Why do you mode-switch (question to people who actually do that)

[Arkadi]

I usually decide which mode I want to fly in before I start my session and usually stick to it. Sometimes I fly solo, sometimes open. I nearly don't use private groups. Very seldom I dip into Mobius, just becouse of curiosity who is flying there.

Either I want to play alone or I am open for company.

I switch modes when landingpads are all full or to debug. I did switch modes for the skimmer missions to complete them faster. This was for the money.

I was very much tempted to switch mode to solo several times in powerplay when I was carrying a -load full of undermining merits but I did not.

I decided to go solo when I entered the bubble from my exploration trip to Sag A. I switched back to open the moment I had sold most of my explo data.

If I want to complete a trade CG without the fuss of PvP I sometimes switch to solo.

 

[GG7]

I'm honestly not even sure why board flipping exists in the first place, if a station is out of missions it's out of missions. Time should be the driver for mission refreshes.

Anyone is welcome to wait the 15 minutes between board refreshes if they want. Nothing stopping them from wasting their session time for no good reason. If the board produces no missions, then all that means is that "that instance" contained no missions.

A flip of the board would more than likely generate a new list and there would be plenty where there were none before. That is the entire point of board flipping. Same goes for a list full of missions you have no interest in doing. Flipping the board known to provide missions you do want will likely result in a list of those eventually.

All within the span of under 5 minutes. VS the 15 the goodie two shoes insist everyone should wait for.

No thanks!

Better things to do with my gaming time.

 

[GG7]

We should be careful here not to blame individuals for Frontier's poor design and implementation of the mission system. Fixing missions in a manner that provides far more missions and far better rewards is the root solution.

AMEN!

That whole line is a Red Herring anyway. As I said above, those slow downs had absolutely nothing to do with board flipping. The anti-flipper brigade simply invented that as the cause in order to give their toothless agenda some teeth.

It didn't work with anyone who was there at the time and was paying attention.

 

[MUSKETEER]

I think there should be enough missions to fill up passenger cabins to desired location, then people wouldn't do it.

 

[Aekero]

Anyone is welcome to wait the 15 minutes between board refreshes if they want. Nothing stopping them from wasting their session time for no good reason. If the board produces no missions, then all that means is that "that instance" contained no missions.

A flip of the board would more than likely generate a new list and there would be plenty where there were none before. That is the entire point of board flipping. Same goes for a list full of missions you have no interest in doing. Flipping the board known to provide missions you do want will likely result in a list of those eventually.

All within the span of under 5 minutes. VS the 15 the goodie two shoes insist everyone should wait for.

No thanks!

Better things to do with my gaming time.

Yeah, that was kind of my point... They gave us a hack-ish way of getting new missions, so why bother refresh through more legitimate ways? I know exactly why we board flip, I said I do it, my point was that I don't like it. Yes, I'm free to do whatever I want, so are you, but I've yet to see another game that trivializes content as quickly by retaining a function like that. It's part of the root of issues with money making, rep grinding etc

I guess the game might be too slow if not for that, but why not adjust missions so people don't feel the need to flip instead?

 

[GG7]

Yeah, that was kind of my point... They gave us a hack-ish way of getting new missions, so why bother refresh through more legitimate ways? I know exactly why we board flip, I said I do it, my point was that I don't like it. Yes, I'm free to do whatever I want, so are you, but I've yet to see another game that trivializes content as quickly by retaining a function like that. It's part of the root of issues with money making, rep grinding etc

I guess the game might be too slow if not for that, but why not adjust missions so people don't feel the need to flip instead?

I've never considered it a hack myself. More as a more efficient way of kicking the servers into giving me a decent list of stuff I actually want to do! I would agree that the game can grind to a halt if you insist of sitting there waiting for the board to refresh on its own. I still find that choice totally daft.

As I have mentioned a few times in this thread and others...

All they need to do is employ an AI algorithm that monitors player choices and doles out missions based on those choices. Netflix, Amazon, Google/YouTube and others have been using them for years. They are pretty much ubiquitous at this point and not that expensive to license either.

If Frontier would simply invest in that type of technology, we would have a mission delivery system that worked for everyone all the time.

Problem solved.

 

[Ca$hback]

I don't just mode switch the boards. I log in and out of Nav Beacons, Convoy Beacons, Conflict Zones etc. when I'm gathering scans or anytime I don't find what I want.

If I played passively without grind it would take a decade to get to where I want to be so I grind but I accelerate the grind with the available exploits. I managed to unlock 3 engineers in the last two days.
When I'm not grinding rank or engineers or some faction's rep and actually playing the game I play in open so I don't miss out on the occasional hollow square. Might switch to solo if I'm avoiding repeat predators.

It's not just the time it takes flying around to gather missions, it's the time it takes from the game directly when you get bored and do something else. You had two hours of game time but an hour of A-B-A-B is all you can stand. Getting twice (or eight times) the progress is encouraging and keeps the light at the end of the tunnel visible.

I have a little gold mine of long range data missions (250kls for 775KCR each, roughly) with the occasional short range but lucrative palladium/gold/silver runs in between. I can usually pick up 3-5 of the long range courier missions per board and a transport mission or two. I flip the board, then I fly to the other station, grab the missions, flip the board, then deliver the cargo. By now I usually have 12 courier missions so I go back and do the same thing, usually getting another cargo run in-between. When I have 18 courier missions and two cargo missions, I drop off the cargo, then supercruise for about ten minutes to drop off the courier missions. Then I tally up my score on Inara and see if I have time for another. Even if I weren't board flipping, more of this kind of thing is satisfying.

and Bring back Robigo!

