So the smart explorer will time his arrival back in civilisation the same day the weekly points turnover, sell some of his data and get his 400 ARX for the first week, then a few hours later sell another lot and get the next weeks 400ARX, sounds good to me!
Half-Arxed exploration
- Thread starter Para Handy
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So the smart explorer will time his arrival back in civilisation the same day the weekly points turnover, sell some of his data and get his 400 ARX for the first week, then a few hours later sell another lot and get the next weeks 400ARX, sounds good to me!
I maxed out my Arx income for 2 weeks in a row plus some more by doing normal missions and daily selling 20m of exploration data.
Come to Carcosa, we have Arx. (And lots of unexplored systems starting just 3 jumps away.)
Come to Carcosa, we have Arx. (And lots of unexplored systems starting just 3 jumps away.)
That was plugged.
But yes, i really hope they will fix the Arx gains and tie it more to actually playing the game than to the amount of credits gains.
It does rather limit your radius of action to the distance you can jump in 3.5 days (less the time you take to do anything else, like work, sleep, eat) though. Might make galactic circumnavigation a bit problematic.
Only if you are really worried about ARX, I doubt I will be back in civilisation for months, so the game can bite my ARX.
I can't possibly see those numbers being correct, I have jumped may times, scanned many bodies, got quite a number of codex entries from entering are region and routinely get maybe a couple of ARX on checking, I will see what happens and check a few possibilities.
Ok well the 1 ARX per 5 jumps seems to be working out right, whether philosophically it makes sense is another question, should we be using a ARX reward method that gives ARX for getting as many jumps in as quickly as possible? Surely that's the anti-thesis of exploration. If I spend 15 or 20 minutes in a system checking out the bodies, scanning the life on them, mapping interesting ones I get nothing, if I ignore everything and quickly jump to the next system i get 1/5 of an ARX?
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Interesting to see the responses (even with hot pics!).
Just to be clear, I am not moaning about what Arx I "earn" per activity, I am quite happy to get free "reward points" at whatever rate they come. I am just highlighting what others have indicated, that the award of this stuff for explorers only really comes on the sale of data. To me this is greatly at variance of the postulated "earn while you do your normal game play". The idea that one should hang-on to explo data and sell it off in tranches to maximise Arx feels dreadful and would restrict peoples activities if they wanted to make the most Arx from their data resulting in the "reward to encourage playing" actually encouraging not playing?
I was hoping that there might have been some indication from F D that I had missed regarding them reconsidering how exploration is covered re the Arx.
(This post reads horrible - I need more coffee, sorry.)
Just to be clear, I am not moaning about what Arx I "earn" per activity, I am quite happy to get free "reward points" at whatever rate they come. I am just highlighting what others have indicated, that the award of this stuff for explorers only really comes on the sale of data. To me this is greatly at variance of the postulated "earn while you do your normal game play". The idea that one should hang-on to explo data and sell it off in tranches to maximise Arx feels dreadful and would restrict peoples activities if they wanted to make the most Arx from their data resulting in the "reward to encourage playing" actually encouraging not playing?
I was hoping that there might have been some indication from F D that I had missed regarding them reconsidering how exploration is covered re the Arx.
(This post reads horrible - I need more coffee, sorry.)
There is a possible explanation for mining not getting Arx. The Arx calculation was probably in the refinery code but it caused a crash in some circumstances. They might have rolled that back until they get around to fixing it.
But I haven't seen any such explanation for exploration not earning Arx. It would seem fairly simple for discovering a new system to earn something.
But I haven't seen any such explanation for exploration not earning Arx. It would seem fairly simple for discovering a new system to earn something.
FDev have sort of "painted themselves into a corner" here.
Let's face it, given all the other ways FDev have relented (mat's, module storage, synthesis etc), what FDev probably should do is just allow us to manually transmit our data manually - perhaps for a percentage of what delivering them in person earns - which'd also take care of the Arx issue.
You'd have the choice of transmitting your data weekly and earning, say, 75% of the potential credits and Arx or take the risk bringing it all home and selling it in person (a week's worth at a time) for maximum profit in Credits and Arx.
Trouble is, FDev seem to have committed to this idea of the "jeopardy" of exploration data - possibly 'cos they figure it's the only real jeopardy associated with exploration.
What I'd like to see would be more routine maintenance required during exploration to create an immediate measure of jeopardy and the creation of some kind of "long distance transmitter" module which you could fit to an exploration ship and allow you to send back your data whenever you want.
Make the "transmitter" a utility module which works a bit like the existing scanners
Fit an D-rated transmitter and it's light and won't need a big PP or lots of power-management but it'll only give you, say, 50% of the value of your data.
Fit an A-rated transmitter and it'll be fairly heavy and require a heap of power but it'll give you 80% of the value of your data.
Also, how about a "Data Relay Module" too?
That'd be an internal module which'd allow you to launch relay transmitters, say, every 5,000Ly or so and boost the quality of the data you transmitted.
You'd need to find materials to build the relays prior to launching them, which'd give you something else to do while exploring.
When you look at the galmap there'd be an overlay (a bit like the PP one, but simpler) which shows you the position of your current relays so you'd be able to deploy them within range of each other to transmit your data back to the bubble with minimal signal degradation (and, thus minimal loss of credits).
I realise that people worry about "module overload" but I really think the game needs more "toys" for people to play with - and to create the need for compromises in ship-builds.
Do you build an exploration ship with all the repair tools and have to bring your data home with you or do you forego that repair controller so you can fit a Data Relay Fabricator so you can send data as you explore?
