Latest CG, the clearest example of P2W in ED to date?

You can still fly the T-9 and Cutter, they are still good haulers, and people argue that the Cutter is still the better overall ship.

Seriously, answer my question. How do you think the community reaction would have been if any of the new ships wasn't better, but just as mediocre as all the other ones. This is exactly the issue that's been discussed ad nauseum when people asked "new ships when?". New ships need to stand out, or they are just a rehash of the old ones.
I can still choose the Cutter, because its faster, can be used as combat ship even. Type-9 is worse than PC in every aspect so it makes no practical sense to use it when you can use PC.
I don't know how community would have reacted. That's not what I'm talking about. I'm saying that instead of giving you another option, they've practically replaced T-9. It's not a matter of balance - like we have new ship that has huge cargo capacity, but is maybe much slower and less agile. No, it's just better in every aspect. It costs more, but credits are now irrelevant (especially when you can buy it for real cash).
Similar case with T-7. It was always a ship that you used for a little while (if ever), before you could afford T-9 or something. But at least it has decent jump range in comparison and still made for pretty cool explorer if nothing else.
I hope they will release some new cargo modules that will make T-9 at least slightly more viable in the future.
 
I think that you need to be at this level to help keep in the 75% band.
Virtually no chance. We'll see if FDev extend the CG to make sure it lasts the 4 weeks, or are happy for it to finish early, but after the 1st weekend then the lower tiers are more or less settled.

Shooting for Top 50% (or the Top End of the 75%) isn't a bad guideline if you are playing on the 1st Friday of the CG when you aren't sure where the numbers are going to land.
In the following week, unless there's some really unusual competition those numbers aren't going to double or triple, in a regular CG they might go up by 30-50% at most.

I'd bet that the 75% number doesn't rise above 3714T (3 max Panther loads), but unless it is extended to last the full 4 weeks I doubt it will even go to 3000T.
 
This has been argued about before. My view: People want new ships, and new ships need to be "better" than the old ones to be accepted. If you want the devs to keep throwing new stuff at the players, you have to accept that some old content gets left behind. Imagine they had released a Panther Clipper that's just as good as a T-9 - you know very well how the community had moaned and bicked about that, calling the ship lackluster and the devs lazy.

In a sense, it's "progress". You wouldn't complain how it's a shame that the old Model T has been replaced by much better cars, would you?
i do 100% agree with you however the old ships are still very good.. Most people though do not deliberately want to hamstring themselves by using a substandard ship (that said i do sometimes just for fun) . The solution and i have moaned about this before is we need some specific missions which come with a predefined ship and loadout that we have to keep in 1 piece to succeed the mission.

That way if we want to go old school and fly an unengineered less than ideal spec old ship for a change we can do, but at the same time still be contributing to our comanders progression. I could see this as the perfect time to flesh out the 2 military careers, it could be those which come with the specific hardware and with mission templates which are a little different from those on the vanilla mission board. maybe to keep our rank we have to do the odd mission on occasion (only given out when in the vicinity of the bubble.... but give us a very relaxed time frame to get them done so as not to inconvenience people.

This isnt without president in either literature, games or the real world where people have a 2nd life and sometimes they are called on to do something clandestine.

indeed this may not be the worst shout for the special feature coming this winter. it would not need huge amounts of new assets so i suspect not too expensive to develop
 
But that's impossible. You're not winning without a PC2. Or something. I don't know. Also nice work.
see its dishonest plonkery like this which makes these threads get salty. regardless of whether you believe having a 60% increase in hauling ability in a hauling competition in a ship you can only get by buying with ARX is P2W or not.................... no one ever suggested even if something is P2W it has to be impossible to achieve something.... its just that if you pay money/arx it gives you an advantage over someone who chooses to only use ingame earned gear.

i think the clipper is a (mild) example of P2W.... i dont have one but am comfortably above the 75% threshold for now.

i would be interested to see where the top 10 commanders at the end of this CG are in terms of ships......... i would say the vast majority, if not all with have clippers.

i could have started the game in a decked out cobra mkIII (bear in mind this was back when credits meant something - i was well over 100hrs in before i got a cobra in game...... I chose not too use mine as i felt it was a bit too P2W for my liking.... that said tho that was before there was any competition in the game regarding CGs..... thought there was still the BGS i guess.
 
