I was Triple Elite. Fully engineered corvette. 1.5 B in cash. And I was bored as hell.
Thargoids have been meh. Beyond has been meh. It was time to either quit or go home.
So I went home. I reset my commander.
I decided to play ED the way it was meant to be played by creating self-imposed rules with the main objective to NERF credits as much as possible.
No lucrative PAX missions right out of the gate. No stacking skimmer missions. No sitting at a High Res taking a couple pew pew shots with my sidey making gobs of cash while the cops did all the work. That’s not realistic. Making money should be HARD, especially in the beginning. That’s how I remember the original Elite game.
We don’t need more in the game. We need LESS. FDev should add a harder difficulty mode (or a more realistic mode) for those who want to play the game the way it was meant to be played.
But the beauty is we don’t have to wait for FDev to do anything!
Here are the revised rules:
OPEN only
NO engineers
NO get rich quick schemes
MISSIONS
COMBAT
Ships can only be unlocked at certain ranks as follows:
COMBAT
Mostly Harmless: Eagle/Adder
Novice: Viper/Imperial Eagle
Competent: Viper Mark IV/Cobra
Expert: Vulture/Keelback/Imp Courier/Chieftain/Federal Dropship
Master: FDL/Python/FAS/FGS/Clipper
Dangerous: Anaconda/Corvette/Cutter
TRADE
Peddler: Hauler
Dealer: Adder
Merchant: Cobra
Broker: Type 6/Keelback/Dolphin
Entrepreneur: Type 7/Python/Orca
Tycoon: Anaconda/Type 9/Type10/Beluga/Corvette/Cutter
EXPLORATION
Mostly Aimless: Hauler
Scout: DB Scout
Surveyor: DBX
Trailblazer: Asp Scout
Pathfinder: AspX
Ranger
Pioneer: Anaconda
NO MORE than 2 ships at a time. A ship can only be used for bounty hunting if unlocked in the combat rank (e.g. can’t use a Cobra for BH until you’re Competent even if you unlocked it via trade as Merchant).
All of these rules are designed to limit credits as much as possible and to keep you in smaller ships until you’ve earned the rank for better ones. You have to earn your stripes.
Trade, piracy, smuggling, mining, scavenging finally become viable options since they all become relatively good ways to make money. People would look for great trade routes (both traders and pirates).
Due to the interdiction difficulty, you’d have to equip trading vessels to help you fight or escape. Most NPC interdictions only ask for a little bit of cargo so you could still avoid a confrontation. Again, going for realism.
I convinced another commander to reset his account and follow these rules. We did a winged pirate mission last night in two ADDERS and he had so much fun, he bought a bunch of pirate paint jobs for it! I was the heavy who fought the target ship and used hatch breaker limpets while he scooped everything up with collector limpets before the cargo expired and we split the cargo afterwards. Made 300K on one run from low temperature diamonds! It felt like I’ve never played this game before.
Again, you could start playing this way today.
It would be best if FDev created an additional mode. All of this would require very little effort on their part since they would just modify existing elements in the game. There’s nothing to add! It’s all there!
It could regenerate huge interest in the game for those who’ve been playing for a while without adding anything to it. And people can continue to play in open, solo or private groups like they do now. Plus, FDev could make more $$$ since you’d have to play as a new commander if you didn’t want to reset your commander. Maybe they could offer this at a reduced rate ($20?) and throw in a bunch of ED veteran-only paint jobs for free.
You could have different player groups that actually mean something. And it would encourage more wings ups. You’ve got a T9 and found a great trade route but you need protection. Or you unlock exploration and really do need the Iridium Wing. The game would be played the way it was meant to be played.
TL;DR - Strip away all the extra stuff that’s been added to the game and get back to the core elements. Significantly nerf payouts to encourage trade, piracy, smuggling, mining and salvaging.
Thargoids have been meh. Beyond has been meh. It was time to either quit or go home.
So I went home. I reset my commander.
I decided to play ED the way it was meant to be played by creating self-imposed rules with the main objective to NERF credits as much as possible.
No lucrative PAX missions right out of the gate. No stacking skimmer missions. No sitting at a High Res taking a couple pew pew shots with my sidey making gobs of cash while the cops did all the work. That’s not realistic. Making money should be HARD, especially in the beginning. That’s how I remember the original Elite game.
