Everyone's becoming a Pirate or Miner - Fdev something for the Lawful Combat Pilot?

[Deleted member 163043]

With the introduction of Squadrons, we now have a clan/guild system where many Squadrons have some form of ethos that their community follows. Some Squadrons are Exploration based, some Xeno Hunters, some Traders, some Miners, some are Pirates, and some are Lawful combat pilots (protectors), and some are all of the above.

There are now some good ways to make money in the game... Passenger missions can still be lucrative for those pilots who like to be Commercial Pilots. And with the recent changes to Mining, there is now a great way to earn money from Mining. This offers Miner players a great way to earn and enjoy the game the way they want to; and players who only want to have a specific career as a Miner, can do so.
With the changes to Mining, NPC Miners are now carrying Low Temperature Diamonds... meaning that Piracy also now has a good way of being profitable for the player who wants to be a Pirate, and only a Pirate.

While its a great thing that Piracy now has a good way of being profitable, this has recently caused a dilemna for Squadrons who are centered around an ethos of being protectors and Lawful combat pilots. Squadrons with this ethos are finding many of their lawful combat pilots are off to become Pirates. What could possibly cause so many lawful pilots to abandon integrity to become pirates? The answer... the recent YouTube goldrush videos on NPC Piracy by DtEA and Yamiks.

The issue is, while many players may like to play a career specific role of being a combat pilot, there is not much money in it. You can of course go bounty hunting, do assanination missions, or side with a faction and undertake combat in combat zones, but it's a lot of hard work, has a death/rebuy risk factor, and doesn't pay anywhere as near as well Piracy, Mining, or Commercial Piloting (Passenger missions). So for many combat pilots, the lure of easy money in Piracy, is just too good to turn away from.

The dilemna this causes for Lawful ethos Squadrons, is do they now change their Ethos to accept that their combat pilots will also be Pirates, or do they stick to their ethos while the Pirate bug catches on, and pilots leave for Squadrons more suited to piracy?

Seeing this kind of thing occur, makes me wonder if Fdev could make another change to make Lawful combat piloting, more lucrative for those pilots that want a combat specific career?

For example, I may be wrong, but I think a while back, the Kill Warrant Scanner had a nerf? (it was while I was away from game). Could there be a buff to the Kill Warrant Scanner?

Another change could be on the back of this change to Mining... With NPC's carrying low temperature diamonds, and being pirated, wouldn't it then make sense that Pirates, would also then carry these lucrative diamonds? In which case, lawful(ish) combat pilots, could take out the Pirates, claim a bounty, and salvage said diamonds... making lawful combat pilot careers more lucrative, and in line or close to, other careers?

Perhaps many Elite enthusiasts may agree or disagree with this notion... Either way I would be interested in hearing a discussion on this.

 

[Factabulous]

Combat scenarios around the megaships / installations. AX CZ at incursions. But they aren't goldrushes (some would say the AX CZ are more goldsinks ) They do need more combat options.

 

[Auronio]

The question I would ask - are you playing for grind (credits, ships, mats, data...) or fun???

With regards to credits - even without going for any of the current exploit or high reward scenarios I do easily 100m, week by week by week. Net!
After having spent at least 50m each weak pampering some factions in BGS.

If combat is your case you can with the combination of accepting higher rank delivery/souce&return missions plus pirate lord assassination missions easily do tens of millions every week.

I would consider this an easy enough and more than sufficiently rewarded process.
Of course, should you be looking for making 1bn per week - which is possible - you probably need to leave your comfort zone.

o7

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

My, rather controversial, suggestion for PvP would be;
1) Open Only Lock. If your notoriety passes a certain threshold, your next transition (jump, supercruise, relog etc) forces you in to open mode, and disables PG and Solo. (Yes, you can still mess with ports and whatnot, but nothing is perfect).
Block list is also temporarily disabled.

2) ANY passive scan, in both supercruise or normal space, from NPCs or players, flags CMDRs with certain notoriety, up on the galaxy map. This icon can be toggled on and off.
Ideally, a new tab in the map will list CMDRs and their bounties, and how old the scan is.
(Might be worth having a fairly discrete "passive scan detection" meter, so CMDRs can attempt to avoid it)

3) Any full scan from security, or a KWS, will apply a wing type beacon to that CMDR for a limited time, which is visible from supercruise, to anyone.

