FDev, please consider doing something about the Elite exploration rank

[kofeyh]

Now, make no mistake, I am not saying that the RtR is an exploit. It's obviously not, the planets are there, and to scan them is perfectly legitimate, so no objection there.

.. but. Yeah, you are. It's just more whining about others' use of time. Don't care. I don't care because I am tired of the same whining. Perhaps frontier can spend their time improving the game, not listening to whining fools who have more time to complain about the game - than play it.

As for other things they could do? Fix the infernal timeouts at engineering bases because apparently this crap of disconnecting on drop is happening again. That and stars losing their collision zone markers. Yes, that'd be a far better use of the developers time - rather than pandering to self-obsessed arbiters of 'grind'.

Oh, and in case there is any confusion with my response, I've covered over 9KLY in one account today, and another 3KLY in another. Mixture of neutrons, and not. I don't care how people travel, to where, when or why - and neither should you.

Fly safe.

 

[metatheurgist]

They actually did. The cartographic credits are now 2:1 (2 credits gets you one "exploration point" wrt existing rank table) and the sightseeing VIP missions credits get you 5:1.

Not what I was talking about. They've increased payout by 6x in some cases but the total required to hit Elite has only increased by (an estimated) 1.3x, from 150M to 200M. If they increased the total required to 800M, that'd probably be about right.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

I would like any kind of visual proof you can provide. I doubt this is even possible unless those people have played for 100 to 200 hours straight. I also would like to know where you get your numbers and how can you possibly know if everyone is Elite? Have you asked every singe person and took a poll.

This is just another post by someone who is making assumptions based off of no tangible proof.

Here you go: http://imgur.com/a/ChVaI
The name of the CMDR has been deleted to comply with no naming&shaming rules.

Look at those hard cold numbers: 2 hrs playtime, 443lyrs from the starting system, 22.100lyrs total distance travelled.

 

[damajoo]

Here you go: http://imgur.com/a/ChVaI
The name of the CMDR has been deleted to comply with no naming&shaming rules.

Look at those hard cold numbers: 2 hrs playtime, 443lyrs from the starting system, 22.100lyrs total distance travelled.

And again, you have a misconception of what is really going on. The playtime on PS4 is not calculated correctly. For some it works, for some not. Some have still 0.0. hours, i have like 4days - which is way off.
You simply cannot really believe that you even consider it possible to cover 22kLy and 1000plus Scans in 2 hours.

Hello - please just do a reality check, and consider looking at the bug forums regarding the playtime-counter.

cheers !

o7

 

[Jorge Palu]

I don't have a problem with your suggestion OP, as long as they wipe all current elites and zero everyone's exploration rank when FD conduct your requested nerf.

In fact, maybe 2.4's highlight should be that they zero everybody of all progress in the game and we all start from scratch again. Then everyone can enjoy the regrind in this now nerfed to hell game...

Or... maybe people should stop worrying/whining about how fast other people progress in the game and play their own game. It's the constant whining about other people progressing to fast for some individuals liking that has got the game into the state that it is...

 

[TheSynopticVision]

And again, you have a misconception of what is really going on. The playtime on PS4 is not calculated correctly. For some it works, for some not. Some have still 0.0. hours, i have like 4days - which is way off.
You simply cannot really believe that you even consider it possible to cover 22kLy and 1000plus Scans in 2 hours.

Hello - please just do a reality check, and consider looking at the bug forums regarding the playtime-counter.

cheers !

o7

You might be righ about playtime, but 1) the game was launched 12 days ago, which seems to me a pretty short time anyway. 2) what about the other figures, the ones that matter? You are not really contributing to this discussion anyway, so goodbye.

 

[TheSynopticVision]

Or... maybe people should stop worrying/whining about how fast other people progress in the game and play their own game. It's the constant whining about other people progressing to fast for some individuals liking that has got the game into the state that it is...

Jesus, I am not whining I was pointing out a problem with a feature in the game which is, in the intention of the developers themselves, meant to recognize the accomplishments of players, amd that, as it stands, fails to be linked to a particularly noteworthy accomplishment in the "exploration" field. Whatever people, I'm out. People always tell me to steer clear of DD. I now see why. Over and out.

 

[damajoo]

You might be righ about playtime, but 1) the game was launched 12 days ago, which seems to me a pretty short time anyway. 2) what about the other figures, the ones that matter? You are not really contributing to this discussion anyway, so goodbye.

I already made my contribution earlier, problem is that you maybe don't like my point of view, which is totally fine, as this is a kind of discussion.
However, i dislike your attitude, so to say.

