Why I and many others will rarely play open

[Happy Cabbage]

The shame is that i think everyone should be in open. The game is ruined through splitting the player base up.

I think the balance is off for this to be an issue.

Griefers are just twitch gamers that want to fight people and the game makes it hard to do that. They are actually forced to attack just random people because its the only action they are likely to get.

It's the game that needs to change. Mechanics needs to be introduced to change how it all works.

For a start, i noticed back in world of warcrafts early days, that the moment they introduced instanced combat, battlegrounds, there was an immediate calming effect within the game.

Also, maybe notorious should make you more visible within the game somehow. Like making you appear on the galaxy map maybe. Maybe there could be another filter, the same as the one that shows you where fleet carriers are at, that shows you where notorious commanders are.

Another interesting one i thought of, maybe we should get the ability to give a distress call when attacked. Like a pvp distress call that pops up in the system, maybe even up to a couple of systems away. So if pvp lasts too long, you've got the chance of people dropping in to help. Hell, it might even change griever behaviour to make them target each other more.

I honestly think this game shouldn't allow a solo, and ive not even done any pvp myself, apart from the initial ganking you get when you first start out and dont know where to avoid. It ruins the atmosphere of the game. Changes need to be made within the game so that we can deal with the problems ourselves without mod oversight. Make the griever's more visible, give non griefers the chance to get meaningful help. Give the pvp types somewhere to spend energy.

 

[TheChosen]

I played solo the first 70-80 hours or so, simply because I wanted to enjoy the game undisturbed. Then I switched to open and 300+ hours later, I haven't looked back ever since. Now I play open 99.5% of the time, the rare exception being when I have some small stuff to complete but can't commit myself to a PvP fight in case it happened. If you stay away from Deciat, Dav's hope and whatever CG is going on, you are going to meet gankers very very rarely. I am combat only Master (on purpose) and recently I fully engineered two cutters (flying to 10+ engineers in open).. not a single ganker interdicted me... You would think I would be a tasty target.

Then I spent few hours just trading with a shieldless Cutter on the Inara most popular trading routes... again, zero ganks.

Then I took my PvP Cutter to Deciat & the CG.. ganked immediately.

You are robbing yourself from the extra experience by playing in solo. Often it is just about chatting with people you meet and some RP.. Also if you don't pledge to a power than the chances of you getting ganked drop exponentially. Most people who do random PvP don't want to deal with notoriety (me included).

 

[Daniel Klimchuk]

Knowing how to escape from someone who attacks you is one of the most essential elements of open, and makes gameplay more interesting for both parties.

It's easy to switch to solo and hide, it's your choice completely of course, but by adding extra challenge and risk, the game becomes much more enjoyable and immersive, even if you're a total noob at PvP.

 

[The Roofus]

The shame is that i think everyone should be in open. The game is ruined through splitting the player base up.

How exactly is the game "ruined" from splitting the player base up?

Even in open you rarely see anyone outside of popular systems and bases, instancing means you rarely get more than 2-3 showing up at any one time even then - and chat is available across all modes.

So with all due respect, other than "I can't gank people as easy" how exactly is it ruined?

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

It's easy to switch to solo and hide, it's your choice completely of course, but by adding extra challenge and risk, the game becomes much more enjoyable and immersive

And, while respecting everyone’s choice of modes equally, I think that ‘challenge’, ‘risk’ and ‘enjoyment’ are all very subjective terms to each gamer, sometimes varying between sessions. So we choose the mode that best suits our mood at the time; rare forays into Open for the potential for organic unscripted encounters, PG for squadron co-op, and Solo when I’m feeling antisocial which is most of time to be truthful. I’ll take issue with anyone who claims I’m ‘hiding’ from ‘risk’ before they see how I fly or fight though

 

[Rat Catcher]

I’ll take issue with anyone who claims I’m ‘hiding’ from ‘risk’

Don't be so aggressive, you'll hurt their feelings and get reported for flaming!

There are those who consider that anyone who doesn't play their way are wrong... They should be pitied more than scorned...

 

[Daniel Klimchuk]

And, while respecting everyone’s choice of modes equally, I think that ‘challenge’, ‘risk’ and ‘enjoyment’ are all very subjective terms to each gamer, sometimes varying between sessions. So we choose the mode that best suits our mood at the time; rare forays into Open for the potential for organic unscripted encounters, PG for squadron co-op, and Solo when I’m feeling antisocial which is most of time to be truthful. I’ll take issue with anyone who claims I’m ‘hiding’ from ‘risk’ before they see how I fly or fight though

Yep. And this is one of the beauties of this game - you're free to choose to play with whoever you want, which isn't the case with most MMOs.

