Smuggling missions now pointless.

[Space Pigeon]

Sorry man. I just heavily disagree with you. I voted for the other guy. I'm not looking for a galaxy where everything is perfectly balanced so it doesn't matter if you're 1 light year from Sol or 5000. Successful factions that do something that is out of the box deserve to be standing out. Even communism failed by human greed. Places need to be different big time. The reason that this is not the case is the same reason i haven't per-ordered Horizons or will ever get it. What's the point in having planets that are all the same all over the galaxy in which it doesn't matter where you are in relation to profit? When is Elite Dangerous finally becoming really Elite Dangerous? Right now 'Elite' is meaningless. It only shows that you had enough spare time to grind your walnuts off. I'm done with the puppy-mode ignorance.

It's okay. I respect your opinion obviously. However I just think that there are other ways to make a difference other than offering 50+ mil /hour profits making ALL other activities worthless. Normally I'd go out and bounty hunt for a bit, then some PVP/powerplay and perhaps a bit of trading now and then. After the smuggling stuff started, I found all other activities not worth my time, since having more credits is always a good thing.. up to a point where it even felt kinda stressful. I obviously know that this is personal, and other people might not experience it this way.

I agree that the ranks are kinda useless. As it doesn't necessarily mean that you're "Elite" in a certain activity. But having extremely profitable missions doesn't change that. If they'd increase risks of getting caught + brutal consequences.. well.. then I'll be the first one to agree in bringing back the old situation.

 

[rucky]

Still proves nothing, it was the usual canned response from Frontier support, take a step back, you know these missions were over the top, have some objectivity please, you were playing with Kinder eggs, Frontier let you play with the Faberge eggs for a while now its back to Kinder, enjoy!

Compared to standard boring A<->B trading smuggling NEEDS TO BE paying more
On what reason else would someone do them? For the Lulz? Oh come on...

Me DURING the SSR (Sothis-Smuggling-Rush) made 13 mill cr per hour, yes a very high income (for me, was Entreprenieur), and yes it needs to be cut done.... A BIT

Now I'm getting 4-5 mill per hour (Tycoon) AND THE SAME 30++ interdictions and Scanns etc. during 2 hour high adrenaline flight back to the different target locations...

Making 8-10 mill per hour mindless boring slave trading runs while watching tv is easier, don't you agree with that?

AND PLEASE, folks, I can't hear (i.e. read) these 50 mill cr per hour anymore. That's of course uber and HAS TO BE NERFED - BUT! that only have gotten elites which were also allied with these factions there!!!

 

[Jet Fusion]

It's okay. I respect your opinion obviously. However I just think that there are other ways to make a difference other than offering 50+ mil /hour profits making ALL other activities worthless. Normally I'd go out and bounty hunt for a bit, then some PVP/powerplay and perhaps a bit of trading now and then. After the smuggling stuff started, I found all other activities not worth my time, since having more credits is always a good thing.. up to a point where it even felt kinda stressful. I obviously know that this is personal, and other people might not experience it this way.

I agree that the ranks are kinda useless. As it doesn't necessarily mean that you're "Elite" in a certain activity. But having extremely profitable missions doesn't change that. If they'd increase risks of getting caught + brutal consequences.. well.. then I'll be the first one to agree in bringing back the old situation.

Personally i find it typical that designers often look at nerfing something silly instead of making something interesting like having capital ship blockades trying to stop you and real heavy use for silent running with cooling systems beyond what's capable instead of docking with full throttle and boost. In the beginning the NPC's where in line constantly interdicting you, but that was too much too. What happened to coming up with cool things that stand out? The cheap solution is chosen while the interesting one is being ignored. Designers need to understand that 'nerf = limiting = limitation = less fun = doing something else'.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Well what can I say, we all know about the Sothis nerf not that I really had a problem with it anyway but smuggling was the only thing that brought me back into the game.
I knew about Sothis and the riches to be made there but I wasn't greedy I found a nice system that was giving me missions for 600k for a 90 LY trip, I was happy carving out my own little space slowly building up a nest egg to buy a ASP and go exploring the outer reaches.
The system wasn't even handing out multiple missions like Sothis was just one or two a time, nice little payment of couple mill an hour that was enough for me I was happy due to my limited time I get to play anyway.

