I, for one, salute your dedication to fun and self-restraint
Still, just because you chose not to abuse this, doesn't mean that it's working as intended, as I suspect you belong to a small, albeit noble, minority.
Please Frontier, for the love of god do not nerf Shadow Deliveries missions!
- Thread starter Asphine Nytrix
- Start date
I, for one, salute your dedication to fun and self-restraint
Still, just because you chose not to abuse this, doesn't mean that it's working as intended, as I suspect you belong to a small, albeit noble, minority.
Just a thought...
I wonder if the long range scan penalty should be more than just loosing a little status, time invested, and failing incomplete missions.
I would suggest that a completed scan also include the cmdr being responsible for the payout that each accepted mission represents.
It would make it more of a gamble to actually accept missions...
You should only be able to accept missions that you have the credits to cover....upon failing (being scanned), the cmdr would not only have the reputation hit and a fine from the local scan point but also would have all credits represented in accepted missions deducted from account.
Stacking missions?
No problem....as long as you can cover the potential loss....
As in life...someone has to pay (especially for illegal activities)....there should be a real down side to operating in an illegal fashion.
However, there should be a nice payout if a cmdr is skilled enough to avoid said scan....
I wonder if the long range scan penalty should be more than just loosing a little status, time invested, and failing incomplete missions.
I would suggest that a completed scan also include the cmdr being responsible for the payout that each accepted mission represents.
It would make it more of a gamble to actually accept missions...
You should only be able to accept missions that you have the credits to cover....upon failing (being scanned), the cmdr would not only have the reputation hit and a fine from the local scan point but also would have all credits represented in accepted missions deducted from account.
Stacking missions?
No problem....as long as you can cover the potential loss....
As in life...someone has to pay (especially for illegal activities)....there should be a real down side to operating in an illegal fashion.
However, there should be a nice payout if a cmdr is skilled enough to avoid said scan....
Yes, these missions make a lot of cash, but the require some rather long dedicated game time to complete, and you lose all on one scan.
To be honest, I think they are the most fun trade related activity in the game right now. I'd rather have a fun activity
giving good money than having to do boring stuff like A<->B trading. If regular bulk trading was more mission centric
it could become much more fun. Maybe missions to bring 5K tons of X to station Y, but : bonus if done under a certain time,
and fail if taking too long. Add in some good pirate wing in the mix and you'd get : good fun + good risk + good pay.
I used these to get my elite trade rank (was Tycoon, but would have never gone to elite doing A<->B trading). Having not
to care about credits allow me to play the game in the way I want with any ship I like. (such as mining in Orca around ringed ELW)
To be honest, I think they are the most fun trade related activity in the game right now. I'd rather have a fun activity
giving good money than having to do boring stuff like A<->B trading. If regular bulk trading was more mission centric
it could become much more fun. Maybe missions to bring 5K tons of X to station Y, but : bonus if done under a certain time,
and fail if taking too long. Add in some good pirate wing in the mix and you'd get : good fun + good risk + good pay.
I used these to get my elite trade rank (was Tycoon, but would have never gone to elite doing A<->B trading). Having not
to care about credits allow me to play the game in the way I want with any ship I like. (such as mining in Orca around ringed ELW)
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I don't choose the missions based on pay out alone. I try to find them for at least $3Million, then I check the delivery point. If it's an outpost or a planetary station, I grab it if it's within 1000LS of the main star. If it's a delivery to a full size station I try and make sure it's a $4Million payout so that it's worth the extra risk.
I also try and grab at least one of the high-capacity, don't-fail-if-scanned regular missions so that there is an opportunity to make Credits even if I get scanned. I usually end up with 5-6 shadow deliveries, with one or two at full sized stations, and one higher capacity mission. I get a mostly full cargo hold so I can try and reduce the trip length by 1 jump using the slider.
I know how to avoid the police/pirates. Knowing how doesn't translate to a successful run 100% of the time though. I've made mistakes flying absent-minded and failed tens of millions worth of missions. Knowing is half the battle, sure. But you still have to execute, which is not guaranteed.
Yeah, I'm not flying with out shields. I guess I'm not that good. I don't know how many times pirates/security dropping into the same instance after an interdiction have ruined my shields and dropped my hull down further than I as comfortable, or pirates following me to the landing pad at an outpost, hitting me with cannons the entire time. Not to mention boosting into stations to avoid scans.
And I don't really want to stack that many missions. Stacking 7 is pesky enough with the number of interdictions and scans you face. I've tried more and it was, IMO, more trouble than it was worth.
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Well, I fly without shields, but I do have military bulkheads fitted to make up for it a bit. Not good in a fight that way, but I've never had a pirate take down my hull more than 10 or 15% when I'm running from an interdiction submission. And that's usually just once per run. I can usually beat the pirate interdictions. Police? About 3 out of 4, but they don't fire anything but scanning beams at you. And I can out run them.
One pirate in an interdiction is no problem. I'll lose a ring, if that.
What I keep running into is losing an interdiction to a security ship, then two pirates jump in on the same instance. I've already shot at the security ship to stop it scanning, so it's shooting me, then two pirates jump in. Shields down and I'm out 10% hull.
This has happened a couple times in a single run.
If I was unfortunate enough to have completed that, but then smack the back end of a station boosting in, well...
Not to mention the powerplay pythons and rail-gun asps.
