Elite: Game talk

11 Sep 2017, 11:02am
Cool.
11 Sep 2017, 1:52pm
A week or so ago, I was in a system mining painite for 74grand a ton. Gone back there and it's down to 40something a ton.

Is this drop in price a BGS thang?


TIA
11 Sep 2017, 2:01pm
Reverend TZWA week or so ago, I was in a system mining painite for 74grand a ton. Gone back there and it's down to 40something a ton.

Is this drop in price a BGS thang?


TIA


Your mining is fulfilling the demand for it, so prices go down.
11 Sep 2017, 2:11pm
Thanks, Marra.

Guess it's time to do something else for a while.
12 Sep 2017, 1:44am
So, I have an genuine question that I hope can stay within the realm of civil discussion. My brother just had his first PVP experience and was rather upset by it. We figured it would be better for me to ask this since his emotions are still running high, and we didn't want it to devolve into the usual arguments.

With that being said, I wanted to ask why an individual enjoys what I'll (hesitantly) call griefing.

Again, not looking to argue, just an honest question.
12 Sep 2017, 1:56am
Can you give more details as to what exactly happened?
12 Sep 2017, 2:01am
He was in a trade python and was pulled out by two engineered FDL's and an engineered Cutter. He knew to run and jump out rather than fight (as I had instructed him in the past), but didn't know to high wake in order to beat the mass lock. They kept pace with him and, after about 30 seconds to a minute (according to him), he was sent to the rebuy screen.

Nothing particularly unfair or unacceptable from either party. His odds of survival were clearly slim based on what he faced, but if it took them well over 30 seconds to kill him then he might've survived if he had high waked.
12 Sep 2017, 2:05am
Without knowing more about your brother's specific experience, it's hard to say specifically what the attacker might have been looking for in the encounter.  That said, I'll try to hit a few broad strokes.

Open play is the wild west.  When you choose it, you're opening yourself up to PvP encounters.  Some of them are fair, some of them are not, but there it is.  Some folks are shit heads and like blowing people up for fun.  Some folks are awesome people and like blowing people up for fun.  Some are inspired by faction politics.  Some want that reputation, that notoriety of being a ruthless killer.  Probably a mix of all of the above plus a bunch of things I can't imagine right now.

Best bit of wisdom I've seen regarding PvP in Elite is adversity often says more about the person receiving it than the person dishing it out.  Basically, what made your brother upset in the first place?

Finally, PvP in Elite is intense as hell.  The tension, the emotions, the real sense of risk is all part of what makes it so enjoyable to many of us.  I say this with affection: it ain't for the faint of heart!

EDIT: Posts passing in the night.  Only thing I have to add is it sounds like a possible good learning experience for him.


Last edit: 12 Sep 2017, 2:15am
12 Sep 2017, 2:14am
Not much to add to what Phisto said, but I have a few more questions:

Was he wanted in-system? Is he pledged to a power?

He might have been attacked for a gameplay reason, a roleplay reason, or no reason at all. It's simply the nature of the beast.

If I had any advice to offer, it would be to ask him to take that minute that he spent getting attacked and weight it against the time spent in-game when he wasn't getting attacked. Our primitive primate brains tend to focus on danger and perceived threats and overlook the larger picture. Coach him that he was a simple forgotten step away from escaping the danger, and that the story was very close to being one of daring escape rather than sullen defeat.

To steal from Obi Wan Kenobi, your friend has taken his first step in a larger world, one that at times offers more challenge and danger than the other two modes of play- but also arguably more rewarding in the long run.

Encourage him to take the long view, and he'll be running with (or at least successfully running from) the big dogs in no time.
12 Sep 2017, 2:15am
Thanks Phisto. I'm glad I was fairly accurate when talking to him earlier about it.

In regards to why he was upset, he's had a few anger issues in the past and expected elite to be a more soothing game (so why was he playing in open you ask? I'm not sure). This encounter specifically got to him because he didn't perceive the encounter as "fair," since it was three endgame combat ships against a high end freighter. If it had been one, he believes he would've been more accepting of it. I of course explained that he was rarely going to encounter a "fair fight" in elite, to which he asked what the fun of it was if it wasn't a challenge.

Hence my question here.

And yeah, he's definitely planning on being more careful in the future. He isn't really a combat player so I'd wager he'll be using solo play more often.
12 Sep 2017, 2:18am
Thanks Lehman. He's not pledged or anything so he wasn't much of a target (though they seemed to only target high end ships so I suspect his python looked like a challenge).

I'll make sure to tell him what you said when I can.
12 Sep 2017, 2:21am
Glad I could confirm what you told him for you.

No shame in playing in Solo.  If he's looking for something relaxing, that's the place to go!

A lot of PvPers do want a challenge, they just don't know when they're going to get it.  Attack a player, roll the dice, see what happens!  I've been involved in plenty of ganks (for and against) that turned into very fun encounters.
12 Sep 2017, 2:24am
Well, I won't try to proselytize for open too too much, but here goes:

For a trader, successfully running from an attack is winning at the game. It's all about the way he thinks about the encounter. A fully-laden T-7 won't stand a chance in combat against a PvP-outfitted Fer de Lance- and realistically, why should it? So the T-7 pilot develops evasive skills. He learns to keep his eyes peeled, he learns to high wake, and he learns how to use boost and FA off. In his own way, he still becomes skilled at PvP. Why?  Because PvP isn't all combat. It's simply beating another player. And like I stated above, a freighter pilot evading an attack is winning the PvP encounter.

At the end of the day, he'll have a fuller, richer Elite experience- and have gotten gud to boot.
12 Sep 2017, 2:28am
Well said, Matt. Well said, indeed.
12 Sep 2017, 3:21am
I'll freely admit I haven't done much PVP in Elite, but there is a saying that's helped me handle defeats in other games... "The only fair fight is the one you won". Basically, people will tend to think it's fair when they won, and unfair when they lost. Those 3 ships thought it was fair, I'm sure. Humans are very good at rationalization. Now in this case? Yes, it wasn't exactly a fair fight. How would your brother have felt if they told him he wasn't worth their time and let him go? I'd take it as an insult, personally.

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