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see its dishonest plonkery like this which makes these threads get salty. regardless of whether you believe having a 60% increase in hauling ability in a hauling competition in a ship you can only get by buying with ARX is P2W or not.................... no one ever suggested even if something is P2W it has to be impossible to achieve something.... its just that if you pay money/arx it gives you an advantage over someone who chooses to only use ingame earned gear.

This thread is predicated on the concept that the PC2 is pay to win, and the OP has gone on to double down on that over the course of twenty-something pages. Even when presented with alternate scenarios or people actually chiming in on what they're using.

The reality does not align with blanket statements. As always, there is nuance. Is there an aspect of pay-to-win? I think there is some degree, yes. Is it as catastrophic as is made out to be, no, the reality that we're not all mindless robots doing the identical thing, ensures that.

At some point, people have to be responsible for their own decisions. That might be to not accept Arx ships as a concept and to opt out. That's fine, but that choice does not extend to expecting everyone else to make that same decision, and arguing they are simply wrong if they don't.
 
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i would be interested to see where the top 10 commanders at the end of this CG are in terms of ships......... i would say the vast majority, if not all with have clippers.
I'd go for all - if you look at the quantity currently they have delivered, and we have a new ship, it is highly likely.
But then, if we didn't have a new ship, the same players would have did hundreds of Cutter / T-9 trips to secure their place, in all probability.
 
I agree that it doesn't look good. But at least at some point Panther will become available to all commanders for credits.
What I really have a problem with is the fact that Panther Clipper actually made Type-9 completely obsolete. Instead of adding options to choose from and ship variety, they practically limit them. Now everyone will be flying PCs.
What the T-9 has going for it is being substantially cheaper. It's a stepping stone now, not an endgame ship.
The community is competing for a reward (1 extra cargo rack each) that's not obtainable any other way and if you pay some money, you basically get a ~1.4 multiplier in the competition.

Yes, it's clearly a form of P2W. No, it's not a big deal imho. It's just part of the monetization of modern games especially if you add the acronyms GAAS and MMO into the mix. If you play a game that much, it's only fair to throw a buck in the developers' direction every now and then.

But I do find it kinda funny how much like a cult the forum sometimes reacts and the mental gymnastics involved. P2W is seen as "bad" and Frontier would never do anything "bad", therefore this isn't P2W.
I don't much care about P2W one way or the other tbh, I just object to the term here because I don't think anyone is winning anything or even gaining an advantage in any way that matters.
If Premium ammo needed Arx instead of materials to synthesise the same people would use the same arguments to tell you it's not P2W.
That's not the same thing though. That would be a clear advantage because PvP. If it somehow only let you clear CZs faster, then it would be comparable and also not particularly important.
 
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i would be interested to see where the top 10 commanders at the end of this CG are in terms of ships......... i would say the vast majority, if not all with have clippers.

Likewise. I am sure PC2 features strongly, but not necessarily in totality. If there is one thing I do know for certain, it's that commanders will use just about anything, for just about anything. There's always one! xD
 
If one cares about ED and its future then how do you suggest we pay FDev so they can pay the developers and the cost of running the servers? This isn't a charity service. Maybe charge a monthly fee to play Elite? Most wouldn't like that.

I have an idea. They could bring out small paid-for expansion packs that includes a ship... oh wait.
I will pay FDEV the same way I have for the past 11 years: By buying cosmetics. But I will never ever buy a pre ARXess ship. And I really want the Panther. It has irked me for years that the best hauler in the game was the Cutter, a multirole ship. Jack of all trades ships should not be the best in any role. The Python MK I sat in the same position for the medium pad for way too long. Now that the T8 and Panther are in the game, that is finally set straight. Once I get to buy my Panther with credits I'm surely going to give it a paintjob (preferably Void Black) and a shipkit (or two, since the modern shipkits are quite spartan and the best looks for any of the new ships are only achievable with two or more kits mixed). Recently I am considering to limit my spending to times with discounts only, since especially the cosmetics for the Panther are of a decidedly lower quality.
 
