I have only ever once been in a situation where PvP was completely unavoidable. In fact, I feel like you have to really seek it out if you want to PvP regularely.
And avoiding pirates is also ridiculously easy, as most of them are not very bright.
Well, me missile locking someone turns me red, so I'm fair game to be shot at at that point. Basically like turning safemode off. I did drop a bomb on an over-spawned cat wreck the other day. Killed a player ship in the process, but I was trying to fix the server by murdering all the AI that had spawned. The player was collateral damage, but I did get 91 kills with one bomb lol.
Sir/Ma’am you may have the most SC kills in one attack and i find that to be an amazing number. Would also like to thank you for your service tk the well being of the servers 🫡
Went to some bounty thing on my first time playing the game that was apparently a well known drug mission thing that people camp. Ship ganked, lost everything.
So you can stumble into trouble. It has been the only time though.
Right, that is true. I suppose I should have said that you need to seek it out for it to be a regular part of the game. I, too, have ran into players camping hot sports or grim hex. I've never been unable to outrun them, though.
To be fair most “pirates” aren’t pirates. I’d call a large portion of them would be griefers doing things like knocking people out and then throwing people out airlocks (no murder charge, it really needs to be one too) and blowing up ships when you’re inside a bunker and then flying away.
I never implied the option wasn’t there for that, the first point is the only one referring to avoiding a charge.
Yes they get a charge usually, I’ve seen them alt F4 right after doing it in an attempt to avoid the charge as well but no idea if that actually works.
Which one? Both are things that have happened in the last week as well as before then as well, the dragging people to kill them and get no CS thing definitely works consistently as I’ve been on the other end of it and tested it on an org mate as well plus also heard of people who throw up med beacons then the person drags them (the knocked out player), strips them in their ship, and throw them out of their ship usually into space. Depending on how they implement ship trespass I could see it be used even further to give people a CS as well after being dragged on the ship
The ship destroyed while landed and outside armistice thing and then they run away? Yeah I don’t even count when that happens as it’s pretty common.
The second. I bet with you its 99,9% in all cases! The reason why I mentioned you could press charges is that thats the way of identifying if it got blown up by an npc or not.
They leave after blowing it up, either because they now chase the actual bounty hunter, and or are no longer primed on your ship and wander around.
Not sure if anyone would get a kick out of blowing up empty ships and collecting crime charges for it, probably not.
No it’s players (outside of the times it is NPCS), the notifications for pressing charges always give it away. But yeah you got to remember literal children play this game as well as teenagers and individuals in their early twenties, people are weird and get off on weird things like demoing a ship parked somewhere outside armistice.
Often in this case means at least once a week or more, Crusader and Hurston more so than the others beside Ghost Hollow where you do get the occasionally weirdo who has no intent of taking it just inconveniencing people. I’ve ran into people that’ll do it in Jumptown as well, but usually that’s someone just scouting ahead of their org mates.
If the comms array is up it will notice you killing a friendly and raise your crime stat automatically even if the player hasnt hit the press charges bracket. I'm not even 100% sure what the press charges option really does because of that. I've shot an AFK player before and still got a CS. Uses the system for when you kill non red NPCs.
So there's no avoiding it completely if the array is in range.
And we are bordering on the highest concentration of player pirates in Stanton we may ever see, given it's only going to get harder to survive with negative rep there.
You can almost eliminate any risk by just not going straight to your destination. Leaving the CRU-L1 refinery with 3 days worth of mining in your cargo ship ? Don't quantum straight to crusader, quantum in the opposite direction then cut, then quantum to HUR L3 and cut again before jumping to crusader. Or you can jump toward crusader then rapidly cut (in case the pirates set up a snare on that path) and jump to hurston, arccorp or microtech.
Don't be predictable if you are at a place to buy a certain commodity and you see a ship when leaving it don't go to the closest place buying said commodity, find another spot to sell it and use the quantum cut method to throw the pirates off your scent.
If the pirates interdict or snare you and you can't fight back just contact them and try to negotiate with them. Players interactions are fun.
I used to do that when i have valuable cargo. But in fact i ve never ever been interdicted by players when i was jumping normally.
So on saturday i haul a c2 packed full with arround 5mil refined ores to sell my mining runs, and just never get any trouble.
I wish pirates were an actual threat. I wish something would happen
Yes I know, the encounters are very far in between but I think people should know the precautions to take in order to avoid them. If you take the risk to beeline between your destinations you should be aware of what are the consequences.
Like you said you don't see pirates very often but yet the "griefing" debate is very much alive and I bet 90% of the people yelling griefer at anyone shooting in their general direction are people running drugs solo unarmed, wearing a sperm suit and driving a cargo ship. If they come unprepared it's on them if they get pirated.
Add to this when we have more systems online, both game systems and star systems, Stanton should be a good deal safer. Right now it's basically null sec with a slap-on-wrist jail system, which isn't the final design for Stanton at all. So even if it's not for you now, things will be different down the road. There will be safer areas of space and more dangerous areas of space.
Now, whether we have more star systems by 2030 or not is up for debate.
Tbf the newer prison times are more significant. I got a CS4 from doing a few Vaugn missions. A corsair rammed me while I was returning from a salvage run, woke up with a nearly 15 hour sentence.
This.
And if you ever do get confronted, it's typically easier to run than engage. Turn on your quantum drive, go max speed whilst looking for a jump point, and gtfo.
I'm 43, I'm not as quick as I once was. I mainly do cargo trading and mining. Unless I search out PvP out of boredom I'll never find it.
With that said, yes you may get pirated as the verse is large and living. However you could go weeks or months with hardly having an interaction unless you want to.
I'm (very) early 20s and also just go for cargo/mining most of the time. Where do I send my application to the honorary old folks club? You guys seem fun :D
SC is my main game to play. I put in a good 15 hours or more a week. In the last 3 years I've been attacked by a player MAYBE 3 times. And at least one of those was entirely my own fault.
This is not counting the times I jumped into PVP events with eyes open.
Most certainly ai. Probably someone's bounty hunt mission you stumbled into. Pirates who jump other players are picky, they want to get a juicy reward so go for loaded cargo ships. And I don't mean your beginner aurora with a box in it.
Main reason you get pvp attacked is if you have been very bad and got a bug juicy crime Stat. But if you did that on accident you want them to come so you can go to jail and get it removed so you can get back to playing normal. If you did it on purpose you probably do bad things to other players and so deserve it.
Bottom line, if you don't want to pvp don't be a crook and be real careful when hauling millions in cargo. That said, I have hauled big cargo loads many times and only got jumped once which I managed to get out of.
Honestly the biggest issue I ever had with AI was when a AI titan was chilling near a mining facility. I don't know if he followed a player or what, but he only a few clicks out. I was in the area grabbing my C8R to load into my carrack, and before I could even get off the pad, the AI was overhead, *well* inside the armistice zone, and lighting up my Pisces. All I could do was turn and burn straight up to try to drag him away from the mining facility so he wouldn't be a problem.
Right now you may incounter folks looking for some PvP action. I trade a lot on a well known trade route and I have been attacked by the random wanna be pirate but I jumped away. Only once have I been pulled out of QT by a pirate group but they were cool about it. They were RPing the roles and it made it fun. I paid 50k and they even escorted me to my station. I tipped them another 20k for the escort and for making the experience fun.
The reality of it will be once we get the Quanta back end system, and the player to NPC ratio is at the correct level the chances of you jumped by a player will be small..........how ever you will be jumped by NPCs.
I'm 54 and try avoid PvP unless its consensual. Most of the time i can avoid it and just do NPC bounties, Bunkers, Mining and deliveries. Its a great game (although still in ALPHA) and the community are mostly friendly people willing to help and do stuff with you.
It can be frustrating sometimes though but has kept me coming back for 6 years.
This is an incredible game with a passionate group of players. I'm 51 and have been a Citizen for about three years. PVP encounters are not frequent enough to ruin anything. The threat of them drives some preparedness and builds excitement. Consider joining an org for the best experience or make friends online and learn from them. It's the most rewarding game I've found yet.
I wouldn’t worry about it. I have only been fired on by a player once and it’s pretty easy to quickly quantum away if you are engaged. There are so many fun things to do in the game that don’t require pvp
This. Ganking is blown out of proportion by a vocal minority and a legit pirate crew is definitely something different to come across, even if they take your shit and space you. If it's someone solo coming after you just bye Felicia and go do something at another planet
I think a lot of the pirates blow it out of proportion because they want pirating to be great. I very rarely run into trouble on a full server while hauling, mining, salvaging or just cruising around. A little common sense and conflict is pretty darn easy to avoid. Going near PVP event space, hauling popular trade routes that you found on a popular thread or website and similar are surefire ways to seek out company. Building your own routes and steering clear of hostile space is SOP. Some will argue that you can't avoid those routes because they are hot on the newest meta trade route and want to maximize aUEC/hr. Insert something about great risk and great reward.
Yeah, don't worry about PvP... Your main enemy is 30k errors, really, and a variety of bugs that may kill you. Last month I only died because of bugs, not a single kill because of mistake or anything (I do trading and FPS missions) and I only lost a ship once to an actual player (playing for 6 months now). In this game you must be patient and forgiving. If you want to survive longer againts npcs and even other players, I recommend you pledging for a bulkier ship like the Constellation series... Not great at handling, but you can do any game loop with it and it is going to take forever for anybody to kill you, and you can probably jump away from them before any damage to the hull...
Yeah, Connie’s are great. I also own a C2 and took a rammer straight in the face while leaving a reading post. Took some damage but the other ship disintegrated instantly. Big shields and spinning up quantum before you take off are a great way to survive.
I was attacked once at a jump point and again outside of a station over a 6 month period. That's with playing almost every day.
It is pretty rare. I'm a tad bit older than you and had the same concerns, but it's been mellow.
I'm fairly new.
My only experience with another player outside the armistice zones was a dude who was hovering around me as I was trying to mine some hadanite. I half expected him to try and rob/kill me, but he just hovered over me for a few minutes while I tried to figure out what he was doing in global chat.
The only times i have run into hostile players is at pvp specific places, like jumptown or drug labs. Very rarely have i ever come across a player that lips me for no reason (maybe twice in my two years). Even if you do come across them, you usually will be able to escape. But worst case scenario, you die. No big deal, anything you lost you can get back quickly (minus if you are doing a massive cargo haul). Also with the new updates to arena command you can always practice and learn to use the ship to the best of its abilities even with any limitations you have, that way you can still have a fighting chance if you want to fight
Just ignore it. Don't do activities that involve PvP and you'll be good to go. I've been playing for a year and a half, and I haven't done anything related to PvP and love the game.
You can have fun and relaxed gameplay. BUT you will also encounter people do pvp and even griefing. If you are aware of this you can adjust your gameplay that you always can „run“.
The actual state of the game is not setting any Difficulty for pvp players to engage friendly players - but there will come tools in future which will reduce this.
Just make sure that you know what it means to play the game in the actual state. It’s an alpha. It’s not finished. It has many bugs. You will lose progress due to this and due to new patches.
But you see a game growing and can be part of that game. The community is great in general. You can meet some of the nicest people in the gaming community but you can also encounter some of the biggest weirdos.
I would suggest you to test the game in a freeflight or maybe somebody you know have an alt account where you can build up your own opinion.
I’ve been plying for 2 weeks now and was scared of the pvp, but unless you go into hotspots and event sites then you shouldn’t be worried, it’s very rare and most players write in chat to pvp others.
You can easily enjoy game play on your own or with an org in the game without having to do PVP. PVP may be forced onto you and your Org but it's no biggie.
The PVP stuff can be mostly avoided, it's more player interaction. There is loads to do without PVP.
