Smeaton is dead. 465,000cr

[GG7]

Well it looks like all the cry babies have won. Smeaton is dead. Nerfed to the stone ages.
Spent the last hour going around to all the stations, outposts etc etc and even board hopped and the largest payout i could find was 465,000cr for bulk economy passengers. I'm not doing a 40min run for the same amount i can get from a 1 hop 200ls run. This is absolute . The giant cry babies have won. And instead of fixing the board hopping FD just nerfed the hell out of the payouts.
Hope all you cry babies are happy.

Chalk up another win for the terminally obsessed "Busybody Contingent"! They've never met another player's bank account they can't help obsessing over.

The fact that how much Monopoly Money another player has means absolutely nothing in terms of their own game or gaming experience doesn't seem to register with these chronic meddlers. That and their equally moronic obsession with Board Flipping/Hopping. Again... Another aspect of the game that has ZERO impact on any other player in the game, yet they can't stop obsessing about people doing it!

Sounds like a form of mental illness to me.

I'm not one for griiefing other players, but if there was a way to identify this group in-game, I think I would change my target focus in a heartbeat.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I disagree with you about what the base problem is.

The base problem IMHO is that there's no way for a liner to fill its seats without taking missions.

This is not a problem with commodities trading. You can grab an interesting mission that fills part of your hold with charger haulage, and then fill out your hold with whatever else you think will make a profit at your selected destination. But with passenger missions, the only way to use your capacity to its fullest is to get missions, and the only way to get the right missions is to manipulate the mission board

This can mean board hopping or flying from station to station. Either way the objective is to reset the passenger lounge, and the reason behind the objective is to fill your hull with paying fares.

The real solution to this problem is to provide another way to put fares in your seats without requiring the mission board. The mission board should be about special requests. The real meat and potatoes of passenger flying isn't charter missions for tourists, protestors and aid workers, it's the steady trickle of commuters looking to go where you're headed. "A steady fare from here to there." The current passenger board stuff should be a chance for extra profit around the edges of the REAL pax mechanic, which coesn't currently exist. The same way the mission board is for other professions.

IMHO Smeaton runs exposed a flaw in the passenger system as it currently exists. Until the board hopping put too much stress on the mission board servers the problem was more or less left alone. When it became popular, it put stress on the servers and FD had to react.

So therefore, the real problem with Smeaton runs was board hopping, and the real cause of board hopping is the unmet need to divorce pax from board based mission hub setup and give it its own emergent mechanic, similar to other professions. Given the choice 99.999% of pilots would rather fill their seats and go rather than sitting there cherry picking the best missions. Give us a mechanic that allows us to take on enough passengers to fill medium and large vessels without straining the mission board servers, and we won't strain the mission board servers -- just that simple guys.

Sure, you are right. Very well reasoned argument with well made points. However. Knee jerk reactions followed by planting ones head neatly in the ground are the way we handle things around here.

 

[RidingTheFlow]

But with passenger missions, the only way to use your capacity to its fullest is to get missions, and the only way to get the right missions is to manipulate the mission board

This can mean board hopping or flying from station to station. Either way the objective is to reset the passenger lounge, and the reason behind the objective is to fill your hull with paying fares.

Err... Flying from station from station is not "manipulating the mission board". Because, you know, different station have different missions and different passengers?

 

[Imgran]

Err... Flying from station from station is not "manipulating the mission board". Because, you know, different station have different missions and different passengers?

Unless you fly back.

 

[RidingTheFlow]

Unless you fly back.

This itself does not reset the board.

Unless the board refresh timer ticked while you were away (this happens every ~10-15mins). But you don't need to leave station to take advantage of this, you can simply wait.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

This itself does not reset the board.

Unless the board refresh timer ticked while you were away (this happens every ~10-15mins). But you don't need to leave station to take advantage of this, you can simply wait.

I guess we could call that auto flip?

