Veteran Miner and Bounty hunters opinion on bounty changes

[Quantis Trap]

Braben wanted all the careers to pay similar money so players who gravitate to the high paying professions (most of them) wouldn't all play one way.

Instead of the bounties going even higher than this, mining, missions and other things need to be balanced around this. In other words, mining still needs to go lower for instance.

 

[STARFIRE REVMEUP]

Instead of the bounties going even higher than this, mining, missions and other things need to be balanced around this. In other words, mining still needs to go lower.

Either way makes sense.... though you may reap the storm from that comment LOL

 

[Snoiperman]

With 14000 bounties turned in... and about 32000 minerals refined...

I still find that 650k credits seems low for taking on a dangerous anaconda

Time and risk spent. lasering out 1 ton of painte yields around 550k and you can do several in a rock and or often MANY MANY MANY....AND ITS NOT SHOOTING BACK... its hardly moving and you are not spending mats if using premium ammo.

650k v 550 is just not enough spread

Yes... we know that the mission system comes into play. it does for both really.. yes the mission are stronger for combat.

But on the one off... it feels weak regardless ... combat spontaneous should be more... 6x 8x. maybe even 10x... 4x just not enough IMHO

Painite sells for 200,000 per ton, and the price fluctuates constantly. It usually sells for a fraction of that price by the time you get to the station. Combat missions have done nothing but get better, so if you want to get more money, just go stack massacres.

 

[STARFIRE REVMEUP]

Painite sells for 200,000 per ton, and the price fluctuates constantly. It usually sells for a fraction of that price by the time you get to the station. Combat missions have done nothing but get better, so if you want to get more money, just go stack massacres.

easy 400k ton painte RIGHT NOW... just need to use the 3rd party tools to find it

that being said.. frontier will adjust all things as needed.

I can live with 4x already have lived with LESS... 14000 kills and only 775MILLION EVER MADE FROM IT.... 25 BILLION from mining.... but Massacre missions are unreliable metrics for setting a standard rate per hour.

when all the geeks run their numbers and start consistently cranking out per hour mining and per hour combat.

I will bet mining still comes out on top with current settings

 

[Pat Healy]

I'd gladly take less dough for careers that are more fun. I'll forever enjoy my mining riches, but earning them made my eyeballs bleed with boredom. I've spent easily 10x more time bounty hunting than mining - despite the low payouts - because combat is fun and mining is work. (for me. ymmv obviously)

That said, I've spent 10x the time for a tenth of the money, which is a ludicrous imbalance. So this change is VERY welcome, thanks Frontier. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

 

[Crank Larson]

This is straight from their balancing announcement thread

"""Our goal is to have rewards better match the level of skill, effort, and risk each method requires. This means we'll see increased credit rates in some activities and reductions in others. """

So, as I wrote then.

 

[STARFIRE REVMEUP]

I'd gladly take less dough for careers that are more fun. I'll forever enjoy my mining riches, but earning them made my eyeballs bleed with boredom. I've spent easily 10x more time bounty hunting than mining - despite the low payouts - because combat is fun and mining is work. (for me. ymmv obviously)

That said, I've spent 10x the time for a tenth of the money, which is a ludicrous imbalance. So this change is VERY welcome, thanks Frontier. Looking forward to seeing how it plays out.

I agree its been ludicrous 775million for my 14000 bounties as opposed to my 25billion for my 31000 tons of ore
I am odd... i enjoy the Mining as much as the combat

Mining has another edge... its so low energy you can do it for longer... boring yes... but combat takes focus and that focus for most people is rarely done for 10 hours at a time like some do with mining.

even the mining techniques allow you to stay in the field longer than combat, 400 drones and lasers as opposed to running out of ammo/shield cell banks and needing repairs etc

 

[Ralph Vargr]

For those of us whose playstyles do not revolve around combat, this reaction to a pay increase is hilarious.

 

[Jmanis]

Have they really buffed high rank NPCs?

Engineered NPCs still pay trash (i.e equal or less) to their vanilla counterparts :/

 

[STARFIRE REVMEUP]

For those of us whose playstyles do not revolve around combat, this reaction to a pay increase is hilarious.

I do all play styles... exploration... trucking... missions... nearly everything. Ive clocked incredible time just driving that SRV... no money made from it really

It might even be coming off like i care about the money... I DO NOT... i have more than i need

it purely about balance... and the risk reward against time spent seems merely logical to me.

But hey.... clearly i am in the minority here

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Engineered NPCs still pay trash (i.e equal or less) to their vanilla counterparts :/

Engineered NPC's just cost me a T9 (it was engineered too). And 724 tons of cargo.

If they buff the NPC's, I might just downsize to my Cobra 4...

 

[Ralph Vargr]

I do all play styles... exploration... trucking... missions... nearly everything. Ive clocked incredible time just driving that SRV... no money made from it really

It might even be coming off like i care about the money... I DO NOT... i have more than i need

it purely about balance... and the risk reward against time spent seems merely logical to me.

But hey.... clearly i am in the minority here

I'm a dog, in a roomful of cat-lovers on this forum...