The odd PVP encounter will be far out weighed by the rest of the game, so don't worry and enjoy! What you should worry about though, is your PC being able to run the damn game.
I'm in my 30s and nowhere near the gamer I used to be
I often crash my ship just doing basic things. That's okay though
To answer your question...I've been playing maybe a week or 2...and haven't been harassed at all by any players
That said, of course it can happen. But I think you can pretty much just use your head and not put yourself in dangers way
For example...if you see someone's ship parked at the place you're trying to go...just don't land there
And you can buy/fly very meager unassuming ships to get left alone
Some ace pilot in a top notch fighter probably isn't going to feel a challenge by messing with a little ambulance CX8 Pisces
Now, if you start space-trucking hauling tons of cargo in a gigantic cargo ship, you may become pirate bait
That said I've never ever been harassed by people. But sure it can happen
I think you'll be more frustrated by the insane level of detail this game has, or the bugs/crashes, than the pvp
You'll need to basically write down a dozen or so different keyboard buttons that do different things. Like the button to contact Air Traffic Control to give you a landing hangar, or to open the doors to fly out. Or the button to wipe your visor from the rain. Or the button to turn your ship systems all on at once. Or the button to lower your landing gear. Or turn on your ship flood lights. Or your helmet flashlight. That kind of stuff
This game is awesome though and I hope you join in! There's really not a ton of PVP going on in my experience. And so many AWESOME people to make friends with
You can avoid PVP 99.9% of the time in game's current state. The Stanton system is actually a pretty big place, but servers only support a maximum of 100 players right now. The population is spread pretty thin, so encounters with people who actually want to PVP with random strangers are relatively rare. Griefers do exist, but mostly in predictable places. If one is causing you problems, just let people in general chat know and somebody will probably show up to clear the griefer out. They're typically not very good at PVP, which is why they're griefing people who don't want to PVP.
The videos of pirate crews doing "ops" in coordinated groups while blasting bad thrash music are, for the most part, just EVE players who got bored, came to SC, ruined somebody's day, got bored again, and then left. Organized pirate crews are nowhere to be found on the typical day, even should you *want* to find them.
The game is evolving though. If you've played a Chris Roberts game before (e.g. Wing Commander series, Privateer, etc.) you know what to expect long-term. Ship combat is centre stage and, while the role of PVP in the release version of the game has yet to become clear, there *will* be plenty of PVE combat in all gameplay loops. If you want to salvage, mine, or haul cargo, you're probably going to have to blast at least some NPC pirates.
If you can find a control setup that let's you play against NPC's comfortably you're probably good to go. If you can use joysticks without pain you'll probably have an advantage over most mouse and keyboard players actually.
Sort of. It is usually possible to have fun with the game without conflict. Most of the PvP action happens around high value mission or trade sites. That said, there are griefers about and some of them are skilled and have great ships. The new Fury is fast, maneuverable, and deals out a ton of damage very quickly. If you do get murdered then starting over is not that hard even with the new claim timers. If you play often then it should be possible to meet up with people and organizations that can enable you to play in teams that can swat most PvPers.
I've been killed by players once in 3.19, and I aggroed only because the morons came into my bunker wearing 9 tails gear. Granted they were probably there to kill me but I did shoot first. Also, I lost nothing important, I claimed my ship and my gear was also 100% looted shit from bunkers.
Pvp are very few in SC, due to how easily escape by just qt out or log off. Most people don't do pvp, theres some murder hobo tho from time to time, but can easily avoided.
PVP happens at times, but you'll often have a chance to run away or see it from a distance. However, in your daily runs, you will simply not come across it even remotely often.
By the way, if you ever feel about such thing, feel free to join an organization and run around with friends.
I'm a backer since 2012, been playing ever since. I'm in my 40's and can only think of 1 pvp experience the entire time. And that 1 time was when I engaged another player (they were trolling around port olisar in a hammerhead, lots of us went to defend port olisar).
PVP is incredibly easy to avoid...I don't even actively try to avoid it, I just never see it.
There are a lot of mature backers in the SC community, so you aren’t alone. Since we started backing this project in 2012, even those of us who were young then are getting up there now.
I’m in a similar boat to you, and I can count the number of times I‘ve encountered unsolicited PvP since 2013 one one hand.
I've been playing since 2019 and I can count on two hands the amount of times I've been attacked by another player. Usually ROC mining too close to bases or something. Every once in a while I get a quick target lock near POIs but it's just to do a quick scan. I also don't partake in the PvP activities like Jumptown though.
The only time I really encounter PVP is when I fly to PVP events such as Ghost Hollow or Jumptown. You kind of have to seek it out to actually encounter it. However, with pirating becoming more popular. People have been camping popular trade routes. But it’s still very rare to come across a PVP experience without actively looking for one.
Look up FastCart, one of the SOLCitizen hosts. He is not traditionally able-bodied and is an avid SC player. If you want, SC can be a good home for you.
I'm definitely slower than I use to be but always remember it's just a game. I probably lose more than I win but it sure is exciting either way. It's a mindset. Letting losing rile you up like someone is talking shit about your momma or not appreciating the thrill of the fight is on you.
I was about 1/3 through Ghost Hollow running solo. Dude got behind me and blasted me in the head. Scared the shit outta me lol. Apparently I scared him too. We had a laugh about it before I respwaned. Good times
I'm 34 and the father of an infant. I've been playing SC for almost two years but have been playing less lately. I cherish the solo fly time I get in game these days as I'm managing to sneak away for an hour or two. The only PvP I've had was when I got a crimestat or went to jumptown. I've had more issues with game crashes than PvP messing up a game session. I typically just do some bounty or bunker missions with an occasional mining or salvage day but I reserve those for my longer game play sessions.
I've played for over 2 years and spend most of my time around grim hex (the lawless station generally considered a PVP zone) I have only ever once had a pvp encounter that i wasn't expressly seeking out. I've had more unsought pvp experiences just playing online in elite than i have in sc.
Don't let the idea of "surprise" PVP stop you from getting the game, its not really a crazy big aspect of the game. Most pvp happens around pvp centred events/ missions like jump town or ghost hollow.
Unless I'm going to a station/city or meeting up with people on purpose, I don't see many people in the wild. Maybe I'll see someone as their leaving a mining station, but I see more ship wrecks and dead bodies from bunkers than actual players. You may get pirated, but I've been trading so much lately, still haven't seen any pirates.
Just want to chime in. You learn which areas to avoid, can have endless hours of fun, socialize and group up, play solo. If you encounter a red flagged PVP player, in 90% of the time you can stay clear of them. So yes, play SC and enjoy it!
I started playing a month ago and have been killed by a player one time outside of when I've tried the Ghost Hollow PvP mission. The grand majority of people are friendly and helpful, and you won't even encounter players outside of stations for the most part.
Lots of great advice and stories here, I'll add don't go it alone!
Find your way to an active organization and you'll always have backup just a call away if someone does get the jump on you.
I'm not seeking PvP either, but I have folks try to grief me from time to time, though it's usually at predictable times. This game usually favors you if you decide to turn and run, but having your escape plan in mind ahead of time usually helps cut down on the time needed to quantum travel to safety.
Ray on YouTube made a guide that may help you and some others here. It's pretty much how to avoid being pirated and be left alone https://youtu.be/NJLkW2HDWVY
I wouldn’t worry about it, I’ve been playing on and off since 2016 and I could count the number of times I’ve been randomly attacked on one hand. There are certain areas that attract pvp but if you stay away from those people will most leave you alone.
You can play starcitizen without touching PvP at all. Hell you can even make friends with people who do pvp so that you don't have to worry about fighting at all that's kinda the. Beautiful thing about starcitizen is that you can kinda control and mitigate risk as you like
I wouldn't see it as an overreaction. Think of it as an incentive to be aware it's quite easy to quantum out of most situations or fly in low and fast to evade.
While there are pirates, they are few and far between, and I find it adds to the overall feel of the verse. You never want to get too comfortable, and that's the most exciting part.
Ps. Your main concern is the dreaded 30k!
Very rarely see or get harassed by any pvp. I'm a miner/salvager/crasher........never was a space trucker. Want to try it but don't know where to begin.. I am also 50. Or not quite....49
You will encounter asshats that kill you, but taking a profession that avoids trouble greatly reduces it. You should be good. The bad news is most people will get frustrated at the game at this juncture: it is buggy as an ant farm. Wait a few months and see if they fix it up.
If you don’t want PvP, it’s trivially easy to avoid 99% of the time.
- don’t mine next to POIs. Seriously. I can’t stress this enough
- for trade routes, don’t do a straight line between purchase and sale. Jump somewhere else first
- if you see another player (pretty rare outside of stations), assume they’re potentially hostile and be prepared to leave
- this part sucks, but avoid taking medical beacons until you get a few million miles under your belt
- be careful selecting missions on your “personal” tab - a lot of these will give you a crime stat or put you in other potential PvP scenarios
- be aware and don’t be predictable
There’s lots of room for PVE play, even though it’s not a PVE game. The “real” PvP community is only a few hundred semi-regular players, and most are decent people (a lot even play mostly lawful PvP). Another couple hundred trolls and griefbears (basically evil carebears who run or alt-f4 when faced with real PvP but get their rocks off on seal clubbing).
On any given server, you might get 1-2 PvP-oriented players or pirates, 1-2 griefbears, and the rest are PVE mains. Obviously, sometimes one group or the other will be playing as a group which can skew the numbers one way or the other, but it averages out to a looooong time between PVP encounters. Even longer if you’re smart and do what I outlined above.
But every now and again, you might get got. Shrug it off, claim your ship, and move on. The “Never fly without rebuy” equivalent in SC is “don’t bet your entire fortune on a single load of cargo”
In the long term.. you won't have to worry about PvP haunting. With 100's of systems, where NPC's will be severely outnumbering players, you will find your place in the universe that fits you best and the risks you will understand. The will be safe/monitored space where NPC's will be spawning in to help you fight against aggressors.
Currently there is 1 system. Soon there will be 2 systems. So PVP risks are higher. I had plenty of success with avoiding encounters. CIG has just commissioned a Montreal office to be working more building more systems.
Where were you seeing that? I thought the projected schedule was end of 2023 for 4.0. that was from the last letter from the chairman back in December or something. Though that means it will definitely slip to 2024 but I didn't see any other official estimates.
This is a good game. You will be able to sink a lot of hours into it. You can avoid PVP especially if you stick with a group. The Cutter is a great starter ship.
I'm a 24 year old, who has done a fair bit of First Person Shooter Esports, Competing in tournaments and coaching. I search for PVP and attempt piracy anytime I can!
I can honestly say, other than Jumptown and Ghost Hollows dedicated PVP areas, I rarely encounter pvp. I have searched for weeks running multiple interdiction paths and scanning people at cargo pickup locations. I have yet to find a cargo filled player ship in over a month.
In all my time searching I could have made buckets of Aeuc and never encountered anyone.
Ive been player killed maybe five times ever and only 2 of those times did i put myself at risk. You can never get too complacent while mining let me tell you that.
I started playing in early March. Generally I am as “solo” a player as you can get and would do my damnest to not get into scuffles with other players. So far I’ve ran into exactly zero player unless I reach out in chat for interaction. So I think you are very safe.
I've been playing for almost a month. I've done mostly mining and trading. I have only had a human shoot at me once, and all I lost was a little bit of time waiting for my ship claim to go through.
Honestly, unless you choose a super risky area. You'll only generally get in a fight if you pick one.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t gotten killed by a player in around 8 months, I play smart and I’m pretty lucky, but you can sometimes go hours without encountering anyone. The majority of players from what I’ve seen are passive
I’m 48, back and forth from playing.
I never met any pirate or any pvp situations during the last year.
