200% Exploration bonus can last 2 weeks

[Klab]

As the title says, it is possible. Let me explain.
Assuming the PP cycle 'ticks' on Friday evening about 8pm (that's the time 1.3 started last Friday) then the moment the server comes back online head to Lembava & pledge to Li Yong-Rui. Spend 100m Cr and buy 10,000 powerplay goods & deliver them to a nearby system that needs them. This will take several hours (use a T9 or Annie). Once this is done you will have accumulated 10,000 merits which is enough for rank 5. Top rank 5 pays you 50m Cr back (half your investment). At this point you will still be considered as Rank 1, even though you do have 10,000 merits. Now go explore! When next Friday comes around at approx 8pm, the cycle will 'tick' & you will now be rank 5 with 5000 merits (you lose 50% of your merits due to decay). Your rank 5 will last until the following 8pm Friday cycle - You MUST return & sell your data by then. This system allows you to explore for a total of just under 14 days and take advantage of the 200% bonus. Maybe not long enough for some of the long-range lunatics out there, but I'm hopeful it will make reaching Elite explorer a little easier. I am currently testing this exact method right now & will report back at the weekend to inform you all if it does indeed work! Thanks for reading & fly safe Commanders

 

[Neokortex]

Theoretically yes, but the praxis at this servers looks different...

Exploring is atm almost impossible and as I wrote before, one of hundred FSD crashes kicked me 20k LY back to start in a second (after 2 weeks). Thats why most of the explorers doesn’t play atm

Plus (as if this would not be enough already): Selling explore data is almost impossible, too. After every page you sold, you need to relog the game since map server is unavailable.

So, happy eventing I would say...

 

[Raiko]

As the title says, it is possible. Let me explain.
Assuming the PP cycle 'ticks' on Friday evening about 8pm (that's the time 1.3 started last Friday) then the moment the server comes back online head to Lembava & pledge to Li Yong-Rui. Spend 100m Cr and buy 10,000 powerplay goods & deliver them to a nearby system that needs them. This will take several hours (use a T9 or Annie). Once this is done you will have accumulated 10,000 merits which is enough for rank 5. Top rank 5 pays you 50m Cr back (half your investment). At this point you will still be considered as Rank 1, even though you do have 10,000 merits. Now go explore! When next Friday comes around at approx 8pm, the cycle will 'tick' & you will now be rank 5 with 5000 merits (you lose 50% of your merits due to decay). Your rank 5 will last until the following 8pm Friday cycle - You MUST return & sell your data by then. This system allows you to explore for a total of just under 14 days and take advantage of the 200% bonus. Maybe not long enough for some of the long-range lunatics out there, but I'm hopeful it will make reaching Elite explorer a little easier. I am currently testing this exact method right now & will report back at the weekend to inform you all if it does indeed work! Thanks for reading & fly safe Commanders

I'm actually hoping that the 200% CR bonus actually has zero effect of the "XP value" of the data that you sell - ie 1 Neutron Star = 1 Neutron Star.

 

[Ziljan]

EDIT: nvm, just did the math, and if you have 100M in the bank already + a T9 + an explorer ship, then this is self sustaining income + whatever you get from exploring. It still costs you a 50,000,000 fee, which you can earn back through the exploration bonus. Might take a while to recover your fee depending on how many hours you have to explore.

 

[Dommarraa]

Good luck to you, but it looks like a lot of grind to me.

You will find me fighting with Ziggy for rights to the Grumpy Corner dagnabbit!

 

[dannywhac]

If you spend that much time earning 100M CR so you can spend it to earn 50M Cr and 200% exploration bonus, then how are coming out ahead? Sorry, but if you want explorer rank, you're better off doing exploring. Getting to rank 5 is full time job's worth of effort any way you slice it. You earn rank because you want it, not for any illusory efficiency.

You can grind 100mill trading in nack-all time. Earning (rightfully) say the 160mill (or there-abouts) needed in exploration monies (if scanned has no bearing on rank and only money does to rank up) to rank up will take you (even NS farming) waaaaaaay longer to achieve. You'd only have to grind through 80mill's worth of NS's rather than 160mill (if you were that way inclined).

So yeah, using the 200% bonus = easy street (or easier street) to Elite Explorer rank, as you're putting in half the effort + a few extra hours trading for the 100mill initial outlay.

 

[Klab]

If you spend that much time earning 100M CR so you can spend it to earn 50M Cr and 200% exploration bonus, then how are coming out ahead? Sorry, but if you want explorer rank, you're better off doing exploring. Getting to rank 5 is full time job's worth of effort any way you slice it. You earn rank because you want it, not for any illusory efficiency.

I don't know if I will come out ahead. I am currently ranked Ranger in exploring (part timer yes!), have cash to burn & so thought I would experiment to see if this works. I have spent the 100m & am 1000LY out atm, so I am committed to it now

 

[Ziljan]

I edited my post above. I don't know how easy it us to grind out an extra 100M on top of the ~100M required to fly a T9 plus 20-40M for an Asp (~240M total). I play in open and only have 80M to my name after 2 months. Maybe I'm doing it wrong?

 

[Raiko]

Hi Klab, sorry my initial post was quite dismissive, I was just about to leave work for home.

Your post is indeed very helpful to anyone who is trying to grind to Treble Elite status.

Unfortunately your post also illustrates how little Power Play has to offer to most explorers, we were told that one of the initial powers would be 'exploration based' but that hasn't happened.

