I have no interest in open and am sick of hearing that I’m ruining everyone’s fun by playing solo followed by a bunch of theoretical punishments that should be meted out to disincentivise me for playing this as a single player game.
For that to happen, FDev has to balance pve vs pvp, find a way to allow piracy or legitimate pvp (faction vs faction), while putting a stop to curb stomping newbies in sidewinders from gank ship wings.
I stated how this could be done earlier. Flag materials that were bought/refined/collected in open mode as open supplies. Remove that flag if the commodity ever enters solo or group mode. Increase the sale price of open commodities by some percentage.
With more valuable commodities, pirates might actually be able to pay their bills since right now piracy is scraping the bottom of the barrel for income. It will also increase the profit margin of traders, so the prospect of losing a few tons of cargo will no longer force them to operate at a loss.
I contest the notion that gank squads curb stomping sidewinders is an issue whatsoever. Newbies have their own permit restricted nursery where they can learn the basics of flight. Poaching sidewinders is not profitable by any stretch of the imagination. The only incentive to do so is if someone is just taking enjoyment out of being cruel. In the highly unlikely that a newbie encounters some jerk who has nothing better to do than camp the starport, then it is completely within the newbie's power to escape by logging in to solo mode for 30 seconds to high wake to litterally any star within range. From that point forward the newbie could return to open. You can't tell me with a straight face that the grierfer will be able to find the newbie within the haystack of the bubble without the aid of a wake to scan.
The fact that you refer to the newbie zone as a “nursery” should get you to look inward as to why people don’t want to play with you.
You don't like it, but I stand by it. A nursery is where the young are protect as they learn to crawl and take their first steps in the world. This permited zone is where new pilots are protected as they learn to take their first steps in the Elite universe. Nursery is an apt description.
I'm tired of the community interaction in this game being held back by the perpetuation of the myth that there are big meanie gankers who are going to grief, harrass, troll, and kill you if you so much as dare as stick your head into open when the honest truth is that 99% of the bubble is a ghost town indistinguishable from solo mode and that you're lucky if you see a player scope at a star for a few moments before jumping away towards their new destination. There are some real jerks out there, but you practically need to deliberately seek them out to find them.
Or, you know, run into one in your first 10 minutes playing.
Don't be disingenuous. I've already explained how griefers are drawn to hotspots and how the gates of a designated starting zone is a hotspot. The jump range of a vanilla sidewinder is not impressive to say the least. Newbies are safe in the nursery, but how many stars can they jump to from the nursery's border with a stock sidewinder? A small handful of destinations at most. I'm sure with careful analysis a dedicated griefer could identify specific systems that are most likely for pathfinder to plot a route through. But get a few dozen lightyears away from the nursery's boundaries and you'll be in the ghost town that makes up the majority of the bubble, and those griefer will need to find a needle in a astronomically large haystack if he wants to keep harassing you. Quite frankly I think that the permit protected nursery is fundamentally flawed since its distinct location was guaranteed from inception to be a hotspot for griefers. A better approach would have been to spawn players in semi-random locations throughout the bubble so that the stream of incoming players is diffused across colonized space and so that griefers are denied a specific spot to camp. Semi-random only to safeguard against vanilla sidewinders being stranded in locations of widely spaced stars.
Its really insulting how people keep assuming that those of us who want to see open mode flourish are merely piranhas looking for more defenseless fresh meat. That couldn't be further from the truth. Player conflict is what allows games to take on a life greater than what developers can envision. We want to see players band together and fly their banners high. We want to see lines drawn in the sand. We want to see battles rage for control of strategically significant sites and alliances forged to topple great enemies. We want to see community goals transform from mere contests of who can make a bar grow the fastest into real sieges with warships blocking access to ports while blockade runners try to evade intecept and escorting combatants try to break a hole in the siege lines.
Not everyone wants to be a part of that kind of conflict and the drama that it brings with it, and that's a fair request. Those people have solo mode right now. Changes to open mode won't impact their current experience.
But Open mode needs incentives to instigate these player conflicts. Open needs juicy hotspots that players will want to tap into. Hotspots that will draw players together and lead to strife as they vie for control. The path of least resistance to tapping that reward can not be allowed to be swapping over to solo where nobody can touch you. The path of least resistance needs to be some interaction between players. Whether that be diplomacy to strike a deal to share the space, agility to tap the resource and then outrun those who would stop you, or superior force to claim the resource for yourself.
