Quince is even more broken than we tought

[biohazard15]

I'm not of the opinion that progression is all about credit making. Too many people have money as their primary goal in Elite. Those people don't get to criticise ED for being shallow (whether it is or not).

For me, money is not a goal.
But getting rid of need to earn it is.

Thanks to Quince, 17 Draconis and other so-called "exploits" and "goldmines" I have 12.2 billion on my main account. And since I already have every ship I want, I can happily forget about that dread feeling of not being able to afford that 8A engines for Cutter. Or reactive armor for Corvette. To a certain extent, of course - but hey, even Bill Gates isn't able to buy absolutely anything.
My game turned from Earning Simulator into a pure sandbox. And I am totally happy about it. I can do what I want, where I want, when I want and most importantly, how exactly I want it.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

For me, money is not a goal.
But getting rid of need to earn it is.

Thanks to Quince, 17 Draconis and other so-called "exploits" and "goldmines" I have 12.2 billion on my main account. And since I already have every ship I want, I can happily forget about that dread feeling of not being able to afford that 8A engines for Cutter. Or reactive armor for Corvette. To a certain extent, of course - but hey, even Bill Gates isn't able to buy absolutely anything.
My game turned from Earning Simulator into a pure sandbox. And I am totally happy about it. I can do what I want, where I want, when I want and most importantly, how exactly I want it.

good stuff, glad you are happy.... me personally I dread the day that i can afford any upgrade for any ship in the game, or can pay my insurance without even a drop of sweat. indeed i have been deliberately slowing my pace down by adding my own "silly" rules to stretch it out - the main one being NEVER sell as ship I do not have at least 1 other variant of, and never strip a ship to allow me to afford another.

the day i own every ship in the game and get to triple elite, i will feel at a loose end... but then ya see... ultimately pure sandboxes are not my kind of game, I am a goal orientated player. takes all sorts i spose

 

[Jex =TE=]

good stuff, glad you are happy.... me personally I dread the day that i can afford any upgrade for any ship in the game, or can pay my insurance without even a drop of sweat. indeed i have been deliberately slowing my pace down by adding my own "silly" rules to stretch it out - the main one being NEVER sell as ship I do not have at least 1 other variant of, and never strip a ship to allow me to afford another.

the day i own every ship in the game and get to triple elite, i will feel at a loose end... but then ya see... ultimately pure sandboxes are not my kind of game, I am a goal orientated player. takes all sorts i spose

Not really. Sandboxes are not infinite. They all have their shelf life and all burn out after X amount of time. Once content ceases to be made for a game, it's not long before that game is added to the archives of history.

 

[Actionman2222]

Quince is a great shortcut for Empire rank.

But as for credits it's much more enjoyable earning from CG's and sightseeing missions, which pay out in the same sort of ballpark (for me anyway). I'm not bothered about Quince being there at all. Just used it for some rank, it's boring for earning credits

I doubt it's really messing up the BGS that much, small microclimate.

 

[sollisb]

The only people to blame for this is Frontier. They have continually and incessantly devalued everything we are supposed to do in the game. The only thing to get any form of value boost recently is Exploration.

Let's take bounty hunting.. There was a time, the bounties gave you credits and gave you combat rank. They removed the combat rank, thereby making it way longer to get combat 'Elite'. They added NPC cheating, so NPCs now boost away and wake out, making you waste precious ammo.

In my opinion, they go out of their way to make everything as difficult as possible. You target an NPC in the res site and it suddenly disappears.. Then magically reappear with full shields. This is not 'normally/player' possible. They cheat, to make it harder for the player. Ships take an age to die after they've reached 1%, while continuing to fire? what? NPCs have never-ending chaff. Why?

My question really is; What do FD really want from ED? A simulator? Nope.. It's all way too random to be a sim.. A Game? Nope? It's all made way to annoying to be a game...

I don't think FD know them-selves what ED actually is.



As for Quince. It's made ED enjoyable for me.

 

[biohazard15]

good stuff, glad you are happy.... me personally I dread the day that i can afford any upgrade for any ship in the game, or can pay my insurance without even a drop of sweat. indeed i have been deliberately slowing my pace down by adding my own "silly" rules to stretch it out - the main one being NEVER sell as ship I do not have at least 1 other variant of, and never strip a ship to allow me to afford another.

the day i own every ship in the game and get to triple elite, i will feel at a loose end... but then ya see... ultimately pure sandboxes are not my kind of game, I am a goal orientated player. takes all sorts i spose

Ultimately, there is two types of players - first one enjoys the process of completing various goals, and the second one enjoys the results.

