Mode switching for missions and Smeaton Orbital [200mill/hour]

verminstar

Banned
Heard about this one, but this isnt the only one Ive heard about...far from it actually. Unfortunately, theres also a distinct lack of sharing with everyone where they are or how they work because of threads like this. Personally if I knew of a cash cow, Id also keep it to meself and not share it because Im not overly happy that other players try and dictate how I should be playing according to how they think I should be playing.

If it doesnt affect you...then what exactly is the problem?
 
That said, we should all keep in mind that the reward system, no matter how it's implemented, is going to be a topic of subjective debate... much like negotiating salaries in a job interview.

Fair point, but an hour spent is an hour spent. Gaining 200mill in that hour for zero effort and risk while other activities, e.g. bounty hunting and piracy in particular, come with very low pay outs (1-2 mill in an hour if you hunt aggressively, even less for pirates) and higher risks (getting blown up or attacked and forced to run). Not to mention bounty buildup for pirates.

The way it's set up now Smeaton is your 9 to 5 job for money making and everything else is just extracurricular activities where you can spend that money.

Seems like a weird way to set up the game play in my book at least.
 
I have done the missions myself.

That's not the point.

The point is how every other activity / career in the game becomes completely worthless as far as earning money goes when you can earn 3 million per minute with near zero effort using these money-printing passenger runs.

How rewarding does it feel for someone to do mining and knowing for every hour they muck about in an asteroid belt they could be making 190-195 million more flying to Smeaton.

.

I value my gaming time by the enjoyment I have doing whatever it is. If I do something that I enjoy but don't earn a lot of credits to me that is better than spending time doing something I don't enjoy just because it pays out a lot of credits.

If you are judging the value of your game time solely on the credits you earn then you are doing it wrong so very wrong.
 
So following that logic they could just add a button in the game and each time we push it we get +1 000 000 credits on the balance?

Or would that be too much?

Where do we draw the line?

Smeaton run is literally getting 3 333 333 credits per minute (with 200 mill per hour / 60 minutes).

Or 55 555 credits per second.

Compare these Smeaton runs to any other activity that earns you money in the game and see how it compares.

How much credits can you reliably make just doing bounty hunting, mining, regular trading et.c. in an hour of gameplay?

3+ million per minute? Not a chance.

Why should 1 hour of exploiting mode switching and watching cat videos on youtube for 40 minutes (aka literally not playing the game at all) give you so much higher rewards than every other activity across the entire game?

That is the part where I fail to see the logic of this obvious loophole. It's printing millions of credits every minute.

You appear to be one of those unfortunate few who can't get past what "other" players are doing in the game and how some of those things are having a negative impact on your ability to enjoy the game. It doesn't matter that none of your perceived injustices are actually real/tangible.

I get it. You are not the first and you won't be the last to suffer with this malady.

You have my sympathy.
 
So its 200mil per hour with low level rank with system factions or do you have to spend time playing the game to get these payouts by levelling the factions?

Also players dont start the game with passenger anacondas,takes time to build up to one or even a type 7.

These payout claims always neglect to point out how much work it can be getting allied with local factions and having a large enough ship to really take advantage.

My point is players put in a decent amount of work to get to the point where this type of money can be made.

It took me less than a day to mode-switch and stack Courier missions for the relevant factions then fly around and deliver them in an Eagle.

Obviously it takes someone awhile to get from a Sidewinder to a ship that can earn profits on the Smeaton runs, but honestly... less effort and time than you might think. All you need to get is a Type6 with passenger cabins and you are on your way already. A Type6 with economy seating can easily take one of those 15-20mill missions and then in a single run afford to upgrade to a Type7 with even more passenger seats, and it just snowballs from there until they got a stock Anaconda full of passenger cabins and it's 200mill/hour from there onwards.
 
Fair point, but an hour spent is an hour spent. Gaining 200mill in that hour for zero effort and risk while other activities, e.g. bounty hunting and piracy in particular, come with very low pay outs (1-2 mill in an hour if you hunt aggressively, even less for pirates) and higher risks (getting blown up or attacked and forced to run). Not to mention bounty buildup for pirates.

The way it's set up now Smeaton is your 9 to 5 job for money making and everything else is just extracurricular activities where you can spend that money.

Seems like a weird way to set up the game play in my book at least.

Oh, as I said- I agree that the balance in rewards for professions are NOT balanced at all... I'm primarily an Explorer, and BH secondarily. I've also delved into Mining (which is mundane in its rewards at best).

I only added the last line as a bit of awareness. :)

(people sometimes have a tendency to forget the entire system is indeed subjective, sometimes making excessive demands for changes)
 
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You appear to be one of those unfortunate few who can't get past what "other" players are doing in the game and how some of those things are having a negative impact on your ability to enjoy the game. It doesn't matter that none of your perceived injustices are actually real/tangible.

I get it. You are not the first and you won't be the last to suffer with this malady.

You have my sympathy.

I don't care what other players are doing in this game.

I care that the enormous payouts from the Smeaton run literally renders any other activity for the sake of earning money entirely moot.

If you want a stock Anaconda you can get that in less than 5 hour simply using a Type6 with passenger seats.
Optionally you can go bounty hunt with your FdL and earn 1-2 million per hour which means it will take you between 73 and 146 hours of gameplay to afford the same stock Anaconda.

Obviously you can choose to not do Smeaton runs cause you want actual gameplay, but how many players will see that as a valid choice when they can just go print money somewhere else?
 
