Not possible to get 1.5k merits in less than 4 hours. I know and the most I have managed to get is 700 through interdictions without any failures in them as well.
Not possible to get 1.5k merits in less than 4 hours. I know and the most I have managed to get is 700 through interdictions without any failures in them as well.
Hmm, I really don't know what goes wrong on your end... Reading your post I started to take a look at my quotas for my daily run:
Undermining Mr. Hudson (taking down Federal Logistics Vessels) yielded me a total of 870 merits in a playtime of 75 minutes (18.20 pm - 19.35 pm)... and I didn't especially rush it and took 2 cigarette breaks... nor would I call myself a combat god.
One thing that does influence your yield over time however is the presence of other players in the system instance. If the instance is not created anew every time you return to SC after destroying a courier you are presented with a wider range of possible prey (A 4 eagle wing gives you 120 merits and poses zero threat). So undermining in a more populated region might do the trick for you...
See you out there, commander
Haggis McMoose,
Pawn of the Princesses
Undermining Mr. Hudson (taking down Federal Logistics Vessels) yielded me a total of 870 merits in a playtime of 75 minutes (18.20 pm - 19.35 pm)... and I didn't especially rush it and took 2 cigarette breaks... nor would I call myself a combat god.
One thing that does influence your yield over time however is the presence of other players in the system instance. If the instance is not created anew every time you return to SC after destroying a courier you are presented with a wider range of possible prey (A 4 eagle wing gives you 120 merits and poses zero threat). So undermining in a more populated region might do the trick for you...
See you out there, commander
Haggis McMoose,
Pawn of the Princesses
That's what I say when I play Banished.
I fed my citizens once, why do I have to feed them again?
Or those rogue like games. Why do they reset after dying? I should be able to save. It's a game.
I hear ya.
I gave up on PP pretty much right away - my work keeps me away from home for three weeks a month, so it just wasn't worth it. I enjoy the game, and I think PP is a wonderful initiative - I just don't have the time to commit to it. Wife, kids and other stuff doesn't allow me the luxury of playing as much as others.
It is possible to be a casual player, and I like that just fine. Just bought the lifetime pass - admittedly, it's probably wasted on me, but I'm planning ahead
I gave up on PP pretty much right away - my work keeps me away from home for three weeks a month, so it just wasn't worth it. I enjoy the game, and I think PP is a wonderful initiative - I just don't have the time to commit to it. Wife, kids and other stuff doesn't allow me the luxury of playing as much as others.
It is possible to be a casual player, and I like that just fine. Just bought the lifetime pass - admittedly, it's probably wasted on me, but I'm planning ahead
Played from 1800 to 2200 and managed to get a total of 750 merit points in that time. I can often kill my targets before my FSD has cooled down as well so I am not slow in killing the transport ships, so forgive me if I think your claim is a bit over zealous.
I work a shift pattern and also do other things out of game as in hobbies and sports, the system as it is might be alright if all you do in the spare time is play Elite Dangerous but for people with a job, family/ other things that need doing its not really a good system.
I like the idea of PP and what it can mean for the game just think the decay on merit points needs a tweek, so if real life calls you are not going to be having to rebuild your rank if a player has left it a week.
Gonna chime in and agree with Haggis... dunno exactly what you're doing, but it's affecting your merit income.
In four different sessions this week, I earned 1000 merits with supercruise kills, and each time it took me 2 hours give or take 15m.
(I don't normally do it that much, but the first two sessions I died at the end of each, failing to get my merits. The other two were either side of the cycle change)
EDIT: I did some figures on the various incomes over time, I'll go find the post.
Last edit: Here it is: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=170302&p=2709336&viewfull=1#post2709336
In PP "conflict zones" and for supercruise kills, average 350 merits per 30 mins.
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I just started PP this cycle having be away for most of the year. Been hanging around Crime sweeps and at first I seemed to be collecting merits OK but today I noticed it stopped awarding me merits at 150, I continued playing for over half an hour but no more merits so I redeemed them and returned to the system for more crime fighting. This time I hit 90 merits before they stopped being awarded, I even switched crime sweep zones and took out a Cobra single handed but still no merit.
Is this a bug or is there something else I don't know about. I certainly contributed more damage than other times I got merits and got plenty of kill shots myself but it just seems to sop registering my efforts.
Is this a bug or is there something else I don't know about. I certainly contributed more damage than other times I got merits and got plenty of kill shots myself but it just seems to sop registering my efforts.
Ehm, Tenshi, just one thought... and please forgive me, I don't assume that you don't know or anything, but...
Are you perchange killing other Imperial faction ships during your runs? So ALD, Patreus or Torval ships? They give merit penalties if I'm not mistaken...
...but I don't think that's the problem, right?
Haggis McMoose,
Ignorant interdictor
edit: Another thing, you know that Federal Agents yield 30 merits per kill as well? So killing a 3 ship wing of those guys is as profitable as gutting a convoy with 2 Sidewinder escorts... long shot, but I know you've been around for a long time and really don't know why you get results that differ so much from mine and Jmanis...
Are you perchange killing other Imperial faction ships during your runs? So ALD, Patreus or Torval ships? They give merit penalties if I'm not mistaken...
