That sounds like a terrific idea.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/363878-Some-thoughts-about-quot-The-Grind
Love it. Immediate rep sir.
Confession of a shameless Mode Switcher...
- Thread starter DukeIronHand
- Start date
Love it. Immediate rep sir.
True enough.
FDev seem to have a knack for leaving themselves with issues that aren't as easy to fix as they might first appear.
I'm no computer expert but I would have thought it'd be possible to copy the contents of the mission board into some kind of temporary file when a player exits the game and then, when they restart the game, it checks to see if the game-clock has "ticked" and then, if it hasn't, it updates the mission board from the temporary file (or, at least, use it as a basis for creating an updated one) instead of getting an entirely new one from the servers.
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Firstly, no, 'everyone' has not done it, I'm sure lots have but certainly not all.
Secondly, and the thing that confuses me quite a bit, is why in the name of all that is holy do some of those using exploits quite happily seem so ashamed to have it pointed out? Why can't these folks 'own it'?, I mean they are happy enough doing it but heaven forbid anyone should point it out, it's bizarre.
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It is my opinion.
Surely I cant, by no feasible means, assert that everyone has used mode hoping.
However, I do not trust in the integrity of anyone for that matter. Less so in a game. Therefore, within my own opinion the generalization is valid.
Anyway, what I am trying to say is that, as long the developer does not treat the practice as an offense then there is nothing to talk ill about it.
What the heck, I admit I mode switch a bit. If I have an hour to play and want to run missions of some kind, I'll mode switch a few times to get something interesting if nothing shows up. I didn't buy ED to sit on my butt for 10 minutes staring at the screen waiting for the refresh tick. I just think of it as being at the station, and flipping through the missions "computer" refresh option to see what the different factions are offering up. Seeing as my home station has millions of inhabitants, having only a dozen missions at a time seems ridiculous anyway. Seeing as this entire game is a work of fiction, might as well add a bit of my own......
I've never mode switched, I'd rather just watch TV or read a book while the board refreshes and missions stack up. But I don't think it's a big deal, I mean it's not like exploiting a duplication bug or something.
But I think that focusing on mode switching is missing the bigger problem: why do people feel the need to work around the mission system this way? Because the mission system is a royal pain. It's one thing to require pilots to run a whole bunch of missions in order to gain rank, it's supposed to be a time sink and that's fine. But why gate the missions themselves? It shouldn't be so hard to just get the missions in the first place, it's bad enough that the missions are boring and repetitive. But this seems to be ED's answer to preventing pilots from farming rank quickly, and it's not a great solution.
I'll have to start off with saying what I really hope a lot of others has already questioned about your focus on gaming. Why on Earth would you obsess with owning a Cutter if you're a one-hour-per-day gamer? Play the game instead and you'll have infinitely more fun. A Cutter is just a larger and slightly different version of a Clipper, which is just a larger and slightly different version of other ships.
To address your completely off maths on how impossible it is to rank up without cheating, I've just started a brand new commander this week, it's not hard to gain ranks playing the game without filthy cheats... You get at least one +++ rep and a handful ++ rep missions on an average station you visit. You get on average a couple of donation missions on random stations you visit. You can rank up pretty darned fast playing the game as intended, if you just take your time figuring it out. I have 32 hours on my new commander and I'm already ranked up to Knight, 15% towards the next rank, with around 27 millions in assets. My total earnings is maybe 40-50 millions, I've spent 10-20 millions on donations of various kinds to get where I am. It will not take me months or years to reach a Cutter. I'll hopefully have one before the end of the month, if I keep playing at the pace I'm play now.
I agree the learning curve in this game is monstrous compared to virtually any other game out there, which I can agree isn't always a good thing, as it can easily lead to players searching for cheats instead of finding the right solutions. I myself have to google things almost on a daily basis, even though I've got thousands of active game hours on my primary account. I also agree that the top naval ranks were a bad solution to the huge amount of exploits the game had in season one. They have however adjusted the spawn rate of good missions over the years to counter that.
With my primary commander I reached triple Elite, King rank and Rear Admiral rank before the end of season one. I've made something like 2-3 billion credits with that commander over the last three months alone, by living an "ordinary commander's life", as a Colonia citizen. Not even focusing on making credits.
In my opinion, the basics in the game works just fine, there has been several flaws over the years watering down the value of playing the game as intended. Some of these flaws has resulted in Frontier making income way too high and the core Elite ranks virtually meaningless, except for maybe the combat rank.
What they could improve to reduce the widespread use of cheats in the game is by making much better in-game tutorials for the life as a commander (voluntary, of course). Rely less on out-of-game community contacts and more on paying attention to the game.
You might have noticed I call board flipping a cheat, and I personally think anyone pretending it's not a cheat is just in denial. It's not how any game is intended to be played, by logging off and on all day long just to force quick promotions. That said, I do think Frontier has reduced the value of board flipping to make it as much a punishment for cheaters as it is a perk. You're not making as much as you think you are, you're just missing out on playing an incredibly fun game.
To address your completely off maths on how impossible it is to rank up without cheating, I've just started a brand new commander this week, it's not hard to gain ranks playing the game without filthy cheats... You get at least one +++ rep and a handful ++ rep missions on an average station you visit. You get on average a couple of donation missions on random stations you visit. You can rank up pretty darned fast playing the game as intended, if you just take your time figuring it out. I have 32 hours on my new commander and I'm already ranked up to Knight, 15% towards the next rank, with around 27 millions in assets. My total earnings is maybe 40-50 millions, I've spent 10-20 millions on donations of various kinds to get where I am. It will not take me months or years to reach a Cutter. I'll hopefully have one before the end of the month, if I keep playing at the pace I'm play now.
