Am I Doing Something Wrong at 17 Draconis?

RoliePolie · Sep 2, 2016

Hey everyone,

After grinding at Tun's Wart up to Lieutenant I decided to try out 17 Draconis on the advice of others. Everyone was saying how there are donation missions galore for the Federation, but I don't seem to see that many (even if I switch modes often to refresh the board). I've uploaded an image, but I'm barely getting any Federation missions at all. I keep getting missions for The Order (even though I tried failing a lot of missions to make them hostile) which aren't Federation aligned. What's the secret? Is it because I'm only friendly with the Federation (89% atm). I also pledged allegiance to Zachary Hudson just now, but as of yet I'm not seeing any difference. Is it because I live in a country that's in the middle of nowhere (NZ) and only get connected to potentially the worst server ever?

Any advice is appreciated.

Image (can't get it to upload here sorry):
http://imgur.com/a/mcAHx

Limoncello Lizard · Sep 2, 2016

Donation missions is a pretty soul destroying way to gain rank. You are better to go somewhere busy that is Fed controlled, like Lembava, and just do stuff. Bountyhunt or mine, or trade, whatever you like to do and take the occasional mission for the feds. It will take al lot longer, but you will enjoy it heaps more. You will also feel that you earned your rank more than by donations.

dynamicbob · Sep 2, 2016

Limoncello Lizard said:
Donation missions is a pretty soul destroying way to gain rank. You are better to go somewhere busy that is Fed controlled, like Lembava, and just do stuff. Bountyhunt or mine, or trade, whatever you like to do and take the occasional mission for the feds. It will take al lot longer, but you will enjoy it heaps more. You will also feel that you earned your rank more than by donations.

a mix of donation missions, message missions, trading and some combat and exploration data and if u have the right ship u can do a mix all at once ( cobra, asp,python)

D.G.Cerberus · Sep 2, 2016

I'm not sure what/ how many you were expecting - you have 3 donation missions for Fed in your image.....

Other than that, I agree with the other two.

Pre 2.1 I used to get a wide variety of Fed missions from 17 Draconis - Donations, sure, plus mixed with some lucrative medium/ long haul trade & smuggling missions.

RoliePolie · Sep 2, 2016

D.G.Cerberus said:
I'm not sure what/ how many you were expecting - you have 3 donation missions for Fed in your image.....

Other than that, I agree with the other two.

Pre 2.1 I used to get a wide variety of Fed missions from 17 Draconis - Donations, sure, plus mixed with some lucrative medium/ long haul trade & smuggling missions.

I was ~~expecting~~ told to expect ~ 12 Fed donation missions. Pretty much everyone on reddit told me yesterday that there was an abundance of them (but I'm beginning to suspect they were lying).

Limoncello Lizard · Sep 2, 2016

When I first heard about 17 Draconis, I thought people were having a giggle sending other players there on a futile trip. There was an earlier one where some players went to Hutton Orbital expecting to find upgrades for Vulture powerplants.
17 Draconis seemed like such a long way away at the time.

BigBANGtheory [VR] · Sep 2, 2016

RoliePolie said:
I was ~~expecting~~ told to expect ~ 12 Fed donation missions. Pretty much everyone on reddit told me yesterday that there was an abundance of them (but I'm beginning to suspect they were lying).

There is a very important lesson every pilot must learn, the galaxy and system conditions change. When you read posts and advice on an event or opportunity by the time you get there things may have changed. For example if 17 Draconis has received a ton of donations that can effect their state to the point they don't need as many donations and whatever was fueling that need maybe over or coming to an end.

My advice would be to stay put for a short time and see what happens, but if nothing changes bookmark the system (to come back to in a week) and move on.

RoliePolie · Sep 2, 2016

BigBANGtheory said:
There is a very important lesson every pilot must learn, the galaxy and system conditions change. When you read posts and advice on an event or opportunity by the time you get there things may have changed. For example if 17 Draconis has received a ton of donations that can effect their state to the point they don't need as many donations and whatever was fueling that need maybe over or coming to an end.

My advice would be to stay put for a short time and see what happens, but if nothing changes bookmark the system (to come back to in a week) and move on.

Which states are favourable? The galaxy map currently says the system is in the Expansion state, should I wait for it to go into a boom first?

D.G.Cerberus · Sep 2, 2016

BigBANGtheory said:
There is a very important lesson every pilot must learn, the galaxy and system conditions change. When you read posts and advice on an event or opportunity by the time you get there things may have changed. For example if 17 Draconis has received a ton of donations that can effect their state to the point they don't need as many donations and whatever was fueling that need maybe over or coming to an end.

My advice would be to stay put for a short time and see what happens, but if nothing changes bookmark the system (to come back to in a week) and move on.

^^This.
As I said, 17 Draconis USED to be a prime Fed ranking system pre 2.1 in that it had both donation missions PLUS with the long smuggling hauls, the variety and the wherewithal to pay for them. Unlike Tun which was just a donation sink. Also remember that donations pre 2.1 were a fraction of the cost they are now.

But BigBangTheory is absolutely correct, and IMHO post 2.1 I think the market states have become much more dynamic and sensitive to factors than they were before. So whilst I have not been there in probably 9 months or so, I'd have to assume players were NOT lying and they've influenced the state.

