Patch Notes Update Elite: Dangerous 1.02 change log

[Ozric]

That is just way too much time to reach endgame in my opinion.

Shame you used "that" word. There is no endgame. Out of interest why do you want an Anaconda? If it's for fighting, would it not make sense to fight more on you way up to that ship so you are used to the experience, before getting into a bulky ship? Fight and trade, it's the way to go

Not for me though as I'm primarily an explorer

 

[corvinus]

If the ship isn't viable for your play style then don't use it.

Michael

Wow. Sounds like a semi-polite way of telling him/her to get bent not your problem.

 

[Ozric]

Please stop dodging the question.

What is the current Frontier Developments DESIGN GOAL of how quickly someone should be able to buy that ship?
For pity's sake, Michael, you're talking like a politician trying to be re-elected. Just tell us what the number is, in hours, from your design document. If you don't have a number, tell us that, too.

750 hours at one hour a day is over 2 YEARS of casual play, to get an Anaconda, using your hypothetical numbers. If that's within the realm of possible & reasonable, I'm very concerned, myself.

Why is everyone so obsessed with knowing exactly how long it's going to take them to get to a certain ship? and why should someone give you an exact number of hours when it's impossible to do so as there are so many variables which can alter that timeframe.

 

[CmdrKull]

The problem with this idea, in my mind, is that small ships don't tend to have the jump range to make the long-haul trips for 'rares' viable, but 'rares' don't spawn in large enough quantities for long-range trade ships to make good use of their holds.

Sidewinder with FSD upgrade jumps 10-15 ly at a time laden. It was a hauler that made it to the center of the Milky Way, and CMDR Zulu didn't even have the current route planner.

70 t of rares makes a good income for even an L6, and you can supplement along the way with the extra 30t of cargo space. If you really want to do rares you still can. No one ever believed FD intended to replace common commodity trading with all rare all the time, right? RIGHT?

I am certain it's frustrating for people currently doing rare trade routes to have the mechanics shifting under their feet, but I'm reading a lot of obstinacy about it which isn't reasonable. Also, implying that it is the only way for traders to make money is redonkulous as "any real trader" has spent the last weeks searching for a good trade route instead. I had a nice 300k loop that dried up on me, blasted NPC traders... But it was an actual trade route.

 

[CmdrPSB]

Wow. Sounds like a semi-polite way of telling him/her to get bent not your problem.

I'm surprised Michael even manages semi-polite with some of the nonsense he has to deal with on here.

 

[Ozric]

Wow. Sounds like a semi-polite way of telling him/her to get bent not your problem.

Not at all. Different ships have different advantages and disadvantages. People want the Anaconda as it's the biggest ship, but what would you do with it exactly? If you want to fight then I would suggest that a fully kitted out Cobra would be better, if you want to trade then a Lakon would be. If you want to be a powerhouse in military skirmishes, then fair enough, but would you not want to fight your way there, at least partly to get the hang of combat?

 

[Wonne]

So how quickly do you think you should be able to buy one of the biggest ships in the game?

Michael

For many that may be to long (its not the 80ies anymore everything has to be fast for todays youth), but thats not my point.
The Problem is that this hypotetical 250-750h are spend doing exactly the same thing. Thats the longterm problem. Its getting boring. There has to be some "Fungenerator" in the trading mechanics that allows players from time to time to make a real killing (like an gammastyle hold full of rares) on the market. The problem with this is coming up with a fair mechanic that is not exploitable like the rares where. Because whatever you do, players today are minmaxing everything. That is what years of playing MMOs taught us.

 

[silverjim]

I'd like to have a precise definition of 'personal quota' of rare items. Where do I find this magic number?

 

[vjek]

Why is everyone so obsessed with knowing exactly how long it's going to take them to get to a certain ship? and why should someone give you an exact number of hours when it's impossible to do so as there are so many variables which can alter that timeframe.

It's not how long it's going to take ME.

It's how long FDEV expects it to take me.

That's a very important number. Tangible player progression, over time, is the backbone of fun & challenging persistent online games.

 

[CMDRElJal]

Thank you for your hard work. Could you please improve mining in next patch. It's really exhausting when you have to scan every asteroid and you have to waste at least 4 hours. Could you please release scanners or mining robots ?

 

[TANDKO]

Because the reward of exploring is exploring, not profit, get over it. See, I can do what you can do.

