I love bounty hunting, so I am doomed not to progress.

[SE-Apocalypse]

I am fine with reputation based perks such as getting the Imperial Clipper, or certain missions being available or not based on faction rep. I am however absolutely opposed to things like weapons upgrades, ship availability, damage perks, things like that based on your combat, trading, or exploring rank. That would essentially be unlocking rewards for levelling up.

Why not have them as side-grades? The super amazing long range gunt is basicaly like a rail gun, but with a little less fall-off, a little less damage close-range, etc
Mandatory Upgrades will be really, really bad, but side-grades that you buy for the look or some super specific feature that is to most people completely irrelevant.

 

[Starbuckz]

I've heard from a bug that prevents those missions from working correctly. (No first "hint"-USS-event, if multiple missions were taken.)

Did this bug ever exist? And if yes: is it fixed?
I would geuss, yes, if you don't absolve your missions one after the other, but accept more than one at a time...
So, do you?

I often accept multiple missions and also have multiple ones already finished while still searching for others or accepting new ones. Besides the one turning my target's into Orcas, which does not complete the mission on desctruction, I can't say I ever had any problems.

But is it ever going to work - that's kind of my point. A P2P network that can only instance 32 players and would seem to randomly place you in one. One thing I'm not sure about is whether or not these instances are area based. Mt friend in the US and me in the UK could not get together after 6or 7 disconnects and reconnects. Is it even possible to get in an instance in Open Play with people in other countries because if not, ED for me is going to be a waste of time and I suspect other people too. I thought that if you and a friend (as in an added friend in ED) joined OP it would try to put you together - do you (or anyone else) know how the instancing works?

It concerns me that MP hasn't been thought out particularly well for ED and might not go the way we want it to.

I'm in Germany and could team up with someone from the UK without problems. But sure, you are right and it's being worked on (according to the devs).

What us bounty hunters need are pirate hideouts, etc. to hunt in. Where are the derelict cap ships turned into makeshift bases? A long since shattered planet surrounded with dangerous gases/debris with a pirate base nestled inside? Anything...

Yes!

A big Aww hell no! from me on that one. I think that would go against the very core of the game. This is not a game of linear progression and levelling up, beating bosses, getting achievements. Now as far as achievements go, I would LOVE to be able to buy a bumper sticker for my ship at Hutton Orbital...I made it to Hutton Orbital, and all I got was this lousy sticker

And I would love for you to get one. I don't want a leveling system but traders get their profession specific reward, money. and with money they can actually progress in their profession by buying bigger and more expensive freighters (or an anaconda for that matter being the best trading ship at the moment).

No, it's not. It's between 1.5 to 3 times as much in a comparable ship, not orders of magnitude. A Cobra kitted out for responsible trading with 40 T capacity can do between 300 kCR and 600 kCR per hour purely trading. Then as Underhook says, you can make 250 kCR per hour in a combat Cobra with NPC Cobras to kill.

What you guys are doing is comparing the potential CR/h of T7's, Clippers, and T9's to what you can do in your Cobras and Eagles, but that's not fair. Trade is not imbalanced; what's missing is a lack of content (and pay) for the combat ships which are in the same tier as the T9's.

I'm comparing to a t6 with which I made my millions and is cheaper than my fully A rated Viper or Cobra.

I too am against the idea of rewards just for the sake of rewards. But I can see where he's coming from. A working reputation system would lean towards that. Yeah, it's a leveling thing, but it can rise and fall based on your actions, and is more of an indicator of who you are. And maybe that's just it, instead of attaching a label to someone because of what they have, it should be able what kind of person they are (whether that be the player or the character they play. One in the same really, if the game works right).

This makes an awful lot of sense. Some kind of recognition as a feared and deadly bounty hunter would be nice.

Ye-es, but when you talk about balance, you only talk about money. No other factors.

There's more to the game than money. That means there's more to creating balance than earnings.

I will give you that one. Though we are going in circles, all points out the same issue. Not all professions offer 'objectively' the same amount or type of satisfactory reward.

 

[CMDR Reza Malin]

Bounty hunting and assassination missions spike at about 1 million credits per hour, even when they are very often just half of that. Once frontier give us properly working escalations in res it might actually become consistent even more than one million per hour with all those 100k to 150k anacondas to kill.