Your are obviously the first, while I'm the second.

In every game I play, I try to complete all the "grind" as fast as possible (yes, including using obvious exploits), and to make some "safety deposit" in case there is more grind ahead. This way, I can explore the content at my own pace, using any tool I like in any way I like to. There is some content available later? Nice, I'll get to it when I explore all the things currently available.

 

[biohazard15]

Not really. Sandboxes are not infinite. They all have their shelf life and all burn out after X amount of time. Once content ceases to be made for a game, it's not long before that game is added to the archives of history.

Indeed. But that's not the point of this discussion.

 

[Jex =TE=]

Indeed. But that's not the point of this discussion.

That's why I was replying to Mike and not you

 

[I 7heMartian I]

I'm a little fuzzy on the details; could someone tell me how long this has been around? If FDev plan to patch this, how long are we talking? Days or next major update?

I'm honestly a little worried about the economy and the perceived value ('rarity') of the bigger ships going down. Thanks for any answers!

 

[Jex =TE=]

I'm a little fuzzy on the details; could someone tell me how long this has been around? If FDev plan to patch this, how long are we talking? Days or next major update?

I'm honestly a little worried about the economy and the perceived value ('rarity') of the bigger ships going down. Thanks for any answers!

Since the game launched really. There's always been places like this in the game. FDev nerf them and then everything else that pays out gets nerfed because they're all connected.

 

[SpongeJim]

I'm a little fuzzy on the details; could someone tell me how long this has been around? If FDev plan to patch this, how long are we talking? Days or next major update?

I'm honestly a little worried about the economy and the perceived value ('rarity') of the bigger ships going down. Thanks for any answers!

This has been around since at least 2.2, probably longer (I imagine it at least started when the 17 Draconis exploits started). They "tried" to "fix" this with 2.3 by limiting the number of missions you could take to three instead of the standard twenty, but it seems they both made this limitation a bit too granular (it seems it's a limit per faction?) and also they plain bugged it (it only applies across mission board refreshes, so if you get a full 20 missions on one board - you side-step the whole limitation). For these reasons it appears it's not a simple patch for FD (is it ever?) and it once again highlights the fact that it seems they just plain don't have granular control of individual star systems in this game.

Don't worry at all about the economy, they do seem to have lots of ways to squeeze that to fit whatever narrative they want, and exploits like this have been around since day one. And yes, the perceived rarity of ships is already way down, and has been for years. If *you* perceive a rarity on those ships, great! Don't change a thing about how you play.

If you want a more detailed explanation of how Quince and others like it have worked in the past, see my attempt in a previous post:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...is-not-fixed?p=5443061&viewfull=1#post5443061

 

[Shinra]

I've never really got into these 'exploits'. I tried Robigo once and got unbelievably bored. This looks boring too.

Currently sitting on 5 million credits. 2 rebuys for my FDL. Bounty hunting in Keper-something-or-other. Having the time of my life! Might give this a go just to get the 15-20 million or so for a better FSD and hull package, but other than that, I'm good thanks.

 

[Andro]

Exactly how many Mother-in-Laws do I need to sacrifice to catch a glimpse of a scanning mission?

I'm here at Quince since last night and all there are are massacre missions........No scans at all to speak of, apart from literally one or two every few hours.

Apparently the missions will pick back up by Thursday.

 

[CMDR Rusty Dog]

I wonder how many of the people that criticise others for wanting to make money already have a ton of it themselves (made before a lot of things were nerfed), and a variety of ships.

As IRL, money is a route to all kinds of fun things where the reward for doing those things is not financial.

How many ? I have no idea. Speaking from a personal point of view, a very low percentage of my credits were earned at places like Robigo and Sothis. The vast majority was done trading, exploring and in combat. I am almost triple Elite so that should tell you something. I've been around and I didn't spend all my time in Elite looking for shortcut ways to make money quickly.

People can do whatever the hell they want. If they prefer the get-rich-quick shallow experience and lose the value of what it is to properly make your way up the ladder then that's up to them. It's their loss.

Your counter-point is a very tired one now. There are many CMDRs with little money who are against this too so lets not get this twisted. If I was a noob at this game I'd still be against it.

The problem here isn't so much players taking advantage of flawed and/or broken game mechanics but Frontiers for failing to patch this leak sooner.

You want to play the fast, shallow way ? Go ahead. But don't complain later that you didn't get your money's worth from the game or that you're bored later on.