Instead the only power that has any exploration element to it offers an exploration bonus to players who either work for ages to reach the top rank through trading or are already in the top couple of trader ranks and have the massive finances necessary to blitz rank 5.

And even then the bonus won't last long enough to do any real exploring, so it's only useful for Neutron Farmers.

When I eventually have the finances to afford a Trade Conda I'll be diverting the next few hundred million into a massive FSD and a massive fuel scoop and:

1) Going after CMDR Alot's Sag A* record.
2) Exploring those places that I cannot ever reach in my Asp.

Powerplay I'll be leaving for others. At least for the time being. I'll still get to Elite explorer a lot faster than I will Elite combat. And I'll never make it to Elite Trader ever.

 

[Klab]

Hi Klab, sorry my initial post was quite dismissive, I was just about to leave work for home.

Your post is indeed very helpful to anyone who is trying to grind to Treble Elite status.

Unfortunately your post also illustrates how little Power Play has to offer to most explorers, we were told that one of the initial powers would be 'exploration based' but that hasn't happened.

Instead the only power that has any exploration element to it offers an exploration bonus to players who either work for ages to reach the top rank through trading or are already in the top couple of trader ranks and have the massive finances necessary to blitz rank 5.

And even then the bonus won't last long enough to do any real exploring, so it's only useful for Neutron Farmers.

When I eventually have the finances to afford a Trade Conda I'll be diverting the next few hundred million into a massive FSD and a massive fuel scoop and:

1) Going after CMDR Alot's Sag A* record.
2) Exploring those places that I cannot ever reach in my Asp.

Powerplay I'll be leaving for others. At least for the time being. I'll still get to Elite explorer a lot faster than I will Elite combat. And I'll never make it to Elite Trader ever.

I hear ya
I am at Tycoon in trading (hence the spare 100m), but to reach Elite is another billion credits lol? Combat rating is master, but CZ's & RES appear to be broken right now, so that leaves exploring as perhaps my first achievable Elite rank. As I said earlier, I am at Ranger (30m Cr or so), and figure I need another 130m? to reach my goal. I do enjoy exploring as it does have its 'Zen moments', so when I read about the 200% thingy, it got me thinking hard about going for it. It's a goal at least, & I see from your post that you too have set yourself some goals which is afterall what makes this game interesting
Fly safe Commander

 

[Allitnil]

2 weeks is of little interest to me as it would only be a short jaunt that fit into that window. Of more potential use is returning home & then buying my way to rank 5. Depends on how much risk is involved I suppose. And whether it gets patched (should do IMO, seems massively overpowered). I think the risk would be reasonably low in an Anaconda if you are in solo and if there's no need to enter other powers' territory. The very few times I've been interdicted in my shieldless & no-boost Anaconda I've only taken about 2% damage before being able to jump out. Is there any real chance of being killed during the 22 or whatever number of runs is required?

But doesn't this all just feel wrong? Doing this wouldn't really be supporting the power at all. You're doing them some good I guess, but you're just being mercenary purely for the credit benefit. Feels too much like a gameplay mechanic exploit to me which is why I think it should be changed.

 

[Dommarraa]

If it only takes a couple of hours to get 10kpp, you could just explore as long as you like, then rank up when you get back before selling the data

 

[Klab]

I hadn't thought of that lol !
As far as grinding out the 10k merits, even in Solo you will need teeth on your trader. I got inderdicted multiple times in my trading Annie, always submitted & killed them (NPC's) using 4 pulse lasers & A4 shields with some boosters. No challenge really, even when they came in a wing. You can complete 10k in deliveries without going into hostile space I should add. Also I would imagine though, that if you are carrying around a few weeks of exploration data during these runs, it would make the heart go a bit faster
As far as feeling like an exploit, my opinion is a simple one. A faction is offering 200% bonus for which I pay 100mCR to gain that faction bonus. I'm not going to then feel guilty about using it!

Edit: Bear in mind, even after having amassed 10k in merits, you will not immediatley be rank 5, that only happens after the cycle 'tick'. Currently estimated to happen Fridays 8pm UK time.

 

[Dommarraa]

I wouldn't consider it an exploit unless it gets you to Elite in half the time (which I suspect it does!). You really should not be able to buy Elite status under any circumstances.

 

[Allitnil]

If the game allows it and it doesn't negatively impact on anyone else then there's no reason to think badly about doing something. But it still feels like an exploit to me because I can't (or at least don't want to) think it is working as intended. Getting an exploration bonus in an exploration oriented power should be based on exploration, not bank balance and hauling goods from one system to another.

Ultimately, anything that overtly rewards credit balance just encourages those who are prepared to buy & sell credits. Devs should be designing that sort of feature out of their games, not making it more attractive.

 

[Dommarraa]

The 'game allows it so it's ok' justification is not valid. Devs encourage us to report such things and they sort them asap. I am only not reporting this as an exploit yet as I don't actually know if you do get double credit or not.

 

[Klab]

Update: So I rushed home to Lembava to see the results of my short exploration trip. Firstly, I only got paid 1000 Cr not the 50m Cr I was expecting, presumably you get paid for last weeks rating not the current rating you have. So next week I expect (hope) to see my 50m Cr wages! Secondly & far more disappointing, there seems to be absolutely no 'extra' credits for selling system data in Li Yong-Rui systems, even though I am pledged to him & it clearly says I am rank 5. Maybe this doesn't count until next week also? Who knows, as there is no information I can find about it anywhere. Anyway, just to let you know, this idea seems a total bust lol