Credits now meaningless? Might as well remove? Discuss

[phong]

It's too late to do much about the inflation, but what FD *can* do is introduce credits sinks.

I'm using multicrew as a credit sink.A poor example,perhaps,since i have no fighter bay,but i'm interested to see where it goes.
For me credits are an enabler,like mats.Once i have a chair i'm comfortable in,there's just flight and the galaxy.Wouldn't like to see them taken away.

 

[Lightspeed]

Flimley points would make a good alternative for trading, instead of credits. Only awarded when a player says "Hooray!" to a passing commander.

It would also encourage polite play in Open \o/.

 

[znôrt]

Do you agree? Do you think FD might as well just remove credits, or just award everyone a bazillion credits as soon as they start a new CMDR?

i wouldn't object.
i also would remove engineers, or unlock all mods and effects available for cheap at any station.

the thing is that if after 5 years we're still in this boat, it is highly unlikely this game will ever have a good progression model, a working virtual world or a balanced combat model ever. it's not just the economy, everything is fake and arbitrary. so, actually ... why bother?

this isn't good or bad for the game, it's just what it is. you do not play elite for its economy, its pvp gameplay, its strategic twists or some character building. this is just about roaming around the galaxy, roleplay is optional but everything else is just attrezzo.

 

[Saxon Kili]

I know this is going to be controvertial, but i just don't see the point of credits any more. Players can go from sidewinder to anaconda in a week. Money is so easy to make, rebuys are a joke.

Do you agree? Do you think FD might as well just remove credits, or just award everyone a bazillion credits as soon as they start a new CMDR?

Is this good for the game or bad for it?

If ED was a game where there was something to spend these massive amounts of credits, for example, like X's empire building, then there might be a use for them all. If it was a single player game, well, i still think it would be far too easy to make credits, but hey single player.

Personally though, i'm not aware of any MMO which has "gold" raining from the sky like ED has with credits. I think in most MMOs it would be considered very bad for the game.

Most MMOs I've played didnt require spending of Gold except for incidentals. Armor and weapons dropped as loot from fights. Levelling up opened up new abilities that couldn't be purchased with cash. Levelling also opened up new areas of play [new scenery] (in some games). Questing opened up new areas to explore.

In ED, I really don't feel that motivated to achieve Elite rank in anything because there doesnt seem to be much reward associated with it. Credits is what allows me to open up new "content' in ED in the form of ships...though I end up doing the same old thing with the bigger better ship ... and the scenery is generally the same everywhere.

Once you get all the ships there's nothing new to do. I got the Anaconda. Big deal. Now back to the 'same' content with the Conda? The game is largely rinse and repeat in the next bigger ship. All MMOs are rinse and repeat but space games especially get monotonous because space is kind of samey. I did get pretty excited recently though as I landed in some station that had just been attacked or in a war or something. Thanks FD! The station even offered rewards for helping them get back on their feet. Surprise me, FD with more things like that.

 

[mossfoot]

I know this is going to be controvertial, but i just don't see the point of credits any more. Players can go from sidewinder to anaconda in a week. Money is so easy to make, rebuys are a joke.

Do you agree? Do you think FD might as well just remove credits, or just award everyone a bazillion credits as soon as they start a new CMDR?

Is this good for the game or bad for it?

If ED was a game where there was something to spend these massive amounts of credits, for example, like X's empire building, then there might be a use for them all. If it was a single player game, well, i still think it would be far too easy to make credits, but hey single player.

Personally though, i'm not aware of any MMO which has "gold" raining from the sky like ED has with credits. I think in most MMOs it would be considered very bad for the game.

Yeah, credits are a joke, but removing credits or giving them away is an even bigger joke.

Personally, I wanted the credit earning to be such that just getting your preferred ship into tip top condition was a challenge, and then maintaining it that way also took some forethought. People with fleets of dozens of A-rated maxed out ships? Crazy.

Anyone looking to be Malcom Reynolds or Han Solo gets past that phase in a week and are instead effectively bored spoiled rich kids looking for kicks

(I'm not saying that's how they roleplay it, but if you've got a billion credits in the bank and choose to fly around looking for people to shoot, you're not so much a mercenary as an overly rich guy wanting to hunt the most dangerous prey of all: Man)

So I've stopped looking at credits as any kind of metric for my game enjoyment. Sure, when I look for missions I look for the big payouts (or with the materials I currently need), but that's more for the roleplay than anything.

