To Solo Play Players: If You Could Disable PVP, Would You Play in Open Play Mode Instead?

AMX-008 GaZowmn

AMX-008 GaZowmn
I'm under the impression that a lot of people, including myself, prefer to play Solo mode all the time, not because we don't want to play with others, but simply because we don't want to PVP others.

For comparison, let me talk to you about of one of the worst launches in recent years, Fallout 76, which to the surprise of some has actually redeemed itself (at least to some extent), but owes it survival to its community, which stood during awful first year fo the game, but also a community that confused Bethesda because the devs were convinced their players wanted more PVP... and they were proven wrong, best depicted through many of the ironic headlines that gaming journalism used to deliver the "shocking" revelation:

Bethesda Didn’t Get Why ‘Fallout 76’ Players Wouldn’t Kill Each Other​

www.forbes.com

Bethesda Didn’t Get Why ‘Fallout 76’ Players Wouldn’t Kill Each Other

Bethesda was surprised to learn that Fallout 76 players didn't care much for PvP, and how the game has evolved reflects that.
www.forbes.com www.forbes.com

Bethesda Apparently Shocked People Didn't Like PvP in 'Fallout 76'​

www.gamingbible.co.uk

Bethesda Apparently Shocked People Didn't Like PvP in 'Fallout 76'

"It's a smaller percentage of our player base than we thought."
www.gamingbible.co.uk www.gamingbible.co.uk

Bethesda Surprised By How Many Fallout 76 Players Didn't Want to PvP​

gamerant.com

Bethesda Surprised By How Many Fallout 76 Players Didn't Want to PvP

Bethesda VP Pete Hines reveals that the company was surprised to find that players preferred to avoid PvP in Fallout 76 in favor of PvE.
gamerant.com gamerant.com

Bethesda was surprised how uninterested players were in Fallout 76's PvP​

www.pcgamer.com

Bethesda was surprised how uninterested players were in Fallout 76's PvP

We just want to be friends.
www.pcgamer.com www.pcgamer.com

Bethesda got confused that Fallout 76 players don’t murder each other​

Why is everyone being so nice?
www.pcinvasion.com

Bethesda got confused that Fallout 76 players don't murder each other

When Bethesda was designing Fallout 76, it expected players to murder each other, but it turns out they'd rather just work together.
www.pcinvasion.com www.pcinvasion.com

Don't misunderstand: Fallout 76 do had (still has to a small degree) griefers and gankers, but the vast majority of players simply preferred not to engage in PVP.

Keeping things short, today many of the ways to engage into PVP have been disabled, pacifist mode is a menu option that makes it almost impossible to engage in PVP, and while the game's reputation will forever be tarnished by its launch, its actually in a better than many people expected (which can't be said for games like EA's Anthem, which already threw the towel and cancelled further development). It still is no substitute for a proper Fallout 5, but as a casual time waster with a Fallout theme: it's passable.

Back to Elite Dangerous, I think a lot more people would like to try playing in Open Play with random strangers in Elite if they had the choice to opt out from PVP, like having an aforementioned pacifist mode that disabled PVP interactions.

But that's just my impression, and I would like to hear what other thinks on this matter:

Do you think that Open Play would be negatively affected if PVP could be disabled?

Do you think Elite could benefit from having more people try to play & cooperate with others in Open Play?
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
It might have been interesting to see some sort of limiter on PvP, but it'd have to be something more than just disabling damage outright. F76 had an interesting one of severely nerfing incoming damage until you return fire.

Personally I'd be interested in something that still allowed you to damage/disable but not destroy a ship. As in, you still take full hull and module damage while being attaked by another player, can still be scanned, hatchbroken, and so on - but as long as you qualify for protection, it doesn't trigger a canopy breach, powerplant explosion, or take your last hull point so you're always left in a position where you can log out after the 15s timer, log back in to solo, reboot, and continue on your way.

The qualifications would be things like:
  • Not wanted in the current jurisdiction and haven't been KWS'd by your attacker
  • Not a powerplay enemy of your attacker
  • Have your hardpoints stowed
  • Not in a "dangerous" location (ie. no system link, CZs, etc)
  • Haven't fired on another player since your last jump.
This would make it very difficult to pull off the classic random gank/sealclubbing, while still allowing powerplay PvP , wars and piracy to continue unhindered. Sure, it wouldn't protect against everything (shooting someone's drives off 1km above an engineer base, for instance, will let gravity do the dirty work for you) but for people worried about ganks it'd be better than nothing.
 

ꝁestrel

ꝁestrel
AMX-008 GaZowmn said:
It still is no substitute for a proper Fallout 5, but as a casual time waster with a Fallout theme: it's passable.
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Passable? Seriously? Bethesda murdered Fallout. The last twinkle of Fallout was New Vegas; and it was just a twinkle.

AMX-008 GaZowmn said:
Back to Elite Dangerous, I think a lot more people would like to try playing in Open Play with random strangers in Elite if they had the choice to opt out from PVP, like having an aforementioned pacifist mode that disabled PVP interactions.
Click to expand...
What would be the point? To say o7?

