How big is the money problem really?

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

As we *all run around worrying about money for a certain new ship that may be arriving in December I thought I'd ask how much of an issue is it, if it is billions to buy? Is there a list of CMDRs fortunes, maybe a published average of CMDRs current money on hand? If you're **mega rich let us know in the space below!?

*all = not the entire community, see "some" or "select few".
** mega rich = make the "rich" seem poor.

Ian Skippy · Oct 12, 2019

Forums give a very biased perspective, as generally the more dedicated players frequent them. If console achievements are anything to go buy, its a very small minority that can afford and outfit a conda. Spending 'many billions' is something that is only casual to people who are not casual players.

DNA-Decay · Oct 12, 2019

The money problem is that money is almost worthless.

A thousand credits should be a fortune.
Repairs should be an intimidating cost.

Stigbob · Oct 12, 2019

The actual cost of FC's doesn't really matter.

The people who had their exploited space cash removed will complain, along with the people who over grind now based on guesswork for their wasted time. The people with pots of dosh will complain its not enough and the people without will complain its too much.

I'd guess about a billion or so is reasonably achievable with deep core mining as end game content. Any less and its not much more than an A rated corvette which would make no sense, if its multibillion then its effectively behind a cash exploit wall and people will just nope out.

Probably better to wait and see where FDEV actually pin the price than act on forum theorycrafting.

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

Ian Skippy said:
Forums give a very biased perspective, as generally the more dedicated players frequent them. If console achievements are anything to go buy, its a very small minority that can afford and outfit a conda. Spending 'many billions' is something that is only casual to people who are not casual players.

That's a really good point. I was wondering if the "easy" money in mining (I'm still not sold on that phrase, building the ship and getting out there, mining it and selling it is not easy or instantaneous as some would have you believe.) had changed the landscape much?

DNA-Decay said:
The money problem is that money is almost worthless.

A thousand credits should be a fortune.
Repairs should be an intimidating cost.

I think a fortune should be a slight more than 1K, but repairs/insurance are based on the cost price, so it would be unreasonable to make that more. Perhaps a further penalty to ship repairs? Could be an interesting topic!

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

Stigbob said:
The actual cost of FC's doesn't really matter.

The people who had their exploited space cash removed will complain, along with the people who over grind now based on guesswork for their wasted time. The people with pots of dosh will complain its not enough and the people without will complain its too much.

I'd guess about a billion or so is reasonably achievable with deep core mining as end game content. Any less and its not much more than an A rated corvette which would make no sense, if its multibillion then its effectively behind a cash exploit wall and people will just nope out.

Probably better to wait and see where FDEV actually pin the price than act on forum theorycrafting.

Perhaps it could be the cost of the big three combined with A rated + a small build cost. Then modules on top?

Stigbob · Oct 12, 2019

imaner76 said:
Perhaps it could be the cost of the big three combined with A rated + a small build cost. Then modules on top?

Yep makes sense to me, I was on about the basic thing not a swanky tricked out one.

Cmdr. Numa · Oct 12, 2019

Stigbob said:
The actual cost of FC's doesn't really matter.

The people who had their exploited space cash removed will complain, along with the people who over grind now based on guesswork for their wasted time. The people with pots of dosh will complain its not enough and the people without will complain its too much.

I'd guess about a billion or so is reasonably achievable with deep core mining as end game content. Any less and its not much more than an A rated corvette which would make no sense, if its multibillion then its effectively behind a cash exploit wall and people will just nope out.

Probably better to wait and see where FDEV actually pin the price than act on forum theorycrafting.

When you don't troll, you actually make sense sometimes

I'm sitting on a little under 3.2 billion cash and will certainly not pregrind another few billion before even knowing how much I will need. 4 years ago I've done Robigo to be able to buy Cutter and Corvette on day one. Yet the main thing was that Robigo smuggling was fun. The credits were the nice side effect.

I do not need to be able the carrier on day one. Would be nice if I can, but if not, at least I've got something to, something with a set goal, instead of just grinding into the blue.

Stigbob · Oct 12, 2019

Cmdr. Numa said:
When you don't troll, you actually make sense sometimes

Didn't bother reading beyond that.

Northpin · Oct 12, 2019

imaner76 said:
If you're **mega rich let us know in the space below!?

This is what you want to know?

Artie said:
Before somebody will get a "great" idea of mass-scraping Inara and get skewed data anyway (due users privacy settings):

I was asked for some numbers of Inara commanders credits earlier and there is the output. I think somebody put it here on the forum earlier, too.

Disclaimer: These data are just and only from Inara commanders updating their profiles and may not represent the actual game state at all. The sample size is around 100k commanders, the numbers are covering just the credits achieved (not the overall assets value) till end of August 2019.

~ 82% commanders are having less than 1 billion in credits

~ 18% are having more than 1 billion in credits

~ 7% are having more than 2 billions in credits

~ 2% are having more than 5 billions

~ 0.7% are having more than 10 billions

~ 0.2% are having more than 20 billions

I hope this helps.