4) Sort PvP bounty claiming so it's worthwhile, but not a quick way to exploit bounties.

5) Fun?

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Well, it should be the case that illegal activities pay better than legal ones - at least in some circumstances - or no-one would become a criminal and "lawful combat" groups like you will have nothing to shoot at in the first place.

Whether they pay more in the long-term when the costs of being a wanted criminal are factored in should be much harder to determine, of course. But in the short-term piracy absolutely should be really profitable.

If you're only doing "lawful" combat because/if it's optimally profitable, then you're not actually "lawful" - you're a group of amoral mercenaries who happen to have found a socially acceptable outlet for your violent urges. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course - but having principles which you stick to will inevitably reduce your profit margins.

 

[Dash]

Pretty sure Elite used to be, you traded and what not to fund shooty shooty. I enjoy a bit of money making, but that funds my ship for combat.

 

[Aashenfox]

Well, it should be the case that illegal activities pay better than legal ones - at least in some circumstances - or no-one would become a criminal and "lawful combat" groups like you will have nothing to shoot at in the first place.

Whether they pay more in the long-term when the costs of being a wanted criminal are factored in should be much harder to determine, of course. But in the short-term piracy absolutely should be really profitable.

If you're only doing "lawful" combat because/if it's optimally profitable, then you're not actually "lawful" - you're a group of amoral mercenaries who happen to have found a socially acceptable outlet for your violent urges. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course - but having principles which you stick to will inevitably reduce your profit margins.

Winning without compromising your values is winning twice.

 

[Cmdr Esteban]

Winning without compromising your values is winning twice.

+1. You're a credit to that Federation uniform, commander.

 

[stereoBear]

For example, I may be wrong, but I think a while back, the Kill Warrant Scanner had a nerf? (it was while I was away from game). Could there be a buff to the Kill Warrant Scanner?

Well that turned out to be a slight buff for the KWS in the end, and bounty hunting is in a good spot right now. Not on the same insane level as mining is, but if you know what you're doing, and especially when you're doing it in in a wing, you can easily get 1+ millions per kill. Admittedly you need a bit more luck than with mining to get the proper missions (wing missions help), and you need a good system to work out of with only one target system with a HazRES, and possibly a powerplay bonus.

 

[The Replicated Man]

FDEV I would like to see a PvP bounty system that pays more than the crappy 2.0 mill you have now. Also give us a crime reporting network and tracking system of sorts so we can track down the bad guys! It would make player vs player bounty hunting more fun, and rewarding.

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

kill the pirates?

selling crack is quite profitable i imagine but somehow i chose a different career path not solely based around £/hr

interestingly - Police officer (bounty hunter)

"The starting salary for police constables in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is between £19,971 and £23,124"

considering you get spat at, daily abuse and deal with delightful individuals all day long with the chance of being stabbed, armed with nothing more than a can of pepper spay and British sarcasm.

HGV driver delivering goods from one place to the next - (Trader)

"The average salary for HGV Drivers jobs is £31,787"

the biggest risk is a heart attack from all the sitting down and bacon sarnies



point is the most noble of professions usually isnt the best paid

 

[Dommarraa]

BGS has been turned into a Combat Zone generator. Plenty to kill.

 

[Havvk]

Winning without compromising your values is winning twice.

We need more CMDRs like you.

 

[MajorHavoc]

Just to even things up a bit I would not mind some higher value surface salvage, platinum and escape pods got an increase but how about some illegal/legal surface diamond mining operations ? Would spice up surface roving and if you prefer flying scooping is still an option.

 

[Auronio]

...

If you're only doing "lawful" combat because/if it's optimally profitable, then you're not actually "lawful" - you're a group of amoral mercenaries who happen to have found a socially acceptable outlet for your violent urges. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course - but having principles which you stick to will inevitably reduce your profit margins.

Let's face it.
The whole Pilots Federation is nothing but an organization of moneygrubbing and bloodthirsty mass murderers, mercenaries, villains and assassins.

Whether we are palliating our dark doings with some local pseudo-legalized jurisdiction or just plain kill other ships - in the end damnation will be the eternal wage for everybody.
(Not that this qualifier would differentiate ED by any means from any other game entailing shooting/killing.)


I like it.

 

[Julio Montega]

Pirate hunter?

