Credits come to easy? Small ships redundant?

[lilikin]

Issue with little ships is the game pushes you to biggest ones with the mechanics, there is very rarely a reason to get a hauler over a T6 for example (apart from financial ones).
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If they made AI go after ships with more net worth in their hold of course this would make small ships with high value cargo more of an option over A T9 with a billion tons of Gold in.
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Combat is the same, small ships should work well against small ships and large with large then Anti fighter platforms and 'bombers' crossing the centre ground.
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An eagle should have a speed tank but the reality is it just doesn't.
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Elite Modules and Variants that are considerably more expensive would be a start

 

[sgurr]

I've been in since PB so had lots of experience in Sidey's and Eagles and really enjoyed flying them both.

However, I did a reset at game launch and I remember having to play for a good while to save up for a Cobra, a couple of weeks of playing most days certainly (although I'm not much into trading so it was all missions and bounties.)

2-3 weeks ago I reset again and it took me <3 hours of missions to get a Cobra. Part of me thinks is a real shame as newer players won't get to have the fun in the smaller ships that I had whilst learning to fly. It also means, as mentioned above, that there's no real place in the main game for the Sidey, Eagle etc. It would be nice if they had a more meaningful role.

 

[kafolarbear]

First let me kit out my Python, then feel free to lower the credit earning rates. But in all seriousness, I agree with the OP. I started playing the game all the way back in December and doing my bounty hunting in nav beacons and USS. It took me three days of straight out grinding for two or three hours a day to get the Viper. And that was only because I new that was the ship I wanted before I even bought the game. When I had my Viper, I remember getting maybe 100k cr per day. 250k on a great day. Now, just yesterday in my trusty python, (that I got mostly from bounty hunting, CG's and exploring btw) I made over 2,000,000 cr in a half hour in a res site. Personally I think while 100-200k for bounty hunting is too little, and exploration money is definantley in need of a buff, making 2 mil in under an hour should be near impossible. On a slightly related note, the Vulture should be around 8-10 mil credits, I think that is part of the reason we rarely see player vipers/DB'/couriers being used, and even then mostly by people who already own larger ships.

-CMDR Kbear

 

[EddyRockSteady]

I have one Anaconda A-spec'd for Combat. I have another Anaconda spec'd as a heavily armed/medium shielded trader. I have yet another Anaconda fitted for Exploration/Long-term, distant mining.

Yeah, small ships are largely irrelevant for me personally. Hang on to them for a wee bit of fun on the side. For earning a living in the Elite universe, it's exclusively Conda.

 

[askavir]

Issue with little ships is the game pushes you to biggest ones with the mechanics, there is very rarely a reason to get a hauler over a T6 for example (apart from financial ones).

Its worse than that, there is absolutely no reason to ever buy a Hauler, not even for new players, as for just a tiny bit more you can buy the Adder that is better at everything, including hauling.

I actually skipped both the eagle and the hauler and went straight to Adder when I started playing.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

--- Deleted ---

 

[Hanatarashi]

Its worse than that, there is absolutely no reason to ever buy a Hauler, not even for new players, as for just a tiny bit more you can buy the Adder that is better at everything, including hauling.

Not quite. The Hauler is the best cheap exploration ship.

 

[ChubbyBunneh]

Way too easy. You can rake in several million watching police Anacondas bust up pirates and stealing the kill.

There really is no reason for the Hauler, Type 6 or Type 7 to exist (with the possible exception of cheap Hauler/Adder taxis). Farming RES until you can skip all the low tier ships and jump straight into the Clipper is the best way to build up now.

 

[jacozilla]

I believe some small ships are 100% redundant whether you have easy credits or super hard to get credits meta - some small ships are partially redundant based on play style preference

In my opinion:

1. Sidewinder - 100% redundant beyond insurance last gasp, and starter for new players.

2. Hauler - 75% redundant, everthing afterwards hauls more but does serve specialty role as buy-then-sell Space Taxi and Super Cheap Explorer

3. Adder - 85% redundant, same as Hauler, but only role as Space Taxi

4. Eagle - 100% redundant, is simply there along way to Viper

5. Viper - 75% redundant, on way to Vulture but not 100% out because some players could argue prefer how Viper flies vs Vulture

Not redundant - completely play style preference
Cobra and Asp - players with fully A rated Anacondas can and still do enjoy using these ships for small multi-role purposes, these two are awesome at it

DBS and DBX - better pure combat ships exist (Vulture, Courier) but there are factions of players -including me- that love the niche role these two ships provide. Combat Explorers - I think if and when aliens ever ever the picture where we really need combat explorers, and not just unarmed explorers, these ships will shine more. But as it, some people still love em regardless what other huge ships they have

Imp Courier - small and relatively cheap but totally non-redundant in my view. Serves as very viable and different role as main combat ship if you don't like the power management of the vulture. Different kind of fun, not better fun than a vulture.