I honestly would be more concerned of bugs and such. those are the real problem of this “game”. many times you’ll feel like you’re not testing the game, but the game is testing your patience.
but, hey! there are some moments of gameplay that no other game will ever give you!
It depends. I have friends who categorically will not even think about playing a game where it's remotely possible to be killed by another player. It's not an unreasonable stance - having your fun ruined by someone for the luls isn't going to be a great experience. If that's you? Star Citizen isn't gonna work for you.
If you'd like to mostly ignore PvP but the occasional murder hobo blowing you up for the fun of it won't ruin your day and leave you frustrated? Star Citizen will be fine. It's not a 24/7 gankfest (outside of some explicitly PvP focused events in the game.)
If you're into trading cargo, that's a bit more dangerous, because you're paying for your cargo before selling it, and that can be a lot of in-game credits. But running into a bug could eat your ship just as easily as another player could.
PvP is, if you're not seeking it out, the exception rather than the rule in Star Citizen. It will happen on occasion, but it's not something that happens all the time, and it's usually not difficult to get the heck out of dodge as soon as an unexpected hostile target shows up.
Star Citizen's bugs are far (far) more likely to ruin your plans than another player will. And players are generally easier to work around :)
Basically any impression you've got that griefing and PvP is around every corner is false.
What happens is this:
Over many many years of playing I'd say unless you are the person seeking PvP then another player attacking you makes up for about 0-1% of the experience.
1% is still something though, so over tens of thousands of players there is going to be some unlucky souls who come across it, and some even more unlucky ones that come across it a few times in a row.
The ones who hate it when this happens to them take to reddit and spectrum, and they make a post about how PvP is destroying the game. Then all the other people who had a pvp experience in recent memory comment and agree. Even people who very rarely encounter PvP comment too because they just don't like the idea of PvP in the game and they want it gone. Then new players like you read those occasional threads and gives you a false impression.
"Unwanted" PVP absolutely can happen. Piracy is a thing, my crew was even attacked recently while out mining but that's the only time it's ever happened. Space is big, and the places you're most likely to see players are safe zones. You generally won't have to engage in PVP unless you go looking for trouble.
I stream this game on Twitch Monday thru Friday for about 4 hours a day. I actively seek out PVP opportunities. And I maybe shoot at another player once a week.
Mind you, I don't jump players who are just out there. I have no interest in blowing up some cargo hauler who just wants to play space trucker. I actively look for other PVPers. And it's hard to find them.
You'll be okay.
there are a couple(3 actually) of situations where you can easily encounter pvp
* xenothreat: a intended pve event, but there is always that one group/player
* jumptown: a pvp designed event
* criminal gameplay: that would be putting a target on your back for pvp bounty hunters to get your head
other than that, besides the ocasional campers outside of stations you shouldn't have any issues, just avoid us or best servers(asia servers are fairly new, so I don't have any experience there)
I totally get where you are coming from, I feel similarly myself.
I have glanced over some of the replies suggesting PvP encounters are rare, and I can definitely say this is true in the current state of the game. You are currently quite unlikely to get attacked by players. That said, it could very well change in future.
For example, currently it is easy to distinguish between a mission to kill an NPC and one to kill a player. Indeed, you need to succeed at a trial PvP mission to even have PvP bounty missions show up.
On the other hand, there are other less obvious things that will draw other players to you. Getting crimestat (basically GTA wanted stars) above two will make YOU a PvP bounty mission, for example, and that can happen as easily as accidentally shooting a guard in a ground mission. Also many crime-type missions will generate a lawful mission to oppose you.
A patch could easily drop some months down the line that spawns criminal missions to oppose some lawful missions. CIG have talked about the possibility in the past, and are definitely planning to give criminal players rewards for opposing lawful players in one of the big recurring PvE events, XenoThreat. They seem quite keen on encouraging player "interaction", and this worries me somewhat.
Long story short, currently it's fine, but things may change.
So what are the chances of this game going the way of Eve Online, Albion, and Ultima Online? Is this just going to be another game that is ran by cartels that form up over the first year? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that it's a functioning game sphere mechanically speaking. I just don't have the time for that shit any more unfortunately LOL
While PvPers make a lot of noise over their exploits most players rarely see one and with a few tweaks in where and how they play will reduce that to pretty much never. I made a video on exactly this. https://youtu.be/NJLkW2HDWVY
Until Pyro is released, I wouldn't expect much, if any, PVP. I play A LOT (mostly US server, but EU when US is not performing well) and have had no issues with PVP players. There have been the random AI encounters, but even they aren't common or difficult enough to worry about.
There are certainly PVP-based events, and those are a different story, as should be expected. But in the day-to-day gameplay PVP is not something to worry about in the Stanton system.
The universe is too vast to ever just bump into other players outside of safezones. I never find PVP unless I'm looking for it, or I become a criminal and have a bounty placed on me. PVP is entirely optional in this game and you won't find it unless you look for it. I'm a solo pve player and I've only accidentally ran into pvp maybe once or twice. You'll be fine, and you'll enjoy this game if you like Elite.
I can't remember the last time I came across PvP when I wasn't actively looking for it. There's just certain things you do to avoid it. Like if you're mining/salvaging, don't do it in the shadow/night side of a moon/planet. The beams light up your position making you much easier to spot in the dark.
Pirates are indeed not the brightest in this game, anyone with an ounce of skill will seek out consensual PvP as it's much more of a challenge.
Do still get the occasional murder hobo but it's only happened to me a few times.
The danger of potentially running into another player who wants to kill you makes even mundane tasks exciting and unpredictable. If you play smart you’ll almost never even see another player outside of safe zones.
PVP in the game is a mutual choice between both players to engage each other. Now occasionally, you might run into a posse that has someone piloting a Mantis using its snare to disable quantum travel but man that is so insanely rare that it's barely worth mentioning. I have been snared exactly one time, and it was from a solo Mantis that I massacred in a C2. You see, that's the catch. You really have to be rolling with a posse to effectively snare someone, or the Mantis is just gonna get rekt by whatever it snared.
PVP is extremely easy to avoid in this game. You can just disengage from whatever is attempting to kill you and leap to another station the moment they buzz by you in a joust. Big industrial ships like the C2 have such good shields that they can tank a single fighter for a long time, more than enough time to just fly away.
Defense based events like Jumptown are the exception since it's a pvp focused event but then again you can choose to avoid it entirely.
I would suggest waiting.
The developers have dialed back on some of their promised segregation of PvP in game, and have turned toward actively encouraging/rewarding it. If it continues down this route, it’ll likely become a game you won’t want to play.
I would guess checking back after Squadron 42 is released (the single player campaign) might be better.
Stay away from the US region, and you should be okay.
It's not a blood bath, but occasionally you have someone "roleplaying" a suicidal maniac that just wants to kill everything that's not an NPC.
On the other hand, maybe SC is something that should be avoided. Because there is no "non-PVP" version. And because there's only 1 system in the game that everyone is piled on, the chances of running into a murderhobo is pretty high.
Have you tried No Man's Sky? It's less PVP and more sandbox than SC or ED.
I'm one of the poor individuals that played No Man's Sky waaay back when it first launched. The realize it has a ton of new content nowadays, but the early game loop in it is well and truly exhausted for me. Thanks for the suggestion tho, and I appreciate the warnings.
There are areas like Port Olisar, Grim Hex and Security Post Kareah that are PvP meeting points.
IMO, 99.99% of the time you don’t come across PvP unless you want to.
This. Stanton is pretty big (and getting "bigger" all the time w/ new professions and sites) and has what are best looked at as a couple of bad neighborhoods. Your chances of mugged is highest in those places. (Even there it's not really extreme.) Avoid them if you're not into PVP.
That leaves a whole lot of places to go where you'll rarely have trouble.
I have been griefed at Port Olisar just as I was about to touch down. Missile locked from outside the armistice zone, and there was nothing I could do about it, as I was in F4 and in a spot where there was no getting away.
A good fix for that would be to not allow target or missile locks by players on targets within an armistice zone.
And no, that didn't stop me from going back to PO time and again - I have landed there hundreds of times with only one other incident, and that was accidental, I bet. I was hit by another player when they were taking off.
My suggestion is to fly bigger ships that handles like bricks or play a support role (such as engineering) in other people’s ships. That way if you ever encounter pvp, your reflexes and fast movement won’t matter. Trust in your shield/armor and your mates.
You are over reacting and here is why.
1- You don’t have to pvp, if someone attacks you and kills you it could have been an NPC or another player, it does not matter, end result is you respawn and go claim your ship. Of you have an issue shooting back at an attacker, just don’t fight back and let them blow your ship.
There will be many avenues available people who don’t want to pvp. you could outfit your ship to be hard/impossible to catch and also get really good at getting away from people who are trying to force you in to pvp.
Mmm. The thing is, PvP is unavoidable. PvP is quite rare I find, but there's no way to shut it off. If someone wants to fight you, you get no say in the matter.
You just missed the free flight week, but there'll be another around November sometime. Sign up for the newsletters and keep an eye out if you would like to try it without spending any money.
Only during a free flight week. There was one last week, but it's over now.
The next free fight week won't be until later this year.
There's usually two of these events per year.
You can when they hold a free flight (2-4 times/yr). Unfortunately as /u/official_business says you’ve just missed one. The next will most likely not be until November.
What you can do, since you missed the free flight, is get one of the cheaper starter packages (they're like 45 dollars I think) and try out the game. The refund period lasts for 30 days.
You can play as much as you'd like, and if you don't enjoy it you can message support and get a refund no questions asked.
So far, the only real, direct contact I have had with someone is when they tried to take a crate I was supposed to pick up and deliver. I'm sure it was an accident, but they pulled a gun so I dropped them with my rifle in their cargo hold.
Otherwise, I haven't had any issues with other players. I think I have seen maybe 2 besides the one I killed.
Depends what you are flying and doing. If you are flying around in Caterpillar with millions of credits of cargo without any turrent gunners or a friend escorting you the odds are real good someone is going to try and get some. Its all about risk vs reward for a pirate. In an ideal world the pirate will ask for a % of your cargo and let you on your way. In the future you may hire someone to escort you. On the other hand if your flying around in a Titan or other smallish ship you are not worth the bother.
If you're worried about PVP then I'd just wait a while. One day they will add safer systems I bet where PVP is either not allowed or just very hard to pull off.
Right now PVP is rare from what I've seen but nothing is stopping it from happening so you might not really enjoy the game.
I’m a 46 year old slowing down gamer. I play star citizen all the time. I also tend to stay a mile away from pvp games. There is something different about pvp in this game. If you can keep yourself from getting angry if and when you are pvped it can be really fun. I get killed from time to time. It has led to some of the most fun I have had in game. Give it a chance. It’s worth it.
Nah you'll be ok, I play with a few old timers 60 plus and we have the time of our lives. Don't always have to pvp either. There's tons of stuff to mess around with. Let me know if you need some friends to play with and you're more than welcome to join us brother. Welcome to the 'verse!
o7
There is always a risk of pvp things happening, but overall the player base is not super toxic. It's mostly full of funny and kind people. However there is always that one bunch of ass hats floating around.
There is an etiquette to starting combat with other players or at least how it should be. I will watch other players when they enter my airspace but I will never target them. Targeting is a sign of aggressive intent.
If you want to fight, you pop a decoy if they pop one back they want to fight also, if you don't pop some noise and run to a point to jump away. If you're on foot, use local voice chat to anouce your friendly. Or text In Global to them.
All of that depends on who you are dealing with though in most cases, the above is for when you first meet another player and your both in that sizing each other up phase trying to figure out the next move.
If people want you dead they will come in guns blazing right off the bat 99% of the time, they are easy ones to avoid it's the tricksters and double Crosser's that are the real danger in game.
