This game has quite a few stupid or poorly implemented mechanics. But I have yet to find one as infuriating and stupid as rare commodities. Specifically, the limited amount of them that you can pick up at once.
If you wanted to actually make money trading them, you'd need to be able to move them in sufficient bulk to make your trip worthwhile, which is absolutely impossible with severely limited allocations. So right from the get-go this mechanic is worthless. The only way it could possibly be worthwhile to trade them is if you were a new player without access to a high capacity ship that somehow did have access to a ship with really good jump range. Add to that the fact that it just doesn't make sense for them to sell the commodity in fixed quantities rather than obeying supply and demand.
That's not the worst part though. If that were the end of the story, it'd just be a mechanic to ignore. It's not the only worthless money making method in the game, not by a long shot. You know what the worst part is. It's the fact that engineers require you to ship 50 of these mistakes to them in tiny batches, leading to the most mind numbing gameplay I've ever seen.
If you want to unlock Broo Tarquin, who happens to be the only guy who does grade 5 laser mods, you'll first have to deliver 50 cigars to Hera Tani from 150 light years away (3 jumps even in a good explorer ship) in batches of 8. That's 7 mind-numbing trips back and forth, and you aren't even paid for it - it's just to convince Hera Tani to talk with you so you can throw materials at her until she coughs up Broo's location. I spent HOURS yesterday carting cigars to her in my FSD-modded Diamondback, and by the end of it I was ready to strangle her, the fool selling the cigars in batches of 8, AND the dev who thought this mechanic was a good idea. It was a colossal waste of time. And you know what comes next? Once I finally got Broo Tarquin's location out of the lung cancer patient waiting to happen, Broo asks me to deliver 50 tons of ANOTHER rare commodity, but this one comes it batches of 5!
This mechanic is awful, stupid, and just plain unfun. I have absolutely no problem with a game being grindy. I have no problem with Elite being grindy. But when what passes for grinding is 17 nearly identical 150+ Ly trips, taking up hours of gameplay... that's just unacceptable. Please, for the love of compelling gameplay, change this mechanic. It's too late for me, but if any players can be spared that torture... well, let's just say I don't think anyone should be forced to do that. Except anyone at Frontier who thinks it's a good mechanic. They should experience it so they know what they're putting us through.
If you wanted to actually make money trading them, you'd need to be able to move them in sufficient bulk to make your trip worthwhile, which is absolutely impossible with severely limited allocations. So right from the get-go this mechanic is worthless. The only way it could possibly be worthwhile to trade them is if you were a new player without access to a high capacity ship that somehow did have access to a ship with really good jump range. Add to that the fact that it just doesn't make sense for them to sell the commodity in fixed quantities rather than obeying supply and demand.
That's not the worst part though. If that were the end of the story, it'd just be a mechanic to ignore. It's not the only worthless money making method in the game, not by a long shot. You know what the worst part is. It's the fact that engineers require you to ship 50 of these mistakes to them in tiny batches, leading to the most mind numbing gameplay I've ever seen.
If you want to unlock Broo Tarquin, who happens to be the only guy who does grade 5 laser mods, you'll first have to deliver 50 cigars to Hera Tani from 150 light years away (3 jumps even in a good explorer ship) in batches of 8. That's 7 mind-numbing trips back and forth, and you aren't even paid for it - it's just to convince Hera Tani to talk with you so you can throw materials at her until she coughs up Broo's location. I spent HOURS yesterday carting cigars to her in my FSD-modded Diamondback, and by the end of it I was ready to strangle her, the fool selling the cigars in batches of 8, AND the dev who thought this mechanic was a good idea. It was a colossal waste of time. And you know what comes next? Once I finally got Broo Tarquin's location out of the lung cancer patient waiting to happen, Broo asks me to deliver 50 tons of ANOTHER rare commodity, but this one comes it batches of 5!
This mechanic is awful, stupid, and just plain unfun. I have absolutely no problem with a game being grindy. I have no problem with Elite being grindy. But when what passes for grinding is 17 nearly identical 150+ Ly trips, taking up hours of gameplay... that's just unacceptable. Please, for the love of compelling gameplay, change this mechanic. It's too late for me, but if any players can be spared that torture... well, let's just say I don't think anyone should be forced to do that. Except anyone at Frontier who thinks it's a good mechanic. They should experience it so they know what they're putting us through.
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