...but I don't think that's the problem, right?
Haggis McMoose,
Ignorant interdictor
edit: Another thing, you know that Federal Agents yield 30 merits per kill as well? So killing a 3 ship wing of those guys is as profitable as gutting a convoy with 2 Sidewinder escorts... long shot, but I know you've been around for a long time and really don't know why you get results that differ so much from mine and Jmanis...
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I also concur with Haggis, I can get somewhere north of 700 merits per hour grinding undermine kills, but
a) pick a system that generates enough ships. some systems take a long time between spawns
b) go for wings whenever you can
c) even with combat involved it gets REALLY TEDIOUS
I got rank 5 and have since been rank 4 but haven't yet had a week where I could bring myself to invest the 10 or so hours it will need for me to get back to 10k merits.
I wish that there was variation in merits per ship.
Why should killing a sidewinder carrying 1 or 2 tons of supplies bring the same merits as a type 7 carrying many more?
Why is there no variation in military strike zones (and the other variants) as there are in combat zones?
a) pick a system that generates enough ships. some systems take a long time between spawns
b) go for wings whenever you can
c) even with combat involved it gets REALLY TEDIOUS
I got rank 5 and have since been rank 4 but haven't yet had a week where I could bring myself to invest the 10 or so hours it will need for me to get back to 10k merits.
I wish that there was variation in merits per ship.
Why should killing a sidewinder carrying 1 or 2 tons of supplies bring the same merits as a type 7 carrying many more?
Why is there no variation in military strike zones (and the other variants) as there are in combat zones?
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I agree! Combat zones are paying 10 merits per kill no matter if its a 1 burst condor or a drawn out elite anaconda battle which seems to take forever in gamers time! I think adding 1 or 2 ranks between 4 and 5 might help as well, there is a really big gap there. At least then we would have more grind options LOL!
I am in a similar position with limited time for Elite Dangerous PP, But I have managed to get the points above 1500 for the last few weeks with very little effort. I operate within a 50ly radius of a system on the border of my faction power, so it's a max of 3 jumps to reach the destination delivering propaganda. I then jump over to an opposing system to undermine, always very close as I am already in the 'contested zones between factions'. I undermine until I get too damaged to continue, tired, or a bad run of spawns...about an hour gametime maximum. I return to my 'home' to turn in the merits...usually between 15 and 300.
Collect 25 propaganda as I logout...and when I login I collect the next 25 and already have 50 to deliver as I rinse and repeat. It takes 2 to 3 game sessions to keep me in the level 4 PP. If I have a really good run of undermining I can get the necessary points in one session.
I have recently started to look at the PP tactics and start to take pride in my efforts as I see the opposition bars rising
. If I am not in the mood for PP I take outpost missions in the systems around me for the big payouts.I always check my targets before I even interdict them, as a RP'er as well I flat out refuse to kill another Imperial ship.
I am in a similar position with limited time for Elite Dangerous PP, But I have managed to get the points above 1500 for the last few weeks with very little effort. I operate within a 50ly radius of a system on the border of my faction power, so it's a max of 3 jumps to reach the destination delivering propaganda. I then jump over to an opposing system to undermine, always very close as I am already in the 'contested zones between factions'. I undermine until I get too damaged to continue, tired, or a bad run of spawns...about an hour gametime maximum. I return to my 'home' to turn in the merits...usually between 15 and 300.
Collect 25 propaganda as I logout...and when I login I collect the next 25 and already have 50 to deliver as I rinse and repeat. It takes 2 to 3 game sessions to keep me in the level 4 PP. If I have a really good run of undermining I can get the necessary points in one session.
I have recently started to look at the PP tactics and start to take pride in my efforts as I see the opposition bars rising
I gave it one more week to see how easy to keep things at rank 4 was for me and with the time I have to play the game I have found all I am doing is grinding merit points just to keep at rank 4. So rather than turn this fantastic game into a grind fest like other mmo's I am going to quit PP and go back to what I enjoy doing in the game which is bounty hunting, trading and exploration.
Maybe if they rebalanced the merit decay so that it was not as harsh as a 50% decay each week then I would take another look.
Also I think that the size of the enemy ship should also determine how many merits they give. So anything from a Sidewinder to Cobra should give 30 merits, but the Type 9 and Anaconda ships should give a slight boost to say 40 merits. Also the wings you can get as well need to have a bonus of 10 merits if you destroy all of the ships in that wing before they either jump out or the security forces arrive. The home control systems also why don't I get merits for killing enemy ships in my home systems what about letting players patrol their borders and get rewarded for it?
Why would I also trade the special cargo for any faction when it is going to take me 15 hours base + travel time to ship the 750 merits needed by fortifying and expanding etc to new systems? I know I can buy my way but at rank 4 it is not worth it at 10k a pop.
I have given the system plenty of time to try and to make it work for me, its not as if I have played for 1 week and came here moaning about it. 5 weeks in PP and the only thing I have done in the game in all that time is to grind merits to stay at rank 4.
As a system in the game I find PP to be way to much hard work for very little reward, I play computer games to have fun not as a second job.
