Open Player Problems
So let me tell my little story here, without a post-production video.
Back in, I don't know, a few months ago, I was looking for something to play that was spacey and Elite: Dangerous came up in my search again. I'd seen it some time prior, but it didn't have planetary landing, so I gave it a pass. Well, this time it had Horizons, and that promised planetary landings, so I coughed up some dough, bought the game and I've been here ever since.
Well, not quite like that - see I did a little bit of looking and listening and learning first. Part of that involved a visit here to read some of the goings on. And this business of unprovoked PvP and tales of new commanders being blasted over and over just trying to get out of space dock gave me pause. But then I noticed there were Private Groups and a Solo mode. So, after many attempts to get the code I needed in a timely manner and that worked (about 8 attempts), I was finally looking at the login screen.
Ah, tutorials - I started there. Crashed a few sidewinders into stations, got blown up a few times as I fumbled with the mouse and keyboard controls, and finally broke down and bought a flight stick. Spent an hour or so configuring and reconfiguring controls, until I had something that I liked the feel of, and finished off the tutorials. Now I was faced with a choice - do I dive into open and take my chances? I don't know anyone to private group with, or do I go it alone.
Tap, tap, click, and into Solo I went.
I figured, I'd stay here a while and learn to fly my ship, and learn to not suck at flying my ship.
I also signed up for Mobius, but I never saw anybody there, and was starting to have my doubts.
A month came and went, and I was feeling pretty good about my little collection of chips. I had some little tiny ones, like the Sidewinder I came with, and the Eagle I'd bought, and Viper IV I was enjoying the heck out of, as well as Keelback I was starting to enjoy.
More time passed, and I had a pretty good grasp of things. Then it happened. I signed in to Mobius one evening, and there was a hollow box on my radar. It spoke to me, and I replied. We chatted a bit, and went our merry ways.
And I didn't see anyone for days, so I went back to playing solo.
And mostly I still do.
I don't want to spend my time calculating and figuring the absolute maximum damage I can get per shot, while squeezing every drop of power I can into my shields, so I can one-shot kill an Anaconda with an escape pod, because that's not my idea of fun. But some people enjoy things like Accounting, Calculus, and Suduku. I'm just not one of them.
But I have ventured into open from time to time, for various reasons - to take video of people doing things, or to be videoed doing things, or to help some poor soul minutes old get started in the game, or to make wakes for people to scan - and nothing particularly bad has happened to me during those visits to the cinnamon-colored part of the ring, but why take chances? Back to Private Groups or Solo I go. Then, I discovered something:
There seem to be a lot of people trying to play on 3rd or 4th world Internet connections. I have never seen more skipping, stuttering and strange behavior than I have in Open. And that's a play-killer for me.
So let me tell my little story here, without a post-production video.
Back in, I don't know, a few months ago, I was looking for something to play that was spacey and Elite: Dangerous came up in my search again. I'd seen it some time prior, but it didn't have planetary landing, so I gave it a pass. Well, this time it had Horizons, and that promised planetary landings, so I coughed up some dough, bought the game and I've been here ever since.
Well, not quite like that - see I did a little bit of looking and listening and learning first. Part of that involved a visit here to read some of the goings on. And this business of unprovoked PvP and tales of new commanders being blasted over and over just trying to get out of space dock gave me pause. But then I noticed there were Private Groups and a Solo mode. So, after many attempts to get the code I needed in a timely manner and that worked (about 8 attempts), I was finally looking at the login screen.
Ah, tutorials - I started there. Crashed a few sidewinders into stations, got blown up a few times as I fumbled with the mouse and keyboard controls, and finally broke down and bought a flight stick. Spent an hour or so configuring and reconfiguring controls, until I had something that I liked the feel of, and finished off the tutorials. Now I was faced with a choice - do I dive into open and take my chances? I don't know anyone to private group with, or do I go it alone.
Tap, tap, click, and into Solo I went.
I figured, I'd stay here a while and learn to fly my ship, and learn to not suck at flying my ship.
I also signed up for Mobius, but I never saw anybody there, and was starting to have my doubts.
A month came and went, and I was feeling pretty good about my little collection of chips. I had some little tiny ones, like the Sidewinder I came with, and the Eagle I'd bought, and Viper IV I was enjoying the heck out of, as well as Keelback I was starting to enjoy.
More time passed, and I had a pretty good grasp of things. Then it happened. I signed in to Mobius one evening, and there was a hollow box on my radar. It spoke to me, and I replied. We chatted a bit, and went our merry ways.
And I didn't see anyone for days, so I went back to playing solo.
And mostly I still do.
I don't want to spend my time calculating and figuring the absolute maximum damage I can get per shot, while squeezing every drop of power I can into my shields, so I can one-shot kill an Anaconda with an escape pod, because that's not my idea of fun. But some people enjoy things like Accounting, Calculus, and Suduku. I'm just not one of them.
But I have ventured into open from time to time, for various reasons - to take video of people doing things, or to be videoed doing things, or to help some poor soul minutes old get started in the game, or to make wakes for people to scan - and nothing particularly bad has happened to me during those visits to the cinnamon-colored part of the ring, but why take chances? Back to Private Groups or Solo I go. Then, I discovered something:
There seem to be a lot of people trying to play on 3rd or 4th world Internet connections. I have never seen more skipping, stuttering and strange behavior than I have in Open. And that's a play-killer for me.