Rares no longer being stocked????

Besides, as others have pointing out, there is no "end" to this game. Having a Conda just means you have the best ship, big deal.
Hell, I wouldn't even call it the 'best ship', necessarily. It's the biggest, sturdiest, with the most potential firepower, but it's a flying brick that can be outmaneuvered and killed by smaller cheaper ships easily enough (Power Plant's a nice juicy target on big ships). I think I'd still stick with the Asp, myself. I'd say 'best ship' is all a matter of personal tastes and playstyle. Or at least, it should be.

Anyway, good post. Really, if being able to afford any ship is the end of your experience for the game, what was the point? I'd rather a game where that's the beginning of a new experience, not considered a point to stop playing. I thought I was getting a sandbox, not a space equivalent of a hack-and-slash.
 
So you seriously believe it is worth travelling 180LY+ to sell 8 items? Seriously? The fuel costs alone would take the profit from a couple of the items, so you are travelling all that way for 90k.

I guess that depends on what ship your flying. For a sidewinder thats great money.

I assume Frontier are monitoring player activity, especially those who are earning credits and gaining ranks fastest. When they see some players are progressing at a much faster rate than they intended from particular trade routes or missions they try to re-balance the game.
 
I think rares were meant to be that, RARE. Pick one up or two and you travel the universe as a bonus trade item. I don't think it was too be a FOTM item to milk until they changed it.

except the game doesn't work that way... you cant afford to "store" items in your cargo on the off-chance that you might be able to sell them later: they effectively cost you that cargo space on every other cargo trip you make.

So the entire approach of "pick them as a bonus" is false, unless you just happen to be travelling the same 150-160LY to sell your non-rare cargo.
 
I think rares were meant to be that, RARE. Pick one up or two and you travel the universe as a bonus trade item. I don't think it was too be a FOTM item to milk until they changed it.

Uhuh, I think the problem here is that FD simply have no idea just how tenacious and single minded a lot of online gamers are :p It didn't really help them that the info on exactly where every rare was being generated, and how many etc was available to all in handy spreadsheet form in no time at all. Not sure whether all that data was collected manually or somehow mined from the game (not casting aspersions, I just don't know) but it made it far easier than they expected for people to max out profits on them.

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except the game doesn't work that way... you cant afford to "store" items in your cargo on the off-chance that you might be able to sell them later: they effectively cost you that cargo space on every other cargo trip you make.

So the entire approach of "pick them as a bonus" is false, unless you just happen to be travelling the same 150-160LY to sell your non-rare cargo.

Again, true but as we know there are a lot of things which are inconsistent between the philosophy behind the game and its actual mechanics in practice. They don't want us min/maxing, grinding routes etc.. prett sure Mr Braben wants everybody gently floating about the galaxy from system to system enjoying the sights, doing a trade here or there, having the odd chat with the random person you encounter every week or two, selling that leathery egg you've carried hundreds of lightyears... but the actual gameplay encourages, even enforces localised grinding both for rep and credits.
 
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Rares should be rare and pop up randomly in different places at different times, if you are guaranteed to get Peruvian Whiskey in Peru, it is no longer rare is it.
... but... you would be guaranteed? Being found in only one place is a form of rarity in its own, as has already been pointed out. Maybe you'd rather they be called specialty goods.

My main problem with your idea is that your implication means more RNG and less skill and knowledge. I think adding more RNG to this game is a bad, bad idea. If there's going to be variance in the availability in something, it should be an observable pattern that one can learn and profit from.
 
... but... you would be guaranteed? Being found in only one place is a form of rarity in its own, as has already been pointed out. Maybe you'd rather they be called specialty goods.

My main problem with your idea is that your implication means more RNG and less skill and knowledge. I think adding more RNG to this game is a bad, bad idea. If there's going to be variance in the availability in something, it should be an observable pattern that one can learn and profit from.

Lets be straight, there was no 'skill and knowledge' involved in looking at a spreadsheet, seeing immediately which run could max your profit for time then grinding it out.

Would be cool if rares were actually rare, some localised and fixed others random but also extremely profitable when you did come across them. But for people to accept that trading needs to be fixed.
 
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I guess that depends on what ship your flying. For a sidewinder thats great money.

I assume Frontier are monitoring player activity, especially those who are earning credits and gaining ranks fastest. When they see some players are progressing at a much faster rate than they intended from particular trade routes or missions they try to re-balance the game.
I would see no incentive to do long-haul rare trades in a Sidewinder, to be honest. It just never felt like something to do in a Sidewinder. If it's going to take multiple dozens of jumps to get from point A to point B, almost no-one is going to bother. Rare trading always felt like something intended for ships like well-upgraded Cobras or better, to me.

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Lets be straight, there was no 'skill and knowledge' involved in looking at a spreadsheet, seeing immediately which run could max your profit for time then grinding it out.

