(Alternate Title: How Gold Rushing is an Exploit)
The above statement is what provoked this paper since I so do love whacking people with Irony.
To that end, I will be exploring the loosely defined 'progression' of Elite Dangerous in order to prove this held position is a paradox and better understand the design intent of the ship levels as well as the means of income. Many of the hot topics on the subject of credit generation and gold rushing revolve around time spent playing the game and what people feel their time is worth. Many feel that potential earning are low and do not accurately reflect the time (read: Effort) necessary to obtain the payout. Veterans however tend to be split on this subject while newcomers tend to have an inflated sense of self worth seeing them equal to veterans and desire the same respect. So lets have a look at the intended 'progression' of Elite Dangerous and it's original design as well as the evolution of such over the ages which leads us to where we are now.
The Argument
First and foremost. Let's consider the argument that Gold Rushes are not exploits. I find this to be fundamentally false. The argument in question relies mostly on the explanation that Gold Rushes are a result of ether a bug in the RNG or naturally occurring due to unforeseen evolution in the BGS.
In ether case, it relies on an unintended error in the system. It relies on something breaking and not functioning in accordance with the design as established by the designer. (Read: FDev, Frontier Developments, Frontier,)
The Definition
As discussed earlier, the definition of "exploit" reads along the lines of: "A means to circumvent game mechanics as designed to achieve a specific outcome."
The actual definition being: "The use of a bug, glitch, system, rates, hitboxes, or speed to a player's advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers."
As established, Gold Rushes are a byproduct of the system not working as intended. Their very existence is a result of a glitch in the system which is utilized (read: exploited) by player with the intention of amassing massive amounts of money in a relatively short amount of time. In a manner not intended by Frontier. As Frontier has made efforts to shut down Gold Rushes and has not made any statements endorsing such mechanics, they are clearly not by design.
Therefore, Gold Rushes fit the definition of an exploit. The argument that they are not, is false.
But what IS the intended design?
To do this takes large amounts of credits. And since credits are limited by these factors, players will go to extreme lengths to circumvent them. Only to find out they only circumvent them so far and run into problems later down the line.
It's akin to overextending in 4X games, RTS, and basebuilding games. By focusing too much on rapid growth, you lack the resources to actually utilize said claimed territory. It's the same with Elite. With all the focus on generating enough credits to fly a Frigate Class, you lack the other two factors necessary to circumvent the operational costs of flying said Frigate Class and quickly find yourself hitting walls. Mounting Frustration then results in what we see on the forums.
Let's look at the design triad.
Ship Size:
The most obvious one is of course, a bigger ship. The design of the game focuses around the capabilities of the different ships. As evidenced by the NPC's, bigger ships tend to be more durable. As ship destruction is always a risk, there is the desire to safeguard your investment by making it the most indestructible thing out there. Alongside of course, an offensive that no one can stand a chance against.
Bigger ships offer more space. More space means more options. More options means a better ability to compete. Smaller ships are more limited in their capabilities requiring one to stumble upon a winning loadout or improve their skills. This is why bigger ships are more attractive as they often make up the skill shortfall by allowing one to be more flexable.
However the intended design by Frontier was meant to demonstrate one's ability to lift one's self out of poverty. You're given a set bare minimum of a pilot fresh out of training. No one is going to hand over the keys to a frigate to someone who hasn't trained extensively in said class of ship. You are given the cheapest option available and expected to earn your way up.
The ships themselves are designed in 'tiers' as classified by both cost of the basic hull, and landing pad size. Of which I classify into three categories. "Fighter" for small landing pad ships as these ships are fairly small relatively speaking to each other with low durability, high evasion, and limited options. They tend to be cheap compared to the rest of their brethren.
The next stage up is "Gunship" on the medium landing pads though I would also classify the Imperial Clipper as such despite it's Large landing pad status given it's more limited options compared to the actual Frigate Class ships. These ships strike a balance between maneuverability and durability compared to other classes being more maneuverable then Frigate but less durable. However they are more durable then Fighter classes while not being as maneuverable. (All this subject to player interpretation) They are more expensive then Fighter Class ships but less so then Frigate Class.
The current Penultimate Large Landing Pad "Frigate" class is represented by being the biggest, most durable class out there with the space to optimize it better then ether of the two lower classes. They are also the most expensive which means they have the highest learning curve. Once you lose this ship, unless you have the operation costs under control, it usually marks a death knell for a player's career.