I have no interest in open and am sick of hearing that I’m ruining everyone’s fun by playing solo followed by a bunch of theoretical punishments that should be meted out to disincentivise me for playing this as a single player game.
For that to happen, FDev has to balance pve vs pvp, find a way to allow piracy or legitimate pvp (faction vs faction), while putting a stop to curb stomping newbies in sidewinders from gank ship wings.
I stated how this could be done earlier. Flag materials that were bought/refined/collected in open mode as open supplies. Remove that flag if the commodity ever enters solo or group mode. Increase the sale price of open commodities by some percentage.
With more valuable commodities, pirates might actually be able to pay their bills since right now piracy is scraping the bottom of the barrel for income. It will also increase the profit margin of traders, so the prospect of losing a few tons of cargo will no longer force them to operate at a loss.
I contest the notion that gank squads curb stomping sidewinders is an issue whatsoever. Newbies have their own permit restricted nursery where they can learn the basics of flight. Poaching sidewinders is not profitable by any stretch of the imagination. The only incentive to do so is if someone is just taking enjoyment out of being cruel. In the highly unlikely that a newbie encounters some jerk who has nothing better to do than camp the starport, then it is completely within the newbie's power to escape by logging in to solo mode for 30 seconds to high wake to litterally any star within range. From that point forward the newbie could return to open. You can't tell me with a straight face that the grierfer will be able to find the newbie within the haystack of the bubble without the aid of a wake to scan.
The fact that you refer to the newbie zone as a “nursery” should get you to look inward as to why people don’t want to play with you.
You don't like it, but I stand by it. A nursery is where the young are protect as they learn to crawl and take their first steps in the world. This permited zone is where new pilots are protected as they learn to take their first steps in the Elite universe. Nursery is an apt description.
I'm tired of the community interaction in this game being held back by the perpetuation of the myth that there are big meanie gankers who are going to grief, harrass, troll, and kill you if you so much as dare as stick your head into open when the honest truth is that 99% of the bubble is a ghost town indistinguishable from solo mode and that you're lucky if you see a player scope at a star for a few moments before jumping away towards their new destination. There are some real jerks out there, but you practically need to deliberately seek them out to find them.
Or, you know, run into one in your first 10 minutes playing.
Don't be disingenuous.
It literally happened to me, so kindly go stuff yourself.
I have no interest in open and am sick of hearing that I’m ruining everyone’s fun by playing solo followed by a bunch of theoretical punishments that should be meted out to disincentivise me for playing this as a single player game.
For that to happen, FDev has to balance pve vs pvp, find a way to allow piracy or legitimate pvp (faction vs faction), while putting a stop to curb stomping newbies in sidewinders from gank ship wings.
I stated how this could be done earlier. Flag materials that were bought/refined/collected in open mode as open supplies. Remove that flag if the commodity ever enters solo or group mode. Increase the sale price of open commodities by some percentage.
With more valuable commodities, pirates might actually be able to pay their bills since right now piracy is scraping the bottom of the barrel for income. It will also increase the profit margin of traders, so the prospect of losing a few tons of cargo will no longer force them to operate at a loss.
I contest the notion that gank squads curb stomping sidewinders is an issue whatsoever. Newbies have their own permit restricted nursery where they can learn the basics of flight. Poaching sidewinders is not profitable by any stretch of the imagination. The only incentive to do so is if someone is just taking enjoyment out of being cruel. In the highly unlikely that a newbie encounters some jerk who has nothing better to do than camp the starport, then it is completely within the newbie's power to escape by logging in to solo mode for 30 seconds to high wake to litterally any star within range. From that point forward the newbie could return to open. You can't tell me with a straight face that the grierfer will be able to find the newbie within the haystack of the bubble without the aid of a wake to scan.
The fact that you refer to the newbie zone as a “nursery” should get you to look inward as to why people don’t want to play with you.
You don't like it, but I stand by it. A nursery is where the young are protect as they learn to crawl and take their first steps in the world. This permited zone is where new pilots are protected as they learn to take their first steps in the Elite universe. Nursery is an apt description.
I'm tired of the community interaction in this game being held back by the perpetuation of the myth that there are big meanie gankers who are going to grief, harrass, troll, and kill you if you so much as dare as stick your head into open when the honest truth is that 99% of the bubble is a ghost town indistinguishable from solo mode and that you're lucky if you see a player scope at a star for a few moments before jumping away towards their new destination. There are some real jerks out there, but you practically need to deliberately seek them out to find them.
