News Bonus Weekend: Trade & Engineering (24/05 to 30/05)

[Anglyy]

The main thing for me personally is any lack of tie-in to the lore and the in game story. Just the dry "here's your bonus weekend, go and play". I am not complaining at the event itself - it's GREAT that we can get increased payouts for trading and use lower grade mats for engineering.

Instead of the forum post and the email titled "Bonus Weekend", I would much more prefer to see an in-game message in my inbox saying something like "Hello Commander. Due to the increased presence of the Thargoids in human systems, the governments of Federation, Alliance and Empire issued a joint initiative and decided to double the payments for any trade transaction done in their systems. Additionally all the Engineers agreed to take 1-grade lower materials for the module upgrades and instead use their own stock of correct materials to install your upgrades. Hopefully these efforts will help the galactic community to prepare better for the alien threat that is growing in our systems. For humanity!"

I made this message here on the spot, I'm sure FDEV writers could come up with something better and more believable than my sorry story above.

This is the part I am disappointed at, not the event and the increased payments themselves - because like I've said, I'm all up for double profits and easier engineering. And yes, you can laugh all you want that "my immershun", but my immershun is why I play games. If Frontier just put a little bit more effort to it, everyone would be happy - both the players that Elite is "just a game" for and the ones that treat this as something more than "just a game".

Instead they went for the easiest and laziest possible option - here's a bonus, SLAP!, now go and play our game.

I just have feeling that Elite becomes more and more "just a game" for the developers that used to have a lot of passion for it. It's just sad for me to have the impression that the passion is burning out slowly in the FDEV offices. It may be just that - an impression, but it's there regardless

Especially after all the "narrative focus" that was supposed to happen.

I totally agree on everything you say, Cmdr.

 

[Alieri]

Maybe question was made but I'll ask it by myself...

What about us - EXPLORERS? People who are not in the bubble? Are we have been forgotten? passed off in this bonus weekend?

 

[rootsrat]

Bit like how you were telling the devs they feel? lol

And where exactly did I do that? Quote please.

 

[MightyBOB]

Oh boy! Better slap a new coat of paint on the Type 9. I got the trade itch last night but now I definitely will have to scratch it.

Maybe question was made but I'll ask it by myself...

What about us - EXPLORERS? People who are not in the bubble? Are we have been forgotten? passed off in this bonus weekend?

You are entitled to nothing and you will get nothing. Every explorer knows that out in the black they cannot participate in things that happen in populated space; it's part of the job description. That being said, I'd be completely in favor of an exploration bonus weekend in the future.

 

[Sysmon]

Yay! Time to make MissionConda into TradeConda.

S

 

[rrobes]

Pretty much all my ships are engineered and I'll be away from the 24th through the 27th, so happy trails to all that can participate.[smile]

I'll catch some Monday thru Wednesday with some luck.

 

[FrogsFriend]

Excellent news! Those markets won't know what's hit them

 

[PunyHuman]

I already have billions, and I already have engineered modules that I care to bother with. So this bonus weekend does not appeal.

If I could build mining outposts on airless worlds; that sounds interesting. FDEV are the Rollercoaster Tycoon folks, it seems like this wouldn't be a big leap.

 

[CMDR-CBA]

Cant be to read the whole thread , but i'm sure someone must have asked if there is an exploration bonus coming up ?

 

[John Guevara]

amazing news! THANK YOU Frontier!

 

[Ryan Murdoc]

Cant be to read the whole thread , but i'm sure someone must have asked if there is an exploration bonus coming up ?

You'd be correct assuming that

 

[Nagual]

Next big complaint will be the amount of bonus players get. Knowing Frontier I'd expect a few 'edge cases' where the profits are extreme. Cue forum rants about over priced bonuses, not enough bonuses, and just right amount bonuses.

 

[terrencerocks]

Learning Curve

​

Hello Commanders,

We’re pleased to announce that, starting from May 24 to May 30, we will be introducing an extended ‘Bonus Weekend’, which will bring temporary but lucrative bonuses to the galaxy!

The bonuses we will activate for this period are as follows:

• All profits from trading activities will be increased (the amount of profit will vary depending on what you are shipping and where you’re shipping it to. Rare commodities are excluded from this bonus.)
• The materials requested for engineering recipes will be at one rank below the existing ones (cheapening the current cost of engineering your modules.)

Whether you’re a penniless pauper or a wealthy space-tycoon, it’ll pay to haul this weekend, so dust off your freighters and get out there!

Oh, and if you need a little extra jump-range, the engineers have you covered!

Let us know what you think about the upcoming bonus weekend and if you have any questions, we’ll do our best to answer them!

I am struggling through the Learning curve, You need to Automate : Landing and alot of stuff so I am not spending 45 minutes learning how to land a ship.
I do not have the Luxury of spending 40 hours a week trying to figure the whole game out. I am slowly getting a Grasp, I currently do not have a Mentor and there is a large Learning curve to play this.
This game is not a GAME its a lifestyle for Retired and those living at Moms house, or Rich Enough to play games all day. Back in the Day even when I got the Next version of Wing Commander it would be at Xmas with Two weeks off and I would entirely play through the Game. Automation would go along way. It took me 2 weeks to get my Hotas 4 to work. Then lost the settings and try to work my way back. Started to learn Mining and my targeting would not work.

 

[Ozram]

So... thanks? Guess I’ll start grinding for the less grind weekend.

On a side note, do you remember when you removed cargo requirements for engineering? That was nice. I don’t want to grind just so zi can play. I want to experiment with ship designs but it’s sorta punishing to do that. Less grind more play! Make it permanent and make finding the mats a bit more fun while you’re at it. Recent changes have gone a long way towards that. Keep it up.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

I just have feeling that Elite becomes more and more "just a game" for the developers that used to have a lot of passion for it. It's just sad for me to have the impression that the passion is burning out slowly in the FDEV offices. It may be just that - an impression, but it's there regardless

Especially after all the "narrative focus" that was supposed to happen.

I agree with somewhat sloppy work on narrative focus here. I hope Will takes notes and not afraid of us grumpy seniors saying what we think

I do not think passion is lost at FD offices. But I do feel that ED is overburdened by Beyond. And no one said it will be easy thing. But FD really tries to do many things at once and it shows. In the past, during Horizons, this would be dressed up for lore without asking. Issue however is this that PR and marketing has become somewhat unconfused. I expected after Frontier Expo FD will continue to have this laser focus on things, but it feels very....uncertain.

I think biggest issue is that FD is currently at odds with part of community which does not want to engage on original premise of Elite. FD really do not know how to approach them.

 

[Wasp0]

Connections between players is handled by P2P. Handshaking and match making and BGS and mission boards are handled by ED servers.

Yep know that mate, but like i said when the servers can't handle the pressure everything is like walking in glue, jumping in, jumping out, hyperspace, interdiction's, Boards, Missions, then the big error message jumps in "Error connection lost". Then it don't matter a jot about P2P player connections, as you have no game play cause the little mouse on the server wheel is tired out!

 

[cleonymus]

If the idea is to get non-players playing again... how will they know? they probably do not read the forums (I am amazed I spotted this).

It should have been a Galnet news item as suggested earlier in the thread.

All in all - it won't stop my commander enjoying his normal w/e activities.

 

[Kekkonshiki]

I can't be bothered to read all 25 pages so can someone clarify if this is a weekend or a week please?

 

[Vasious]

Oh I hope with get a GalNet Article saying this is an Aegis initiative to encourage station repairs and ship tuning for the future.

 

[SaliVader]

Great idea! But you have to take into account that a lot of players don't read the forums or Reddit. Put it on Galnet, or at least on the launcher!