What's the next moneymaker?

[gpcustoms]

Nex on the chopper,....Exploration:x
Hell thats for sure, far to easy,.... at least Smeaton had 6 to 10 NPCs chasing and stopping you along that 45 min flight
Yeah my money is on exploration where a light jumper can fetch you some good old boring cash and drive you to drink[where is it]

 

[through the hole backwards]

My friend is an African Prince and has asked me to let you know that if you could lend him a million credits for an hour he will give you 100 million in return , he has an office where you can deposit your loan at Hutton Orbital, but he says hurry , this will be nerfed soon .

 

[Certacito]

Obviously. I chose my words carefully. And until someone gives me information that cures my confusion, it still doesn't make sense.

I wasn't picking fault with you or what you wrote, I was using your carefully chosen words as a point to others who ask for the nerf bat to fall when something "they" don't like is discovered in game. Whilst I may or may not agree with you on this point, "blaze your own trail" should mean, leave folk alone to do what "they" find interesting to "them". Like I said, I cannot abide exploration, I personally find it as dull as dish water, mind numbing and totally pointless, but others like it. I may not understand why, but I am content to let them get on with it without losing my lunch and asking for it to be nerfed as others have done with Smeaton

My friend is an African Prince and has asked me to let you know that if you could lend him a million credits for an hour he will give you 100 million in return , he has an office where you can deposit your loan at Hutton Orbital, but he says hurry , this will be nerfed soon .

Can I send my credits by Western Union Money Transfer? and, am I the sole beneficiary of a dead uncle I didn't know about?

 

[Conch]

after skimmers, CZs and passanger missions, i think mining should get its turn to the big moneys!

but it will probably something lame again, like those boring pax missions..

 

[Crank Larson]

If you go and find an anarchy faction with whom to get allied, then you can make ridiculous amounts of money when they are in boom state. Cubeo currently has 6 million credit cargo missions (medium ship only, though) for a five minute journey.

Mind you, any faction with which you are allied should give good rewards when in boom state. Just as you can make a lot of money ferrying medicine to systems in Outbreak state, or food to those in Famine.

 

[akaliel]

Trying to wrap my head around this, mode switch for a bit, then fly in a straight line for an hour = Interesting, Haul cargo to various destinations without mode switching for up 50/60 mill an hour = Dull

Now haulage isn't for everyone, I'll give you that. But Smaeton runs must be the dullest way to play any game.

I did these runs for about a week, just a mission or two a day. And yeah, that guy was right, we wouldn't actually *play* the game. I'd start up a run and then put on a movie, or have dinner, or play on the Xbox. Because while that 40 minute counter slowly ticked down there was nothing to actually do in Elite, so why sit there staring at it. What was really funny was that my HOTAS is old (Saitek x37) and is starting to drift sometimes. So every couple of minutes I'd need to go over to the PC and aim myself back at Smeaton, which was annoying. The best solution I found was to unplug my HOTAS. Which really kinda sums up the whole problem with Elite's long range cargo runs.

Personally I think the real issue to be looked at here isn't the payout, or board hopping. It's the complete lack of gameplay during supercruise. Frontier added in a bonus for people who were willing to take on a long boring mission, b/c there was no good reason to do them otherwise. At some point they need to realize it's a video game. You said it yourself, you only made 40 million doing a Smeaton run b/c it was just so damn dull. Supercruise gameplay needs to be addressed at some point. It's by far the worst part of Elite.

 

[Alodia]

Can't quote for some reason but would have to agree with the above. If the devs want people to do passenger missions and make them - or any mission, for that matter - last upwards of half an hour then there surely has to be more to it than unplug your controller and eat your dinner. It's like some sort of John Cage style un-game at that point.

I don't care who earns what or how, but I've never done one of these missions purely because the idea of flying in a line for 40 minutes seems like the antithesis of gaming to me, regardless of cash on offer.

 

[Quantis Trap]

I fully expect that there will be a next money maker, but I hope there won't be! Back when I made elite trader it took a year of actual trading to do it. Now, or at least last weekend, it could be done in VERY long weekend!

 

[Siobhan]

I've heard a rumour that it'll be newbie-seal-clubbing...

Seriously though, the only missions I can see paying anywhere near a useful amount are surface raids (sentries and scanning), and long range VIP criminal tours... you know, the 3 week long secretive, "don't scan me bro!" missions...

Nothing else looks worth the effort of getting into a ship, if money is a primary motivator.

 

[verminstar]

Well this is how it is...if I did find a really cool money maker, Ill not be telling anyone on this forum about it otherwise the entitled brigade will start demanding frontier nerf it as its not in the spirit of the game, or some similar nonsense ^

 

[DialBforBiscuit]

It's not that one is not playing the game, it's just that the "game" (in the smeaton run) is best described as :

A) 20 min of clicking buttons, in a low skill version of candy crush (filling the ships)
B) 3 min of low skill piloting
C) 40 min of not doing anything
D) 3 min of low skill piloting

When the "gameplay" consist of not doing anything for 40min, can you blame people for doing "something else" ?