Sounds like even the 100 million for an combat Phyton are reasonable to achieve via bounty hunting. So what exactly is your problem, especially as you do this kind of profit already in a cheap viper?

I assume you are joking, or perhaps taking Class A drugs at the time you made this post.

 

[Starbuckz]

I assume you are joking, or perhaps taking Class A drugs at the time you made this post.

He is not only joking but also just plain simply wrong.

 

[Bad_Wolf]

So as a question to FD, I have chosen "my path" and I love everything about it, well almost. Bounty hunting is great, I love the flight model in game, it never gets old for me. <SNIP...> I'm not asking to buff bounty hunting to make millions, but nerf the heck out of trading. Balance it so players aren't forced to trade to progress in the game, please. .

There's no need to "Nerf" anything else because you don't like it. Fine, you don't want to trade. Good for you. Balance is another word people seem to misunderstand. If we need to "balance" credits/incomes then just make it give everyone the same amount every few minutes so the game will be fair. See, that's a silly recommendation too.

Take on some of the assassination missions. You'll get 150-200k for the mission, + their bounty and the faction rep.

Now this guy, this is the guy! First reply in the thread and he didn't flame you, attempt to provoke you or try to demean anyone. Holy crap, he even made a good suggestion! I underlined your chosen profession in your post because that's the rub. You want to be a Bounty Hunter. You said you don't want it to be easier. Well, then a proper solution would be to introduce some form of increased difficulty/payout missions for Bounty Hunters as opposed to "nerfing" a completely separate aspect of the game.

Skydivertricky, I salute you and have some rep!

 

[Starbuckz]

Now this guy, this is the guy! First reply in the thread and he didn't flame you, attempt to provoke you or try to demean anyone. Holy crap, he even made a good suggestion! I underlined your chosen profession in your post because that's the rub. You want to be a Bounty Hunter. You said you don't want it to be easier. Well, then a proper solution would be to introduce some form of increased difficulty/payout missions for Bounty Hunters as opposed to "nerfing" a completely separate aspect of the game.

Skydivertricky, I salute you and have some rep!

He said was many others said, too. It doesn't change anything though, those missions work fine but still don't offer as much as trading AND have some risk to them trading simply doesn't have.

 

[Iskariot]

So as a question to FD, I have chosen "my path" and I love everything about it, well almost. Bounty hunting is great, I love the flight model in game, it never gets old for me. Dog fighting in extraction zones, bobbing and weaving asteroids and taking down bounties with my viper and x55. It's a blast! But Holy crap man, I have been stuck with my viper for a while now, and it has quite a lot of upgrades. The next ship in the line up is a type 6,but I refuse to buy it due to it being a trading ship. I tried trading and it almost ruined the game for me, way too Boring even if the money is great. So tell me FD, why am I being punished? The most fun aspect of the game for me doesn't pay enough! I really don't see how players can trade for hours everyday. Just running from point A to point B over and over and over again... If that's the only way to make millions in this game it is a failure!

And don't tell me there is more of a risk while trading, that's complete crap. Good shield gen, shield cells, improved hull, and boost out from any interdiction. Running away linked with zombie like gameplay equals big money in this game, and that just baffles me.

I love bounty hunting too and have so far made 13 million doing so. I did some smuggling and minor trading in my Sidewinder and Viper too, just for the sake of diversity. When I bought my Asp I specifically upgraded it for bounty hunting, but this also left me with 80 tonnes of space for trading. I did both. Great fun.
Currently I am doing a bit of large volume trading in a Type 7, but I now have enough money to buy a Viper on the side and alternate trading with bounty hunting.
No need to exclude one for the other.

I'm not asking to buff bounty hunting to make millions, but nerf the heck out of trading. Balance it so players aren't forced to trade to progress in the game, please.
Here come the flames, bring it on.

People are not forced to trade to progress. That is really nonsense. Bounty hunting does not scale the way trading does, but nevertheless it is profitable and allows you to upgrade. It is all up to you. Nerfing trading to make faster progress impossible is not a solution for anyone. Not even for you. If others want to invest time in trading to increase their profits they should be free to do so. Nobody is forcing you to do the same.

 

[Jex =TE=]

I'm in Germany and could team up with someone from the UK without problems. But sure, you are right and it's being worked on (according to the devs).

Thanks and I wish I was wrong - half my friends are in the US so no open play for us at all

 

[BrewerGeorge]

...

