restrictions or rules for new CMDR career

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Hey there.

I have bought a third CMDR a few weeks ago for a fiver from one of the last sales (I also got him Odyssey... because atmospheric planets). His name is Harold Larch, and he fled his home system because he was viciously pursued for a bloody parking offence, while all he wants is to keep his freedom.

I've been jumpstarting him over the last few days. I dabbled in the usual early carrer stuff like courier missions and kill stealing from the cops to get some money, got a Cobra, went to mine two core asteroids, bought an AspX, mined four or five more cores, now I'm sitting on 65 MCr. and wonder what to do. One of my first thoughts was: Ugh, this combat stuff is really tedious. So I thought, why not play strictly peaceful (well, from now on). No more guns, no more killing. And then I wondered if I should also exclude engineering, because... ugh. Material gathering and unlocking. Maybe I should skip all that.


So, I have three rules as a start:

1. No combat of any sort.
2. No engineering.
3. Rule #1 doesn't neccessarily mean no illegal stuff. I think Harold is a slightly shady guy (he parked illegally!), so non-violent illegal stuff will be okay. As he will have no guns, he will to make a brave Sir Robin if things get dicey. Maybe smuggling?

The most annoying thing will probably be having a low jump range. Maybe I will amend rule #2 and allow pre-engineered modules like the FSD and DSS.


My questions are:

a) Does this ruleset offer a viable career path for the CMDR, or will I get bored with it (and break my rules)? Anyone done this recently, any thoughts?
b) Is smuggling still a thing?
c) Any other ideas for rules or restrictions that might be fun to play with?

What do you think?

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Oh, and I already have my free Epic CMDR sitting out in the black, never to return to the bubble. So I'm thinking close(ish)-to-the-bubble-career rather than deep space explorer.

 

[Factabulous]

I played for 3 years with no combat, so it's possible. Non-violent on-foot is more of a challenge, but as long as you work out the mechanics a lot of missions are maybe even more fun without the easy 'guns out' option.

Engineering is optional - especially now you can buy pre-engineered stuff (I guess that depends if you let your guy use brokers).

Another restriction that can be fun is a limit on ships - I have a CM3-only CMDR and she mainly struggles with ... combat - so could have gone for a non-violent path. She got herself a FC, so she's doing ok

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I have almost completely skipped on foot with my main CMDR so far (apart from trying it out for a few hours). I might be more open for it with this one, although I have doubt if there is enough peaceful content on foot . As a VR player I'm also hesitant with the on foot stuff, although it's tolerable for "slower" gameplay. My main focus will probably be ship content, though.

 

[Factabulous]

I might be more open for it with this one, although I have doubt if there is enough peaceful content on foot

There is a lot of content you don't need guns for - anything that doesn't say 'kill' basically. It might be a fun rule to force you to work out how, but as you say - if you're mainly into the VR experience it maybe wouldn't be your thing.

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

For my two alts, I try not to buy the same ships or do the same activities as my main Cmdr. I also only unlock the first engineer or the first 3 engineers at most and only G1-G3 engineer my alt ships. And then I most definitely unlock the guardian FSD booster as it is very useful to me.

Some non combat roles/career paths I can think of (I have not tried all of these to see how viable they are)
Smuggling illegal cargo (slaves, weapons, etc)
Tour guide focusing on passenger missions all over the bubble or further afield
Cargo Hauling (I tend to only haul cargo above 20k a ton profit or during high paying cargo cg's)
Rares trading all over the bubble
A search and rescue focused player trying to 'help/save' all the occupied escape pods
Exploration in the bubble or near bubble
Powerplay focused on helping or hurting a faction or Player managed faction of your choice

 

[Danieros]

I'd say engineering is most important for combat, so I think rules #1 and #2 go well together. I wonder if you can get the guardian FSD booster, though. Avoiding combat with the sentinels would make collecting the blueprint quite challenging.

 

[SteveWW57]

I started an Odyssey newbie CMDR from the Sale earlier this year. With a few restrictions.

Only one ship at a time. (I might relent and have a small and a medium).
No ship engineering, just stick with buying a pre-engineered surface scanner and class 5 FSD it at all.
No Odyssey engineering, just buy pre-engineered with decent mods and use Pioneer Supplies to upgrade if desired.
No ship weapons. That stops ship combat.
No Odyssey ground CZs or massacre/raid/protect missions but exterminate scavs is acceptable. Killing scavs that interfere is also acceptable.
I also avoid the "stealth" and assassination/take down missions as well, but that is just me.
No chasing rank (and restricted ships) or seeking permits. Avoid Imperial/Fed rank gain by not taking the promotion missions.
If money is needed, take larceny missions. No need to amass big bucks.
I take great pains not to get my newbie CMDR killed and have avoided it so far.