The intended progression was to showcase the journey of a pilot by upgrading through the various ships and improving one's skills in not only piloting them, but also managing their operational costs. One could easily take a Fighter class out and not earn any money for weeks with negligible impact to the wallet. The costs of operating a Frigate Class means that the only time it left dock was for a specific reason and that meant it had to earn back every credit required to be spent on maintenance when it returned to port. Frigate Class ships were not 'funsies' ships. The appearance of a Frigate class was mean to showcase the commitment to something.
The game however is toted as a play your way style. This lead to the belief that one could faff about in a highly expensive ship with no consequences. Yet player demand for there to be a consequence for one's actions tends to be high.
The intended design being as follows. One started in a Fighter Class and worked their way up slowly. Upgrading to bigger and better ships. As they upgraded, they learned to manage increasing operational costs and improve their skill in flying bigger and more unwieldy ships. Learning not to fear being fired upon and how to manage the panic of hearing 'shields offline'. Also credit generation was meant to be impacted by larger ships. Bigger ships incurred bigger operational costs yes but the income generated by using a bigger ship is supposed to be larger then the smaller more limited Fighter and Gunship classes.
By shortcutting from Sidewinder to Anaconda, players miss out on learning how to manage increasing operational costs and how to make their ship work for them. Granted they get access to the supposedly better income generation but that is also limited by the two other factors. With these two other factors working against them, this combined with the lacking knowledge of how to use the ship to cover it's own operational costs, leads to frustration and a desire for Gold Rushing.
Elite Ranks:
Often overlooked, one's Elite Rank comes into play by dictating mission difficulty. It would serve as a warning to what kind of risks you would be facing on the mission and the combat rank of ships you would likely encounter. Your Elite rank in a category was meant to serve as an indicator of both time and effort you put into a certain type of play. It was also meant to serve as the gatekeeper to missions and their rewards.
Elite rank is rating used by the Pilots Federation to denote the effectiveness of the pilot in question. Lorewise, it would be used by those doing background checks on a pilot to determine their effectiveness at dealing with risk.
The intended design being as follows. Mission givers would assign a difficulty rating based on the Elite rank and would provide that mission to pilots that meet or exceed that rank with the intention of giving pilots mission that they know would be completed. Nobody wants a mission to fail since the mission generally is meant to have a better outcome for the one providing it. They want the mission to succeed and therefore want to insure a pilot is capable. As such people are risk averse and therefore the intended design being in that the higher the rank to required to take a mission. The bigger the pay out.
The design of the Elite rank being that as one acquires experience in dealing with certain situations, their rank would also increase over time. Unlocking higher difficulty missions and better rewards.
Reputation:
Another overlooked factor is the reputation of a pilot. This the individual 'trust' meter a faction has for you. The more good you do for a faction, the more they come to trust you. The more harm you do to a faction, the less they come to trust you to the point of sending hitmen after you and trying to exile you from systems they control.
The intended design being as follows. The more a faction trusts you. The better the rewards. This is meant to represent being trusted with the most sensitive operations as well as demonstrating favoritism toward the player. "Oh you're our best friend? Well we'll pay you more then the other guys just because we like you more."
As you can see, most of the focus tends to be on ships because that's where most of the misconceptions come from. It is the most complex and skill dependent factor a player can influence. The other two factors while often overlooked, are very simple yet the most simple things is where things go horribly, horribly wrong.
The Vision
By themselves, each of the triad is a factor in the amount of credits generated. It is when they come together we see the design as intended by Frontier on what Elite Dangerous was meant to be. As players progressed through the tiers of ships, they would learn ship operation management to include costs. While doing so they would deal with situations that would give them experience and raise their Elite rank accordingly. At the same time, those situations would be provided by factions which when players completed them, would increase their reputation.
Players would effectively kill three birds with one stone. A single trip was meant for the player to advance in all three categories simultaneously therefore cutting down on the most valuable of player's commodities. Time.
Players would learn to manage operation costs while getting their ships to work for them in generating a certain amount of credits limited by the ship's capabilities. This balanced against a player's Elite rating and reputation.
The intention being in that all three factors working together would be the balancing factor between ships. An experienced player established in a system would be able to generate far more credits in a Fighter Class then a new player in a Frigate Class visiting an area for the first time. Ergo an experienced player in a Frigate would make VAST amounts more money then a rookie in a Fighter. Again with reputation being a factor.
This, I believe, is the fabled "Progression by Design" touted by many to be of mythical existence.
Well, Frontier got 1 out of 3 right. Reputation seems to be doing it's job.
While I'm sure many players can argue for a two out of three. The ship size is a hit or miss. As I've stated before, circumventing the journey from Sidewinder to Anaconda in favor of speed is something only veterans can achieve as they are skilled in the managing of costs and know how to keep them down until they can build up the rank and reputation to offset the costs. This is why I would say that Frontier has only scored a one out of three because player experience not being uniform keeps it from being a solid 2.