As you are a high rank member (Operations Officer) of a not so small wing, you should act and write more inline with your rank. At least i would prefer that, as i'm part of the same group/wing (one of the first members there), that you represent that Wing in an appropriate manner, with less use of "smartass, , 'get out of the thread' and so on.

Being a little bit more polite and laidback would look good to your Wing/Group rank insignias.

Your opinion can be whatever you like, but at least give room for others aswell, and please consider that other maybe right (playtime) or do your own research to support your own claim.

Thank you.

And for your convinience, here is my right hand panel:

 

[TheSynopticVision]

I already made my contribution earlier, problem is that you maybe don't like my point of view, which is totally fine, as this is a kind of discussion.
However, i dislike your attitude, so to say.

As you are a high rank member (Operations Officer) of a not so small wing, you should act and write more inline with your rank. At least i would prefer that, as i'm part of the same group/wing (one of the first members there), that you represent that Wing in an appropriate manner, with less use of "smartass, , 'get out of the thread' and so on.

Being a little bit more polite and laidback would look good to your Wing/Group rank insignias.

Your opinion can be whatever you like, but at least give room for others aswell, and please consider that other maybe right (playtime) or do your own research to support your own claim.

Thank you.

And for your convinience, here is my right hand panel:

http://i.imgur.com/m7gis4T.jpg

Well, you and the other guy (the smartass, yup, I call them like I see them: how else do you describe that smug accusatory tone? Was my OP particularly hostile towards anyone? No.) were not much disagreeing with me, but were rather speculating about the intentions and personality of a guy (me) who holds that opinion. Pretty different.

I didn't say "get out" to anyone, I was getting myself out of a discussion that has become not about the criteria for the award of the Elite Exploration rank (you know, the topic) but rather about if and how much I am a whiner who cares more about other people's games than my own, who doesn't understand the basics of game stats and so forth. Your stats are very nice. I still think that the Elite rank should be more demanding. You disagree. We can agree to disagree then, end of the conversation. There are ways to communicate with people. For ex."hey, I think you should take into consideration X and Y" rather than "do a reality check fool".

Finally I don't appreciate the "act your rank" snipe (nor the "I was there before you kid" one). This is the forum, I am not playing any official role here, and if someone acts like a (again, in response to a post that was all but hostile) I'm not gonna roll over, sorry about that.

 

[DNA-Decay]

Until recently I was Master Entrepreneur Ranger.
I do things in roughly equal measure.

But now I have Elite exploration on my CV.
Not something that I feel entitled to.
Just something that happened as a meat byproduct.

I've spent time out of the bubble, I've discovered things.
But not like proper explorers.

 

[damajoo]

Well, you and the other guy (the smartass, yup, I call them like I see them: how else do you describe that smug accusatory tone? Was my OP particularly hostile towards anyone? No.) were not much disagreeing with me, but were rather speculating about the intentions and personality of a guy (me) who holds that opinion. Pretty different.

I didn't say "get out" to anyone, I was getting myself out of a discussion that has become not about the criteria for the award of the Elite Exploration rank (you know, the topic) but rather about if and how much I am a whiner who cares more about other people's games than my own, who doesn't understand the basics of game stats and so forth. Your stats are very nice. I still think that the Elite rank should be more demanding. You disagree. We can agree to disagree then, end of the conversation. There are ways to communicate with people. For ex."hey, I think you should take into consideration X and Y" rather than "do a reality check fool".

Finally I don't appreciate the "act your rank" snipe (nor the "I was there before you kid" one). This is the forum, I am not playing any official role here, and if someone acts like a (again, in response to a post that was all but hostile) I'm not gonna roll over, sorry about that.

As long as you give away your detailed information in your signature, and encouraging people to take part in event on the very same forums, you are representing that wing, with your account and personality behind it.

You are not really contributing to this discussion anyway, so goodbye.

this reads pretty rude.

You seem kind of short tempered, and i question if you are a role model according to your rank.

People like you may make people like me, leave organizations.

Just saying.

 

[Leper Messiah]

holeeee crud I have 10500 systems visited and only 350 mill from exploring! They really HAVE upped the payouts!!

 

[TheSynopticVision]

this reads pretty rude.

You seem kind of short tempered, and i question if you are a role model according to your rank.

People like you may make people like me, leave organizations.

Just saying.