Would be cool if rares were actually rare, some localised and fixed others random but also extremely profitable when you did come across them. But for people to accept that trading needs to be fixed.
Did I say it should be exactly the same as it was? I've been agreeing with posters who suggested lowering the profits per ton or increasing the required range for best profits.

But thanks for reading into my posts what you want to read.
 
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I think they're taking the wrong approach to rares. Leaving it unchecked meant people could make killer profits. Now though it's pointless to put the effort in.

Instead they could allow a near unlimited amount to be bought, but from a random location for a limited time, and like the Onion Head, announce it through news - maybe with a bit of detective work to identify where to buy it from.

Do this on a random, time-limited basis. You can buy as much as you want - once per event. Make the events short but frequent so nobody is sore about missing an event. You will probably have to cover vast amounts of space within a short period if you want to take advantage of the "rush".
 
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I think it will make me move between rares more now. I have kind of fallen into a pattern of going to a new rare station exploring systems along the way, check out the locality - do a bit of trading, understand the routes, build up rep with local systems get my allocation and move on to a nearby rare system.

I did do manic A-B-A runs in beta and made a few million but that was boring. Now we are in the full release anything to slow you down and let you look up from the bottom line will make the game more atmospheric and enjoyable.

Now I have a pimped cobra I am trying to do things at a saunter now...
 
It seems we have a maximum allowance now. Maybe it's 10.

Now you are supposed to travel 150LY away to sell these 10 items for full price. 150k per hour is decent profit - isn't it? For me it will take just 3 full work days to purchase FSD for Asp doing trade runs like this.
 
It would help if the allocation amounts were the same for everyone. As it stands I have spoken with people who can still purchase 18+ tons of rare goods ,where as I and a few others were limited to a poxy 4..
 
I guess that depends on what ship your flying. For a sidewinder thats great money.

I assume Frontier are monitoring player activity, especially those who are earning credits and gaining ranks fastest. When they see some players are progressing at a much faster rate than they intended from particular trade routes or missions they try to re-balance the game.

Tell them to stop, then. I'm sick of pathetic 'balancing' by devs in MMOs. I didn't want an MMO, I wanted ELITE as a single player game.

I don't want MY game screwed up because a handful of people make something look too easy.

Stop fixing things that aren't broke. Stop turning the game play into a boring grind and let us, you know, actually PLAY the way we want to.

This game is starting to make X3 look attractive again! :(
 
I would see no incentive to do long-haul rare trades in a Sidewinder, to be honest. It just never felt like something to do in a Sidewinder. If it's going to take multiple dozens of jumps to get from point A to point B, almost no-one is going to bother. Rare trading always felt like something intended for ships like well-upgraded Cobras or better, to me.

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Did I say it should be exactly the same as it was? I've been agreeing with posters who suggested lowering the profits per ton or increasing the required range for best profits.

But thanks for reading into my posts what you want to read.


Calm down princess, I wasn't having a pop at you.
 
Now you are supposed to travel 150LY away to sell these 10 items for full price. 150k per hour is decent profit - isn't it? For me it will take just 3 full work days to purchase FSD for Asp doing trade runs like this.

you wont make 150k an hour.
 
Progression appears to be so out of balance at the moment. Even when the rares were stocked at high quantity levels the profit was still not proportional for maintaining progression using larger ships compared to the earning potential - the progression - of the smaller ships. Meanwhile with bounties today (as an example only) one can level up gear and jump a couple of ship classes so to speak within a couple of days.

Rares became so important at least to me when the dev's messed up regular trading. When I started in B2 I progressed with BB missions - lots of them to get from SW to Hauler to Cobra - then eventually switched over to start trades once I had made it to a Cobra. And it took me quite a while to get into the next ship - a long time! But the balance seemed quite even across the ship types. Progression seemed linear. Then things got all messed up. The forums were full of complaints on how trading was so OP and balancing measures started (can't call them nerfs as the game wasn't released).

Back to rares: if this is the 'new normal' then the dev's need to fix regular trading ASAP and/or create some other solution to keep people interested in progressing and to sustain a large ship, otherwise, interest will fall and players will likely lose interest in playing. There needs to be some sort if reward to keep wanting to move forward. The lack of other content and the broken nature of things like faction rep progression simply makes this situation even worse.
 
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Just go about your business and make a maximum of 10% per trade and repeat that over and over again. This is what they want you to do.. can't you see its the format and style of the game. The british penchant for the mundane seems exciting to some people.

Or maybe the intention for it is not to be a bulk tradeable good. But something explorers would pickup on their travels to augment their income.

you want bulk trading. use normal goods.

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Now you are supposed to travel 150LY away to sell these 10 items for full price. 150k per hour is decent profit - isn't it? For me it will take just 3 full work days to purchase FSD for Asp doing trade runs like this.

No. You are simply not meant to bulk trade rare goods with big ships.
 
Lel.

"i dont want to put in any effort in playing the game, i just want to set in a station for hours until im full of rares then warp for 10 minutes to make millions."

If trading normally was as profitable or easy i promise rare trading wouldnt have been nerfd. XD
 
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