Anyone Remember The Weeks Before Launch Day?

[Alpha087]

When trading was all but nerfed and rares were constantly out of stock?

People who enjoyed trading didn't like this, so it was fixed. Not sure why FD starting to bring the other professions in line with this has people upset. Go back and watch the Dev Diaries, balanced professions were a promised feature since alpha.

 

[waimser]

Theres balance, and theres making everything the same.
"Balancing" the professions would leave a "balance" of players doing all the different things. What we have currently is waves of players rushing to do the latest thing that makes them lots of money.
Right now its only the traders who already have the biggest ships who can make money from trading equal to combat. Anyone below a T9 now who wants money just needs to head to a RES and tag ships as the NPC cops kill them and make 2-3 million/hour. Throw in the shiny OP new combat toy for basially no cost and that near doubles and its all newer players will be doing.

This kills off most of the player interaction in the game, save for those using forums and the like to meet up, as the game has just become group PvE concentrated to a bunch of very small areas. There will be a few low level traders still doing it because they dont know better but it wont be long till someone tells them or they read it somewhere and they will do the same. Also, most of the population who do want player interaction are roaming in vultures now looking for things to shoot. Hardly a friendly place for a lone trader to be.

If FD had just "balanced" combat, repairs, and pricing it would have been fine. But they have gone completely overboard and made combat the only viable thing to be doing for most people.

 

[Erik Marcaigh]

I remember Alpha where there were only a few destinations. You didn't need "Wings" back in those days. Just make sure you and your buddies all logged in to the same server!

 

[Yank31]

Nonsense waimser, stop complaining please!

Vulture is awesome, let's go pew pew. Rebuy cost is a bit high though, I hope it will get a sensible balance soon !!!! lol

 

[barcode]

Looks like Frontier are moving in the right direction. There is nothing less exciting to me than trading, and I love the fact that I can make about 500k in an average session before running out of ammo.

The way some people complain you'd think David Braben himself came round to each of your houses this morning and interrupted your breakfast to personally spit in your cornflakes.

 

[Goilveig]

Anyone below a T9 now who wants money just needs to head to a RES and tag ships as the NPC cops kill them and make 2-3 million/hour. Throw in the shiny OP new combat toy for basially no cost and that near doubles and its all newer players will be doing.

You might get lucky and get above 2 mil per hour in a Vulture, but not consistently. Sometimes you get lucky and you get several dropships / clippers / pythons / anacondas in a row, and sometimes you're on your fourteenth sidewinder or adder with nothing big in sight. Timing several runs tonight, I was ranging from 1.2 mil/hr to 2.1 mil/hr. That's quite a bit higher than before, where I was earning closer to 0.7-1 mil/hr.

That is on a ship whose cost is on par with a T7. You're telling me you can't outearn 2 mil per hour in a T7? Assuming Yokai knows trading (he sure knows it better than I do), a new trader should be seeking a route that earns 12,000 cr/ton/hr, which works out to about 2.6 million per hour for a shielded T7. You'd have to get very damn lucky at RES to break 2.6 mil per hour.

Honestly, trading still has a bit of an edge, but combat and trade profits (at least up until the T7 / Vulture level) are closer now than they have ever been in the history of this game. Trade pulls ahead after the T7, but low and mid level profits are actually very closely aligned now.

 

[waimser]

You might get lucky and get above 2 mil per hour in a Vulture, but not consistently. Sometimes you get lucky and you get several dropships / clippers / pythons / anacondas in a row, and sometimes you're on your fourteenth sidewinder or adder with nothing big in sight. Timing several runs tonight, I was ranging from 1.2 mil/hr to 2.1 mil/hr. That's quite a bit higher than before, where I was earning closer to 0.7-1 mil/hr.

That is on a ship whose cost is on par with a T7. You're telling me you can't outearn 2 mil per hour in a T7? Assuming Yokai knows trading (he sure knows it better than I do), a new trader should be seeking a route that earns 12,000 cr/ton/hr, which works out to about 2.6 million per hour for a shielded T7. You'd have to get very damn lucky at RES to break 2.6 mil per hour.

Honestly, trading still has a bit of an edge, but combat and trade profits (at least up until the T7 / Vulture level) are closer now than they have ever been in the history of this game. Trade pulls ahead after the T7, but low and mid level profits are actually very closely aligned now.

If you cant make that money/hr in a RES with a viper or vulture youre doing it wrong.

I stand by what I said about new players. Any new player to the game is very quickly going to discover they can make loads on money by just tagging pirates as the NPCs kill them. Very few are going to decide to switch to something like a T7 because someones math they did months ago suggests they can make an extra 200k/hr. They are going to keep pew pewing because it makes the same money, or near enough to, and is much more fun than anything else.

Yes there are going to be exceptions, people who enjoy trading. They may even do it because they think its going to be dangerous in a galaxy full of player pirates.
Firstly, this is not about those few people. Secondly, there is going to be no danger from pirates because most of them will have gone to farming NPCs by then because theres barely any traders left to pirate.

 

[Goilveig]

If you cant make that money/hr in a RES with a viper or vulture youre doing it wrong.

It all comes down to what the RNG gods decide to throw your way. Sometimes you get the coffee, and other times you get the dregs.

I stand by what I said about new players. Any new player to the game is very quickly going to discover they can make loads on money by just tagging pirates as the NPCs kill them.

That's very ineffective. With a few exceptions (like the Farragut), NPCs kill other NPCs very slowly. I've taken out a Python solo (with a Viper) in the same time than three police vipers took out a single sidewinder. When I would do anarchy rings farming, pirates would often attack each other, and I once let an NPC python and anaconda slug it out for about ten minutes while I cleaned up smaller spawns. It didn't help much, neither of them took more than 20% hull damage in that time.

They are going to keep pew pewing because it makes the same money, or near enough to, and is much more fun than anything else.

If it's much more fun to them, then it's a very good thing that people are swiching "careers". It's a game. It's supposed to be fun. Trading and combat make pretty comparable money now at those levels, so let the people who like trading trade, and those who like shooting shoot. Everyone's happy.