Exploration payout needs to be adjusted

CMDR Valvrave

CMDR Valvrave
so 3 days ago i outfitted an asp and went exploring - VY Canis Majoris, Betelgeuse, some Nebulae and i enjoyed exploring.

I was not far out - like 2k ly from civilised space for 3 days ~ 18 hours of scanning and hopping and scanning and hopping, i scanned like 500 objects with detailed service scanner and adv. D-Scanner.

got some first discoveries - which was pretty nice. what was devastating was the $$$ payment after handing in the data:

4.5 million credits for 18ish hours IS BAD
i can make this amount in 2 hours of RES farming or trading

so please FDEV tweak the numbers before 1.3 goes live

and dont come with the power which buffs these numbers

what do you guys think?
 

Flector

Flector
Correct. Exploring simply pays much less than trading or bounty hunting. If I tell you that exploring payout has already been doubled in the past, you can imagine how bad it was then :).
There are ways to increase pay/hour like farming neutron stars, but they require a large initial investment in time.

Explore if/because you like it, otherwise stick to trading or bounty hunting.
 

Jim Steinman

J
+1 to Neutron Farming - if you get a lot in a good field with 1st discovery, you can make a nice bundle of credits.

I'm out doing it just now mainly for ranking up purposes.
 

TruffleSnout

T
Personally I'm starting to think that Exploration actually pays a little too much. I mean, let's face it, other than the odd contact binary (VERY RARE) and psycho at Sag A* (VERY VERY RARE) there is like zero risk in exploration. I'm on my 4th Exploration trip, and each of the previous trips (with the exception of the first one) I came back and made enough to purchase a new nearly a-spec ship (Cobra>Asp>Vulture).

But then, I'm not counting hours, either. So I honestly don't know how many hours I've spent exploring. All I know is I explore until I'm ready to do something else, and when I come back in after that I have a fat stack of cash.
 

jpaulwilson1982

jpaulwilson1982
TruffleSnout said:
Personally I'm starting to think that Exploration actually pays a little too much. I mean, let's face it, other than the odd contact binary (VERY RARE) and psycho at Sag A* (VERY VERY RARE) there is like zero risk in exploration. I'm on my 4th Exploration trip, and each of the previous trips (with the exception of the first one) I came back and made enough to purchase a new nearly a-spec ship (Cobra>Asp>Vulture).

But then, I'm not counting hours, either. So I honestly don't know how many hours I've spent exploring. All I know is I explore until I'm ready to do something else, and when I come back in after that I have a fat stack of cash.
Click to expand...

For me the biggest risk in exploration is on the return trip to colonized space. Maybe its just me, but the NPCs seem to get more aggressive on that return trip, with lots of interdictions- a lot more than normal. On one of my first expeditions I lost millions on the return trip due to a high ranked NPC interdicting me.

Frontier increased exploration payouts once before. I think another increase in astronomical object values should happen, though. Not a stupid increase that makes all other in-game careers obsolete in comparison. But I think a little more is in order.
 
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Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Just on the whole risk thing. Im gonna join Shadragon on the sidelines with popcorn and just mention the thread with the poor chap who lost 4 months of exploration data.
Something you said about no risk? I'd say risk vs reward for the long trips is massively out of proportion since the most bounty hunters stand to loose is a few hours worth of "work" (gameplay isn't work I know but you get what I mean)..

I personally think Exploration payout will only double again when Thargoids get introduced. A sell all button for data would be nice too.

I averaged 0.5mil/hr on my recent trip. Even at 1mil/hr (the double) its still a touch low considering I was risking 33mil credits (2 weeks gameplay) as I was hopping back.
 
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withnail

withnail
In my opinion they should tweak everything else to bring it down to the same level.

Tbh, there is limited risk involved with exploration.

If you stop thinking about it in terms of credits per hour, it becomes a lot more fun.
 

Flector

Flector
TruffleSnout said:
there is like zero risk in exploration
Click to expand...

As an explorer at first I thought ridiculous. But then I thought about my player insurance claims. And most of them have been due to collisions with/near stations.
And while exploring you are nowhere near stations so yep. Correct.
 

TruffleSnout

T
Other than the ones I already mentioned, once the Thargoids show up (assuming they're hostile), then yes, that will be a risk to Explorers.

But forgetting to scoop for 15 jumps? Accidentally turning on Silent Running and not knowing how to turn it off? Those are examples of CMDRS not knowing their ships.

Poor decisions != risk
 

Alex Brentnall

Alex Brentnall
Withnail: Thread on balancing professions.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=150599&p=2315833

Sure it sounds good at first, If everything was perfectly balanced with credits per hour people could do what they want.
But what it really equates to is people pick the most fun activity (Pirating/Bountyhunting). There would be very few traders or miners, the people exploring would be the ones already doing it now.

In my opinion what it really needs is a risk vs reward vs fun balance.
Not going to quote myself but check out the post I linked for my personal thoughts.