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

Northpin said:
This is what you want to know?

I guess, asking that way might give an insight to what is "rich" currently in Elite.

Northpin said:
~ 82% commanders are having less than 1 billion in credits

~ 18% are having more than 1 billion in credits

~ 7% are having more than 2 billions in credits

~ 2% are having more than 5 billions

~ 0.7% are having more than 10 billions

~ 0.2% are having more than 20 billions

That gives a good picture, thanks! I does seem to show what I've seen that a lot hover around 1 billion or less. It would also suggest that the comments I have read that claim money gathering is an issue, is not. Well, by these numbers at least?

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost · Oct 12, 2019

imaner76 said:
Perhaps it could be the cost of the big three combined with A rated + a small build cost. Then modules on top?

Wouldn't that be easily more than 3 billions?

Not entirely sure if I'm interested in a carrier. But I think that the majority of players don't have 3 billions to spare for a ship that probably won't offer that much use.

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost said:
Wouldn't that be easily more than 3 billions?

Not entirely sure if I'm interested in a carrier. But I think that the majority of players don't have 3 billions to spare for a ship that probably won't offer that much use.

Hi, yes it would. It would also keep in with, being end game content. Think of it as trophy cabinet if nothing else.

Stealthie · Oct 12, 2019

imaner76 said:
As we *all run around worrying about money for a certain new ship that may be arriving in December I thought I'd ask how much of an issue is it, if it is billions to buy? Is there a list of CMDRs fortunes, maybe a published average of CMDRs current money on hand? If you're **mega rich let us know in the space below!?

*all = not the entire community, see "some" or "select few".
** mega rich = make the "rich" seem poor.

Well, it's about time somebody asked about this.

The answer is:

Cmdr. Numa · Oct 12, 2019

CMDR Zadian Lichtfrost said:
Wouldn't that be easily more than 3 billions?

Not entirely sure if I'm interested in a carrier. But I think that the majority of players don't have 3 billions to spare for a ship that probably won't offer that much use.

Well, I guess the base will be reasonably affordable. Then upgrade as you go. Feels like 2014, when I had the first Conda and the 8A power plant seemed an impossible thing to get.

Northpin · Oct 12, 2019

imaner76 said:
That gives a good picture, thanks! I does seem to show what I've seen that a lot hover around 1 billion or less. It would also suggest that the comments I have read that claim money gathering is an issue, is not. Well, by these numbers at least?

One thing tho.
The results are from the end of August. The carriers were announced in the second half of August.
Then the madness started.
Including mine.

At the end of August i had 4bn.
By the end of September I had 13bn
By the end of October i'll probably have 20bn

MDHansen · Oct 12, 2019

Northpin said:
One thing tho.
The results are from the end of August. The carriers were announced in the second half of August.
Then the madness started.
Including mine.

At the end of August i had 4bn.
By the end of September I had 13bn
By the end of October i'll probably have 20bn

And this is what I don't like about the moneygrabs in the game today. No offense to you or anyone doing what the game permits us to do, but it's something wrong when money has absolutely zero value. I don't know how many hrs a week you play, but these numbers I would expect someone to play 10+hrs a day, 7 days a week to obtain within that timeframe

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

Stealthie said:
Well, it's about time somebody asked about this.

The answer is:

Hi Stealthie, I see your quizzical tone there! I guess I'm trying to get a grasp of the perception vs the reality of what money is in Elite. Will it really be a pathway to all and the thing that dissolves game play to the extent some claim? Or is money not as widely held as some think, and from this, can money alone remove the need for, exploration and engineering. I've no cash amount that can over come these two hurdles within the current game play.

Cmdr. Numa said:
Well, I guess the base will be reasonably affordable. Then upgrade as you go. Feels like 2014, when I had the first Conda and the 8A power plant seemed an impossible thing to get.

Yes that made me feel the same way. FC remaining as a further enabler for players to play.
Irony is explorers have ground that 8A down to a 2A with the game play mechanic of engineering!

BL1P · Oct 12, 2019

Credits are worthless in Elite because they allowed exploiters to keep the credits they exploited.

imaner76 · Oct 12, 2019

Northpin said:
One thing tho.
The results are from the end of August. The carriers were announced in the second half of August.
Then the madness started.
Including mine.

At the end of August i had 4bn.
By the end of September I had 13bn
By the end of October i'll probably have 20bn

I had a stop at 10 billion, but I have CMDRs I fly with that are 20 Billion+. I feel that the wild rumours and "community" driven fears are perpetuating a cash grab that, I feel in time will be pointless as the factors that define what a fleet carrier may be will not be cash alone.

MDHansen said:
And this is what I don't like about the moneygrabs in the game today. No offense to you or anyone doing what the game permits us to do, but it's something wrong when money has absolutely zero value. I don't know how many hrs a week you play, but these numbers I would expect someone to play 10+hrs a day, 7 days a week to obtain within that timeframe

I agree that money grabbing is not great, read above to what I said to Stealthie and let me know your thoughts.