I think it should be like it is on planet.
You said it - on planet mobs trains are mostly not allowed.
I don't however think space should be bypassed..
Now days nobody is running trough hordes of various mobs, passing many different LA's just to get on destination LA.
That we did in old PE and getting to preferred hunting/mining ground took hour or more, but now we use TP, chip or vehicle. Yes in old time we didn't have motherships to jump to area with particular mob but still we used terrain, sea and other methods to get there safe or faster - we still had a choice to kill every shity mob on path or to take safe trip around or to swim etc. We had choice and planet side we still have choice.
And if one doesn't want to pay attention and dodge mobs, there is always warp ships
To not having choice and safe way in space except if we pay mothership look like sort of extortion.
And is not like on planet as you say it should be.
I don't however think space should be bypassed, being no more than a 40 min void/book read/tv watch. It should be interactive and immersive for everyone
Yes we have a problem - Space is used mostly to travel from one planet to another and that mean Space is not used at all.
Nothing to do there if you don't want to have pirate pker on your back all the time.
Sorry I cant enjoy to explore and hunt in space with possibility that someone is waiting to kill me and loot me.
Doing some numbers is not so productive and can deviate in wrong conclusion.
But yes we can count players.
We counted them in few RC-unit events where MA did PVP event and gave rewards just for small group of players.
Players on Calypso voted with their PedCards too and you can walk trough all Amathera LA's and see result - all are turned pvp off.
I can understand concerns that partially putting pvp off - might be a problem as your business is based on loot able space, presence of pirates and inability of MA and planet partners to balance economy with import/export taxes and fees.
But that is just partial problem because we miss space content, more space areas and places, more things to do, more to add in space.
I'm not pker or pirate, mostly hunter and apart that enough curious to try every other profession or new thing to do - but that do not mean that i burn less peds in EU as pker or pirate do - hmm i burn probably a lot more.
I don't see reason that space is only for pirates and mothership owners to enjoy as gameplay ground.
Space should be for all but we need more content, more things in space.
I fully support Mega proposing that space should have some addition, corner, for everyone taste or play style.
Look John its an idea and we need more than that.
I would like to have space iron missions or exploring missions, space mining maybe etc.
But with pkers on my ass i will newer go do it.
Look recent Mission Galactica - most of mission is done planet side or worse auction side lol.
Its boring that way, one do not have nothing to do in space except visiting space station and howling mine.
More content should be added and mission glued to that new content in space.
How about content for masive participation?
Like Land Grab space zone with non loot able area witch periodically turn loot able to permit societies to fight for it and claim it.
Maybe floating space town to trade space resources and craft items witch are not craft able on planets due to gravity.
Maybe small asteroids non pvp for mining special space resources etc.
More content mean also more needs for mothership services regardless of players profile and playing style.
Im sure that you with your experience can provide a lot better ideas just don't forget to give everyone something to do.
See Dan, in regards to mission galactica i think the reason why it turned out to become an auction-mission is very easy - it was a great idea for a mission and the developer had it all properly thought out but then management decided they wanted everyone to have a shot at it and added those drops not just for spacemobs but for many many mobs. The mission texts in the galactica mission clearly speak of space fareing creatures to be hunted for the rare drops yet the drops got added to planetside creatures as well and therefor planetside creatures automatically became the main source for these drops and the value dropped to TT.
Whereever you look in entropia, as soon as you bring a new drop that is lootet by everyone easily, then it will be down to tt value in no time.
If mindark had done the mission as a pure space mission, all of these drops would have kept good markups to make hunting for space hunters worthwhile - yet now many players around the universe get even more tt loot handed back in their hunting loot.
Remember pvp4 on caly back before vehicles/thorifoid helmets/etc. ? With high markup ores - people loved to sneak in take a risk to make it out with some valueable finds.
Look at oil rigs - how many people try to pick the oil again and again even with only a tiny chance to make it.
Space isnt empty because people fear it - space is empty because the risk versus reward is totally out of balance.
If there were item drops or space missions/quests to gain valueable rewards like:
- a special fuel that makes ships fly faster
- adjusted/improved/modified/perfected upgrade modules for spacecrafts
- longrange subspace scanners / longrange hyperspace scanners (warp)
- autopilot upgrades to allow ships to find a secure passage based on their scanner results and target destination
- specialized limited weaponry/devices (torpedos, mines, bombs, decoys, jammers, cloaking devices)
- space only mining ressources that are more efficent in spacecraft upgrades then gold
- a special longterm mission chain to work through to gain an own spacecraft or to turn a standard spacecraft into a specialized or even unique one
then im sure that lots of players would be up there taking their risks to score these special rewards either to upgrade their own ships (sleipnirs, quads, privateers, motherships, or new ship types) or to sell their finds for a good price to other shipowners.
The reason why pvp in amathera la's didnt work is the very same - risk versus reward was out of balance - when you can get the same or similar stuff next door with less risk then thats what players do - always.
For pvp to be successfull it takes the courage to actually put pvp only drops ingame that are worthwhile for players to fight over not only once but dozends of times, not only for a day but continuously.
The fact that generic fuses which are needed for spacecrafts do drop from planetside mobs is for example a big mistake - mindark would have had the chance right from the start to make sure that there is a big incentive for players in space 'if' the sole source to craft warp drives had been space.
There is lots of content in space for quad based hunters, the reason why its unpopular is because all the drops in space can be found planetside at no risk - and we are back at the same reason - risk versus reward is out of balance.
The content that is missing since the start of space is the one for privateers and motherships and dozends of them sitting idle at space stations waiting for the future is a very clear sign towards mindark that there is nothing to do for so many ships and that there is for most shipowners no incentive to upgrade a spacecraft for 100k ped because content is missing and in transport flights the whole of space can be bypassed just through logging out.
I see people continuously complaining that they need safe zones in space, but how many of them have actually spent a great deal of time up there ?
I live in space since 2011 and its size alone gives you a great deal of safety - if you stay away from the common spacestations and leave the +-1000 altitude band in which most players hang out then suddendly things get very remote out there and you wont ever see another player in a very long time.
The maximum altitude in space is +-4000 so make use of it if you want to travel safer in your sleip/quad - yes that means taking the longer route - but this shouldnt really matter for those players who claim to watch tv or do other stuff meanwhile.
We certainly can have a space full of hostile creatures in levelranges from 1-10,000+ all over the spacemap and there would still be enough space to travel in peace - space is not flat its 3D that makes it so much bigger then any planetside map.
And yes space hunters could take on a 10,000+ level mob where planet hunters would fail - because the support teams for the gunners is sitting on different servers while repairing the ships and therefor wont create lag on the battlefield. And there is many ships out there that could take on space bossmobs together.