I'm comparing to a t6 with which I made my millions and is cheaper than my fully A rated Viper or Cobra.

...

What are you talking about? A full A rated T6 costs over 5 million. An A-rated Viper is half that. A Cobra costs about the same as the T6.

I showed you the math in my post above, as have others in this thread. Trading (within the same tier of ship) is two or three times faster to earn money if you're a average trader and an average fighter. Very tellingly, more skill in either area corresponds directly to more money in that area. Players are reporting making significantly more than average by taking down Anacondas, and better traders can earn more than average as well.

 

[Ixnatifual]

He said was many others said, too. It doesn't change anything though, those missions work fine but still don't offer as much as trading AND have some risk to them trading simply doesn't have.

The profit difference is out of whack, but I'm not convinced bounty hunting is more risky. At least I have yet to die to an NPC.

 

[Starbuckz]

What are you talking about? A full A rated T6 costs over 5 million. An A-rated Viper is half that. A Cobra costs about the same as the T6.

I showed you the math in my post above, as have others in this thread. Trading (within the same tier of ship) is two or three times faster to earn money if you're a average trader and an average fighter. Very tellingly, more skill in either area corresponds directly to more money in that area. Players are reporting making significantly more than average by taking down Anacondas, and better traders can earn more than average as well.

As I said in a post earlier in this thread, you don't need a fully A rated T6. Only FSD and some cargo, that's all. That won't make it more expensive than my Viper.

 

[McDosy]

I will give you that one. Though we are going in circles, all points out the same issue. Not all professions offer 'objectively' the same amount or type of satisfactory reward.

And yet, subjectively, bounty hunting offers me the most reward. If it didn't, I wouldn't be doing it.

There's currently a balance to choosing my path that would be completely lost if it also made as much money. Then it would be a real no-brainer. At the moment I raise a quizzical eyebrow at the haulers, and they raise a quizzical eyebrow back at me. "But excitement!" I say. "But money!" they reply.

Yeah, well. Real excitement. Fake money.

True, the excitement will eventually run out. They'll also run out of things on which to spend their precious money.

And call me a massive softy, but if I was that rich, a huge amount of the romance would be lost. I'm rich enough, their sort never will be.

 

[Starbuckz]

The profit difference is out of whack, but I'm not convinced bounty hunting is more risky. At least I have yet to die to an NPC.

Combat oriented profession vs. autopilot .... I don't think we have to argue over risk here. But you won't die if you are not a complete newbie, true.

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And yet, subjectively, bounty hunting offers me the most reward. If it didn't, I wouldn't be doing it.

There's currently a balance to choosing my path that would be completely lost if it also made as much money. Then it would be a real no-brainer. At the moment I raise a quizzical eyebrow at the haulers, and they raise a quizzical eyebrow back at me. "But excitement!" I say. "But money!" they reply.

Yeah, well. Real excitement. Fake money.

True, the excitement will eventually run out. They'll also run out of things on which to spend their precious money.

And call me a massive softy, but if I was that rich, a huge amount of the romance would be lost. I'm rich enough, their sort never will be.

I get it and I agree with you 100%. But also, subjectively, I need, I want something that shows that I am that dangerous hunter I aim to be. Traders can display their progress in bigger ships, I don't have anything.

 

[Ydiss]

Conflict zones first. Then piracy. Then exploration. Then a mining pass.

The reason I say conflict zones first is because the amount of money from combat itself is not limited to hunting bounties. In fact, bounty hunting is about right given the ships a typical bounty hunter should be using.

By the time you have a 3m viper, there isn't a bounty you cannot claim. But the next logical step for a combat pilot is mercenary work.

The problem with conflicts is they're higher risk and much, much lower pay. So this is where the love is needed next.

Furthermore, the high end combat ships are best suited to conflicts. So your entry level should be a fully equipped eagle/cobra/viper. Then it needs to scale up from there.

If I'm an admiral in a conflict, I want asps, pythons and anacondas to fight for me. To lure those skilled and experienced pilots with the highest fire power, I need to pay top whack.

Mercenary missions should therefore come in tiers. The ones we have now are fine for tier 1. Tier 2 should offer 100 to 350k. These should demand more kills. Tier 3 should be available only for competent or higher ranked players in an asp or higher. These provide rewards from 500k to 1m for completion and demand more kills than tier 2.

