@FDev Stop nerfing/changing payouts or parameters for passenger missions!!!

[CMDR_DeltaAgent26]

I just purchased and upgraded a new ship, so am low on funds.
wanted to do a few passenger missions to get ahead again.

go to my usual spot, which I've been using off and on for several weeks,
and payouts for certain missions have been nerfed by 90% or more, even though the
system is still in "Boom" status...

I used to be able to get missions that would pay out up to 32 million credits for 27 passengers...
Now those same missions only pay up to 2M each!
This is B.S!

I'm still traveling nearly 2 million Ls from the main star to the destination station...
WHY IS THE PAYOUT LESS?

What was changed server side to cause the reduction in the payouts?

 

[lokvette]

They nerfed all long range passanger missions in response to some being a bit overpaid, or somthing along that PR line from FD.

I hear its a temp nerf but I doubt they will come back the same.

 

[duster88]

Yes, I just did a test run and made only 23 million in 1:45 in Seaton. Prior to the nerf I made 130 million on my last run. The nerf is draconian. Why have passenger ships or missions anymore? ED always errs on the side of making the game boring. ie grind. Players grind hundreds of hours in trade to get an anaconda, then hundreds of hours on engineering, then hours getting allied. If you've earned it they will take it away. Its why many players leave for long periods of time, game just gets boring/ repetitive. ED "Hey been gone for a year? Come back to the game and try out passenger missions". I come back. ED, "Hey you're back, screw you, we're going to nerf the passenger missions." I leave again.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Those kinds of high payouts are effectively broken. So FD nerfed them to prevent "excessive progress" until fixed.

The same thing eventually happens to all of these cash cows.
Someone finds one. They tell people. Word gets out, it gets out of hand and half the player base is swimming in money. Money becomes [more] worthless.
FD only have two real options.
Fix the overpaying missions.
Or
Increase the price of everything dramatically. Which negatively effects those not wishing to do repeat the same mission over and over and want to play the game as intended.

So it's actually worse for the game to leave it in place for multiple reasons.

If you can achieve a goal of getting one of the big 3/4/5 (whatever it is!), or have billions of credits in a few hours, then there's no incentive for you to stick around.
Less players is less people likely to spend money in the store.
Less money is bad for FD and Elites development.
And anything that negatively effects Elites development is bad for the players.

FD just need to finally get the payouts for all activities balanced and roughly equal. So everyone can enjoy getting paid appropriately for what they enjoy doing. I'm hoping that's what they're working towards.

CMDR Cosmic Spacehead

 

[CMDR_DeltaAgent26]

@Cosmic

I would play the game if I could afford to do what I want to do in the game.
When high paying missions, that I actually enjoy doing, get nerfed, it makes me want to quit playing the game altogether.
Why should I be forced to have to do MORE repetitions for LESS money?

Progression comes with time spent in the game playing. And if the game is not enjoyable, why bother playing it?

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

@Cosmic

I would play the game if I could afford to do what I want to do in the game.
When high paying missions, that I actually enjoy doing, get nerfed, it makes me want to quit playing the game altogether.
Why should I be forced to have to do MORE repetitions for LESS money?

Progression comes with time spent in the game playing. And if the game is not enjoyable, why bother playing it?

ED has some serious progression issues.

Mining doesn't scale very well at all. Because it's entirely RNG based.

Trading scales well, because bigger ship = more profit. But it could scale further. There's an absolute limit at some point. An easy fix is just add more valuable cargo items to trade, or adjust the ones we already have.

Combat stops scaling at all after a certain point. I don't earn any more credits per hour in combat in my Python, than I do my Anaconda. This could easily be fixed by adding tougher and higher paying NPC's, ideally in large wings, which would also fix the issue with how easy hunting in a wing is.

Exploration still pays amongst the lowest, despite its various buffs in recent years.
And that doesn't scale at all. You can earn exactly the same in any ship, providing you have the same 2 scanners and a fuel scoop. And don't die. Lol

Passenger missions are relatively new, and I think FD are still trying to get that one right.
Payouts based on distance in Ls are very new too, so that's still being balanced.

FD do need to sort out progression in this game, and quickly really.
They need a baseline to work on, which I assume is trading. Then everything needs to be brought in to line with that really.

No more 100+m credit missions for 30 minutes work or whatever, unless you can do that in every other activity too. Earning enough money to buy an Anaconda in a few hours cheapens the Anacondas value really.

So like I said, either payouts need a good balance pass, or increase the price of everything by a lot.
But if you raised the value of an Anaconda to say, 1,300,000,000cr, then the people who don't run these oddball super high payout missions are stuck grinding for longer.
And of course, the rebuy becomes ridiculous aswell.

 

[fitzsteve]

They don't intend for commanders to get credits in the 100m's per hour, something like 20m an hour is where it's always been give or take (max earnings for most activities) As much as I liked the easy credit buff of doing a couple of Smeaton runs it wasn't in keeping with the economy of the game. They will bring back the long range bonus once they can get it at a balanced level. For now there are still bulk passenger runs to nearby systems that pay well, you might want Business or First Class cabins for these or sightseeing missions that pay 8-10m for 45mins work, stack 3 of these in a Conda with 40+ ly Jump Range and you're earning 30m/hr. It's enough.