How to get to Elite fast

[Gramps]

Waiting for more infill stuff.
Waiting for promises to be fulfilled.
Waiting to find those un-natural objects (or whatever they are) that we've been told are already out there, somewhere!
Waiting for planetary landings to drop, (though you wont need to be an explorer to benefit from the extra content)
Were a patient lot, always waiting, always wanting.
But we love doing what we do even if it is all much the same.

 

[Cliff Dobbs]

I humbly apologize in advance for this rant..

Lol you guys have a funny view of what exploring is, Ill go as far as saying most of you are fugging nuts and allot of you are insane, call me what ever you like but Exploring is searching and discovery of new.. your gonna tell me that in our entire universe that there are maybe 60 different types of planets and there all static. planets don't even rotate as far as I can tell, I don't think there's ever a chance of you seeing two planets collide and obliterate each other, Yes I saw two Suns touching each other and watched for about an hour and there was no change what so ever.. no magnetic fields jumping across from sun to sun.. no body deformation - nothing but two happy suns completely static.

You can argue it would take thousands if not millions of years to watch an exploding star.. however it wouldn't take but a few hours for sunspots to appear, not all phenomenon take a millennia to happen, I would gladly sit in my ship for hours and watch planets collide, search for volcanoes that spew magma into space, watch for days a planet with an atmosphere get pummeled by some large debris field as it passes through, wholly mackerel there are just a bazillion crazy things that happen in our universe at any given moment.. I don't know how you do it, you guys speak with fervor and love about running around ED's universe looking at the identical and same 60+ or so perfect marbles duplicated randomly millions of times in the shape of the milky way galaxy as if you are exploring and seeing amazing new things.

Seriously I believe you guys would be ecstatic if you had forty or fifty bags of marbles tossed on the kitchen floor, waited till nightfall to get your flashlights out and go exploring.

Oh no.. no.. no.. Im not saying that FD made a bad galaxy, they did a great job representing our galaxy, but its entirely static so nothing can happen.. and after you see the first 60+ or so planets that are out there - there's no reason to get excited about the next 60, but yet you guys seem to.. are you guys role playing - what am I missing here. Unlike our galaxy which is just shear crazy with untold things to see that are sometimes unimaginable, Ed's Universe is plain, ordinary, static, predictable, and above all safe.

Besides running around and seeing an occasional moment of beauty and some moments of Ahhh that's it, that's all there is and nothing more, its completely repetitious - no aliens no danger no anything. We quite literally may have less than 200 different things to explore, 60 planets, couple dozen Nebula, the big Bulge, a few hand crafted stars strung together in a pattern and that's about it, I've traveled many thousands of light-years from Sol and have not seen anything that unusual from one area to the next.

Look im open to constructive criticism and to be proven wrong as well.. maybe I'm missing something here BIG TIME, before you go to ape on me please know I have my Astronomy books and yes I've visited vy canis majoris just like the rest of you. Exploring is one of my very favorite things to do in games - all types of games, If there was absolutely nothing to gain not one credit to be made, In a heart beat I still would have traveled to areas of interest in ED.. I dont even care about ranking up, exploring is just plain awesome but in the ED universe there really just isn't that much out there to search diligently for..

K i've said my piece, light me up.

Yeah. Fair nuff

EDIT: admittedly bonkers, that's me

 

[PanicButton]

Seriously I believe you guys would be ecstatic if you had forty or fifty bags of marbles tossed on the kitchen floor, waited till nightfall to get your flashlights out and go exploring.

Gonna use that in my sig if you don't mind.

 

[Dommarraa]

Gonna use that in my sig if you don't mind.

It does sound interesting, especially barefoot. A dark room with marbles on the floor, just add a few mystery pieces of lego, and we have all we want. Certainly more dangerous than exploring.

 

[streki]

I went searching for Earth Likes.....

2000 random stars produced 14 ELWs (earned 66m)

1800 neutron stars produced 26 ELWs (earned 130m)


The neutron fields certainly pay better and would appear to have a higher percentage of Earth Likes....


....DING! Elite explorer.

 

[Khelder]

I humbly apologize in advance for this rant..

... snip ...

K i've said my piece, light me up.

I haven't had a lot of time to really go exploring myself yet. It's something I'm looking forward to. But as to your rant, my feeling is that it depends on how much you do (or allow yourself) to enjoy an experience.

I started getting into programming when I was around 6yo and loved it. It's safe to say that I've spent a great deal of my life sitting in front of a computer screen. I'm not an overly outdoorsy person, but I love beautiful scenery, beaches, sunsets, stars, etc.

I take my family to a holiday spot each year where we see fantastic sunsets out over the beach. It would be quite possible to take the view that I have already seen that sunset. I saw it last year. I saw it the first day I was here. Or... I could go out again. Take some more photos of another glorious sunset. Enjoy it for the beauty that is there. The same could be said for a bush walk that you take regularly, looking at the moon, the stars, whatever.