Or, you know, run into one in your first 10 minutes playing.
Don't be disingenuous.
It literally happened to me, so kindly go stuff yourself.
It’s the main reason I left open. Going to any progression area was death. Community zones? Roving bands outside the turn in spots. Rare commods? Roving bands along popular path(s).
I mean I get it space is big and things have changed now with less focused money making activities. It is just past experiences have soured me. I want to take a trip to colonia soon without fear of ganker around the area.
Its the old argument as old as original online games. And the find a group of friends statement rings even more hollow these days for me. I found a way to solo in games like EQ or UO or others further on. And I have the option here and use it gladly.
Yeah I played in open and went to a RES to do some bounty hunting and I was getting blasted by some silent running FA off pilot trying to smoke me while I was quietly earning credits blowing up npc ships.
The other time I played open I jumped in on a star and was chain interdicted by a few idiots who failed to interdict me like 3 times in a row and started talking trash to me on local chat before I dropped on a station and went back to a private game.
I'll play private or solo forever. People are not what I want in my game.
I got angry enough after a low level AI ship (not a Sidewinder though) rammed my the cockpit of my Python twice after I let it interdict me and we were skirmishing.
Once to drop my (improved) shields to zero, and the another time to destroy my cockpit.
I guess Frontier could brag about that being an example of smashingly effective combat AI (the ship's actual weapons were almost a nonexistent threat). As an actual player, I decided that was a final reason to quit the game cold turkey, and I haven't returned since. If I was being trolled by other human players while doing tedious busy work (which...unfortunately was the large majority of my activities in ED, for lack of a better word) I probably would've quit sooner. Though in my case, I was probably just not suited for the persistent universe style of gameplay.
I understand some of you have had bad experiences in open. I play in only open (outside of fringe cases like needed to dock at an outpost that was full), actively patrolling PP systems, void opal/painite mining hotspots and stations best to sell the same, and I *might* see 3 people a day when I play a handful of hours.
OTOH, even I don't go to CGs, might be people to pirate, but a whole lot more just trying to blow people up. Plus CGs are boring as hell to me. Or Thargoid farming sites on planets - but I don't have a need for any of that stuff anyway, completely uninterested in thargoids until I can sell slaves to them.
It's just not nearly as bad as it is made out to be. That said - play in whatever mode you want. Just incentivize open.
I got angry enough after a low level AI ship (not a Sidewinder though) rammed my the cockpit of my Python twice after I let it interdict me and we were skirmishing.
Once to drop my (improved) shields to zero, and the another time to destroy my cockpit.
I guess Frontier could brag about that being an example of smashingly effective combat AI (the ship's actual weapons were almost a nonexistent threat). As an actual player, I decided that was a final reason to quit the game cold turkey, and I haven't returned since. If I was being trolled by other human players while doing tedious busy work (which...unfortunately was the large majority of my activities in ED, for lack of a better word) I probably would've quit sooner. Though in my case, I was probably just not suited for the persistent universe style of gameplay.
There was (is still?) a time when NPCs were bugged and very ram happy. Can't have been fun for newbies in small ships. In a big ship, it just helped them die faster.
But aren't you the guy stealing stuff from other people? Of course you want more people ... so you can steal from them. They don't want to be stolen from!
If it was that good, you wouldn't need to incentivise it. People would do it for fun. A lot of people don't, which is why we're talking about changing the mechanics so that people think Open is the "right" way to play. Open players shouldn't get a special cookie for playing in Open.
But aren't you the guy stealing stuff from other people? Of course you want more people ... so you can steal from them. They don't want to be stolen from!
Not sure what your point is. I'm not murdering folks (generally), or even taking most of their stuff.
If FDev made pirating NPCs or megaships worthwhile I'd do more of that.
In any case, I've yet to find someone I pirated vowing to quit the game or only play in solo. Stop confusing legit gameplay with seal clubbers. I ain't that.
If it was that good, you wouldn't need to incentivise it. People would do it for fun. A lot of people don't, which is why we're talking about changing the mechanics so that people think Open is the "right" way to play. Open players shouldn't get a special cookie for playing in Open.
Again, I'm not pushing it or demanding it, just an opinion for it to see more use that is easy to implement (and we all know FDev can use all the easy fixes they can find).
I do find that 'if it was that good', meaning even you think open mode is in need of improvement, to be telling about the mode design in general though.
I am pushing open only PP though - because FDev has said themselves that it is a consensual pvp mode for Elite, and requires opting in. Another discussion though I think.