Type 6 and 7 - I think some can argue that both these are redundant progression ships if you're in the trade line but I would say no
a) type 6 is so highly customizable to various roles, including light exploring, mining, etc, that it can and does serve a purpose regardless whether you have made Elite and pimped out your Anaconda

b) Type 7 is an awesome medium trader, anyone that drives the type 9 space cow has to learn to love it or they go crazy. the type 7 is the last large'ish freighter in the game where you can still pretend you are a 'pilot'. If you move to the next progression type 9, you are no doubt about it, a big rig driver
*I owned a type 9 for good chunk of my Elite play experience, which at 3.5 weeks I know isn't much but hey, feels like a ton of hours to me

So there you have it, all the other ships are basically the end of the line for their current progression or big ships that may or may not have a purpose (Fed Dropship?) but cost enough I wouldn't classify them as small ships for redundant yes/no question

 

[Bruce Warren]

Way too easy. You can rake in several million watching police Anacondas bust up pirates and stealing the kill.

Maybe, but new players won't necessarily know how to do this and will get creamed attempting it. Or maybe they prefer to be traders. It could happen.

New players need a way into the game. It's not just credits they will be gaining, but also game knowledge. So my answer would be "probably not."

 

[bamber]

Hauler has great jump range and makes a good taxi if you are in two areas (I mine and trade 100LY apart)

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Good point. Small ships need to have their own advantage, whatever that may be. I'd absolutely take more time out from the huge trading ship if I could make similar profits by doing something quite different in a smaller ship.

There are some small advantages.

Small ships are harder to hit, especially at a distance, especially with fixed weapons. Small ships tend to have better manouverability. I've heard people who use fixed weapons tend to have more trouble with smaller ships for this reason as well, especially against the Eagle.

Also, small ships are less likely to be scanned when entering a station (dev confirmed) so make for good smuggling ships.

 

[CMDR UBERPEITSCHE]

Well you see it from a veterans point of view, think about it from a new players point of perspective.
Not quite so easy anymore if you know nothing about this game, when I think back to my first Eagle. Really felt like a big step to me.

Of course now after months of learning I can get to an Asp in.. lets say a day if I would sacrifice this entire day.
If you know the routes and the ways of the game it is easy, sure. But that can be said about soo many games.

 

[Yomamas Fett]

Have to agree thanks to new missions and bounty increase making money is easier nowadays; I've felt like wiping and starting from scratch a few times just to see how long it'd take to get to say 100m net asses now vs 1.0.

Back in the day an hours BHing would be a good run if it netted you 250k-350k credits, and although I was in my Viper (with only 2 upgrades) within the 1st hour of playing (mostly thanks to my 5th kill being an Elite Annaconda Kill-stole from 2 player Cobras); it took days to make enough for the 3m T6 that got me my Asp.

I felt even then that the Cobra and Viper were much too cheap, the T6 was a million stcok, the Viper should have been 1.2m and Cobra 1.5m IMHO. On installing the game I was hopinh for Sidey-Adder-Viper, but the cheap Viper made the Adder something that I used as a TaxiBH'er later on.

So now with the new earning potentials I really think we should have a million added onto the Viper & Cobras buy price, and have more people experience the pleasures of the Eagle, Adder and Hauler on their way to the more capable ships((and both the Cobra and Viper can and are flown as endgame ships by pilots with Pythons and Condas).

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

Absolutely. I cleared my save about 2 months ago, and I now have 60 million credits in assets, and a shiny new FdL. That's way too fast!

I miss being able to battle player Sidewinders that knew how to use the chat function, and how to actually fly the craft! CQC isn't going to solve that, because it's structured PvP on pre-defined maps. We can't blaze our trail together as small-time pilots anymore.

It makes me very frustrated.

- - - Updated - - -

Have to agree thanks to new missions and bounty increase making money is easier nowadays; I've felt like wiping and starting from scratch a few times just to see how long it'd take to get to say 100m net asses now vs 1.0.