Reputation however is strictly enforced and one can see that many of the higher paying missions are gated off with requiring a higher reputation before a faction will allow you to select these missions.
The Elite ranking however seems to have failed completely. Individuals are fully capable of taking higher difficulty missions well before they have unlocked them and the reward values are all over the place. This often gives rise to the outcry of player's time not being respected as the rewards do not stack up to the risks involved.
In fact. I do believe that Frontier themselves intentionally broke it which is why credits are easier to come by today then when the game launched. I remember back in 1.2 where missions were locked to Rank as well as Reputation with smaller payouts. By jailbreaking the Rank to not respond to a player's rank, payouts have increased disproportionately.
Frontier may respond claiming that mission difficult now responds to the highest Elite ranking to which I respond with "You said it would be within 1 to 2 ranks. My highest ranking is only the sixth rank but you're letting me access Elite rank missions which is rating 9. I was able to do Elite missions when my highest ranking was 4 in exploration." So that will not hold true ether.
As stated before, player experience with the different ship classes and how to offset costs is also a necessary skill that can only be learned. Gold Rushing however has broken that progression the same way that Frontier broke rank locks. Allowing players to shortcut to riches previously inaccessible to them only to find out they lack the necessary realtime skill that can't be upgraded through the game to manage the larger ships.
The only one holding firm at the moment is Reputation locks. And I predict that if those ever fail, the 'progression' in Elite will fall completely apart and the game will definitely be in a dire mess.
The Conclusion
So there we have it. Frontier's vision for progression, broken by their own actions as well as the player base 'exploiting' the bugs that result in Gold Rushes in order to outfit themselves with ships they are not ready for.
Frankly if Frontier ever decides to embrace and adapt the Gold Rush into the game as a viable mechanic stating their intent to do, it would no longer be considered an exploit but instead a viable, legitimate, game mechanic instead of the exploit it is now.
It would however not stop the incessant whining about the 'difficulty of credit generation' threads but those individuals just need to learn to suck it up and deal during the famine periods between gold rushes. You ether adapt and learn to make money in other ways or succumb to the harsh, cold, cruel, and dare I say... Dangerous galaxy we play in.
Paraphrase of a Forum Post said:
The above statement is what provoked this paper since I so do love whacking people with Irony.
To that end, I will be exploring the loosely defined 'progression' of Elite Dangerous in order to prove this held position is a paradox and better understand the design intent of the ship levels as well as the means of income. Many of the hot topics on the subject of credit generation and gold rushing revolve around time spent playing the game and what people feel their time is worth. Many feel that potential earning are low and do not accurately reflect the time (read: Effort) necessary to obtain the payout. Veterans however tend to be split on this subject while newcomers tend to have an inflated sense of self worth seeing them equal to veterans and desire the same respect. So lets have a look at the intended 'progression' of Elite Dangerous and it's original design as well as the evolution of such over the ages which leads us to where we are now.
The Argument
In ether case, it relies on an unintended error in the system. It relies on something breaking and not functioning in accordance with the design as established by the designer. (Read: FDev, Frontier Developments, Frontier,)
The Definition
As discussed earlier, the definition of "exploit" reads along the lines of: "A means to circumvent game mechanics as designed to achieve a specific outcome."
The actual definition being: "The use of a bug, glitch, system, rates, hitboxes, or speed to a player's advantage in a manner not intended by the game's designers."
As established, Gold Rushes are a byproduct of the system not working as intended. Their very existence is a result of a glitch in the system which is utilized (read: exploited) by player with the intention of amassing massive amounts of money in a relatively short amount of time. In a manner not intended by Frontier. As Frontier has made efforts to shut down Gold Rushes and has not made any statements endorsing such mechanics, they are clearly not by design.
Therefore, Gold Rushes fit the definition of an exploit. The argument that they are not, is false.
But what IS the intended design?
The Design
It is my belief that Frontier designed 'progression' into Elite Dangerous in a triad layer through the three means of: Ship Size, Elite Rank, and Reputation. Credit generation is influenced by these three factors. Whether or not players are consciously aware of it, they understand it. This is why you see people complaining and desperately trying to achieve a Frigate Class (Read: Ships that land on Large Landing Pads) in the shortest amount of time.
To do this takes large amounts of credits. And since credits are limited by these factors, players will go to extreme lengths to circumvent them. Only to find out they only circumvent them so far and run into problems later down the line.
