Current CGs - is this some kind of joke?

[Deleted member 182079]

This is fine!

I mean we all have our quirks.
For example i see relogging and mapped mining the same boring and out-of-place crap that are helping people get better and faster results.
And while i never succumbed to mapped mining, i'm less fussed about relogging - although if there is a decent alternative, i'd rather not rely on relogging.
So for Raws i prefer Crystalline Shard and for Manufactured i prefer HGE hopping (yes, i've seen 8 HGE active at once in the same system and managed to get them all).
But for Encoded there is no such thing as G5 HGE nor packed sites as the Shards, scanning ships is really a very low chance process... so relogging is the meta until they bring in a better and more consistent mechanic.

Now, getting back to prices...
My Epic account just got 4.1 bn from top10% on Hudson. That's 10 times its previous balance
My estimated effort was about 12h (some slacking included). Which puts the income at about 340 millions per hour.

Which, coincidentally or not, is what is currently achievably using bulk trading with a carrier or highly optimized massacre mission running (winged combat can yield even more impressive numbers) or what was pre-carriers achievable using mapped mining.
And with the difference that this CG is a very rare occurrence, while the above activities are available as every day activities and pre-carriers high paygrade mapped mining was available for more than 1.5 years.

So, that does not seem out of place, but quite consistent with their current top paychecks.

I guess the problem with this particular type of CG is that if you have mats in store already the pay/hour rate shoots up significantly - in my case that'd be 1.4bn/hour because I already had about 80 relevant G5 mats in store, across the 4 types (still got plenty left over after this exercise fwiw). I didn't grind those mats at all, they were all achieved as part of regular gameplay, but over a longish period of time (but not for the purpose of a CG like this coming along).

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Never been to Hutton and I don't like the Anaconda free or not.

Anacondas are for poor people anyways.

 

[Gleitfrosch]

Credits are worthless in ED and the whole Galaxy returned to barter economy. The current currency are engineering materials.
And there is no chance to change that without a hard reset and complete rework of the whole economy. But that won't happen.

It is like in the song:
Money is for nothing and ships for free.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

If you trying to says this one GC totally destroys anything resembling balance in the game, then that seems a bit hyperbole to me considing Elite's history.

Balance is already kaputt, CGs like these merely add insult to injury.

Cynical me thinks it could well be as simple as them encouraging the purchase of more FCs because that will likely convert directly into Arx sales.

In reality it's probably a mix of not understanding their own game (and how its players interact with it) and a certain level of incompetence/sloppiness when implementing stuff like this (as @Bigmaec already suggested earlier), with the above sprinkled in as a nice side effect for Frontier's bottom line.

 

[zimms]

[...]
What's the point of dedicating several months on credit rebalancing [...]

Did they?

The game's credit balance is in complete and utter shambles anyway, with or without that ridiculous CG. So what's the point.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Did they?

The game's credit balance is in complete and utter shambles anyway, with or without that ridiculous CG. So what's the point.

They sort of ... kind of tried? By multiplying combat payouts by a factor of 4 mostly How much science went into that I wonder!

But yeah, I already noticed my own approach to the game changed in how I play it compared to a few years ago - that satisfying feeling of being able to afford a large ship has been replaced with the same sensation you get when you refuel/restock/repair it. Best to just accept it and play the game like a true billionaire's sandbox I suppose.

 

[JTFireblaze]

They sort of ... kind of tried? By multiplying combat payouts by a factor of 4 mostly How much science went into that I wonder!

They balanced nothing. They buffed combat and only very slightly nerfed mining. Literally no attempt to balance rewards against costs of things.

Everyone going in to Odyssey is going to be able to buy one of every suit and weapon straight away due to how low priced things are (assuming alpha prices carry over)

Engineering materials is the new way. All 120ish + whatever we're getting in Odyssey. Barter economy!

 

[VR jefranklin18]

I do believe this CG was a ploy by Frontier to spot the reloggers and will appropriately reward them by stripping them of all credits earned

I participated (on the Hudson side so those Fednecks get more of their "rights" removed), didn't relog but made extensive use of the material broker in station. Still managed to get into the top 75%.

 

[LeoBartlet]

I do believe this CG was a ploy by Frontier to spot the reloggers and will appropriately reward them by stripping them of all credits earned

It would be funny if they did and with the alpha ending tomorrow the forum will need something to be outraged about.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

They balanced nothing. They buffed combat and only very slightly nerfed mining. Literally no attempt to balance rewards against costs of things.

Everyone going in to Odyssey is going to be able to buy one of every suit and weapon straight away due to how low priced things are (assuming alpha prices carry over)

Engineering materials is the new way. All 120ish + whatever we're getting in Odyssey. Barter economy!

Yes - I went through the Alpha pondering about this; the prices (and I don't see any reason why weapons and suits should cost more than they do in the Alpha, as they're already more expensive than a number of actual spaceships - think about that!). Only if you wipe your account and start afresh the credit figures attached to the EDO gear mean anything (for a short while at least) - in Phase 4 I just went in and bought everything that's available in one go.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Yes - I went through the Alpha pondering about this; the prices (and I don't see any reason why weapons and suits should cost more than they do in the Alpha, as they're already more expensive than a number of actual spaceships - think about that!). Only if you wipe your account and start afresh the credit figures attached to the EDO gear mean anything (for a short while at least) - in Phase 4 I just went in and bought everything that's available in one go.

Frontier likely understand that credits are meaningless in the bigger picture. As with ships, the 'true' currency in Odyssey is going to be those elusive engineering mats, and provided Frontier have the courage to make them as difficult to obtain (and kill relogging) as in the alpha and at the same requirements - then tears will flow

 

[Red Anders]

I tried to get that sense back with my alt account at least - and to some extent it's still there, as long as you consciously avoid all the broken mechanics (mining, CGs, and now combat also).

