How would I update something that didn't exist?? <- Sorry, had to be done.
Not to be devils advocate or anything but "ability to utilise the knowledge".... Put yourself in the shoes of say a player 3 days into Elite Dangerous who is looking for a 2nd ship. I'd pick this thread over any fancy search tool any day of the week. I mean Inara has so many features you could probably spend 3 weeks learning them all, for a new player who may not even carry on playing is some investment to start learning. As you say time is indeed a factor..
Yes it's a complex, detailed tool which is great for anyone that wants that and as you say knows how to use it or has the time to learn.
Considering we are both in the Fuel Rats I'd expect you to agree that most new players are still trying to stop their heads spinning from learning the game to start worrying about external tools and stuff. Most I've seen rely on google entirely which is where this thread drops in nicely. I wouldn't even know where to start on Inara if I were a new player to the game, even after some 3000 hours in-game I still don't know how that thing gets updated and tbh don't have the time or inclination to learn how to do it. iirc you need an account to see most things too, something most new players wouldn't be comfortable with. I mean how soon after starting the game did you even get a forum account. I know for me it was at least a month.
I also have a personal gripe about things being too easy. There's a level at which I say "Elite doesn't tell you enough so you need out of game advice". Then there's another level where it no longer even tells you how/why things are and that's what Inara has got to.
To take an example: Nowhere on Inara's "find discounted modules/ships" does it state that the 15% discount is from powerplay. Cue the new players that find a nice home system with cheap stuff then suddenly the powerplay scene changes and they get all confused and annoyed that their cheap stuff isn't there anymore.
Again bit of personal taste there but I don't think Inara is always the best option, in fact I'd argue (as I did above) that Inara has gotten too complex.
Anyway, this is going to get into a very long discussion where neither of us changes our mind (what can I say, I'm stubborn) and we go on until everyone else gets bored so this'll be my last post on the subject for now. It will take more than 1 person who has never commented on this thread before to stop me spending 2 minutes every other week to update this <- It really isn't a big issue for me and probably takes tons less time than you imagine. I have to give credit to all those that keep posting and allowing me to essentially update the dates or add/remove discounts that do/don't work.