Sometimes it's nice to use games like ED as an escape and let your imagination take you into its universe. What if you could explore these worlds? Can your imagination take the graphics that you see in front of you and make it so much more?


... or explorers could be nuts.

 

[Mysturji]

I've noticed that black holes seem to congregate near the outskirts of neutron fields.

 

[iain666]

It does sound interesting, especially barefoot. A dark room with marbles on the floor, just add a few mystery pieces of lego, and we have all we want. Certainly more dangerous than exploring.

Lego's for wimps, add a handful of d4 for a properly dangerous experience

 

[hoodini]

Guys

Can someone please confirm if the 200% Li Yong-Rui bonus actually works because from the "open issues" list for the game as of now it is still NOT working ! (and yet i see many posts recommending people to join the power for the bonus..)

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=120113

• Li Yong-Rui: No bonus CR for selling exploration data

 

[Alex Traut]

Once you do get to explorer Elite... then you can start exploring. But seriously, I've done most of my meaningful exploring (or what I consider meaningful) after I got to Elite.

This. Don't get me wrong, I'm thoroughly enjoying exploration. But there's no denying that the climb to Elite influences what I choose to scan and how I choose to spend my time. Influences, not dictates--but still, it's there. I'm looking forward to getting back to the bubble and selling all this data. I don't think this trip'll be enough to kick me from 91% Pathfinder to Elite... but I feel like once I get there, I can focus on pure exploration.

TBH, I'm in it as much for the screenshots as anything. XD

 

[EdzUp]

Far more relaxing when your not chasing elite rank, it's a pity that the explorer ranks are linked solely to credits.

I think it should be linked to data value and distance

 

[CMDR AKIRA MASAKARI]

Let me start by saying that I am not judging anyone. This is Elite: Dangerous and there is no right or wrong way to play this game.

However, I do believe that FDev have missed a trick with exploration Elite ranking. It shouldn't be just based on how much dosh you've made.

The Elite Explorer should have a certain number of ELWs in their databank, a certain number of first discovereds, that sort of thing. Something to show that you've actually been exploring.

Doing the Sag A run a few times and farming the neutron fields makes you an Elite Tourist, in my humble opinion.

Which is a perfectly valid way to play the game if that is what floats your boat.

You could be right, but getting to the neutron fields themselves and scanning thousands of NS without never mismanuevering isn't easy as it sounds when you actually TRY IT.
It reqiures endurance and concentration. And what else is needed to get to elite in combat and trading? Isn't always endurance and concentration?
If we apply your logic, that can be right, any Elite status should be changed.
I think that it is difficult enough not to achieve overnight, and every player can put they RP in it.

 

[Spectre1117]

Correct your rep (measured in merits) decays every Thursday.
You gain merits by either combat against hostile powers or by trading goods to key sectors to expand and defend your powers influence. The trading goods are capped depending on your rank. With rank 1 your cap is 10T and to get another 10T you have to wait 30 minutes. At rank 2 your cap is 15 and so-on.
But you can spend 10,000Cr/T to immediately remove that cap and get the next allocation 10T straight away.

Combat can give up to 15 merits per kill depending on where you do it. Trading gives 1 merit per Ton delivered. This means to get rank 5 (or 10,000 merits) quickly via trading you need just under 100mil in cash to speed through those cargo allocations, its 23 trips in a shielded trading Anaconda.
Bear in mind at rank 5 you get 50mil per week in rewards so that 100mil spent is only really 50mil. Provided your data is above the value of 30mil credits (ish) it makes sense to get the bonus since your 200% increase will cover that cost with profit.
You probably want to check the powerplay manual for details on merits or check some of the strategy guides.

My second long-distance trip of 65mil data came in at 190mil so a total of 75mil profit even after the merit purchasing is done.
As above this is considered by many to be a bad way to get to Elite quickly, I am merely providing information at this point.

Thanks for this explanation. I always wondered how the rank system for powers worked.

 

[Ibeme]

Seriously I believe you guys would be ecstatic if you had forty or fifty bags of marbles tossed on the kitchen floor, waited till nightfall to get your flashlights out and go exploring.

Gonna use that in my sig if you don't mind.

Don't mind at all.

For the record - the Elite Dangerous galaxy is perfect in both size and scope, It has the most potential I've ever seen in any game - as a previous poster inferred, If you let your self go and imagine It, it can feels as thou you are cruising through Milky Way Galaxy - Just knowing I can never visit more then a fraction of a percent of the total systems gives me the feeling of just how massive our universe is..

Now fix the marbles and hide stuff for me to find.

Largest system I've found so far.. 80 Object System, Lets see yours..