It's akin to overextending in 4X games, RTS, and basebuilding games. By focusing too much on rapid growth, you lack the resources to actually utilize said claimed territory. It's the same with Elite. With all the focus on generating enough credits to fly a Frigate Class, you lack the other two factors necessary to circumvent the operational costs of flying said Frigate Class and quickly find yourself hitting walls. Mounting Frustration then results in what we see on the forums.
Let's look at the design triad.
Ship Size:
The most obvious one is of course, a bigger ship. The design of the game focuses around the capabilities of the different ships. As evidenced by the NPC's, bigger ships tend to be more durable. As ship destruction is always a risk, there is the desire to safeguard your investment by making it the most indestructible thing out there. Alongside of course, an offensive that no one can stand a chance against.
Bigger ships offer more space. More space means more options. More options means a better ability to compete. Smaller ships are more limited in their capabilities requiring one to stumble upon a winning loadout or improve their skills. This is why bigger ships are more attractive as they often make up the skill shortfall by allowing one to be more flexable.
However the intended design by Frontier was meant to demonstrate one's ability to lift one's self out of poverty. You're given a set bare minimum of a pilot fresh out of training. No one is going to hand over the keys to a frigate to someone who hasn't trained extensively in said class of ship. You are given the cheapest option available and expected to earn your way up.
The ships themselves are designed in 'tiers' as classified by both cost of the basic hull, and landing pad size. Of which I classify into three categories. "Fighter" for small landing pad ships as these ships are fairly small relatively speaking to each other with low durability, high evasion, and limited options. They tend to be cheap compared to the rest of their brethren.
The next stage up is "Gunship" on the medium landing pads though I would also classify the Imperial Clipper as such despite it's Large landing pad status given it's more limited options compared to the actual Frigate Class ships. These ships strike a balance between maneuverability and durability compared to other classes being more maneuverable then Frigate but less durable. However they are more durable then Fighter classes while not being as maneuverable. (All this subject to player interpretation) They are more expensive then Fighter Class ships but less so then Frigate Class.
The current Penultimate Large Landing Pad "Frigate" class is represented by being the biggest, most durable class out there with the space to optimize it better then ether of the two lower classes. They are also the most expensive which means they have the highest learning curve. Once you lose this ship, unless you have the operation costs under control, it usually marks a death knell for a player's career.
The intended progression was to showcase the journey of a pilot by upgrading through the various ships and improving one's skills in not only piloting them, but also managing their operational costs. One could easily take a Fighter class out and not earn any money for weeks with negligible impact to the wallet. The costs of operating a Frigate Class means that the only time it left dock was for a specific reason and that meant it had to earn back every credit required to be spent on maintenance when it returned to port. Frigate Class ships were not 'funsies' ships. The appearance of a Frigate class was mean to showcase the commitment to something.
The game however is toted as a play your way style. This lead to the belief that one could faff about in a highly expensive ship with no consequences. Yet player demand for there to be a consequence for one's actions tends to be high.
The intended design being as follows. One started in a Fighter Class and worked their way up slowly. Upgrading to bigger and better ships. As they upgraded, they learned to manage increasing operational costs and improve their skill in flying bigger and more unwieldy ships. Learning not to fear being fired upon and how to manage the panic of hearing 'shields offline'. Also credit generation was meant to be impacted by larger ships. Bigger ships incurred bigger operational costs yes but the income generated by using a bigger ship is supposed to be larger then the smaller more limited Fighter and Gunship classes.
By shortcutting from Sidewinder to Anaconda, players miss out on learning how to manage increasing operational costs and how to make their ship work for them. Granted they get access to the supposedly better income generation but that is also limited by the two other factors. With these two other factors working against them, this combined with the lacking knowledge of how to use the ship to cover it's own operational costs, leads to frustration and a desire for Gold Rushing.
Elite Ranks:
Often overlooked, one's Elite Rank comes into play by dictating mission difficulty. It would serve as a warning to what kind of risks you would be facing on the mission and the combat rank of ships you would likely encounter. Your Elite rank in a category was meant to serve as an indicator of both time and effort you put into a certain type of play. It was also meant to serve as the gatekeeper to missions and their rewards.
Elite rank is rating used by the Pilots Federation to denote the effectiveness of the pilot in question. Lorewise, it would be used by those doing background checks on a pilot to determine their effectiveness at dealing with risk.
The intended design being as follows. Mission givers would assign a difficulty rating based on the Elite rank and would provide that mission to pilots that meet or exceed that rank with the intention of giving pilots mission that they know would be completed. Nobody wants a mission to fail since the mission generally is meant to have a better outcome for the one providing it. They want the mission to succeed and therefore want to insure a pilot is capable. As such people are risk averse and therefore the intended design being in that the higher the rank to required to take a mission. The bigger the pay out.