Back in the day an hours BHing would be a good run if it netted you 250k-350k credits, and although I was in my Viper (with only 2 upgrades) within the 1st hour of playing (mostly thanks to my 5th kill being an Elite Annaconda Kill-stole from 2 player Cobras); it took days to make enough for the 3m T6 that got me my Asp.

I felt even then that the Cobra and Viper were much too cheap, the T6 was a million stcok, the Viper should have been 1.2m and Cobra 1.5m IMHO. On installing the game I was hopinh for Sidey-Adder-Viper, but the cheap Viper made the Adder something that I used as a TaxiBH'er later on.

So now with the new earning potentials I really think we should have a million added onto the Viper & Cobras buy price, and have more people experience the pleasures of the Eagle, Adder and Hauler on their way to the more capable ships((and both the Cobra and Viper can and are flown as endgame ships by pilots with Pythons and Condas).

This! I would absolutely support that. Raise the Eagle to ~140,000 cr, Hauler to ~170,000 Cr, and Adder to ~440,000 Cr.

There's so much gameplay that I remember from beta that's lost to the new players today. I remember first jumping into my Cobra, after weeks of scraping in my stupid little Sidewinder, and later Eagle, and I had to worry about the fuel cost! Could I afford to maintain this new beast, or did I have to downgrade? Should I find something steady to do before venturing out, or buy back the Sidewinder and venture out again into the unknown?

Each upgrade was well-deserved and enjoyable, and slowly building my iron ass was one of the best experiences I've had in Elite. I kept her until around the end of January, when we died at the hands of an Imperial gunner, firing a capital-class railgun. That was the last anyone heard of CMDR Hagglebeard. His grandson, Cmdr Flagrant lives on, now.

I dove into RP a bit there, didn't I? And that's what I love about Elite.

EDIT: Oh, I remember my friend telling me about mining with a Cobra in Beta 3, how he was making 450,000 whole credits an only one hour! I was amazed! It's what got me into mining for a short while.

 

[.Stu.]

Absolutely Not

That's not to say that I think making money is easier or hard per say, its pretty much the same as it has been, except a bit more made in combat these days.

The fundamental flaw in your question though, is that it suggests that your playstyle ie "try everything/every ship/every trade" is more valid than a "grind for the Annie" playstyle.

So, No! You enjoy it your way and let others enjoy it their way, if they become an Annie owner with no insurance (which I'm guessing you would never be , that's their choice.

Hi Chaps,

I've been playing since Alpha and I'm wondering if any one else thinks that it is too easy to make credits now?

This is where I'm coming from.

I spent a very very long time in small craft and got to experience each of them for days and days and weeks of solid gaming.

Now it seems that players an quickly hop from a sidewinder to a cobra in a handfull or two sessions, Making small craft redundant. It seems that it's now a game of cobra's and clippers with a brief spell in a trade ship before moving on to a python or Annaconda.

For instance, I havent seen a single thread in ages relating to the humble but amazing Hauler.

So that's I mean about credits coming to easy.

1 million credits per hour for combat used to be unheard of and now it seems pretty low end.
1 million credits per hour for trading used to be a bit of an eye opener. Now it seems no issue.

So are all the little ships just a relatively meaningless quick stop on the way to a a clipper, python, Annaconda?

People who have been playing for a few months are probably best suited to answer this as they may have observed the same thing.

How many hours play does it take to get from a side winder to a Cobra these days?

What really got me thinking was the Clippers on sale to every Surf and how many I see flying around these days.

Just pondering while I have a cuppa.

 

[AndiBcool]

Its worse than that, there is absolutely no reason to ever buy a Hauler, not even for new players, as for just a tiny bit more you can buy the Adder that is better at everything, including hauling.

I actually skipped both the eagle and the hauler and went straight to Adder when I started playing.

