Rescuing people from Titans - the payout is... ugh.

[rootsrat]

So I went to the Titan today armed with the new Extraction Missiles. Trying to get the pods out was great fun, I'm pretty sure FDEV turned a few knobs to 11. It was dangerous, intense and exciting. On my first try I was destroyed. The second run I did manage to grab 1 pod and then decided to leg it, as I was getting decimated again.

Barely made it with 21% hull, but the pod remained in my cargo hold.

Extremely proud and satisfied, I went to deliver it to the Search and Rescue contact at the nearest Rescue Megaship. And I was met with a massive disappointment, having been offered a mere 143 k Credits for the one pod.

150k for such a dangerous and intense rescue mission at the Thargoid megaship? Even if I had 20 of the rescued pods it would be what, 3 million Credits. Nope. Definitely nope. The reward was so extremely underwhelming that I have immediately lost any and all motivation to do it again.

Why S&R pays so very little? It's always been the case, and maybe you can argue that for the regular pods, black boxes etc. it's fair, as they are very easy to obtain, but this is one of the most (if not THE most) dangerous missions in the game currently.

Come on FDEV. What's the deal with this? I am risking my ship here, the activity requires A LOT of specialist equipment (pulse breaker, Titan analyser, caustic launcher, heat sinks, decontamination limpets, the new extraction missiles and so on), it is dangerous and requires constant focus and attention, messing about with modules, silent running, avoiding the Thargoids, running away, making it out alive and in one piece, and in the end you get absolutely ridiculous amount of money.

Sorry, but nope. Not going to bother with these again if the reward is practicaly negligible, also considering that you can make hundreds times money more doing hundreds time less demanding activities.

I was really excited and it was fun for sure, but the underwhelming reward means that it's altogether a big meh from me.

 

[Pville_Piper]

I think I 'll pass for now. Haven't been to the maelstrom, don't have caustic sinks, tired of over the top module and armor requirements. I was having some fun rescuing pod and killing Scythes, but got interdicted by Glaives too many times. The Glaives speed and caustic missile spam got old. Very hard to consistently win the fight with >50% hull left.

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

@rootsrat
So, how much money do you have on that account?
Surely it is enough that you saved a few of your fellow humans... the little tears of gratitude welling up in their eyes...
Truly a selfless act, no?

 

[Northpin]

Yea, i think it's not about the money, but about the effects it has on the Thargoid war.
And IMO is a good think they haven't introduced another gold rush in the game.

 

[vanFace]

What was your expectation? Or in other words: what should have happened when you delivered that single pod in order to make you excited for the next run? More money? A warm message? A free module? Some titan-is-falling bar moving?

 

[zimms]

Lol, this is what happens when somebody dares to criticize a part of the game.

 

[Northpin]

Why S&R pays so very little?

People seem to get like 50-60 pods in one go
And then again, the activity's main purpose seem to be related to Thargoid war progression, and not a gold rush.

 

[Northpin]

Lol, this is what happens when somebody dares to criticize a part of the game.

Oh, come on!

Everyone is free to criticize the game or parts of it.
And then everyone else is free to criticize the critics arguments if they feel the critics are not warranted.

 

[Shadowsnog]

Its not about the money, its about sending a message
This current cg pays me like 3mil per hour as well, but i just want the vette paint...
So... idk.
Endgame content is endgame?
(As in difficult, not just another doom post )

 

[GroG79]

So the main complaint here is that the credit reward for this game loop is no good

I would have expected some praise for the thrilling game experience trying to steal form the titan and making it out alive.. Yet here we are complaining about credits. (while yes indeed S&R never paid much)

( on my third try, after two rebuys I got out about 40 pods, The goids stole several pods from my ship while I was retreating. It was a lot of fun)

 

[Factabulous]

Yeah, as ninja GroG79 says, S&R is not a big payer - the S&R scenarios are also low paying. Which I always thought was an oversight, but maybe it was deliberate and meant to provoke this kind of discussion.

There's also the fact that the rescues (if handed in at the Rescue Ships) are apparently very effective against the invasion. But I guess that doesn't pay credits so Roots will be unhappy about that too ...

Ah the joys of late stage Capitalism

 

[Hanerib]

I'm personally hoarding them on my fleetcarrier, next to some Thargoid technology samples and corrosive mechanisms. Apparently they really need human electrical current for whatever reason, Thargoid laser technology or something their corrosive chemistry based tech is lacking. I suppose stealing abductees is an effective way of fighting the Titan itself too. I wonder how long they have been doing that.

 

[Northpin]

... Apparently they really need human electrical current for whatever reason, Thargoid laser technology or something their corrosive chemistry based tech is lacking. I suppose stealing abductees is an effective way of fighting the Titan itself too. I wonder how long they have been doing that.

