So, this is where the money is.... Exploring

[osser]

credits = low: 1.54 billion for 18 months.

what could I have done in the bubble in that time? errr 20x that? I dunno maybe way more..

I just did a run to riches (300 systems) and it will net me ~250 mil.

It's not a money maker. It has improved though.

I currently have my explorer asp explorer / 2 pythons {1} is multipurpose {1} is a miner and I have a fast grade A cobra for exploring the bubble and doing permits, also rare runs.
I have a few months to go before I set off again.

But yeah while it has been improved, just forget the credits. go for the journey.

 

[marx]

This thread title made me smile - the idea of exploration as a well-paid profession, heh.

It's even more funny if you consider that in the game's lore, the vast majority of people earn far less money than Commanders do. Stuff like how a single missile costs more credits than a planetbound worker's yearly salary. Compared to that, even the poor explorers were swimming in money with the 35k Cr payout for ELWs at launch.
Of course, we're looking at profits compared to other avenues or careers that Commander can pursue, so from a gameplay and design perspective, it's a moot point. Still, I would have liked it if they ran a GalNet article when the payouts were buffed. It would have been a nice touch.
#FirstWorldCommanderProblems

 

[Charlie Hustle]

Yes.. This is where the money is. As far as im concerned. Just came back from an passenger/exploration trip and netted $118 mil credits in 2 weeks. Mind you i only play about an hour a day, so i hopped, honked, scanned anything that looks interesting and moved on. Though i love the missions in the bubble, its more less tedious trying to find a system with shooting, other ships, or skimmers and goliaths (and those should be deleted from the game) missions when trying to have fun while making money. Direct transport missions are cool, but there are times when i need action. The REZ is a good place for some action, also the conflict zones. But as i stated before i needed something bigger than a vulture. Now i can afford it, and trick it out (the FDL). And if i need some money for something bigger, then just go exploring.

 

[Major Klutz]

If you're an explorer and you already have your exploration ship, what is there to spend credits on?

Billionaire Elite pilots continue to accumulate credits but have nothing to spend them on except upgrading their ship while they are in port.
Your credit "score" just becomes that. A score to compare against others but not something that gives you any advantage in the game.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

Yes.. This is where the money is. As far as im concerned. Just came back from an passenger/exploration trip and netted $118 mil credits in 2 weeks. Mind you i only play about an hour a day, so i hopped, honked, scanned anything that looks interesting and moved on. Though i love the missions in the bubble, its more less tedious trying to find a system with shooting, other ships, or skimmers and goliaths (and those should be deleted from the game) missions when trying to have fun while making money. Direct transport missions are cool, but there are times when i need action. The REZ is a good place for some action, also the conflict zones. But as i stated before i needed something bigger than a vulture. Now i can afford it, and trick it out (the FDL). And if i need some money for something bigger, then just go exploring.

I have still earnt more from CG's (over 1 billion from approx. 5 CG's <5 days work) than exploration (approx. 0.4 billion for over 2 years work) and im an explorer and spend most of my time outside the bubble.

exploration pay is ok (now), but hour for hour it certainly isn't the best paid, certainly the most enjoyable (for me) though.

and all those credits just sit there in the bank... my exploration vessel cost circa 12m credits - but admittedly there was a time I was obsessed with credits prior to being elite and wanting an anaconda, as soon as I flew one that craving for credits disappeared and I was back in small ships

 

[marx]

If you're an explorer and you already have your exploration ship, what is there to spend credits on?

More exploration ships, unlocking more Engineers for better mods (for the unlocking, you'll likely not want to use your explorer ship), for instance. These are just for exploration, but who said an explorer can't do other stuff?
Almost anything in the game requires credits, and getting a nice sum from exploring is handy for getting a kickstart on other careers. Especially since the barrier to entry for exploration is very low.

 

[space voyager]

Frankly I'm bored by mostly everything by now. The only thing I'm still able to do is go out there but even that is far more limited than it used to be.

Anyway, looking forward to 2.4, hope there's something worthwhile to do. And credits have NOTHING to do with my view of worthwhile...

 

[Major Klutz]

Engineers don't take credits. I wish they did.
Repairs, fuel, insurance and any other expenses don't even amount to a miniscule expense compared to income from any source.
The only real money sink now is ship transfers to or from Colonia.