Frontier are releasing a major DLC that includes new gear which is all cheapo stuff (unless the 2bn Panther Clipper makes an appearance after all, something I'm less and less hopeful about in recent days) you really wonder why they feel they need to give players a credit boost at this point - but it is probably just as you say, as long as players are engaged (in quality gameplay or not doesn't seem to matter after all) that's good enough for them. And them being a for-profit company I can't even blame them for that.

I tried to play my alt differently. Thing is, short of buying a Cutter and blowing it up every few weeks, if you play the game you make credits. If you do CGs (not this outlier one, just normal CGs) and a few missions when you play, you can rack up the cash easily enough over a fairly limited amount of time. So really either FDev change costs (which they've shown no inclination to do at all) or people accept that the significant currency in the game is no longer credits, put their big boy/girl pants on and get over it.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I tried to play my alt differently. Thing is, short of buying a Cutter and blowing it up every few weeks, if you play the game you make credits. If you do CGs (not this outlier one, just normal CGs) and a few missions when you play, you can rack up the cash easily enough over a fairly limited amount of time. So really either FDev change costs (which they've shown no inclination to do at all) or people accept that the significant currency in the game is no longer credits, put their big boy/girl pants on and get over it.

I know, throughout my gaming life I have been accustomed to credits/money being a key progression meter so it's difficult to move away from that thinking.

Fwiw Elite isn't the only game that has this issue, and many modern games seem to have been designed from the ground up with the intention of showering players with rewards to the extent that it's expected now.

Probably why I prefer to play simulators more these days as there is no broken economies involved at all.

 

[JTFireblaze]

(Totally serious) Patch notes:

• Fixed a problem where credits are too easily obtained
• Removed credits from the game
• All ships are now purchase-able with engineering materials

 

[Florenus]

This CG is broken as hell - it's just exploit farming with rewards completely out of balance...

I never liked the CG idea the way it was done - it's either a community grind for rewards - or in best case some way to vote on the story outcome, which end up being idiotic, when you can grind your "votes" and also "vote" on both sides. But this one is just completely ridiculous.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Also I want to be very clear about something - this is not about begrudging other players getting a significant leg up - it's just the inconsistency and completely unrealistic shape of the game economy that is giving me heart burn. Nothing is coherent and I find it increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief when it comes to anything credit related making even remote sense in comparison to how things work in the real world. The fact I work in finance makes this even worse believe me and if the game wasn't aiming for a certain realism factor then I wouldn't even mind, but it is.

On top of that the complete lack of effort in putting together these CGs. Just transfer 1bn credits into each cmdrs bank accounts every week and be done with it. Everyone's happy and whoever is responsible for these CGs can put their feet up and play anything but Elite.

 

[Gleitfrosch]

(Totally serious) Patch notes:

• Fixed a problem where credits are too easily obtained
• Removed credits from the game
• All ships are now purchase-able with engineering materials

And in a few hundred years the children will learn history lessons about the great material wars that almost destroyed the whole galaxy

 

[JTFireblaze]

Just transfer 1bn credits into each cmdrs bank accounts every week and be done with it

Could you imagine the salt? "Oh great, an I WIN button"

I mean, if credits are so absolutely meaningless then I don't see why not. I'd double my 6 year to get to balance in a week...

 

[Northpin]

I guess the problem with this particular type of CG is that if you have mats in store already the pay/hour rate shoots up significantly - in my case that'd be 1.4bn/hour because I already had about 80 relevant G5 mats in store, across the 4 types (still got plenty left over after this exercise fwiw). I didn't grind those mats at all, they were all achieved as part of regular gameplay, but over a longish period of time (but not for the purpose of a CG like this coming along).

That's why credits/hour is a such misleading number - you could not get 1.4bn/h if you did not had those materials gathered over a long period of time.
(And you definitely didn't got 1.4bn. You only got 737 millions at best)
But, if you add that timeframe in which you got those g5 materials - how big the number would be? 20k credits per hour?
You could consider those materials a long term investment that just came into fruition - in which case your 1.4bn per hour rate simply does not apply.


But, generally speaking, for CG lower tiers the paycheck was quite impressive.
Top 50% for Hudson is 737 millions and for someone that had no materials in his stash, that's about 1 hour of work (or less)
But again, the CG reward/work ratio was always the best for top 50% while being quite bad for top 10% and plain bad for top 10

And not at last, it's a one off that can be easily missed. Only 7k participated out of 500k monthly regulars.

So nothing wrong rewarding a limited time event with a big paycheck.
And putting some materials, that were maybe rotting for years, to good use.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

That's why credits/hour is a such misleading number - you could not get 1.4bn/h if you did not had those materials gathered over a long period of time.
(And you definitely didn't got 1.4bn. You only got 737 millions at best)
But, if you add that timeframe in which you got those g5 materials - how big the number would be? 20k credits per hour?
You could consider those materials a long term investment that just came into fruition - in which case your 1.4bn per hour rate simply does not apply.


But, generally speaking, for CG lower tiers the paycheck was quite impressive.
Top 50% for Hudson is 737 millions and for someone that had no materials in his stash, that's about 1 hour of work (or less)
But again, the CG reward/work ratio was always the best for top 50% while being quite bad for top 10% and plain bad for top 10

And not at last, it's a one off that can be easily missed. Only 7k participated out of 500k monthly regulars.

So nothing wrong rewarding a limited time event with a big paycheck.
And putting some materials, that were maybe rotting for years, to good use.

I spent a mere 30 minutes sitting at the CG station playing UI jockey, so 1.4bn per hour