Last week was rather heated, Beyond p.1 setting down, people finding gold rushes, FDEV removing them, overall discussion about grind, money and limitations. Week as any other in ED [noob]
disclaimer: long post, no tl;dr
o7 CMDRs,
I wanted to share a bit of a story. Being always late for the party I miss all the "fast" credits activities and I always am credit starved. Therefore I am somewhat limited in my playstyle due to not being able to make relevant purchase. Making money for the sake of having money feels like grind. And other people advice were: just play the game and results will come. So, starting Friday, I said: screw it all, just play the game.
One of my general goals is to have a Cutter. Nearly cr 210 M price tag with a big rank requirement on top. Seeing how gaining ranks is a long and tedious process I haven't really attempted that in the past. But no more neglecting, the sooner I start, the sooner I finish. Some day. Eventually.
Game is awesome in providing relevant, accurate and sufficient information - at this point I consider Google, Wiki, reddit and Youtube ED extensions - I found a place rumored to be good spot to advance Empire Navy ranks. Fun fact - today I watched CMDR Plater's video, dated 2 days ago (date when I started running at that spot), about my spot. Now you know what I mean about always being late for the party...
So, starting conditions. When Beyond landed I bought Chieftain and little bit outfitted it. These actions consumed almost half of my funds and I was left with: cr 68 M. My Empire standing was: half way Friendly and rank: 0 (none). I pulled out my Python, set course and few jumps later I arrived at my destination. Adventure had started.
I spent entire weekend there, Friday evening and few sessions in the following days. Overall it took me 6 sessions - didn't count hours ans I was "just playing". Not grinding, not ranking. Just playing. Load up 20 boom data delivery and courier job available missions. 3.8 LY jump, dock and hand in. Load up 20 missions for the way back. Rinse and repeat. At this point I must admit - it gets boring after few rounds. Luckily YT playing in the background with some music helped a lot. Glitch Mob, Japan POP live radio, best '80s electronic and I haven't noticed when evening turned into late night.
As I said, started with 68M and rank 0, here are the results of my sessions (been taking notes):
#1* - 83.6M (+15.6M) Empire Friendly to Allied, then rank 2 Serf
#2 - 92.2M (+8.6M) and rank 5 Knight
#3 - 109.9M (+16.9M) and rank 8 Viscount
#4 - 144.8M (+35.7M) and rank 11 Marquise
#5 - 152.2M (+7.4M) and rank 12 Duke
(*) - while running in my Python I decided I haven't used my DBX for a long time, made a break to hangar Python and get DBX instead. After the swap I continued.
Yeah, got from nobody to Duke over the weekend. Earned 84M in the process. Bought the following:
Imperial Eagle
"Hashidate"
Imperial Courier
"Hyuuga"
Imperial Clipper
"Kirishima"
Here, she's Basking in Her Glory, Medupe City, Cubeo system.
Although I have enough of rank, I'm short on credits to buy my final imperial goal - The Cutter. With the above purchases I'm left with 128M. But not hasten the facts - "grind" review time.
Don't know if it's some kind of bug or not but I couldn't track my rank progress. While force rep bar was filling, factions rep bars showed my actual standing, rank bars were always full and showing 100% completion, even just after gaining rank. For example, seen rank 5 Knight 100%. Handed in 20 missions and got Imperial Navy Intelligence mission (rank up). Delivered that, handed in and bam - rank 6 Lord 100%, bar filled. Next I had to spend over an hour running missions to get another INI mission and rank up higher.
Speaking of INI missions, they weren't popping equally. Master to baron (3-7) took less than None to Master (0-3). Also Master to Viscount was relatively fast, slowing down toward the end (rank 12 Duke). I could get rank up mission after few runs (3-5) speeding the middle part considerably, then was a bit of drought before next one appeared. My explanation is that I accumulated enough rep for a rank up, just mission didn't pop up so I could actually rank up. And when it did and I made another rank I already had about half the progress towards next rank. Would explain one event when I logged out (no rank up mission, checked it). After logging in few hours later rank up mission was available right on.
Now money - missions started at 10k to rise up to 12-41k per delivery. It didn't matter much as I took rep+++ with flat 10k payout as a reward so credit offer was just a figure. Main income came from time bonus. Making allied with local faction took 1-2 runs so it was almost instant. 15 minutes of flying and rewards offered were maxed out. Delivery bonus was anything from 40k to 180k, 75% of the missions were granting bonus. Star to station flight time was few minutes, time window 26-34 minutes... On average I did 1-2.5M a run.
Got like 6 tip off mails, faced 3 or 4 interdictions. Apart from that A-B-A shuttle flights.
Now - ships. My goal was Cutter obviously. 84M I earned wasn't enough to buy one, my balance ended at 152M. Instead I bought Cutter-wannabe: Clipper. Eagle for the collection since 88k is a pocket spare. Courier I got for my planned Fed rank up run. Covert Ops.
And Clipper. Didn't had any real expectations with that ship. But when I sat in the seat, looked at controls, room... everything. Wow. Just wow. When I had to switch to my DBX to swap few internals it felt like stepping out a Gulfstream into old garbage truck (and I love my DBX). The quality difference was like that. But luckily finished outfitting and took her for a spin...
That's a topic for another thread. Suffice to say I'm surprised.
To sum up. With a bit of luck (finding good spot) currently one can fly through ranks within few days. Now all I need is some gold rush to fill my credit gap and finally get that elusive Cutter. Or I will run Fed ranks for the Corvette (in iCourier) and use their money for the Cutter.