 

[The Roofus]

And, while respecting everyone’s choice of modes equally, I think that ‘challenge’, ‘risk’ and ‘enjoyment’ are all very subjective terms to each gamer, sometimes varying between sessions. So we choose the mode that best suits our mood at the time; rare forays into Open for the potential for organic unscripted encounters, PG for squadron co-op, and Solo when I’m feeling antisocial which is most of time to be truthful. I’ll take issue with anyone who claims I’m ‘hiding’ from ‘risk’ before they see how I fly or fight though

This in spades - I deal with people as my day-job so even if Open didn't run like a bag of bum on my baked potato of a PC the chances are I'd still run solo just cuz I don't want to deal with human beings. I play this game to relax.

Also IMO; this is a single player game with optional multiplayer, not a multiplayer game with an optional single player mode.

 

[Screemonster]

A big essay about why you like to play a particular way. Cool.

Other people like to play a different way. That's what's so great about the modes. People that want to play different ways can do so.

So open isn't for you. Cool beans. If you're proposing that open should be changed in some way to make it more for you, then that's like a fan of the Alien movies going into My Little Pony forums and complaining that twinkle glitters or whoever doesn't get facehugged.

 

[The Roofus]

doublepostderp

 

[The Roofus]

So open isn't for you. Cool beans. If you're proposing that open should be changed in some way to make it more for you, then that's like a fan of the Alien movies going into My Little Pony forums and complaining that twinkle glitters or whoever doesn't get facehugged.

 

[Screemonster]

you know, I'm not so surprised that this exists, but that it took that little time to find it.

 

[The Roofus]

you know, I'm not so surprised that this exists, but that it took that little time to find it.

I'm more surprised that I so badly messed up replying that I've not only double posted- but deleted the wrong post

 

[Chorda]

Griefers are just twitch gamers that want to fight people and the game makes it hard to do that. They are actually forced to attack just random people because its the only action they are likely to get.

Nah, I think by definition griefers are players who are looking to troll and annoy other players. Griefing is a state of intention. Gankers, pirates, mail-slot blockers, etc. can all claim their intention isn't to grief; which may be true or just another layer of griefing. So in Elite as in life. People always have plausible deniability to fall back on if their motivation is dubious. Insincerity has a high price though, even in a game.

 

[Happy Cabbage]

Nah, I think by definition griefers are players who are looking to troll and annoy other players. Griefing is a state of intention. Gankers, pirates, mail-slot blockers, etc. can all claim their intention isn't to grief; which may be true or just another layer of griefing. So in Elite as in life. People always have plausible deniability to fall back on if their motivation is dubious. Insincerity has a high price though, even in a game.

I get what you mean but i think grievers dont just fall into one category. Mentioned before that i used to play wow. Well my friends within wow were all pvpers and what i found was that the same people that like pvp often also liked griefing when the opportunity arose. Personally, i was always about killing ganker guilds, and people id ran into before that i knew were gankers, being someone that liked pvp but no necessarily liking pvping random people. But they just didnt take things so seriously. They just wanted to fight anyone that came around the corner. They wanted you to log your main and come and fight them. Grievers are just a section of pvpers. They will gank if they have the opportunity, but they just want to battle.

 

[Happy Cabbage]

How exactly is the game "ruined" from splitting the player base up?

Even in open you rarely see anyone outside of popular systems and bases, instancing means you rarely get more than 2-3 showing up at any one time even then - and chat is available across all modes.

So with all due respect, other than "I can't gank people as easy" how exactly is it ruined?

It's obvious that if you split the games players up that a social online multiplayer game isnt going to be as good. It's completely obvious. However many you do see, you would see many more if the player base wasnt split. And as i said in my post, i have only ever been ganked and i've done no pvp. Just because i dont gank, it doesnt mean i can't see that the better game is going to be one with more players around. Even if the cost of those more players was getting ganked more myself, it would still be worth it.

Open is the proper game. It's the real game. And im arguing for a better open mode rather than a gank fest. People should be able to play in open mode. There needs to be changes so that everyone can use open. The best experiences ive ever had in social multiplayer games has been where ive been in the middle of something else and ive come into contact with someone. You lose that in solo. Every social interaction is so calculated when you play in solo.

 

[Achtung-Goomba]

Open is the proper game. It's the real game.

This sort of, ahem, elitism actually gets me down a little bit. Not loads mind, but just a little bit. Where on the mode selection screen does it say ‘click here for the proper game’?

 

[Happy Cabbage]

This sort of, ahem, elitism actually gets me down a little bit. Not loads mind, but just a little bit. Where on the mode selection screen does it say ‘click here for the proper game’?

Keep reading into it what you want. Elitism is wanting everyone flying around the same game so i can interact with them apparantly. Get away with you. What a joke. What is it with elite and uptight people?

 

[Chorda]

I get what you mean but i think grievers dont just fall into one category.

Griefers are just twitch gamers that want to fight people and the game makes it hard to do that.

That's saying they all fall under the category of PvP twitch gamer.

Station griefers using cheat codes could easily be the exception here (they're not necessarily twitch gamers, just troublemakers); but the point is, griefing is a player intention that is hard to prove, and not all griefers are twitch gamers nor are all twitch PvPers griefers.

 

[Old Duck]

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