Tier 4 mercenary missions should be available only to pilots higher than competent and in a Python or higher. These should offer 1m to 3m reward but demand a quota of kills that includes at least one ship in the same class, including any other kills for the quota.

Finally, tier 5. This is only available for elite pilots in the a ship higher class than the Python - currently only the anaconda but later should be more - it pays a maximum of 5m. Helping to defeat a capital ship is required for this - obviously should result in a capital ship joining the battle eventually - and has the highest quota of all missions.

Normal bonds should scale from 3k up to 50k. 50k being the current reward for a capital ship. 3k should be for eagles only. 5k for vipers or cobras. 10k for drop ships or asp etc. 15k for a python. 25k for an anaconda.

Double these for high intensity.

All rewards are shared across the allies helping to kill - which was mentioned in the DDA.

There you go. Combat profession improved.

Bounty hunting could still use a mission overhaul; I imagine it will get one. But conflict zones need love first. And it makes much more sense for these to provide a route to the larger ships, considering the larger ships are primarily intended for large scale combat, not lone-star bounty hunting.

 

[BrewerGeorge]

As I said in a post earlier in this thread, you don't need a fully A rated T6. Only FSD and some cargo, that's all. That won't make it more expensive than my Viper.

In the same way that you don't "need" to upgrade the shields and guns on the Viper?

Of course you do; I said "responsible trading." The stock T6 you describe is very vulnerable to even NPC interdiction and players will just shred it. OTOH, an A-kit T-6 can trade anywhere and run from anything except an Asp. Not to mention that the stock T6 flies like a brick and crashes into stations easily. (Honestly, I think that part of people calling trading boring has to do with the propensity to try to leave the trading ships so dog-slow and un-upgraded.)

 

[Alatar]

I am fine with reputation based perks such as getting the Imperial Clipper, or certain missions being available or not based on faction rep. I am however absolutely opposed to things like weapons upgrades, ship availability, damage perks, things like that based on your combat, trading, or exploring rank. That would essentially be unlocking rewards for levelling up.

What's the difference between that and putting the ships behind a huge credit wall?

Not saying I'm in favor of the idea but I honestly don't see a big difference whether the game asks you to grind kills or money for a ship. Both are essentially leveling schemes with rewards.

 

[Starbuckz]

In the same way that you don't "need" to upgrade the shields and guns on the Viper?

Of course you do; I said "responsible trading." The stock T6 you describe is very vulnerable to even NPC interdiction and players will just shred it. OTOH, an A-kit T-6 can trade anywhere and run from anything except an Asp. Not to mention that the stock T6 flies like a brick and crashes into stations easily. (Honestly, I think that part of people calling trading boring has to do with the propensity to try to leave the trading ships so dog-slow and un-upgraded.)

You may be right, you may be not. I traded in a t6 without any upgrades, it's easy, repetitive, without any challenge. Go solo mode and get rich, NPCs can kiss my butt
And there is an actual need for upgrading a fighter, evens out the chances vs other capable pilots

 

[WiseDuck]

Bounty hunting can make some good Cr's. I have my own quiet system with 2 pirate factions and resource extractions sites. I make 200k in about 40 mins- 1 hour. Now, I know it's nothing compared to the trader who drop those kind of Cr's x10 for just one trip but it's enjoyable the whole way.

 

[Don_Von_Hulio]

I bought an ASP and fitted all pulse to it because i wanted to try it out. I was able to also equip some D grade internals bit the shield remained C5 E. Overall it was still cheapo for an ASP.

Throughout a whole 2 hours i took 25% hull damage. Luckily two large bounty ships appeared in that time worth 60k and 85k. Because if it wasnt for those two ships it wouldve been a whole two hours wasted because the repair cost 56k credits.

There is no point to use anything more expensive than a Cobra. They operating costs and maintenance can easily burn up an hour or more of GOOD bounties. You cant count on finding enemies with high bounties though so if you make a slight mistake or get foolhardy you will waste alot of effort.... Or even get interdicted and fail to submit.

 

[Mr_Blastman]

/facepalm
And if you have multiple 150k Anaconda spawns in your RES than for sure it payday for a few minutes of pew pew too.

I have killed over 500 ships for bounties in RES sites and have only had the lucky 150k Anaconda spawn situation happen one time. Never again have I seen it. The best I usually net is around 200 - 250k / hr as a bounty hunter. Maybe. Usually not even that. A lot of times it seems to be 150k or so.