Why I and many others will rarely play open

[Lysette]

I can just enjoy pvp, when it has another purpose to it than just combat for the sake of combat - I see nothing worth fighting for in ED, absolutely nothing. In my pvp times in EVE we had "our" wormhole system, which our corporation defended against any intruders. This system was our livelihood and source of income in an absolutely lawless area of the game. With different neighboring systems every day it was quite interesting to make a living there - and it was fun, but it had a purpose, it was not just combat for the sake of combat. It was a survival situation, we chose to live there and everyone coming into our system was a potential spy and intruder and had to be eliminated - simple as that.

Nowadays I have neither the time nor would I enjoy playing like this again - those were my student years, where I had the time and as well the aggression level for pvp. My life is balanced now, I just don't have the aggression required for pvp anymore - an no desire to harm others - but I don't want to be threatened or harmed by others as well.

Edit: for those, asking about why writing about it ... well, maybe to make you understand, that it isn't cowardice, leading to not wanting to be a part of pvp, but that other circumstances like progressing in life to a different state, just took the aggression away, which is required to even want to fight others. Once one's life is balanced and running well, this aggression is gone - and without it, pvp is not fun at all.

 

[Jukelo]

Read the last sentence in OP for why they wrote it. We dont need it but we dont need to reply or read it either. Its an open forum for people to say what they think, perhaps youd prefer a Private Group Forum or Solo one?

What, this?

Not sure, why I write this, maybe I don't want solo-mode ever to be deleted and I hope it never will be.

Doesn't explain much, does it? There's never been any indication that Frontier is looking at removing Solo, and a player not enjoying some aspects of Open is exactly why we have the other two options so there isn't much to discuss there either. Is this just to vent? Is this intended to be another Open California thread? I'm trully confused.

 

[coocato]

https://discord.gg/gsU5mD7StV
This is the gank evasion academy discord. It's run by many PvPers, who can give you advice on outfitting and what actions to do to avoid a gank. I started playin in open after joining it, it's a lot better than Exigeous' "tutorial."

 

[Old Duck]

Tho sometimes I get the urge to step into open-play with the hope to find some cool guys to play with. [...]

Not sure, why I write this, maybe I don't want solo-mode ever to be deleted and I hope it never will be.

I did some experiments recently, and I get a sizeable penalty to framerate when in Open compared to Solo, at least when there are a few other CMDRs in my instance. This has little to do with the game drawing ships, but rather the poorly implemented netcode bogging down the main thread. So these days I tend to play in Open when I am NOT expecting to run into anyone, which makes it all the more cool when I do actually come across another CMDR. Community Goals, on the other hand, become a slideshow in VR for me, so while I enjoy interacting with other CMDRs at CGs, I find myself switching to Solo more often than not in order to keep framerates from plummeting. In VR, framerate dropping below the threshold is the worst "griefer" imaginable.

BTW, the main reason I prefer Open to Solo (when performance allows) is because NPCs are so incredibly shallow. If ED had NPCs like X games, I think I could blissfully live in Solo full-time.

 

[Cmdr Nemo LXXI]

Griefers. For the most part.

Whenever I play open, and happen to cross ways with another player, I get interdicted and killed by a full engineered guy. "I mean, ok, you obviously want to test out your super OP ship and pubstomp little-me, I get it. I hope you were able to pump up that little ego of yours. Now I relogg into solo mode, goodbye."

Yee, it's dumb, really.

No really, I am glad that there is solo-mode. I just wanna chill and have fun.
Tho sometimes I get the urge to step into open-play with the hope to find some cool guys to play with. Even though it sometimes tends to end like described above.

Not sure, why I write this, maybe I don't want solo-mode ever to be deleted and I hope it never will be.

Your journey's into open and posting here, can assist you to locating like minded player's. Once you have acquired one or more. It's a very easy process to start and maintain your own or joining a private mode.

 

[aRJay]

Play in the mode that suits you at the time.

Personally I rarely play in open nowadays mostly because too many players in the instance really messes with the speed and smoothness of the game, I will even not play in Mobius sometimes for that reason but use a quieter group or solo instead.

The only thing open has that you cannot get so easily elsewhere is spontaneous PvP as I am not particularly interested in PvP fights that is another reason why I don’t bother with open.

 

[CMDR Decus Crux]

One thing I noticed is that the main Mobius is very quiet nowadays. I suspect it is because I should be in Mobius-Eurasia or something.

Yes, in deed. As far as I know the main group isn't the place to be anymore (nor is it actively supported) - instead they splitted the group in two (or more?) groups. This was because the main group reached the max. supported members at some point. Euro/Asia and America my thinks. I'm in Euro/Asia and had a decent number of 'encounters', but then again, this was near and around the CG systems. Otherwise... well yea, space is big (and even more empty) and with all of the commanders scattered around... yea. You are pretty on your self.