But who will fund me Corvette then...?
disclaimer: long post, no tl;dr
o7 CMDRs,
I wanted to share a bit of a story. Being always late for the party I miss all the "fast" credits activities and I always am credit starved. Therefore I am somewhat limited in my playstyle due to not being able to make relevant purchase. Making money for the sake of having money feels like grind. And other people advice were: just play the game and results will come. So, starting Friday, I said: screw it all, just play the game.
One of my general goals is to have a Cutter. Nearly cr 210 M price tag with a big rank requirement on top. Seeing how gaining ranks is a long and tedious process I haven't really attempted that in the past. But no more neglecting, the sooner I start, the sooner I finish. Some day. Eventually.
Game is awesome in providing relevant, accurate and sufficient information - at this point I consider Google, Wiki, reddit and Youtube ED extensions - I found a place rumored to be good spot to advance Empire Navy ranks. Fun fact - today I watched CMDR Plater's video, dated 2 days ago (date when I started running at that spot), about my spot. Now you know what I mean about always being late for the party...
So, starting conditions. When Beyond landed I bought Chieftain and little bit outfitted it. These actions consumed almost half of my funds and I was left with: cr 68 M. My Empire standing was: half way Friendly and rank: 0 (none). I pulled out my Python, set course and few jumps later I arrived at my destination. Adventure had started.
I spent entire weekend there, Friday evening and few sessions in the following days. Overall it took me 6 sessions - didn't count hours ans I was "just playing". Not grinding, not ranking. Just playing. Load up 20 boom data delivery and courier job available missions. 3.8 LY jump, dock and hand in. Load up 20 missions for the way back. Rinse and repeat. At this point I must admit - it gets boring after few rounds. Luckily YT playing in the background with some music helped a lot. Glitch Mob, Japan POP live radio, best '80s electronic and I haven't noticed when evening turned into late night.
As I said, started with 68M and rank 0, here are the results of my sessions (been taking notes):
#1* - 83.6M (+15.6M) Empire Friendly to Allied, then rank 2 Serf
#2 - 92.2M (+8.6M) and rank 5 Knight
#3 - 109.9M (+16.9M) and rank 8 Viscount
#4 - 144.8M (+35.7M) and rank 11 Marquise
#5 - 152.2M (+7.4M) and rank 12 Duke
(*) - while running in my Python I decided I haven't used my DBX for a long time, made a break to hangar Python and get DBX instead. After the swap I continued.
Yeah, got from nobody to Duke over the weekend. Earned 84M in the process. Bought the following:
Imperial Eagle
"Hashidate"
Imperial Courier
"Hyuuga"
Imperial Clipper
"Kirishima"
Here, she's Basking in Her Glory, Medupe City, Cubeo system.
Although I have enough of rank, I'm short on credits to buy my final imperial goal - The Cutter. With the above purchases I'm left with 128M. But not hasten the facts - "grind" review time.
Don't know if it's some kind of bug or not but I couldn't track my rank progress. While force rep bar was filling, factions rep bars showed my actual standing, rank bars were always full and showing 100% completion, even just after gaining rank. For example, seen rank 5 Knight 100%. Handed in 20 missions and got Imperial Navy Intelligence mission (rank up). Delivered that, handed in and bam - rank 6 Lord 100%, bar filled. Next I had to spend over an hour running missions to get another INI mission and rank up higher.
Speaking of INI missions, they weren't popping equally. Master to baron (3-7) took less than None to Master (0-3). Also Master to Viscount was relatively fast, slowing down toward the end (rank 12 Duke). I could get rank up mission after few runs (3-5) speeding the middle part considerably, then was a bit of drought before next one appeared. My explanation is that I accumulated enough rep for a rank up, just mission didn't pop up so I could actually rank up. And when it did and I made another rank I already had about half the progress towards next rank. Would explain one event when I logged out (no rank up mission, checked it). After logging in few hours later rank up mission was available right on.
Now money - missions started at 10k to rise up to 12-41k per delivery. It didn't matter much as I took rep+++ with flat 10k payout as a reward so credit offer was just a figure. Main income came from time bonus. Making allied with local faction took 1-2 runs so it was almost instant. 15 minutes of flying and rewards offered were maxed out. Delivery bonus was anything from 40k to 180k, 75% of the missions were granting bonus. Star to station flight time was few minutes, time window 26-34 minutes... On average I did 1-2.5M a run.
Got like 6 tip off mails, faced 3 or 4 interdictions. Apart from that A-B-A shuttle flights.
Now - ships. My goal was Cutter obviously. 84M I earned wasn't enough to buy one, my balance ended at 152M. Instead I bought Cutter-wannabe: Clipper. Eagle for the collection since 88k is a pocket spare. Courier I got for my planned Fed rank up run. Covert Ops.
And Clipper. Didn't had any real expectations with that ship. But when I sat in the seat, looked at controls, room... everything. Wow. Just wow. When I had to switch to my DBX to swap few internals it felt like stepping out a Gulfstream into old garbage truck (and I love my DBX). The quality difference was like that. But luckily finished outfitting and took her for a spin...
That's a topic for another thread. Suffice to say I'm surprised.
To sum up. With a bit of luck (finding good spot) currently one can fly through ranks within few days. Now all I need is some gold rush to fill my credit gap and finally get that elusive Cutter. Or I will run Fed ranks for the Corvette (in iCourier) and use their money for the Cutter.
But who will fund me Corvette then...?