Let's face it, given all the other ways FDev have relented (mat's, module storage, synthesis etc), what FDev probably should do is just allow us to manually transmit our data manually - perhaps for a percentage of what delivering them in person earns - which'd also take care of the Arx issue.
You'd have the choice of transmitting your data weekly and earning, say, 75% of the potential credits and Arx or take the risk bringing it all home and selling it in person (a week's worth at a time) for maximum profit in Credits and Arx.
Trouble is, FDev seem to have committed to this idea of the "jeopardy" of exploration data - possibly 'cos they figure it's the only real jeopardy associated with exploration.
What I'd like to see would be more routine maintenance required during exploration to create an immediate measure of jeopardy and the creation of some kind of "long distance transmitter" module which you could fit to an exploration ship and allow you to send back your data whenever you want.
Make the "transmitter" a utility module which works a bit like the existing scanners
Fit an D-rated transmitter and it's light and won't need a big PP or lots of power-management but it'll only give you, say, 50% of the value of your data.
Fit an A-rated transmitter and it'll be fairly heavy and require a heap of power but it'll give you 80% of the value of your data.
Also, how about a "Data Relay Module" too?
That'd be an internal module which'd allow you to launch relay transmitters, say, every 5,000Ly or so and boost the quality of the data you transmitted.
You'd need to find materials to build the relays prior to launching them, which'd give you something else to do while exploring.
When you look at the galmap there'd be an overlay (a bit like the PP one, but simpler) which shows you the position of your current relays so you'd be able to deploy them within range of each other to transmit your data back to the bubble with minimal signal degradation (and, thus minimal loss of credits).
I realise that people worry about "module overload" but I really think the game needs more "toys" for people to play with - and to create the need for compromises in ship-builds.
Do you build an exploration ship with all the repair tools and have to bring your data home with you or do you forego that repair controller so you can fit a Data Relay Fabricator so you can send data as you explore?
It's an interesting subject for sure, but I'm not really concerned with it. I'm just playing my normal game, enjoying myself, and as of last night I have a little over 40 ARX. No plans what-so-ever of doing anything with them.
I can't use them to buy lottery tickets, so they're pretty useless to me.
I don't see why they can't make Arx-earning for exploration be activity-based and not give Arx rewards for selling explo data. That way they could encourage and reward exploration activities with Arx. It wouldn't be hard to decouple the activity from the credits.
P.S. No I don't like the idea of remote explo data selling, that would encourage suicidewindering in my view.
Wow, everyone must have me blocked we already get arx during exploration for scanning, jumping, refuel, srv synthesis, codex finds. It just needs balancing.
Anyway carry on with the myths, I look forward to the open letter or else human sacrifice to the God of arx to guarantee a fruitful voyage
o7
we already get arx during exploration for scanning, jumping, refuel, srv synthesis, codex finds. It just needs balancing. Anyway carry on with the myths, I look forward to the open letter
or else human sacrifice to the God of arx to guarantee a fruitful voyage o7
Fundamentally, I think FDev need to consider the distinction between what earns Arx and what earns Credits.
I mean, if earning Arx is supposed to be an incentive to play the game, it doesn't necessarily follow that Arx should be awarded on the same basis as Credits.
As Factabulous says (with regard to exploration), if Arx is a reward for doing exploration then it shouldn't necessarily follow that you receive Arx under the same conditions that you receive Credits.
You've played the game by doing your scans.
Award some Arx for that and then, perhaps, award some more for selling your data - which, again, is playing the game.
By the same token, if you took on a mission to, say, destroy 80 pirates, you might destroy 75 of them and then not be able to complete the mission for some reason.
You'd get paid zero credits (and, maybe, incur some penalty) for failing the mission but I'd hope you'd still get some Arx for, once again, playing the game.
No idea whether or not this is the case but FDev need to be careful they don't just fall into a routine of handing out Arx along with Credits.
Wow, everyone must have me blocked
Anyway carry on with the myths, I look forward to the open letter
o7
No - balancing is what I am on about - disengage Arx from exploration credits and provide proper rewards for exploration in comparison to other activities.
No need for the cynicism, other people can talk about a subject you know.
I've got a nasty feeling that it is called a "Fleet Carrier". I think they might come with a branch of Universal Cartographics. This might be how FD are balancing the Arx for deep space explorers. I don't like it.
I don't like the idea of a long-range transmitter. It is established in Elite canon that the fastest way to get information from point A to point B is by ship; there is no sub-space radio in the game. That is a large part of what make the galaxy feel big. It's also why the bubble is as small as it is. The few times FD have bent this rule has been for game-play reasons -- multicrew and Galnet -- but they should think very carefully every time they disturb it.
There are a huge number of (invisible) courier ships carrying data around the bubble. We could say that fleet carriers came with a handful of similar couriers to carry the data to the nearest station, but that sort of fails when you are 50,000 ly away.
Plus not every explorer will have, afford or want a fleet carrier.
You can't spend credits out in the black, but you can spend Arx and the weekly cap is an artificial limit that works against you. I would prefer to see Arx generated for discovering, scanning and mapping previously undiscovered/unscanned/unmapped bodies. That is not an exploitable activity; it's not something you can do without getting 500-1000ly outside the bubble and traveling around. Conversely, I would significantly reduce the Arx you get from selling data, probably to zero. Inside the bubble you get the 1 Arx per 5 jumps etc, but that is all.
Speaking of permit lock, wonder if there is a chance of getting some regions opened?