So what's the best way of gaining merits?

[Aleks Zuno]

Indeed I imagine Frontier prefers there to be no best way, given the quite active responses to balance various actions! Generally the Power kills seems to be around half that Rare commodities rate, or a bit more if combined with Search and rescue in a Reinforcement system, but at this stage I imagine it becoming more balanced later.

Power kills also have their moments; some interdictions are just a single ship worth 53, some are hidden high-value targets in a low-rank and often no-shield ship but worth over 100, and some come with wings and passing convoys which can be slain merrily for several hundred total!

Generally I just want to do Power kills, where secondary Search and rescue is something I can add to be a bit more efficient, but if all of that will always be a league below something else then I would finish the little undermine project I started, do the laziest thing I can to reach rank 100, then stop.

 

[zimms]

Although I am repeating myself: You can't make the blanket statement "rares are the way to go". It's very power dependant. Rare trading for those who have it listed as preferred activity seels very lucrative (like 30 to up to 40 merits per unit), while for those who don't, it's not so great - I keep saying, with Kaine, I bottom out at 19 merits per unit.

Don't blatantly spread "rares is the way" without looking at the circumstances.

I guess the current balance "issue" is that even if it's not a preferred activity for your power, rares trading is still miles ahead of e.g. combat.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I guess the current balance "issue" is that even if it's not a preferred activity for your power, rares trading is still miles ahead of e.g. combat.

That may be so. For me and my personal Kaine situation it's not so drastic - I don't ferry rares in large amounts (if I do I do it with a 64t Mandalay), and I am certainly not the quickest or most efficient player, but I am almost as efficient making and collecting escape pods and salvage as I am with rare goods. In the time it takes to fly to a rare goods supply, collect and fly back, I can collect up to ten pods and a bit of salvave, and for pods collected in reinforcing systems I got 61 merits per pod last night, plus the salvage and damaged pods. Not quite as good as rares, but not too far off, in contrast to rares for other powers who get twice to 2.5 times the merits for rares I get for Kaine.

What I am trying to say: For some powers, the imbalance between rares and the rest seems huge, agreed.

(edites because I cannot spell)

 

[Lu-v H8-2020]

Rares are definitely the way to go for reinforcing. Any idea about how to undermine at that scale? Someone did this almost immediately, and I have no idea how. Even stockpiling, I don't know what you can stockpile to move things this much in the negative direction.
View attachment 407035

Seeing the UM progress, will that turn the system into unoccupied, or very unoccupied?

 

[Lu-v H8-2020]

Rare commodities seem not to be an option for me—unless they are included within the text Transport Powerplay Commodities, which I presume refers to the quota collections from the Power contact. I imagine either it is more Power-dependent than that, or equally likely is that the listed actions make no difference and everything works for everyone!

from what it seems like, regardless of your PP ethos the actions you can undertake are available to all. The only difference is probably doing things according to your PP ethos will have a slight bonus. Are there maluses in some actions untold I wonder? I have no idea if ranked up agents with bonuses in specific actions (which are essentially the PP's ethos) makes them more efficient once they have those bonuses. Any ranking addicts out there that tested that out?
Sorry for the double post, I was hoping a forum posting lover would have not make it look like that by the time I finish!

 

[KelSolaar]

How is it possible to have so many merits so fast?

 

[kofeyh]

How is it possible to have so many merits so fast?

View attachment 407495

Rare trading. And 'fast' is a relative term (I was in top 10 for my power). What that potentially translates to, is many, many (many.. many.. many..) hours in the mind numbing collection of, then sale of.

Frontier has never, ever learned, that putting a reward at the end of a near-infinite horrendous grind, will absolutely just cause cmdrs to find the most efficient path. I am convinced they do this now, just because they can, and it's some sort of sport to watch commanders (quite legitimately) game the system.

--

I've just seen what exploration potentially might return now, and dear lord - it's not good.

 

[varonica]

Frontier has never, ever learned, that putting a reward at the end of a near-infinite horrendous grind, will absolutely just cause cmdrs to find the most efficient path. I am convinced they do this now, just because they can, and it's some sort of sport to watch commanders (quite legitimately) game the system.

Frontier: "Now you can earn merits and advance your power doing just what you normally do while playing!"

Players: "I must grind this single activity forevermore!"

