Yep, I went solo for trading rare goods

[Zpike]

I was humbled the other night.

Lately I had come to the conclusion that my T6 was invulnerable to pirates. I had never even had a close call when interdicted. I even went so far as to post on this forum that I laughed at pirates. I laugh no more.

The other night I had my closest call yet to loosing almost everything in one shot. I had a full load of rare goods and was moving into the Orrere system in prep for the long haul leg when I was interdicted and pulled out of warp very quickly.

I didn't have a chance to get away as I kept the the circle in the blue for the entire event and still lost the interdiction. I did my usual and boosted away while readying chaff and ECM, shield cells, etc.. I reached minimum distance quickly while the pirate challenged me on chat to stop and drop cargo. He was a good pirate as he did not immediately attack and gave me a chance to answer. I declined and continued to boost away. He fired missiles and lasers, I fired off chaff and ECM. I used a shield cell and then attempted to jump to hyper --- nothing --- I was mass blocked. Tic, tic, tic goes the timer.

I made it to hyper with 60% hull after using 3 shield cells and various combination of full sys, eng, boost, and chaff.

This is where I made my big mistake. Instead of dropping back out of hyper and plotting a system jump I decided to attempt the final plunge into port. He got me again. This time I don't know why I got away. He had me at 35% hull with no shields and no cells left and I was still at the half way point on the hyper timer when he stopped firing. Maybe my last burst of chaff and ECM confused him? Maybe he took pity on me? Maybe he bot bored? I don't know.

I got away. I dropped back into normal space, plotted a jump to a nearby system, and jumped out of there fast.

OK, so here's the rube --- I quite out once I made it to port and went to solo mode to sell my goods. It was a no brainer. Why risk my neck again when the alternative was right there for the taking. I plan on using solo mode whenever I do rare goods trading in the future. There is no reason not to, the risk of pirates is to great and the cost to high. I'll still play open when I'm in my Cobra, but I just can't see taking the risk when trading. I'm way to poor to take a chance like that again.

Maybe when i'm rich i'll try it again. Once I can afford the risk.

 

[Cmdr Effie Trinket]

Doesn't this demonstrate why Open and Solo should be entirely separate Careers? I understand your situation and the option is there, so why not? It just has a ring of cheating to it.

 

[Tigga]

Did you enjoy the experience? Sounds like good fun to me! I can't see why you'd want to hide away from this.

Also, can you not afford the risk now? Rares aren't much of an investment and you surely make your buyback cost or a reasonable proportion of it every run. It's not like a pirate can get away with stealing everything - just dump a reasonable amount and boost away, and he'll be stuck between the cargo floating in space and chasing for the rest. If you judge your offer correctly you won't be much out of pocket, and he won't trouble you again as it takes a significant time to scoop.

 

[ste]

Yeah, while frontier make it an option its a viable tactic, that I bet many do but most dont admit it..

Its the Pirates that suffer really. They have to make do with hunting NPC traders carrying 4 tons of grain.

Ive been sticking to open, even now Ive doing a bit grinding in a trade ship. Ive made millions and have had zero attack. Its pretty sad what we have done to this game already in such a short time.

 

[robbyp]

Awaiting incoming flak!

 

[ChaseBears]

it kinda demonstrates how having both harms the game. but it's too late to fix now.

if people have the option to play it safe and there's a lot at stake, they're gonna play it safe.

did you lose any cargo? he might have just gone after it.

 

[Geers]

Doesn't this demonstrate why Open and Solo should be entirely separate Careers? I understand your situation and the option is there, so why not? It just has a ring of cheating to it.

No because he could just as easily set up shop in the middle of nowhere and it would for all intents and purposes be the same as solo.

 

[Unpleasant]

Doesn't this demonstrate why Open and Solo should be entirely separate Careers? I understand your situation and the option is there, so why not? It just has a ring of cheating to it.

Doesn't this demonstrate how hard it is for people to earn a living they're happy with.
Doesn't this demonstrate people would rather play alone than risk their grinding being wasted.
Doesn't this demonstrate combat ships shooting up trade ships is going to drive many traders away from open.

Talk about cutting off your noses to spite your faces... lol

 

[ste]

Doesn't this demonstrate how hard it is for people to earn a living they're happy with.
Doesn't this demonstrate people would rather play alone than risk their grinding being wasted.
Doesn't this demonstrate combat ships shooting up trade ships is going to drive many traders away from open.

Talk about cutting off your noses to spite your faces... lol

I think it demonstrates that modern gamers only care about the reward, not how or if they earn it.

If there was a way of making the money just go straight in the bank without doing anything I think most of us would have opted for that option.

 

[Geers]

I think it demonstrates that modern gamers only care about the reward, not how or if they earn it.

I think you're dismissing a perfectly valid discussion by acting like an unhelpful elitist.

 

[Zarunoi]

Good thing there is the option to switch modes then.
But it kinda suck that you feel forced to go solo when you want to play in open.
Maybe it would be better if there was an additional non-pvp open mode.

 

[Zpike]

Doesn't this demonstrate why Open and Solo should be entirely separate Careers? I understand your situation and the option is there, so why not? It just has a ring of cheating to it.