I agree the learning curve in this game is monstrous compared to virtually any other game out there, which I can agree isn't always a good thing, as it can easily lead to players searching for cheats instead of finding the right solutions. I myself have to google things almost on a daily basis, even though I've got thousands of active game hours on my primary account. I also agree that the top naval ranks were a bad solution to the huge amount of exploits the game had in season one. They have however adjusted the spawn rate of good missions over the years to counter that.
With my primary commander I reached triple Elite, King rank and Rear Admiral rank before the end of season one. I've made something like 2-3 billion credits with that commander over the last three months alone, by living an "ordinary commander's life", as a Colonia citizen. Not even focusing on making credits.
In my opinion, the basics in the game works just fine, there has been several flaws over the years watering down the value of playing the game as intended. Some of these flaws has resulted in Frontier making income way too high and the core Elite ranks virtually meaningless, except for maybe the combat rank.
What they could improve to reduce the widespread use of cheats in the game is by making much better in-game tutorials for the life as a commander (voluntary, of course). Rely less on out-of-game community contacts and more on paying attention to the game.
You might have noticed I call board flipping a cheat, and I personally think anyone pretending it's not a cheat is just in denial. It's not how any game is intended to be played, by logging off and on all day long just to force quick promotions. That said, I do think Frontier has reduced the value of board flipping to make it as much a punishment for cheaters as it is a perk. You're not making as much as you think you are, you're just missing out on playing an incredibly fun game.
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Because that is how most games work. There is an end-goal, and you strive towards it.
I am afraid you are misunderstand the declining rate of rank increasement. After 32h=knight means you'll need hundreds upon hundreds of hours to get close to the highter ranks.
It factually is not a cheat, as not you but FD gets to decide what is a cheat. You just dont like it, which is perfectly fine.
Exactly, an end game. D o you also demand to get easy access to end game rewards and screens in every other game you play? "I don't have time to play Skyrim, give me all the stuff!"? Of course not. The Cutter is a long play reward for obsessed gamers, like me. If I had gotten the Cutter playing the game for one day, this game had been deleted from my install folder years ago.
The naval ranks does not incrementally double like Elite ranks. I think you're the misinformed one here. Yes, the last two ranks are mind-boggling long, but, guess what. There's no rewards taking them, so don't take them. (Pro tip)
I can also add the fact that, in about 32 hours game time, I'll be flying around in a much larger ship than I am in now. Most likely a Python, which will allow me to take on even more +++ and ++ reputation missions from every single station I visit.
The reason Frontier isn't calling it a cheat is the obvious reason. It's hard to patch away with the way peer-based instance generation works. If it's not a cheat, why have they neutered so many of the logoffsky cheats over the years? Why can't I stock up on infinite amounts of rares, or fill a cutter with low cargo-high profit long range smuggling missions? Why am I only allowed to take 4 CZ missions? Odd number for a faction to limit me to? Why can I only take a maximum of 20 missions? That limit is also pretty new.
Deny it as much as you want. Cheats are cheats. Some we just have to live with as game mechanics can't fix them.
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This
I got my ships the hard way, but I don't care if someone else uses exploits. It's just a bit of fun
And rep for the username
Not being able to comprehend that FDev has already repeatedly stated on these forums that mode switching isn't an exploit, does not make you clever when you attempt to say the opposite.
You are not clever.
Nor are you correct.
Fdev has put this to bed long ago. Unintended game play, but not an exploit was their official stance.
Anyone still trying to argue the opposite are just being TROLLS. That's it! Because you personally don't agree with Fdevs position does not make you right. You are troll. Plain and simple.
I guess I just don't understand why people are so against this?
How is someone else stacking missions affecting the way that YOU play the game or your enjoyment of the game?
How is someone else stacking missions affecting the way that YOU play the game or your enjoyment of the game?
The Cutter is a tasty, shinny thing. Everyone wants tasty, shiny things.
You are appealing to human nature with rewards. The thing is how you manage the access to it.
Sadly it is the developer´s job to plan the way you obtain the shinnies, and currently the rank walls are dull to deal with.
Everyone is different, and everyone reacts different to dull things. Some will try to avoid the dull stuff, some will compromise and some will accept it wholly.
I am between the avoid and compromise. And since Frontier has not deem this as offense and I do not get in the way of anyone else, then mode hoping becomes a feature.
Game development needs to have these differences in mind, and Frontier though their way would work, but it didn't. They are trying to fix it and that´s cool.
Most of the topic isn't about bashing people for using the mode flip, but the apparent nessessity of the mode flip for anyone who wants to rank up to one or both of the two locked ships in this lifetime.
the simple way to solve this issue is to remove the 20 mission limit (or set it to 100)
and generate missions that fit the CMDR's play type (roles and such) and the board should be refreshed WHENEVER you refresh it...
and generate missions that fit the CMDR's play type (roles and such) and the board should be refreshed WHENEVER you refresh it...
Oh okay. I guess I misunderstood the tone of some of the post. It sounded like some people were trying to shame others for doing it.
Just one example:
Player A does stuff normally, just plays the game. They like it (or not), give feedback to their friends (word of mouth), the game gets bought by the kind of people that are likely to enjoy it, profit.
Player B treats the game like a cookie clicker, rapidly achieves whatever amount of cash/possessions they were aiming for then complains there is nothing else to do & the game is shallow. Loudly proclaims that with 500hrs in the game they think it's rubbish, negativity pervades.
Just an example.
Do or do not, just don't complain imo.
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I get what you are saying, but I am coming from the viewpoint of so long as the person is NOT doing that and is just simply doing it to make money or gain ranks how is that a bad thing for other players?
Like a guy just says "Yeah I stack missions so I can get ranks and money"
Then someone tries to say that guy is a bad person for doing it. Thats what I thought was happening, but I guess I misunderstood the thread. Thats my bad.