Yeah, you can buy other ships and store them, but once you have a few ships configured for any activities you might pursue, buying more ships is just spending money because you have too much.
I think the game needs some money sinks. Like letting Engineers accept cash payments from players with high reputation. Or increasing maintenance costs for high value ships.
A way to trade materials for cash between players would also be good since it would allow new players to make money gathering materials and allow experienced players a break from gathering by allowing them to buy mats for cash.

 

[duckofdeath]

To anyone saying you can't get rich on exploration, they need to look into the new pay rates. Yes, doing it for profits is as grindy as any other thing for profits but, exploration rivals any other profession on income per hour these days. You have to do it right, and it helps massively if you're already super rich (to triple income in two hours with Yong-Rui).
The most extreme income method would probably be filling a Conda with 6 groups going to the core or one of the beacons in that region. It'll take an hour or two to find 6 suitable entourages but it's definitely doable, I've done that three times. going there, veer off a few degrees from the beaten path to get untagged systems and then scan suitably sized planets in the goldilocks zone plus the three other high value kind.
Doing this purely for profits will earn you 100 million credits per hour played. The nice part is, your only enemy out there is yourself, and you always have the chance of finding something really unique doing this. Get your name on a new tourist location if you're lucky.
100 million isn't an inflated number, that is from actual real life testing with extremely engineer-optimised ships.
Again, you will have to be stinkingly rich already to get the full profits. Own both a Conda and a Cutter, fully engineered. With only access to a stock Anaconda that profit will probably drop by at least 75%. Though, the key part is probably the determination to only scan the high value planets that aren't too far away from the arrival points.

 

[Charlie Hustle]

If you're an explorer and you already have your exploration ship, what is there to spend credits on?

Billionaire Elite pilots continue to accumulate credits but have nothing to spend them on except upgrading their ship while they are in port.
Your credit "score" just becomes that. A score to compare against others but not something that gives you any advantage in the game.

Im a bit lost... My exploration ship is an aspX. Thats what i could afford at that moment. But it suited me well for exploring. Also with business class cabins, i was able to do passenger missions. This ship allowed me to use my 31.3ly jump range and go outside the bubble to.... explore. But i wanted bigger ships to be able to do more. I have the python, multipurpose. And i needed a bigger combat ship. I would like to get to the point when credits isnt an issue, but im not in the billionaire club yet.


Also advantage in games, is two things, and its never money. Its experience and ships. I can mow many things down with my vulture, but im also a realist, a decent pilot with a fdl tricked out will eat my ship for breakfast. Money is required for the bigger ships.

 

[Major Klutz]

... Money is required for the bigger ships.

Of course, but once you have those bigger ships, then what?
I know a pilot or two who own one of each ship, outfitted and optimized, and they still have money to burn.

 

[Aura Lorell]

Of course, but once you have those bigger ships, then what?
I know a pilot or two who own one of each ship, outfitted and optimized, and they still have money to burn.

Not everyone is mega rich and multi-owner. Some of the end-game ships require a billion to properly outfit and not many people can afford that. Lots of money is always good and helpful. I appreciate that there comes a point where you have nothing to spend the money at but currently most are not at that point. If you are, good for you.

 

[Major Klutz]

Not everyone is mega rich and multi-owner. ...

But everyone will be eventually if they keep playing.
Because noting really costs you much in the long run.

Modules are sellable for their full value so outfitting doesn't degrade your total assets at all.
Ships only lose 10% of their value, so even if it's not liquid cash, you still have most of that value in assets.

Ship depreciation, repairs, ammo and fuel are the only real drain on your credits.

 

[Aura Lorell]

But everyone will be eventually if they keep playing ...

That's a very big "if", dear. With a tonne of assumptions. It's like saying that if everyone keeps playing every system will be eventually discovered. True but without the proper context is just empty words. Whatever. In the meantime for those people who either don't have all the time in the world or not the inclination, getting more money is a worthy endeavour. With or without depreciation complaints.

 

[iain666]

It's like saying that if everyone keeps playing every system will be eventually discovered.

There's 400bn systems in the galaxy so even with a perfect system that saw no system visited twice and a jump every 45s you're looking at best part of 600,000 years to visit every system. Even if you got 600,000 volunteers you'd then need several years to define all their flight plans and it'd still be something that would take decades. It's essentially never going to happen.

