Why play online?

[macdog]

PS Oh yes one last thing, since my altercation I had with you yesterday, my forum name magically became W0OCQCK, insted of W0ODCQCK. Did you have anything to do with that??? Woodcock is my mothers maiden name, Woodcock is a common name here in the US, there's thousands of us, all with the real life name of Woodcock, it makes reference to a wooden statue of a male chicken, no sexual reference what so ever.

Yes, please add expert forum hacker to master debater and overall criminal mastermind

seriously though no, I had nothing to do with that!

oh, maybe you think I reported you? I guess you have no reason to believe me, but all I can say is no, it would take something pretty extreme for me to report a persons forum name, and in those cases more sensitive souls would have no doubt got there before me.

 

[macdog]

But if "pirates" or "PKs" (sorry to name both in the same sentence) have a way to fund their activities, bypassing the negative effects of their deeds, you can't argue against solo mode as "the easy way for traders".

I think you may have misunderstood my perspective (I guess I am really bad at explaining things, but this never really came up).

The way I see it, its not an "easy mode" for traders, its an "easy mode" for everyone. Its not aimed at a particular group or anything like that. In fact I would suggest that pirates/PKs/whatever will (ab)use this mechanic more than most! I don't think its relevant to be honest.

And even if you change it to "single char", the cost for a second account is neglectible because of no monthly fees.

Exactly why I agreed with your last post, with solo and open linked as they are (market, economy, etc...) then I agree the toggle will be replaced with 2 x chars.

All that leads me to suggest that other balancing would be useful. Again a reason/incentive for something other than pvp combat in open.

 

[Adept]

Remember, pvp-ers aren't born in vipers with CR 100M in the bank. They will need to do something to make CR which as things stands looks like it would be done in solo (literally no reason not to) and then flip to pvp, buy a viper and go from there...flipping back to solo for the next trade haul.

The plan is for all professions to be roughly equal in earning power. The starter sidey with pulse lasers is a fine light fighter. No need to become a trader if you are a combat enthusiast. If the player (keen on PvP) wants to get going, why not start doing bodyguard and bounty hunting missions? No time wasted in a defenceless hauler, and you are getting combat experience and rep along the way.

I think one key misunderstanding is that you cimpletely discount the NPCs. I don't mean as threats, as... denizens of the galaxy. Elite isn't being designed so that "PvP"-anything will be a viable career. PvP clashes will be the occasional spice in the stew.

Find what you want to do, and do it. Don't waste time in solo mode, grinding credits thinking you need to be ready for some PvP arena showdown. If you think the coolest bit is interacting with other players, don't leave the Open group, and follow the news items about where in the galaxy things are hotting up. Thst's where the people will be.

If you specifically want to be a pirate and prey on other players you are a little out of luck. Only those merchants who specifically enjoy the added excitement of possible player piracy will be potential targets. That is by design, and very unlikely to change. But pirate va merchant isn't about "exciting PvP" anyway. It's about getting to plunder a fat and helpless merchant. That will have to be NPCs, almost exclusively, since most merchant players will probably not be too keen to play that part in the power fantasy.

But playing a pirate _is_ a good way to get quality PvP action, as PC bounty hunters will come after you. Then it's combat ship vs combat ship, and PvP player vs PvP player. Sounds just fine to me. Signing up as a merc works too. Federal PC mercs vs Imperial PC mercs. Go nuts!

 

[CaptainKremmen]

PS Oh yes one last thing, since my altercation I had with you yesterday, my forum name magically became W0OCQCK, insted of W0ODCQCK. Did you have anything to do with that??? Woodcock is my mothers maiden name

Sorry, mate, but that's the way your forum name has always appeared.

It hasn't changed. I think you've only just noticed the typo.


Now I know there's a dropped letter, your forum name makes more sense!

 

[CaptainKremmen]

Indeed.

Online All: Always fly with your mates on your wing, and you'll always be "Many against" every single threat....

Drive slaving is going to be so cool. Can't wait.

Sorry for picking your post to reply to Kremmen, yours is the briefest, but really I am replying a a few posts that have quoted what I have said on this.

Whilst I agree with Seonid to a degree that discussing relative difficulty is rather pointless I'll just point out that you conveniently miss out what I highlighted with private group, that gives you the benefit of friends without any risk of hostile players.

No, that's fine.

I was simply keeping a tight rein on my usual verbosity, answering this specific question from NTW...

So please provide anything that can possibly say that a playing space without other human players is harder than one containing them.

So I did.




Personally, I reckon the best thing Frontier can do is to turn the NPC aggression and skill level up to "11".

People band together to fight a common foe. If all common foes are dribbling imbeciles, they are no foe at all. Make them a serious threat, and things will get very interesting indeed.

But to make it work really well, FD will need to work out how to get out of the corner they've painted themselves into w.r.t. NPCs and their displayed skill ranks. So thinking caps on... Can anyone tell me what the obvious problem is there?

