Good morning fellow humans.
Cmdr Maenden here.
I'm one of those oldies who played Elite when it was all wireframe.
I've been playing the new version for about 3 months and making slow but steady progress in Solo mode.
I've ventured into open play once or twice but I'm so far out I've never actually met another human in open play - except for the Fuel Rat who came to save me when I forgot to take my sun scooper out of storage before setting off on a long journey.
I ventured into open play in the beta a couple of times but got destroyed in seconds, three times in 5 minutes, by the sad little guys who's only concern is the size of their joysticks.
IMHO this makes open play a completely unacceptable option. Frontier have allowed a small number of people to amass billions of credits and unassailable ships and allowed them to ruin the game for other people. The new sanctions introduced in the beta are pitifully inadequate.
I didn't pay £40 for a game to be cannon fodder for psychopaths.
I hope therefore that my application gets accepted and I can play in peace and harmony with decent people.
I look forward to meeting you all in the game.