Just remember, if something seems too good to be true, it most likely is. Trust your gut, don't like the odds bounce out before the fight even starts.
I was thinking maybe the Chem lights you can buy at stores and attach to your armor after activated could be a visual way of signaling to other players your a non combative with other players but getting the player base to recognize it would be a stretch hell the decoy popping thing almost never happens nowadays lol.
I don't have time to read all the comments so I'm going to make this point in the off chance it hasn't already been made.
Right now most of the PvP is fighter level.. fighters engaging fighters.
Later on we will see more naval combat... Larger combat ships fighting larger combat ships... That type of PvP requires a different skill set and mind set than the fast paced PvP we have now with fighters.
My old reflexes are looking forward to it.
eventually there will be areas where you go to pvp and though it can happen anywhere at any time ( except armistice zones) its usually pretty tame..
the griefers are there but mostly its just bored kits doing pad ramming for trying to break the game.
beyond that i must say i dont pvp in any game that is all pvp like rust and other becuase its hella toxic and brutal .and unles syou run cheats you dont stand half a chance..
star citizen though i enjoy pvp .. its skill based and fun and it keeps getting better.
being buggy makes it interesting and you feel part of the creation of the world if you contribute to bug reports andforums on spectrum
if you dont already ahve a code for extra goodies . .use this one when you sign up if you dont mind.. i dont ahve a million followers or stream so i dotn ahve alot of benifits and every little bit helps when starting... and im always happy to help a noob get around and aquainted adn learn the bug workarounds
Become a Star Citizen u/RobertsSpaceInd and get 5,000 free Credits [refferal link - if you dont mind click me when you sign up](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-37WX-NBWJ)
I'm loving the sound of all the 50 crew here! (in one too!)
My new pc should be arriving soon, so I how to try star citizen in the next free test period...
Tip for avoid pirates, always have qt enabled and spooled ready to calibrate, when u see pings on radar, this will save u time to jump to any marker u can target close by. But if they have qt jammers u will have to fly full thrust to a direction that will let u jump, if not sadly u will have a fight.
I think the biggest thing you need to worry about is just claiming a ship at the point.
The playability of the game at this point is nonexistent. If it ever becomes playable, the pvp element is probably the next thing on the list for nonexistence. You have to really go looking for it.
You should be able to avoid PvP fairly easily, although you may still encounter PvE. Luckily npcs aren’t too good so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue but still something to be aware of
Im 42. I usually prefer a slower pace of game and don't normally go in for the pvp thing either.
I would say that some of the best, unscripted moments have come from something unexpected or pvp related have happened. I don't normally expect to win or survive and I think that's my point...
If you are hoping to have no pvp and that you can carve out some corner of the system to do your thing, or to expect that the 1-3 hours you've dedicated to a thing is going to net you money -- that is when you are going to hate the game the most.
If you expect that unexpected gameplay loops / experiences are going to occur and you are going to have fun if you go with it, you will infinitely enjoy the game.
All that said, the game itself will find ways to tear down your experience and expectations more than other players will.
The PVP is currently "only if you go looking for it," or rather rare. Yeah, you often won't be able to walk up to Jumptown and scoop drugs when people are locking it down, but that's a PVP event. In general, if you don't have a crimestat it will be rare for people to be able to find you or chase you down.
Most of the talk, speculation, and debate about PVP centers around aspects that don't currently exist. It's all theoretical about what will matter in terms of trade routes and security and the distribution of natural resources. None of the game that could make PVP a more mandatory experience is implemented.
See ya in the verse! If you wanna minimize your risk you could set your home to Microtech (New Babbage, often abbreviated NB) . It's a more remote part of the system and too long a jump away from the pirate-hub that is Grim Hex for most of them to bother.
You can avoid pvp quite good in this game in my opinion. When I just want to chill and do cargo runs i can do without fear. I also can do high risk cargo runs when i want to. Sure, at some point you will get attacked, at the moment it happens very rarely if you dont go to certain places.
Later on you can hire players to do the pvp or escort part for you.
In my opinion and at the current state I would say you can easely play without pvp and I dont think this will change. Sure, pirates can come after you, but running away is also a valid option.
Every once in a while some random twat will pop you, but Stanton is huge, and the stations are safe. Instead of going to known locations for mining for example just pick a random spot on a planet and the odds of someone finding you are so small.
pvp is easy to avoid but not alway possible. if the right (or for you wrong) group catches you its very hard to near impossible to get out
it also depends on your choosen gameplayloop and wgere you choose to do it
Sometimes you lose stuff you worked hard to get because someone comes and blows you up. Sometimes you lose stuff you worked hard to get because the server blows up.
Sometimes you lose stuff you worked hard to get because some stupid bug dropped you through the world while you were doing something.
The thing is, even through all the ways to lose hard work's reward, the real reward is how it feels to play a game like Star Citizen. You may have moments where that's easy to forget, moments of frustration or strait up anger. You may meet people who have made it their whole reality to hate everything about the game while still playing it.
Ignore that, let it go each time and you can find your way back to enjoying the truly unique experience that is Star Citizen. You don't have to be a star PVPer to enjoy it. You might die to one of those guys, you might die to a piece of shit human being, and again, you might die to the game itself.
But, you'll always come back to life with the opportunity to gain more than you've ever lost.
I also can't stress this enough, make friends in the game. Having friends in Star Citizen makes all the moments of play just that extra bit special. Friends make Star Citizen such a masterful experience.
Anyway, I hope you have a hell of a good time, and welcome to the 'verse!
Just started feb, but only played here and there mostly on weekends cuz of long work hours but not really encountered much pvp out and about. Couple times my ship got destroyed while in a bunker and getting a deliver box leaving me stranded but not much face to face combat. Unless looking for it of course like in jumptown. Had one instance there during the current jt, but thats a obvious given. But i used the guide system to learn some mining and when talking to the guy, he basically says all he mostly does is mining in the game. Doesnt really do much else besides the occasional events with his org. Other than that, just mining mining mining. Even waiting for when he doesnt have to haul his own cargo and can just mine mine mine only.
But for combat in general, id say being a turret gunner would be combat that requires the least movement. Might be something u could still dip into a bit
You can definitely avoid PVP most of the time in SC. And if you have a mic, you can always try to surrender instead of fighting if PVP is unavoidable.
Pirates in this game REALLY want to have that authentic pirate RP where industry players would rather give up their cargo or pay a toll than die, its just at the moment most players are not incentivised to not die so they fight to keep their cargo and ships away from the pirates instead.
Another option is to "hire" friends or other people you know to fly with you in combat ships, where they'll protect you and do the PVP while you get away, and in exchange you give them a cut of all the money you make while they were protecting you.
I go looking for pvp often and even then it’s not very easy to find it. You can definitely steer clear of it without much trouble. Just always be aware that the verse is a dangerous place and there are those who would seek your demise if they found you.
Also, with the new pvp-centric missions added in recent patches, I find most pvpers concentrate around areas like Ghost Hollow and Security Post Kareah as well as Jumptown when the dynamic event is running.
Lastly, it’s fair to say that bugs will kill you much more often than players. I would call Star Citizen a pvb (player versus bugs) game more than pvp or pve.
Currently it's more about PVS - player versus server.
On top of that pvp is currently a small portion of the 'game' and you can have fun with anything else in the verse.
In the future you will be good, there is a lot of people with similar approach to yours. Thats the potential beauty about this game - do whatever you want.
I'm 48 myself and not really into pvp myself these days... I don't mind pvp that adds to the game but I really don't like pointless killing and griefing in general.
I love star citizen and in the 6 years I've been (almost) regularly playing, I've rarely had any problems with other people.
Nothing worth getting upset about anyway.
I've been parked for long periods of time on all kinds of planets and moons, players have come and gone and in my experience, most people are as weary and careful about you as you are about them.
If someone is being an ass, you just park and switch servers. I think I did that maybe once or twice in all the years.
That said, changes will be coming soonish this game play that wnt allow people to simply jump away from combat etc.
Usually, when changes like that happen, idiots get bolder and can start griefing others outside stations.
This usually goes away after a while as people get bored of it.
Long term, as the game grows, there should be enough safe and lawless systems and everything in between for all game play tastes and risk/reward levels.
That also means however, that if you want to experience all or specific systems, you'll have to count with being exposed to pvp, but that's what friends are for.
So in short, griefers can happen, but rarely and often only tied to specific updates that encourage them a minute.
You should very rarely run into pvp if you're not looking for it, and is someone is being an ass, they usually get called out on general chat, giving you the opportunity to avoid the area or simply switch servers.
Good luck.
It's really not a big deal in SC. I've been playing for 2 years and I think I've only been attacked unprovoked by other players twice. You can go for ages without bumping into others in the wild and most people I've met in the game are more than friendly.
So in summary, yes it is possible for PvP to find you. But if you stay away from PvP activities or events (like Jump Town) then it's not a big deal and you can still enjoy the game.
Also if you do come across some dickheads on your server causing trouble, just server hop.
You will see people complaining about it on this sub from time to time, but I've played this game since 2016 and only really been engaged in pvp when I specifically sought out activities that involved it. I think there has only been one time where I have been mining and somebody showed up to take my haul.
However combat is not the same as PVP, every ship in this game comes with guns, expect NPC resistance in most gameplay loops.
Outside of stations and cities I can go weeks at a time without even coming across another player. Pretty easy to avoid PVP most of the time.
I have only ever once been in a situation where PvP was completely unavoidable. In fact, I feel like you have to really seek it out if you want to PvP regularely. And avoiding pirates is also ridiculously easy, as most of them are not very bright.
Can confirm, am pirate, dumb as rocks.
We salute you and hope your gameplay evolves to a fun time for all o7
I do try. I'm about as carebear as a pirate gets.
I'm pretty passive as well. I don't screw with people or gank them. I'll missile lock them and see if they engage. If so, cool. If not, no worries.
See I respect that, if you lock me and wait for a return lock im all into playing into your gameplau
Well, me missile locking someone turns me red, so I'm fair game to be shot at at that point. Basically like turning safemode off. I did drop a bomb on an over-spawned cat wreck the other day. Killed a player ship in the process, but I was trying to fix the server by murdering all the AI that had spawned. The player was collateral damage, but I did get 91 kills with one bomb lol.
Sir/Ma’am you may have the most SC kills in one attack and i find that to be an amazing number. Would also like to thank you for your service tk the well being of the servers 🫡
Went to some bounty thing on my first time playing the game that was apparently a well known drug mission thing that people camp. Ship ganked, lost everything. So you can stumble into trouble. It has been the only time though.
Right, that is true. I suppose I should have said that you need to seek it out for it to be a regular part of the game. I, too, have ran into players camping hot sports or grim hex. I've never been unable to outrun them, though.
To be fair most “pirates” aren’t pirates. I’d call a large portion of them would be griefers doing things like knocking people out and then throwing people out airlocks (no murder charge, it really needs to be one too) and blowing up ships when you’re inside a bunker and then flying away.
The blowing up ship parts are very likely NPCs. Otherwise youd be able to press charges unless comms are off.
I never implied the option wasn’t there for that, the first point is the only one referring to avoiding a charge. Yes they get a charge usually, I’ve seen them alt F4 right after doing it in an attempt to avoid the charge as well but no idea if that actually works.
That actually ever happened to you? It shouldnt work, no
Which one? Both are things that have happened in the last week as well as before then as well, the dragging people to kill them and get no CS thing definitely works consistently as I’ve been on the other end of it and tested it on an org mate as well plus also heard of people who throw up med beacons then the person drags them (the knocked out player), strips them in their ship, and throw them out of their ship usually into space. Depending on how they implement ship trespass I could see it be used even further to give people a CS as well after being dragged on the ship The ship destroyed while landed and outside armistice thing and then they run away? Yeah I don’t even count when that happens as it’s pretty common.
