I’m not sure I understand the logic of the dueling mechanic.
I’m a solo player, and I don’t duel anyone, because there are just too many ways to game the matchup. After a duel request has been accepted, you can reship into a completely different ship. You can get remote help from teammates, and the only penalty for them is a suspect flag.
So there is no way to judge the risk in a duel, because you may end up facing a completely different situation than you signed up for.
My question is, what is the logic behind this? Why would ANYONE accept a duel, ever, except between teammates practicing tactics?
It seems to me that duels should be a very special form of limited engagement, with two rules:
– No reshipping. If you reship, the limited engagement ends. If one player’s ship is destroyed, the limited engagement ends.
– No help. Anyone attempting to remote boost/damp duelers sees a warning dialog. If they proceed, they are CONCORDed.
They largely don’t, but this reason alone is reason for mechanic to exist. There needs to be a way, or at least it is very useful, for players have the ability to consensually turn of CONCORD for many things including practice.
Not really. You can use the mechanic to settle a matter of honour with a 1v1 at the sun, but this is a sandbox game, so you are open to interference by anyone else in the universe, or a double-cross by your opponent. If you don’t trust the other side to be honourable, then don’t use the mechanic as it doesn’t force the other side to any conditions or fairness - it just allows you both to shoot each other.
Again though, that doesn’t make it useless, but it does mean that it won’t ensure a fair fight on its own. For that you need additional arrangements or engage in alternative arrangements to ensure trust.
Just click the thing that ignores duel request in settings. There’s no reason to duel in this game. If some one wants to, there must be a card not being shown.
Thanks, guys. That’s what I thought. Too bad; dueling could be fun. It might be cool to have a dueling “arena” that is a subspace pocket that only holds two people. Pilots can sign up to fight, perhaps with ships matched on the basis of EHP/DPS or something.
This ^^
If your corp does not allow friendly fire and you want to practice tackling, duelling is a way not to get shot down by the blue armada. And of course if you have that somewhat weird pal in Dodixie who you use to fight every wednesday for fun, you also may not want other players or CONCORD to interfere.
It’s like sex: It still exists even though the vast majority does not consent to interact this way with unknown strangers
I’m new to the game and always get invites to duel turned down. Not like I/m mega skilled or anything yet, I just want to learn pvp and get a taste of it. This might be the reason everyone declines, because I might have assistance or switch ships?
Most people in highsec aren’t just ready & looking for fights with random strangers. That’s why they turn you down for the most part, although they may suspect some trickery too. In highsec you may have better luck getting duels if you are in a trade hub like Jita, Amarr, Rens or Hek - I know one very good PvPer who got his start that way (plus its a good place to learn to use those dirty tricks yourself).
The usual thing for new players looking for some 1v1 frigate PvP is to roam around in faction warfare regions of lowsec. You will find more like-minded people who are actually looking for fights that way, no duelling mechanics required.
There are a number of player run dueling chats in the game where you can indeed find a fair duel. Imagine you’ve bought a pair of boxing gloves, would you roam the streets putting your dukes up to random strangers and hoping for a fair fight or would you go to a boxing club?
As for random in space duels, they become winnable when your situational knowledge gets to the point you can account for most kinds of double cross, or even to the point that you want them to double cross you so you can triple cross them back.