The (as of last night) top commander was in the instance, when I swung by to drop off a load, and indicated they were flying directly back and forth. Not using a carrier. Something I'd have not expected, and it was a reminder one shouldn't assume because sometimes the reality is more complicated.

There's a lesson there. It's very easy to assume a scenario, and believe it so strongly, that it becomes impossible to consider other factors, even if they might well be at play.

I’m not using a carrier here since everything I’m delivering is one jump away, it doesn’t make any sense to.
 
see its dishonest plonkery like this which makes these threads get salty. regardless of whether you believe having a 60% increase in hauling ability in a hauling competition in a ship you can only get by buying with ARX is P2W or not.................... no one ever suggested even if something is P2W it has to be impossible to achieve something.... its just that if you pay money/arx it gives you an advantage over someone who chooses to only use ingame earned gear.

i think the clipper is a (mild) example of P2W.... i dont have one but am comfortably above the 75% threshold for now.

i would be interested to see where the top 10 commanders at the end of this CG are in terms of ships......... i would say the vast majority, if not all with have clippers.
In 3 weeks time I will have accumulated enough free in-game ARX to get my own basic PC2. I don't need it to participate in the CG, but presumably it gives me an ongoing hauling advantage over players who have to wait a few weeks/months for the ship to be available for in game credits (assuming that you have enough to buy and outfit the ship). I won't pay real money for the 1000 ARX I need to get the PC2 now.
My feeling is that those players in the top 10 would be there whatever ship they are using, because you are competing against people who can haul efficiently, and spend more time than most doing it.
 
I’m not using a carrier here since everything I’m delivering is one jump away, it doesn’t make any sense to.

I did a few more runs this evening, didn't use a carrier either. Agreed, getting quick on the loops makes it easier in some ways. For those going for the top spots, it'll be whatever commodity is on the list that's a single jump away and being optimal about traversal I should think (this is just an assumption, I do realise).
 
I will pay FDEV the same way I have for the past 11 years: By buying cosmetics. But I will never ever buy a pre ARXess ship. And I really want the Panther. It has irked me for years that the best hauler in the game was the Cutter, a multirole ship. Jack of all trades ships should not be the best in any role. The Python MK I sat in the same position for the medium pad for way too long. Now that the T8 and Panther are in the game, that is finally set straight. Once I get to buy my Panther with credits I'm surely going to give it a paintjob (preferably Void Black) and a shipkit (or two, since the modern shipkits are quite spartan and the best looks for any of the new ships are only achievable with two or more kits mixed). Recently I am considering to limit my spending to times with discounts only, since especially the cosmetics for the Panther are of a decidedly lower quality.

It is cool to see a measured view like this. And yes, leveraging sales/ discounts is sensible call.
 
regardless of whether you believe having a 60% increase in hauling ability in a hauling competition in a ship you can only get by buying with ARX is P2W or not
It's NOT a competition! The people who end up below 75% are going to be the ones who just made a single contribution. Everyone who actually cares about getting the second set of racks will get them. You are not competing with anyone but yourself, and the ships others are flying are irrelevant.
 
If every contributor uses a PC2*, and they are all trying to "win", then 25% are not going to get two sets of racks.

* Then time is the main factor.
 
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I will pay FDEV the same way I have for the past 11 years: By buying cosmetics. But I will never ever buy a pre ARXess ship.
We are the same, but different...
I will not buy Arx specifically for cosmetics, just because I no longer think they represent value to me since the price hike. (although I have bought a PJ with the leftovers from the last 2 ship purchases)
I will buy Arx for a new ship if I think it will interest me (which if the next ship is a miner, won't), and now only, generally, on 1 account. I still probably spend the same amount as I did previously, so it balances out.
 
Unfortunately it works for FDEV. No other new ship in early ARXess has surpassed the bottom ranks on Inara so quickly.
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But this won't change my stance. Pre ARXess for me is a no go.
 
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