 

[Deleted member 163043]

The question I would ask - are you playing for grind (credits, ships, mats, data...) or fun???

With regards to credits - even without going for any of the current exploit or high reward scenarios I do easily 100m, week by week by week. Net!
After having spent at least 50m each weak pampering some factions in BGS.

If combat is your case you can with the combination of accepting higher rank delivery/souce&return missions plus pirate lord assassination missions easily do tens of millions every week.

I would consider this an easy enough and more than sufficiently rewarded process.
Of course, should you be looking for making 1bn per week - which is possible - you probably need to leave your comfort zone.

o7

I think you may have misunderstood the questions... I'm not asking about myself... But questions regarding:
A. The situation with Squadrons attempting to be lawful, but having many cmdr's break the ethos in order to rush off to be a pirate, only because they want the money to buy other ships etc.
B. Whether you think that Lawful Combat could have a buff in terms of a way to generate money in a lawful combat specific career.

I think many cmdr's play for fun... and may start out with an ethos... but if a money barb goldrush comes along, that throws a spanner in the works and it becomes about earning $$$ as the other ways have all been nerfed so hard

My, rather controversial, suggestion for PvP would be;
1) Open Only Lock. If your notoriety passes a certain threshold, your next transition (jump, supercruise, relog etc) forces you in to open mode, and disables PG and Solo. (Yes, you can still mess with ports and whatnot, but nothing is perfect).
Block list is also temporarily disabled.

2) ANY passive scan, in both supercruise or normal space, from NPCs or players, flags CMDRs with certain notoriety, up on the galaxy map. This icon can be toggled on and off.
Ideally, a new tab in the map will list CMDRs and their bounties, and how old the scan is.
(Might be worth having a fairly discrete "passive scan detection" meter, so CMDRs can attempt to avoid it)

3) Any full scan from security, or a KWS, will apply a wing type beacon to that CMDR for a limited time, which is visible from supercruise, to anyone.

4) Sort PvP bounty claiming so it's worthwhile, but not a quick way to exploit bounties.

5) Fun?

The discussion was regarding PvE not PvP, as in NPC's

Well, it should be the case that illegal activities pay better than legal ones - at least in some circumstances - or no-one would become a criminal and "lawful combat" groups like you will have nothing to shoot at in the first place.

Whether they pay more in the long-term when the costs of being a wanted criminal are factored in should be much harder to determine, of course. But in the short-term piracy absolutely should be really profitable.

If you're only doing "lawful" combat because/if it's optimally profitable, then you're not actually "lawful" - you're a group of amoral mercenaries who happen to have found a socially acceptable outlet for your violent urges. Not that there's anything wrong with that, of course - but having principles which you stick to will inevitably reduce your profit margins.

Actually, that's a good point. I guess illegal activities would earn you more $$$ than lawful... but then the dilemna is, that as this isn't real life, but a game, even the ones who originally wanted to play lawfully, give up and then play Piracy, simply because they want to buy bigger better ships and more of them. Thre is no real consequence either psychologically, or physically for playing as a criminal.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I’ve made billions engaging in lawful operations without “grinding”, without board flipping, without “gold rushing”.

I just do what I feel like doing. Sometimes this is wading into a criminal hotspot and cracking heads. Sometimes it’s shuttling the rich and entitled around the galaxy. Sometimes it’s simple freight hauling, or the more challenging Rare Goods hauling.

Thing is, it’s really not hard to find good paying missions, in-demand cargo, or ways to make credits, lots of them, just by paying attention.

And I’ve tried my hand at Piracy too - I actually get a fair bit of entertainment robbing NPC pirates.

 

[Deleted member 163043]

Let's face it.
The whole Pilots Federation is nothing but an organization of moneygrubbing and bloodthirsty mass murderers, mercenaries, villains and assassins

That's true I guess lol

 

[Marra Morgan]

Let's face it.
The whole Pilots Federation is nothing but an organization of moneygrubbing and bloodthirsty mass murderers, mercenaries, villains and assassins.

Whether we are palliating our dark doings with some local pseudo-legalized jurisdiction or just plain kill other ships - in the end damnation will be the eternal wage for everybody.
(Not that this qualifier would differentiate ED by any means from any other game entailing shooting/killing.)


I like it.

Great post and right on the money!