Robigo - unexpected by products

[GunnerBill]

For couple of reasons I decided at the beginning of April that I needed to "do Robigo"

#1 Try Smuggling.
#2 Need cash for big ships [money]

Pretty much going according to plan and after making one run on most days I've increased my assets by 347 mil at roughly 19 mil per day or per run.

It is pretty tiring though because I always start late and I often find myself flaking out at about 1 am with two or three drop off's still to make!

So what is the unexpected by product(s)?

I started Robigo at Deadly + 50% and some low percentage into Broker.. I just made Tycoon last night and seem set to make Elite in trade ranks before combat!

Honestly I never, ever saw that one coming [noob]

It's also worth noting that my Empire rank is has gone from Serf to Squire along the same path and is overtaking my carefully tended Fed rank [sour]

 

[ZenZak]

Yes I if I remember right you get 1 point towards trade (tycoon to elite) every 5-6 million profit you make in trading/smuggling-)

 

[Vorxian]

Robigo as a straight mechanic really struggles to be 'fun' though.

It's more frustrating and time consuming than it holds it's own as a 'fun' way to spend time playing british bulldog against infinitely spawning npcs hell bent on making your life misery for the duration of the 'mission'. And believe me, they make your life misery, not in a good way but, genuine misery.

Personally prefer stacking 70-odd HIP 10716 missions at once. That is an annoying use of game time as well, but it lacks the frustration factor of Robigo. Made unranked to Baron, and 300m credits to boot since I just bit the poison bullet and started at the weekend, with every other day off away from the PC. The credits are actually irrelevant :S - ironic, yet I NEED to get this crap done before the major nerfs coming to mass-production rep grinding in 2.1. It's inevitable.

Get your Robicos and your HIPs done now, before 'fixes' are applied which will make grinding rep take 10x longer in a more 'fun' mission system. (which is genuinely needed a fun mission system).

 

[ZenZak]

Good advise Vorxian-)I am doing Robigo as much as I can atm as I am sure Robigo will be nerfed.

 

[SCSkunk]

Robigo needs to be nerfed from orbit...it's the only way to be sure. Where's Aisling the one time you actually need her?

The Shadow Delivery mechanic is super fun. That is not the issue. Robigo makes all other endeavors futile by comparison. Mining? Waste of time compartment to Robigo. Trading? Close one, but Robigo wins when the cards are shown. Bounty Hunting? Robigo wins. Need to reach Elite for Founders World permit? Robigo. And it costs you nothing but time. No investment, no loss. Getting scanned deletes your POTENETIAL profits, but you didn't complete those mission so it was not money from your own pocket.

And the poor newbie, getting picked up by a friendly CMDR, helped to get the hang of flying, and told, "There's this magical place where you can buy an Anaconda within a week of purchasing this game..." I truly feel sorry for those new players, they will miss so much of what we all fell in love with about Elite. The rest of the galaxy. Which is nowhere near as lucrative as Robigo, so why bother with it?

I hate Robigo. Bring on the "your game is not effected by my play choices" while I dodge Mostly Harmless Corvettes on my way to a Community Goal...

 

[ZenZak]

Hate is a strong word for a skunk head dude lol.

I think they should stop players swapping modes to stack and it would be perfect.

 

[hunvagy]

Robigo needs to be nerfed from orbit...it's the only way to be sure. Where's Aisling the one time you actually need her?

The Shadow Delivery mechanic is super fun. That is not the issue. Robigo makes all other endeavors futile by comparison. Mining? Waste of time compartment to Robigo. Trading? Close one, but Robigo wins when the cards are shown. Bounty Hunting? Robigo wins. Need to reach Elite for Founders World permit? Robigo. And it costs you nothing but time. No investment, no loss. Getting scanned deletes your POTENETIAL profits, but you didn't complete those mission so it was not money from your own pocket.

And the poor newbie, getting picked up by a friendly CMDR, helped to get the hang of flying, and told, "There's this magical place where you can buy an Anaconda within a week of purchasing this game..." I truly feel sorry for those new players, they will miss so much of what we all fell in love with about Elite. The rest of the galaxy. Which is no we here near as lucrative as Robigo, so why bother with it?

I hate Robigo. Bring on the "your game is not effected by my play choices" while I dodge Mostly Harmless Corvettes on my way to a Community Goal...

I guess Robigo only generates such missions then. Funny thing though, Zemina Torval can generate similar missions that are totally legit. Skittish stock worth 2.5 million, and no cops involved. I rather do my usual routine and pick up these missions when they show up then fly to the back end of nowhere. I agree on the other points though, shadow deliveries are fun, especially when you try to sneak in something as lumbering as a Python xD "Please don't hit the cowgrill, please don't hit the cowgrill..."

 

[frostypaw]

And the poor newbie, getting picked up by a friendly CMDR, helped to get the hang of flying, and told, "There's this magical place where you can buy an Anaconda within a week of purchasing this game..." I truly feel sorry for those new players, they will miss so much of what we all fell in love with about Elite. The rest of the galaxy. Which is no we here near as lucrative as Robigo, so why bother with it?

I hate Robigo. Bring on the "your game is not effected by my play choices" while I dodge Mostly Harmless Corvettes on my way to a Community Goal...