Keep in mind that for this "effort" one got 100M credits, which is more than 50 thargoids killed in solo, once repairs are factored in.

Please FD balance payout arround skill, not time spend whatching a screensaver.

Exactly why it was nerfed. Because no skill 40 mins of afk shouldn't give you a big reward. Especially not half a Conda worth. Credits are really difficult to lose. You only lose significant amounts on death or ship sell. There's really no credit sink! So every gain, big or small, stays with you. I honestly don't understand why huge credit rewards are so important!

Its been three years since this game has come out. I've played off and on just doing what felt fun. Even if the payout was tiny, didn't care because I was having fun. Today, i'm sitting on billions in accumulated credits, with plenty of fed and empire rank. Which is enough, I can't imagine why i'd need more credits now. Maybe for the carrier ships coming out in the fall? But big credit rewards don't change how fun the content is. In fact some of the most entertaining things i've done in the game had little to no credit reward.

This game is about the long haul of immersing yourself in how it grows. Taking a long time to get your conda is not a bad thing. Having everything you wanted hand delivered in a day will spoil you rotten. If you aren't enjoying the current missions and content, having a fatter wallet or a bigger ship won't help.

 

[Bryan K]

Trying to wrap my head around this, mode switch for a bit, then fly in a straight line for an hour = Interesting, Haul cargo to various destinations without mode switching for up 50/60 mill an hour = Dull

Now haulage isn't for everyone, I'll give you that. But Smaeton runs must be the dullest way to play any game.

Not if you’re a commercial aviation enthusiast. Smeaton runs are the closest thing to airline flights as we get within the bubble. Did you think airline pilots actually fly the plane the whole time for long-distance flights? They use autopilot once they hit cruising altitude.

 

[akaliel]

Not if you’re a commercial aviation enthusiast. Smeaton runs are the closest thing to airline flights as we get within the bubble. Did you think airline pilots actually fly the plane the whole time for long-distance flights? They use autopilot once they hit cruising altitude.

If we did the math to count the people who did Smeaton runs to relive the aviation experience as opposed to people who did it for the money, it would hover somewhere around 0%. Come on.

 

[Delilah]

Now that the passenger missions have been nerfed.

I'd prefer Frontier really fix the issue instead. I have no hope of that.

 

[Iskariot]

Well as a Solo player in Open I am counting on these wing missions to finally be able to fill up my cargo Cutter easily. They will save a bunch of time.

That is exactly what I am hoping too.

 

[Bryan K]

If we did the math to count the people who did Smeaton runs to relive the aviation experience as opposed to people who did it for the money, it would hover somewhere around 0%. Come on.

I couldn’t care less about why other people did it. I was explaining why I preferred it to trading. Maybe read what I said next time?

 

[akaliel]

I couldn’t care less about why other people did it. I was explaining why I preferred it to trading. Maybe read what I said next time?

I did read it and it was rubbish. Nobody did it for the aviation experience. Not even you. Quit lying.

 

[Jamey]

Well this is how it is...if I did find a really cool money maker, Ill not be telling anyone on this forum about it otherwise the entitled brigade will start demanding frontier nerf it as its not in the spirit of the game, or some similar nonsense ^

You can tell me, promise. I'm the champion of secret-keeping.

On the wider topic, it's a shame there was no warning at all. Was hoping to return my balance to a comfortable amount after a recent spending spree this week. Before I heard about the 'famous' passenger runs I was using a trio of systems I'd found myself through some meticulous searching which paid probably a third of what Smeaton (et al) were paying and was happy with that.

Now, because of this 'fix' I can't even go back to that (which tbh I view as reasonable moneymaking) as this update has ****ed it all sideways into a hole.

 

[Bryan K]

I did read it and it was rubbish. Nobody did it for the aviation experience. Not even you. Quit lying.

Again, you’re not reading what I said. Let me spell it out in simple terms you can understand.

I’m trying to get to elite in trade rank. That gives me two choices: space-trucking or passenger missions. As I pointed out several posts ago, I find space-trucking dull. I don’t find Smeaton runs dull because they remind me of commercial aviation. That was why I “preferred” it over trading, not why I did it. I did it for the trade rank boost (46% entrepreneur to 65% tycoon in 4 days).

Do you get it now?

 

[Ulfar]

So in the game universe any station that it a long trip in supercruise would die, why would any pilot fly these missions.

The core problem is not thast people where undertaking these runs for large payouts, the problem is the payouts across the board are too low. Look at combat missions, risk your life and multi million pound spaceship for virtually no pay.

But hey Fdev are addicited to grind. Grind is not engaging gameplay anymore than long run missions where engaging gameplay.