 

[GoldenSilver484]

Engineered NPC's just cost me a T9 (it was engineered too). And 724 tons of cargo.

If they buff the NPC's, I might just downsize to my Cobra 4...

Why would you go into a Pirate activity POI with a cargo laden T-9?

 

[Commander Biscuit]

Always been a bounty hunter, and the changes are welcome, but 20-30m an hour is still nowhere close to mining. It should be this way, since combat is more fun than mining (for most people) so if mining and hunting paid comparably, the more fun activity is always going to win and the other gets neglected. Having said that, I think the payouts could be nudged up slightly, although I don't hunt in a wing, nor do missions so take that for what it's worth.

 

[VirtueXOI]

Yes they did... its about 4x

You can get about 1 million for a elite FDL

But the real question is... can you make MORE per HOUR than mining....

i doubt it. and i thought that was the goal

the goal was to balance . The goal is to make any activitiy profitable and logical toward credit.
They broke mining already , be happy , nobody will mine . Stick to combat , stack massacre mission , go with KWS and a wing , we will see how fast you earn credit + rep + mat.
If every activity giving exact same amount of credit , i really dont see the point. Who will mine or trade when you can farm moving rock (oups , bounty) for mat rep credit and adrenaline (well the 1st 2 min ).

balance is not dumb equality.

 

[Commander Biscuit]

They broke mining already

By broken do you mean the scanner or the payouts? Are people really complaining that almost every core they come across now has something valuable inside it?

 

[STARFIRE REVMEUP]

Always been a bounty hunter, and the changes are welcome, but 20-30m an hour is still nowhere close to mining. It should be this way, since combat is more fun than mining (for most people) so if mining and hunting paid comparably, the more fun activity is always going to win and the other gets neglected. Having said that, I think the payouts could be nudged up slightly, although I don't hunt in a wing, nor do missions so take that for what it's worth.

See... you get it.

Just a bit higher 6x would be acceptable

I mean common... the miners got 1.6 million a ton for HOW LONG? getting 1.8 mil for that RARE ELITE FDL or VET is not exactly unreasonable

most of the time the average ship is a dangerous.

Again i do not really care about the money... its the concept of balance and risk

 

[Commander Biscuit]

See... you get it.

Just a bit higher 6x would be acceptable

I mean common... the miners got 1.6 million a ton for HOW LONG? getting 1.8 mil for that RARE ELITE FDL or VET is not exactly unreasonable

most of the time the average ship is a dangerous.

Again i do not really care about the money... its the concept of balance and risk

Yeah, I feel like I'm working hard for a 1 mil bounty, and I can pull 15 of those off a core. It's still a little out of whack.

 

[Screemonster]

the goal was to balance . The goal is to make any activitiy profitable and logical toward credit.
They broke mining already , be happy , nobody will mine . Stick to combat , stack massacre mission , go with KWS and a wing , we will see how fast you earn credit + rep + mat.
If every activity giving exact same amount of credit , i really dont see the point. Who will mine or trade when you can farm moving rock (oups , bounty) for mat rep credit and adrenaline (well the 1st 2 min ).

balance is not dumb equality.

If the mining builds I've encountered in open are anything to go by, or even some of the allegedly-combat builds, I can absolutely believe that people will still mine even if the payouts are comparable to combat. Hell, once the PWA is fixed, I'll probably still hit the rings from time to time too. Sometimes I'm just not in the mood for an adrenaline rush and I fancy a nice slow cruise among the asteroids.

edit: okay, a 600m/s clipper isn't exactly a "slow cruise" but you get what I mean

 

[Stealthie]

I'd say the main issue is one of opportunity.

Even if I can earn Cr1m from exploding an outlaw, that's still a lot of faff (travelling around, accepting missions and then more travelling to locate an outlaw) for a million credits compared to jumping into an AspX and spending 30 minutes mining 64t of stuff that I can sell for ~Cr12m.

I'd suggest there should be more involved combat missions, which provide you with more engaging gameplay and result in larger rewards.
For example, a faction would offer you a mission such as "Pirates have been ravaging our system. Wipe them out and we'll pay you Cr100m".
That'd give the player an hour or two of gameplay, it'd provide a bunch of targets and, of course, the reward would be substantial enough to make it feel worthwhile.
Also, it'd create a bit more of a strategic element than massacre missions since a smart BHer would need to locate systems that had sufficient Orbital Installations, Stations and RES's to generate lots of pirates.


By way of analogy, it kind of reminds me of earning gold in Skyrim.
You can earn a lot of gold simply by dungeon-diving and looting urns and chests, picking up 10 gold here and there.
It mounts up, eventually, to a substantial sum.
Alternatively, you can take a quest, complete it and be paid 1000 gold all at once... and still collect the gold you find along the way.

Combat in ED is kind of like dungeon-diving in Skyrim.
If you do it enough you will earn a reasonable amount of credits but it means you're "scraping around", earning a few credits here and a few credits there.
ED needs more stuff with big payouts so you can feel like you're doing something cohesive in return for a significant reward.