Made more in 2 days than 3 months.

[CMDR Saunders]

Have had ED SINCE its launch. Took me over a month to make it to 6million with player piracy and bounties. In my first 2 days of long range smuggling, I've made about 12mil... and this is only about 4 hours total. HOLY CRAP.

Just wanted to share!

I like the danger of smuggling, I feel like an actual smuggler that could lose the entire contract via police scan.... very cool. Well done devs, well done.

My first long range run took forever in a cobra... not im in an asp with an upgraded FSD... 17-20 jumps for 3mil paydays... sometimes 7mil if I can get 2 in the same general direction -- which I just did.

Now you just need to work on player bounty hunting (actual tracking players across the galaxy)... and then I can get my feeding tube and poop bucket installed and I'll never leave this room again -- ahahah.

 

[Noob]

Too much joy. Incoming nerf.

 

[BattleMetalChris]

 

[Garrand]

I think a slight buff to smuggling profits is still in order (if you take one of the "Scan = failure" missions) to make it comparable to rank 5 CZ farming or 500+ cargo trading. Especially considering trading is as close to no risk as you can get to in this game and still actually be doing something.

 

[_neuron_]

Too much joy. Incoming nerf.

http://i.imgur.com/tbAIa38.png

Funny but also sadly close to the truth.

 

[robbyp]

80t asp explorer is your aim for sumugling. It will beat off pirate ships and can take multiple missions. Then you are in for a good pay day

 

[Faybs]

80t asp explorer is your aim for sumugling. It will beat off pirate ships and can take multiple missions. Then you are in for a good pay day

Must... resist... juvenile... joke...

 

[Collider]

"Thank you sothis, fehu and robigo.
For your multiple game mode switch stack.
For funding me a fleet on the go.
For that joy in having insurance and attack.

Make it harder from now.
So no one can reach such joy.
Nerf it with the nerf bat now.
Make me the only spoiled boy."

This is to say, game design choices brought missions being that bad right now.
Instead of nerfing. Innovate. Try new things before it's too late and another way of unpredictable game play emerges.
Make it have consequences for what you do. This is non existant in the game. Missions are shallow in this aspect.

There is no player involvement in the Background Simulator. A huge group of players can try to influence it. But there are no consequences.

 

[Spectre-63]

As a newer player, I'd be interested in details on how you get started with long-range smuggling. I presume this is similar to running 'rares', but with the cargo being illegal at the destination?

 

[veryinky]

1. get a ship with decent jump range, you're going to be doing a 350+ly trip.
2. have at least 30-40 tons of cargo space, 80 is better.
3. have some shields, chaff, and heatsinks on your ship because you will be interdicted and attacked, repeatedly. Fuel scoop is necessary unless you have enough fuel to make a very, very, very long trip.
4. go to some station on the edge of colonized space, sothis, fehu, robigo, 17 draconis... they're all on the edge of the "bubble".
5. There will be long range missions available, some smuggling some not, all with very good pay rates.
Some of the missions will have "mission will fail if ship is scanned", these fail if you are scanned. They pay more of course.
6. endure endless interdiction every single hop on the way back to civilized space.

 

[Don_Von_Hulio]

Have had ED SINCE its launch.

Most people have a hard time admitting this. Its always good to feel comfortable about it and make big steps forward to conquer it.

 

[Collider]

1. get a ship with decent jump range, you're going to be doing a 350+ly trip.
2. have at least 30-40 tons of cargo space, 80 is better.
3. have some shields, chaff, and heatsinks on your ship because you will be interdicted and attacked, repeatedly. Fuel scoop is necessary unless you have enough fuel to make a very, very, very long trip.
4. go to some station on the edge of colonized space, sothis, fehu, robigo, 17 draconis... they're all on the edge of the "bubble".
5. There will be long range missions available, some smuggling some not, all with very good pay rates.
Some of the missions will have "mission will fail if ship is scanned", these fail if you are scanned. They pay more of course.
6. endure endless interdiction every single hop on the way back to civilized space.

You forgot to explain game mode switch in order to stack missions.
Although not officially considered an exploit, it helps refreshing the bulletin board so you can do multiple in one run.
That's how you fill your 80 tones.

This is where the game is at right now. If you want to do it right this is the way. It is not fun. But it is tolerated since you can make credits fast.

When it requires such a thing to be done, something must be wrong with the game

 

[W4rSkuLL]

Have had ED SINCE its launch. Took me over a month to make it to 6million with player piracy and bounties. In my first 2 days of long range smuggling, I've made about 12mil... and this is only about 4 hours total. HOLY CRAP.

Just wanted to share!

I like the danger of smuggling, I feel like an actual smuggler that could lose the entire contract via police scan.... very cool. Well done devs, well done.

