Requesting feedback regarding 'part time' players

[Karlos Ploryman]

For anyone that cares (this may shatter the narrative for some of you) but there is no massive time requirement or year long grind required to earn enough CR to afford one of the big ships. Apparently, this doesn't even require any indepth understanding of the BGS, exploits, mission board flipping, odd ball system, or some other scheme to achieve.

In fact, you can pretty much whatever you want and do something different every play session.

You can completely disregard your balance and just go from system to system, taking whatever missions pay well and look interesting. Go mining, or explore for a few weeks even, doesn'y matter.

The key is missions and CGs. I'll have better data going forward, but I've earned twice as much money from missions and CGs as I have from everything else combined. Even factoring in the first two months where I just tooled around crashing into things, my average income has been a little over $1.3 million CR per hour, and 2/3 of that from things other than exploration, BH, Combat Vouchers, trading or mining.

I've no doubt that my average over the last six months will be much higher than that, but even at that rate I could have an Anaconda in a little over a month for one to two hours per day of doing whatever looks good at the moment (if I'm not out in the black for a couple of months, this is how I play. I may stay in a system for a few days, but then I SQUIRREL!

It took me over a year to get into an Anaconda - that was in the times, when missions pay was crap, credits were quite hard to come by... For me Bounty hunting was the best cr/hour and fun way of credit making...

That is true, that the bigger the ship, the easier task it is to get into high paying tiers on a CG.

In the beginning, I did missions only for rank, the cash was terrible - it has very much improved lately.
When powerplay was implemented, I used it for stable 50milion income every week, but staying on rank 5 was (and still probably is) a chore by itself... This incredible merit grind put me off Powerplay. I stayed on rank 5 for about 10 weeks in a row max.


When collector limpets made it into the game, I tried mining in Anaconda. It was and still is one of my very favourite activities - very relaxing. If you have wingmates, then mining in a RES combined with SLF and bounty hunting at the same time is very engaging and fun... These days I often outfit my Corvette for mining - the cargo capacity is way better then Anacondas...



I still find stacking 3 massacre missions and CZ fighting very profitable and my favourite activity for gaming session. It requires good relationship with the factions though, so some time investment before it becomes profitable (sometimes the war is over by the time I build it up to allied)



Karlos

 

[Aasgard]

Exploring the vast galaxy.

well said!

 

[CMDR Runcible Shaw]

As a part time player myself, I do think that Elite needs to be better about respecting player's time. There are a lot of tiny fixes that could make me more willing to jump into the game for a half hour rather than say Rocket League. Point to point jumps in systems is one that's coming. Just reducing the number of clicks it takes to do stuff, like doing multiple purchases in outfitting or multiple upgrades in engineering would make life easier. Currently it takes a *minimum* of a half hour planning and preparing to do *anything* in the game, unless you just want to scan planets or jump into the nearest CZ. You can't just *jump in* for the most part.

There's one solution that would make the game great: support CQC as a viable moneymaking part of the game and integrate into the game universe. Make CQC kills payouts on par with bounty hunting and watch it explode. Have in-universe tournaments. Since CQC is a part of the game I can jump into without worrying about outfitting, travel, or anything else, it's a perfect avenue to keep part time players interested and engaged.

 

[Gortron]

Elite: Dangerous is an incredible game that has an unimaginable scale. The game has a nearly endless amount of possibilities for how you can play the game. There are so many ways for you to go about exploring the galaxy. This is both a good thing and a bad thing.

I am a full time manager on top of being a full time student. I put in about 100 hours per week between the two. This is a lot of work. In between the two, i enjoy sitting down to a nice session of elite.

Lately, though, I've started to desire some of the bigger ships, and the gameplay aspects they introduce. This brings me to my problem. The time required to accomplish sitting in the CMDR seat of these large vessels is enormous. As a 'part time' player, i was under the impression that this was simply something that was out of my reach (which is a poor mechanic, regardless, for a game that's not FTP.) Recently, though, there have been some possibilities that have come up that have promised expediting the process. Of course, as a 'part time' player, i jumped on this. As a person who can really only afford a couple hours per week in the game, who wouldn't?

Now, my problem lies in the fact that these possibilities are consistently being ripped away from us. Instead of promoting the development of their players, your company is intentionally putting up nearly insurmountable roadblocks to obtaining these goals. You take things away from us under the guise of it 'not being intended features'. You take, and say you're giving (in the case of the most recent patch, you've apparently fixed API problems, yet they still exist.)

