Newcomer / Intro Crumbs, Its has all got a bit easy, hasn't it?

[Kayvan]

Yeah well, those are different personal preferences then. I think that 5 weeks to a Vulture is an entirely reasonable and healthy pace. I'm aware that ED used to be a lot more grindy in the early days/years -- and that was actually one of the main reasons why I didn't get this game much sooner. To me, 5 months for like 3.5% of the progression (credits-wise, comparing A-rated Vulture to Conda) is ridiculously glacial. I did decide to get into ED last year after I found out that making money was a lot quicker now.

Personally I fast-tracked the game when I started out a year ago, making my first billion in the frame of roughly 2 weeks. That was certainly needlessly fast but I wanted access to ShinDez and also to play with my friends who already had the highlevel stuff and weren't interested in reverting to Cobras. BUT I made sure to make all that money myself. Another buddy of mine made the mistake of tagging along pirate-hunting with highlevel players in his Sidey and getting fed millions of Cr for literally nothing - and that kind of "getting powerleveled" ruined the game for him (and he didn't consider erasing his acc and starting over, either).

Lastly, I think the actual problem with the ED progression is that "bigger = better" in virtually all aspects except some extremely niche situations; once you have the money there is precious little reason to pick a Small ship over a Medium one except to make the game harder for yourself. Sure, some crack pilots can fly snub fighters very effectively and props to them, but no-one can tell me they wouldn't be even more effective in an FDL. And going in a Vette seems to be basically Easy mode.

 

[Troopi]

It may be more effective in an FDL, it may be easier in a Vette, but the most fun I had was with a Courier kitted for ultra-speed. Yes, I spend too much time to defeat an elite Conda, yes I die with 1 good ram, but... THE FUN!!

 

[Simon Templar]

It's easy, yes. Some aspects of it are time consuming but still easy. The game may as well be called "Elite: Harmless" and yes, I know I'm not the first to make that joke.

But it is as one of the previous posters said: such is the way of MMOs. It must be possible for new players to catch up in a reasonable time frame or they'll lose interest. Suppose someone came here for PVP and had to realize it will take two years to even get a competitive ship, and until that time they're only fodder.
Or even when they aren't into PVP but just want to play with their buddies, it's pointless if they are prancing about in their Ferdies and Vettes while you just fly after them in your Adder and try not to get killed.

That said, looks like rn the only way to get a greater challenge / slower progression is to make one for yourself. Like that guy here who only allows himself to spend 10% of the credits he makes. And of course refrain from any fast tracks like road to riches and mining.

Hell, the game probably instantly becomes a whole lot harder (and definitely slower) if you just never use 3rd party tools and websites.

A friend of mine has started out around 5 weeks ago. Afaik she doesn't use 3P tools and doesn't use shortcuts. She flies a Cobra and has bought a Vulture for combat last week. So there's your slower progression right there.

Yes exactly. I don't use any out of game resources but it's still incredibly hard not to make game changing money. I used to keep switching home systems to keep the challenge up, but now that I have joined a squadron I'm just getting rich. Furthering squadron aims has become my new game challenge. Needed reactive composite hull for the Cutter the other night, realised it's 480m cr (!!). Bought it two sessions later from new earnings!!