Trading or mining for me only make sense if I NEED the money. You know, a job. I tend to take missions for that reason - at least then I feel like I'm being approached by someone and I can mull over whether or not I'm going to do it (though having interaction in missions would be a HUGE plus in my opinion... haggle for a better price, long term consequences of dealing with or crossing the wrong people, etc...). At least it feels a bit more satisfying than just hauling freight for its own sake.

It's certainly the reason exploration appeals to me more now. Exploration is its own reward, and the data you bring back a bonus. And Distant Worlds is a great example of how that kind of long term gameplay can be rewarding.

But earning credits, and going through the motions of buying and upgrading a ship, even if it's ridiculously easy, is still an important part of the game, in my opinion. If only for the feel.

 

[Backelaer]

The enthusiasm with which void opal mining was embraced suggests that earning credits is still popular, even if there's no actual reason for earning them.

I think the only way to tell whether the 'economy' is working is by asking the 90% of players who don't use the forums and/or YouTube to discover the latest 'get rich quick' scheme. If those players are happily progressing from Sidewinder to (say) Kra2t in a way that gives them a sense of achievement/accomplishment then ED is in the right place. If they're getting to a 'Conda in 50 hours and then quitting because there's 'no end game' then things need rebalancing.

And I kind of have the feeling that just that might be the case. (The numbers state there's enough people playing, but I feel it could be even more, of credits were more sparse)

I started playing from launch and back then -insert the four yorkshiremen- 200k for a mission was a biowaste-ton of money. Since then an incredably huge amount of deflation has taken place.
Well as long as it's there up for grabs, I'm gonna grab it. But I gotta say that I got a feeling of unease about it, which has grown at the same pace as the deflation took place.

A gold rush every now and then is solid fun, but I agree with OP in that credits by now are pretty much meaningless.

Nobody starting the game now is forced to make the slow crawl from sidey to adder, hauler, cobra, t7 etc. Even for a less than fanatic player, a Python is within reach in a day or two.
I'm really glad I had to fly all those ships in between. For me, the first couple of days/weeks in a game are always the most exciting. I imagine they're a good deal less exciting now for players just starting out.

However, they can 't just roll the level of earnings back. It would p off a lot of people, and rightly so. That's what I think that ESPECIALLY with games undergoing continuous development, you gotta be REALLY careful with buffing earnings.

Luckily, there's loads of stuff to keep myself occupied with, so I'm still having fun, but yeah, I agree with OP.

 

[Eukanuba23]

I've been playing for 330 hours and my total assets are 270m. Could I have grinded more, have taken advantage of more mechanics? Sure.

In fact right now I'm on a long range passenger mission for a piffling 17m, and I found a ring with six Void Opal spots. I considered traveling 1500ly back to the bubble to refit, but I decided against it. I'll get a shedload of exploration data, find new and exciting things and I've got the option to come back to the bookmarked system another day.

Credits are very much meaningful, if you haven't been playing for four years and don't insist on min-maxing.

I'm a spaceman setting goals for myself, and I'm enjoying it. I can recommend it, it's great fun.

EDIT: I I have five ships: my sidewinder, a DBX, a T7 an AspX and the Krait2 that I'm currently in. Could I take l race for an Anaconda? Sure. But I don't want to right now.

 

[sicksuntzu]

Fleet carrier.. nuff said

 

[Goose4291]

When we get the source code to host our own servers, the Goose Server is going back to beta credit earning rates.

I miss the days where they meant something.

 

[Ian Skippy]

It's too late to do much about the inflation, but what FD *can* do is introduce credits sinks.

Or a new currency, which is a common way to go about it. ED used to be exciting, a game where you did your best and earned a way to make a meaningful choice between different options. But it eroded to the point where waking up was enough to get an amazing reward. Fast food culture: we get the games, music and films we deserve. And politicians, climate and lack of medical advances to go with it. But at least it is no grind, no effort, no investment, no challenge, nothing threatening, thought-provoking, interesting or upsetting.

It is comfortable. In a cage, on antibiotics.

 

[Goose4291]

It's too late to do much about the inflation, but what FD *can* do is introduce credits sinks.

Full reset.

Lets do it.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Full reset.

Lets do it.

I have everything there is to have. I am all for it.

 

[GunnerBill]

So basically I have to focus more time on high paying activities rather than just casually shoot things for the paltry amount it pays to for upkeep?

Screw that.