So here's what i would like to know from a representative of the FDev team. What do you suggest i do to obtain the goal of sitting in a Cutter in an expedient manner, as many of us don't have nearly unlimited hours to pour into this game? This isn't a question I would like side-stepped, or answered in an indirect fashion. This is a question that i want answered directly.

Please realize, not all of your player base has the hours required to pour into the rank grind and credit grind required to sit in the CMDR seat of a Cutter.

Why are you so concerned about sitting in a Cutter? I only play around 7 hours per week and only got a Cutter about 6 months ago. I've been playing since Beta. I don't understand why people are so desperate to get to the big ships quickly. They don't fundamentally change anything other than the ability to earn credits faster (and to what end? you already have the poshest ship). The Cutter is like a flying a an oil tanker with an outboard motor on the back with lots of laser beams attached. Sure it is cool too but much easier to obtain ships are more fun to fly.

Just enjoy playing the game and stop trying to get to the end of it..... there isn't one

 

[Majic-12]

So here's what i would like to know from a representative of the FDev team. What do you suggest i do to obtain the goal of sitting in a Cutter in an expedient manner, as many of us don't have nearly unlimited hours to pour into this game? This isn't a question I would like side-stepped, or answered in an indirect fashion. This is a question that i want answered directly.

Naturally, this invites side-stepping and indirect answers, so I can't resist.

I don't think the Cutter is the issue. I think a more pertinent question would be:

"How can Frontier Development make progress and advancement in Elite: Dangerous feel more meaningful and rewarding?"

In that context, achieving long-term goals like acquiring an Imperial Cutter might seem more integral to the experience and less of a "great leap" from A to B with little of note in between.

Or I could be misreading things entirely.

You decide.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Necro. OP is from October.

 

[Majic-12]

Some questions are timeless. [smile]

 

[RidingTheFlow]

The time required to accomplish sitting in the CMDR seat of these large vessels is enormous. As a 'part time' player, i was under the impression that this was simply something that was out of my reach (which is a poor mechanic, regardless, for a game that's not FTP.)

Frontier does not think its "poor" mechanic.

So here's what i would like to know from a representative of the FDev team. What do you suggest i do to obtain the goal of sitting in a Cutter in an expedient manner, as many of us don't have nearly unlimited hours to pour into this game? This isn't a question I would like side-stepped, or answered in an indirect fashion. This is a question that i want answered directly.

Frontier designers think that "not everybody should be able to obtain a Cutter".
But they did not and will not acknowledge it, because they see no reason in pointlessly poking forum pit of rage. Its always better to have people keep dreaming that they will be able to get this Cutter somehow.

 

[xzanfr]

As a part time player myself, I do think that Elite needs to be better about respecting player's time. There are a lot of tiny fixes that could make me more willing to jump into the game for a half hour rather than say Rocket League. Point to point jumps in systems is one that's coming. Just reducing the number of clicks it takes to do stuff, like doing multiple purchases in outfitting or multiple upgrades in engineering would make life easier. Currently it takes a *minimum* of a half hour planning and preparing to do *anything* in the game, unless you just want to scan planets or jump into the nearest CZ. You can't just *jump in* for the most part.

There's one solution that would make the game great: support CQC as a viable moneymaking part of the game and integrate into the game universe. Make CQC kills payouts on par with bounty hunting and watch it explode. Have in-universe tournaments. Since CQC is a part of the game I can jump into without worrying about outfitting, travel, or anything else, it's a perfect avenue to keep part time players interested and engaged.

I only have a short period of time to play as well (2 to 5 hours a week) so have the following tips:

1. accept that you're not going to get the same stuff that people with more time are going to get - stop trying to ruin their game to suit yorself
2. organise your time better - it doesn't take 1/2 hour to get going
3. enjoy the slow journey - you're not going to burn out as quickly
4. It sounds like you want insta-fun with minimal investment so stick to rocket league / mobile games.

 

[CMDR Runcible Shaw]

I only have a short period of time to play as well (2 to 5 hours a week) so have the following tips:

1. accept that you're not going to get the same stuff that people with more time are going to get - stop trying to ruin their game to suit yorself
2. organise your time better - it doesn't take 1/2 hour to get going
3. enjoy the slow journey - you're not going to burn out as quickly
4. It sounds like you want insta-fun with minimal investment so stick to rocket league / mobile games.