Good question. It is kind of like cheating to me. It's legal in the game but it does allow me to sell risk free. NPCs don't worry me at all. Only player pirates give me any trouble.

But there is the other side of the coin, what would my reaction have been to loosing almost everything in that one encounter? I can tell you it would not have been enjoyable. I thought about it later and realized I would have quit playing for a while in frustration. I got away and I still put the game away for a day, I can imagine my disgust if I had lost and was back in a Hauler doing 22 slot trade missions again. I just don't know if I have it in me to fight through that kind of boredom again.

I think it's better for the casual gamer such as myself if they keep solo mode. I hear about players with tons of cash and all the ships, etc... That's certainly not me, I have been playing since before Gamma and I still only have the one ship, a T6. Yea, i'm fully kitted now, but I still only have about 1 million to spare if I lost it. That's only enough to get me in a low level hauler and still have money for cargo if I loose the T6 with an 800k load.

 

[Joe nose]

No completed trade journey you make will ever feel as good as when you escaped the human pilot.

But it's your game, play it how you want.

 

[ste]

I think you're dismissing a perfectly valid discussion by acting like an unhelpful elitist.

Mine is a perfectly valid point. If you dont like opinion maybe forums are not for you?

I would not buy a game and turn the enemys off or switch it too easy just cos I want to see the you win screen, if people want to do that so be it, as long as it doesnt effect me, but in a MP game it does effect me when games are being dumbed down cos all we care about is reward and being rewarded as often as possible whether we deserve it or not..

 

[Betelgeuse]

Doesn't this demonstrate why Open and Solo should be entirely separate Careers? I understand your situation and the option is there, so why not? It just has a ring of cheating to it.

Not getting into the separate open and solo debate. If you don't agree with the way it is designed that is your prerogative, just understand it is working as intended by FDand unlikely to be changed.

But why is playing in Open "cheating" if you avoid PvP outside of conflict zones? Surely the richest game is in Open with co-op play and chance meetings with other CMDRs.

I understand the strategy of "chicken!" A la Back To The Future - but not sure it's going to be very effective given the mature (mostly) ED demographic.

 

[Zpike]

Did you enjoy the experience? Sounds like good fun to me! I can't see why you'd want to hide away from this.

Also, can you not afford the risk now? Rares aren't much of an investment and you surely make your buyback cost or a reasonable proportion of it every run. It's not like a pirate can get away with stealing everything - just dump a reasonable amount and boost away, and he'll be stuck between the cargo floating in space and chasing for the rest. If you judge your offer correctly you won't be much out of pocket, and he won't trouble you again as it takes a significant time to scoop.

Looking back after winning the encounter --- yes. quite sure I would not feel the same way if I was grinding to a T6 again though.

Note that with insurance and the cost of the load I had It would have cost me over a million credits to get back in my T6 and loaded up again. I had about 500k in reserve on that mission while carrying the full load. I didn't have the load insured. After the ship insurance was paid I would have needed to sell a bunch of upgrades to get back to a full load. I think I would have still been OK, but it would have been close.

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I think it demonstrates that modern gamers only care about the reward, not how or if they earn it.

I'm 56 years old and have been playing computer games since I owned an Atari 500. I don't think i'm in the "modern gamer" demographic. I am in the "want to enjoy myself" group though.

 

[Tigga]

Looking back after winning the encounter --- yes. quite sure I would not feel the same way if I was grinding to a T6 again though.

Note that with insurance and the cost of the load I had It would have cost me over a million credits to get back in my T6 and loaded up again. I had about 500k in reserve on that mission while carrying the full load. I didn't have the load insured.

I (personally) think you're fairly safe from pirates if you are willing to dump cargo. While, as a pirate, I prefer if people do it in a nice controlled environment on my terms, if they do it while boosting away, and the amount isn't insulting, chances are I won't carry on chasing.

Also, don't rare runs net 300+k profit? Over a million credit bank isn't going to take too long! Up to you how you play though. I'm fine with people playing solo to avoid pirates. It's the plug-pullers who are frustrating.

 

[CMNDRMK]

Devs should make harder AI pirates in solo just for the lols.

 

[Geers]

Mine is a perfectly valid point. If you dont like opinion maybe forums are not for you?

I would not buy a game and turn the enemys off or switch it too easy just cos I want to see the you win screen, if people want to do that so be it, as long as it doesnt effect me, but in a MP game it does effect me when games are being dumbed down cos all we care about is reward and being rewarded as often as possible whether we deserve it or not..

First of all, enough with the doomsday "games are all too easy" crap. That's not what we're here for.

The issue here is Elite is entirely based on grinding to earn money. Losing several hours of such progress is frustrating to say the least. This isn't about people wanting an "i win" button, it's about people not wanting a "oh god now I have to do all that again" scenario.

 

[Dr Roly]

Sometimes I like to mix it up with other Commanders. Sometimes, maybe I've had a hard day at work, I just want to take it easy and play solo. The ability to opt in and out so freely was what initially drew me to this game. It is one of EDs defining features and I'm very glad they've kept it in.
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The price we have to pay is that some people will exploit the system, but it's a small price to pay. Every system can be exploited; this is unavoidable with online games.