keen to call each other "psychopaths" and "carebears". There's a mountain of prejudice in this thread that makes it really hard to put a point across.
 

Robert Maynard

Volunteer Moderator
Put yourself in our shoes. Imagine that, in order to be able to score to top 5% of a goal, or see your side win, you have to go into Open and play there. Solo players are, due to the way PvP and PvE works, far more efficient in scoring for community goals. Something has to change in order to balance that with the way Open works. Whether some kind of weighting for solo/group/open scores or a different design of the entire community goal system which alleviates the problem altogether, I don't really care.

Given that DBOBE says:

I’m also pleased to announce PC, Mac and Xbox One players will all share the same overarching narrative and galaxy state. That means even more players contributing to the wars, power struggles and Community Goals across the galaxy.

in the XBox One announcement thread, I don't think that players who don't play together will be in some way segregated when it comes to participating in community goals.
 
1. Are the skills and cognitive capacities of the average player greater than those of a piece of code?

2. Do NPCs use the same ships and equipment as players do?

(2) - apparently so.

(1) - within the parameters of flying a spaceship in a computer game - only if the developer wants them to be... Assuming, and I have no reason to think otherwise, that the piece of code is being written by good developers then they could write it such that no human could possibly compete. They can write code that plays chess better than a grandmaster, and you have plenty of time there. Flying a pretend space ship reaction times count too, and silicon beats carbon hands down on that one as well. I can see no reason to disbelieve the assertion by FD's devs that they could make the AI unbeatable if they wanted to, it then becomes a balancing issue about just how hard you make it.

You could argue that it makes solo too easy and it needs cranking up, but then you also have to let new players get into the game. You could get around that by making the AI level adjustable but then you have the same complaint that solo with the dial turned down is too much easier than open.

If the effect of solo players on community goals is drowning out the effect of open players then that should be balanced, but I'm not aware that we know that it is. We can see that an individual solo player can do more than an individual open player on many of them but unless the competitive goals start to produce evidence that the solo-open ratio is different on different sides such that one side is overwhelmingly more supported than the other but the solo:eek:pen ratio is the thing that leads to the less popular side winning then I honestly don't see that as a problem.
 
Put yourself in our shoes. Imagine that, in order to be able to score to top 5% of a goal, or see your side win, you have to go into Open and play there.

But that's just it Meritz, players do not have a side. They are simply players. They are not factioned, they are not Feds, they are not Imperials, they are not Alliance, they are not Independents - they are simply players.

Players can of course roleplay themselves into whatever they want to be, but the reality is that they are still just players in a single ship - and any goals they set themselves to attain in any system are simply meaningless numbers that FD will tweak whenever they please. You don't affect the background simulation in any meaningful way, you can only affect yourself by your direct actions and the consequences of such. It's a pretty realistic game that way :)
 
Well, the actions of few do not justify generalizations of such sweeping grandeur. The vast majority of PvP players in Open really, *really* don't care about solo and PvE players. We're interested in playing our game, not ruining yours.

Put yourself in our shoes. Imagine that, in order to be able to score to top 5% of a goal, or see your side win, you have to go into Open and play there. Solo players are, due to the way PvP and PvE works, far more efficient in scoring for community goals. Something has to change in order to balance that with the way Open works. Whether some kind of weighting for solo/group/open scores or a different design of the entire community goal system which alleviates the problem altogether, I don't really care.

But if you guys want a fair game for everyone, you shouldn't have a problem with what I'm saying.

I'm not quite sure if it was me you were intending to reply to. I was just responding to your question of whether people doing PvP in the Mobius group was a regular occurrence or not and I don't see where I've made generalisations of sweeping grandeur.

As for the other part I've not even got involved in that discussion so don't know the facts on whether you are correct in your position or not. Why do you feel solo or private group mode is better for community goals and what's stopping you from going solo to get in the top 5% if it really is that bad?
 
I'd suggest raising fines in open about 150 times, since some people like to claim they play open because it's more challenging. With raised fines, they'd actually have a legit verifiable point to claim that open is harder.
 