To much risk for me. I'm comfortable with where I'm at. Playing a couple hours, a couple nights a week, netting $40-50 million over that time, I'm happy. Anything over that is usually pew-pew time in my old Vulture, or now, my shiny new Anaconda.
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Couldn't disagree more, nerf them immediately, and make the rest of the game more balanced, the shadow missions are ridiculously unbalanced.
Right. And spoil people's fun, again. Why don't you do what you want to do and let others do what they want to do? This doesn't affect your fun.
No sidewinders, 12 haulers, 4 adders, 3 keelbacks. Not very many low level. Looks about right.
Right. And spoil people's fun, again. Why don't you do what you want to do and let others do what they want to do? This doesn't affect your fun.
You seriously don't get the idea of balance do you?? If it's simple for people to earn $100,000,000 credits in a week using ONE MECHANISM, then the makers of the game have no qualms in making their ships that expensive across the board.. It's a self fulfilling prophecy. You find yourself grinding the one mechanism over and over again because that now becomes the only way to reasonably afford the higher end gear.. So instead of the game being fun to play in any number of ways, if you want to progress to the better ships, you're limited to grinding out exploits..
These shadow missions are the only way I can afford the high end gear. With regular trading or independent smuggling between torval and Delaney space it would take me a year or more to save up for a Python. And that doesn't include all the upgrades. So I'm sorry, your theory doesn't ring true for me. We're supposed to be able to play the game our way. Well, this is the only way I've found to do that in a reasonable length of time. And most of the ones wanting this nerfed already have made their hundreds of millions. "Oh but others want to do the same? NERFFFF IT!!!!!
Every time I find a decent way to make money someone wants to come along and nerf if. Well I'm SICK of it
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Even in a DBS you can earn over 10 million a run. That means you've got your Python in, what, 10 hours with decent upgrades? I agree you shouldn't need to quit your job for a year to be able to get one, but there is a shade of grey between 'taking a year' and 'taking two afternoons'. Personally, I'd make stacked missions even harder in difficulty, so having more than five at a time would be for the elite smugglers only, while the rest could still earn dozens of millions in a reasonable amount of time when performing well.
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I have no objection to making them harder. And I have no objection to making it so you can't make more than 15 million a run. That's fine. But these people seem to be talking about doing to these things what they did to the "Seeking Luxuries". No. Just. No. The way I'm going now, It will still take me a couple of months to earn enough for a fully fitted Python rigged as a gunship. And I also want some other ships. I can't play all day. I do have to work. And even on my days off, if I were to play all day, I would get burnt out fairly quickly.
Fine here you go I made a video about it
See for yourself how easy this was for me. You may show restraint or not have the capacity to stack too many but because some of us can it is unbalanced. Balance needs to be across the board in terms of player skill which is why I'm advocating that they balance the profit per ton delivered to trade rank. Then it will scale correctly and still be a good source of income for all players with or without stacking and mode switching.
[video=youtube_share;j4d5KeTzFmM]https://youtu.be/j4d5KeTzFmM[/video]
actually you completely made my point (which you obviously didn't bother to read)..
if youre doing these missions over and over and over again because thats the only way to afford the high end stuff, then the mechanism or the game is broken. Either the high end ships are too expensive to achieve using normal means, or youre expecting to get them in an unreasonably short time ...
either way, nerf the hell out of the exploit.. i'm all for it.
Bounty hunting at top level for Arissa Lavigny-Duval in Hazardous Res Sites in control/exploited systems is at least as profitable as this, the time commitment is about the same after you run through the first 2 weeks, its slightly more commited long term revenue stream over all.
Plus the Imperial Hammer as the long term reward is really great in PvP.
Plus you get 50 million a week salary, all the guys with big ships know this and own fully decked Anocondas, Corvettes and Cutters.
At the moment the bonus is something silly like 100% (normal) + 140% on top of standard bounty hunting bonus.
I dont think the "call for nerf" crowd have noticed this yet, its more profitable overall.
Plus the Imperial Hammer as the long term reward is really great in PvP.
Plus you get 50 million a week salary, all the guys with big ships know this and own fully decked Anocondas, Corvettes and Cutters.
At the moment the bonus is something silly like 100% (normal) + 140% on top of standard bounty hunting bonus.
I dont think the "call for nerf" crowd have noticed this yet, its more profitable overall.
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Except its not, i make around 10 mil an hour bounty hunting in my corvette with the ALD bonus. I make around 30 million an hour doing long range smuggling in my asp. The 50 million salary you end up spending on fast tracking to maintain the bonus in any reasonable time, do you even powerplay?
I wasn't doing the shadow mission at this time (just finished it) but I was doing the long haul ones with illicit cargo. I just popped into an anarchy system so I was safe from crimes but just as I came out of hyper-cruise (always mix those up, the one jumping planet to planet), I suddenly had a interdiction by a cop who was "looking for smugglers". My throttle was at zero already so I wouldn't hit the sun so I submitted without knowing, lol. As the screen clears and the cop starts the scan, turns out I was also interdicted at the same time by a pirate who wants my cargo, so as a cop scans me, I pirate is attacking me. I didn't know if I should laugh, cry, fight or run. Too funny. I ended up just boosting and then jumping out of the system.
I did keep getting this NPC almost every system wanting me to follow him,
Like I would follow someone named "Noobhunter". The Long hauls and shadow missions are fun, it's a nice break from just trading as you seem to have to be on the ball for 30 to 50 jumps in a row depending on how many missions you have.