I don't care what other players are doing in this game.

I care that the enormous payouts from the Smeaton run literally renders any other activity for the sake of earning money entirely moot.

If you want a stock Anaconda you can get that in less than 5 hour simply using a Type6 with passenger seats.
Optionally you can go bounty hunt with your FdL and earn 1-2 million per hour which means it will take you between 73 and 146 hours of gameplay to afford the same stock Anaconda.

Obviously you can choose to not do Smeaton runs cause you want actual gameplay, but how many players will see that as a valid choice when they can just go print money somewhere else?

Your first and last paragraphs are contradictory.
 
The payouts are directly related to the SC distance.
Yes ... arguably that design is a bit off, because the time taken to travel a distance in SC is nowhere near directly related, so you end up with situations like this where one 40-minute mission pays out considerably more than eight 5-minute missions would.

I don't care whether the overall pay rate is high or low, but making the pay actually proportionate to the time taken (across all mission classes, where possible) would I think be a significant improvement.
 
Your first and last paragraphs are contradictory.

How are they contradictory?

I don't care what other players do.

However, I do care what choices the game presents to us (which includes myself and others as we all play the game).

Also, how does high-horse replying only to point finger at a flaw add anything constructive to the overall discussion? /shrug
 
Yes ... arguably that design is a bit off, because the time taken to travel a distance in SC is nowhere near directly related, so you end up with situations like this where one 40-minute mission pays out considerably more than eight 5-minute missions would.

I don't care whether the overall pay rate is high or low, but making the pay actually proportionate to the time taken (across all mission classes, where possible) would I think be a significant improvement.

10 Passengers to Katzenstein pays roughly the same as 2 or 3 to Colonia (~20 million).

Go figure!
 
I mean, we had the exact same problem a few months back. Rhea. Fdev nerved it.

They will probably nerf this one too. But that doesn't solve the problem. The next one is just a few hops away.

Apparently FDEV is incapable of finding a solution.

So my suggestion would be: Remove passenger missions from the game. ;)
 
I don't care what other players are doing in this game.
whatever you say. now, you either take the chance to make some MOOLAH before the well dries out, or you can sit here sulking like a baby. i know what I'M doing..

diddy2.gif
 
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The rapid rate in which credits can be earned is one of my big issues with using credits as punishment for the up and coming crime and punishment revamp.

If you have accrued a few billion then credit fines are largely meaningless. If you can earn a hundred million in an hour then you can go on a nice killing spree and get back to go all over again in just an hour. In the mean time the cumulative amount of other people's time you cost is greater than it cost you

For the first time, thanks to crime and punishment the rate in which credits are earned and who has what will directly affect players.

Extreme amounts of credits, also affects the game population. The most commonly held view of game progression is that it's ships and credits(I disagree, but it seems i'm in the minority) with both ships and credits in rapid easy reach then once people have gotten their god ships and billions in the bank where is their motivation to play and therefore spend money with Fdev?
 
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verminstar

Banned
How are they contradictory?

I don't care what other players do.

However, I do care what choices the game presents to us (which includes myself and others as we all play the game).

Also, how does high-horse replying only to point finger at a flaw add anything constructive to the overall discussion? /shrug

Ye just contradicted yerself again with a comment that said ye werent contradicting yerself ^
 
How rewarding does it feel for someone to do mining and knowing for every hour they muck about in an asteroid belt they could be making 190-195 million more flying to Smeaton.

Yeah - the game needs balancing, somethings need some love. We know that, FDev do too.

I real life some people earn 1 million an hour sitting on their yacht in the Caribbean. Some earn 7 bucks an hour slaving away in a factory. It's not fair either, but at least in ED you can choose to do the one you want, when you want.
 
Credits never meant anything in the game. The "passengers in bulk" cash cow is just the new kid on the block. Frankly, I don't care anymore : I farm a few billion from time to time, just to get more zeroes on a bank account I never use.

Another type of goal/reward FD basically killed right at launch.
 
The rapid rate in which credits can be earned is one of my big issues with using credits as punishment for the up and coming crime and punishment revamp.

If you have accrued a few billion then credit fines are largely meaningless. If you can earn a hundred million in an hour then you can go on a nice killing spree and get back to go all over again in just an hour. In the mean time the cumulative amount of other people's time you cost is greater than it cost you

For the first time, thanks to crime and punishment the rate in which credits are earned and who has what will directly affect players.

Extreme amounts of credits, also affects the game population. The most commonly held view of game progression is that it's ships and credits(I disagree, but it seems i'm in the minority) with both ships and credits in rapid easy reach then once people have gotten their god ships and billions in the bank where is their motivation to play and therefore spend money with Fdev?

And yet there's a good number of very vocal players complaining they can't make money fast enough. Look around in the forum and you'll actually find people saying "my schedule doesn't let me play much, you should let me buy ships with real money." And there's a good number of people who won't do the passenger missions at all because they're boring/unglamorous/not fun. (indeed, half of the friends I play the game with are like this.)
 
For the first time, thanks to crime and punishment the rate in which credits are earned and who has what will directly affect players.
On the other hand, the faster you can earn money, the less impact being killed has because you can make that rebuy back faster. Any maximum earning rate low enough that financial punishments were effective in C&P would at the same time mean everyone was struggling to earn much money at all, and if someone did kill them (perhaps in an Anarchy system) even just recovering the rebuy would take ages.
 
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