AMX-008 GaZowmn said:
Do you think that Open Play would be negatively affected if PVP could be disabled?
Click to expand...
It would extinguish whatever remnants of emergent gameplay we have left.

AMX-008 GaZowmn said:
Do you think Elite could benefit from having more people try to play & cooperate with others in Open Play?
Click to expand...
There are other ways to accomplish this without adding a lazy immersion breaking game mode. Solo is bad enough as it is.
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
From my time playing F76 the emphasis was on coop with others to achieve tasks and build your camp/shelters.
There were a number of griefers who mostly sought to circumvent the pacifist mode or build trap camps, though they were few in number they could ruin a session.
The fate of Innovsurvivalist being a case in point.
ED is far better off as we are generally alone away from the engineer or CG systems rather than crammed into WV.
 

quackinthebush

Q
Seems like a lot of folks on this forum really seem to get their hackles up about multiplayer gameplay. Which is odd, considering the marketing language Fdev uses to describe the game.

Speaking only for myself, yes I would love to see Solo and Open (and console/pc) unified into one game, with protections like Screemonster suggested, or just an opt-out. ED is the loneliest MMO out there, and it's not just due to the size of the milky way.

Don't think it's going to change though, from what I can tell there are only minor corrections to existing mechanics. Oh well, CGs are still pretty fun for the social element.
 

DANgerous25

D
Personally I use the Mobius group, I joined the “EurAsia” group given my location. To date, I’ve never seen another CMDR… and I’d enjoy the company every now and again! Maybe the other Mobius group is more popular.

I tried open a few times and got murdered while minding my own business. “Gitting gud” or whatever is the lingo just so I could survive wasn’t my bag. I like to fly around in a big ship with a high rebuy, and I simply don’t have the time to generate billions of credits to make it worth risking staying in open.

Horses for courses though, I’m comfortable as is and respect everyone’s play styles. I do think it would be cool to merge the groups and allow a more sociable and less murderous experience.
 

varonica

varonica
CMDR_Halceon said:
I'll answer! I play because I like to pretend I'm a space pilot in an interesting and self-consistent universe. Other people add to the "interesting" while subtracting from the "self-consistent," in my opinion. So, I guess my answer is "sometimes."
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Yes well, a consistent and believeble universe would be one where the vast majority of players just went about thier business without trying to kill the next person they came across, hang on, that's how it works now right? Sometimes is indeed the correct answer, sometimes one likes to join in a war on the side of justice and goodness and all things wholesome, sometimes one just wants to truck stuff and not be attacked every time they leave the station.

Other people just want to burn the galaxy and hang consistency, I don't think the two sides will ever be reconciled so we are going to be stuck with these threads forever!
 

Screemonster

Screemonster
varonica said:
Yes well, a consistent and believeble universe would be one where the vast majority of players just went about thier business without trying to kill the next person they came across
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unless of course you need to farm manufactured components or opinion polls or something in which case a lot of players are quite happy to kill the next person they come across and anyone else that gets in the way while they're at it
 

varonica

varonica
Screemonster said:
unless of course you need to farm manufactured components or opinion polls or something in which case a lot of players are quite happy to kill the next person they come across and anyone else that gets in the way while they're at it
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What, to upgrade your weapons and armour? Not something I will be doing!
 

Agony_Aunt

Agony_Aunt
I'm a mainly solo (as in play by myself) player most of the time, but I mainly do it in Open. I play solo mode for specific reasons, like not wanting to meet anyone at all, whether it be friend or enemy, or for going to places where gankers will be hanging out.

No need to change Open though to cater to my needs. Easy enough to use solo when i want.

Its no surprise most MMO players just want to do PvE stuff. Just like most PvP players prefer arena based games because they provide a quick competitive environment where they don't have to go hunting the PvP. There is this small but very vocal subset of PvP players who like to get their PvP on in open world games and spent an amazing amount of energy trying to get the game to be changed to suit them, and seem surprised when it turns out a majority don't want the same things they do.
 

Bigmaec

Bigmaec
Screemonster said:
unless of course you need to farm manufactured components or opinion polls or something in which case a lot of players are quite happy to kill the next person they come across and anyone else that gets in the way while they're at it
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That's just NPCs.
Remember shooting NPCs is ok, and getting shot by NPCs is also ok, because they never manage to damage you enough before the 15 second timer runs out 😁
Only other humans that shoot do it to hurt your feelz...
 

CMDR Decus Crux

CMDR Decus Crux
In the days of HOR I always played in MOBIUS, but since ODY I have switched to SOLO a handful of times. Why? As another commander above me said, for me the 'believability' of my world, aka the 'immersion' is important. And nothing is less immersive than entering the concourse of a space station and then seeing a bunch of fully equipped 'commanders' running in zigzags.... although, of course, there is one more thing; zigzagging and jumping around wildly in CZ's...

So while the OP's suggestions might get me into the open in space, solo in busy interiors is still (for me) the only option at the moment. However, I have to admit that I don't play ED at the moment and don't know if anything has changed in this area.

So to answer the OP; Since I play ELITE mainly for the 'immersion' my answer would probably be; "Depends on the situation, but I'd probably prefer OPEN to MOBIUS if I'm really into interaction (at GC's for example)".
 
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