Alternate PvE Proposal: Temporary Ceasefire map condition (see caption for details and reasoning)

[u/travhimself]

THE IDEA

Create a Temporary Ceasefire major map condition. Put it in the rotation with other major map events. Keep the loot super limited: no items beyond blue (rare) quality. Increase the arc presence. You can do your quests and hunt arc, but you can't gain a big power advantage.

THE REASONING

Why this, instead of an always-available PvE mode? Low-risk raiding should be a reprieve; a small treat. Not the standard.

If you remove most of the risk, you remove most of the reward. The danger is the whole point in a game like this.

Without danger, we lose lose the serendipity. You don't need to make friends or find out who people are and what they're up to. You don't have the little moments like accidentally shooting someone and then trying to make it up to them. Or the dilemma of deciding whether to defib a stranger who could be an adversary.

PvE also removes a lot of hard and soft gaming skills. I don't have to mind my aim in order to stay friendly. I don't have to say "Hey I'm friendly, what's up dude." There's no more flashlight friend-or-foe indicator. The sound of a powerful weapon no longer gets my hackles up. I don't need to listen for footsteps.

Lastly, open PvE could wreck the economy. You shouldn't be able to free-farm materials.

Adaptive matchmaking works. If you've earned your way deep into the friendly ranks, you can play all evening without getting shot at. This should suffice for most dads and uncles. But the risk is always there in the back of your mind.

And for those that need a boost now and then, we have a rotating Temporary Ceasefire map condition.

[u/LetMeBeGay]

It’s 100% a lack of content. Or, maybe 95%. But still. we saw a massive spike of players with the new content drop. That’s what everyone was anticipating. I don’t even think many people knew about the PvE trial.

I think if they keep putting out stellar content like this, the player base will remain healthy. And it never really became “unhealthy” anyway.

[u/KidswasteALT → u/LetMeBeGay]

Was it? Based on what? Because the tweet announcing the PvE toggle has nearly twice as many likes as the Frozen Trials announcement, and that pattern holds. That clearly shows more are anticipating a PvE-only mode. I’ll be very interested to see the numbers if/when they show them because I think a lot of people underestimate just how many solely PvE players there are.

[u/F4NT4SYF00TB4LLF4N → u/KidswasteALT]

"a lot of people underestimate just how many solely PvE players there are."

I dont know if this is true. I think when people are referring to this, its the fact that a game like Arc Raiders only has so much content you can do, and removing PVP dramatically shortens how much content there is to do.

Really what people are referring to is that PVE-only players will show up in droves for new content, and quickly "finish" it, and move onto other games. So you will see much larger population swings.

While if a game supports PVP, youll see less of that (potentially, if the game is good and the PVP is good) because its endless replayability that doesnt depend as much on new content.

When you offer both - PVE Only and PVP options. It can harm the PVP Cycle of the game, especially an extraction. You can "Gear up" in PVE Only because its less risk. Which means the "PVP-On" lobbies will get much much sweatier, as people can get geared up much easier, with less risk in PVE. When PVP gets too sweaty, PVP players will leave. Sometimes you just wanna chill and PVP with like free or cheap kits... but it wont feel good vs decked players.

Ultimately, rather than things like aggression based, PVP, PVE only, matchmaking. I would love to see some options around kit value for matchmaking purposes.

Some lobbies could be mostly free, some lobbies could be decked out. Some lobbies inbetween.

I think having "High Roller" lobbies that have like minimum 60k or 100k loadouts could be cool. I also think events like Matriarch could be PVE-Only given the nature of that event and wouldnt subtract much from the PVP side of the game.

Anyways, I think this discussion is far more nuanced

[u/LetMeBeGay → u/KidswasteALT]

First, you’re using Twitter likes as a metric, I’m not entertaining that.

They’ve released those numbers already. They are literally about split down the middle. PvPvE 33%, PvE 33%, PvP 33%. I think PvE has the most.

Regardless, adding a permanent PvE toggle would absolutely destroy the PvPvE’s (another 33% of the base) experience because it would become way too binary. I’ve already experienced this and it’s been 24 hours. A binary experience just doesn’t work in a game like this, and I’m sure Embark realizes that. If it didn’t absolutely destroy the PvPvE experience, I would be okay with it. Unfortunately, so far, I am finding that it does, and lots of others online are reporting the same. It just doesn’t work. They can’t change the game that fundamentally without ruining the experience for the people who play in the middle—and that’s what the game was marketed as in the first place, so I don’t think they’ll change that at all. ABMM seems like the best middle ground. It works 98% of the time, but still exposes you to a rare PvP encounter. If someone can’t handle dying 2% of the time, this genre is absolutely not for them.

[u/KidswasteALT → u/LetMeBeGay]

And they released those stats how long ago? And by how much has the player count decreased since? You spoke of anticipation. Social media likes are a fine metric to gain some indication of people’s excitement for a thing, but I understand why you’d want to dismiss them.

[u/LetMeBeGay → u/KidswasteALT]

They released the metrics less than a month ago when they announced they were doing the PvE test. The player count really can’t be utilized for this because they not only just dropped a huge update, but they also had a free weekend. That data is specifically just unreliable.

[u/KidswasteALT → u/LetMeBeGay]

We’ll see how it plays out. 🤷‍♀️ But claiming this game isn’t for those that want a PvE-only mode while the developers behind it are trialing one is a bit silly.

[u/Lurkeristrolling → u/LetMeBeGay]

I think a lot of the pvpve playerbase  quit because of cheaters it was almost every game in the higher aggression trios lobbies 

[u/F4NT4SYF00TB4LLF4N → u/LetMeBeGay]

Pretty much lack of support and content. People get bored. I did 2 or 3 (I forget) expeditions, I think I'm on my 3rd "character" and lost all motivation to play. Nothing to do. I'd amass a massive vault of millions and nothing to do. I wanted new maps, new modes, new weapons, new experiences... And also to fix cheaters. Then Embark came out and said they were putting out content too fast and were going to slow down. That's when they lost me.

[u/FalloutCreation → u/LetMeBeGay]

I dropped the game after the first month. I just got bored with it. Yeah I binged a little. I only decided to look at the game again because of the frigate. I thought that was a cool idea. Plus I’m playing the PVE mode. It’s something I wanted since launch. I think it’s more exciting to play PVP because the pve mode seemed really empty. At least I can fight arcs without people backstabbing me.

I think a cease-fire would be great for a periodic event. Allowing players to finish quests. Since we already have night raids which makes the loot better I think those should stay PVP.