 

[Armour]

Can anyone tell me what the obvious problem is there?

I suppose that one thing they could do to improve things which is quite simple, is to make NPCs appear no different to PCs.

If people see an NPC doing something odd or dumb, they blame the game. If they see a PC doing it, they blame that PC. If they take out a tricky NPC, they get a little sense of achievement. If they do the same to a tricky PC, that sense of achievement is magnified.

If they can't tell the difference between the supermarket's own brand and the "real deal" from the packaging, they probably won't notice a difference in the contents.

 

[CobraMK]

Why Play online? The answer is easy:
Online Play is laggy and no Multi Massively Online Play!
This Peer to Peer sucks. No Group Play is possible and good and all the Time the System is loading and loading and loading.

No, i play solo and i think the Online play will never working. The Peer to Peer is a really bad Idea! Also bad is the Information from Frontier about this. The last Patch did not make the Situation better!

I like to play ED why it is a very good Sequel to Elite. But only Solo and i hope in the Future offline. I hate this Online Play.

When i think about online Play then EvE Online is A online Game. That was unreached from another Game!

 

[W0OCQCK]

I suppose that one thing they could do to improve things which is quite simple, is to make NPCs appear no different to PCs.

If people see an NPC doing something odd or dumb, they blame the game. If they see a PC doing it, they blame that PC. If they take out a tricky NPC, they get a little sense of achievement. If they do the same to a tricky PC, that sense of achievement is magnified.

If they can't tell the difference between the supermarket's own brand and the "real deal" from the packaging, they probably won't notice a difference in the contents.

I think this is a working Idea, and a good place to start. +1

 

[Helo]

The plan is for all professions to be roughly equal in earning power. The starter sidey with pulse lasers is a fine light fighter. No need to become a trader if you are a combat enthusiast. If the player (keen on PvP) wants to get going, why not start doing bodyguard and bounty hunting missions? No time wasted in a defenceless hauler, and you are getting combat experience and rep along the way.

I think one key misunderstanding is that you cimpletely discount the NPCs. I don't mean as threats, as... denizens of the galaxy. Elite isn't being designed so that "PvP"-anything will be a viable career. PvP clashes will be the occasional spice in the stew.

Find what you want to do, and do it. Don't waste time in solo mode, grinding credits thinking you need to be ready for some PvP arena showdown. If you think the coolest bit is interacting with other players, don't leave the Open group, and follow the news items about where in the galaxy things are hotting up. Thst's where the people will be.

If you specifically want to be a pirate and prey on other players you are a little out of luck. Only those mercgants who specifically enjoy the added excitement of possible player piracy will be potential targets. That is by design, and very unlikely to change. But pirate va merchant isn't about "exciting PvP" anyway. It's about getting to plunder a fat and helpless merchant. That will have to be NPCs, almost exclusively, since most merchant players will probably not be too keen to play that part in the power fantasy.

But playing a pirate _is_ a good way to get quality PvP action, as PC bounty hunters will come after you. Then it's combat ship vs combat ship, and PvP player vs PvP player. Sounds just fine to me. Signing up as a merc works too. Federal PC mercs vs Imperial PC mercs. Go nuts!

Really solid post mate, +1.

 

[Ashten]

Not being able to tell the difference between a player and a NPC is a great idea, its one of the best in this whole thread...well in my opinion anyway.

Also as was said, the P2P is not a great system and will most likely drive people to solo out of frustration anyway.

 

[Seonid]

Not being able to tell the difference between a player and a NPC is a great idea, its one of the best in this whole thread...well in my opinion anyway.

Then you might be interested in this, from another one of these threads in May.
http://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=390728#post390728

 

[DaHunn]

I always had the need to play online, since there are other people to interact with. But the game is to instable when playing online, In solo mode i can play bug free. Hope this will get fixed with beta 2, Then switching back to online gameplay

 

[Nemesis-T-Warlock]

PS Oh yes one last thing, since my altercation I had with you yesterday, my forum name magically became W0OCQCK, insted of W0ODCQCK. Did you have anything to do with that??? Woodcock is my mothers maiden name, Woodcock is a common name here in the US, there's thousands of us, all with the real life name of Woodcock, it makes reference to a wooden statue of a male chicken, no sexual reference what so ever.

Excellent. Now all we need to do is get you to accidentally reveal your DOB and we will own your online life.

 

[Ashten]

Thanks Seonid, that all sounds great, hope it all gets implemented.

 

[Bikky]

If you plan on doing this, be sure that you get a whole lot of money on top of your "best ship with best weapons"
You will lose a lot of those expensive ships when you get involved in PvP the first weeks.

oh god/godess/allah/buddah........ so you will, and maybe even your first attempt.

I'm gutted, I'm quite a good combat pilot, but went up against a viper couple of weeks ago, and my cob was destroyed in less than 20 seconds, shields gone in 5 seconds.

I'd say get on and learn your lessons in your FREE sidewinder, before you go for the big guns, and lose them.