Now for the Sirius Permit...

 

[GG7]

I don't just mode switch the boards. I log in and out of Nav Beacons, Convoy Beacons, Conflict Zones etc. when I'm gathering scans or anytime I don't find what I want.

Good point! I often do that too. Especially when I am trying to get a Mission Critical USS to pop up with time running out and the damn game refuses to spawn it! (WHY does this even happen? -- They should just be there from the get go! But I digress)

Anyway... People wouldn't feel the need to do this if the game was better at all this stuff. If you try something and it works great, you tend to keep that trick in your toolbox for next time.

There are A LOT of next times in ED at the moment.

 

[WR3ND]

Once in a while I'll meet up with others in a private group. The vast majority of the time it doesn't matter which mode I'm in out here in the black and I find the general mode debate, if you will, somewhat humorous. Just play in whichever mode(s) suits your play style(s).

 

[Nerix]

Actually, there is a very easy way to make mode flipping obsolete: allow the player to ask for mission types instead of sifting through a variety of randomly generated mission types. For example, if I could just request that the mission giver provide me a list of available surface salvage missions to choose from then I'd never have to board flip again. It would be a great QoL change to the mission system to allow players more input towards the mission types offered.

That's actually a nice idea. Would also work for the new wing missions system, if you're looking for those missions with some friends and don't have enough available. Though I would prefere if every mission could be done in a wing, as discussed elsewhere.

 

[Aekero]

I've never considered it a hack myself. More as a more efficient way of kicking the servers into giving me a decent list of stuff I actually want to do! I would agree that the game can grind to a halt if you insist of sitting there waiting for the board to refresh on its own. I still find that choice totally daft.

As I have mentioned a few times in this thread and others...

All they need to do is employ an AI algorithm that monitors player choices and doles out missions based on those choices. Netflix, Amazon, Google/YouTube and others have been using them for years. They are pretty much ubiquitous at this point and not that expensive to license either.

If Frontier would simply invest in that type of technology, we would have a mission delivery system that worked for everyone all the time.

Problem solved.

I like that idea, I think regardless of why anyone does it, there is an agreement that we'd rather not have to resort to it. (yes yes, whether or not you _have_ to is subjective)

 

[B1rdy]

I guess the game might be too slow if not for that, but why not adjust missions so people don't feel the need to flip instead?

With the current mechanics in place, there might be always a reason to mode switch. However, adjusting the missions could probably take away the need to switch for most players. That change would require more specialised ship for missions, which would require to bring a large ship in order to haul all the needed stuff, for instance.

 

[Kizbot]

Why drive the shorter distance between two locations when the longer drive is more interesting?

Answer: Because priorities.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I rarely did it. I also rarely reset the instance. Didn't get me very far, though.

 

[micky1984]

The OP is asking why you mode switch (if you do). Anyone can guess

I don't mode switch I've played open only since the start

 

[Lily from anim.o.v.e]

Honest question. Why do you mode-hop, when there are alternatives?

As a recent example I can use the Smeaton Orbital Credit-mine. There are so many systems around the destination one that have those high-payout passenger mission available. And yet I see a lot of people sitting in just one station, logging in and out, clearly switching between Solo/Group/Open to refresh the mission board.

Why would you do that, rather than actually play the game and travel between a few surrounding systems or even stations within the same system and gather multiple passenger missions?

it saves time on tasks that have 0 challange and therefore aren't even cheatign or circumventing any mechanic the game offers aside just fast forwaring and not relying on RNG because some people get those 50M missions 2x and others not a single one. So why should they not switch if Missions are designed so badly?

 

[Muetdhiver]

To bend the RNG.

 

[Gédéon_Lecanard]

I'm guilty of abusing the system, lately, because of time management. I don't feel too great doing so, but as it is, I already spend a lot (in fact all) of my gaming time in Elite since I'm back in it, and still have some priorities, those being work, and real life hobbies.

I enjoy the game again (tremendously, so it was a good thing to leave for a bit) but found that the main reason why I let it rest since 2.0 was still here: the game does not go easy on your time, and still tends to force long delays on you. Some are ok (I don't mind supercruise for instance, it's really part of the ADN of the game, and the engineers unlock are ok too), others are more of a problem. For example, skimmers killing missions that spawns five of them when you have to destroy twelve. I know I could drive around and find more in the same instance, but I would simply have no time to play, really.

 

[GG7]

I'm guilty of abusing the system,

You're NOT abusing the system. You are simply playing SMART!

Big difference between overcoming a flawed game mechanic and cheating.

Don't let the clueless "Goodie Two Shoes" try to tell you otherwise.

If they stopped with their Pollyanna approach to this game, they would have twice as much $$ and twice and much rank!

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

I also don't revisit pesistent asteroids. Though I can see the benefit of that.

I have never used stuff that drops materials over and over.

Once I looked up a trade route outside the game. Made some reasonable credits that way. It took until 2.0 when I would see somewhat reasonable trade opportunities in game.

Since I only rolled three or so engineer upgrades until I decided that I've had it with this kind of busywork, I haven't used item duplication for engineers. If I knew how to do it, I'd probably do it today and cheat myself mats so I can play the game at least like I could before 2.1.

I don't really see a point exploiting some mechanics. Basically people do the same thing over and over to get something they want. I'd rather use a real cheat in a game when there are mechanics I really don't like. But since that means investing a lot of research into how to do it and maybe even illegal hacking I don't bother with it and play something else.