That still gives plenty to do, that is mostly combat averse. I have left open the possibility of getting a medium ship, most likely a Krait II as a trader. At medium pad stations the hauling missions tend to be fetch/carry no more than196 tons which the Krait can easily manage. Can also use it as a miner or explorer.

With these restrictions, my newbie CMDR is different from my main and is a new experience starting from scratch. Plays more like a space bum, some morals but willing to do some dirty stuff.

Steve 07.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

I'd say engineering is most important for combat, so I think rules #1 and #2 go well together. I wonder if you can get the guardian FSD booster, though. Avoiding combat with the sentinels would make collecting the blueprint quite challenging.

Interesting, I hadn't thought about the sentinels. They aren't sentient, are they? Maybe that could be the rule... no killing sentient beings, but destroying automated defenses like sentinels, skimmers, turrets is okay. Not having the booster isn't as bad as not having engineering on the FSD though. I've played around with some builds in ETSY a bit, and especially anything involved with some significant cargo ended up with laden jump ranges of 20 Ly at best, more like 17 to 18. That's rough. So maybe I'll allow tech broker unlocks .

I started an Odyssey newbie CMDR from the Sale earlier this year. With a few restrictions.

Only one ship at a time. (I might relent and have a small and a medium).
No ship engineering, just stick with buying a pre-engineered surface scanner and class 5 FSD it at all.
No Odyssey engineering, just buy pre-engineered with decent mods and use Pioneer Supplies to upgrade if desired.
No ship weapons. That stops ship combat.
No Odyssey ground CZs or massacre/raid/protect missions but exterminate scavs is acceptable. Killing scavs that interfere is also acceptable.
I also avoid the "stealth" and assassination/take down missions as well, but that is just me.
No chasing rank (and restricted ships) or seeking permits. Avoid Imperial/Fed rank gain by not taking the promotion missions.
If money is needed, take larceny missions. No need to amass big bucks.
I take great pains not to get my newbie CMDR killed and have avoided it so far.

That still gives plenty to do, that is mostly combat averse. I have left open the possibility of getting a medium ship, most likely a Krait II as a trader. At medium pad stations the hauling missions tend to be fetch/carry no more than196 tons which the Krait can easily manage. Can also use it as a miner or explorer.

With these restrictions, my newbie CMDR is different from my main and is a new experience starting from scratch. Plays more like a space bum, some morals but willing to do some dirty stuff.

Steve 07.

Nice, that's similar to what I'm thinking to do. I will have no ship or personal weapons. "One ship at a time" sounds tough. I'm thinking of a "no large ships" rule. I think buying stuff off the shelf at Pioneer will be allowed, too.

Not ranking up with the superpowers sounds interesting. I'm trying to think what gameplay gets excluded by that. But Harold is definitely the guy who avoids getting to close to political powers . I like it.

What I've learned so far is how much fun it is actually to play a newbie again. The things you do suddenly do matter, as do credits (if not for long). Defenitely gets me to revisit activities I don't have to do anymore with my main; I went core mining with the AspX, and man, that's gorgeous in VR. The smaller cargo capacity also means it's quicker to fill and easier to sell, too. My main's core miner is a 192t Python, and that's sometimes tedious to fill and hard to sell close by. Also, with this new character I did a few calculated trips without having the rebuy and felt... naughty .

Hey, maybe that could be another rule... no rebuys! Ship destroyed - it's gone. Not so painful without engineering anyway!


So, that's the current possible ruleset:

1. No combat of any sort. No ship or personal weapons (I think point defenses will be allowed). No killing sentient beings. That includes aliens.
2. No engineering. Tech brokers and off-the-shelf stock allowed.
3. Illegal stuff allowed, but no killing. Destruction of property (turrets, skimmers, sentinels) is allowed. I think.
4. No schmoozing with superpowers.
5. No rebuys.
6. No large ships.
7. No exessive credits hoarding. I'll have to think of a reasonable limit.
8. Rule #6 also means: No fleet carrier. Using other people's carriers is okay, but I can't own one.

Sounds nice so far.

 

[Factabulous]

Maybe that could be the rule... no killing sentient beings, but destroying automated defenses like sentinels, skimmers, turrets is okay.

