I joined Elite Dangerous last December - or lets rather say, I rejoined "Elite"....
I played Elite countless hours back in 1984 and got a tear in my eye when I see those memories come back to live on modern age computer technology 30 years later.
Late december/beginning this January I was hopping around the systems a little further - and got to the point where I was looking into "community goals".... and one popped up that was in a system whithin my jump range. Needless to say I went there.
The first evening i even found other players (something that was quite new in that huge galaxy that looked so empty apart from NPCs) - we winged up and had tons of fun following the GC that evening.
The next morning i logged in and left the station of that community goal system i was parked in .. to continue working on my GC.
While I was in supercruise, I suddenly got interdicted. The moment I look at my radar, i see three blips behind me... all of them player-controlled Anacondas.... fractions of seconds later, my shields were down.
To add to the insult, I have to add that I NEVER got any demands of the so called "pirate" - and I couldnt have met them because i wasnt shipping any cargo at that time. All I got in chat while they were already pounding on my ship was insults (of me being a noob and the like) and death-threats.
So excuse me to be that direct, but that are not "pirates" thats just a bunch of psychopathic a***oles.
I though to myself, "well I can be an a**ole as well" - and I did something I only read about earlier: I combat logged.
When I logged back in to solo - my ship was drifting in space with 11% hull, most systems badly damaged and my cockpit windshield blown to pieces and 6 minutes of emergency air left in my suit.
Fortunately I made it to the next station just in time with about 2 minutes of oxygen left on my clock.
But that moment when I combat logged from "open" - was the moment when I left open mode for good.
Frontier Developments announced "play your way" - it wasnt clear to me that I had to "play the way that idiots meant to be forcing on me" - i was under the impression that it meant.. "play as I would like to play" - which certainly doesnt include being blown to pieces without a chance by a gang of top-gear highend ships in your first self-bought ship after leaving your sidewinder ... fur no other reason except the pure amusement of those playerkillers.
I have NO plans to be other peoples content - especially with absolutely NO chance to fight back when im outgunned 3 Anacondas vs 1 stock equipped Cobra Mk3.
That incident made me think about the "balancing" of crime vs punishment in Elite.. and it made me gasp.
So, I am blown up - im looking at insurance cost of one or several million credits. (in addition to any cargo and bounty bonds I might lose)
And what do the playerkilling psychos get? Oh really they get a "6000 Credits bounty on their heads" - I could not believe my eyes.
I was sad to be confined to Solo mode only.. since I enjoyed winging up, socialising and doing missions together very fun... and when browsing the forums, I realized - I'm not the only guy with this opinion...
Then I found mobius.
I've been in the group since mid-January and I've regained my enjoyment out of the game... (looking at the multiplayer part that is)
Too bad that Frontier made this huge design-mistake to completely ignore that there ARE people who simply do not have any interest in that toxic enviroment that all full-open-pvp games seem to have.
I have enough toxicity around me in real life. I play games to relax and enjoy. And Thats why i joined Mobius.
I'll be looking forward to seeing you in space.
Cmdr Metacon
I've been in Mobius pretty much since groups started as I have no interest in playing in open and fighting other players. I love co-op play, and as soon as I saw Mobius it was like, hell yeah exactly what I was looking for. Sorry to hear you had a pretty brutal introduction to the game.