We don’t need more in the game. We need LESS. FDev should add a harder difficulty mode (or a more realistic mode) for those who want to play the game the way it was meant to be played.
But the beauty is we don’t have to wait for FDev to do anything!
Here are the revised rules:
OPEN only
NO engineers
NO get rich quick schemes
MISSIONS
- NO missions unless you’re ALLIED with a faction.
- Once you’re ALLIED with a faction, you can only do those missions IF the recommended rank is UNLOCKED (expert, trader, scout, etc.)
- You can do salvage missions to locate salvageable items to sell at a market, or assassination missions to get a bounty or pirate massacre missions to get bounties as long as the recommended rank is unlocked. But NO cashing in the missions (unless you’re allied with the faction). This will make scavenger a viable career and will also make ranking up combat a little easier.
- Can only do PAX missions with PAX ships (Dolphin, Orca or Beluga). Recommended rank must be unlocked.
COMBAT
- Bounty hunting can only be through FSD interdictions, Haz Res, CNB or USS’s (no help from cops).
- Wing ups are encouraged but every effort should be made to wing up with similar ships.
- Must submit to all NPC interdictions!!! You have to deal with pirates (or cops) so outfit your trade ships properly (speed, chaff, decent shields, etc). Can still try to evade player interdictions.
- Report crimes against me must be OFF.
- Fixed weapons only.
- Cannot use a KWS.
Ships can only be unlocked at certain ranks as follows:
COMBAT
Mostly Harmless: Eagle/Adder
Novice: Viper/Imperial Eagle
Competent: Viper Mark IV/Cobra
Expert: Vulture/Keelback/Imp Courier/Chieftain/Federal Dropship
Master: FDL/Python/FAS/FGS/Clipper
Dangerous: Anaconda/Corvette/Cutter
TRADE
Peddler: Hauler
Dealer: Adder
Merchant: Cobra
Broker: Type 6/Keelback/Dolphin
Entrepreneur: Type 7/Python/Orca
Tycoon: Anaconda/Type 9/Type10/Beluga/Corvette/Cutter
EXPLORATION
Mostly Aimless: Hauler
Scout: DB Scout
Surveyor: DBX
Trailblazer: Asp Scout
Pathfinder: AspX
Ranger
Pioneer: Anaconda
NO MORE than 2 ships at a time. A ship can only be used for bounty hunting if unlocked in the combat rank (e.g. can’t use a Cobra for BH until you’re Competent even if you unlocked it via trade as Merchant).
All of these rules are designed to limit credits as much as possible and to keep you in smaller ships until you’ve earned the rank for better ones. You have to earn your stripes.
Trade, piracy, smuggling, mining, scavenging finally become viable options since they all become relatively good ways to make money. People would look for great trade routes (both traders and pirates).
Due to the interdiction difficulty, you’d have to equip trading vessels to help you fight or escape. Most NPC interdictions only ask for a little bit of cargo so you could still avoid a confrontation. Again, going for realism.
I convinced another commander to reset his account and follow these rules. We did a winged pirate mission last night in two ADDERS and he had so much fun, he bought a bunch of pirate paint jobs for it! I was the heavy who fought the target ship and used hatch breaker limpets while he scooped everything up with collector limpets before the cargo expired and we split the cargo afterwards. Made 300K on one run from low temperature diamonds! It felt like I’ve never played this game before.
Again, you could start playing this way today.
It would be best if FDev created an additional mode. All of this would require very little effort on their part since they would just modify existing elements in the game. There’s nothing to add! It’s all there!
It could regenerate huge interest in the game for those who’ve been playing for a while without adding anything to it. And people can continue to play in open, solo or private groups like they do now. Plus, FDev could make more $$$ since you’d have to play as a new commander if you didn’t want to reset your commander. Maybe they could offer this at a reduced rate ($20?) and throw in a bunch of ED veteran-only paint jobs for free.
You could have different player groups that actually mean something. And it would encourage more wings ups. You’ve got a T9 and found a great trade route but you need protection. Or you unlock exploration and really do need the Iridium Wing. The game would be played the way it was meant to be played.
TL;DR - Strip away all the extra stuff that’s been added to the game and get back to the core elements. Significantly nerf payouts to encourage trade, piracy, smuggling, mining and salvaging.
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