So... they kidnapped humans to make them pedal on bicycles converted into generators that are producing electricity for Titans? (pretty much like Lindemann in Fish On?)

 

[Kalizandra]

Quick question: are there any missions attached to this new gameplay loop? 5 x Top Tier mats are always handy, (maybe even...the mythical Pharmaceutical Isolaters.../gasp!) and could go someway to making the new mechanics feel impactful. The whole "activity moves a bar from left to right" malarky is a tad old and fusty in 2023. (not knocking the whole Thargoid BGS thingy, if that's your bag then cool!)

 

[Kalizandra]

So the main complaint here is that the credit reward for this game loop is no good

I would have expected some praise for the thrilling game experience trying to steal form the titan and making it out alive.. Yet here we are complaining about credits. (while yes indeed S&R never paid much)

( on my third try, after two rebuys I got out about 40 pods, The goids stole several pods from my ship while I was retreating. It was a lot of fun)

I think there's an interesting point here to be made regarding modern gaming in general.

• Why do gamers play games? To be 'Rewarded'?
• What counts as 'Reward' for gamers who engage in the gameplay loops in any given game/genre.
• Endgame content, bragging rights, Loot, enjoyable physical mechanics, raw challenge, character development, narrative goals/progressing story content etc.

I think what Roots is trying to articulate is the need for a reward beyond the simple physical difficulty of the mechanics. Many games manage this via an in game currency that has meaning/scarcity. In Elite, after a certain point Credits become meaningless, so a material reward via a mission might be appropriate in this case.
Obviously there are also other players (especially in Elite!), for whom the challenge of the gameplay loop is reward enough. Both playstyles are valid ways of engaging with the game.

 

[Rat Catcher]

Everyone is free to criticize the game or parts of it.

Indeed they are, although some here might rather criticise the critics...

And then everyone else is free to criticize the critics arguments if they feel the critics are not warranted.

And do, although, on occasion, the argument is not the thing being criticised.

As I haven't even seen a Titan yet, busy doing other things, I look forward to having a snoop around a little later. (not suggesting I'd be rescuing any pods, it would go against my normal criminal gameplay!)

 

[Banana's_Are_Good_For_You]

Well, if rewards are all you care about...
How about a "I'm a true humanitarian" decal.
Kinda looks like 2 humans hugging or enbracing in some way.
Could something like that work?

 

[Rat Catcher]

As I spend most of my play time blowing up NPCs, in space & on-foot, there is no motivation, for me, to build a 'special, but otherwise useless' ship to venture into a very hazardous envoronment, to rescue the very same NPCs who I may be blowing up later... So no active interest in being 'humanitarian', particularly in the society where parking infractions are a death sentance, humans are worthless in the dystopian future, why rescue them?

I'd prefer a massive ramp-up of Thatgoid incursion activity, to the point where nowhere in the bubble is safe from them, then, maybe, I'll get interested in AX activities once more, as it is, they are welcome to what they have, it is so little as to make no difference 97.2% of the time.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

With just how effective it is versus any Maelstrom with a significant number of counterstrike systems - Indra could easily lose a quarter of its Control systems to this, for less effort and more excitement than the conventional routes - I guess it's like taking the INF option for mission rewards.

That said: on a per-tonne basis, they're the 14th highest-value non-rare cargo in the game (with two of those above them also being sourced from the Titan). The rates people are reporting obtaining them suggest that 15-20 million credits an hour should be practical once there's been a bit more opportunity to tune up builds and technique. And sure, that'd need another zero to be competitive with the min-maxed options, but it's still a pretty substantial amount of money.

Later Edit: okay, someone is already reporting ~250 pods per hour after just a week's practice, which is more like 30-40 million credits per hour. I expect it can go a bit higher than that still, as well.

 

[Kira Goto]

Obviously there are also other players (especially in Elite!), for whom the challenge of the gameplay loop is reward enough. Both playstyles are valid ways of engaging with the game

I’d definitely fall into that latter category. I do it because I find it fun (for now) and get some ‘implicit’ or intangible reward out of the action from the lore implications that it has. (I mostly want to know what the Thargoids have been up to, sure as hell don’t expect the pods to be ‘safe’. The rescue aspect is still… relevant, but of more secondary importance.)

I didn’t find the monetary reward to be too bad either, though that may have to do with my relative appreciation of the task as a whole, from the way I approach it in RP. And that I always planned to bring in more than one pod from a first run. It’s not a big payer(whatever that definition means today when you can get a few billions by just spending two weeks scanning plants out in nowhere land), but I was almost surprised to see a payout of close to 10 million for turning in 64 pods. Though the math does add up…

(You won’t hear me complaining if it began to be done as a mission format - which I thought it might be - and provided mat rewards though… currently still working on refilling those manufactured storage bins, and cannot be asked to visit any HGEs.)