Money Problems and the Lure of the Big Ships

[Vorxian]

People want the biggest ship because it's the only logical solid form of progress. Some see $$$ as a sign of progression and it's all linked.

The mechanics lack flair, a decisive pizaz that makes the player feel like they are playing without grinding. We need unique profession mission generation with pay scaling. A mission might involve scanning a specific planet, or finding a unique material on a particular moon, with exceptionally tempting rewards. We need a mission (that for example if you were an explorer professional) to scan a particular black hole at some distant area of space because scientists believe it's the biggest discovery ever due to some xyz tachyon emissions [insert star trek language here], and as a reward for going on some obscene trek, the reward matches time / effort. Payout being 120 mills as an example. That would encourage me to go out in the ASP and find this discovery, and feel like it was rewarded.

Same could be for haulage, trading, combat or mining - come creative unique missions for players to EARN (not given) the large payouts that are craved by most.

Got to admit that ED is really scroogey when it comes to payouts and rewards unless you shirk mechanics, exploit unintentional cash-cows and do all the usual 'gray' game play. Which is not fun, but some may see it as the only true way to earn the kind of money that fuels their game.

Maybe I'm way off the mark, I'm happy to stand corrected.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

As it stands, I can afford any ship, except the Cutter, and even that I can raise the Credits to buy fairly fast.
Making money has never really been a problem.
But I spend 80+% of my time in a Type-7.
Because I'm not about to go broke buying and outfitting a ship, end up blown up by an NPC in a sidewinder with godmodded weapons in 2 shots and either not be able to afford the rebuy or forced to park my ship and fly something else until I've padded my bank enough to feel safe flying it.

To me, ships are not an ends, but a means. There are no ends in Elite. There is no final objective, no "boss" to fight, no end in sight. It's a life-in-space sim, and the game is over when I don't wake up any more.

 

[JetsonRING]

IMO because of the way the game is set up, new players come into it thinking that ships, bigger ones and lots of them are the goal of ED and become frustrated at their rate of progression on the way to the Anaconda and Corvette. Fact is, with intelligent play it does not take so long to earn the big ships. I have been playing since June, have had several Anacondas shot out from under me, am now am flying an A-rated 600+ million credit Corvette and have over 1 billion credits liquid in the bank. [up]

I like the ships but they are not the goal, they are a means to an end. There's a war coming, possibly alien incursions as well. Best to be prepared. [arrrr]

 

[Dimensions]

Perhaps the new Colonia bubble will allow FD to cater to the split in play styles. it's never good to have the wedge between player groups but some people seem to think that it is needed.

I personally have no problem with different play styles, Variety is the spice of life after all, but people on both sides of the fence seem to take offence when the game isn't played their way. Please by all means prove me wrong, and i don't mean to offend, i just say what I see on these forums..

I totally agree with you. But unfortunately the battle lines have already been drawn, and the chances of FD growing a pair and saying...hey guys we know you all love the game and want ED to grow in a particular direction, but you also have to remember we are trying to run a business here and we need to grow our player base in order to survive, and to be able to continue producing cool updates faster...are slim.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

I have, since the first Beta, only managed to make it to owning my own Python. It is as far as I am going with regards to ships. I will never own anything bigger (hold me to that!!!) because it limits where you can go and what you can do.

No limits for me. I'm heading out towards the Gallipolis region of the Galaxy now. Expect to find me there round about season 3.2...

I only hope I survive... sane.

- - - - - Additional Content Posted / Auto Merge - - - - -

Oh, if you happen to be out that way, would you mind bringing some biscuits with you.

 

[noldunar]

I don't understand the appeal of big ships myself. Been playing since premium beta. I spend around 90% of my time in small ships and have a blast doing so. I have a 100 million A-rated Fer-de-Lance stored that never sees action. I got two Imperial Clippers. Two days ago I took an unmodded but A-rated Imperial Eagle to a compromised nav beacon and had a blast. I regulary take an unmodded but A-rated Diamondback Scout into a HazRes. So much fun to stick to Pythons (which I love as targets) back and blast it's power plant with a ship that is around 5 million to outfit properly.
Or a lightweight Imperial Courier...so much fun. And the best part about it: One 250K bounty that I sometimes get from wanted Anacondas that I KWSed are about three rebuys on the iEagle.
I did a one hop passenger mission in my Millenium Falcon build Cobra III for 800K, that's three rebuys with one mission.
So with a small ship, I can enjoy everything I like and I am not a slave of my rebuy bill.

 

[Momoka Azuka]

I've not actually cared what people choose to do with their time in Elite. What I do care about is all the people screaming NERF EVERYTHING and then we run into issues that don't effect people that aren't dealing with the thing people want nerfed. Case in point, Robigo. People wanted it nerfed. Frontier sure did nerf it. By removing Shadow Delivery mission from the game. This effected my game drastically.

I focused on smuggling within the bubble. 2 to 5 jumps at most with the bulk of my fleet. Shadow Deliveries were crazy fun because I would get chased everywhere. I loved it, I wasn't making a ton of money but enough to pay for slow upgrades to my fleet. But when Frontier removed it from the game to make people screaming about Robigo happy... It made me become way more vocal about nerfs.

And with the nerf to Sothis, at least in beta, missions in the bubble again took a hit. Granted the issue with 2.2 right this second with the mission Frontier are looking into and I'm kinda stuck in limbo waiting for a fix, I strongly think that Frontier are going to set the missions to the state they were in during the beta. Which still kills my personally career as a smuggler.

My point is it shouldn't matter what others are doing, as long as it's not game breaking. Did people abuse Sothis and Robigo? Yeah they did. They needed to be adjusted. But players taking such hard stances on these things are having backlashes that effect players like me that don't have a dog in the fight now.