I know a million people have said this already, but that's not going to stop me from saying it for the million-and-first time: Solo and private group players shouldn't be able to affect the galaxy that open players play in. If you want to affect the galaxy, you have to PLAY in the galaxy, with everyone else. I only play open - it would completely defeat the purpose of the game for me if I just let myself switch to solo whenever things got challenging. But in any situation where PVP is involved - Solo and private group players will always have an advantage over those of us who choose to stay in Open (It's a lot easier to run cargo for a community goal if there aren't other players blockading you). The way it's set up right now forces you to either play in solo/private groups, or be at a disadvantage. It gives Open players no way to directly counter the actions of solo players.

The fact that they spent so little time implementing communications, groups, alliances, etc makes me wonder how many people at Frontier play in solo/private groups, as opposed to Open. Maybe the reason they're so adamant about keeping things biased toward non-Open players is because, consciously or not, they've lost touch with the perspective of Open players. It wouldn't be the first time (ie: gutting the Python that people had spent hundreds of hours earning, weeks before announcing that the FDL would fill the role the Python used to).
 
If you want to affect the galaxy, you have to PLAY in the galaxy, with everyone else.

Everyone plays in the same galaxy with everyone else. Instancing limits your interaction with everyone else. You can have players log into Open - and lulzban everyone else and effectively play Solo. With the networking model FD have implemented, there is no way around it.
 
Nobody is trying to prevent you from playing. Nor from enjoying the fruits of your labor. But the same should apply to everyone. And when Open players are faced with a choice to either go Solo in order to be competitive in a community goal, or to suffer because they want to play in the Open, that's a problem every player who cares about fairness should concede. The playing field should be level for all.

All I see here are people who only care what *they* can get. And this attitude that you're a poor victim and we are evil psychopaths who live only for the suffering of others is becoming annoying.

So if I follow your logic here you are complaining that playing in Open stops you from contributing to the Community Goals as much as a Solo or Group player can because of the lack of PvP in those options. Yet there is nothing stopping you from helping these goals by partaking in a Solo/Group session as well. But if you were to turn around and say "But I don't want to play Solo/Group, I want to play with other folks" that is basically saying you are actively choosing to participate in a mode that allows you to be hampered and/or killed when attempting to contribute, yet don't want anyone in that mode to hamper and/or kill you while you attempt to contribute?...

Which only leaves the option that you feel there is some moral/ethical high-ground to be had from contributing in Open as opposed to Solo/Group, which in turn DOES prove that you think PvP players should get special treatment...

Your argument baffles me, if you and another person are crossing the street at the same time and they choose to use the crosswalk and you choose to dodge traffic and run across in the middle does that mean you think that person using the crosswalk should be kneecapped before he gets to cross just because he chose the safer method you don't approve of? You're both going to the same place, why does it matter to you so much how the other person gets there if you had the option to use the crosswalk as well?
 
Put yourself in our shoes. Imagine that, in order to be able to score to top 5% of a goal, or see your side win, you have to go into Open and play there. Solo players are, due to the way PvP and PvE works, far more efficient in scoring for community goals. Something has to change in order to balance that with the way Open works. Whether some kind of weighting for solo/group/open scores or a different design of the entire community goal system which alleviates the problem altogether, I don't really care.

But if you guys want a fair game for everyone, you shouldn't have a problem with what I'm saying.

It's a game! We all play it to get a break from real life. For me it's a way to relax and forget the problems and the unpleasant folks (*) from RL while having fun with like minded people, which is why I prefer PvE. For others it's a way to feel stronger and greater without the risk of having to pay for the consequences of idiotic actions, which is why they prefer Open. For others, it's a way to the get the feeling they're discovering something no one has ever seen before. And so on...

We all have our own reasons to play this game, and Frontier gave us all the means to play it as we want to. So stop complaining about the way others chose to play the bloody game and go play it the way you like. You want to feel the danger and the adrenaline flowing? Go play open. You want more than anything to make the top five in some stupid community goal? Go and do it in solo if it's what it takes. But stop trying to impose your view. To each their own!