It might read pretty rude (it really shouldn't have) but all it meant was (as I said to the other guy): "this conversation is going nowhere, so I'm leaving". Not sure how that is rude -- I don't enjoy conflict for conflict's sake and it seemed to me that you were not of the same mind. I think there is a pretty significant difference between "short-tempered" and "not willing to let people score cheap points rather than have a civilised discussion about the topic at hand". That's it. And BTW, if I kept debating with you rather than logging off for good is precisely because you are DRX, and I thought I owe you some more debate time than any other random internet guy.

 

[damajoo]

Back to topic:

I do agree that following just the "RoadToRiches" is not within the real spirit of exploration. However, it is still a lot of work.
Think of Exploration as of Treasure Hunting. If you find something valuable, because you searched for it, it is very satisfying.
You maybe followed leads, hit dead ends, turn around, start over, and eventually you get to your goal (treasure).

Road to Riches is like someone giving you a map of all known treasures. You "just" have to go there, and get them.
However, this is still time consuming and still takes a lot of effort to do so, and is by far less satisfying as you kind of "just" collect them all.

And i would like to emphazize in contrast to recent screenshots, it is not doable in a few hours. I did not count my hours regarding RtR, but my best guess would be something around 30 give or take.

Returning to the initial Opening Post:

Fdev did a uplift of the payouts to encourage people to do more exploration, as this was/is a field which fell far behind in popularity over the course of the last years.
The intention was to make exploration more rewarding, and not to make it faster to get to Elite Status.

Unfortunatley this made RtR even more profitable, and even with the increase to 320Million for Elite, it is still at the moment, the single most "easy" way to get to Elite.

There are too many factors coming into play, the very first players (or explorers) did not have access to the tools and data which was gathered over time.
Nowadays there are no real secrets anymore, and the community always try to make things easier, or to find ways, to reduce something which is perceived as "grind". (which is kind of funny as RtR is a major grind, to be honest)

In the end it comes down to each individuals play style and goals. Play it your way you want, the Elite-status of other players does not affect anybody.

My motivation is kind of easy : As this is a shared universe, i did all of that ´legit' (if you would like to see it that way) already on Xbox. As there is no way (at the moment) to transfer your CMDR and his Ranks and achievement to another platform, i opted to do it like this,
Just wanted access to Jameson Memorial. The credits are nice to have, but i don't care really.
And yes, in all honesty, i like to have the Elite Badge, just for personal reasons.

There will be always players who have (much) more time than others and pursue a certain goal.
The important thing for me is: This cannot perceived as unfair, as long as the used tools and informations are available to everybody.
Where we are again at the ".... at your own pace and way" argument, which is valid imho.

You may or may not agree, or partily agree, or like or dislike my opinion or argument, but please don't tell me i'm not contributing to your opening post.

For your reference here is a actual screenshot from my Xbox CMDR as of now:

 

[ApexWanderer]

None of the ranks mean anything anymore .They should get rid and start again IMO and this is coming from someone who was 2nd on xbox(according to forum)to achieve the Triple.

AKA ZenZak.

 

[clinton]

They should set the exploration rewards back to 2.2 levels BUT greatly increase "first discovered" bonuses.

You should get exploration rank and money from actual exploration, not from hopping around the bubble.

 

[Red Anders]

Back to topic:

I do agree that following just the "RoadToRiches" is not within the real spirit of exploration. However, it is still a lot of work.
Think of Exploration as of Treasure Hunting. If you find something valuable, because you searched for it, it is very satisfying.
You maybe followed leads, hit dead ends, turn around, start over, and eventually you get to your goal (treasure).

Road to Riches is like someone giving you a map of all known treasures. You "just" have to go there, and get them.
However, this is still time consuming and still takes a lot of effort to do so, and is by far less satisfying as you kind of "just" collect them all.

It really isn't though. It's like someone giving you and 10,000 of your mates the same map, all of you following it and finding that the treasure magically reappears each time one of you gets there.

I'm going to repeat what I said earlier. You aren't discovering anything. You're visiting things which have already been discovered. In my opinion (other opinions are available) the old payouts for that were pretty much OK.

They should set the exploration rewards back to 2.2 levels BUT greatly increase "first discovered" bonuses.

You should get exploration rank and money from actual exploration, not from hopping around the bubble.

Exactly. It's not the overall amount you can get for say a newly discovered earth-like that I see as an issue here at all, it's great that they buffed them. It's the amount you get for scanning something that 250,000 people have already scanned. I think it would have been much more in keeping with the concept of exploration to modestly buff the scan bonus and significantly increase the first discovery bonuses.