Do you realize that it is a game, that it is man made galaxy? it is not exploration it is more an interactive book that has too many pages than it should. An if there is nothing new story with or some surprises and no profit then it is waste of time.

 

[Michael Brookes]

Please stop dodging the question.

What is the current Frontier Developments DESIGN GOAL of how quickly someone should be able to buy that ship?
For pity's sake, Michael, you're talking like a politician trying to be re-elected. Just tell us what the number is, in hours, from your design document. If you don't have a number, tell us that, too.

750 hours at one hour a day is over 2 YEARS of casual play, to get an Anaconda, using your hypothetical numbers. If that's within the realm of possible & reasonable, I'm very concerned, myself.

I'd expect around 3 months of play - although with current numbers it's probably around 6 months. The AI fix should stop the supply issue and increase the profit margins.

Michael

 

[Shanaeri]

I said I disagreed that it needs to not be a 'lot' more lucrative. When we fix the AI we'll take another look at the balance. I'm not sure about your figures though, I just station tramp trade and make 300-600 per ton and do a trade every 5-10 minutes. A bit longer if I stop to do some exploration. In any case we'll take a look.

Michael

If I could play devil's advocate for a moment

Don't you think that going from station to station every 5-10 minutes is going to get a little... stale?

Using the figures of 600 per ton and say 7 mins per trip on average. A type 6 with fuel scoop etc has a capacity of 96t. So 96*600 = c57,600 , so that * 8.6 (60 mins/7) gives us c493.714 per hour.

Now compare this to rare trading with the same ship, in my experience it took 110 ish mins to fill up plus 45 mins to fly back for a profit of c1,440,000 which is about c557,419 per hour.

We can see that the actual earnings were pretty close to station tramping(given the credits needed to actually do the runs anyway).

The question is simple. Why direct those who want to trade into a demented honey bee pattern, when the wider ranging but taking a longer/more perilous route was to many more enjoyable?

 

[Falxftw]

A souped up Sidewinder (or even better an Adder) is perfect for this type of run.

Michael

Your dismissing the problem. He said that there is no viable, fun, solution to mid/level (asp/type6) progression and up.

You answered by telling him then to move to a small ship.

The root of the problem is that to get beyond small ships your time investment is so long and filled with boredom that people wont do it. Its the BOREDOM that has people worried, not the total time investment. As I have said before, there is no viable way to progression that allows you to progress, WHILE being fun. Regular commodity trading is NOT FUN, REWARDING, or anything other but artificially induced teidum.

 

[Schebi1975]

Good Job and Good Game Love it!
Keep on Going, can't wait for more features and new staff.

 

[vjek]

I'd expect around 3 months of play - although with current numbers it's probably around 6 months. The AI fix should stop the supply issue and increase the profit margins.

Michael

Thank you for the clear and direct answer.

 

[Draxinusom]

I'd like to have a precise definition of 'personal quota' of rare items. Where do I find this magic number?

Throw the D20.

 

[Ozric]

Do you realize that it is a game, that it is man made galaxy? it is not exploration it is more an interactive book that has too many pages than it should. An if there is nothing new story with or some surprises and no profit then it is waste of time.

If you enjoy doing something then it is not a waste of time.

 

[ksottam]

Shame you used "that" word. There is no endgame. Out of interest why do you want an Anaconda? If it's for fighting, would it not make sense to fight more on you way up to that ship so you are used to the experience, before getting into a bulky ship? Fight and trade, it's the way to go

Not for me though as I'm primarily an explorer

Shame on this company to think that 500-700 hours is perfectly legitimate amount of time to reach the most expensive ship at the moment.

I say endgame only in the sense that I'm choosing the most expensive thing to buy at them moment and that once I buy it there's nothing else more expensive to strive for.

Yes, this game is relaxing (unless you're in combat). Just grab a drink, sit back and enjoy. But there's a difference in kicking back and relaxing and watching a movie versus watching the same 4-5 movies over and over again for 500-700 hours which is what it comes down to. The 4-5 separate things to do are your 4-5 movies, and with very little sense of progression you're limited to the first movie of a series over and over again rather than getting to watch the sequels.

 

[Dozer.k.a.o.]

Seriously guys, if you don't have time to play, then play other casual games, or play the game understanding that people who dedicate more hours will earn more credits than you, if everybody with a daily hour of game can hava a big ship in a week, then where is the objective in the long time, there is more fun than just flying an Anaconda, if you can't understand this, then you don't understand the game.