It's ok, there's an infinity of internet and places to review Elite where they can then tell everyone how the game is either boring and there's nothing to do but kill people, or that this game's too hard and you just die all the time off to solo.

But instead there's easy exploits so a few players are happy and everyone else loses. Yay! This mode swapping for mission stacking really needs addressing too, ridiculously immersion destroying even knowing people are doing that

 

[hunvagy]

It's ok, there's an infinity of internet and places to review Elite where they can then tell everyone how the game is either boring and there's nothing to do but kill people, or that this game's too hard and you just die all the time off to solo.

But instead there's easy exploits so a few players are happy and everyone else loses. Yay! This mode swapping for mission stacking really needs addressing too, ridiculously immersion destroying even knowing people are doing that

I'm hoping the mission system revamp solves this in a different way then the current mechanics to combat it. Because what's good against mission stacking is super annoying for me. I ran a regular trade route, but I check the bulletin board at every station to see if there's something I want to do. After some changes to the bulleting board since previous versions, I can now stare at the same 3 generated missions for about 20 minutes before it refreshes.

"Oh, so you people don't need anything else but that one specific assassination? You sure? I have range and car.. ah okay, have at it then."

 

[SCSkunk]

Hate is a strong word for a skunk head dude lol.

I think they should stop players swapping modes to stack and it would be perfect.

Perhaps I over-stepped. I "feel very strongly" about Robigo.

I guess Robigo only generates such missions then. Funny thing though, Zemina Torval can generate similar missions that are totally legit.

Everyone does. I have screenshots of Slave Shadow Delivery mission from Aisling's capital of Cubeo. (They make me laugh, so I had to take a screenie)
But nothing can compare to Robigo. It's the Giant Dad of Elite. Praise the Sun!

 

[biohazard15]

Robigo as a straight mechanic really struggles to be 'fun' though.

It's more frustrating and time consuming than it holds it's own as a 'fun' way to spend time playing british bulldog against infinitely spawning npcs hell bent on making your life misery for the duration of the 'mission'. And believe me, they make your life misery, not in a good way but, genuine misery.

Personally prefer stacking 70-odd HIP 10716 missions at once. That is an annoying use of game time as well, but it lacks the frustration factor of Robigo. Made unranked to Baron, and 300m credits to boot since I just bit the poison bullet and started at the weekend, with every other day off away from the PC. The credits are actually irrelevant :S - ironic, yet I NEED to get this crap done before the major nerfs coming to mass-production rep grinding in 2.1. It's inevitable.

Get your Robicos and your HIPs done now, before 'fixes' are applied which will make grinding rep take 10x longer in a more 'fun' mission system. (which is genuinely needed a fun mission system).

HIP credits are relevant if your aim is Duke and Cutter (and why else you need to grind HIP?). You basically earn both rank and money to buy the big one.

 

[Monolith Preacher]

Pure trading still gets you more trade % than doing Robigo runs, both by money and time, I've found. I spent the whole of my Tycoon rank testing the difference of the income and rating 'twixt Robigo, Sothis, Ceos, and Fehu runs with my slave trading routes. The latter worked out better in every regard when smuggling, but legal trading wouldn't be as efficient at making money as long-distance smuggling. Of course, once you hit Elite trader, it's all kind of moot anyway.

 

[pica pica]

Last weeks newsletter/galnet(?) mentioned technical difficulties at the Robigo Mines outpost, due to UA's I presume. If so then there may only be a limited amount of time before the station services shut down anyway. When Gabrielle Station in Harma was UA bombed I think it took about 14 days for services to go.

 

[Vorxian]

HIP credits are relevant if your aim is Duke and Cutter (and why else you need to grind HIP?). You basically earn both rank and money to buy the big one.

I have the cash about 10x over to buy a cutter, what i don't have is the rep. I'm not doing HIP for the money, rather just the reputation gains. The extra cash is just beer money. BUT gotta get in before 2.1, in any case.

 

[d8veh]

it's almost certain to go in the next few weeks, so make the most of it while you can.

 

[biohazard15]

I have the cash about 10x over to buy a cutter, what i don't have is the rep. I'm not doing HIP for the money, rather just the reputation gains. The extra cash is just beer money. BUT gotta get in before 2.1, in any case.

It can be done in a week (I know because I did it!)

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

Robigo as a concept is fine.

 

[Vorxian]

It can be done in a week (I know because I did it!)

[up] Here's hoping!

I'm out tonight for another round !

 

[Warmaster Will]

It doesn't need to be nerfed from orbit there is some real content gold in here.
For instance they can add missions where a player gets a list of your target stations (an inside spy accesses cargo manifest)
Now you have to watch for ambushes,or they can do a giant CG of stopping the slave trade.

Throw a capital ship in Robigo space and the surrounding systems and make smuggling way harder.
You just nerf it and you will loose alot of possible content.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

The Shadow Missions themselves are fine, I think the stacking is the issue - same thing with the Meta-alloys. Log off/log on is not gameplay, it's tedious.

Hopefully, the mission overhaul will balance the number and type of missions available based on the population size/faction type, etc., and there'll be a natural mechanism to update the board with new missions in a supply/demand type way.