Elite Dangerous Thread

[fearlessfrog]

When it comes to making money they are razor sharp on making sure it can’t happen.

The trouble is now you have a player base where the standard-deviation of wealth is too high, as in, a chunk of people now either are at ‘end-game billions’, while someone starting today is looking on and hitting F5 on reddit waiting for the next exploit. In the middle are a bunch of others squeezing stress balls and repeating the mantra ‘It doesn’t matter who else gets rich, I am happy, it doesn’t matter who…’ etc.

It’s an odd situation, but common in economy games. Our space-bucks hyper-inflation, but without the economy bits.

[Navynuke99]

I find it all very confusing as to why making money in game is a bad thing. I’ve been playing on and off since the release, and I didn’t break one hundred million until I went out exploring for six months. Everything else I enjoy doing in game seems to pay peanuts in comparison, and while I’d like a bigger ship, I’m not going to grind on things I don’t enjoy - which is why I avoid most combat, especially PvP.

[fearlessfrog]

I think the game design is based on a bit of a misunderstanding on what the player wants. The devs think that the game loops (delivering cargo, fighting pirates, exploring) are the real reward, while the players often see the money from these things as the reward, and really then as only a way to open new content they want. Content in this case means better/bigger ships and ship modules (bigger guns etc).

I think for a lot of players getting to try new/better ships is the aim of the game. I think the developers have trouble seeing beyond the original Elite 1984 concept of the current mission types, and the money being just an incidental reward for the ‘fun game loops’. It’s sort of quirk of history that we have a modern game based on a time where it was impossible to have a lot of content meant that ‘repeating the same thing’ was the best way to extend the gameplay. The people who enjoy the zen-like repetition are the happiest, but it is a really odd contrast to a lot of games we usually play today.

The basic game loops are fun enough, but are very repetitive. For the developers, they think the currency is ‘credits’ while actually it is really ‘player time’. They mistook player time as being free and inexhaustible which means the appeal of the ‘meta game’ will always be a bit out of sync with a lot of people think they want.

Just my 2 cents. I’ve really enjoyed the game but am pretty much played out now. Great value and fun for what it was though. The Guardians stuff didn’t really ‘hook’ me as yet, but thinking I’ll come back to it. Another issue with this ‘time content’ (where things happen in the galaxy at a certain time) is that now I think I missed the Thargoid stuff so feel less keen to get back into it.

EDIT:

I don’t want to be critical without saying how I think it could be better.

Their design team need to play more MMOs. Elite needs ‘instance dungeons’. They need complex chained missions which breaks the ‘we are all in the galaxy together’ system they have now. I want to go on an adventure and team up with other people to do something dramatic and Hollywood. I want to gather a crew, a team (a tank, a healer, a range etc. with roles that require different ships/modules) and go defeat the Thargoids at a non-procedural created, hand-crafted-graphics system. I want there to be a story in that dungeon, and for it to be hard. I want to use the money and ships I gather to try to defeat these ‘stories’. It would be single player or, say, a 4 player wing. They need a writer and someone that has played games that need a good story. The sandbox is great, but sand is too dry forever.

[Navynuke99]

Dude, you nailed it here, especially with the currency being “player time.”

[Navynuke99]

Obsidian Ant puts it into words really well too.

Elite Dangerous - Credit "Exploits" are NOT the Problem

[Andrew116]

@fearlessfrog pretty sure there still is Tharagoid stuff going on, I believe a new type of ship was just discovered.

[fearlessfrog]

Yep, I had a quick fly around in a Chieftain last night. It’s sort of a Vulture-on-steroids and good for fighting.

There does seem to be plenty more Thargoid stuff on-going, but just had trouble getting into it so far, as didn’t do the ‘planet site puzzles’. I’m also not much a fighter, more a lover trader so the ‘poking the bear’ Thargoid scout ship stuff stuff hasn’t been my thing so far.

I think my main point is that adding in real time story arcs is (bigger picture) not the way to go in terms of richer missions etc. They need to ‘instance’ stuff for each player’s story I think.

[Navynuke99]

@fearlessfrog

There does seem to be plenty more Thargoid stuff on-going, but just had trouble getting into it so far

The other part of that is, combat ships and combat ship rebuys get expensive very, very fast. And from everything I’ve been seeing you need a pretty strong ship to hold up against most Thargoids, not to mention the fancy AX weapons and modules.

