Powerplay Faction: Li Yong-Rui Explorers, how many of you actually benefit from the exploration perk?
- Thread starter drkaii
- Start date
I don't really know anything about it, except that it exists.
Can you please explain, or provide a link.
Thanks
Can you please explain, or provide a link.
Thanks
Drkali is talking about the level 5 perk that means we can sell exploration data with a 200% bonus. The problem is that powerplaying to level 5 and exploring are difficult to do together - you need to spend a while ranking up, and then it decays. Exploring involves going out for long periods. The best you can do is hold on to your exploration data whilst ranking up, but that runs the risk that you'll get shot up and lose everything. In addition, it gives someone else the chance of picking up your first explored tag.
This is the problem in a nut shell. Even with the 200% bonus, exploration income is lower than any other activity in the game, except the lowest rank station missions. To make it viable, you have to farm neutron stars which is even more tedious than PP itself.
My hope is that Horizons will offer new ways to get exploration income that you can do inside the bubble. And hopefully this exploration income will be much more reasonable and balanced, and worth the trouble of multiplying with a rank 5 bonus.
It's a great idea, but problematic in that you first have to get the exploration data, then grind the level 5, with a good chance that either someone else will have explored that way, or you'll get killed while getting the level 5.
It's a huge gamble, with a lot of luck required to get there in the end.
Exploration pays little enough already, without losing what little you have made in these ways.
Ah, that rules it out for me then... I neither have a trade Conda, or 100 million.
Me too...
So basically we have a rank 5 perk that is only useful to people who have a conda and millions of credits, and is risky and extremely rarely provides anyone with any benefit (and takes ages, and is only useful if you have enough scans to make the cost of getting rank 5 in the first place viable). Maybe we should discuss and see if we can come up with anything better to suggest?
Maybe this is why nobody is siding with him, and this forum is empty...
The problem with exploration is that the income doesn't scale with increased skill or with better ships. It is stuck at a flat rate that is only appropriate to beginner players with limited options and ships not well suited to trade or combat. Getting more range or an advanced scanners happens very early in the game. A 2 million CR Hauler will net as much explore ration income as a 60 Million CR Asp Explorer.
I think it is pretty obvious that we need new ways for explorers to make more money inside the bubble, and ones that scale with increased risk. A good example would be espionage missions. Where you need to scan enemy planets, stations and bases, and assess their troop strength, economic activity, etc without being spotted or killed. Or plant spy probes in orbit around planets/stations etc. Some spying locations (like high sec control systems) should be far riskier. Some of these spying activities should be mission based, and some should just be doable on your own initiative by reporting to contacts in stations, like collecting bounties.
Spying is an activity that is highly appropriate to Power Play, and should also result in Merits. Ergo a 200% bonus to exploration/spying data would a very nice rank 5 indeed,
I think it is pretty obvious that we need new ways for explorers to make more money inside the bubble, and ones that scale with increased risk. A good example would be espionage missions. Where you need to scan enemy planets, stations and bases, and assess their troop strength, economic activity, etc without being spotted or killed. Or plant spy probes in orbit around planets/stations etc. Some spying locations (like high sec control systems) should be far riskier. Some of these spying activities should be mission based, and some should just be doable on your own initiative by reporting to contacts in stations, like collecting bounties.
Spying is an activity that is highly appropriate to Power Play, and should also result in Merits. Ergo a 200% bonus to exploration/spying data would a very nice rank 5 indeed,
Phenomenal idea
No it's not.
I've done two big exploration expeditions and both times got the perk after coming home.
There was very little risk. Obviously you don't do the PP in a shieldless ship that would be silly, and obviously you don't go the combat PP route.
Yes you *could* die, the 200% bonus isn't without risk but from experience it's very low. On the chance you do get interdicted, well you've got shields, maybe you've got chaff, just high or even low wake out, easy.
It also doesn't require a huge amount of work. You can get rank 5 in a long Sunday afternoon if you knuckle down and get on with it. There is very little chance someone else will beat you to first discovered because of the extra time required to rank 5.