So what happens Sothis get nuked of course, you can't have an MMO without the usual moaning ers that seem to infest everyone of these games, but why has every other system got nuked as well? Smuggling missions from what I've seen tonight have been made completely pointless yet again. Now all I get are the same missions for a quarter of the price to do further jumps...why am I going to do that.

Unfortunately some of us don't get to spend their lives on games so this was nice for us "time-restricted" folk. The game is a bloody grind fest as it is already without making it flipping worse.
I haven't got a problem with nuking the big payouts although I still don't understand why everyone was complaining, so what someone earn't 40mil an hour? (fair play to them). Just because your line of work doesn't pay that much what's the problem?

It's just sad that a DEV can't seem to make a balanced judgement on these things, ok nerf it fair enough but don't destroy it. Now I sit in my system looking at missions that to be honest aren't even worth my time reading let alone actually doing.

Because FDEV haven't got a clue what they're doing.

 

[Space Pigeon]

Personally i find it typical that designers often look at nerfing something silly instead of making something interesting like having capital ship blockades trying to stop you and real heavy use for silent running with cooling systems beyond what's capable instead of docking with full throttle and boost. The cheap solution is chosen while the interesting one is being ignored. Designers need to understand that 'nerf = limiting = limitation = less fun = doing something else'.

Agreed, but if it's true what people have been saying (that it's a placeholder nerf which in time will be changed to something better) then I might understand it a bit better. I have no clue what kind of consequences these kind of nerfs/changes have in the background of the game. This one did feel a bit too simple though, and doesn't really contribute to the immersion. So I guess we do agree on some points.

 

[Theodrid]

Compared to standard boring A<->B trading smuggling NEEDS TO BE paying more
On what reason else would someone do them? For the Lulz? Oh come on...

Me DURING the SSR (Sothis-Smuggling-Rush) made 13 mill cr per hour, yes a very high income (for me, was Entreprenieur), and yes it needs to be cut done.... A BIT

Now I'm getting 4-5 mill per hour (Tycoon) AND THE SAME 30++ interdictions and Scanns etc. during 2 hour high adrenaline flight back to the different target locations...

Making 8-10 mill per hour mindless boring slave trading runs while watching tv is easier, don't you agree with that?

AND PLEASE, folks, I can't hear (i.e. read) these 50 mill cr per hour anymore. That's of course uber and HAS TO BE NERFED - BUT! that only have gotten elites with were also allied with these factions there!!!

Not sure where in my post(s) I said 'smuggling should make the same as trading', smuggling should make more, but, in regards to what went on at Sothis, it was ridiculous, it needed to be toned down a lot, (not just a BIT), and made harder in my opinion, (for example the suggested mission fail on scan). Frontier have gone some way to addressing that, making these missions pay less and rarer is the way to go, these kind of missions should make your eyes light up when you get one, not be 'run of the mill' or 'the norm' as the recent gold rush made them.

 

[Ekar]

Exactly. And the nerf they did implement isn't going to deter the mode switchers anyway, because they'll just keep switching modes until they get their 80M worth of missions - only difference is that it will take two hours of switching instead of 20 minutes. Meanwhile those of us who only play a couple hours a week get the probulator.

If I had only a couple hours a week to play a game the last thing I would consider would be faffing about in a menu for 20 minutes.

 

[Chaz]

Compared to standard boring A<->B trading smuggling NEEDS TO BE paying more
On what reason else would someone do them? For the Lulz? Oh come on...

Well doing regular high earning trade runs actually required a bit of investment in terms of time and money. You know, money to buy a decent trade ship, time spent finding and doing the runs. Working your way up to the top tier traders took considerable time, it was a long term goal. Even when you have the ship you still need to put the creds up front to buy the cargo you intend to make a profit off.