Depends how you want to do it - ofc. I was being a complete pacifist for 3 years and then I shot a skimmer and my combat rank shot up from zero. From that day on I was a murdering fiend ...

Sentinels: There are quieter and busier sites - certainly the module BPs are not large sites. You can probably just avoid/run away from the sentinels if you're willing to check different sites

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

the combat rank is already non-zero because of what I did when I first created the CMDR a few weeks ago... I haven't made up my mind about ranking up in general anyway - my trade rank is already midway past entrepeneur because of the mining I did.

Of course I could reset the CMDR. It wouldn't really hurt as I haven't achieved anything great, and I bought this one especially to mess around and be able to reset it without pain... have to think about it.

 

[Helmut Grokenberger]

Only one ship at a time. (I might relent and have a small and a medium).

I thought about this one last night and had an idea... what about the rule "only one type of ship allowed? I was sitting in the shipyard pondering where to go next. I had returned from my latest core mining trip in my AspX (Harold has now 279 MCr. which will last for a while) and was thinking what kind of ship to build next (trader, explorer, passenger transport, jack of all trades) and on what platform. I started an explorer build and thought: Ugh, I don't want to fly a Krait again, and I don't really like the DBX's cockpit.

With my main I had the most fun with the Dolphin recently, so I theory-built a few Dolphins and had the idea to make the rule that Ican only use Dolphins for any build. Doesn't matter how many, but only Dolphins.

Sounded VERY funny to me yesterday, the first drawback that came to my mind was that this would exclude one of my favourite activities: Core mining, as there are no small charges . So maybe I'll bend that rule and make it "only Dolphins from now on" and allow keeping my mining AspX as the sole exception (I had sold the two other ships anyway a few hours before). It's a little bit cheating, but I think I'll allow it.

So, the amended ruleset:

1. No combat of any sort.
2. No ship or personal weapons.
3. No killing sentient beings. That includes aliens.
4. No engineering. Tech brokers and off-the-shelf stock allowed.
5. Illegal stuff allowed, but no killing. Destruction of property (turrets, skimmers, sentinels) is allowed.
6. No schmoozing with superpowers.
7. No rebuys.
8. No exessive credits hoarding.
9. No fleet carrier. Using other people's carriers is okay, but I can't own one.
10. The Dolphins is the only ship I'm allowed to buy from now on. Possible freebies like the winking cat stuff last year might be allowed.

Rule #4 and #10 combined mean I'm locked out from decent jump ranges until the size 4 FSD is made available from brokers (if ever). I might have to think about making a rule if fleet carrier help from my main is allowed. The upside is I don't need alot of credits, as Dolphin builds are cheap.

This starts to sound like fun. I'm definitely enjoying playing a fresh CMDR that hasn't achieved almost every achievement that is in the game.

 

[SteveWW57]

I thought about this one last night and had an idea... what about the rule "only one type of ship allowed? I was sitting in the shipyard pondering where to go next. I had returned from my latest core mining trip in my AspX (Harold has now 279 MCr. which will last for a while) and was thinking what kind of ship to build next (trader, explorer, passenger transport, jack of all trades) and on what platform. I started an explorer build and thought: Ugh, I don't want to fly a Krait again, and I don't really like the DBX's cockpit.

With my main I had the most fun with the Dolphin recently, so I theory-built a few Dolphins and had the idea to make the rule that Ican only use Dolphins for any build. Doesn't matter how many, but only Dolphins.

Sounded VERY funny to me yesterday, the first drawback that came to my mind was that this would exclude one of my favourite activities: Core mining, as there are no small charges . So maybe I'll bend that rule and make it "only Dolphins from now on" and allow keeping my mining AspX as the sole exception (I had sold the two other ships anyway a few hours before). It's a little bit cheating, but I think I'll allow it.

So, the amended ruleset:

3. No killing sentient beings. That includes aliens.

Scavs are not sentient beings. They are about on the same level as the moss the XenoBiologists like to scan. You can scan them too once they have given up the appearance of sentient life.

Since you are sticking to the smaller ships that have less cost, not having rebuy is affordable

On the schmoozing with superpowers, by not progressing with them, all you will lose is some permits and rank locked ships. The Fed ones I believe are a non-starter for the kind of career you envisage, with the Imps you lose access to the Cutter/Clipper/Courier.

The Dolphin is a really good multipurpose ship. Since you are jaded with the Krait, keep the Python.

The aim of the restrictions is to give more interesting gameplay, but do not be too restrictive.

Steve 07.