Yep, I went solo for trading rare goods
- Thread starter Zpike
- Start date
Yeah, one bad experience and its solo for all. Sucks, but true
You completely missed my point. Piracy is just nasty little people taking from the weak, my point was that no matter the consequences I would never go along with it. It's the principle. The "quit the game" statement was hyperbole to make the point.
When I started this thread it was to relate an experience and I had no idea it would spark this kind of debate. I've found that I do like playing open better than playing solo, it's just more fun. I don't begrudge anyone playing solo though, it's their business how they play the game and has no impact on me at all.
There are always going to be people that have more than you do in the world, why waste time worrying about them? In a couple of months there will be a galaxy full of rich players and big ships along with new players in Sidewinders making their way up through the ranks. It won't make a difference if they made their cash in solo or open, they will still be there in the game having an impact. The more important issue is how will the game balance out so everyone has a good time regardless of skill and monetary level.
Food for thought. Let go of your envy and just enjoy the game.
Note: I just upgraded to an Asp last night. I kept 3x my ship's insurance cost plus 2x my full cargo cost in reserve before heading out in "open" on my first trade run.
I guess I learned something from this.
There are always going to be people that have more than you do in the world, why waste time worrying about them? In a couple of months there will be a galaxy full of rich players and big ships along with new players in Sidewinders making their way up through the ranks. It won't make a difference if they made their cash in solo or open, they will still be there in the game having an impact. The more important issue is how will the game balance out so everyone has a good time regardless of skill and monetary level.
Food for thought. Let go of your envy and just enjoy the game.
Note: I just upgraded to an Asp last night. I kept 3x my ship's insurance cost plus 2x my full cargo cost in reserve before heading out in "open" on my first trade run.
I guess I learned something from this.
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I was humbled the other night.
Lately I had come to the conclusion that my T6 was invulnerable to pirates. I had never even had a close call when interdicted. I even went so far as to post on this forum that I laughed at pirates. I laugh no more.
The other night I had my closest call yet to loosing almost everything in one shot. I had a full load of rare goods and was moving into the Orrere system in prep for the long haul leg when I was interdicted and pulled out of warp very quickly.
I didn't have a chance to get away as I kept the the circle in the blue for the entire event and still lost the interdiction. I did my usual and boosted away while readying chaff and ECM, shield cells, etc.. I reached minimum distance quickly while the pirate challenged me on chat to stop and drop cargo. He was a good pirate as he did not immediately attack and gave me a chance to answer. I declined and continued to boost away. He fired missiles and lasers, I fired off chaff and ECM. I used a shield cell and then attempted to jump to hyper --- nothing --- I was mass blocked. Tic, tic, tic goes the timer.
I made it to hyper with 60% hull after using 3 shield cells and various combination of full sys, eng, boost, and chaff.
This is where I made my big mistake. Instead of dropping back out of hyper and plotting a system jump I decided to attempt the final plunge into port. He got me again. This time I don't know why I got away. He had me at 35% hull with no shields and no cells left and I was still at the half way point on the hyper timer when he stopped firing. Maybe my last burst of chaff and ECM confused him? Maybe he took pity on me? Maybe he bot bored? I don't know.
I got away. I dropped back into normal space, plotted a jump to a nearby system, and jumped out of there fast.
OK, so here's the rube --- I quite out once I made it to port and went to solo mode to sell my goods. It was a no brainer. Why risk my neck again when the alternative was right there for the taking. I plan on using solo mode whenever I do rare goods trading in the future. There is no reason not to, the risk of pirates is to great and the cost to high. I'll still play open when I'm in my Cobra, but I just can't see taking the risk when trading. I'm way to poor to take a chance like that again.
Maybe when i'm rich i'll try it again. Once I can afford the risk.
It's those heart stopping, sweat inducing, body shaking moments that make you appreciate a game.
I have had a couple of moments like that in other ganes and it's what makes you go back for more. (So many near deaths in Diablo 3 : Hardcore [perma-death] which keeps me coming back time and time again!)
Have some rep sir for providing an interesting read.
(Meant to say that I couldn't care less that you dropped to solo - you do what you want and play how you like : that was one of the selling points in ED and if by doing so you enjoy the game more so be it. Personally I would have gone to supercruise then dropped almost immediately back to normal, plotted a new course, and jumped ... the chasing pilot has to find your low intensity wake; drop in; find your high wake; scan it; plot a course and follow .. that takes time by which you should be halfway to a station and ready to fix your ship
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Piracy is players picking a valid path that is offered to them by the game developers.
Basically, you are opening yourself for plain and simple griefing: it's obvious you believe pirates shouldn't have the right to make money from their game style, don't be surprised if, when you go back to open, some of them end up blowing you up without even asking for your cargo, just to deny you of the right to enjoy the game.
Personally I would have gone to supercruise then dropped almost immediately back to normal, plotted a new course, and jumped ... the chasing pilot has to find your low intensity wake; drop in; find your high wake; scan it; plot a course and follow .. that takes time by which you should be halfway to a station and ready to fix your ship
Agreed, I have since learned that lesson.
In fact, after learning this it seems to easy to avoid interdiction by players. Now when I see a player icon coming in behind me I just drop out, re-plot and jump. Easy squeezy. The only way I can see for a pirate to catch anyone in hyper is if the target is either ignorant of the tactic, as I was at the time, or ignores the pirate.
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There have always been vindictive people in the world, worrying about what someone else will do because of philosophical differences is not something I choose to spend my time contemplating. I believe most people are good by nature.
