the effect of rope cutting mechanic for solo player
When I saw the trailer and the rope cutting mechanic I was not at all surprised. It's an obvious addition to the game. Some will love it, others will hate it.
As a solo player I am not much worried by this new mechanic and can see potential advantages.
As a solo player, I usually extract gold loot immediately, following a simple procedure:
1/ call in extraction
2/ hide somewhere while awaiting the helicopter (preferably from a spot where I can see the extraction area)
3/ just as the helicopter arrives, rush to the extraction. pop survivor link and drop mine before hanging up the loot.
Survivor link protects me against rogues and NPC's and the mines keep the NPC's busy.
With the new rope mechanic I'll have to adjust the procedure:
1/ call in extraction
2/ hide somewhere while awaiting the helicopter (preferably from a spot where I can see the extraction area)
3/ if other players arrive on the scene, assume they either want to cut the rope after i am done or that they will consider me hostile if arrive after them. In that case, best course of action is to move to another extraction area
4/ If i am the first one to arrive at the extraction, hang up my loot
5/ while awaiting departure of heli, hide nearby where I can see and fire on the rope.
6/ If after I left a single player arrives and cut the rope, kill him from a safe distance as he goes rogue
7/ if after i left a team comes and cut the rope, consider my loot lost.
Currently I consider any loot with gear score below 204 as invaluable, so if I lose 1 extraction because of rope cutting, it won't be that of a disaster.
I think the only meaningfull effect of this mechanic will be an increase in rogue players. But since solo players rarely attack rogue teams, the effect will be only temporary.