The design of the Elite rank being that as one acquires experience in dealing with certain situations, their rank would also increase over time. Unlocking higher difficulty missions and better rewards.
Reputation:
Another overlooked factor is the reputation of a pilot. This the individual 'trust' meter a faction has for you. The more good you do for a faction, the more they come to trust you. The more harm you do to a faction, the less they come to trust you to the point of sending hitmen after you and trying to exile you from systems they control.
The intended design being as follows. The more a faction trusts you. The better the rewards. This is meant to represent being trusted with the most sensitive operations as well as demonstrating favoritism toward the player. "Oh you're our best friend? Well we'll pay you more then the other guys just because we like you more."
As you can see, most of the focus tends to be on ships because that's where most of the misconceptions come from. It is the most complex and skill dependent factor a player can influence. The other two factors while often overlooked, are very simple yet the most simple things is where things go horribly, horribly wrong.
The Vision
By themselves, each of the triad is a factor in the amount of credits generated. It is when they come together we see the design as intended by Frontier on what Elite Dangerous was meant to be. As players progressed through the tiers of ships, they would learn ship operation management to include costs. While doing so they would deal with situations that would give them experience and raise their Elite rank accordingly. At the same time, those situations would be provided by factions which when players completed them, would increase their reputation.
Players would effectively kill three birds with one stone. A single trip was meant for the player to advance in all three categories simultaneously therefore cutting down on the most valuable of player's commodities. Time.
Players would learn to manage operation costs while getting their ships to work for them in generating a certain amount of credits limited by the ship's capabilities. This balanced against a player's Elite rating and reputation.
The intention being in that all three factors working together would be the balancing factor between ships. An experienced player established in a system would be able to generate far more credits in a Fighter Class then a new player in a Frigate Class visiting an area for the first time. Ergo an experienced player in a Frigate would make VAST amounts more money then a rookie in a Fighter. Again with reputation being a factor.
This, I believe, is the fabled "Progression by Design" touted by many to be of mythical existence.
The Reality
Well, Frontier got 1 out of 3 right. Reputation seems to be doing it's job.
While I'm sure many players can argue for a two out of three. The ship size is a hit or miss. As I've stated before, circumventing the journey from Sidewinder to Anaconda in favor of speed is something only veterans can achieve as they are skilled in the managing of costs and know how to keep them down until they can build up the rank and reputation to offset the costs. This is why I would say that Frontier has only scored a one out of three because player experience not being uniform keeps it from being a solid 2.
Reputation however is strictly enforced and one can see that many of the higher paying missions are gated off with requiring a higher reputation before a faction will allow you to select these missions.
The Elite ranking however seems to have failed completely. Individuals are fully capable of taking higher difficulty missions well before they have unlocked them and the reward values are all over the place. This often gives rise to the outcry of player's time not being respected as the rewards do not stack up to the risks involved.
In fact. I do believe that Frontier themselves intentionally broke it which is why credits are easier to come by today then when the game launched. I remember back in 1.2 where missions were locked to Rank as well as Reputation with smaller payouts. By jailbreaking the Rank to not respond to a player's rank, payouts have increased disproportionately.
Frontier may respond claiming that mission difficult now responds to the highest Elite ranking to which I respond with "You said it would be within 1 to 2 ranks. My highest ranking is only the sixth rank but you're letting me access Elite rank missions which is rating 9. I was able to do Elite missions when my highest ranking was 4 in exploration." So that will not hold true ether.
As stated before, player experience with the different ship classes and how to offset costs is also a necessary skill that can only be learned. Gold Rushing however has broken that progression the same way that Frontier broke rank locks. Allowing players to shortcut to riches previously inaccessible to them only to find out they lack the necessary realtime skill that can't be upgraded through the game to manage the larger ships.
The only one holding firm at the moment is Reputation locks. And I predict that if those ever fail, the 'progression' in Elite will fall completely apart and the game will definitely be in a dire mess.
The Conclusion
So there we have it. Frontier's vision for progression, broken by their own actions as well as the player base 'exploiting' the bugs that result in Gold Rushes in order to outfit themselves with ships they are not ready for.
Frankly if Frontier ever decides to embrace and adapt the Gold Rush into the game as a viable mechanic stating their intent to do, it would no longer be considered an exploit but instead a viable, legitimate, game mechanic instead of the exploit it is now.
It would however not stop the incessant whining about the 'difficulty of credit generation' threads but those individuals just need to learn to suck it up and deal during the famine periods between gold rushes. You ether adapt and learn to make money in other ways or succumb to the harsh, cold, cruel, and dare I say... Dangerous galaxy we play in.