Mayadin · Sep 2, 2016

I think it was giving lots of donation missions when it was in a outbreak state, asking for credits to "prevent medical emergency"

edit: that was just a few weeks ago

Fishy · Sep 2, 2016

RoliePolie said:
200k and under missions give great rank progression. I don't have to take the million credit missions. They offer no substantial benefit over a 75k mission.

In fact, does any mission of any type ever list anything else than "Reputation Gain: Medium"?

RoliePolie · Sep 2, 2016

Fishy said:
In fact, does any mission of any type ever list anything else than "Reputation Gain: Medium"?

Haven't seen one yet, but then again I've only spent ~100 hours on the game which is comparatively little.

CMDR Ofan · Sep 2, 2016

dynamicbob said:
a mix of donation missions, message missions, trading and some combat and exploration data and if u have the right ship u can do a mix all at once ( cobra, asp,python)

I don't know if things have changed in a recent patch but earlier this year I had a support ticket reply from Frontier confirming that exploration data does not count towards super faction rep.

CMDR Harada · Sep 2, 2016

In answer to the OP's question : YES, 17 Draconis used to be great if you had a 100 million to throw away, but isn't any longer. I was there early this week, and it changed while I was there. I was getting loads of donate missions, and then the next day it was gone. Lucky to get a few.

As far as the some folks claiming spamming donation missions is 'cheating' or 'not proper'... I call shenanigans. Whatever way works. You worked hard for the credits. I'd say it's about a wash time-wise, when you consider the time it took to get the credits, and then looking for somewhere to spend it on donation missions when they pop. When it takes 400 delivery missions to go from Post Captain to Rear Admiral... Do what you gotta do. Especially since a lot of the complainers got it the 'easy way' in pre-2.1 .

Lately I've been doing the soul-crushing data delivery missions out of Tun, and it works, as long as you also pick up missions on your run. IE : If your on Alrai turning in missions for a Tun faction, there might be more missions for other points on your route. It also seems lately that mode switching doesn't seem to be as effective for generating new missions so it's taking much longer to get a full stack of 20 missions.

JetsonRING · Sep 2, 2016

RoliePolie said:
Hey everyone,

After grinding at Tun's Wart up to Lieutenant I decided to try out 17 Draconis on the advice of others. Everyone was saying how there are donation missions galore for the Federation, but I don't seem to see that many (even if I switch modes often to refresh the board). I've uploaded an image, but I'm barely getting any Federation missions at all. I keep getting missions for The Order (even though I tried failing a lot of missions to make them hostile) which aren't Federation aligned. What's the secret? Is it because I'm only friendly with the Federation (89% atm). I also pledged allegiance to Zachary Hudson just now, but as of yet I'm not seeing any difference. Is it because I live in a country that's in the middle of nowhere (NZ) and only get connected to potentially the worst server ever?

Any advice is appreciated.

Image (can't get it to upload here sorry):
http://imgur.com/a/mcAHx

I tried 17 Draconis and found the same. It may have to do with your REP or your RANK but it may also be play style. Some players Spam the boards, flipping between game-play modes in order to stack missions, etc. and if a pilot doesn't have the patience for this it will be tedious and frustrating. Also, I have read in forums that 17 Draconis has been nerfed. I have been working out of Haller City, Barnard's Star for a couple of weeks now and so far I am allied with only one of the 4 local Federation (I am grinding Federation rank) factions since I am spreading missions over the 4 factions. Haller City has 4 (5?) Federation factions and 2 or 3 independents. Small-jump, single-hop data and cargo delivery missions, all REP++ and INF++, not a lot of cash but I turn a profit, even with completing "donation" missions. Many missions to the same systems and even the same stations if you are choosy and patient. If I start feeling like I am not earning enough I haul some rares out to Sothis and return with An Anaconda full of doo-doo that sells for about 30 million.

With regard to donation missions: If in real life I can buy/bribe/donate my way to success and power, why should I not be able to do so in the game?

Limoncello Lizard · Sep 2, 2016

Fishy said:
In fact, does any mission of any type ever list anything else than "Reputation Gain: Medium"?

There are Low rep gain missions.

BigBANGtheory [VR] · Sep 2, 2016

RoliePolie said:
Which states are favourable? The galaxy map currently says the system is in the Expansion state, should I wait for it to go into a boom first?

Some kind of state of emergency a civil war, medical something like that, then it will spawn a flood of donation missions. You won't get very far sticking with 75k or less you'll need to pump more in than that and if your not earning or doing other missions then you are looking at 100's of millions of credits to see real progress via donations fyi.

Alpenmilch · Sep 3, 2016

Without hardcore grinding Tactics it seems almost impossible to get a corvette now in a lifetime.

BigBANGtheory [VR] · Sep 3, 2016

I think the important thing to realize is that in order to gain significant reputation and rank a degree of grinding is involved no matter what because FDev have enforced/capped the currency of reputation gain. All you can do as the player is decide over what period of time and what cost or gain you want to receive during that journey. All this may change in the future though so holding off may reap rewards too i.e. opportunity for significant rep gain maybe possible in the future.

Codger · Sep 3, 2016

I did my ranking at Tun. It worked fine, took a while but it worked. And the Corvette was worth the effort, I love the ship.