(*) the forum rules forbid me to use the correct term, but you know what I mean.
 
Given that DBOBE says:

in the XBox One announcement thread, I don't think that players who don't play together will be in some way segregated when it comes to participating in community goals.

As long as the PvP element and solo element are balanced, that is not an issue. Even if XBox users have their own Open and Solo modes, the principles remain the same.

I see a lot of people bringing about instances into this - instances are not an issue. The fact that you can be far more effective without player interference in solo is. There are multiple way to balance this, and I am hoping FD is looking at both their own metrics and user feedback and will come up with something. But right now it's totally skewed in favor of playing solo.
 
But that's just it Meritz, players do not have a side. They are simply players. They are not factioned, they are not Feds, they are not Imperials, they are not Alliance, they are not Independents - they are simply players.

Players can of course roleplay themselves into whatever they want to be, but the reality is that they are still just players in a single ship - and any goals they set themselves to attain in any system are simply meaningless numbers that FD will tweak whenever they please. You don't affect the background simulation in any meaningful way, you can only affect yourself by your direct actions and the consequences of such. It's a pretty realistic game that way :)

Really? Tell the to the Elite Diplomatic Corps who have been flipping neutral systems for Alliance on a weekly basis. That's not influencing the simulation? The outcome of the Lugh war relies exclusively on the outcome of community goals in that war. And that relies solely on player effort. That's not influencing the simulation?

Players have a great big impact on how the simulation runs, and of course they do because the game is here because of us, not the other way around. We may be taking a step back from the usual trope of "galactic heroes", but with dedication and organization players do have an impact. There's quite a lot of us, you know.

And they do take sides. Call it roleplay, or just plain fun, but you have sides. That's what people do, they identify with a faction, and then they take sides in a conflict. Take a look at all the out-of-game stuff CSG players have been doing, like propaganda posters and whatnot. Players who don't give a damn about their game or their side in that game don't do that.
 
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We all have our own reasons to play this game, and Frontier gave us all the means to play it as we want to. So stop complaining about the way others chose to play the bloody game and go play it the way you like. You want to feel the danger and the adrenaline flowing? Go play open. You want more than anything to make the top five in some stupid community goal? Go and do it in solo if it's what it takes. But stop trying to impose your view. To each their own!

I just can't wrap my head around the hypocrisy of this statement. What would you say if you, or your Mobius fellows wanted to be top 5% in a goal and the only way to do that was to go play Open and PvP? Would you still be telling them to do it? Would you feel then that someone is trying to impose their view on you and how you should play?
 
That's what people do, they identify with a faction, and then they take sides in a conflict.

I certainly don't. I see no such requirement in Elite, and I don't even think they could engineer one in. Even if "Choose Your Side, Pilot!" was an enforced action - it would be trivially easy to disconnect all other players (who may or may not be on your side), leave that particular instance, and rejoin it to your satisfaction, and then let other players back in - again, to your satisfaction.
 
As long as the PvP element and solo element are balanced, that is not an issue. Even if XBox users have their own Open and Solo modes, the principles remain the same.

I see a lot of people bringing about instances into this - instances are not an issue. The fact that you can be far more effective without player interference in solo is. There are multiple way to balance this, and I am hoping FD is looking at both their own metrics and user feedback and will come up with something. But right now it's totally skewed in favor of playing solo.

Again, NO ONE forces you to play Open and by the way you seem to be avidly against 50% of the premise of Open(impending PvP) you really should just stick to Solo as well. How can you sit here and argue for equality in game modes when you seem to have a major issue with a large part of the gameplay tied to one of those modes? You would be just as well served arguing to FD for the removal of PvP from Open, or a "Kill the Bad Man" button for when someone "stops you from contributing"... Oh wait, I think they have that button: It's under Start -> Solo or Group.

Damn, problem solved.

TLDR; You are literally advocating for Open/Solo balance but the root of your argument stems from other players (the very POINT of Open play) interfering with you gameplay... *mind.... blown*
 
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