I think you've misread what I've written. Though I'm responding to the OP who doesn't have the time to earn the bigger ships, that's not my problem at all. I have a Cutter and and Anaconda and though a long term goal of mine is to own all the ships, my complaint was about not being able to earn credits or ships. My observation was that the game *could* stand to respect players time a bit more by reducing the time it takes to get into the actual fun bits of the game.

So to respond to your points.
1. As stated above I already own quite a lot of the more expensive stuff in the game. I'm not complaining that I don't have all the stuff. Also, I'm not trying to ruin everyone's game. I'm trying to suggest ways it could be better for everyone. I'm not sure how anything I suggested would "ruin" the game.
2. If you want to change what you're doing, say switching from exploring to bounty hunting or combat to mining, it takes about a half hour of time (+- a few minutes) in the game to do that (unless spend all your time with all your ships within a few jumps of each other), either by traveling where you need to go to re-outfit your ships (which usually means traveling to multiple stations to equip the right stuff), traveling to your already outfitted ship, or by transferring your ship. Now, you could argue that ship transfer means you can do that while not actually playing OR that these things ARE part of the game so you are playing. But, if I have a one hour per day window to play it's half gone whether or not I'm sitting at my keyboard or not and those parts of the game (outfitting, jumping, waiting for transfers) are not fun to me even if they are "playing" the game.
3. I've been across the galaxy from before there were engineers, jumponium, or neutron boosts, so I'm fine with a slow pace. Long range exploring is actually one of the few activities that doesn't require too much housekeeping once you get going. Of course the exploration gameplay loop is pretty limited, but it is quite meditative.
4. I do want insta-fun sometimes and frontier created a game mode that is specifically capable of providing this but haven't supported it with incentives that make it viable. I'd play CQC quite a lot if other people played, and other people from a fairly small player base will only play in significant numbers if they have a reason to (yes, I have tried organizing CQC nights with limited success).

 

[Patrick_68000]

not a separate reality that I live in.

You should, it is the sense of the Elite series

 

[Vasco Sapien]

Someone found this old coin and tried to give it some shine again.

But does fall in line with the forum zeitgeist from the last handful of days.

An agenda complaining about not having enough time to play the game, So are somehow deserving of special treatment.

And that the rest of us playing an expansive open world MMO that provides thousands of hours of gameplay are somehow at an unfair advantage for playing the game.....more.

 

[Genus]

Elite is The Beautiful Lady With No Mercy. The forum cheerleaders lack the beauty.

People who have time, or do not, both get shafted.

Pretty much the first rational post after the OP, in lieu of Wyrd's PM.

On page 7, no less.

This thread has a Clique Track.

I am a casual player too. But I was fortunate to get in early. New and casual players today have it far harder than we early adopters..snip

Great post, all of that.

 

[Genus]

"The game has a nearly endless amount of possibilities for how you can play the game. There are so many ways for you to go about exploring the galaxy."

Huh?

Nah.

Nah nah naaah nah, Heeyeeeaaah...doooowaah

 

[Marklar_]

Everyone has the same access to ships as anyone else, you just have to put in the time. If you can only play two hours a week, then you are investing fewer hours and it will take more real life time than for other people. But the real measure is how many in-game hours have to be invested, and that's the same for everyone. How long it takes you in real life depends on how much free time you have and how you spend it.

This game is about long-term goals, it took me almost a year just to get into an Anaconda. If you don't have the time or patience then that's your life, you have other priorities. You can't really expect the time gates to be balanced around people who go to school and work full-time, that would mean that most people would just sprint through the gates.

 

[Genus]

Well, it got better!

So addressing your OP hunterm101

snip...Please realize, not all of your player base has the hours required to pour into the rank grind and credit grind required to sit in the CMDR seat of a Cutter.

I think of the posts so far, this stood out for me as a good point.

Dude, i'm over 2000 hours in, and i still can't afford a cutter, nor have the rank for one.

I think you need to take baby steps, and not look so far ahead. It may be that even after 10 years of play you might never progress to a Cutter. I might not either, and i try and play every day if i can.

Correct me if I'm wrong Agony with regards to your inference for this comment, but for me it kind of highlights a central notion. Elite Dangerous, is not a game...it's a lifestyle.

