Smeaton Orbital run is dead, now what?
- Thread starter Commander Face
- Start date
Plays a beta, the point of which is that some stuff won't work properly.
Complains that some stuff isn't working properly.
*sigh*
There, fixed.
What you said is like saying that playing rigged casino games and constantly winning large sums of money is fun.
As much as I'm in dire need of large amount of credits I don't participate in such activities. Tried it once or twice, won't lie. But it felt exactly the same boring grind as any other. Exception was the income amount. Same mind boggling, boring and uninteresting repetitive actions that give you means to actually play the game.
I don't like the current system, where picking "your own trail" means months of every day playing just to secure enough credits to buy a single ship. Can't we mix together both ends (FDEVs limited Cr/hr with absurdly high price tags with broken and exploit-ish things like Smeaton) and meet in the middle?
I'm guessing you're talking about the
painite thing
Yes, that would work well if you could find a short enough round trip.
Some other options:
- Painite wing mining, 30-60 MCr/hour when properly optimised
- short-range cargo missions, you can get 10 million for 180t of Palladium, or 3-8 million for Gold or Silver. Find the right Extraction system and you might be able to stack up a bunch of those, and complete them including returning to pick up the next set in 10-15 minutes.
- sightseeing passengers: yes, you can get 50MCr/hour or more if you find the right source and destination systems (no board-flipping required: the right systems have more missions than even a Conda can fit on a typical board)
...and one more which should work pretty well, though requires a bit of skill and setup:
1) Engineer a super-range Anaconda and learn to neutron boost
2) Map out a suitable neutron route between Colonia and Sol
3) Fly to Colonia, dock at a station, pick up some "famous explorer" passenger missions. Most of these missions go straight back to the Sol bubble, so you can get 8 of them paying about 50 million from a single good mission board.
4) You now have 400 million in passenger missions, all of which require a single beacon scan, with the beacons within a few jumps of each other.
5) Buckyball down that route to the bubble. The record is under 2 hours ... weighed down with passenger cabins, you'll probably need 3. Scan the beacons, then another three hours to get back.
6) Result ... 400 million credits in 7 hours.
Of course it is 'fun'....we love being protected from chance of being poor. We might think of games as escapism, but we can't avoid our nature.
Some people just can't help it. For them that's most important thing, in-game or out.
What's important....devs don't have to balance game around such low target. There are higher satisfaction thresholds which aren't completely connected to gained wealth. I love beat difficult target for my mission...and of course I love when I get paid...but it is combination on both that brings me that justification - it feels earned.
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as we have already billions, just enjoy game and buy whatever you want. And when we spend them, im pretty sure there will be another similar exploit.
Xi Wangda Bulk Passenger to Donglavs/ Hip.
There are three systems around with 60k to 140k ls, Donglavs, Hip 1430, Widjahibiko or smth like that.
You hardly have to board hop bc of this.
I usually load up missions to Donglavs and HIP.
They all send you to planetary bases.
The payout is between 50k to 100k per single passenger. One trip takes around 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your rep.
Higher rep = faster stock up
My Conda gets me 30 to 45 mil, sometimes 50 mil/ h, depending on how many passenger missions I can stock to one single system.
Usually 3/4 to Donglavs or Hip, 1/4 in advance to the other one.
A landing computer makes it more comfortable.
Btw, I call it the WangDong run.
There are three systems around with 60k to 140k ls, Donglavs, Hip 1430, Widjahibiko or smth like that.
You hardly have to board hop bc of this.
I usually load up missions to Donglavs and HIP.
They all send you to planetary bases.
The payout is between 50k to 100k per single passenger. One trip takes around 20 to 30 minutes, depending on your rep.
Higher rep = faster stock up
My Conda gets me 30 to 45 mil, sometimes 50 mil/ h, depending on how many passenger missions I can stock to one single system.
Usually 3/4 to Donglavs or Hip, 1/4 in advance to the other one.
A landing computer makes it more comfortable.
Btw, I call it the WangDong run.
I wrote a little auto-pilot explorer bot, and have my computer running 24/7.
It does a better job of exploring than I ever could; computes the optimal journey to visit all bodies in a system, travels at precisely the right throttle level to maximize velocity & scan speed and minimize proximity.
I even have it take framed screenshots of Earth-like worlds.
It doesn't earn very much per hour of activity, but per hour of my time? ∞!
I look back at the days when I used to do exploring by hand and think 'I must have been insane!'
It does a better job of exploring than I ever could; computes the optimal journey to visit all bodies in a system, travels at precisely the right throttle level to maximize velocity & scan speed and minimize proximity.
I even have it take framed screenshots of Earth-like worlds.
It doesn't earn very much per hour of activity, but per hour of my time? ∞!
I look back at the days when I used to do exploring by hand and think 'I must have been insane!'
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So, have you done this in a way that doesn't violate the terms of service?
No offense but that doesn't tell me much. Isn't it the case that any automation (regardless of how it's done) is against the TOS? Genuine question.
Apart from the satisfaction of having done this and got it to work, what's the point?
So you can let the thing play the game for you so why bother playing then?
Honest question, I'm not being snarky this time.
It was in jest; a tongue in cheek dig at how repetitive & easily automatable exploration would be.
Though now you mention it, programming such a bot to play ED would likely be a more rewarding experience. :x
My life's story in ED:
I bought the game.
I did worthless stuff; earnt peanuts, bored silly.
I ran Smeaton; earnt billions, bored silly.
