ANNOUNCEMENT Game Balancing

[DemiserofD]

There is problem with this.
Salvage is taken from POIs, Surface signals and USS.
POIs can be exploited as they respawn loot on relog.
USS can be exploited to get the same loot over and over till timer runs out.
Surfaces spawn random loot constantly on relog.

Without a very long timer added to the respawn, of Salvage Items we can collect, any increase in the prices risks being exploited.

Dont get me wrong I very much want to do Salvage, that is not just a hobby for he rich.
I feel though, that if you dont fix the exploits involved especially with POIs, that it is just creating a new imbalance.
You could use the same timer system you already use, on Geo and Bio mats, but just place it on the POI loot. (if that system is still in use)

I'd be 100% fine with HGE farming going away if it were replaced with something more fun, like finding crashed ships on the surface. Change the majority of canisters you find on the ground into high grade materials, plus throw in a few valuable salvage items to carry(just 2-3, we do have limited srv cargo space after all), and they'd be a real treat to find.

Heck, since everyone gets Horizons now you could just get rid of HGEs entirely and replace them with the ground sources. Give us a REASON to explode across planet surfaces!

 

[Gabriele]

I am very happy for this new balance, I would also give a touch-up to the expolaration that bears quite well but I believe that all the Cmdrs who leave their home to explore the immensities of the universe, alone for months and months, pioneers, dreamers, curious , biologists, scientists, need greater financial recognition

 

[The Golden Knight]

One other detail in hindsight:

I'm ALL for offering super-parts as prizes (such as the recent FSD), BUT with THAT SAID, now's NOT the time for those kinds of offerings while you're still weighing out the BALANCING of the game on the whole, across the board. As those events taught us, we've underestimated the impact that carriers and late-game ships would have...just as a single example. And that's coming from someone in the Top 10% just from sheer determination and grit along with copious amounts of free time sponsored by COVID.

OH, and I really, REALLY don't care about mining. Just working to Triple Elite can see a player end up with a 10 digit credit balance. Seriously, the only mining I've ever done was to unlock specific engineers, and that was as fun as laying in a hospital bed, waiting for the knockout chems they'd insert into the IV. So the simple fact that "Elite Dangerous" is going down to "Minecraft in Space" is, in my mind, NOT what "Elite Dangerous" is supposed to be about. I do agree, it's supposed to be DANGEROUS! (Well, unless you've got an engineered Corvette...or capital ship assuming you can foot the bill of that scale where hypothetically capital ships can be implemented for direct action combat engagements.) To get it back in line with that, you're gonna need to reap mining much harder than a simple "nerf".
What would I do? One GalNet article explaining all about "Surplus across the board" to explain the fact that mining is simply closed...like, total shutdown until you get your darling "Economy" fixed-ISH. At the same time, trading universally in every single port of the whole galaxy - no exceptions - would be teeming with high supply and low demand (doesn't have to be every commodity everywhere, just specifically 1) high supply and 2) low demand). Any exceptions that are high demand REGARDLESS fall explicitly under "Black Market" trading, to spike interest in smuggling (since lockdown means there are surpluses, but not that places have a glut of EVERYTHING - and the things lacking, combined with lockdown, will create some steep demands in a few choice areas). Plus, a second GalNet article about "Martial Law" to give way to immense and intense emphasis on combat AND risks of trading; both pirates AND local militaries will be out sniffing for loot (it'd certainly make illegal smuggling a lot more "interesting" if not profitable when the whole Bubble is on permanent lockdown, and lockdown levels COVID can only ASPIRE to attain). I also really don't care about "economy" as a concept, either...I said it elsewhere, but it bears repeating: I'm NOT "in it for the money".

The question then is, what kind of crisis would create a Martial Law SPECIFICALLY during an unthinkably abundant surplus? Thargoid Invasion, that's what. Have the aliens go right into Sol. No more messing around, it's REAL WAR now. (Just imagine them nuking the White House like in the movie "Independence Day".

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eujwxh_r43E
) That in mind, EVERY SINGLE FACTION of the BGS, NO EXCEPTIONS, will be hand-set to THE "Lockdown" flag. Full-blown alien war is THE perfect narrative excuse to ramp up the rewards for Anti-Xeno combat!
All in all, for what I would do, this alien invasion combined with the "economy re-balancing" should in-character stir up COVID levels of hysteria.

