Skimmer Exploit is great for Elite

All these folks getting shiny new Cutters, Corvettes and everything else is great for the long term health of the game.

They are spending real money on Paintjobs, the French chicks voice, Ship Kits ( 8 pounds a pop! ) and questionable Cmdr clothes.

These brave heroes are ensuring the future of the game with cold hard cash. I salute you.
 
It;s not an exploit. It;s just some bases aren't very well defended.

I'm deliberately playing it in a non exploity way, by going to easy and hard bases. Keeps it interesting, as long as there's nothing flying over it, it's just a case of finding the power supply. ;)
 
I didn't do the skimmer missions the other times they were big money and I'll probably skip it this time too. Still debating. Will probably be nerfed before I make up my mind.
 
I didn't do the skimmer missions the other times they were big money and I'll probably skip it this time too. Still debating. Will probably be nerfed before I make up my mind.

With the skimmer spawn rate fixed (sic: neverending supply), they are more fun than they used to be. First time I've used the latest GRQ scheme, because this time its fun.
 
I didn't do the skimmer missions the other times they were big money and I'll probably skip it this time too. Still debating. Will probably be nerfed before I make up my mind.

Likewise. I'm parked in Exphiay for the night while on my way to Guardian space for the new mats, and I don't really want to return to the bubble emptyhanded for the second time in three days (the first time I got sidetracked by engineering), even if it is for a hell of a lot of easy money.
 
Really?

I thought they get their Anaconda, Cutters and Corvettes then say "there's nothing else to do with my multi billion trillion credits! Game is dead!"
Then go off to play something else.

People think a lot of things, it doesn't make them true. Has anyone ever given any proof that people leave after getting their big ships following one of these gold rushes ?

Personally I've always seen that sort of comment as an unsubstantiated comment that people throw out to try and show that "they're not against people enjoying the game their way, honest ! They're just oh so concerned about the long term health of the game and that's why they want to stop other people enjoying the game their way".
 
A billion credits in a day? OK keeps telling yourself that lol.

By the way I don't care what people do in game - no moral stance on this. But I'm not willfully blind.

It's not an exploit though. An exploit is taking advantage of UNINTENDED gameplay. This is clearly intended. YOu can say the skimmer spawn rate needs checking, or you can say the rewards need reducing, or at least scaling with the security response of the base, but htis is not an 'exploit' in its normal definition. You could say a development oversight.

There's a reason for it, and in that reason of course, is the potential solution.

You've probably seen yamiks vid, where he has this base where he can go and literally just keep firing missiles until all the missions complete (in fact he wastes his time logging in and out, you don't even need to do that any more, there is a never ending stream of skimmers, you only have to reverse 500m then forward 500m and attack the new spawns). The problem here is how much pay it is for how easy it is to complete.

Now, I personally, don't have any bases THAT easy near my home. When I do this, I use three different bases (so I can stack enough missions without going crazy logging in and out), of three varying security levels. One is a bit like Yamiks one in that it only has two small turrets that are taken out with a single missile, then I can shoot the spawns, but hte other two are both high security, and have power plants that need to be taken out and kept down (they self repair), otherwise the Anti Air defenses take you out quick. I don't consider that the way I'm doing these is exploity. I hope that when whatever nerf comes for the fish in the barrel method, it doesn't affect the high payouts for the strategic assault of high security skimmer bases.

Therefore, as hinted previously, perhaps the rewards need to scale with the security response, or rather, only bases with meaningful security are selected for these missions.
 
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FD should just get rid of credits and make everyone trade in materials. Anaconda? That'll be 250,000 pieces of arsenic, 50,000 cracked industrial firmware, and 20,000 chemical manipulators please.
 
People think a lot of things, it doesn't make them true. Has anyone ever given any proof that people leave after getting their big ships following one of these gold rushes ?

Honestly more people who don't ever get the big ships probably leave the game.

FD just needs to release some more ships for us old players - Panther Clipper I'm looking at you.
 
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All these folks getting shiny new Cutters, Corvettes and everything else is great for the long term health of the game.

They are spending real money on Paintjobs, the French chicks voice, Ship Kits ( 8 pounds a pop! ) and questionable Cmdr clothes.

These brave heroes are ensuring the future of the game with cold hard cash. I salute you.

It'd be interesting to know if this really affects who plays & who stays at all? I'd say that if you're the kind of person who's going to get bored after you've skimmed off the cash got all the toys - you'd have got bored and given up anyway regardless. Perhaps just a bit sooner.

I'd also say that if (like me) you do these things "just because" or you don't do them at all; the easy credits aren't a thing either way and it's other stuff that keeps you playing.

I reckon it makes no difference.


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I agree completely. Still once I got my Corvette I wasn't leaving for a long time. If I was still stuck in a Type 7 - maybe?

Exactly people just want stuff and because it's a game I think they have a right to expect that it won't be too difficult*.

I played for about a year in a fairly "normal" way and didn't grind creds for ships etc. Then suddenly I decided that I wanted the shiny stuff and changed it up. I have 2200 hrs in game and 1/2 of that is down to the fact I got myself out of a Cobra.

Incidentally I only started buying paint packs etc when I felt I had ships worthy of it. So in game Cred's for me = real money for FD.


* Your definition of "too difficult" may vary!
 
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All these folks getting shiny new Cutters, Corvettes and everything else is great for the long term health of the game.

They are spending real money on Paintjobs, the French chicks voice, Ship Kits ( 8 pounds a pop! ) and questionable Cmdr clothes.

These brave heroes are ensuring the future of the game with cold hard cash. I salute you.

Well finally got my corvette after what 3/4 years.. promptly went back to my usual ship and carried on as normal.. can say at least for me getting the corvette hasn't stopped me playing ..legit didn't even have to do anything dodgy to get it. I'm having great fun just trying to see how much I can get my DBX to jump... so far up to 62ly with a explorer loadout and have plenty of weight saving engineering to go.. Must admit redoing all my engineering is a bit meh.
 
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