I got angry enough after a low level AI ship (not a Sidewinder though) rammed my the cockpit of my Python twice after I let it interdict me and we were skirmishing.
Once to drop my (improved) shields to zero, and the another time to destroy my cockpit.
I guess Frontier could brag about that being an example of smashingly effective combat AI (the ship's actual weapons were almost a nonexistent threat). As an actual player, I decided that was a final reason to quit the game cold turkey, and I haven't returned since. If I was being trolled by other human players while doing tedious busy work (which...unfortunately was the large majority of my activities in ED, for lack of a better word) I probably would've quit sooner. Though in my case, I was probably just not suited for the persistent universe style of gameplay.
There was (is still?) a time when NPCs were bugged and very ram happy. Can't have been fun for newbies in small ships. In a big ship, it just helped them die faster.
Apparently, a Python wasn't big enough.
Which kind of strikes me as bullshit, from my limited perspective.
I got angry enough after a low level AI ship (not a Sidewinder though) rammed my the cockpit of my Python twice after I let it interdict me and we were skirmishing.
Once to drop my (improved) shields to zero, and the another time to destroy my cockpit.
I guess Frontier could brag about that being an example of smashingly effective combat AI (the ship's actual weapons were almost a nonexistent threat). As an actual player, I decided that was a final reason to quit the game cold turkey, and I haven't returned since. If I was being trolled by other human players while doing tedious busy work (which...unfortunately was the large majority of my activities in ED, for lack of a better word) I probably would've quit sooner. Though in my case, I was probably just not suited for the persistent universe style of gameplay.
There was (is still?) a time when NPCs were bugged and very ram happy. Can't have been fun for newbies in small ships. In a big ship, it just helped them die faster.
Apparently, a Python wasn't big enough.
Which kind of strikes me as bullshit, from my limited perspective.
I have a Vive now and I am very interested in trying out this game again. I bought it back when the game came out and was wondering if there's any good guides to follow for getting back into it since I know I have some stuff but probably not a ton, assuming my stuff is even still around. I've got one of those logitech flight sticks but I hear a HOTAS is a real good idea, but hopefully I can make do in the meantime? Worth getting the expansion as I get back into it?
Get Horizon on sale, I think it goes on pretty regularly.
I enjoy the game despite the flaws either way.
Your stuff will still be there.
As for guides, recently the in-game tutorials and stuff were revamped, and there is a starter area now that is protected from mean pirates and seal clubbers, and helps ease you into the game a bit better (supposedly).
Get Horizon on sale, I think it goes on pretty regularly.
I enjoy the game despite the flaws either way.
Your stuff will still be there.
As for guides, recently the in-game tutorials and stuff were revamped, and there is a starter area now that is protected from mean pirates and seal clubbers, and helps ease you into the game a bit better (supposedly).
I actually found the starter area fairly helpful. There's some built in explanations for what different things mean or do. The scale of the systems is a bit smaller too, it doesn't take several minutes to get from any useful point in one of the systems to another. There's a mix of different missions so you can try out different things and see what they entail, but all the mission rewards and complexity are scaled way down.
It really gave me a spot to to figure stuff out and try things without a whole lot of worry right off the bat. And when I did screw up, the consequences were there, but I didn't lose tons of inventory or progress or anything. Kinda like learning to drive a car in an empty parking lot before hitting the freeway; yeah you might hit some cones during parallel parking practice, but it's not as bad as misjudging distances on the freeway at 75mph.
Also it provides you with some capital right off the bat: the very first assignment in the game is to take off from the starter station, jump to a particular other system, and land at a second station. For this you get 10,000 cr. I lumped it with some data courier missions to the same station and also hauled a few commodities in my little sidewinder. A few more days of dicking around and missions and such and then I ended up at Harmless, Peddler, Mostly Aimless. I'd declined to the graduation mission when it was first offered (deliver data to an area outside the starter systems, it included in the description that this would revoke my starter area permit) for a payout of 250k. I wanted to try some planet stuff before I left. When it came back around it was the same mission for 100k, but I also had about 300k more credits than I did the first time.
daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
I just got back into it after nuking the XBone’s drive to get around the install problem. Good times.
Exploration has massively changed, but I was mostly able to figure it out from trial and error and the in game instructions. I haven’t tried mining. Combat seems decidedly more lethal than it was.