 

[Jorge Palu]

Jesus, I am not whining I was pointing out a problem with a feature in the game which is, in the intention of the developers themselves, meant to recognize the accomplishments of players, amd that, as it stands, fails to be linked to a particularly noteworthy accomplishment in the "exploration" field. Whatever people, I'm out. People always tell me to steer clear of DD. I now see why. Over and out.

The problem with the feature as you refer to is your own opinion though. Because you think that opinion is correct, you want FD to change things and make it harder for other people to achieve something, that you now think is too easy to obtain (ie: you are worrying about how other people play the game). Granted my use of the word whining, may have been a tad harsh, but in my time playing the game, I have seen so much stuff nerfed due to peoples perceptions that the game must be played this way or that way as it is the right way.

I on the other hand, don't care what other people do in the game. If they want to run around and scan all the earth likes in the bubble, well good for them (it's still a lot of work). Are they missing a big part of the game? Not really. Exploration in my opinion ends up a mind numbing experience, as you jump and scan across the galaxy. Yes, you get your name on a bunch of stuff, but other than that, it doesn't have a lot of depth.

Am I resorting to using the quick and easy method to get my elite exploration? Nope. I hit Sag A a couple of days ago, and am now headed to the neutron fields to grab some more scans prior to heading back to the bubble. Will this trip push me to Elite? No idea. If it doesn't, I'm just going to head back out in a different direction (in the Asp this time, the Anaconda is too damn slow in SC) and scan stuff until I make it too Elite. This is my second time around too, as I did a save reset just after 2 dropped (only at Pathfinder then though).

Saying all that I still say that people should just look after their own game, and not concern themselves how other people play their won game.

FWIW, this is my progress so far. Hoping this SAG A trip is enough to get me that last 77%

 

[Zambrick]

Well, you and the other guy (the smartass, yup, I call them like I see them: how else do you describe that smug accusatory tone? Was my OP particularly hostile towards anyone? No.) were not much disagreeing with me, but were rather speculating about the intentions and personality of a guy (me) who holds that opinion. Pretty different.

I didn't say "get out" to anyone, I was getting myself out of a discussion that has become not about the criteria for the award of the Elite Exploration rank (you know, the topic) but rather about if and how much I am a whiner who cares more about other people's games than my own, who doesn't understand the basics of game stats and so forth. Your stats are very nice. I still think that the Elite rank should be more demanding. You disagree. We can agree to disagree then, end of the conversation. There are ways to communicate with people. For ex."hey, I think you should take into consideration X and Y" rather than "do a reality check fool".

Finally I don't appreciate the "act your rank" snipe (nor the "I was there before you kid" one). This is the forum, I am not playing any official role here, and if someone acts like a (again, in response to a post that was all but hostile) I'm not gonna roll over, sorry about that.

Then call em as you see em. You knew for a fact that there is a known bug with the play time. You also have no proof whatsoever that everyone in the whole game playing on the PS4 is Elite ranked Exploration. So again just go away and have this thread ended. Your assumptions about an entire game population based off of one example of a bugged system is laughable. Your perception is not the reality for all. Please pick your battles better and if you have a real issue, please provide proof unlike what you have here. One example out of thousands proves nothing.

 

[CMDR Spadino]

In the end, Pilot Federation ranks don't matter all that much. The worst Explorer, Merchant, or Mercenary will reach Elite status if they play long enough.

The sharing of knowledge that is enabled by today's internet means that nothing is a mystery for long, unless you actively try to avoid it. I'm surprised that it took this long for this "Road to Riches" to appear. It didn't take nearly as long for the first "best profit" calculators to appear to allow trading on autopilot. I'll take it as sign that the exploration community knows that it's the spirit of discovery that's important, and the skills you develop as you explore.

At the end of the day, I know I can find planets and stars via parallax should the Advanced Discovery Scanner ever get nerfed. I know I can accurately pinpoint a star's habitability zone, and search for terraformable planets there. I don't have to rely on the work of others to get ahead in this game.

I also know I have nothing to fear should sites like EDDB.io ever go down, because I know how to use the ingame trading tools to similar results, only faster. I know how to build a trade network, how to manipulate the BGS for fun and profit, and where to look for the best deals.

And finally, I know I will get shredded by the next expert NPC I try to fight because I suck at combat. But I am an expert at the Sir Robin maneuver.

Exactly! Totally agree. Personally, I'm reaching elite exploration ranking for the second time - after clearing my saves - only scanning almost undiscovered systems and traveling around the Galaxy. This is exploration, I know I deserve my rank, and my path in the galaxy is recorded in the tags I left around. That's my pride!