I ranked up Empire, earnt peanuts, bored silly.
I went exploring, earnt peanuts, bored silly.
Arguable the most rewarding time I've had in ED was running Smeaton!
Sure it was mind numbingly boring, but at least it progressed something with mechanical worth that expanded the gameplay experience a little. (bank balance->buy & fly new ships)
Obviously this is somewhat of a simplification; while doing the 'worthless stuff' I was learning the game, so in the beginning it wasn't entirely boring.
Likewise exploration was initially interesting until I found my 1st undiscovered Neutron Star / Water world / Ammonia World / Earth-like, but now it's just rinse and repeat.
So unless you're interested in faction influence (which by many accounts is incredibly tedious), or combat, then my answer to the OP is a big fat:
Nothing.
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No,
Doesn't play a beta because somebody "fixed" something that wasn't broken. When you can't even take off in a game like ED, it's really more of an Alpha than a Beta.
And a rather embarrassing one at that.
Betas typically have odd issues that make no apparent sense. They get fixed.
Oh yes.
All of the four things you refer to above are indicative of an extrinsically-motivated personality. All involve doing something one dislikes in order to receive a reward. Think Milner and later B.F. Skinner's operant reinforcement experiments.
There's nothing at all wrong with being extrinsically motivated, but I think the personality characteristics you exhibit may be better suited to other games that provide more proximate gratification in response to in-game actions? ED is best played for the experiential quality of it all. There is so much it has to offer by way of planetary body variation, physics modelling, hidden easter eggs, understanding and adapting to the BGS, but these things all involve an investment of time and an understanding that the journey is the reward.
Having said all that ... I do think that there is a place in ED for things like Smeaton every once in a while and I think Frontier should 'allow' or perhaps even hide little 'exploits' (for lack of a better word) like this in the game here and there to keep those who look for such things in-game. I admit - not everyone is intrinsically-motivated; in fact, I would argue the opposite is more generally true of people as a whole, and gamers are no exception. There needs to be a way for those who seek it to achieve instant gratification like Smeaton provided (sure the trip out is tedious, but the rewards outstripped any other in-game method for money making if that is what you desire).
For the sake of maintaining the long-term player base of the game, I wish Frontier had handled Smeaton a little more deftly.
There's nothing at all wrong with being extrinsically motivated, but I think the personality characteristics you exhibit may be better suited to other games that provide more proximate gratification in response to in-game actions? ED is best played for the experiential quality of it all. There is so much it has to offer by way of planetary body variation, physics modelling, hidden easter eggs, understanding and adapting to the BGS, but these things all involve an investment of time and an understanding that the journey is the reward.
Having said all that ... I do think that there is a place in ED for things like Smeaton every once in a while and I think Frontier should 'allow' or perhaps even hide little 'exploits' (for lack of a better word) like this in the game here and there to keep those who look for such things in-game. I admit - not everyone is intrinsically-motivated; in fact, I would argue the opposite is more generally true of people as a whole, and gamers are no exception. There needs to be a way for those who seek it to achieve instant gratification like Smeaton provided (sure the trip out is tedious, but the rewards outstripped any other in-game method for money making if that is what you desire).
For the sake of maintaining the long-term player base of the game, I wish Frontier had handled Smeaton a little more deftly.
So on average in the live build I make around 20 million on a 8 minute run (700+ tonne capacity) This is only in select regions of the galaxy, outside of that I am normally making around 4 million per run (Around a million per 180 tonne mission)
In Beta - It seems to have averaged out, if you take a wing haulage mission and do it solo, you top out around 5 million per cargo run, now if you do it with another freighter (Both in T9's or Cutters) you are both earning anywhere from 10 to 20 million per single 8 minute run. Good job, the more truckers you fly with, the faster you complete and the bigger the profit per run.
Now I have been operating in the Beta region, WYRD/I-Bootis cluster, lots of systems in a close cluster, your earnings will reduce if you have to travel further on the high capacity fetch missions, the haulage missions tend to be short range no matter where you are in the bubble.
Commodity smuggling seems to have also got a large payout increase, some reported up to 7000 cr/t profit selling to a blcak market, they likely means profits could be higher if you actually play the BGS and sell to the right station.
All in all looks very good, my only suggestion would be to increase payouts on some of the fetch missions, deliver 4000T of gold for 28 million, paying for that gold solo really eats into the profit, better off doing delivery missions, all profit.
In Beta - It seems to have averaged out, if you take a wing haulage mission and do it solo, you top out around 5 million per cargo run, now if you do it with another freighter (Both in T9's or Cutters) you are both earning anywhere from 10 to 20 million per single 8 minute run. Good job, the more truckers you fly with, the faster you complete and the bigger the profit per run.
Now I have been operating in the Beta region, WYRD/I-Bootis cluster, lots of systems in a close cluster, your earnings will reduce if you have to travel further on the high capacity fetch missions, the haulage missions tend to be short range no matter where you are in the bubble.
Commodity smuggling seems to have also got a large payout increase, some reported up to 7000 cr/t profit selling to a blcak market, they likely means profits could be higher if you actually play the BGS and sell to the right station.
All in all looks very good, my only suggestion would be to increase payouts on some of the fetch missions, deliver 4000T of gold for 28 million, paying for that gold solo really eats into the profit, better off doing delivery missions, all profit.
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This, to me, reads like a cop-out (no offense intended) - apologia for poor, uncompelling game design where the bare minimum of the things expected of a game like "goals" or "story" or "fun" are foisted off on the player.