Yes. And with an attitude like that I’d add an extra 10% just for you, call it ‘Wheaton’s’ tax.

 

[Babellon]

When I first started some year ago or so on this game I was completely lost. credits were hard to come by and time consuming to acquire. Rebuys were astronomical and I did not like constantly worrying about losing ships in combat to the point of avoiding combat all together. Now after many hours learning the game, purchasing and outfitting ships and gaining some understanding of the game and types of activities i can do I've managed to get 200m credits saved. I would disagree with the idea that credits are meaningless now. This game is already slow, already a bit of a grind, already a struggle for the new person like myself who doesn't own hotas, voice attack, and such flies manually with mouse and keyboard and is still learning so many things that are daunting by their shear lack of information within the game.
I've spent as much or more time on websites learning, doing homework basicly, just to play this. making it more of a stress task does not in any way make this game more interesting, entertaining or attractive. Plenty of trade missions now finally give in my opinion a decent payout (incentive to take missions and fly repetitively around systems), I avoid passenger missions because 1: they pay low 2: they send you so far it takes actual days and weeks to fly out and back, I still do not do combat because while I do have 200 million credits that will go away quickly if I'm rebuying repetitively. which is likely because I'm still learning.
no, I don't think credits are meaningless now, especially not to new players.

 

[znôrt]

Arrgh, this guy again with his bitter pills of common sense and rationalism. At least I can sleep better tonight by not having to bother with such a futile and depressing thread, I guess. And now I even have to rep him. Darn, I hate when this happens! [mad]

that was not intended, must have been an error. sleep well, old grump!

 

[Misty_Dark]

One of my friends in this game grinds for credits all day, that's his thing. He has a simple goal, 40 bil. Next month he'll have a new goal, 50 bil. Dont take that away from him, plz. I like what Jenner said about adding credit sinks, as long as they're optional and dont drastically change the game. Off the top of my head: Base purchasing. Forget "building" a base, some of us billionaires would be happy with the option to buy an outpost, moonbase or planetary city, with services from basic to advanced. No building mini-game involved; just buy it and rename it.

1 billion: moon shack with a large landing pad / only you can dock here.
2 billion: outpost with large landing pad and outfitting services.
etc,etc
100 billion: Planetary City with 5 large landing pads, and all the base services / no one can dock without your permission.
etc,etc
200 billion: Coriolis station with everything.

now we are talking credit sinks here.

 

[Goose4291]

I'm all for it and prepared to be hung on the same gallows.

Yup, including Player Factions going back to being small fry in their home systems, engineering requirments back to the original high levels and refuel/repair/rearm costs brought back to normal. Debuff the FDL back to its glory days, and return the vulture back to its original price tag.

I suspect some folk are already measuring us up for a high noon hanging

 

[mossfoot]

Yup, including Player Factions going back to being small fry in their home systems, engineering requirments back to the original high levels and refuel/repair/rearm costs brought back to normal. Debuff the FDL back to its glory days, and return the vulture back to its original price tag.

I suspect some folk are already measuring us up for a high noon hanging

I'd be with there with you

'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to than I have ever known.'

 

[Dirtbird]

Right but in that example you're also comparing an adult to a literal child. Not exactly apples to apples

Sorry, that wasn't a comparison. It was more a side note. Explanation - my son picked up the game and found the road to riches by himself. Point I was trying to make - as a complete noob in Dec 2016, I expected that there would be plenty of content searchable on google that would show me how to find oodles of space bucks. I was not disappointed. However I did not use any of it, preferring to try to make believe that it was indeed a cut throat galaxy that was a challenge to progress in. So, I ranked slowly. The kid? Well, he plays roblox now because the credit meter in that goes up way faster than ED could ever dream to.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Just as a little add-on:

I have less than a billion in credits, a small fleet of ships (including the Anaconda I bought but have yet to use) and all of the engineering I need to play my way. I've essentially been out 'exploring' since before 3.3 went live, only dropping into Jameson last week to equip a T10 for mining and doing the required engineer visits to have a reasonable jump range/speed when I take it to Colonia

I'm currently in the Formadine Rift, will take a look around for some of the 'Lore' thereabouts before picking up the T10 and setting out.

I'll probably have over 100mill Cr in exploration data when I get back - it'll all help when I transport a couple of ships to Jaques

My second account 'new' commander is romping along with earnings from mainly data missions - at some point I'll be unlocking engineers there too, but with the benefit of having already done so it won't be quite as tough as the first time.