How trade CGs are measured

CMDR Sophie Joanne

C
Doing one of the last trade based CGs I noticed contribution is based on the volume of cargo you deliver. I feel this is unfair on people flying smaller ships - currently who has the biggest ship gets the biggest reward.

I'm not completely sure how this would fully work, so bear with me and use a bit of imagination...
The number of journeys should also count in some way - someone flying a Hauler can only carry a fraction of the cargo of someone flying a Cutter, so would have to invest alot more time (and danger, if you count possible interdiction time) to reach the same level of deliveries. I feel there needs to be some way to balance this out a bit - not so far that someone in a sidewinder with a cargo capacity of 4 can be in the top 10 (that would be unfair for the player who spent hours grinding to get the Cutter) but someone in a Cobra or Asp should be able to break into the top 25% without having to spend 12 hours a day hauling Cargo across the bubble!
I guess I'm thinking of contributions based on a mixture of Cargo Delivered, Number of deliveries made and Time invested in the CG (I'm not sure how time could be measured without any exploits though). Maybe something based off how full your cargo bay is? If you can carry 50T and do carry 50T (100% full), that would get you more 'points' than if you can carry 500T but only carry 100T (20% full).

What are people's thoughts on this? Would you see something like this as a good thing, or are you under the impression those with the biggest ships should always finish top?
 

aRJay

aRJay
I can fly the largest cargo ships in the game but rarely get above the top 25% these days purely because I don't put in a fraction of the effort of the top 2 groups most of whom would get even further ahead if the number of trips was counted.

I understand what you are saying but that sort of balance would make the CG feel too much like a game than something happening in the 'real world' of the Elite galaxy. So I am afraid mean as it sounds I am against this.
 

goemon

goemon
in my world community goals are much more about the community working towards something together (first community goal build the station unity 6 years ago!), than competion between commanders to balance out.

and in case of a trade community goal, that goal is a certain tonnage delivered, no matter which ships or how many runs commanders use to deliver them.
 

CMDR Sophie Joanne

C
goemon said:
in my world community goals are much more about the community working towards something together (first community goal build the station unity 6 years ago!), than competion between commanders to balance out.

and in case of a trade community goal, that goal is a certain tonnage delivered, no matter which ships or how many runs commanders use to deliver them.
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I completely see your point, I'm just thinking of all the CMDRs that miss out on the extra rewards every time (Double-engineered modules) because they choose to fly a smaller ship, although I do recognise that Fdev are planning on making these modules available for everyone. Maybe there should be a 'minimum level reached' (for each CMDR) to unlock the module, instead of excluding 1/4 of those that took part from recieving it? - Such as anyone who delivers more than 2000T and the CG is successful gets the module.
For the record I'm not whinging about being one of the people missing out - the first CG i really put any effort into (not even that much effort really) was the Marlinist food deliveries and I got my Module reward from it.
 

Atlictoatl

Atlictoatl
As a new player, I've used the trade-focused CGs to fund my purchase of first a T7 and then a T9. The T7 was completely paid for by the proceeds of the CG; the T9 was about 1/3 paid for (because I didn't sink a lot of time into the CG).

While I can understand why someone would choose to fly a smaller ship in the course of general play, I guess I'm not understanding why someone would choose to do so for a CG. The in-game fiction is that an outpost needs every scrap of supply they can get in a finite period of time. In that scenario, I can't imagine why someone would be rewarded for flying 320t in 10 trips when they could have flown 7200t in the same 10 trips.

For a CMDR who doesn't want to own a T7 after the CG, they could purchase and equip it, fly a bunch of cargo, make profits from the cargo, make profits from the CG participation reward, earn the special reward, and then sell back the modules and frame of the T7 for significantly greater profit for their hours played than someone who insisted on using a Cobra Mk. III through the whole thing.

CMDRs who want to navigate the universe flying only a Cobra should enjoy their gameplay (and good on them for doing so), but I don't think it makes sense either with in-game fiction or out-of-game mechanics for them to receive a handicap that allows them to benefit beyond their specific contribution to the CG.

Can you say more abut why someone would choose to only fly a smaller ship for these CGs?

I appreciate you putting the idea forward. It's neat that you're thinking outside the box and sharing it with others. Please keep doing that!
 
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Atlictoatl

Atlictoatl
Sorry, I edited in a query, but it looks like it was after you read my post, so resubmitting: Can you say more abut why someone would choose to only fly a smaller ship for these CGs?
 

CMDR Serra

CMDR Serra
CMDR Shorty said:
I completely see your point, I'm just thinking of all the CMDRs that miss out on the extra rewards every time (Double-engineered modules) because they choose to fly a smaller ship, although I do recognise that Fdev are planning on making these modules available for everyone. Maybe there should be a 'minimum level reached' (for each CMDR) to unlock the module, instead of excluding 1/4 of those that took part from recieving it? - Such as anyone who delivers more than 2000T and the CG is successful gets the module.
For the record I'm not whinging about being one of the people missing out - the first CG i really put any effort into (not even that much effort really) was the Marlinist food deliveries and I got my Module reward from it.
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I flew a Keelback (out of choice) for the latest mining CG. I still made top 75% pretty easily.
 

CMDR Sophie Joanne

C
Atlictoatl said:
Sorry, I edited in a query, but it looks like it was after you read my post, so resubmitting: Can you say more abut why someone would choose to only fly a smaller ship for these CGs?
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The only real reasons I can immediately think of right now are preference and RPing. I never really thought of the why's tbh!
 

goemon

goemon
imagine a rares trade community goal, with source or target an outpost. all those commanders left out who decided not to fly anything but one of the huge ones!
 

goemon

goemon
(generally, as i make top 75% usually in one or two runs in a huge ship at a trade cg, that would mean 10-20 runs in a small dolphin, so roughly 2-3 hours)
 

goemon

goemon
yeah, we left out the traditional xmas rare cg from frost dock - that's an oupost, so locks out large ships.
 

Northpin

Northpin
Atlictoatl said:
As a new player, I've used the trade-focused CGs to fund my purchase of first a T7 and then a T9. The T7 was completely paid for by the proceeds of the CG; the T9 was about 1/3 paid for (because I didn't sink a lot of time into the CG).
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I was about to post something long those lines too...

Absolutely no point to fly small ships in trade CG that asks for trading in volume.
T6 is really cheap and can do about 100t, but still it's really low
T7 should be the smallest ship to take part in a trade CG, but it should cost close to 30 millions - which with the current inflation, does not mean much
 

CMDR Serra

CMDR Serra
aRJay said:
There are some that would moan about a fetch rares from Hutton CG, but that type of CG is still doable in a large pad ship you just need a little help from your friends to do a little teabagging.
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The FC salt would be strong with that one.

Basically, the quickest commanders to get carrier spots near Hutton would do well. Everyone else is stuck either running 90 minutes per load or supporting a teabagger.
 

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
CMDR Shorty said:
Maybe there should be a 'minimum level reached' (for each CMDR) to unlock the module, instead of excluding 1/4 of those that took part from recieving it? - Such as anyone who delivers more than 2000T and the CG is successful gets the module.
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For the recent trade CGs, the top 75% band has started between ~400t and ~1300t and usually ~600t, depending on the CG, so anyone delivering 2000t would be comfortably into the Module Zone anyway (and getting towards though usually not into the top 50% band).
 
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