Regardless of whether you have limited time in the pilot seat or not. Although it is especially poignant if you have nothing else to do, and can spend 18 hours a day every day flying from A>B. That's fine, lifestyle options are fab. But since it's a lifestyle, let's equate how the ED Universe works...to real life.

For me, ED is like walking into your kitchen wanting to cook a ready meal, and finding out your microwave is not on the counter top where it should be, but rather nailed to the wall in a haphazard manner, upside down. Not only that, but inside it's actually a toaster. To microwave something, you have to use the dishwasher, which then tells you in a robotic voice that if you short the entire street by trying to wash dishes in the oven and clean your clothes in the fridge at the same time, you'll incur a small fine from the electricity board. But, if you load the washing machine with chicken in anything other than a planned, considered slow motion, you will be killed instantly by Indesit (other washing machines are available).

I'm struggling to live in a world that does not make sense in pretty much every direction, even part time. So lifestyle choice it maybe...but the quality of life in atrocious.

Those here, who tell you you're doing it wrong and that you should slice the baked bean up into 10 pieces whilst eating it slowly to make the process of pretending it's a full meal easier...seem to be happy with their diet.

Others seem to be starving, wondering where they put the number for the local take-away. The remainder seem to get by through cannibalism.

So do not fear if it is suggested to you that 10 years of casual game time in ED may never bear a Cutter, as Dave would have done something about that waaay, before then. The alternative is simply unviable.

Just chill and look for those little nuggets that fastrack your fun, however possible and be damned with what "they" say. With all the sense this "game" makes, and all the constant tweaking, walking back and redesigning going on, loopholes willl open up, even to the most casual Commander.

It won't be long before you are able to give yourself a leg up.

Check the forums, and the social media groups for hints, but never share publicly. Never cheat, or use any techniques that FD have identified as a real "exploit" to date.

Then let them rant, while you see the universe and everything in it.

Fly safe o7

 

[Gortron]

Well, it got better!

So addressing your OP hunterm101



I think of the posts so far, this stood out for me as a good point.



Correct me if I'm wrong Agony with regards to your inference for this comment, but for me it kind of highlights a central notion. Elite Dangerous, is not a game...it's a lifestyle. Regardless of whether you have limited time in the pilot seat or not. Although it is especially poignant if you have nothing else to do, and can spend 18 hours a day every day flying from A>B.

That's fine, lifestyle options are fab. But since it's a lidestyle, let's equate how the ED Universe works...to real life.

For me, ED is like walking into your kitchen wanting to cook a ready meal, and finding out your microwave is not on the counter top where it should be, but rather nailed to the wall in a haphazard manner, upside down. Not only that, but inside it's actually a toaster. To microwave something, you have to use the dishwasher, which then tells you in a robotic voice that if you short the entire street by trying to wash dishes in the oven and clean your clothes in the fridge at the same time, you'll incur a small fine from the electricity board. But, if you load the washing machine with chicken in anything other than a planned, considered slow motion, you will be killed instantly by the Design Police.

I'm struggling to live in a world that does not make sense in pretty much every direction, even part time. So lifestyle choice it maybe...but the quality of life in atrocious.

Those here, who tell you you're doing it wrong and that you should slice the baked bean up into 10 pieces whilst eating it slowly to make the process of pretending it's a full meal easier...seem to be happy with their diet.

Others seem to be starving, wondering why their cat seems to enter and leave the house through the chimney these days.

So do not fear if it is suggested to you that 10 years of casual game time in ED may never bear a Cutter, As they would have done something about that waaay, before then.

The alternative is simply unviable.

I think of ED as a hobby. It is still a computer game; it runs on a computer and it is a game and I've spent about £2000 to play it when factoring in the PC I built and the VR headset and that I've been playing it for a couple of years.

I also intend to keep on playing ED despite people constantly moaning that the game is so horribly broken that I've effectively wasted my money on it.

 

[Genus]

I also intend to keep on playing ED despite people constantly moaning that the game is so horribly broken that I've effectively wasted my money on it.

Good for you! Everyone needs a hobby. Don't let the cabbages grind you down.

 

[Gortron]

Good for you! Everyone needs a hobby. Don't let the cabbages grind you down.

I won't

 

[Stigbob]

Completely false. If you want to pretend to be an early adopter, at least do some research first.

When the game launched, you would be very lucky to see a 40k mission. Now boards are filled with multi-million credit missions. The game has been made easier and easier for beginners with each new update.

True. Crossing the bubble used to be a big deal as well.