My first long range run took forever in a cobra... not im in an asp with an upgraded FSD... 17-20 jumps for 3mil paydays... sometimes 7mil if I can get 2 in the same general direction -- which I just did.

THIS: ---------> Now you just need to work on player bounty hunting (actual tracking players across the galaxy)... and then I can get my feeding tube and poop bucket installed and I'll never leave this room again -- ahahah.

If Frontier can add this. Then all .... will break loose in a good way. This can add immense action and immersion to the game.

EKS on a Commander bounty mission generated randomly after a commander has triggered a pursuit/bounty mechanism:

Right on Commander. We have reports of a psycho commander X on the prowl, last seen in the X system. He has been terrorizing supply lines and traders. His bounty stands now at 11498760 cr. We need you to take care of this menace of society. Are you up for the task? We will pay you 15000000 cr on a successful kill.
Reports will be given randomly between every 30 min-1 hour of his whereabouts as police journals come in.

Regards from The Federation Security.

As the mission gets generated on the bulletin board, a message will let the fugitive commander know with a HUD warning that he is hunted/wanted. The chase is on. As this can happen randomly, bounties will vary in prize. But lets say around 1000000 bounty will usually put your name on the bulletin board in many systems. Mostly/most offended systems.

 

[JohnnyDangerous]

I like the new smuggling balance. Yes, it's a few million but it's not easy like it used to be. First, they are LONG hauls which take a lot of time just to get in place. Next, the NPCs attack you pretty aggressively, and you also have the whole stealth aspect because a scan isn't just a fine, it's a fail. Between getting the right ship for smuggling and dealing with the danger, it's a good payoff just like REAL smuggling.

 

[veryinky]

You forgot to explain game mode switch in order to stack missions.

Horizon player; they fixed the open/solo switch for horizon players.

That said, long range smuggling is one of the few, if only, missions in the game which compete with a-b loop trading or haz res bounty hunting. It's challenging, risky and in a way fun, plus it's rewarding in the form of credits.

I find it unlikely that FDev will fix the rest of the missions so that they are worth the time/effort/risk so long range smuggling will probably become as much a waste of time as the rest of the missions. Like 48,000 credits for killing 73 pirates over the course of 4 hours or haul 148 tons of biowaste 150 lightyears for 35,000 credits.

 

[Alexander the Grape]

The massive positive response to long-range smuggling is proof that sensible rebalancing of missions to make them competitive with trading and NPC grinding can have a huge positive impact on the game.

Now that they fixed the solo/open exploit, and added in proper punishments for getting scanned, it really shows that Frontier can make this game massively more enjoyable while keeping it balanced progression-wise.

All they need to do now is make other missions payouts be comparable (cr/hr wise) to long range smuggling. I'm yearning for the day where I can make money by doing assassinations/mercenary work/search and rescue/refueling NPCs/hauling dangerous cargo while being stalked by persistent pirates

 

[CapitanAceRimmer]

Everyone is always complaining about the mission system being broken, it isn't. Or that the haulage missions are broken, definitely not. In every update things change a lot and you need to find the optimum missions to execute. The other day I got a 1.1 million standard haulage mission in Diaguandri, didn't even have to go to a remote system. Yesterday I finished a 2.3 million pirate killing mission, in Hel funny enough. I forgot it was the location of a community goal as well until I went to the Jones orbital to pick up my bounties. Oh, I am not at Elite level either, or even at the level below, in any of the professions.

They do not need to be smuggling jobs either, standard hauling jobs can also have a big payout:

Here is an example one:

 

[Drunk Si]

Now you just need to work on player bounty hunting (actual tracking players across the galaxy)

That's the dream...

Imagine in any station controlled by a major faction you can log in to a most wanted list for all Federation/Empire/Alliance systems and click on a player to accept the assassination mission; you're given some line of text that says the ballistics report taken from the last ship to cross paths with your target suggests their weaponry was bought in X system. You head there, if they're not immediately apparent you go to a black market and open a menu for "Information Broker". For a fee you can see that player hasn't been online for months and that chasing him down will be a complete waste of time, OR, maybe it will give you the details of their last few play sessions so you know that cmdr was seen a few times in the last couple of days and tends to be on between 8 and 10pm and currently flits about between a few systems. It might be rudimentary but at least it would give you something to go on.

 

[Carcharodon]

I do hope they don't nerf this. First time in a long time I've had a feeling of tension and excitement with every new dot on the scanner.

 

[okiimatsu]

There is no player involvement in the Background Simulator. A huge group of players can try to influence it. But there are no consequences.

Isn't the background simulator really nothing more than someone throwing some dragon dice once in awhile at a meeting? That's about what I imagine it.