Also I do enjoy exploring for the sights not the money but it'd be nice to be able to use exploring as a decent profit maker in the game even if it is below the combat/trading professions. I mean in reality who'd learn to be a pilot and then fly for 15% of the wage everyone else does.
 

jabberwalkie

J
CMDR Valvrave said:
4.5 million credits for 18ish hours IS BAD
i can make this amount in 2 hours of RES farming or trading

so please FDEV tweak the numbers before 1.3 goes live

and dont come with the power which buffs these numbers

what do you guys think?
Click to expand...
I think you should have been around before the payouts are what they are now and repair costs were higher as well. Honestly though, I have no issue with the pay outs being they way they are now. It makes it a worthwhile profession, while not being overly beneficial. The amount of time you invest, distance traveled, and repair costs after long journeys balance out with how much you typically make with how much risk is associated with it. I had problems with the payouts when I would go exploring and return and a large portion of my earnings went directly back into maintenance/repairs of the ship. At times it made owning an Asp outfitted for exploring almost impractical.
 

Rikk

R
CMDR Valvrave said:
so 3 days ago i outfitted an asp and went exploring - VY Canis Majoris, Betelgeuse, some Nebulae and i enjoyed exploring.

I was not far out - like 2k ly from civilised space for 3 days ~ 18 hours of scanning and hopping and scanning and hopping, i scanned like 500 objects with detailed service scanner and adv. D-Scanner.

got some first discoveries - which was pretty nice. what was devastating was the $$$ payment after handing in the data:

4.5 million credits for 18ish hours IS BAD
i can make this amount in 2 hours of RES farming or trading

so please FDEV tweak the numbers before 1.3 goes live

and dont come with the power which buffs these numbers

what do you guys think?
Click to expand...

I think the payouts are fine. No numbers need to be adjusted for exploration.

It's not about being a cash cow, it's about getting out in the deep black on your own. Finding some stuff that looks interesting.

If you are smart with your scanning you can do a lot better than your trip as well. Just got to learn about where the interesting stuff is, how to identify it on the map and what to actually scan.
 

Erimus Kamzel

Erimus Kamzel
TruffleSnout said:
Other than the ones I already mentioned, once the Thargoids show up (assuming they're hostile), then yes, that will be a risk to Explorers.

But forgetting to scoop for 15 jumps? Accidentally turning on Silent Running and not knowing how to turn it off? Those are examples of CMDRS not knowing their ships.

Poor decisions != risk
Click to expand...

This.

You have to go out of your way to find risk in Exploration.

The biggest risk is contact binaries. I've seen 4 in 20,000 visited systems. The next biggest risk is not paying attention and running out of fuel, something that is avoidable if you took 5 seconds to check the map. Lastly there used to be a slight risk of NPCs in the Frontier... then FD removed them. Now the Frontier is the safest place in the galaxy, you couldn't make it up.

In 7 months of solid exploration gameplay, close to 400,000 LYs traveled by now, I'm yet to die, and I'm not a particularly good player who puts their full attention into what he's doing.

There really is no risk in Exploration other than what you cause yourself by carelessness.


Now once NPCs return to the Frontier, and once escaping interdiction takes more than simply submit-boost-FSD, once we have a wear & tear mechanic worthy of the name, and once and there is an hostile alien presence out there, those thinking exploration is dangerous will have a point.

-----------------

As for a bigger payout? No thanks. Its already the easiest way to make money in the game. Just hyperspace to an unvisited system and press a button - bingo, you earned $$.

I would rather get no payment at all from exploration other than the satisfaction of actually discovering something unique, interesting, rare, or fulfilling, and above all be challenged doing it. That's surely a far better reward than credits?
 
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Ben Salient

B
I only explore for Rank increase .. as my eventual goal is Elite in all 3 .
I think the cart data payout is fair & proportionate . & if people can deal with the Grind / mind numbing boredom to do it for days/weeks/months on end .. all power & kudos (acclaim) to them.
personally .. even if exploration data credits were TRIPLED from current values ... it would still be something I would only be doing for the eventual Elite Rank ...
am somewhat confused as to WHY people feel the 3 rank paths should payout equally in credits ... from a gameplay perspective the only thing that needs to be similar is the amount of hours needed to Achieve Rank progression.
and from everything I have read , this seems to be fairly equal the way things currently work.
....
master/broker/pathfinder & I really dislike exploration , even when I take popcorn & cola , chocolate & coffee with me ... although I have found it to be a good cure for my Insomnia ( so long as I forgo the treats ):eek:
 
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CMDR Valvrave

CMDR Valvrave
Well then let's bring down the profits of other professions to the level of exploration.

How would you like that?

I don't understand all the greed and jealousy involved in so called mmos.

I didn't ask for a major buff in numbers, nor making it equal to other professions, just some more payout for the huge time invested.

I did play the other professions, they get pretty boring and repetitive with time, so does exploring.

All that is changing is variaty and numbers of stellar objects per system. And your so called sights aren't that many.

And risks? Sure nearly zero player interactions in the void, but if npcs pose a risk for you in other professions then you should get better.

it, a little tweak of first discoveries and worthwile object scan payouts would be a good start.
 
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