On the other hand pulling smuggling missions off the BB requires nothing more than being there in a suitable ship. Even a low tier one will do. It requires no investment of time or credits to take a BB mission, except maybe working up a little bit of rep if needed.

 

[rucky]

Not sure where in my post(s) I said 'smuggling should make the same as trading', smuggling should make more, but, in regards to what went on at Sothis, it was ridiculous, it needed to be toned down a lot, (not just a BIT), and made harder in my opinion, (for example the suggested mission fail on scan). Frontier have gone some way to addressing that, making these missions pay less and rarer is the way to go, these kind of missions should make your eyes light up when you get one, not be 'run of the mill' or 'the norm' as the recent gold rush made them.

so you say, my 13 mill cr per hour had to be toned down A LOT (to the actual 4-5 mill cr per hour) while on the other hand it should be more than trading, right? I can make 8-10 mill cr per hour mindless trading.

somethings wrong here.... no?

 

[SkipRat]

Its still an awesome ship, however the nerf was crazy, just like the missiles, still pretty but stupid ineffective. Its like FD do a knee jerk reaction every time Reddit or this forum produce a brain fart.

One of the best posts I have ever read.

This is exactly what is happening...

As I said before, all they need to do was increase the amount of cargo you carried (ie from 4 tons to 35/40 tones), decrease the amount of time you had available to complete the mission, whilst at the same time have the same missions available in solo, group and open to prevent stacking.

It was so so simple to fix and so easily and I am sick to death of whiny brainfarts getting their way. Yes it needed balance, but that was the point, balance.

There was nothing wrong with the missiles and the Python is a ruined ship, I just took point defence systems... "The counter measure to missiles"... Der brains...

 

[Jet Fusion]

so you say, my 13 mill cr per hour had to be toned down A LOT (to the actual 4-5 mill cr per hour) while on the other hand it should be more than trading, right? I can make 8-10 mill cr per hour mindless trading.

somethings wrong here.... no?

"mindless trading" Are we having fun yet??

 

[Billexista]

This game is , broken piece of space game. The only thing devs want us to do is mindless trading where you just mash jump button and watch tv.
Smuggling where you actually use stealth and need to be alert to not mess up? Pays less.
Fighting in asteroid belts in the night? They barely pay you for new paint job.
Harder things you do, less you get paid. In what game you have that? Elite:Upsidedown

In diablo 3 you get more rewards each time you chose higher difficulty. Imagine playing diablo on normal and getting drops and gold higher than torment 10 difficulty. Stupid right? So you'd get all gear and gold for upgrades to play highest tier that loses money.

Nobody would play diablo if you had less reward for doing harder difficulties. E: D is just meh.

You play diablo on normal to get shiny gear and some cash, you raise the difficulty to get better gear and more cash reward so you can move to harder stuff to hone your skill.
In elite you do boring easy trading while watching TV and not giving a damn about game, you earn credits buy new ship. You start bounty hunting and you realize that to progress to next ship you don't fight or smuggle or increase your skill in any way, you have to FALL BACK to mindless trade grind while watching TV. Might as well just watch TV or play another game instead. There is REVERSE progress mechanics in elite dangerous! That's why it's so bad. You trade yourself to death and get conda and realize that god damn trading is stupid endgame.

TRADING is god damn end game. GG, this is such hard fail game design i don't even have enough palms to facepalm this.

 

[rucky]

As I wrote it already,
for me the perfect smuggling would be:

1) super high paid (15-30 mill cr - to get 15+ mill per hour for high ranked pilots)
2) seldom (and restricted to ONE per load)
3) very short delivery time requirements (not these 14 hours+ for 10 mill and only 2 poops)
4) "not existing" special delivery warez (like Obiwan and Luke, passengers, whatever - so there's no way to dumb that cargo and buy it again at the target station !!! ;-)
5) higher fines (1/3 of payment) PER SCAN
6) same chasing as of now with 20+ missions
7) long range 300 ly++

- - - Updated - - -

"mindless trading" Are we having fun yet??

mindless trading is no fun - it's "necessary" in an mmo-like game.
smuggling WAS FUN!
(still is of course, but it also is/was stressing, so I will not do it very often any more)

 

[SkipRat]

so you say, my 13 mill cr per hour had to be toned down A LOT (to the actual 4-5 mill cr per hour) while on the other hand it should be more than trading, right? I can make 8-10 mill cr per hour mindless trading.

somethings wrong here.... no?