The game is still my jam.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
So apparently I have an adder and like 25k which seems like nothing. Any tips for getting going and starting to explore for cash? Exploration seems good to make money since I get to look at pretty things in VR
So apparently I have an adder and like 25k which seems like nothing. Any tips for getting going and starting to explore for cash? Exploration seems good to make money since I get to look at pretty things in VR
Come out to Obambojas for some wing missions (combat practice!)
So apparently I have an adder and like 25k which seems like nothing. Any tips for getting going and starting to explore for cash? Exploration seems good to make money since I get to look at pretty things in VR
Exploration is at the bottom end of the income bracket. With an Adder and 25k you should be able to get into painite mining. A single run with a full cargo hold should net you enough money to buy and kit out a new ship. The Cobra is a great all around platform. You can equip it for anything from combat to deep core mining. A couple of mining runs with a Cobra should net you enough to get into proper exploration ship if that's your thing. Combat is pretty fun too. The vulture is a great mid-game combat platform.
So apparently I have an adder and like 25k which seems like nothing. Any tips for getting going and starting to explore for cash? Exploration seems good to make money since I get to look at pretty things in VR
Exploration is at the bottom end of the income bracket. With an Adder and 25k you should be able to get into painite mining. A single run with a full cargo hold should net you enough money to buy and kit out a new ship. The Cobra is a great all around platform. You can equip it for anything from combat to deep core mining. A couple of mining runs with a Cobra should net you enough to get into proper exploration ship if that's your thing. Combat is pretty fun too. The vulture is a great mid-game combat platform.
I often grab wing bounty hunting missions. Yesterday I turned one in for 14 million and it was kill 30 ships. It's wing so I can share at 29 kills then kill the last one and you get credit.
So apparently I have an adder and like 25k which seems like nothing. Any tips for getting going and starting to explore for cash? Exploration seems good to make money since I get to look at pretty things in VR
Exploration is at the bottom end of the income bracket. With an Adder and 25k you should be able to get into painite mining. A single run with a full cargo hold should net you enough money to buy and kit out a new ship. The Cobra is a great all around platform. You can equip it for anything from combat to deep core mining. A couple of mining runs with a Cobra should net you enough to get into proper exploration ship if that's your thing. Combat is pretty fun too. The vulture is a great mid-game combat platform.
To add to this, I've now done 2 runs at Painite mining in a Cobra MkIII. Each run was maybe an hour of actual work, but stretched out over two hours because I've got baseball games on while I fly and also I scan systems and map them as l fly to lucrative markets. At just under 800k per ton I've got over 50 million spacebucks from those two runs alone.
I might take a stab at deep core void opal mining, or do a few more painite runs and kit out a Python for mining, then get an AspX setup for exploring and head out of the bubble and start getting some First Discovereds to go with my First Mappeds. The Cobra will probably be refit as a Fuel Rat ship because that also seems fun and it's just such a joy to fly the speedy little thing I can't sell it.
ElldrenIs a woman dammitceterum censeoRegistered Userregular
edited May 2019
So I booted up Elite for the first time in a long time and I’m slightly lost on redone systems. Notably engineering but also mining and exploration and also there’s new hot keys I can’t bind to anything because my keyboard is full? Like... mode switches?
Edit: anyone have any good guides to changes since 2.x and what the new systems are because the googles only give me wildly outdated stuff
Elldren on
fuck gendered marketing
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thatassemblyguyJanitor of Technical Debt.Registered Userregular
So I booted up Elite for the first time in a long time and I’m slightly lost on redone systems. Notably engineering but also mining and exploration and also there’s new hot keys I can’t bind to anything because my keyboard is full? Like... mode switches?
Edit: anyone have any good guides to changes since 2.x and what the new systems are because the googles only give me wildly outdated stuff
I haven't found one. So far I've learned mining through a couple sources, and trial and error. So far, the lessons learned are as follows:
Equipment
Add two Limpet Controllers to your ship's Optional Internal slots in priority order: Collector Limpet Controller, and Prospector Limpet Controller.
I’m not sold on the usefulness of the Prospector Limpet (why would I burn an inventory slot on a limpet that has only one asteroid worth of usefulness?). The collector limpet is mandatory though. If I have space I’d almost think two collectors are better than a collector and a prospector.
Finding Asteroids:
Apparently you can tell which type of material exists in the rings of planets by their color rings, and/or by getting a Full Spectrum System Scanner? (Maybe a discovery scanner is sufficient?). The types are broken into groups: Pristine Metallic, Metallic, Rare Metal, Rocky, and Icy (don't quote me on these - i'm still noobing it up). Each group has the potential to yield a certain subset of mineral/metal materials (like Gold can come from Pristine Metallic, Metallic, and Rare Metal, but the chance and quantities go up as the quality of the field increases).