[Navynuke99]

@fearlessfrog

Yep, I had a quick fly around in a Chieftain last night. It’s sort of a Vulture-on-steroids and good for fighting.

I’m seriously considering trading up my Vulture for one of those–does it seem any more versatile?

[fearlessfrog]

It’s two big things are (a) the fact that because it’s Alliance, so it has no rank lock and (b) it has 3 military slots with a large hard-point but still nimble with upgraded class 6 thrusters. You need to be able to afford that kit for it to be useful I think.

The Federal Assault Ship is a better fighter, the Python is a better all-purpose, so the Chief seems to be pure fighter rather than being versatile.

The engineers sort of blur the lines a bit now as well and I haven’t unlocked a lot of the AX ones. I also haven’t really played it a lot so far, so I might be wrong on this.

[Navynuke99]

I’ve just started engineering, and I’m working on boosting the jump ranges for all my ships. Which means farming the everliving crap out of everything.

That was why skimmer missions were so great - I always found materials in POI’s while looking for skimmers to kill.

[Andrew116]

Well fed up with the usual grind and this week drama in Elite I got to thinking about when I first started playing. The early ships were kinda fun, you had to be careful with them with their limited fuel and short jump range. So I decided before I hang it up again in Elite to spend some time seeing the game… er simulation… sandbox… whatever…

So I launched out from my home away from home system Liaedin in my trusty Diamond Back ‘Echo 419’ and headed for the closest station marked “Repairing” which happened to the Bhal system.

Armstrong Enterprise:

I was quite surprised to find a station that was actually showed damage, lights flickering, scaffolding covering both the inside and outside. In places you could see caustic damage from attacks.

Quite moody and smokey inside…

I decided after fueling to head to the next closest station that had been attacked which was Nauni and Beaufoy station. Almost as soon as I warped in I was interdicted… that was his mistake lol

Then to make it more interesting an unknown signal popped up and thus was my first encounter with Thargoids…

I grabbed a quick screen shot before getting the heck out which does not do this scene justice. There were atleast 3-4 Thargoid ships pounding the crap out of a Python.

Beaufoy Vision showing some signs of damage. After fueling at Beaufoy I headed out for my final series of jumps, final destination for the night Maia.

Arriving at Maia.

Checking out the listening station at Maia. Near by I was surprised to find the mega ship Gnosis still loitering in system. I had heard that it was supposed to be warping out on the first.

Finally I arrived at Obsidian Orbital… I had heard that the station had been restored, but things were pretty locked down…

It was nice to not be grinding… and quite frankly the few times I checked out mission boards at station along the way the pay outs seemed even worse then they were before. We’ll see whats next, since I’m father out then I’ve ever been before I might keep going just to see what happens lol

[Navynuke99]

@Andrew116

It was nice to not be grinding… and quite frankly the few times I checked out mission boards at station along the way the pay outs seemed even worse then they were before.

Yeah, that’s been a huge debate again on the Frontier forums the last few days. EDSM has a pretty cool credit tracking feature, and extrapolated that based on my rate of credit earnings the last little bit, it will be just under a year for me to get to one billion credits. Yeah, the grind is real.

I’m actually planning on heading out your direction soon, as I need meta-alloys to unlock an engineer, and I’d kinda like to see a Thargoid myself as well.

[Navynuke99]

Last night, I was doing a “recover the commercial samples” mission in my Clipper, dropped in on the USS for the mission, and started recovering the containers. I’d just picked up the first one when I got jumped by a wing of small ships led by a Fer-de-Lance that popped my shields (G3 engineered 6C bi-weave) on the first salvo, and another full wing of small ships. I managed to escape with a little more than 50% of hull remaining.

Jumped to a station to repair, jumped back into the mission system and the USS to try and finish. This time I used collector limpets to try and collect he two remaining containers. Got one more in my hold, and got jumped by two wings again, this time led by a Conda. Once again, shields popped on the first volley, and I finally managed to escape with about 8% hull left.

Repaired again, went back in, got a mission update that a pirate would be hunting me, and I could earn an extra 180k Spacebucks for killing him. Ran in, got the last container, and boosted out before I could see if I was being followed.