 

[Old Duck]

The only thing open has that you cannot get so easily elsewhere is spontaneous PvP [,,]

And more immersive traffic. When you see NPCs coming and going, they are just Disney animatronics, cheap cardboard cutouts. I hate seeing NPCs docking with my fleet carrier because I know it's all absolutely meaningless.

When you see CMDRs coming and going, they are the real deal. They are coming from somewhere, going somewhere else, and affecting the galaxy via BGS and CMDR-to-CMDR interactions. Each has a past, present, and a future - a story. If I see a CMDR docking with my fleet carrier, I rejoice, because odds are they are making a trade or buying services. If nothing else, they are enjoying my hospitality.

This is the number one thing that attracts me to Open, but unfortunately the Bubble is so big that these player interactions are incredibly rare, except at CGs where everything falls apart thanks to instancing and rubbish network code.

 

[Ydiss]

Only reason I play solo is because it's annoying when you want to get something done and you turn up and... it's locked by a player who's already there.

It'd be fascinating if PVP was anything to write home about in the game. Happened in the alpha the other day; turned up at a settlement wanting to try one thing in particular and spotted another player before they spotted me. As it's an alpha, I was all "ok cool, the thing I wanted to do can wait, let's just see how this plays out" and so I went to do whatever I wanted to do but was wary of them the whole time. The other player ended up seeing me and started shooting immediately. They died in the same time it takes me to switch between one weapon to another. But in the end I was left with nothing except the understanding that there's nothing to PVP over but a used up, useless settlement that won't reset because it's in open.

So off I go to solo to play the game. It's that or move somewhere else.

I just think the whole game isn't well designed for multiplayer interaction in general, across so many different levels and layers. None of it is compelling, none of it is balanced (thanks, Engineers) and none of it means anything. All it means is you sometimes have to stop what it is you want to do to deal with someone else, or just move to another location instead, and usually for no particular reward. This is typically the way it goes with games that weren't specifically designed for PVP and around PVP.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

This may surprise some of you, but gankers are cool people to play with also.
From my personal experience, "the law & order" guys are more "not cool" than gankers.
Gankers/pvpers are doing what they preach and i respect that.
As for Spear guys and such "lawful" cmdrs, don't have positive experience with them.
So not all gankers are bad and not all "police" cmdrs are good.

Define 'Cool'! My definition of 'coolness' is quite different from yours i suppose.
I never meet a 'cool' Ganker. Because that can't be 'Cool' in the way i derfine it.
Is it really cool to force others, mostly foreigners, to play a game with rules, a couple of people set?
In my opinion thats not cool, thats just bad behavior.

 

[Salonica]

I'm none of those player types either. I'm not even combat interested.. The OP makes it seem like the entire game is crawling with players who will do nothing but shoot on sight, this is untrue.

My, and it appears many others, have different experiences. If I play in open tonight and go to deciat, what are the chances I'll be interdicted and 'shot on sight' ?

For me, it's about my game, not anyone elses. Therefore I play my way and ignore what and those I don't need in my play time. simples.

Truth be told, this horse has been around since launch and is well and truelly beaten to death at this point.

 

[CaptainPugwash]

My, and it appears many others, have different experiences. If I play in open tonight and go to deciat, what are the chances I'll be interdicted and 'shot on sight' ?

For me, it's about my game, not anyone elses. Therefore I play my way and ignore what and those I don't need in my play time. simples.

Truth be told, this horse has been around since launch and is well and truelly beaten to death at this point.

You just chose far and away the most player populated system in the galaxy, so yeah, you will probably, instancing permitting, get ganked.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

And more immersive traffic. When you see NPCs coming and going, they are just Disney animatronics, cheap cardboard cutouts. I hate seeing NPCs docking with my fleet carrier because I know it's all absolutely meaningless.

When you see CMDRs coming and going, they are the real deal. They are coming from somewhere, going somewhere else, and affecting the galaxy via BGS and CMDR-to-CMDR interactions. Each has a past, present, and a future - a story. If I see a CMDR docking with my fleet carrier, I rejoice, because odds are they are making a trade or buying services. If nothing else, they are enjoying my hospitality.

This is the number one thing that attracts me to Open, but unfortunately the Bubble is so big that these player interactions are incredibly rare, except at CGs where everything falls apart thanks to instancing and rubbish network code.

I don't have a future in ED.

 

[Vetinari]

I find myself switching to Solo more often than not in order to keep framerates from plummeting. In VR, framerate dropping below the threshold is the worst "griefer" imaginable.