But yes a big cargo ship is ideally needed and the cash for fast rank, but bear in mind you'll make some/all/more back with the 200% bonus.
And once you have that boosted exploration data you can go use it to get the permits in the Li-Yong Rui territory for about 5-6 million a drop.
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As above, I don't think that's correct.
I think I probably should caveat the whole thing by saying the only reason I did the PP thing was for the exploration ranking, for that it's totally great.
But for making money through general exploration (assuming you're not neutron farming), getting the pp perk is not so great, because (very little x 3) = still not much.
But in the end I think that's more a complaint with exploration in general rather than the perk as such, all the PP perk's just a multiplier. Which in the end isn't so interesting.
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I can easily maintain my Powerplay Ranking 5 in 2 days of play by undermining and supporting or opposing expansions. Which leaves 5 days to explore in a cycle.
You can easily travel the 1-1.5 klys in a few hours to unexplored regions if you must have first discovery.
Exploring doesn't mean having to go to Sag A or being away from the bubble for months. Hell you don't even need to scan previously unexplored systems and gain first discovery to gain benefit from this perk.
So using the first 2 days of cycle 1 and the last 2 days of cycle 2 to maintain ranking. You are left with 10 days in between to explore to your hearts content and make a reasonable financial return for your time spent. A reasonable return that was not available before the Powerplay perk.
So I quite like the exploration perk it makes exploration financially viable and I don't understand why people would be critics of it.
You can easily travel the 1-1.5 klys in a few hours to unexplored regions if you must have first discovery.
Exploring doesn't mean having to go to Sag A or being away from the bubble for months. Hell you don't even need to scan previously unexplored systems and gain first discovery to gain benefit from this perk.
So using the first 2 days of cycle 1 and the last 2 days of cycle 2 to maintain ranking. You are left with 10 days in between to explore to your hearts content and make a reasonable financial return for your time spent. A reasonable return that was not available before the Powerplay perk.
So I quite like the exploration perk it makes exploration financially viable and I don't understand why people would be critics of it.
Its an amazing bonus if you put in the effort. The money does contribute to rank making it a good way to improve your exploring standing. Also, from my experience, it multiplies your first time discovery bonus leading to 4.5X money on some discoveries. The best way to use it is to plan out a week where you take care of your undermining on the first few days of a week, then you can go out for 5-7 days and do your undermining for the next week towards the end. This is just what i did the other week and made about 45 mil credits from 5 days of exploration work. Sure it still isn't big money for your time, but i think it gives explorers an interesting career option, where you do short local expeditions instead of long distant variants. Personally i find it fun and +1 the bonus.
ALso if anyone plans to do this i recommend going about 3000 LY out to a random patch of stars and hunting for terraformable/ammonia/water worlds.
ALso if anyone plans to do this i recommend going about 3000 LY out to a random patch of stars and hunting for terraformable/ammonia/water worlds.
Hmm... firstly, I can't do 7 days a week.
Also, my time is limited on other times also.
Could probably do the PP side OR the exploring... to do both requires more time than I have.
So, no trade Conda, no 100 millions, and not enough time...
For me, therefore, this is a waste of time.
Also, my time is limited on other times also.
Could probably do the PP side OR the exploring... to do both requires more time than I have.
So, no trade Conda, no 100 millions, and not enough time...
For me, therefore, this is a waste of time.
Even then you would be breaking even on it only if you had 50 Million worth of exploration data. Not to mention that trucking 10,000 tons of supplies will also take 4-5 hours (potentially worth about 20-30 Million if you were to just do regular trading for that long). I tried undermining and maybe I am doing it wrong, but I didnt have the patience to sit and intercept ships for hours and hours to get to rank 5. I stopped at rank 4 and collected my 5 million.
If lower ranks gave bonuses to exploration for people then being rank 2, 3, and 4 would make sense for explorers. And you could also reasonably have enough merits that even with the decay your rank lasts for a while.
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