 

[kofeyh]

Frontier: "Now you can earn merits and advance your power doing just what you normally do while playing!"

Players: "I must grind this single activity forevermore!"

Take your time. Enjoy. I do not begrudge anyone getting enjoyment out of the game, whichever way, or however that transpires. Whether it's highly, highly efficient use of time and resources (ie grinding) or to be vibes and chill; either is perfectly fine.

Trying to define what is an acceptable way to approach the game (well meaning or not) imho is just sucking oxygen out of the room and offloading personal disappointment on others, rather than the people who built the game.

Frontier have released an update and yes it's a bit rough (they all have been, to some extent) but it's pulled up the player count, which hopefully is a combo of returning players and new alike. A good thing that helps Frontier be able to continue development.

Personally I'd like Frontier to stop being so bloody-minded and reactionary at times, or be less inconsistent with how they offset merits, for example. But in some ways that's part of their charm. They just sort of womble along doing what they seem to enjoy and if the game is mostly playable then I just get on with enjoying it, really.

If it stops being enjoyable and I am not having a good time, I'll just put it aside for a while. Just as I did last time.

 

[Dragsham]

Can l ask a dumb question.?

Can I earn merits even though I've not done the weeklys (all of em yet)

 

[Phill P]

Can l ask a dumb question.?

Can I earn merits even though I've not done the weeklys (all of em yet)

Yes, even without doing weekly chores you get merits for doing the activities asked for in the system tab on the right of the galmap.

 

[kofeyh]

Can l ask a dumb question.?

Can I earn merits even though I've not done the weeklys (all of em yet)

Just a minor correction to the post above, as long as you have done this at least once (ie complete all tasks in a single week) to unlock access to rank progression, then yes, it appears that full completion is only required that one time, and the weeklies become optional 'fun things to do' (well, I assume that's what Frontier intends). Merits are earned (on the relevant activities) regardless.

Which is a good thing, as some of the items on my list this week are technically impossible to complete.. xD

 

[Agony_Aunt]

I suspect this will settle down once the grinders have got level 100 and the remaining are either not grinding for ranks or just doing PP activities for the sake of actually doing PP.

Also early days, when FD are still balancing things, so its the best time to exploit balance issues.

Its like the very early days of elite where Luxury items trading could earn you megabucks well beyond what any other activity could give you, and hell, rares trading was the darling of grinders in the early days as well.

 

[kofeyh]

Rares, they sure have been handy over the years.

 

[varonica]

Whether it's highly, highly efficient use of time and resources (ie grinding) or to be vibes and chill; either is perfectly fine.

Oh I have no objection to people who enjoy grinding doing that, it's the people who grind, then complain bitterly they have been forced to grind and demand the game be changed so they can achieve the same end without putting in any effort, it's them my comment was directed at.

 

[kofeyh]

Oh I have no objection to people who enjoy grinding doing that, it's the people who grind, then complain bitterly they have been forced to grind and demand the game be changed so they can achieve the same end without putting in any effort, it's them my comment was directed at.

I dunno, sounds a lot like complaining about people complaining. Sounds exhausting. xD

 

[Phill P]

I dunno, sounds a lot like complaining about people complaining. Sounds exhausting. xD

Nevertheless, it's relevant. Those asking how can I cheese the game without any effort are where questions like "what's the easiest and best thing to do" comes from.

I find asking "how can I cheese this with minimal effort" to be a pointless exercise because anything that cheeses it at the moment won't last, sooner or later the machine will be balanced out so everything is as valuable as everything else. This isn't like the war machine where months went by without a rebalance. It'll be continuous until that happens.

 

[WhiteHaulerMan]

Rare commodity trading, so far.

I wonder if that means delivering Onionhead for the King would yield a good result?

Flashes up the Smuggler Adder in a week to test

 

[Phill P]

I wonder if that means delivering Onionhead for the King would yield a good result?

Flashes up the Smuggler Adder in a week to test

Kappa Fornacis to Harma: 124.62 ly. Not bad, not brilliant.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Can I earn merits even though I've not done the weeklys (all of em yet)

All merits earned count.

If you've not done the initial five activities, you don't have Power rank, so you don't get bonuses for them (but your merits are still being tracked, and you will jump multiple ranks at once when they're complete)

After that they're optional bonus activities - do them if it's convenient or an incentive to try something new, ignore them if they look like a chore.