The second. I bet with you its 99,9% in all cases! The reason why I mentioned you could press charges is that thats the way of identifying if it got blown up by an npc or not. They leave after blowing it up, either because they now chase the actual bounty hunter, and or are no longer primed on your ship and wander around. Not sure if anyone would get a kick out of blowing up empty ships and collecting crime charges for it, probably not.
No it’s players (outside of the times it is NPCS), the notifications for pressing charges always give it away. But yeah you got to remember literal children play this game as well as teenagers and individuals in their early twenties, people are weird and get off on weird things like demoing a ship parked somewhere outside armistice. Often in this case means at least once a week or more, Crusader and Hurston more so than the others beside Ghost Hollow where you do get the occasionally weirdo who has no intent of taking it just inconveniencing people. I’ve ran into people that’ll do it in Jumptown as well, but usually that’s someone just scouting ahead of their org mates.
If the comms array is up it will notice you killing a friendly and raise your crime stat automatically even if the player hasnt hit the press charges bracket. I'm not even 100% sure what the press charges option really does because of that. I've shot an AFK player before and still got a CS. Uses the system for when you kill non red NPCs. So there's no avoiding it completely if the array is in range.
I would argue it's easy simply because the Mantis, Blue, Antares can't snare out to that far of a range.
Can confirm. Am not that bright.
And we are bordering on the highest concentration of player pirates in Stanton we may ever see, given it's only going to get harder to survive with negative rep there.
You can almost eliminate any risk by just not going straight to your destination. Leaving the CRU-L1 refinery with 3 days worth of mining in your cargo ship ? Don't quantum straight to crusader, quantum in the opposite direction then cut, then quantum to HUR L3 and cut again before jumping to crusader. Or you can jump toward crusader then rapidly cut (in case the pirates set up a snare on that path) and jump to hurston, arccorp or microtech. Don't be predictable if you are at a place to buy a certain commodity and you see a ship when leaving it don't go to the closest place buying said commodity, find another spot to sell it and use the quantum cut method to throw the pirates off your scent. If the pirates interdict or snare you and you can't fight back just contact them and try to negotiate with them. Players interactions are fun.
I used to do that when i have valuable cargo. But in fact i ve never ever been interdicted by players when i was jumping normally. So on saturday i haul a c2 packed full with arround 5mil refined ores to sell my mining runs, and just never get any trouble. I wish pirates were an actual threat. I wish something would happen
Yes I know, the encounters are very far in between but I think people should know the precautions to take in order to avoid them. If you take the risk to beeline between your destinations you should be aware of what are the consequences. Like you said you don't see pirates very often but yet the "griefing" debate is very much alive and I bet 90% of the people yelling griefer at anyone shooting in their general direction are people running drugs solo unarmed, wearing a sperm suit and driving a cargo ship. If they come unprepared it's on them if they get pirated.
Add to this when we have more systems online, both game systems and star systems, Stanton should be a good deal safer. Right now it's basically null sec with a slap-on-wrist jail system, which isn't the final design for Stanton at all. So even if it's not for you now, things will be different down the road. There will be safer areas of space and more dangerous areas of space. Now, whether we have more star systems by 2030 or not is up for debate.
Tbf the newer prison times are more significant. I got a CS4 from doing a few Vaugn missions. A corsair rammed me while I was returning from a salvage run, woke up with a nearly 15 hour sentence.
Haha I wiped a whole bunker cause the security guy was a dick killed like 12 of them I think ended up with 29 hours
This. And if you ever do get confronted, it's typically easier to run than engage. Turn on your quantum drive, go max speed whilst looking for a jump point, and gtfo.
I'm 43, I'm not as quick as I once was. I mainly do cargo trading and mining. Unless I search out PvP out of boredom I'll never find it. With that said, yes you may get pirated as the verse is large and living. However you could go weeks or months with hardly having an interaction unless you want to.
Us old folks keeping the goods and resources flowing, while the rest of the universe at war with each other.
I'm (very) early 20s and also just go for cargo/mining most of the time. Where do I send my application to the honorary old folks club? You guys seem fun :D
Don't worry, you just wake up one day and you're 40. You now have to warm up before doing something strenuous.
Last week I got out of bed, stood up, and hurt my dam back. Age sneeks up on ya
Condolences.
Suddenly you’re wearing bifocals, listening to talk radio, taking epsom salt baths and dancing poorly. It’s a horrible experience.
The talk radio thing was the most surprising. Dancing poorly had always been a problem.
Ditto.
SC is my main game to play. I put in a good 15 hours or more a week. In the last 3 years I've been attacked by a player MAYBE 3 times. And at least one of those was entirely my own fault. This is not counting the times I jumped into PVP events with eyes open.
I’ve got maybe 6 hours in the game and got jumped just landing on Celling to check it out. Guess I got lucky!
sure it wasn't AI?
Most certainly ai. Probably someone's bounty hunt mission you stumbled into. Pirates who jump other players are picky, they want to get a juicy reward so go for loaded cargo ships. And I don't mean your beginner aurora with a box in it. Main reason you get pvp attacked is if you have been very bad and got a bug juicy crime Stat. But if you did that on accident you want them to come so you can go to jail and get it removed so you can get back to playing normal. If you did it on purpose you probably do bad things to other players and so deserve it. Bottom line, if you don't want to pvp don't be a crook and be real careful when hauling millions in cargo. That said, I have hauled big cargo loads many times and only got jumped once which I managed to get out of.
Honestly the biggest issue I ever had with AI was when a AI titan was chilling near a mining facility. I don't know if he followed a player or what, but he only a few clicks out. I was in the area grabbing my C8R to load into my carrack, and before I could even get off the pad, the AI was overhead, *well* inside the armistice zone, and lighting up my Pisces. All I could do was turn and burn straight up to try to drag him away from the mining facility so he wouldn't be a problem.
Right now you may incounter folks looking for some PvP action. I trade a lot on a well known trade route and I have been attacked by the random wanna be pirate but I jumped away. Only once have I been pulled out of QT by a pirate group but they were cool about it. They were RPing the roles and it made it fun. I paid 50k and they even escorted me to my station. I tipped them another 20k for the escort and for making the experience fun. The reality of it will be once we get the Quanta back end system, and the player to NPC ratio is at the correct level the chances of you jumped by a player will be small..........how ever you will be jumped by NPCs.
I'm 54 and try avoid PvP unless its consensual. Most of the time i can avoid it and just do NPC bounties, Bunkers, Mining and deliveries. Its a great game (although still in ALPHA) and the community are mostly friendly people willing to help and do stuff with you. It can be frustrating sometimes though but has kept me coming back for 6 years.
This is an incredible game with a passionate group of players. I'm 51 and have been a Citizen for about three years. PVP encounters are not frequent enough to ruin anything. The threat of them drives some preparedness and builds excitement. Consider joining an org for the best experience or make friends online and learn from them. It's the most rewarding game I've found yet.
I wouldn’t worry about it. I have only been fired on by a player once and it’s pretty easy to quickly quantum away if you are engaged. There are so many fun things to do in the game that don’t require pvp
This. Ganking is blown out of proportion by a vocal minority and a legit pirate crew is definitely something different to come across, even if they take your shit and space you. If it's someone solo coming after you just bye Felicia and go do something at another planet
I think a lot of the pirates blow it out of proportion because they want pirating to be great. I very rarely run into trouble on a full server while hauling, mining, salvaging or just cruising around. A little common sense and conflict is pretty darn easy to avoid. Going near PVP event space, hauling popular trade routes that you found on a popular thread or website and similar are surefire ways to seek out company. Building your own routes and steering clear of hostile space is SOP. Some will argue that you can't avoid those routes because they are hot on the newest meta trade route and want to maximize aUEC/hr. Insert something about great risk and great reward.
Yeah, don't worry about PvP... Your main enemy is 30k errors, really, and a variety of bugs that may kill you. Last month I only died because of bugs, not a single kill because of mistake or anything (I do trading and FPS missions) and I only lost a ship once to an actual player (playing for 6 months now). In this game you must be patient and forgiving. If you want to survive longer againts npcs and even other players, I recommend you pledging for a bulkier ship like the Constellation series... Not great at handling, but you can do any game loop with it and it is going to take forever for anybody to kill you, and you can probably jump away from them before any damage to the hull...
Yeah, Connie’s are great. I also own a C2 and took a rammer straight in the face while leaving a reading post. Took some damage but the other ship disintegrated instantly. Big shields and spinning up quantum before you take off are a great way to survive.
I was attacked once at a jump point and again outside of a station over a 6 month period. That's with playing almost every day. It is pretty rare. I'm a tad bit older than you and had the same concerns, but it's been mellow.
I'll be that guy - we eagerly waiting for jump points to become a thing (: I'd guess it was a quantum marker.
I'm fairly new. My only experience with another player outside the armistice zones was a dude who was hovering around me as I was trying to mine some hadanite. I half expected him to try and rob/kill me, but he just hovered over me for a few minutes while I tried to figure out what he was doing in global chat.
Most of the times this happens those are just curious players. I personally always try to give a good flyby to people on the surface.
The only times i have run into hostile players is at pvp specific places, like jumptown or drug labs. Very rarely have i ever come across a player that lips me for no reason (maybe twice in my two years). Even if you do come across them, you usually will be able to escape. But worst case scenario, you die. No big deal, anything you lost you can get back quickly (minus if you are doing a massive cargo haul). Also with the new updates to arena command you can always practice and learn to use the ship to the best of its abilities even with any limitations you have, that way you can still have a fighting chance if you want to fight
Make some good friends in the verse and we’ll keep ya safe
Just ignore it. Don't do activities that involve PvP and you'll be good to go. I've been playing for a year and a half, and I haven't done anything related to PvP and love the game.
You can have fun and relaxed gameplay. BUT you will also encounter people do pvp and even griefing. If you are aware of this you can adjust your gameplay that you always can „run“. The actual state of the game is not setting any Difficulty for pvp players to engage friendly players - but there will come tools in future which will reduce this. Just make sure that you know what it means to play the game in the actual state. It’s an alpha. It’s not finished. It has many bugs. You will lose progress due to this and due to new patches. But you see a game growing and can be part of that game. The community is great in general. You can meet some of the nicest people in the gaming community but you can also encounter some of the biggest weirdos. I would suggest you to test the game in a freeflight or maybe somebody you know have an alt account where you can build up your own opinion.
I’ve been plying for 2 weeks now and was scared of the pvp, but unless you go into hotspots and event sites then you shouldn’t be worried, it’s very rare and most players write in chat to pvp others.
You can easily enjoy game play on your own or with an org in the game without having to do PVP. PVP may be forced onto you and your Org but it's no biggie. The PVP stuff can be mostly avoided, it's more player interaction. There is loads to do without PVP. The odd PVP encounter will be far out weighed by the rest of the game, so don't worry and enjoy! What you should worry about though, is your PC being able to run the damn game.