Based just on EDD value estimates and scanning main star+ELW+WW+AW+likely CFT plus MR and GG I can scan without moving I'm averaging ~120k per system since 2.3 came out (plus first discovery bonuses, plus the honk value of the stuff I'm not scanning). I'm heading in now so I'll see what the final average is. With that level of scanning you can still hit 20-30 systems an hour so I'd be looking at maybe 4-6 million per hour - which is a billion every 200 hours (give or take). So becoming a multi-billionaire just exploring is doable by everyone if they keep playing long enough where long enough is a quantifiable and achievable value for anyone who wants to do so.

So they're not really the same thing

 

[Moriendor]

Mostly to unlock Palin, I did a similar thing as the OP this week, grabbed a 7K ly passenger mission for about 7 million and off I went in my AspX. I did a lot more scanning than him, especially at first and later on only focused on the interesting targets or the ones that could be scanned right from the entry point. I plotted a longer route back and went back to the bubble along the much lower density "bottom" (as far as my measly jump range of ~44ly is concerned... with a 60ly Anaconda I could have dived much deeper) of the galaxy. All in all took me three/four days of intense flying (probably about 16K ly total) and I made ~80 million from exploration. KGBFOAM filter was applied at all times.

Fun side fact: The closest totally unexplored "virgin" star system I found on my way back was at 548ly from Jameson Memorial. On my way out, it took considerably longer to find the first fully unexplored system and I would guess it was at just under 1K ly out or so.

 

[Aura Lorell]

There's 400bn systems in the galaxy so even with a perfect system that saw no system visited twice and a jump every 45s you're looking at best part of 600,000 years to visit every system. Even if you got 600,000 volunteers you'd then need several years to define all their flight plans and it'd still be something that would take decades. It's essentially never going to happen.

Heh, thank you for clearing the confusion in my head that next week all 400 billion systems would have been discovered... I can go and get some sleep now... I have time yet...

Based just on EDD value estimates and scanning main star+ELW+WW+AW+likely CFT plus MR and GG I can scan without moving I'm averaging ~120k per system since 2.3 came out (plus first discovery bonuses, plus the honk value of the stuff I'm not scanning). I'm heading in now so I'll see what the final average is. With that level of scanning you can still hit 20-30 systems an hour so I'd be looking at maybe 4-6 million per hour - which is a billion every 200 hours (give or take). So becoming a multi-billionaire just exploring is doable by everyone if they keep playing long enough where long enough is a quantifiable and achievable value for anyone who wants to do so.

First edit: Yes, that is a valid assumption. I never claimed it's not possible. I simply said it's an assumption that doesn't take into account things like the game changing and the players keep doing what they are doing for sufficient time. And even if we assume that everyone will be a billionaire at some relatively close time in the future, what's the point at whining about it? Everyone plays the game for different reasons and different goals. Just have fun with it.

So they're not really the same thing

Second edit: No they are not... But there is an analogy there...

analogy (əˈnalədʒi) noun
- a comparison between one thing and another, typically for the purpose of explanation or clarification.
- a correspondence or partial similarity.
- a thing which is comparable to something else in significant respects.

 

[iain666]

You say analogy, I say false equivalence - "A common way for this fallacy to be perpetuated is one shared trait between two subjects is assumed to show equivalence, especially in order of magnitude"

Both things require time but one requires lifetimes, the other requires the time you'll spend in the game anyway. Unless you stop playing and then you won't care...

 

[Aura Lorell]

You say analogy, I say false equivalence - "A common way for this fallacy to be perpetuated is one shared trait between two subjects is assumed to show equivalence, especially in order of magnitude"

Both things require time but one requires lifetimes, the other requires the time you'll spend in the game anyway. Unless you stop playing and then you won't care...

Actually there are more ways to look at an analogy. You are focusing on the feasibility of it and the time it takes, which is not what I'm focusing. Someone cries: at this rate there will be nothing left to discover at the galaxy. Another cries: at this rate everyone will be a billionaire and they will have nothing to spend their money on. Both are complaining of highly unattainable states: everyone will be, everything will be.

To put it in another way, it is possible to be a multi billionaire just from exploring as we have recently seen someone achieving 11 billion credits. Not all billionaires got their money from exploring. Not all explorers are billionaires. Not everyone is interested in spending ungodly hours in exploration. Not everyone wants to play combat. And so on and so forth. There is diversity. And that's good. Diversity however, makes the cries about "everyone" and "everything" invalid.

 

[Zeeman]

How things have changed. I remember doing a 9 month trip, and coming back with 254m cr worth of data. I made another 300m in the bubble that next week...

Z...