That's all I have for now.
Also, even in Solo pirates are dicks, so be ready to either space some product every once and a while in the early game, or have a fast ship with lots of shields (which means no room to haul minerals, etc).
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CaptainPeacockBoard Game HoarderTop o' the LakeRegistered Userregular
If you are planning on doing the very lucrative and extremely satisfying deep core mining, you will need a prospector limpets controller. Otherwise, you will not be able to target the fissues with your nukes.
Double painite may be in fashion right now, but exploding asteroids makes me feel oh so good.
Cluck cluck, gibber gibber, my old man's a mushroom, etc.
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
I spent a while doing Painite mining today. At least with my Python it wasn't quite as effective as deep core. I've got enough cash to buy and totally kit out a T9 heavy. Alternatively I could buy an Anaconda and equip it for mining.
I'm on the fence about it. On one hand I could go full on prospector but have a limited availability to defend myself. On the other hand I could sacrifice a bit of storage for much better defense.
I think they said they were going to refund the cost of the ADS.
aka "Mr Gold-in-Bean-Field"
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That_GuyI don't wanna be that guyRegistered Userregular
I purchased a Type 9 Heavy for mining. I spent the evening kitting it out and mining a load of painite. I set out with 200 limpets in a 525 unit cargo bay. When I ran out of limpets it still wasn't at capacity and I had been out there for way too long. I trudged over to a good station for selling painite and came away with a cool 210m spacebux. I think I'm going to trade my T9 and my Python in for an Anaconda. Looking back, I don't think I need all that cargo space for mining and an Anaconda would have a much better time defending itself. I'm going to hang onto the Krait Mk2 as a combat bus for now. If I take advantage of the discount Li offers on ships and outfitting I can buy and partially A rate an Anaconda.
I think I'll embark on said quest tomorrow. I'll give a final judgement on it tomorrow but I think deep core void opal mining is more profitable for most ships.
daveNYCWhy universe hate Waspinator?Registered Userregular
So I've run into some annoyance while exploring. The whole mapping thing can be annoying since I don't see a way to tell if I've mapped a planet, some planets are shown as mapped on the Nav panel, but not by me and when I get to them they have the blue fully scanned look to them so I can't judge where to drop my probes. Otherwise the new exploration is pretty fun and I'm trucking along with my plan to go widdershins by a few thousand LY and then do the road trip to Sag A. The Diamondback Explorer is a really great exploration ship. A-rated with level three engineering on the FTL and a full weapon load with the SRV, so not even remotely optimized, and it's still trucking along at 40LY max jump.
When I get back I'll hopefully have enough scratch to try out some of the mining changes.
Shut up, Mr. Burton! You were not brought upon this world to get it!
Posts
Don't be disingenuous. I've already explained how griefers are drawn to hotspots and how the gates of a designated starting zone is a hotspot. The jump range of a vanilla sidewinder is not impressive to say the least. Newbies are safe in the nursery, but how many stars can they jump to from the nursery's border with a stock sidewinder? A small handful of destinations at most. I'm sure with careful analysis a dedicated griefer could identify specific systems that are most likely for pathfinder to plot a route through. But get a few dozen lightyears away from the nursery's boundaries and you'll be in the ghost town that makes up the majority of the bubble, and those griefer will need to find a needle in a astronomically large haystack if he wants to keep harassing you. Quite frankly I think that the permit protected nursery is fundamentally flawed since its distinct location was guaranteed from inception to be a hotspot for griefers. A better approach would have been to spawn players in semi-random locations throughout the bubble so that the stream of incoming players is diffused across colonized space and so that griefers are denied a specific spot to camp. Semi-random only to safeguard against vanilla sidewinders being stranded in locations of widely spaced stars.
Its really insulting how people keep assuming that those of us who want to see open mode flourish are merely piranhas looking for more defenseless fresh meat. That couldn't be further from the truth. Player conflict is what allows games to take on a life greater than what developers can envision. We want to see players band together and fly their banners high. We want to see lines drawn in the sand. We want to see battles rage for control of strategically significant sites and alliances forged to topple great enemies. We want to see community goals transform from mere contests of who can make a bar grow the fastest into real sieges with warships blocking access to ports while blockade runners try to evade intecept and escorting combatants try to break a hole in the siege lines.