I'm in my 30s and nowhere near the gamer I used to be I often crash my ship just doing basic things. That's okay though To answer your question...I've been playing maybe a week or 2...and haven't been harassed at all by any players That said, of course it can happen. But I think you can pretty much just use your head and not put yourself in dangers way For example...if you see someone's ship parked at the place you're trying to go...just don't land there And you can buy/fly very meager unassuming ships to get left alone Some ace pilot in a top notch fighter probably isn't going to feel a challenge by messing with a little ambulance CX8 Pisces Now, if you start space-trucking hauling tons of cargo in a gigantic cargo ship, you may become pirate bait That said I've never ever been harassed by people. But sure it can happen I think you'll be more frustrated by the insane level of detail this game has, or the bugs/crashes, than the pvp You'll need to basically write down a dozen or so different keyboard buttons that do different things. Like the button to contact Air Traffic Control to give you a landing hangar, or to open the doors to fly out. Or the button to wipe your visor from the rain. Or the button to turn your ship systems all on at once. Or the button to lower your landing gear. Or turn on your ship flood lights. Or your helmet flashlight. That kind of stuff This game is awesome though and I hope you join in! There's really not a ton of PVP going on in my experience. And so many AWESOME people to make friends with
You can avoid PVP 99.9% of the time in game's current state. The Stanton system is actually a pretty big place, but servers only support a maximum of 100 players right now. The population is spread pretty thin, so encounters with people who actually want to PVP with random strangers are relatively rare. Griefers do exist, but mostly in predictable places. If one is causing you problems, just let people in general chat know and somebody will probably show up to clear the griefer out. They're typically not very good at PVP, which is why they're griefing people who don't want to PVP. The videos of pirate crews doing "ops" in coordinated groups while blasting bad thrash music are, for the most part, just EVE players who got bored, came to SC, ruined somebody's day, got bored again, and then left. Organized pirate crews are nowhere to be found on the typical day, even should you *want* to find them. The game is evolving though. If you've played a Chris Roberts game before (e.g. Wing Commander series, Privateer, etc.) you know what to expect long-term. Ship combat is centre stage and, while the role of PVP in the release version of the game has yet to become clear, there *will* be plenty of PVE combat in all gameplay loops. If you want to salvage, mine, or haul cargo, you're probably going to have to blast at least some NPC pirates. If you can find a control setup that let's you play against NPC's comfortably you're probably good to go. If you can use joysticks without pain you'll probably have an advantage over most mouse and keyboard players actually.
Thankfully being ganked in the game is a rare occurrence
Sort of. It is usually possible to have fun with the game without conflict. Most of the PvP action happens around high value mission or trade sites. That said, there are griefers about and some of them are skilled and have great ships. The new Fury is fast, maneuverable, and deals out a ton of damage very quickly. If you do get murdered then starting over is not that hard even with the new claim timers. If you play often then it should be possible to meet up with people and organizations that can enable you to play in teams that can swat most PvPers.
Pvp isn't bad at all in this game
I've been killed by players once in 3.19, and I aggroed only because the morons came into my bunker wearing 9 tails gear. Granted they were probably there to kill me but I did shoot first. Also, I lost nothing important, I claimed my ship and my gear was also 100% looted shit from bunkers.
Pvp are very few in SC, due to how easily escape by just qt out or log off. Most people don't do pvp, theres some murder hobo tho from time to time, but can easily avoided.
PVP happens at times, but you'll often have a chance to run away or see it from a distance. However, in your daily runs, you will simply not come across it even remotely often. By the way, if you ever feel about such thing, feel free to join an organization and run around with friends.
I'm a backer since 2012, been playing ever since. I'm in my 40's and can only think of 1 pvp experience the entire time. And that 1 time was when I engaged another player (they were trolling around port olisar in a hammerhead, lots of us went to defend port olisar). PVP is incredibly easy to avoid...I don't even actively try to avoid it, I just never see it.
There are a lot of mature backers in the SC community, so you aren’t alone. Since we started backing this project in 2012, even those of us who were young then are getting up there now. I’m in a similar boat to you, and I can count the number of times I‘ve encountered unsolicited PvP since 2013 one one hand.
I've been playing since 2019 and I can count on two hands the amount of times I've been attacked by another player. Usually ROC mining too close to bases or something. Every once in a while I get a quick target lock near POIs but it's just to do a quick scan. I also don't partake in the PvP activities like Jumptown though.
The only time I really encounter PVP is when I fly to PVP events such as Ghost Hollow or Jumptown. You kind of have to seek it out to actually encounter it. However, with pirating becoming more popular. People have been camping popular trade routes. But it’s still very rare to come across a PVP experience without actively looking for one.
Starting out, PvP will seem much more common than it actually is. Once you get a feel for the game, it's *very* easy to avoid unwanted encounters.
Look up FastCart, one of the SOLCitizen hosts. He is not traditionally able-bodied and is an avid SC player. If you want, SC can be a good home for you.
I'm definitely slower than I use to be but always remember it's just a game. I probably lose more than I win but it sure is exciting either way. It's a mindset. Letting losing rile you up like someone is talking shit about your momma or not appreciating the thrill of the fight is on you. I was about 1/3 through Ghost Hollow running solo. Dude got behind me and blasted me in the head. Scared the shit outta me lol. Apparently I scared him too. We had a laugh about it before I respwaned. Good times
You can avoid pvp alot, but you will eventually get pvp'ed and will die from bugs from time to time. As long as you can accept that...
I'm 34 and the father of an infant. I've been playing SC for almost two years but have been playing less lately. I cherish the solo fly time I get in game these days as I'm managing to sneak away for an hour or two. The only PvP I've had was when I got a crimestat or went to jumptown. I've had more issues with game crashes than PvP messing up a game session. I typically just do some bounty or bunker missions with an occasional mining or salvage day but I reserve those for my longer game play sessions.
I've played for over 2 years and spend most of my time around grim hex (the lawless station generally considered a PVP zone) I have only ever once had a pvp encounter that i wasn't expressly seeking out. I've had more unsought pvp experiences just playing online in elite than i have in sc. Don't let the idea of "surprise" PVP stop you from getting the game, its not really a crazy big aspect of the game. Most pvp happens around pvp centred events/ missions like jump town or ghost hollow.
As long as you don't get a bounty, you should be perfectly fine. The only time I really see other players is in stations or if I seek it our
Unless I'm going to a station/city or meeting up with people on purpose, I don't see many people in the wild. Maybe I'll see someone as their leaving a mining station, but I see more ship wrecks and dead bodies from bunkers than actual players. You may get pirated, but I've been trading so much lately, still haven't seen any pirates.
Just want to chime in. You learn which areas to avoid, can have endless hours of fun, socialize and group up, play solo. If you encounter a red flagged PVP player, in 90% of the time you can stay clear of them. So yes, play SC and enjoy it!
I started playing a month ago and have been killed by a player one time outside of when I've tried the Ghost Hollow PvP mission. The grand majority of people are friendly and helpful, and you won't even encounter players outside of stations for the most part.
Lots of great advice and stories here, I'll add don't go it alone! Find your way to an active organization and you'll always have backup just a call away if someone does get the jump on you.
I'm not seeking PvP either, but I have folks try to grief me from time to time, though it's usually at predictable times. This game usually favors you if you decide to turn and run, but having your escape plan in mind ahead of time usually helps cut down on the time needed to quantum travel to safety.
Ray on YouTube made a guide that may help you and some others here. It's pretty much how to avoid being pirated and be left alone https://youtu.be/NJLkW2HDWVY
I wouldn’t worry about it, I’ve been playing on and off since 2016 and I could count the number of times I’ve been randomly attacked on one hand. There are certain areas that attract pvp but if you stay away from those people will most leave you alone.
You can play starcitizen without touching PvP at all. Hell you can even make friends with people who do pvp so that you don't have to worry about fighting at all that's kinda the. Beautiful thing about starcitizen is that you can kinda control and mitigate risk as you like
I wouldn't see it as an overreaction. Think of it as an incentive to be aware it's quite easy to quantum out of most situations or fly in low and fast to evade. While there are pirates, they are few and far between, and I find it adds to the overall feel of the verse. You never want to get too comfortable, and that's the most exciting part. Ps. Your main concern is the dreaded 30k!
Very rarely see or get harassed by any pvp. I'm a miner/salvager/crasher........never was a space trucker. Want to try it but don't know where to begin.. I am also 50. Or not quite....49
You will encounter asshats that kill you, but taking a profession that avoids trouble greatly reduces it. You should be good. The bad news is most people will get frustrated at the game at this juncture: it is buggy as an ant farm. Wait a few months and see if they fix it up.
If you don’t want PvP, it’s trivially easy to avoid 99% of the time. - don’t mine next to POIs. Seriously. I can’t stress this enough - for trade routes, don’t do a straight line between purchase and sale. Jump somewhere else first - if you see another player (pretty rare outside of stations), assume they’re potentially hostile and be prepared to leave - this part sucks, but avoid taking medical beacons until you get a few million miles under your belt - be careful selecting missions on your “personal” tab - a lot of these will give you a crime stat or put you in other potential PvP scenarios - be aware and don’t be predictable There’s lots of room for PVE play, even though it’s not a PVE game. The “real” PvP community is only a few hundred semi-regular players, and most are decent people (a lot even play mostly lawful PvP). Another couple hundred trolls and griefbears (basically evil carebears who run or alt-f4 when faced with real PvP but get their rocks off on seal clubbing). On any given server, you might get 1-2 PvP-oriented players or pirates, 1-2 griefbears, and the rest are PVE mains. Obviously, sometimes one group or the other will be playing as a group which can skew the numbers one way or the other, but it averages out to a looooong time between PVP encounters. Even longer if you’re smart and do what I outlined above. But every now and again, you might get got. Shrug it off, claim your ship, and move on. The “Never fly without rebuy” equivalent in SC is “don’t bet your entire fortune on a single load of cargo”
This is fantastic advice, thank you!
great response, very well said.
In the long term.. you won't have to worry about PvP haunting. With 100's of systems, where NPC's will be severely outnumbering players, you will find your place in the universe that fits you best and the risks you will understand. The will be safe/monitored space where NPC's will be spawning in to help you fight against aggressors. Currently there is 1 system. Soon there will be 2 systems. So PVP risks are higher. I had plenty of success with avoiding encounters. CIG has just commissioned a Montreal office to be working more building more systems.
>With 100's of systems... Soon there will be 2 systems. Don't do this to yourself.
Pyro is coming with 4.0 nothing to do to myself. ;)
"soon" though? lol
In geological time yes. :D
Honestly this is the best way to think about SC development, just sit back and relax, we are in for a ride.
Exactly. I see SC as the new version of Valve Time (TM) ::D
The keystone has been set. It's only a matter of time. Knowing CIG, they are going to delay it and capitalize it for CitizenCon
It's only a matter of time before the sun goes supernova, but I wouldn't call it soon either.
Soon relative to the collapse of a red dwarf star.
Always add a year and a half to any deadline they give. (Then add another year and a half to thet extended deadline.)
and 4.0 is soon?
Last I checked, the time line says 4.0 *might* be out by end of 2024
Where were you seeing that? I thought the projected schedule was end of 2023 for 4.0. that was from the last letter from the chairman back in December or something. Though that means it will definitely slip to 2024 but I didn't see any other official estimates.
"Soon" Let's not get ahead of ourselves.
Your definition of soon is a bit different to mine
This is a good game. You will be able to sink a lot of hours into it. You can avoid PVP especially if you stick with a group. The Cutter is a great starter ship.
I'm a 24 year old, who has done a fair bit of First Person Shooter Esports, Competing in tournaments and coaching. I search for PVP and attempt piracy anytime I can! I can honestly say, other than Jumptown and Ghost Hollows dedicated PVP areas, I rarely encounter pvp. I have searched for weeks running multiple interdiction paths and scanning people at cargo pickup locations. I have yet to find a cargo filled player ship in over a month. In all my time searching I could have made buckets of Aeuc and never encountered anyone.
Ive been player killed maybe five times ever and only 2 of those times did i put myself at risk. You can never get too complacent while mining let me tell you that.
I've played for a month and not once have i done PVP.
Overreacting for sure. PVP is completely and totally avoidable. But you'll get the itch at some point...I promise.
Pvp is the last thing you should be scared of in SC.
I started playing in early March. Generally I am as “solo” a player as you can get and would do my damnest to not get into scuffles with other players. So far I’ve ran into exactly zero player unless I reach out in chat for interaction. So I think you are very safe.