If Frontier patch this tomorrow it will be too late. They have been too slow to act and my issue with that is if they can let this Quince crap continue then they should have left Robigo and Sothis alone too !
Are Frontier really blind to what's happening at Quince ? Or do they know and just don't care. I'd love to know but alas we are knocking on for 40 pages now and not one person from Frontier has commented on it either way which is disappointing.

My own patience with this game is really thin right now as it is. My motivation to play has never been so low.

 

[CMDR Rusty Dog]

For me, money is not a goal.
But getting rid of need to earn it is.

Thanks to Quince, 17 Draconis and other so-called "exploits" and "goldmines" I have 12.2 billion on my main account. And since I already have every ship I want, I can happily forget about that dread feeling of not being able to afford that 8A engines for Cutter. Or reactive armor for Corvette. To a certain extent, of course - but hey, even Bill Gates isn't able to buy absolutely anything.
My game turned from Earning Simulator into a pure sandbox. And I am totally happy about it. I can do what I want, where I want, when I want and most importantly, how exactly I want it.

So you'd have been quite happy to start the game with every ship and 10billion credits ? Then you miss the whole point of what Elite is but don't worry, you don't have to care about that. You paid for the game, enjoy your sandbox where you don't have to work to earn anything.
If only real life was like that. A lottery win perhaps.

 

[biohazard15]

People can do whatever the hell they want. If they prefer the get-rich-quick shallow experience and lose the value of what it is to properly make your way up the ladder then that's up to them. It's their loss.

There is no "value".
There is only stupid grind via hundreds of missions.
You can accept it and do it "properly" - or you can deal with it the right way.

 

[biohazard15]

So you'd have been quite happy to start the game with every ship and 10billion credits ? Then you miss the whole point of what Elite is but don't worry, you don't have to care about that. You paid for the game, enjoy your sandbox where you don't have to work to earn anything.
If only real life was like that. A lottery win perhaps.

Do I really have to answer this? I think not.
Go and make your "own way", "own history" or something, I don't care. In the meantime, I'll go and have some actual fun.

 

[TopCat160]

Your counter-point is a very tired one now. There are many CMDRs with little money who are against this too so lets not get this twisted. If I was a noob at this game I'd still be against it.

...You want to play the fast, shallow way ? Go ahead. But don't complain later that you didn't get your money's worth from the game or that you're bored later on.

Thing is, it's not either/or, it's both/and.

I wouldn't grind more than a few million at a time at Quince, because it's boring. But so is running hundreds of 300k missions to get the same result.

So a bit of quincing between other things is ok.

The real problem is the lack of depth in the BGS, because that's where the real variety would come. Once I've sussed out modding, got all the ships I want, been out to Sag A and Colonia, figured out how to fly properly with FA off, and got to Elite, I can imagine it'll all be 'same-old'. Do I want to play at dressing up dolls by farkin about with HoloMe? No. Do I want to admire myslf walking around like in a FPS with Space Legs? No. I want the spice of life, which as we all know, is variety,

As IRL, it's life that provides the variety, and if the BGS doesn't provide the richness, we'll all get to be jaundiced and bored, as you sound.

 

[Fishy]

For me, money is not a goal.
But getting rid of need to earn it is.

Thanks to Quince, 17 Draconis and other so-called "exploits" and "goldmines" I have 12.2 billion on my main account. And since I already have every ship I want, I can happily forget about that dread feeling of not being able to afford that 8A engines for Cutter. Or reactive armor for Corvette. To a certain extent, of course - but hey, even Bill Gates isn't able to buy absolutely anything.
My game turned from Earning Simulator into a pure sandbox. And I am totally happy about it. I can do what I want, where I want, when I want and most importantly, how exactly I want it.

Feel exactly the same, though I just don't have the patience or dedication to exploit those gold mines to the full. Good on you. I must have made maybe 350m at Quince, and that was in 3 separate sessions. I get bored quick doing those runs... Thankfully, I'm not a fan of big ships (got a Corvette gathering dust) so my cash reserves are plentiful enough to do everything I want. Like you, I play to have fun with the toys, not to fill up progress bars to earn them.

 

[Karunamon]

Thing is, it's not either/or, it's both/and.

I wouldn't grind more than a few million at a time at Quince, because it's boring. But so is running hundreds of 300k missions to get the same result.

+1 times a million. Quincing is currently less boring than the other stuff the game thinks I should be doing, and on top of that, it pays a decent wage.

Grind can be looked past if the rewards are there, the problem with Elite is that frequently, they aren't.