 

[Hossi]

I dissagree with you that you disagree with me what the base problem is
At least for the first part. You see, I posted this here a few weeks ago

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/399955-Why-do-you-mode-switch-(question-to-people-who-actually-do-that)?p=6299946#post6299946

As you can see, regarding the
The base problem IMHO is that there's no way for a liner to fill its seats without taking missions.
i'm 100% with you. FD created ships that can carry 200 passengers but no way to get more then 24 of them at a time.

But regarding the
real problem with Smeaton runs was board hopping
i dissagree. Board hopping doesn't create a new mission board. It just gives you access to a different board when you switch from open to solo, and sometimes a third one when you switch to pg. Therefore usign board switching gives you a bit more then twice the missions that you would get otherwise.
I did a couple of smeaton runs with my beluga. It normal took about 20 minutes to fill my seats with board hopping. When I was too lazy for that, it took about 45 minutes to do it without board hopping (while reading a book mostly).
So we end up with:

With Board Hopping:
Mission acquisition: 20minutes
Fly to smeaton: 45 minutes
Check in missions and fly back: 5 minutes
Profit: ~200MCr
171 MCr/h

Without Board Hopping:
Mission acquisition: 45 minutes
Fly to smeaton: 45 minutes
Check in missions and fly back: 5 minutes
Profit: ~200MCr
126 MCr/h

I dont see a significant difference here.

The base of the 'smeaton problem' and the reason that fd decided to switch of the range bonus is that these range boni can be stacked, with or without board flipping.
There needs to be a reason to fly to stations that are far away from the main star. If I take a mission that requires me to fly 30 minutes in supercruise I need a compensation for that, otherwise I wouldnt do it. A 10MCr bonus for 45 minutes of supercruise in a large ship sounds quite reasonable to me. But if you stack 20 of these boni and do a single trip, then it gets rediculous. Took a while for fd to realize this, but better late then never.

 

[RidingTheFlow]

I guess we could call that auto flip?

This is intended game mechanics though, to simulate periodically appearing new passengers/missions.

 

[TehJumpingJawa]

Payouts may have been nerfed, but they've made these available in the shipyard, free for a limited time.

Spoiler

https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4182/34282084730_c3564b93d9_o.jpg

Ha!
Wish that were true, but can you imagine fdev giving anything away free?

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

This is intended game mechanics though, to simulate periodically appearing new passengers/missions.

I know, I was being flippant




I'll get my coat.

 

[ShellStar]

they can have that one. i found another even better and of course i won't say it here because don't want the babies to cry to mama and get it nerfed

Is there a method to finding these system, if so what is it or is it luck?

Do you think you could email the system pls

 

[Adaire]

It defo wasn't 200mill/ph as one thread suggested, as I had spent 5 days doing the runs and the average payout for 8 hours per day was around 40-50 million an hour when averaged out.

It shouldn't have been nerfed, not for end-game players (though many would say end-game begins in a sidewinder) - so, by that, I mean Double/Triple Elite pilots.

I think you need better rep to start making more. My current passenger route makes me 55-60m an hour in my Beluga (timed with an online stopwatch, lol), but I'm also allied/close to allied with all the local factions. I think the current balancing is fair - if you want to make more than 50m/hour you need to cultivate relations with the local people, not just drive to Smeaton in a cheap D-rated Anaconda and immediately rake in 100m+ in two hours.

Also, to the post above me...use the galaxy map + eddb stations tool to find your own custom routes. Systems with lots of incoming trade routes typically means there are lots of jobs going there as well. Pretty common sense when you think about it.

 

[Noobilite]

I think you need better rep to start making more. My current passenger route makes me 55-60m an hour in my Beluga (timed with an online stopwatch, lol), but I'm also allied/close to allied with all the local factions. I think the current balancing is fair - if you want to make more than 50m/hour you need to cultivate relations with the local people, not just drive to Smeaton in a cheap D-rated Anaconda and immediately rake in 100m+ in two hours.