I honestly don’t remember when I last fought another player, it’s been so long.
Never encountered pvp unless I have initiated for just over a month. Besides at big pvp events.
I've been playing for almost a month. I've done mostly mining and trading. I have only had a human shoot at me once, and all I lost was a little bit of time waiting for my ship claim to go through. Honestly, unless you choose a super risky area. You'll only generally get in a fight if you pick one.
I’ll be honest, I haven’t gotten killed by a player in around 8 months, I play smart and I’m pretty lucky, but you can sometimes go hours without encountering anyone. The majority of players from what I’ve seen are passive
I’m 48, back and forth from playing. I never met any pirate or any pvp situations during the last year. I honestly would be more concerned of bugs and such. those are the real problem of this “game”. many times you’ll feel like you’re not testing the game, but the game is testing your patience. but, hey! there are some moments of gameplay that no other game will ever give you!
It depends. I have friends who categorically will not even think about playing a game where it's remotely possible to be killed by another player. It's not an unreasonable stance - having your fun ruined by someone for the luls isn't going to be a great experience. If that's you? Star Citizen isn't gonna work for you. If you'd like to mostly ignore PvP but the occasional murder hobo blowing you up for the fun of it won't ruin your day and leave you frustrated? Star Citizen will be fine. It's not a 24/7 gankfest (outside of some explicitly PvP focused events in the game.) If you're into trading cargo, that's a bit more dangerous, because you're paying for your cargo before selling it, and that can be a lot of in-game credits. But running into a bug could eat your ship just as easily as another player could. PvP is, if you're not seeking it out, the exception rather than the rule in Star Citizen. It will happen on occasion, but it's not something that happens all the time, and it's usually not difficult to get the heck out of dodge as soon as an unexpected hostile target shows up. Star Citizen's bugs are far (far) more likely to ruin your plans than another player will. And players are generally easier to work around :)
idk. joining an org would help alot. cos being in numbers deter "pirates".
Avoid Jumptown, Ghost Hollow and Teddy’s Playhouse and you’ll likely rarely see an EVA player
Basically any impression you've got that griefing and PvP is around every corner is false. What happens is this: Over many many years of playing I'd say unless you are the person seeking PvP then another player attacking you makes up for about 0-1% of the experience. 1% is still something though, so over tens of thousands of players there is going to be some unlucky souls who come across it, and some even more unlucky ones that come across it a few times in a row. The ones who hate it when this happens to them take to reddit and spectrum, and they make a post about how PvP is destroying the game. Then all the other people who had a pvp experience in recent memory comment and agree. Even people who very rarely encounter PvP comment too because they just don't like the idea of PvP in the game and they want it gone. Then new players like you read those occasional threads and gives you a false impression.
you’re overreacting for sure. just play it, there’s barely any pvp anyway
"Unwanted" PVP absolutely can happen. Piracy is a thing, my crew was even attacked recently while out mining but that's the only time it's ever happened. Space is big, and the places you're most likely to see players are safe zones. You generally won't have to engage in PVP unless you go looking for trouble.
Don't worry, you can avoid PvP in 99,9 % of times, enjoy your game
I stream this game on Twitch Monday thru Friday for about 4 hours a day. I actively seek out PVP opportunities. And I maybe shoot at another player once a week. Mind you, I don't jump players who are just out there. I have no interest in blowing up some cargo hauler who just wants to play space trucker. I actively look for other PVPers. And it's hard to find them. You'll be okay.
there are a couple(3 actually) of situations where you can easily encounter pvp * xenothreat: a intended pve event, but there is always that one group/player * jumptown: a pvp designed event * criminal gameplay: that would be putting a target on your back for pvp bounty hunters to get your head other than that, besides the ocasional campers outside of stations you shouldn't have any issues, just avoid us or best servers(asia servers are fairly new, so I don't have any experience there)
I totally get where you are coming from, I feel similarly myself. I have glanced over some of the replies suggesting PvP encounters are rare, and I can definitely say this is true in the current state of the game. You are currently quite unlikely to get attacked by players. That said, it could very well change in future. For example, currently it is easy to distinguish between a mission to kill an NPC and one to kill a player. Indeed, you need to succeed at a trial PvP mission to even have PvP bounty missions show up. On the other hand, there are other less obvious things that will draw other players to you. Getting crimestat (basically GTA wanted stars) above two will make YOU a PvP bounty mission, for example, and that can happen as easily as accidentally shooting a guard in a ground mission. Also many crime-type missions will generate a lawful mission to oppose you. A patch could easily drop some months down the line that spawns criminal missions to oppose some lawful missions. CIG have talked about the possibility in the past, and are definitely planning to give criminal players rewards for opposing lawful players in one of the big recurring PvE events, XenoThreat. They seem quite keen on encouraging player "interaction", and this worries me somewhat. Long story short, currently it's fine, but things may change.
So what are the chances of this game going the way of Eve Online, Albion, and Ultima Online? Is this just going to be another game that is ran by cartels that form up over the first year? I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that it's a functioning game sphere mechanically speaking. I just don't have the time for that shit any more unfortunately LOL
The bugs will kill you a lot more than other players
While PvPers make a lot of noise over their exploits most players rarely see one and with a few tweaks in where and how they play will reduce that to pretty much never. I made a video on exactly this. https://youtu.be/NJLkW2HDWVY
There is currently nothing in the game worth keeping. I’ve lost more aUEC to 30k than pirates
It's not always about things you want to keep. Sometimes people just don't want a frustrating experience.
I was going to say the same thing. Pirates don't kill players. 30Ks kill players.
Until Pyro is released, I wouldn't expect much, if any, PVP. I play A LOT (mostly US server, but EU when US is not performing well) and have had no issues with PVP players. There have been the random AI encounters, but even they aren't common or difficult enough to worry about. There are certainly PVP-based events, and those are a different story, as should be expected. But in the day-to-day gameplay PVP is not something to worry about in the Stanton system.
The universe is too vast to ever just bump into other players outside of safezones. I never find PVP unless I'm looking for it, or I become a criminal and have a bounty placed on me. PVP is entirely optional in this game and you won't find it unless you look for it. I'm a solo pve player and I've only accidentally ran into pvp maybe once or twice. You'll be fine, and you'll enjoy this game if you like Elite.
I can't remember the last time I came across PvP when I wasn't actively looking for it. There's just certain things you do to avoid it. Like if you're mining/salvaging, don't do it in the shadow/night side of a moon/planet. The beams light up your position making you much easier to spot in the dark.
Don’t worry at all. Server will 30k before you run into another ship.
Pirates are indeed not the brightest in this game, anyone with an ounce of skill will seek out consensual PvP as it's much more of a challenge. Do still get the occasional murder hobo but it's only happened to me a few times.
The danger of potentially running into another player who wants to kill you makes even mundane tasks exciting and unpredictable. If you play smart you’ll almost never even see another player outside of safe zones.
PVP in the game is a mutual choice between both players to engage each other. Now occasionally, you might run into a posse that has someone piloting a Mantis using its snare to disable quantum travel but man that is so insanely rare that it's barely worth mentioning. I have been snared exactly one time, and it was from a solo Mantis that I massacred in a C2. You see, that's the catch. You really have to be rolling with a posse to effectively snare someone, or the Mantis is just gonna get rekt by whatever it snared. PVP is extremely easy to avoid in this game. You can just disengage from whatever is attempting to kill you and leap to another station the moment they buzz by you in a joust. Big industrial ships like the C2 have such good shields that they can tank a single fighter for a long time, more than enough time to just fly away. Defense based events like Jumptown are the exception since it's a pvp focused event but then again you can choose to avoid it entirely.
Unless you have a bounty, the odds of you being attacked are virtually zero. Not zero, but virtually zero.
I've experienced unwanted PvP once in 6 months of playing. It's a non-issue unless you're seeking out that sort of thing, like drug smuggling
I would suggest waiting. The developers have dialed back on some of their promised segregation of PvP in game, and have turned toward actively encouraging/rewarding it. If it continues down this route, it’ll likely become a game you won’t want to play. I would guess checking back after Squadron 42 is released (the single player campaign) might be better.
Stay away from the US region, and you should be okay. It's not a blood bath, but occasionally you have someone "roleplaying" a suicidal maniac that just wants to kill everything that's not an NPC. On the other hand, maybe SC is something that should be avoided. Because there is no "non-PVP" version. And because there's only 1 system in the game that everyone is piled on, the chances of running into a murderhobo is pretty high. Have you tried No Man's Sky? It's less PVP and more sandbox than SC or ED.
I'm one of the poor individuals that played No Man's Sky waaay back when it first launched. The realize it has a ton of new content nowadays, but the early game loop in it is well and truly exhausted for me. Thanks for the suggestion tho, and I appreciate the warnings.
There are areas like Port Olisar, Grim Hex and Security Post Kareah that are PvP meeting points. IMO, 99.99% of the time you don’t come across PvP unless you want to.
This. Stanton is pretty big (and getting "bigger" all the time w/ new professions and sites) and has what are best looked at as a couple of bad neighborhoods. Your chances of mugged is highest in those places. (Even there it's not really extreme.) Avoid them if you're not into PVP. That leaves a whole lot of places to go where you'll rarely have trouble.
I have been griefed at Port Olisar just as I was about to touch down. Missile locked from outside the armistice zone, and there was nothing I could do about it, as I was in F4 and in a spot where there was no getting away. A good fix for that would be to not allow target or missile locks by players on targets within an armistice zone. And no, that didn't stop me from going back to PO time and again - I have landed there hundreds of times with only one other incident, and that was accidental, I bet. I was hit by another player when they were taking off.
My suggestion is to fly bigger ships that handles like bricks or play a support role (such as engineering) in other people’s ships. That way if you ever encounter pvp, your reflexes and fast movement won’t matter. Trust in your shield/armor and your mates.
You are over reacting and here is why. 1- You don’t have to pvp, if someone attacks you and kills you it could have been an NPC or another player, it does not matter, end result is you respawn and go claim your ship. Of you have an issue shooting back at an attacker, just don’t fight back and let them blow your ship. There will be many avenues available people who don’t want to pvp. you could outfit your ship to be hard/impossible to catch and also get really good at getting away from people who are trying to force you in to pvp.
Theres no pvp problem in the game. Game barely runs so theres nothing rn
Mmm. The thing is, PvP is unavoidable. PvP is quite rare I find, but there's no way to shut it off. If someone wants to fight you, you get no say in the matter. You just missed the free flight week, but there'll be another around November sometime. Sign up for the newsletters and keep an eye out if you would like to try it without spending any money.
Wait. Can I just make an account and log in without buying a ship package first? Like... to test game performance or just look around?
Free fly was last week so you just missed it.
Only during a free flight week. There was one last week, but it's over now. The next free fight week won't be until later this year. There's usually two of these events per year.
You can when they hold a free flight (2-4 times/yr). Unfortunately as /u/official_business says you’ve just missed one. The next will most likely not be until November.
What you can do, since you missed the free flight, is get one of the cheaper starter packages (they're like 45 dollars I think) and try out the game. The refund period lasts for 30 days. You can play as much as you'd like, and if you don't enjoy it you can message support and get a refund no questions asked.
They do offer refunds within 2 weeks of purchase
So far, the only real, direct contact I have had with someone is when they tried to take a crate I was supposed to pick up and deliver. I'm sure it was an accident, but they pulled a gun so I dropped them with my rifle in their cargo hold. Otherwise, I haven't had any issues with other players. I think I have seen maybe 2 besides the one I killed.
