As Eternal.Journey mentioned, a lot of players who mainly fly transports aren't all that good at PvP. Case in point: My wife @Kayla Trevarthian , who is an author/writer at heart, is only playing Freelancer because the RP is fun and interesting. I have her in a Democritus Liner, for several reasons:
It's a transport, which means most IDs cannot simply kill her without a piracy demand.
For those IDs that can pirate her, she can just.. Comply with the demand to avoid being shot? (wow, what a concept)
Its the "I guess its good enough" aesthetic ship option she picked, since our previous 2020-era restaurant RP ship, the Geisha, was taken from us (yes i'm still salty about that).
Her skills in not just PvP, but flying her ship in general equate to "Target my husband, press F4, and let him fly for me - 3D controls confusing, I just wanna chat!"
Only last Sunday did my wife finally get to try out any real combat training, and that was only because a friend offered to tutor her and assess both her and mine's combat skills. After some basic maneuver testing and keybind checks, we went out and did the Penny encounter, then the Manhattan encounter.
Vs. the tuned-for-newer-players encounter, she did okay, once she got her bearings while trying to figure out "How do I target the enemy, turn my ship, thrust, strafe, aim, AND SHOOT, all at the same time, in an environment that is VERY disorienting to me??"
Against the Manhattan encounter, I noticed her struggle and kinda freeze up while being swamped with information overwhelm, and started trying to shoot at NPCs far outside of gun range. I feel that the only reason that she didn't get blown up, is the fact that she hit so few NPCs that she was neutral and thus wasn't shot at after each wave ended.
Thanks to a scare with a WENDIGO post-training (loved that 45 min Manhattan atmosphere RP btw!), I have since had her replace her Broadsword with a Pelican, because Wendigos (among some of the other Wild ID factions), cannot openly engage someone UNLESS, they are flying a combat ship.
Here's another pain-point regarding the proposed 2.4:
I work 40 hours a week, these days. I cook dinner every night, and try to help with housework where I can. This leaves me with limited time to play each weekday night. These days, I much prefer to play an RP-focused, roving restaurant alongside my wife.
I don't want to PvP when I'm doing restaurant RP, hence - I have us in transports.
The Freelancer ID fits best for our entrepreneurial, be-our-own-boss style of RP. We literally, wouldn't be able to use the Freelancer ID anymore, because it doesn't allow ships over 3600 cargo (Imagine wanting to be an RP-focused Freelancer in a game called FREELANCER, but being told "no" because suddenly your ID doesn't allow you to fly PvP-protected ships, anymore.)
Most IDs can't blow us up outright. Pirates =/= terrorists.
The few IDs that CAN treat our trade ships as combat targets, are in dangerous areas of the game, which is the risk that we have accepted by being there.
I have thoughts regarding freighters, but I'll save that for another post, as I've talked a lot already.
PLEASE don't turn all of Sirius into a Blue Simulator vs. an RP-focused class of ship. I love this server SO darn much because of just how EASY and COMFORTABLY I can RP in it - No other game to me comes CLOSE to Discovery for RP environments.
Right now, I LOOOOVE our double-transport, Roving Restaurant RP a'la the Gaelic Wyvern Inn.
But this?
Please no...
Please don't make us go from, can-go-anywhere-at-any-time, fun-roving-RP, to..
"Welp, I-guess-I-just-move-my-ship-during-off-hours-and-park-at-a-base-100%-of-the-time and sit around hoping that RP'ers come, and not someone I have to swiftly F3 against and have my fun ruined for the evening.."
Plz no ;-;
The Gaelic Wyvern Inn
If you've interacted with us recently, please consider checking out our in-character Public Guest Reviews thread!