This is the exact same reason why i don't take the risk of Open play. The game is already very slow paced, and money making is even slower when you're just starting out. I don't feel like losing my hours worth of work, to someone who just happened to enter the system, and take me out for no reason other than "I don't wanna put effort into this game, so i'm just going to ruin your day and take your hard work"
Eff that, losing 140k worth of bounties was already enough for me to stop playing for a few days. The game is slow grind, and i don't want some to make it even slower for me. Eve and their douchebag grief squads already ruined the Multiplayer aspects of space sims for me, i very much enjoy flying solo, or with friends, and just play with AI's.
I still haven't gone solo, I just lower my risk so I have money left for insurance + new cargo to trade.
But I still think all risk is on the traders now, pirates don't have anything to fear, and that's a big problem. If there was a solution to that I'm sure more people would venture over.
The game is lacking in the social regard around this. It would be nice for a trader to befriend someone that bounty hunted in the same system and could keep a watchful eye or come to aid, or escort the biggest rare cargo. The fact that you need a seperate "game session" for this removes so many possibilities. I don't even say hi to anyone now, because there's a good chance he wants my cargo.
But I still think all risk is on the traders now, pirates don't have anything to fear, and that's a big problem. If there was a solution to that I'm sure more people would venture over.
The game is lacking in the social regard around this. It would be nice for a trader to befriend someone that bounty hunted in the same system and could keep a watchful eye or come to aid, or escort the biggest rare cargo. The fact that you need a seperate "game session" for this removes so many possibilities. I don't even say hi to anyone now, because there's a good chance he wants my cargo.
wow, couldn't get any more attitude in I guess? So NPC traders always drop enough 10k+ value per ton Commodity in numbers large enough to fill your hold? Because the NPCs I take cargo from drop copper, aluminium, semiconductors and stuff like that far more often than they drop gold or superconductors.
i presume you mean pirates have nothing to fear from bounty hunters. Which is true. It's pretty weird really. I actively try to maintain a large bounty on my head but every time i boost into a wall or w/e it goes dormant which is frustrating.
The only real way to get massive bounties is smuggling. You can also conduct mass murder but it takes a while.
The game needs escort mechanics with rewards, sort of like how the capship called for help in the concept trailer and the pilot accepted midflight. I should note that pirates get risk from losing hull on every interdiction as well as getting pulled out by bountyhunters/system authority.
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Smuggler NPCs often carry large quantities of valuable goods, like USS loot (rare artworks etc.), high end metals, and rare resources. And you get a bounty from killing them!
Also in high enough numbers to fill up a hold? because when I kill those, it's just 3-5 items. And I've never seen palladium or platinum, only gold at best.
Yes, although they tend to mix their resources. So you might see an Asp with like 20 palladium 20 bauxite, or a Clipper with 15 rares/ 10 rebel transmissions / 20 algae. The most frustrating thing with these is getting all the cargo out. I've been seriously considering upgrading to a class 3 limpet controller to see if it breaks out more cargo. And of course every NPC and their mom is loaded down with infinite point defense.
Are you mostly looking at nav beacons? My biggest smuggler scores have come from interdictions and USS.
Are you mostly looking at nav beacons? My biggest smuggler scores have come from interdictions and USS.
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Yeah, packed 6/7s with 40+ gold etc. are not that unusual. The problem is of course getting that cargo out and scoop it. A rank limpet siphons 6-7 pieces max. Destroying hatch might be a bit tricky sometimes and even that never spills all cargo.
The fix is to make the AI more dangerous. Even in solo mode, crossing the galaxy in an unshielded Type-6 full of valuable cargo should be a pretty damn scary thing to do, but it isn't - trading shouldn't simply be a vastly profitable milkrun from A to B. PvP piracy puts a dent in it, but as a pirate it's difficult to both catch someone and extract valuable cargo from them before they escape, even when the dice are loaded in your favour. From a pure cashflow perspective, the advantage is massively on the side of the trader.
The lack of dangerous NPCs builds up an expectation that flying a freighter full of valuable cargo is a safe thing to do and that PC pirates are the unreasonable intruders. Make the NPCs dangerous and the PCs stop being the exceptions.
The lack of dangerous NPCs builds up an expectation that flying a freighter full of valuable cargo is a safe thing to do and that PC pirates are the unreasonable intruders. Make the NPCs dangerous and the PCs stop being the exceptions.
Because of this thread I had to go for a rares run. I stopped today and went home because something happened. I am in Open.
I wanted to get a gauge of how much I could make in a session so I didn't trade general goods between stops. It took me a while to fill my hold. I am in an Asp with a B FSD so the jumps are pretty fast between locations for rares.
I was 2km away from the next welcoming mailslot when out of nowhere an NPC sidewinder rammed right into me. I have taken some hits but this guy must have been really cookin'.
So I popped. And kept truckin'
I think I'm out about 650000cr not counting the unrealized profit from what I was holding. Not terrible but it was a blow. The rare circuit take a while and I'd spent a lot of flying time.
I was exploring in between stops and luckily I didn't have any real big cartographics data waiting sale.
I love this game.
I wanted to get a gauge of how much I could make in a session so I didn't trade general goods between stops. It took me a while to fill my hold. I am in an Asp with a B FSD so the jumps are pretty fast between locations for rares.
I was 2km away from the next welcoming mailslot when out of nowhere an NPC sidewinder rammed right into me. I have taken some hits but this guy must have been really cookin'.
So I popped. And kept truckin'
I think I'm out about 650000cr not counting the unrealized profit from what I was holding. Not terrible but it was a blow. The rare circuit take a while and I'd spent a lot of flying time.
I was exploring in between stops and luckily I didn't have any real big cartographics data waiting sale.
I love this game.
This game play is what I was hoping for, but the fact that you need a seperate "game session" is disappointing news...
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That's the spirit and that is same buzz I get from games I play that beat me. I think it is a natural high I get.