If anyone else played UO when it came out.... I just wanted to start a discussion about the parallels in terms of gameplay/world that I see happening in ED.
For those who didn't play UO when the game came out it had one player vs player set of rules in a single world. You could kill anyone and take everything on them and would gain "red" status if you killed enough people or if you attacked an innocent would get "flagged." I think the first week of this game was probably the most fun I have ever had in any online game ever. The miners were mining away on a set of mountains very near the main town only to be summarily slaughtered and looted by various packs of players. This forced said groups of miners to ask for help in town, so you literally had about 10 -15 miners at a given location being defended by a group of players. The sheer fun from having people trying to kill players usually with pretty good equipment and forming a little group to stop them was so incredibly fun. While this was fun for the bounty hunters and the pirates it got pretty old quickly for the people mining I would imagine. This lead to the splitting of the pvp world "feluccia" and trammel a bright nice cuddly version of the same world where no pvp was allowed. They tried to make incentives to go into feluccia, etc but no one really did. This choice eventually killed the game in the long run.
Anyway enough about UO and nostalgia. Elite Dangerous is the game we are all playing. The issue I see and from discussing with many people who play this game is that there is not enough player interaction even when you seek it out. There was a large thread about CODE's blockade of the recent CG event. The thread boiled down to solo vs open play. However, what I took out of the discussion and really wanted to flush out here was that there is not enough player interaction in the game even when players make the choice to play in open play. If I was a trader and had to seek out an actual escort who was then engaging in pvp combat with a group of pirates. That would be SO FUN. Sadly in the current iteration of ED there doesn't seem to be a real incentive to do this. Even with the approach of 1.3 adding the ability to influence factions and elevate a minor faction, etc, it doesn't really solve the elephant in the room of absolutely minimal player interaction.
The simulation of ED is wonderful, the graphics are great, the ship design and equipment is phenomenal but even if I seek it out the player interaction in open play is ABYSMAL. This is not a discussion of solo vs open play. This is a discussion of open play.
I've put in almost 300 hours into the game. I've traded, pirated, and done bounty hunting. I've helped elevate a minor faction. Even when I go to another player group/clans "home system" I only see 1 or 2 commanders. How is the player interaction in this game going to increase? I'm not sure I see a solution and I want there to be one because this game has so much potential for amazing fun. Please share your thoughts.
For those who didn't play UO when the game came out it had one player vs player set of rules in a single world. You could kill anyone and take everything on them and would gain "red" status if you killed enough people or if you attacked an innocent would get "flagged." I think the first week of this game was probably the most fun I have ever had in any online game ever. The miners were mining away on a set of mountains very near the main town only to be summarily slaughtered and looted by various packs of players. This forced said groups of miners to ask for help in town, so you literally had about 10 -15 miners at a given location being defended by a group of players. The sheer fun from having people trying to kill players usually with pretty good equipment and forming a little group to stop them was so incredibly fun. While this was fun for the bounty hunters and the pirates it got pretty old quickly for the people mining I would imagine. This lead to the splitting of the pvp world "feluccia" and trammel a bright nice cuddly version of the same world where no pvp was allowed. They tried to make incentives to go into feluccia, etc but no one really did. This choice eventually killed the game in the long run.
Anyway enough about UO and nostalgia. Elite Dangerous is the game we are all playing. The issue I see and from discussing with many people who play this game is that there is not enough player interaction even when you seek it out. There was a large thread about CODE's blockade of the recent CG event. The thread boiled down to solo vs open play. However, what I took out of the discussion and really wanted to flush out here was that there is not enough player interaction in the game even when players make the choice to play in open play. If I was a trader and had to seek out an actual escort who was then engaging in pvp combat with a group of pirates. That would be SO FUN. Sadly in the current iteration of ED there doesn't seem to be a real incentive to do this. Even with the approach of 1.3 adding the ability to influence factions and elevate a minor faction, etc, it doesn't really solve the elephant in the room of absolutely minimal player interaction.
The simulation of ED is wonderful, the graphics are great, the ship design and equipment is phenomenal but even if I seek it out the player interaction in open play is ABYSMAL. This is not a discussion of solo vs open play. This is a discussion of open play.
I've put in almost 300 hours into the game. I've traded, pirated, and done bounty hunting. I've helped elevate a minor faction. Even when I go to another player group/clans "home system" I only see 1 or 2 commanders. How is the player interaction in this game going to increase? I'm not sure I see a solution and I want there to be one because this game has so much potential for amazing fun. Please share your thoughts.