I don't expect that to happen since you were clear in saying this will be a slow process dealt with piece by piece, in slow increments and SPECIFICALLY NOT in huge swings. Because of that, it's why this is prefaced with "What would I do".

(I truly do hate censorship, but that is beyond the scope of this discussion.)
Mod edit: don't swear or evade the swear filter then.

 

[Valorin]

Greetings Commanders!

Game balance has been at the heart of many discussions around Elite Dangerous, for a long time, and rightly so. At its core, Elite Dangerous is about blazing your own trail and we want all Commanders to feel fairly rewarded for whichever path they choose.

To this end, we have taken a close look at the current state of the game and where we would like it to be. Using our data combined with your feedback, we have created a plan of incremental changes we hope will bring the key gameplay mechanics more in line with each other.

What's Changing?

Elite Dangerous has seen a lot of changes since its release in 2014. Among many other aspects of the game, these changes have affected the core gameplay elements and how players earn credits. Over that time, while we have made some balancing adjustments, these elements have inevitably grown out of sync.

In response to your feedback, will bring a series of balancing adjustments to the rate at which credits are earned in each core gameplay mechanic: mining, trade, combat and exploration. Our goal is to have rewards better match the level of skill, effort, and risk each method requires. This means we'll see increased credit rates in some activities and reductions in others.

Crucially, this re-balancing will be an ongoing process where we spend time observing how the changes affect the game and how you, the community, respond both in-game and with your feedback. This may mean several adjustments are needed for each type of gameplay before settling on final values. Giving each method attention in isolation will allow us to more accurately see the results and tweak accordingly, hence the step by step approach, but ultimately they all need to work in the context of each other.

Mining and combat stand out from your feedback as needing the most attention with regards to balancing. As such, we will begin with mining, bring the top range down to a point we see as fair and look at which aspects of mining should offer the greatest rewards based on the skill required.

After this, we intend to look at increasing bounties and solo combat missions in the weeks that follow to meet expected levels. From there we can turn to the still important but less pressing elements such as other mission types and exploration.

These changes will be woven into Elite Dangerous lore and introduced through the narrative. The first can be expected early next week in the form of a GalNet article.

Mining and Trade

Mining has been the most lucrative role within Elite Dangerous for a long time. While this makes perfect sense as pilots find, extract, and transport huge quantities of precious minerals, the gap has become disproportional. This has allowed even brand new Commanders to become wealthy enough to buy the highest performing ships very quickly. For the health and longevity of Elite Dangerous, we're going to considerably reduce the payout of this activity so that it remains lucrative but players won't feel compelled to head out to the latest triple hotspot whenever they need credits.

The following changes will be implemented early next week as a starting point:

These approximate maximum prices offered by markets for the following commodities will be introduced:

• Painite - 600,000
• Low Temperature Diamonds - 700,000
• Void Opals - 1,300,000

To recognise and reward the extra effort and skill needed for core mining, the majority of minerals extracted this way will see an increase in price, barring Void Opals mentioned above. Several mining commodities which can be bought will have the range of their prices increased, resulting in a higher number of goods with strong profit margins (25,000+) when commodity markets are in suitable states.

To benefit trade, we'll also bring the following changes:

• Commodity markets will offer the average price rather than minimum price when selling in bulk. This will affect all commodities.
• The base prices of a number of general salvage items will be increased.

What's Next?

As above, these first changes will happen early next week. We'll spend time observing their effects and listening to your feedback before deciding whether further adjustments are needed.

Next, we intend to adjust combat rewards in the form of bounties and mission payouts. You can expect to hear the planned changes before the date is announced in a post similar to this one.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding that this isn't a fast process and it will take time for the effects to become clear.

We would also most importantly like to thank you for your continued constructive feedback on this topic, which will be invaluable during this process!

Thanks for your support,

o7

I actually like the changes.

Just one thing: if "woven into the lore" means, you will make up silly lore reasons for the changes to be there, please don't.

If those reasons fit into the game world and are not just blunt explainers, it's great, but in the past, most of those entries have been pretty ridiculous and didn't fit into the game world at all. Like telepresence, 3D printing, Engineers who are shady loners suddenly banding together for an initiative (as if they are an organisation), the Pilots' Federation doing a lot of stupid stuff to explain away game balancing after they STILL don't even have an entry in the Pilots manual tutorial...

Imbedding game changes in the lore is generally a good idea. Just making up stuff to have a rough explanation though HURTS the lore, and those people who actually like lore stuff are the ones you hurt with it, while those who don't care don't need an explanation anyway.