A couple of Mm’s from the station to turn in the mission I got interdicted by the pirate mission target. I couldn’t beat it, and when I came out of the drop, found the mission target was once again a Conda with two full wings. Shields went squish, and I escaped with hull at about 40% to turn in the mission.

Total mission reward? Just over half a million Spacebucks. Rebuy for my Clipper is over a million. And again, a whopping potential 180k bonus for killing the winged, and probably engineered Anny on top of that.

This is the first time I’ve encountered this sort of thing on a “retrieve the x” mission.

Is this kind of thing supposed to be fun?

[schurem]

sounds fun

[Andrew116]

Yep same thing I was running into on black box recovery missions.

Also mining missions have been disabled

Hi everyone,

Just a quick note to let you know that we will be temporarily removing mining missions from the game, until we’re able to implement the next patch and set of hotfixes (I will let you know when the patch is coming as soon as possible).
Thank you for identifying this issue and bringing it to our attention. We have already identified a fix for it, and that will be coming in the next update as mentioned above.

For those interested, the issue is due to the introduction of the new mission reward choices, which is a large scale change that touches on almost all mission templates. Thanks for your patience while these are offline.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?p=6487611#post6487611

So that’s one third of the mission types unavailable right now…

[Navynuke99]

Eh, mining hasn’t been worth the time spent doing it for quite a while. Unless you can afford a huge, mostly automated ship with lots of refinery bins and scads of collector limpets.

[Tankerwade]

@Navynuke99

Eh, mining hasn’t been worth the time spent doing it for quite a while. Unless you can afford a huge, mostly automated ship with lots of refinery bins and scads of collector limpets.

And then it’s about as much fun as you would expect running a giant automated refinery would be…

[Navynuke99]

And Obsidian Ant has a take on this, again. I agree with him.

Elite Dangerous - What is Progression? (and the "20 Million Credits per MINUTE" missions)

[Bogusheadbox]

I guess it comes down to what people constitute as fun.

I have long known of a many a Gold Rush get money quick schemes, but have not partaken in them. On the other hand, I do use the “stacking” or “board hopping” to up the amount I receive. But I have purposefully shied away from anything that gives 100+ mill per hour.

Getting all that money so quickly takes away the fun for me. For instance. Lets go back to where it all became popular and that was slave running.

There was a certain station in a system that offered a humongous amounts of slaving missions. But the get rich quick scheme was to NOT do the mission. Instead you would take all the missions + board hop, abandon the mission and just sell the slaves back to the place you bought them. Rinse wash repeat. Big money real fast.

For me, I didn’t see the fun in that. I went there, and yes I board hopped/stacked. But I did the actual missions. I thought these were brilliant, challenging and time consuming missions. Doing the actual mission meant you had to plan a flight of about 30+ jumps through a non refuelling area whilst being chased the whole way by security. If they scanned you, all your missions instantly failed. Not to mention that you also had to sneak into every drop off station as the slaves were illegal.

They were fun and I made lots of money doing that. But it took planning, tactics and some luck to accomplish it. Ok I wasn’t making 100+ mil/hour, but I had fun and made a good chunk of money.

So to this day, I still stay away from these “gold rush” exploits. Ohhh its not hard to find out about them as they are on youtube as soon as they discovered.

I consider gold rush exploits to be like playing in solo play. Whats the point, you are only taking added gameplay out of the game.

Unfortunately exploits have been around since game release. ED knows about them, its just a shame they only do something about it when it gets a lot of media attention. Take Board hopping/stacking for example. They fixed that at one point but then let it all back in and are not bothered about it. Its also a key part of making 100’s of mil per hour if used with a gold rush exploit.

One of the most recent exploits that have just been fixed is the multiple rare resource gathering bug from doing the guardian base puzzle.

But what is the problem here? For me, the biggest problems are those that actively do gold rush exploits, the game fixes the exploit saving average joe like you and me from doing it but leaves the people who have exploited with all their earnings and materials and in a game with billions of cash to which they can fly with impunity.

But that is them and I am me. I am happy not power playing and chasing gold rush missions. I like to do what I want in the game. I think it adds more fun that way.