Why should you have to be with a faction to make money. That is not realistic to making money. What if people don't like factions. Should they not have money making opportunities also?! Faction has nothing to do with how to make money overall. Even if you consider the most despotic environment possible that stilll doesn't make sense. That usually even makes better money making opportunities in and of itself... Hence risky illegal tansport. What if you just add more to the game to balance it out. Or wait until there is and not worry about people making money. What does it matter?! The new engineering changes make it even easier or more likely to have max equipment. It's not like that doesn't level the playing field for the one argument against it.

 

[Red Anders]

How about walking up Ben Nevis versus arriving by helicopter?

Not that I disagree with you.

It depends what you were trying to achieve. If it was to have an enjoyable walk, walking is better. If it was to get to the top, the helicopter is better. If it was both, you pick which is more important to you.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

It depends what you were trying to achieve. If it was to have an enjoyable walk, walking is better. If it was to get to the top, the helicopter is more better. If it was both, you pick which is more important to you.

Well the achievement is reaching the summit through hard work. You reward yourself with a nip of your favourite single malt. If you get there by helicopter you haven't achieved anything and therefore gain no satisfaction.

 

[Certacito]

How does anyone afford the option to choose between walking and using a helicopter if they only ever earn pocket money from a paper round?

 

[Red Anders]

Well the achievement is reaching the summit through hard work. You reward yourself with a nip of your favourite single malt. If you get there by helicopter you haven't achieved anything and therefore gain no satisfaction.

I can hardly believe I have to write this but no, reaching the summit through hard work is one possible achievement but it depends what you were trying to achieve.

You may have been intending to have a challenging experience involving physical effort, with the payoff being the satisfaction gained from testing yourself in that way, in which case walking up is absolutely the way to go. The experience of walking the route is itself the achievement.

You may have been focused solely on enjoying the view from the top. In that case, enjoying the view is the achievement. Reaching the top is merely a precursor to the achievement since you have to get to the top before you can do it; the method used to get to the top is of interest only because it facilitates the achievement. You can go up on foot, by bike, on a unicorn or by helicopter, none of them are going to make the experience worse, or better for you. In that case, you would usually choose the fastest method, or the one offering best value for money depending on which is more important to you, but whatever sense of 'challenge' the various options offered wouldn't be a factor in your decision making.

You may want both of the above things. If so, you have some decisions to make. Where are you getting most of the enjoyment from, the journey or the view at the top? Would the fact you won't feel you're challenging yourself in making the journey detract from the enjoyment of the view sufficiently to make the experience better overall if you walk up, or would the effort of walking up detract from the enjoyment of the view at the end of it sufficiently that you'd rather travel by a more comfortable method? Unless you're really anti-walking you'd probably go for the walking route because if offers the best of both worlds.

They're all valid choices depending on what you are looking to achieve. That's why there's a railway running up Snowdon...

For what it's worth, I'd almost certainly walk. That doesn't mean I'd be pointing and laughing at the people in the helicopter and telling them they were doing it wrong. They just weren't looking for the same experience as me.

How does anyone afford the option to choose between walking and using a helicopter if they only ever earn pocket money from a paper round?

Git gud at paper rounds?

 

[Noobilite]

[video=youtube;9ngVWi5QrK8]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ngVWi5QrK8[/video]

Oddly enough the overly violent potential of paperboy is actually fitting for this game. 8) Or am I thinking of the SNES version?

I just noticed something. It's an autogenerated environment. Does paperboy beat elite dangerous in generated environment complexity! >< I bet the technical answer is not as far off as people might think.

 

[Mano d'Oro]

Why should you have to be with a faction to make money. That is not realistic to making money. -snip-

Adaire was pointing out that the higher your rep with a faction, the more cr they will offer you for completing their missions. Your Rank is the other major factor in determining difficulty/payouts offered.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

I can hardly believe I have to write this but no, reaching the summit through hard work is one possible achievement but it depends what you were trying to achieve.

LOL. Mate, I was just shooting the breeze. I was bored on a train. I don't really have a point.

I take it that you haven't been up Ben Nevis? The top is usually in the clouds. You do get a great view sometimes but no one goes up by helicopter. Sometimes people are rescued by them though.

I do know someone who flew to the top of Machu Picchu in a helicopter. He hates walking.