 

[Scratch Mr 9]

Greetings Commanders!

Game balance has been at the heart of many discussions around Elite Dangerous, for a long time, and rightly so. At its core, Elite Dangerous is about blazing your own trail and we want all Commanders to feel fairly rewarded for whichever path they choose.

To this end, we have taken a close look at the current state of the game and where we would like it to be. Using our data combined with your feedback, we have created a plan of incremental changes we hope will bring the key gameplay mechanics more in line with each other.

What's Changing?

Elite Dangerous has seen a lot of changes since its release in 2014. Among many other aspects of the game, these changes have affected the core gameplay elements and how players earn credits. Over that time, while we have made some balancing adjustments, these elements have inevitably grown out of sync.

In response to your feedback, will bring a series of balancing adjustments to the rate at which credits are earned in each core gameplay mechanic: mining, trade, combat and exploration. Our goal is to have rewards better match the level of skill, effort, and risk each method requires. This means we'll see increased credit rates in some activities and reductions in others.

Crucially, this re-balancing will be an ongoing process where we spend time observing how the changes affect the game and how you, the community, respond both in-game and with your feedback. This may mean several adjustments are needed for each type of gameplay before settling on final values. Giving each method attention in isolation will allow us to more accurately see the results and tweak accordingly, hence the step by step approach, but ultimately they all need to work in the context of each other.

Mining and combat stand out from your feedback as needing the most attention with regards to balancing. As such, we will begin with mining, bring the top range down to a point we see as fair and look at which aspects of mining should offer the greatest rewards based on the skill required.

After this, we intend to look at increasing bounties and solo combat missions in the weeks that follow to meet expected levels. From there we can turn to the still important but less pressing elements such as other mission types and exploration.

These changes will be woven into Elite Dangerous lore and introduced through the narrative. The first can be expected early next week in the form of a GalNet article.

Mining and Trade

Mining has been the most lucrative role within Elite Dangerous for a long time. While this makes perfect sense as pilots find, extract, and transport huge quantities of precious minerals, the gap has become disproportional. This has allowed even brand new Commanders to become wealthy enough to buy the highest performing ships very quickly. For the health and longevity of Elite Dangerous, we're going to considerably reduce the payout of this activity so that it remains lucrative but players won't feel compelled to head out to the latest triple hotspot whenever they need credits.

The following changes will be implemented early next week as a starting point:

These approximate maximum prices offered by markets for the following commodities will be introduced:

• Painite - 600,000
• Low Temperature Diamonds - 700,000
• Void Opals - 1,300,000

To recognise and reward the extra effort and skill needed for core mining, the majority of minerals extracted this way will see an increase in price, barring Void Opals mentioned above. Several mining commodities which can be bought will have the range of their prices increased, resulting in a higher number of goods with strong profit margins (25,000+) when commodity markets are in suitable states.

To benefit trade, we'll also bring the following changes:

• Commodity markets will offer the average price rather than minimum price when selling in bulk. This will affect all commodities.
• The base prices of a number of general salvage items will be increased.

What's Next?

As above, these first changes will happen early next week. We'll spend time observing their effects and listening to your feedback before deciding whether further adjustments are needed.

Next, we intend to adjust combat rewards in the form of bounties and mission payouts. You can expect to hear the planned changes before the date is announced in a post similar to this one.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding that this isn't a fast process and it will take time for the effects to become clear.

We would also most importantly like to thank you for your continued constructive feedback on this topic, which will be invaluable during this process!

Thanks for your support,

o7

As I agree and understand balance changes I don’t understand why mining payout is not bound to a rank just like exploration and bounty’s ? Doesn’t a experienced CMDR deserve more then a noob it would be a good solution to a problem

 

[DemiserofD]

I actually like the changes.

Just one thing: if "woven into the lore" means, you will make up silly lore reasons for the changes to be there, please don't.

If those reasons fit into the game world and are not just blunt explainers, it's great, but in the past, most of those entries have been pretty ridiculous and didn't fit into the game world at all. Like telepresence, 3D printing, Engineers who are shady loners suddenly banding together for an initiative (as if they are an organisation), the Pilots' Federation doing a lot of stupid stuff to explain away game balancing after they STILL don't even have an entry in the Pilots manual tutorial...

Imbedding game changes in the lore is generally a good idea. Just making up stuff to have a rough explanation though HURTS the lore, and those people who actually like lore stuff are the ones you hurt with it, while those who don't care don't need an explanation anyway.