Not everyone wants to be a part of that kind of conflict and the drama that it brings with it, and that's a fair request. Those people have solo mode right now. Changes to open mode won't impact their current experience.
But Open mode needs incentives to instigate these player conflicts. Open needs juicy hotspots that players will want to tap into. Hotspots that will draw players together and lead to strife as they vie for control. The path of least resistance to tapping that reward can not be allowed to be swapping over to solo where nobody can touch you. The path of least resistance needs to be some interaction between players. Whether that be diplomacy to strike a deal to share the space, agility to tap the resource and then outrun those who would stop you, or superior force to claim the resource for yourself.
Armchair: 4098-3704-2012
It literally happened to me, so kindly go stuff yourself.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
It’s the main reason I left open. Going to any progression area was death. Community zones? Roving bands outside the turn in spots. Rare commods? Roving bands along popular path(s).
I mean I get it space is big and things have changed now with less focused money making activities. It is just past experiences have soured me. I want to take a trip to colonia soon without fear of ganker around the area.
Its the old argument as old as original online games. And the find a group of friends statement rings even more hollow these days for me. I found a way to solo in games like EQ or UO or others further on. And I have the option here and use it gladly.
The other time I played open I jumped in on a star and was chain interdicted by a few idiots who failed to interdict me like 3 times in a row and started talking trash to me on local chat before I dropped on a station and went back to a private game.
I'll play private or solo forever. People are not what I want in my game.
Once to drop my (improved) shields to zero, and the another time to destroy my cockpit.
I guess Frontier could brag about that being an example of smashingly effective combat AI (the ship's actual weapons were almost a nonexistent threat). As an actual player, I decided that was a final reason to quit the game cold turkey, and I haven't returned since. If I was being trolled by other human players while doing tedious busy work (which...unfortunately was the large majority of my activities in ED, for lack of a better word) I probably would've quit sooner. Though in my case, I was probably just not suited for the persistent universe style of gameplay.
OTOH, even I don't go to CGs, might be people to pirate, but a whole lot more just trying to blow people up. Plus CGs are boring as hell to me. Or Thargoid farming sites on planets - but I don't have a need for any of that stuff anyway, completely uninterested in thargoids until I can sell slaves to them.
It's just not nearly as bad as it is made out to be. That said - play in whatever mode you want. Just incentivize open.
There was (is still?) a time when NPCs were bugged and very ram happy. Can't have been fun for newbies in small ships. In a big ship, it just helped them die faster.
why?
Because more (chances of) player interaction (which is decidedly on the peaceful side of things) in an online game is good?
Not sure what your point is. I'm not murdering folks (generally), or even taking most of their stuff.
If FDev made pirating NPCs or megaships worthwhile I'd do more of that.
In any case, I've yet to find someone I pirated vowing to quit the game or only play in solo. Stop confusing legit gameplay with seal clubbers. I ain't that.
Again, I'm not pushing it or demanding it, just an opinion for it to see more use that is easy to implement (and we all know FDev can use all the easy fixes they can find).
I do find that 'if it was that good', meaning even you think open mode is in need of improvement, to be telling about the mode design in general though.
I am pushing open only PP though - because FDev has said themselves that it is a consensual pvp mode for Elite, and requires opting in. Another discussion though I think.
No arguments from me there. At this point I'd settle for FDev acknowledging it even exists.
Apparently, a Python wasn't big enough.
Which kind of strikes me as bullshit, from my limited perspective.
Yea, ramming stuff is a bit wonky.
I have a Vive now and I am very interested in trying out this game again. I bought it back when the game came out and was wondering if there's any good guides to follow for getting back into it since I know I have some stuff but probably not a ton, assuming my stuff is even still around. I've got one of those logitech flight sticks but I hear a HOTAS is a real good idea, but hopefully I can make do in the meantime? Worth getting the expansion as I get back into it?
I enjoy the game despite the flaws either way.
Your stuff will still be there.
As for guides, recently the in-game tutorials and stuff were revamped, and there is a starter area now that is protected from mean pirates and seal clubbers, and helps ease you into the game a bit better (supposedly).
I actually found the starter area fairly helpful. There's some built in explanations for what different things mean or do. The scale of the systems is a bit smaller too, it doesn't take several minutes to get from any useful point in one of the systems to another. There's a mix of different missions so you can try out different things and see what they entail, but all the mission rewards and complexity are scaled way down.