Personally I rarely play in open nowadays mostly because too many players in the instance really messes with the speed and smoothness of the game, I will even not play in Mobius sometimes for that reason but use a quieter group or solo instead.

Youre both lucky, on XB we dont get slower FPS or itd be a postcard and not a slideshow, we just get dumped to desktop and have to reload completely usually On average I see more FCs in a system than players though....

Yes, in deed. As far as I know the main group isn't the place to be anymore (nor is it actively supported) - instead they splitted the group in two (or more?) groups. This was because the main group reached the max. supported members at some point.

Players come and go so prob best to rejoin a new group every so often. I joined latest Mobius EU as the 4th player iirc, Ive hardly used it (sorry Mobius players) but last time I looked was in low hundreds so chances of meeting anyone extremely low outside of busy areas. Its a lot of work for the hosts though to manage it all constantly.

It'd be fascinating if PVP was anything to write home about in the game.

Yeah and I liked your point about ED not designed for PVP but just allows it which for ED is the right choice. On XB the other day there was a PVP wing tournament with somewhere around 20 Squads involved, more wings as some had 3 or 4 wings taking part so it does suit those players, which suits me as room for all styles and more players doing their own thing is good for the game long-term.

 

[Greasetrap42]

My first full year of ED (2018) I only played in open. Not a PvP player, but willing to take whatever risks. I didn't understand the game so the scary experience of maybe getting overwhelmed by god-knows-what was the fun experience I was looking for. I fully understood there was risk. I thought of myself as a rabbit living in a big scary forest.

Now I generally just want to get things done. Solo mode. And I often go exploring, so Solo mode.

If I want the full open experience with PvP then I consider that a separate activity and I switch to open, np. I have no issue with switching between modes.

 

[fishevi]

Hello,


Define 'Cool'! My definition of 'coolness' is quite different from yours i suppose.
I never meet a 'cool' Ganker. Because that can't be 'Cool' in the way i derfine it.
Is it really cool to force others, mostly foreigners, to play a game with rules, a couple of people set?
In my opinion thats not cool, thats just bad behavior.

Cool as normal human beings with real lives, families, jobs, obligations, etc.
They are not psychotic sociopaths as you describe them.

They choose to play in open and shoot other players. They love PvP, they often fight wing vs wing, they meet with other players, they educate them about defending from gankers, help with build or flight advices, etc. They have weekly trainings where you're free to join in and have fun.

Yes, they have giggles when they gank cmdrs and extract salt from them. It is funny to see adults crying and stumping their feet like 4 year olds because someone made their pixels go boom, I admit

I am no ganker, have ships but no skill, but I dont have issues with interdicting and shooting other players or being interdicted and shoot at. It's a GAME, only pixels get rearranged.

Also in almost 2000 game hours, I never been successfully ganked, and for months I was in open only.
Every time I got destroyed from other cmdrs was while doing pvp or looking for trouble. So ganking is not so big deal ad you all claim.

I say that all those anti-gank threads(like this) are heavily exaggerated by cmdrs that don't play open at all.
Do you rant when someone in CoD or Fortnite or GTA V kills you?!
Where's difference between that and ED?
All mentioned games have mechanics where player can shoot and kill other players. And all games have solo mode or creative or whatever so you can play on your own or just friends so you don't have to be victim of awful gankers if you don't want to.

But if you fly in open, then you signed for whatever interaction is going to happen.

So yeah, gankers are not any less cool people than you or me, they just have different playstyle which is totally legit by all Frontier rules and regulations.

 

[Rat Catcher]

The only thing in open (and possibly Mobias / Fleetcom) that doesn't exist in any other mode is encounters with random other players. That is it, in a nutshell.

I just choose the mode I'm playing in depending on what I'm doing - easy.

 

[The Roofus]

TBH gankers are literally just one small reason for me not playing in open - the main ones are people hogging landing pads, lower FPS, and instances loading slower.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yes, they have giggles when they gank cmdrs and extract salt from them. It is funny to see adults crying and stumping their feet like 4 year olds because someone made their pixels go boom, I admit

Got to agree, I can count on one hand the number of gankers that I thought "what a [redacted]", whereas the victims can often be utterly vile and below the belt in syschat - I got moderated previously because I posted a screenshot of a player who got his ship exploded. Threats of violence and even death, insults to family, homophobia, racism, you name it. Some people take this waaay too personally, where it is anything but (I'm not a ganker, but have attacked other players before, either for piracy or to test how viable an engineered Sidewinder is as a gank boat - turns out, quite!).

 

[Greasetrap42]

TBH gankers are literally just one small reason for me not playing in open - the main ones are people hogging landing pads, lower FPS, and instances loading slower.

Absolutely this. I initially switched from always Open to Solo when I started traveling alot IRL. Crumby hotel wifi means goto solo mode.