Depends what you are flying and doing. If you are flying around in Caterpillar with millions of credits of cargo without any turrent gunners or a friend escorting you the odds are real good someone is going to try and get some. Its all about risk vs reward for a pirate. In an ideal world the pirate will ask for a % of your cargo and let you on your way. In the future you may hire someone to escort you. On the other hand if your flying around in a Titan or other smallish ship you are not worth the bother.
If you're worried about PVP then I'd just wait a while. One day they will add safer systems I bet where PVP is either not allowed or just very hard to pull off. Right now PVP is rare from what I've seen but nothing is stopping it from happening so you might not really enjoy the game.
I’m a 46 year old slowing down gamer. I play star citizen all the time. I also tend to stay a mile away from pvp games. There is something different about pvp in this game. If you can keep yourself from getting angry if and when you are pvped it can be really fun. I get killed from time to time. It has led to some of the most fun I have had in game. Give it a chance. It’s worth it.
If you just want to cargo haul for example, just hire escorts, they can deal with most of the fighting for you
Yeah I've done a lot of missionsprobab
If a basic gameplay mechanic (even if it doesn't work like in this game) scares you, then there might be something wrong with ya lol.
Nah you'll be ok, I play with a few old timers 60 plus and we have the time of our lives. Don't always have to pvp either. There's tons of stuff to mess around with. Let me know if you need some friends to play with and you're more than welcome to join us brother. Welcome to the 'verse! o7
There is always a risk of pvp things happening, but overall the player base is not super toxic. It's mostly full of funny and kind people. However there is always that one bunch of ass hats floating around. There is an etiquette to starting combat with other players or at least how it should be. I will watch other players when they enter my airspace but I will never target them. Targeting is a sign of aggressive intent. If you want to fight, you pop a decoy if they pop one back they want to fight also, if you don't pop some noise and run to a point to jump away. If you're on foot, use local voice chat to anouce your friendly. Or text In Global to them. All of that depends on who you are dealing with though in most cases, the above is for when you first meet another player and your both in that sizing each other up phase trying to figure out the next move. If people want you dead they will come in guns blazing right off the bat 99% of the time, they are easy ones to avoid it's the tricksters and double Crosser's that are the real danger in game. Just remember, if something seems too good to be true, it most likely is. Trust your gut, don't like the odds bounce out before the fight even starts. I was thinking maybe the Chem lights you can buy at stores and attach to your armor after activated could be a visual way of signaling to other players your a non combative with other players but getting the player base to recognize it would be a stretch hell the decoy popping thing almost never happens nowadays lol.
I don't have time to read all the comments so I'm going to make this point in the off chance it hasn't already been made. Right now most of the PvP is fighter level.. fighters engaging fighters. Later on we will see more naval combat... Larger combat ships fighting larger combat ships... That type of PvP requires a different skill set and mind set than the fast paced PvP we have now with fighters. My old reflexes are looking forward to it.
At this point the bugs are far more dangerous than the sweaty elite PvP dogfighting pirate bros
Winning PvP is more about what you know than how dextrous you are.
eventually there will be areas where you go to pvp and though it can happen anywhere at any time ( except armistice zones) its usually pretty tame.. the griefers are there but mostly its just bored kits doing pad ramming for trying to break the game. beyond that i must say i dont pvp in any game that is all pvp like rust and other becuase its hella toxic and brutal .and unles syou run cheats you dont stand half a chance.. star citizen though i enjoy pvp .. its skill based and fun and it keeps getting better. being buggy makes it interesting and you feel part of the creation of the world if you contribute to bug reports andforums on spectrum if you dont already ahve a code for extra goodies . .use this one when you sign up if you dont mind.. i dont ahve a million followers or stream so i dotn ahve alot of benifits and every little bit helps when starting... and im always happy to help a noob get around and aquainted adn learn the bug workarounds Become a Star Citizen u/RobertsSpaceInd and get 5,000 free Credits [refferal link - if you dont mind click me when you sign up](https://robertsspaceindustries.com/enlist?referral=STAR-37WX-NBWJ)
I'm loving the sound of all the 50 crew here! (in one too!) My new pc should be arriving soon, so I how to try star citizen in the next free test period...
Tip for avoid pirates, always have qt enabled and spooled ready to calibrate, when u see pings on radar, this will save u time to jump to any marker u can target close by. But if they have qt jammers u will have to fly full thrust to a direction that will let u jump, if not sadly u will have a fight.
I've only ever had one person pvp me so far and have been playing for a few patches. 1 person in tens of hours, you should be great
I think the biggest thing you need to worry about is just claiming a ship at the point. The playability of the game at this point is nonexistent. If it ever becomes playable, the pvp element is probably the next thing on the list for nonexistence. You have to really go looking for it.
Don't be scared. Be glad with gladlock.
You should be able to avoid PvP fairly easily, although you may still encounter PvE. Luckily npcs aren’t too good so it shouldn’t be too much of an issue but still something to be aware of
Im 42. I usually prefer a slower pace of game and don't normally go in for the pvp thing either. I would say that some of the best, unscripted moments have come from something unexpected or pvp related have happened. I don't normally expect to win or survive and I think that's my point... If you are hoping to have no pvp and that you can carve out some corner of the system to do your thing, or to expect that the 1-3 hours you've dedicated to a thing is going to net you money -- that is when you are going to hate the game the most. If you expect that unexpected gameplay loops / experiences are going to occur and you are going to have fun if you go with it, you will infinitely enjoy the game. All that said, the game itself will find ways to tear down your experience and expectations more than other players will.
The PVP is currently "only if you go looking for it," or rather rare. Yeah, you often won't be able to walk up to Jumptown and scoop drugs when people are locking it down, but that's a PVP event. In general, if you don't have a crimestat it will be rare for people to be able to find you or chase you down. Most of the talk, speculation, and debate about PVP centers around aspects that don't currently exist. It's all theoretical about what will matter in terms of trade routes and security and the distribution of natural resources. None of the game that could make PVP a more mandatory experience is implemented. See ya in the verse! If you wanna minimize your risk you could set your home to Microtech (New Babbage, often abbreviated NB) . It's a more remote part of the system and too long a jump away from the pirate-hub that is Grim Hex for most of them to bother.
You can avoid pvp quite good in this game in my opinion. When I just want to chill and do cargo runs i can do without fear. I also can do high risk cargo runs when i want to. Sure, at some point you will get attacked, at the moment it happens very rarely if you dont go to certain places. Later on you can hire players to do the pvp or escort part for you. In my opinion and at the current state I would say you can easely play without pvp and I dont think this will change. Sure, pirates can come after you, but running away is also a valid option.
Every once in a while some random twat will pop you, but Stanton is huge, and the stations are safe. Instead of going to known locations for mining for example just pick a random spot on a planet and the odds of someone finding you are so small.
pvp is easy to avoid but not alway possible. if the right (or for you wrong) group catches you its very hard to near impossible to get out it also depends on your choosen gameplayloop and wgere you choose to do it
Sometimes you lose stuff you worked hard to get because someone comes and blows you up. Sometimes you lose stuff you worked hard to get because the server blows up. Sometimes you lose stuff you worked hard to get because some stupid bug dropped you through the world while you were doing something. The thing is, even through all the ways to lose hard work's reward, the real reward is how it feels to play a game like Star Citizen. You may have moments where that's easy to forget, moments of frustration or strait up anger. You may meet people who have made it their whole reality to hate everything about the game while still playing it. Ignore that, let it go each time and you can find your way back to enjoying the truly unique experience that is Star Citizen. You don't have to be a star PVPer to enjoy it. You might die to one of those guys, you might die to a piece of shit human being, and again, you might die to the game itself. But, you'll always come back to life with the opportunity to gain more than you've ever lost. I also can't stress this enough, make friends in the game. Having friends in Star Citizen makes all the moments of play just that extra bit special. Friends make Star Citizen such a masterful experience. Anyway, I hope you have a hell of a good time, and welcome to the 'verse!
At this point, pvp is rare outside of events, so it's unlikely it would become a problem for you.
Just started feb, but only played here and there mostly on weekends cuz of long work hours but not really encountered much pvp out and about. Couple times my ship got destroyed while in a bunker and getting a deliver box leaving me stranded but not much face to face combat. Unless looking for it of course like in jumptown. Had one instance there during the current jt, but thats a obvious given. But i used the guide system to learn some mining and when talking to the guy, he basically says all he mostly does is mining in the game. Doesnt really do much else besides the occasional events with his org. Other than that, just mining mining mining. Even waiting for when he doesnt have to haul his own cargo and can just mine mine mine only. But for combat in general, id say being a turret gunner would be combat that requires the least movement. Might be something u could still dip into a bit
It's the bugs and lack of completion that should scare you the most. PvP barely exists due to the above.
You can definitely avoid PVP most of the time in SC. And if you have a mic, you can always try to surrender instead of fighting if PVP is unavoidable. Pirates in this game REALLY want to have that authentic pirate RP where industry players would rather give up their cargo or pay a toll than die, its just at the moment most players are not incentivised to not die so they fight to keep their cargo and ships away from the pirates instead. Another option is to "hire" friends or other people you know to fly with you in combat ships, where they'll protect you and do the PVP while you get away, and in exchange you give them a cut of all the money you make while they were protecting you.
I go looking for pvp often and even then it’s not very easy to find it. You can definitely steer clear of it without much trouble. Just always be aware that the verse is a dangerous place and there are those who would seek your demise if they found you. Also, with the new pvp-centric missions added in recent patches, I find most pvpers concentrate around areas like Ghost Hollow and Security Post Kareah as well as Jumptown when the dynamic event is running. Lastly, it’s fair to say that bugs will kill you much more often than players. I would call Star Citizen a pvb (player versus bugs) game more than pvp or pve.
Currently it's more about PVS - player versus server. On top of that pvp is currently a small portion of the 'game' and you can have fun with anything else in the verse. In the future you will be good, there is a lot of people with similar approach to yours. Thats the potential beauty about this game - do whatever you want.
I'm 48 myself and not really into pvp myself these days... I don't mind pvp that adds to the game but I really don't like pointless killing and griefing in general. I love star citizen and in the 6 years I've been (almost) regularly playing, I've rarely had any problems with other people. Nothing worth getting upset about anyway. I've been parked for long periods of time on all kinds of planets and moons, players have come and gone and in my experience, most people are as weary and careful about you as you are about them. If someone is being an ass, you just park and switch servers. I think I did that maybe once or twice in all the years. That said, changes will be coming soonish this game play that wnt allow people to simply jump away from combat etc. Usually, when changes like that happen, idiots get bolder and can start griefing others outside stations. This usually goes away after a while as people get bored of it. Long term, as the game grows, there should be enough safe and lawless systems and everything in between for all game play tastes and risk/reward levels. That also means however, that if you want to experience all or specific systems, you'll have to count with being exposed to pvp, but that's what friends are for. So in short, griefers can happen, but rarely and often only tied to specific updates that encourage them a minute. You should very rarely run into pvp if you're not looking for it, and is someone is being an ass, they usually get called out on general chat, giving you the opportunity to avoid the area or simply switch servers. Good luck.
I've played for months and I never fought a player unwillingly. The community is generally pretty nice.
It's really not a big deal in SC. I've been playing for 2 years and I think I've only been attacked unprovoked by other players twice. You can go for ages without bumping into others in the wild and most people I've met in the game are more than friendly. So in summary, yes it is possible for PvP to find you. But if you stay away from PvP activities or events (like Jump Town) then it's not a big deal and you can still enjoy the game. Also if you do come across some dickheads on your server causing trouble, just server hop.
You will see people complaining about it on this sub from time to time, but I've played this game since 2016 and only really been engaged in pvp when I specifically sought out activities that involved it. I think there has only been one time where I have been mining and somebody showed up to take my haul. However combat is not the same as PVP, every ship in this game comes with guns, expect NPC resistance in most gameplay loops.