Sethcran

Personally, I'm in the boat of a 50/50 type player.
 
Solo play needs to be supported, simply because friends are not always online, so in order to keep people in the game, solo play must be feasible. If it is feasible, then some players will choose to do it. That's their right, and it doesn't really negatively impact me, so they're welcome to it.
 
That being said, if I've learned anything from playing EvE online (the only other big sandbox game with truly emergent gameplay), it's that playing with a group completely changes the game and makes it so much more fun. I think that everyone intending to play the game solo should seriously consider at least giving one of these organizations a shot, because there is such a difference in the stories, politics, and fights that are just simply not attainable while playing solo.
 
That said, I'll play solo some both because I'll be on when friends aren't, and sometimes I just like the idea of solo roaming combat (did it for a long time in eve, both in low sec and null sec.)

Whether or not this is useful has a lot to do with the crafting system and how it works. I'm not sure if details on that have been announced yet (if so, I'd love to be informed).
 
In many games, such as WoW, where the items that you build have individual stats that are based solely on the item being created, resource quality doesn't really have any impact other than to say "I have x amount of this required quality to build this item".
 
In games like Star Wars Galaxies, the stats on the resource directly impacted the stats on the final item. Personally, I'd love to see a system like this.
 
In DU, I think there are really 2 areas that quality could enter construction. First, the raw materials used when creating voxel structures and ships. This likely wouldn't impact much beyond durability and mass though, though could be used to make a better version of an object if higher end materials are present. The second, is items themselves. We know that we'll be able to get objects that add functionality to our ships (such as weapons). The stats on these weapons could well be based on quality of the materials.
 
That said, if we do end up with a system where there's quality, I'd like it to be more interesting than just quality 5 > quality 1. Using SWG again an example, resources had multiple stats (randomly generated) and different items used these stats in different quantities. Thus, it would make the crafting game much more interesting and knowledge based when the best crafters can figure out which proportions of impurities yield better results in their weapons.

Personally, I'm in the boat of a 50/50 type player.
 
Solo play needs to be supported, simply because friends are not always online, so in order to keep people in the game, solo play must be feasible. If it is feasible, then some players will choose to do it. That's their right, and it doesn't really negatively impact me, so they're welcome to it.
 
That being said, if I've learned anything from playing EvE online (the only other big sandbox game with truly emergent gameplay), it's that playing with a group completely changes the game and makes it so much more fun. I think that everyone intending to play the game solo should seriously consider at least giving one of these organizations a shot, because there is such a difference in the stories, politics, and fights that are just simply not attainable while playing solo.
 
That said, I'll play solo some both because I'll be on when friends aren't, and sometimes I just like the idea of solo roaming combat (did it for a long time in eve, both in low sec and null sec.)

If anyone is discouraged by what you've wrote, they clearly don't understand the concept of 'alpha release', and I would struggle to see how their presence in a game in that stage would benefit it's development or progress.
 
As #4 said - alpha is a volunteer job, rather than 'playing' 'early access'.  You stating you would rather wait and fully enjoy the finished product instead, only shows you understand that basic concept, and good on you for being honest with what you feel is best for your experience with regards to something that I believe all of us here are very passionate for.