It really gave me a spot to to figure stuff out and try things without a whole lot of worry right off the bat. And when I did screw up, the consequences were there, but I didn't lose tons of inventory or progress or anything. Kinda like learning to drive a car in an empty parking lot before hitting the freeway; yeah you might hit some cones during parallel parking practice, but it's not as bad as misjudging distances on the freeway at 75mph.
Also it provides you with some capital right off the bat: the very first assignment in the game is to take off from the starter station, jump to a particular other system, and land at a second station. For this you get 10,000 cr. I lumped it with some data courier missions to the same station and also hauled a few commodities in my little sidewinder. A few more days of dicking around and missions and such and then I ended up at Harmless, Peddler, Mostly Aimless. I'd declined to the graduation mission when it was first offered (deliver data to an area outside the starter systems, it included in the description that this would revoke my starter area permit) for a payout of 250k. I wanted to try some planet stuff before I left. When it came back around it was the same mission for 100k, but I also had about 300k more credits than I did the first time.
Exploration has massively changed, but I was mostly able to figure it out from trial and error and the in game instructions. I haven’t tried mining. Combat seems decidedly more lethal than it was.
The game is still my jam.
They look nice. Alas, my current desk is dual purpose and too thick for those clampy things.
Come out to Obambojas for some wing missions (combat practice!)
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
Exploration is at the bottom end of the income bracket. With an Adder and 25k you should be able to get into painite mining. A single run with a full cargo hold should net you enough money to buy and kit out a new ship. The Cobra is a great all around platform. You can equip it for anything from combat to deep core mining. A couple of mining runs with a Cobra should net you enough to get into proper exploration ship if that's your thing. Combat is pretty fun too. The vulture is a great mid-game combat platform.
I often grab wing bounty hunting missions. Yesterday I turned one in for 14 million and it was kill 30 ships. It's wing so I can share at 29 kills then kill the last one and you get credit.
Selling Board Games for Medical Bills
To add to this, I've now done 2 runs at Painite mining in a Cobra MkIII. Each run was maybe an hour of actual work, but stretched out over two hours because I've got baseball games on while I fly and also I scan systems and map them as l fly to lucrative markets. At just under 800k per ton I've got over 50 million spacebucks from those two runs alone.
I might take a stab at deep core void opal mining, or do a few more painite runs and kit out a Python for mining, then get an AspX setup for exploring and head out of the bubble and start getting some First Discovereds to go with my First Mappeds. The Cobra will probably be refit as a Fuel Rat ship because that also seems fun and it's just such a joy to fly the speedy little thing I can't sell it.
Edit: anyone have any good guides to changes since 2.x and what the new systems are because the googles only give me wildly outdated stuff
@Elldren
I haven't found one. So far I've learned mining through a couple sources, and trial and error. So far, the lessons learned are as follows:
Equipment
Add two Limpet Controllers to your ship's Optional Internal slots in priority order: Collector Limpet Controller, and Prospector Limpet Controller.
I’m not sold on the usefulness of the Prospector Limpet (why would I burn an inventory slot on a limpet that has only one asteroid worth of usefulness?). The collector limpet is mandatory though. If I have space I’d almost think two collectors are better than a collector and a prospector.
Finding Asteroids:
Apparently you can tell which type of material exists in the rings of planets by their color rings, and/or by getting a Full Spectrum System Scanner? (Maybe a discovery scanner is sufficient?). The types are broken into groups: Pristine Metallic, Metallic, Rare Metal, Rocky, and Icy (don't quote me on these - i'm still noobing it up). Each group has the potential to yield a certain subset of mineral/metal materials (like Gold can come from Pristine Metallic, Metallic, and Rare Metal, but the chance and quantities go up as the quality of the field increases).
That's all I have for now.
Also, even in Solo pirates are dicks, so be ready to either space some product every once and a while in the early game, or have a fast ship with lots of shields (which means no room to haul minerals, etc).
Double painite may be in fashion right now, but exploding asteroids makes me feel oh so good.
I'm on the fence about it. On one hand I could go full on prospector but have a limited availability to defend myself. On the other hand I could sacrifice a bit of storage for much better defense.
wtf
edit: and I can't find anyone selling an ADS anymore wtf
I think they said they were going to refund the cost of the ADS.
I think I'll embark on said quest tomorrow. I'll give a final judgement on it tomorrow but I think deep core void opal mining is more profitable for most ships.
When I get back I'll hopefully have enough scratch to try out some of the mining changes.