Fortunately there's a pretty straightforward explanation for this one.

"Gemstone Bubble Pops: Massive Oversupply of Precious Gems Triggers Price Crash"

"Precious gemstone prices across the bubble have collapsed, falling to levels not seen since 3303. Reports indicate this is due to a massive influx of these precious stones from Pilots Federation miners; it was believed that supplies would eventually run short, temporarily propping up the markets, but in light of the continuing supply, a small wave of short-sellers triggered a run on the market, causing prices to fall en-masse."

"In fashion news, glamour star Savannah Justicia says Painite and Low-Temperature Diamonds are now 'totally passé', and 'Benitoite is, like, so gorgeous! You should totally buy my new line of Benitoite jewelry, exclusively from Justicia Fashion Trends!"

 

[EmmyV]

So, I know I will probably stand out as I am not part of your main core forum warriors. But if you guys and gals are looking for rebalance. I would invite you to consider perhaps refocusing on a couple things as you move into your much anticipated Oddessy expansion.

As it stands, myself and my wife are game developers who love your game. Or more accurately love the idea of your game and have tried to support and invest when we can to encourage your beautiful and ambitious title to succeed! (Multiple LEPs purchased, for instance). However, when it comes down to pick a game to play, despite the HOTAS I bought specifically for this of the $200 mount it goes in. Elite dangerous seldom gets selected.

Today, as we finally got the chance to try mining and the guardian ruins for the first time today due to surprise covid related holiday cancelation, we have excitedly gotten our stuff together, flown out and done the puzzle to unlock the orb, after hours of blowing rocks up. I finally was able to put my finger on why despite my deep love for your game, I struggle to play it, and seldom if ever, recommend it.

Right now the game's base is cool! It's a fun idea on a tried and true classic 4x space game. But, it also doesn't add to those classics, and in many ways falls prey to those games shortcomings even harder than those originals. Everything takes time, and that wouldn't be too bad if the reward for time spent felt like it matched, and even in "lucrative" endeavors like driving around blowing up rocks, it isn't.

It's not that the gameplay loop needs to be blown into "Everything needs to be 100 mil plus" that's not the issue. It's just that lots of activities are hedged in repetition rather than reward. Doesn't matter if it's thargoids, rocks, or guardian ruins. When you take the time to do an activity and it's challenging, or hard, and you feel rewarded and come "home" or back victorious (or, sometimes defeated) you feel a sense of accomplishment or a fore to do better next time. In elite, that doesn't exist.

I realized that as I was blowing up rocks, after finally finding the dang void opal, getting the optimal yield, braving the ice and collecting the things, I had fun! But when I realized that in order to reach a level of reward that I (or most people) would find fitting, that I had to do this song and dance near indefinitely, the second became less fun and as I looked at the clock to see so much time pass, the next one felt less and less appealing.

There has to be a way to retool the loop experience. Like, (and this is not a true suggestion but an example off the top of my head) if a thargoid ship attacked a station, station needed help, a player or multiple players, fight this thing, it's hard, harms them. Takes huge efforts to defeat and ultimately they save the station and get lots of money for doing it, I imagine that would be well received by all. It wouldn't make players scrounge the galaxy for back to back 1 hour tussles, but it certainly would give you something to look forward to the next time you play.

The current squabbling of grinders pointing the finger at various tasks is symptomatic of a larger problem, and the standing lack of retention power this game has may be best described by the experiences above. Ultimately I will keep coming back, keep trying to play it, and keep loving elite, but I look forward to the day when I can bring the game up and hear "oh yeah, Elite dangerous, I love that game too!"

 

[Toxophilite]

Sounds good.

 

[DemiserofD]

So, I know I will probably stand out as I am not part of your main core forum warriors. But if you guys and gals are looking for rebalance. I would invite you to consider perhaps refocusing on a couple things as you move into your much anticipated Oddessy expansion.

As it stands, myself and my wife are game developers who love your game. Or more accurately love the idea of your game and have tried to support and invest when we can to encourage your beautiful and ambitious title to succeed! (Multiple LEPs purchased, for instance). However, when it comes down to pick a game to play, despite the HOTAS I bought specifically for this of the $200 mount it goes in. Elite dangerous seldom gets selected.

Today, as we finally got the chance to try mining and the guardian ruins for the first time today due to surprise covid related holiday cancelation, we have excitedly gotten our stuff together, flown out and done the puzzle to unlock the orb, after hours of blowing rocks up. I finally was able to put my finger on why despite my deep love for your game, I struggle to play it, and seldom if ever, recommend it.