Yeah i did the same, a lot missions in sidewinder then go for Adder. Did missions and later mining in Adder untill i got to Cobra. Did mine more made some more missions with better payout.
Did quite some Community goals ( mostly combat in Cobra also ). Had the bad idea to buy a T6, used it 1 hour, then it went to storage. Went for Asp then, but at that time Vulture would have been better. With Asp i did rare trades, combat and exploring on the way.
Bought me a Vulture kinda fast after the Asp because i got a lot money from Community goals. In Vulture i did a lot Bounty hunting and even more CGs.
Did switch between em did more rare trading because of 50T Diso corn.
After a short while i could afford a A Grade Python. Did some mining and exploring on the way ( Exporing CG was running ) and traded Python in for 20% off at Hudson space later.
Saved a lot credits that way so i could afford me a T9 with 20% off. Did trading in it and bought me A thrusters, fsd for it. Did trade more Bought me a Clipper for fun and spend already 60 Mil with outfitting ( need some more for A grade shield generator).
Oh yeah bought that Courier with 15% discount from CG to have it. Bought another Cobra for fun, because i have 3 differnt skins for it and had to do some traveling.

I will buy me the smaller ships im missing and the useless t7 and dropship too. Not sure what i will get next. Anaconda or more smaller ships with A grade.
Last 2 weeks i was not playing much, played Assassins creed black flag. A game where u can be a real Pirate and it also looks great.

The last days i checkesd the new CGs but they not worth the time. After a failing mining one and a low payout medicine one, i will rather stick to T9 and trade more.

So basicly i only played for 3,5 months now. In the beginning i spend quite a lot hours and later i played casual 1-2 hours a day. When CG was running i spend more time to get a better placement.

The most money came from the community goals and bounty hunting (I got 20 Mil of one CG once).
Was that to fast ? No i dont think so, because i did know what to to and when to earn that money.

On a side note, i did enjoy 1.2 more then 1.3. The only benefit that came with 1.3 was collector drones and the discounts on ships and outfitting.

I still enjoy flying the smaller ships from time to time, but they became not used much after i had my Python.
I spend most time in Cobra, Asp and Python.

 

[Marshall...]

I know what you mean mate. I remember it taking an age moving up the ships. I think if specific missions were created for the smaller ships, such a:

smuggling
scanning ships without being seen
Recover cargo from guarded derelicts in asteroid fields
Covert objectives such as infiltration
Death star type entry and destroy surgical strikes

CGC with go a bit of the way to get us back into the smaller ships.

You will not get me flying the hauler again though, that thing is possessed! I had to have mine exorcised due to the voices the engine was making <shudder>.

 

[Rockyrocket]

Hi Chaps,

I've been playing since Alpha and I'm wondering if any one else thinks that it is too easy to make credits now?

This is where I'm coming from.

I spent a very very long time in small craft and got to experience each of them for days and days and weeks of solid gaming.

Now it seems that players an quickly hop from a sidewinder to a cobra in a handfull or two sessions, Making small craft redundant. It seems that it's now a game of cobra's and clippers with a brief spell in a trade ship before moving on to a python or Annaconda.

For instance, I havent seen a single thread in ages relating to the humble but amazing Hauler.

So that's I mean about credits coming to easy.

1 million credits per hour for combat used to be unheard of and now it seems pretty low end.
1 million credits per hour for trading used to be a bit of an eye opener. Now it seems no issue.

So are all the little ships just a relatively meaningless quick stop on the way to a a clipper, python, Annaconda?

People who have been playing for a few months are probably best suited to answer this as they may have observed the same thing.

How many hours play does it take to get from a side winder to a Cobra these days?

What really got me thinking was the Clippers on sale to every Surf and how many I see flying around these days.

Just pondering while I have a cuppa.

So I am at the point in game where making credits is secondary to fun (900+ hours since december), but feel that some of the balancing has devalued my prior efforts - remember those 100k fuel bills?.
That is not a complaint though, I just want to highlight that if I started again today and put the exact amount of work in again then my wealth would be much greater.

On the other hand out of all the ships in my fleet the cobra has come full circle as my fave at the moment!.

 

[Bertrand Du Guesclin]

Absolutely. I cleared my save about 2 months ago, and I now have 60 million credits in assets, and a shiny new FdL. That's way too fast!

(snip)

Raise the Eagle to ~140,000 cr, Hauler to ~170,000 Cr, and Adder to ~440,000 Cr.

Same here, cleared when 1.3 was released. I have around 55 million in total assets, 98% of which were made from combat earnings. I didn't even farm that hard.

I agree on the price suggestions.

The price of those ships don't take into account the new money making possibilities offered by missions. In ONE mission in a Sidewinder you can get enough money to buy an Eagle right away.
Back in Gamma, you had to do 5 - 6 message delivery missions to get the same amount.

The reward increase is a good thing, but the price of the ships should evolve as well. It is probably too late unfortunately.