To the point of the thread, I somewhat agree with the post. A lot of the pull of the big ships is that you're bigger and more powerful so that should mean they're better. But they actually aren't. Not really. I spend way more time in my Cobras than I do with Python. I've had a Cutter for a few weeks now, and while yes I love that ship to death, I know I'm just gonna end up back in my Cobra. The smaller ships are just more fun to fly. I've known that since buying my Clipper, loving it for a bout a week and then getting really bored with it because the challenge seemed to be gone when I flew it.

Honestly, I would really tell people that are rushing to get that Anaconda to think about that Cobra you could have already had, or a DBS or what have you. If anything People saying people shouldn't rush to those big ship might be wrong in saying that as well because then once the big ship is out of the way, the huddle to the smaller ships is much easier to clear so why not not just let those players that want to go for the big ship go on and do it. They'll end up loving that ship, hating it and going for something smaller, or reseting their save and going about it slower the next time. Regardless of that choice, it doesn't effect the rest of us like screaming Nerf everything does.

 

[Xious]

Joining a player group adds a lot to the enjoyment of the game also. Trading in a wing has many advantages over solo trading.

 

[theflyinman]

Honestly, I would really tell people that are rushing to get that Anaconda to think about that Cobra you could have already had, or a DBS or what have you. If anything People saying people shouldn't rush to those big ship might be wrong in saying that as well because then once the big ship is out of the way, the huddle to the smaller ships is much easier to clear so why not not just let those players that want to go for the big ship go on and do it. They'll end up loving that ship, hating it and going for something smaller, or reseting their save and going about it slower the next time. Regardless of that choice, it doesn't effect the rest of us like screaming Nerf everything does.

i like you already, to each their own as long as everyone has fun, then why change it (unless it is pointlessly subtractive to the game).

i feel sorry for your element being taken away

 

[NikodemusDSD]

I've not actually cared what people choose to do with their time in Elite. What I do care about is all the people screaming NERF EVERYTHING and then we run into issues that don't effect people that aren't dealing with the thing people want nerfed. Case in point, Robigo. People wanted it nerfed. Frontier sure did nerf it. By removing Shadow Delivery mission from the game. This effected my game drastically.

I focused on smuggling within the bubble. 2 to 5 jumps at most with the bulk of my fleet. Shadow Deliveries were crazy fun because I would get chased everywhere. I loved it, I wasn't making a ton of money but enough to pay for slow upgrades to my fleet. But when Frontier removed it from the game to make people screaming about Robigo happy... It made me become way more vocal about nerfs.

And with the nerf to Sothis, at least in beta, missions in the bubble again took a hit. Granted the issue with 2.2 right this second with the mission Frontier are looking into and I'm kinda stuck in limbo waiting for a fix, I strongly think that Frontier are going to set the missions to the state they were in during the beta. Which still kills my personally career as a smuggler.

My point is it shouldn't matter what others are doing, as long as it's not game breaking. Did people abuse Sothis and Robigo? Yeah they did. They needed to be adjusted. But players taking such hard stances on these things are having backlashes that effect players like me that don't have a dog in the fight now.

To the point of the thread, I somewhat agree with the post. A lot of the pull of the big ships is that you're bigger and more powerful so that should mean they're better. But they actually aren't. Not really. I spend way more time in my Cobras than I do with Python. I've had a Cutter for a few weeks now, and while yes I love that ship to death, I know I'm just gonna end up back in my Cobra. The smaller ships are just more fun to fly. I've known that since buying my Clipper, loving it for a bout a week and then getting really bored with it because the challenge seemed to be gone when I flew it.

Honestly, I would really tell people that are rushing to get that Anaconda to think about that Cobra you could have already had, or a DBS or what have you. If anything People saying people shouldn't rush to those big ship might be wrong in saying that as well because then once the big ship is out of the way, the huddle to the smaller ships is much easier to clear so why not not just let those players that want to go for the big ship go on and do it. They'll end up loving that ship, hating it and going for something smaller, or reseting their save and going about it slower the next time. Regardless of that choice, it doesn't effect the rest of us like screaming Nerf everything does.

If you like the thrill you had with smugling, then fit a passenger cabin to your ship and transport a wanted criminal.

I agree that everyone has it´s on way of playing and I agree that it is not OK to force other people to the one way of the loudest player group .

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

If you like the thrill you had with smugling, then fit a passenger cabin to your ship and transport a wanted criminal.

I agree that everyone has it´s on way of playing and I agree that it is not OK to force other people to the one way of the loudest player group .

How far is it to the wreckage floating around the cheese grater?

 

[Some1else]

Perhaps the new Colonia bubble will allow FD to cater to the split in play styles. it's never good to have the wedge between player groups but some people seem to think that it is needed.

I personally have no problem with different play styles, Variety is the spice of life after all, but people on both sides of the fence seem to take offence when the game isn't played their way. Please by all means prove me wrong, and i don't mean to offend, i just say what I see on these forums.

+1! Why does it matter to anyone how another player plays the game. Neither play styles hurts the other. Are you folks going to tell me what kind of Keyboard I'm "allowed" to use? Am I allowed yo use an AMD processor? How about the a Saitek X-56 HOTAS? You do know it got bad reviews, right? Where does your play style end and mine start?

but do you not get a sense of achievement and value of what you want when you get it?

I certainly do. If I decide I want something in-game, I am going to "GRIND" my donkey off till I get it. When I got lvl5 dirty drives before 2.1.05, and boosted away from Palin at 483 m/s in my Cutter, I about popped myself!

LLaP

S1E