Right now the game's base is cool! It's a fun idea on a tried and true classic 4x space game. But, it also doesn't add to those classics, and in many ways falls prey to those games shortcomings even harder than those originals. Everything takes time, and that wouldn't be too bad if the reward for time spent felt like it matched, and even in "lucrative" endeavors like driving around blowing up rocks, it isn't.

It's not that the gameplay loop needs to be blown into "Everything needs to be 100 mil plus" that's not the issue. It's just that lots of activities are hedged in repetition rather than reward. Doesn't matter if it's thargoids, rocks, or guardian ruins. When you take the time to do an activity and it's challenging, or hard, and you feel rewarded and come "home" or back victorious (or, sometimes defeated) you feel a sense of accomplishment or a fore to do better next time. In elite, that doesn't exist.

I realized that as I was blowing up rocks, after finally finding the dang void opal, getting the optimal yield, braving the ice and collecting the things, I had fun! But when I realized that in order to reach a level of reward that I (or most people) would find fitting, that I had to do this song and dance near indefinitely, the second became less fun and as I looked at the clock to see so much time pass, the next one felt less and less appealing.

There has to be a way to retool the loop experience. Like, (and this is not a true suggestion but an example off the top of my head) if a thargoid ship attacked a station, station needed help, a player or multiple players, fight this thing, it's hard, harms them. Takes huge efforts to defeat and ultimately they save the station and get lots of money for doing it, I imagine that would be well received by all. It wouldn't make players scrounge the galaxy for back to back 1 hour tussles, but it certainly would give you something to look forward to the next time you play.

The current squabbling of grinders pointing the finger at various tasks is symptomatic of a larger problem, and the standing lack of retention power this game has may be best described by the experiences above. Ultimately I will keep coming back, keep trying to play it, and keep loving elite, but I look forward to the day when I can bring the game up and hear "oh yeah, Elite dangerous, I love that game too!"

I think the mistake you're making is a common one, and that's assuming you need to grind just one thing before you play the game 'for real'.

The truth is, you ARE playing the game. If you don't want to mine for hours, don't.

This will become easier next week, as the mining outputs are reduced and others are brought higher, but I've barely mined at all for the last three months, and my credit balance has remained pretty well stable without even worrying about it, just by doing whatever I feel like doing.

 

[EmmyV]

I think the mistake you're making is a common one, and that's assuming you need to grind just one thing before you play the game 'for real'.

The truth is, you ARE playing the game. If you don't want to mine for hours, don't.

This will become easier next week, as the mining outputs are reduced and others are brought higher, but I've barely mined at all for the last three months, and my credit balance has remained pretty well stable without even worrying about it, just by doing whatever I feel like doing.

Nah, that's not it.

 

[Patrick_68000]

So we can say that there are a lot of Cmdrs who got outrageously rich, because the game is out of balance ?

It's quite scandalous and unequal for the new entrants.

I propose to reset all accounts and start over when the game is balanced.

 

[Ozric]

We know that focus feedback didn't mean that it will be implemented, but the fact was that Focus Feedback was advertised BY Fdev as feedback on things they want to change or implement, 90% of the focus feedback were things that were reworked (if not more than 90%) they were not reworked BASED on the feedback, that was clear, but I do not remember much anything aside from Powerplay that had a Focus Feedback and was not worked (even if the rework disregarded the feedback completely). So if there was any other area of the game that did not get a rework other than Powerplay, I would like to know which?

Well Powerplay wasn't part of the FFF proposed changes at all, this is where I believe the root of most people's misunderstanding lie. Squadrons, Mining and Exploration/Codex were the topics looking at being worked/reworked. Squadrons was obviously new at the time, so there were in fact only 2 areas of the game that got a rework. The PP thread was an aside to Squadrons and Sandro said that they were considering some tweaks. That's it.
How about the Exploration FFF, what about that? That whole rework of the Exploration system, which was the first time any work had been done to the mechanics of Exploration in 4 years? Supposed to be published in June, then delayed, then postponed, and in the end it didn't even get one! The only topic that didn't get a Focused Feedback section, one of the core gameplay elements, and we had no say in what happened there.
What we got was, here's what you're getting. Then we had to spend the Beta getting across all the points we had and issues with the new system, which weren't altered at the end of the Beta. We than had to wait until the end of January before there were 2 fixes put in for things that were completely broken, and a change that everybody had wanted and asked for.

