I want to play a risk adverse character, who
needs to take risks to get ahead--perhaps even to get by or survive--who dies twice a month, despite my absolute best efforts to keep him safe. The proverbial box told me it was supposed to be a cutthroat galaxy, not post-scarcity paradise.
My ideal
Elite: Dangerous game would a fully Newtonian, single instance, persistent world, massively multiplayer, iron-man only, actually dystopian, survival horror, space shooter, with economic and demographic simulations that put the scope and accuracy of the Stellar Forge to shame.
Defence engineering powercreep is definitely a problem. A lot of people scream at the idea of toning it down because they won't be able to stride around in their invincible
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while completely ignoring any damage output that NPCs throw at them, but it's this exact same powercreep that allows PvPers to gank with utter impunity.
Hell, look at how many times people complain about "invincible G5 murderboats" - the first word is important there. All ships are able to have guns, but they might as well be firing feather dusters for all the good it'll do against an engineered ship.
While I agree that power creep is a problem, ganking was probably easier, on the mean, before Engineering. Offense, at least where the focus fire from a wing isn't a factor, hasn't scaled anywhere near as much as defense has, even when comparing a maximally Engineered aggressor to a marginally Engineered defender. TTK is the main factor and the initiator of violence tends to have critical seconds where their opponent needs to get their bearings, especially if that opponent is not experienced.
On a side note, my CMDR has been shot down more in a fully Engineered Corvette than any other ship, by far. It's slow, relatively complex to manage (especially the hybrid loadouts I favor), and tends to lead one to overcommit against too many CMDRs simultaneously. More time to explode means more opportunity to make mistakes. Conversely, he's got 2-2.5k hours in the FLD with three FDL hull losses in about five hundred PvP engagements, and two of those were in organized matches where running wasn't an option.
While I like the enthusiasm to encourage people to fly in Open, I think most of the risk averse people are rich enough the cost doesn’t matter. It’s a factor of time and that someone else blew them up for fun that makes them stay out of open more than anything.
I suppose cash does cover some of the time thing, but it wouldn’t cover that someone else had fun at their explosion. Just my two cents.
I know that kind of outlook is a thing, but it's always puzzled me.
Personally, I think I'd find being shot down by any NPC vastly more damaging to my ego than being shot down by any CMDR. Been about ten years since an NPC has managed that though, so maybe I'd just be pleasantly surprised.
Good point on the data - and it probably should be a thing that pvp kills don’t wipe exploration data.
PvP kills should definitely continue to wipe out exploration data.
Such data is a hugely potent form of BGS influence. It can be stockpiled en masse and ad infinitum. It's safe and easy to collect and remains when one swaps ships. It can be dispersed with high granularity, at will, in response to rapid changes.
Personally, I only explore in Open and only sell data in Open, because I feel it would be distinctly unsporting to deny my CMDRs potential foes the experience of seeing my CMDR stalking around their backyard knowing that he was going to drop a big fat data turd all over their hard work and not be able to do anything about it anyway (though I'd like it even more if they could do something about it, but that defensive inflation makes the submit high-wake routine pretty foolproof for someone who knows how to dodge dumbfires).
Risk in Open is mostly an illusion, but it's a pleasant illusion that I can't get in any other mode.
this!