The smuggling was a joke, it needed to be balanced...

When people could play the game for a week and end up Pythons, you know something is wrong. And if you can't see that, then you are just as bad as whiny the little carebears that want everything nerfed every 5 seconds (Ie complaining about missiles and not taking point defence systems etc) because they can't work it out for themselves.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Trading: downside, boring as mud. Upside: makes a lot of money per hr due to bulk, but (downside) less money per ton.
Smuggling: upside: more exciting gameplay. Downside: makes less money per hr than trading, but (upside) more per ton.

Now I'm not a trader nor a smuggler, so I'm assuming this based on what I read here. But is this assessment anywhere close to reality?

 

[Agony_Aunt]

This game is , broken piece of space game. The only thing devs want us to do is mindless trading where you just mash jump button and watch tv.
Smuggling where you actually use stealth and need to be alert to not mess up? Pays less.
Fighting in asteroid belts in the night? They barely pay you for new paint job.
Harder things you do, less you get paid. In what game you have that? Elite:Upsidedown

In diablo 3 you get more rewards each time you chose higher difficulty. Imagine playing diablo on normal and getting drops and gold higher than torment 10 difficulty. Stupid right? So you'd get all gear and gold for upgrades to play highest tier that loses money.

Nobody would play diablo if you had less reward for doing harder difficulties. E: D is just meh.

You play diablo on normal to get shiny gear and some cash, you raise the difficulty to get better gear and more cash reward so you can move to harder stuff to hone your skill.
In elite you do boring easy trading while watching TV and not giving a damn about game, you earn credits buy new ship. You start bounty hunting and you realize that to progress to next ship you don't fight or smuggle or increase your skill in any way, you have to FALL BACK to mindless trade grind while watching TV. Might as well just watch TV or play another game instead. There is REVERSE progress mechanics in elite dangerous! That's why it's so bad. You trade yourself to death and get conda and realize that god damn trading is stupid endgame.

TRADING is god damn end game. GG, this is such hard fail game design i don't even have enough palms to facepalm this.

Hi there. Which game are you talking about? This is the Elite: Dangerous forums. You should give it a try sometime

 

[Jet Fusion]

Trading: downside, boring as mud. Upside: makes a lot of money per hr due to bulk, but (downside) less money per ton.
Smuggling: upside: more exciting gameplay. Downside: makes less money per hr than trading, but (upside) more per ton.

Now I'm not a trader nor a smuggler, so I'm assuming this based on what I read here. But is this assessment anywhere close to reality?

Smugglers and illegal goods don't exist because it's fun to traffic them. It's because of the profit.

 

[rucky]

Smugglers and illegal goods don't exist because it's fun to traffic them. It's because of the profit.

yep, that's sadly the truth.

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Smugglers and illegal goods don't exist because it's fun to traffic them. It's because of the profit.

But even though we're playing a game, you don't feel fun should be a factor?

But when talking about trading, it should?

 

[Theodrid]

so you say, my 13 mill cr per hour had to be toned down A LOT (to the actual 4-5 mill cr per hour) while on the other hand it should be more than trading, right? I can make 8-10 mill cr per hour mindless trading.

somethings wrong here.... no?

No, I am talking per ton it should be worth more than trading, but to be honest I'm not comfortable with being able to haul 200 tons of narcotics around willy nilly. So, per ton you should make more than a trader does per ton, but you shouldn't be able to haul hundreds of tones of illegal goods around, just like a trader does with legit goods, with impunity for a much higher return.