 

[Dis Acoustic]

About CQC: An overhaul of the CQC-rewards would be an easy way to attract more players to this great part of the game. Besides more credits, decals, ARX as @0bi-Wan mentioned it, I would like to see a reward for every new Prestige-Rank. Perhaps special CQC-liveries, special engineered modules (like those in the current CG) or Bobbleheads for the main-ships in open.

 

[EWanderer]

Thanks for the suggestion! For PvP payouts specifically, how would you account for players gaming the system with friends and alt accounts?

Have bounties come out of the pocket of the commander and cap it the maximum liquid assets + partial value of the destroyed ship, if the destroyed player is forced to buy the sidey because lack of funds. Then add a tax of 15-50% tax on the bounty thus simply destroying a bunch of cash. In comparision to Fleet Carriers which are effectively free money exchanges, bounty shenanigans wouldn't be such a big deal. You could even slow down explotive cash flow by making the bounty for killing things increase by Notoritity and have notority also increase the tax. This way you would have to wait for a few hours if you wanted to transfer the maximum ammount of cash.

Combat rank isn't even affected by bounty, since only the rank of the killed target determines the next level.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

So we can say that there are a lot of Cmdrs who got outrageously rich, because the game is out of balance ?

It's quite scandalous and unequal for the new entrants.

I propose to reset all accounts and start over when the game is balanced.

There wouldn't be enough salt in the entire galaxy to fuel that fire!

 

[-Crossed-]

Now I agree with the general idea that mining needs a nerf, but I'm curious as to what it is about deep core and SS that involves so much more skill and effort that they should be treated all that differently from laser mining. They're slightly more involved sure, but from a game design pov I would think that only indicates a problem with laser mining (it's uninvolved, aka shallow and boring), not more difficult, which should be a much better criterion for increased payouts. Does shooting fast missiles at asteroids rotating predictably and at such a ponderous pace really all that much more skilled (if that) than just figruing out the rotation axis of an asteroid to avoid the chunks shooting out in every direction when laser mining?

It doesn't take skill to find and crack an asteroid, but it does take some skill to do it fast, so the better you're at it the more you earn per hour, at least that's how it should be ideally..

 

[Zieman]

I propose to reset all accounts and start over when the game is balanced.

That would be equally unfair towards all existing customers.
I'm all in for resetting credits back to 1000 for everyone, and pilots federation ranks that depend on earnings (Exploration, Trade).
Maybe lose all stored materials, ships, FCs and modules. Keeping only the ship one's currently flying, with the loadout untouched.
Engineer access, system permits, combat rank, superpower ranks, exploration 1st discoveries/mappings all should stay intact.

Of course, I'm not expecting any of this to happen, the crying and whining would be apocalyptic.
But I'd welcome the kind of balance pass I outlined above.

 

[Sysmon]

Sounds good.

TS;DR

S

 

[Sysmon]

I think problem with realism will come. In fact it should be like 2000t+ of water out of 1 rock. However, when it's applied to current mechanic (laser/pieces/refine) you can't do 120% chunk.
P.S. actually it's pretty dumb right now "rock has 20% of water", okey ...but what contains water then ? After mining such basic things like water/oxygen it must remain nothing.
I can understand 20% and 80% of water in rock. But not 20% of water and 80% "trash", because we mine all sorts of "trash" elsewhere.
...so to proper balance, they should start from very deep change, i.e. when rock 100% mined it's gone. If you mine water - rock of ship size, you get at least ship weight amount of water.

OK realism. Mine ice and get 99% water. Mine for rare stuff and get it in parts per million or billion or less.

Would probably need to add some tools to mining to justify that. That’s feasible, but it would be a major overhaul.

S

 

[Patrick_68000]

That would be equally unfair towards all existing customers.
I'm all in for resetting credits back to 1000 for everyone, and pilots federation ranks that depend on earnings (Exploration, Trade).
Maybe lose all stored materials, ships, FCs and modules. Keeping only the ship one's currently flying, with the loadout untouched.
Engineer access, system permits, combat rank, superpower ranks, exploration 1st discoveries/mappings all should stay intact.

Of course, I'm not expecting any of this to happen, the crying and whining would be apocalyptic.
But I'd welcome the kind of balance pass I outlined above.

For my part I was joking.

Certainly I wanted to Pop corn this morning.

But your proposal is interesting and balanced.