So cross-faction massacre + assassination stacking is the surviving meta?

[Jmanis]

As per the thread title, since update 3 was apparently the final balance pass, it seems massacres + assassinations is one of the new big cash cow.

This is thanks to

• solo massacres receiving an entirely unnecessary buff to payout
• assassinations receiving a buff up to 4-5m payout
• bounties being buffed by up to 1m for the biggest ship kills[1]

My back- of- smokes maths tells me you can do the following:
1. Use that tool which i don't have a link to right now, to get a system with just one anarchy within 10Ly
2. Get allied with all the factions.
Take a massacre or two from each faction, depending on kill counts. For six factions, that should be anywhere between 120-240m
3. Grab as many assassinations as possible. If you luck out, it'll be up to 14 assassinations, depending on other environmental factors. Let's allow 20 mins for two board refreshes. This'll be another 80-90m for
4. Go to the target system and flush it out, which should take about an hour with a decent combat ship.
5. Hand in all the missions for about 300m in just over an hours effort.

stretch goal, do it with 3 buddies and use wing massacres for closer to 1b an hour.

Perfectly balanced!

[1] but not necessarily the hardest.

 

[Stormcrow77]

Ya, I applaud their attempts at balancing, but it seems like they're kinda winging it.

Part of balance is to look at the game as a whole and decide what they intend credits to be used on, then balance accordingly. I think they skipped that step so they're making changes to everything without setting a goal as to what a good credits per hour value is.

For instance, lets pretend 100m an hour is the magic number, that's still 50 hours "work" just for the purchase price of a fleet carrier.

Is that too long, is that too short?

We don't have any idea what their magic value is, so its hard for people to provide the necessary feedback. Everybody wants THEIR specific version of making credits to be the most lucrative.

I LOVE space trucking. I wish I could make Taygeta levels all the time. but that version of Elite Dangerous would be fun for ME.

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

I was working on around an 800m/hr figure when I posted on this last week.

Sooner or later word will get out, probably after some YT'er realizes (or is told) about it.

I'm also surprised and disappointed it wasn't addressed, particularly as they took the time to address the new transport missions which weren't as lucrative.

 

[Jmanis]

I was working on around an 800m/hr figure when I posted on this last week.

Sooner or later word will get out, probably after some YT'er realizes (or is told) about it.

I'm also surprised and disappointed it wasn't addressed, particularly as they took the time to address the new transport missions which weren't as lucrative.

Yeah, I'm being deliberately conservative due to "OMG you're not an average player" syndrome, when i know I've already earned more than my quoted figures.

 

[Mr T]

I started doing this before the buff really just so I can rank up with the federation and unlock the corvette. I have seen some crazy high prices for solo massacre missions and I've noticed the bounty increase too. The highest for least effort I've seen in a single massacre mission is 40mil for about 25 kills. Most of the missions offered aren't that high but then I'm not fully allied with all the fed factions yet.

In summary, I think bounties are decent now and what they should be but massacres are way over paid. I don't really know why they increased them as well, especially seeing as you would be collecting bounty payments with them.

 

[Haradrim]

I mean at least this takes a little more work compared to hauling or mining

 

[Vedmo]

Actually recreating this in consecutive hours of play really isn't possible without some seriously rare rng blessings from the mission board, in my experience.

Kojeara board for all Pennsylvania targets will usually get me 2 or 3 massacre missions of varied pay (add 1 or 2 if taking wings), and assassination missions are a real grab bag, but they can easily be 5 to 10. After the changes to delivery missions though, I do think it's probably the most profitable credit making method.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

I'm going to be of those players and say, "its combat they can do whatever they want".

While this is not realistic (??) i think my fantasy it would have been delivery missions with the bonuses for npc interdictions paying some of the silly numbers we are seeing now. That way you can still be trucking, but get in combat to mix it up. Won't get into specifics, but even if you're in a combat multipurpose ship as soon as you stack missions it doesn't make sense to stop for a fight.

 

[Jmanis]

Kojeara board for all Pennsylvania targets will usually get me 2 or 3 massacre missions of varied pay (add 1 or 2 if taking wings), and assassination missions are a real grab bag, but they can easily be 5 to 10. After the changes to delivery missions though, I do think it's probably the most profitable credit making method.

deliveries just got nerfed.. nothing paying more than 4-5m now.

 

[Vedmo]

deliveries just got nerfed.. nothing paying more than 4-5m now.

Sorry, I meant after the current Nerf to deliveries, the massacre method I would guess has taken the lead for profits.

 

[Ydiss]

I'm thinking you may be right. But I'm going to suggest that there won't be even a fraction of the community uptake in comparison to Mining, the recent trade boom or any previous gold rush (including mass stacking massacres before it was changed). Certainly not as much of a new player uptake seen with mining for the past few years.

The actual process isn't nearly as cookie cutter, nor immediately accessible on day one, as most gold rushes tend to be. Just finding the right system, even with that tool (which isn't that well known) and then needing to switch systems due to BGS (or working out how to control it) is way more involved that most gold rushes.

I'd suggest most will stick to Mining. The only way massacre stacking offers a quick route to riches from day one is if a friend shares wing missions with you. And even then, the actual process of building a suitable ship? Learning combat? Then actually doing it? Just not the same.

 

[Chaines]

Well now that you have talked about it, it will be nerfed... Or so i heard.

 

[Stormcrow77]

lol

 

[Jmanis]

I'm thinking you may be right. But I'm going to suggest that there won't be even a fraction of the community uptake in comparison to Mining, the recent trade boom or any previous gold rush (including mass stacking massacres before it was changed). Certainly not as much of a new player uptake seen with mining for the past few years.

The actual process isn't nearly as cookie cutter, nor immediately accessible on day one, as most gold rushes tend to be. Just finding the right system, even with that tool (which isn't that well known) and then needing to switch systems due to BGS (or working out how to control it) is way more involved that most gold rushes.

I'd suggest most will stick to Mining. The only way massacre stacking offers a quick route to riches from day one is if a friend shares wing missions with you. And even then, the actual process of building a suitable ship? Learning combat? Then actually doing it? Just not the same.

Lots of people were all over it pre- stacking nerf, so i don't think there's much barrier to learning combat for this case. It's not like that 5&6 PA sites or CZs.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Learning combat? Then actually doing it? Just not the same.

Really, depend on what you read or see combat is the most popular activity in the game. PVE combat is easy enough for casuals (like me) anyway, all you need is engineering and the right outfitting.

As jmanis lead to in another post, this could just end up with people doing combat and nothing else. Since this is the first time for this permutation i guess its not the worst change.

Lol. Maybe there's a huge wave of people who frontier's old philosophy of "not rewarding the most fun activity" was applying in inverse. Ie, people liked doing what frontier thought was boring and so provided credits through the roof. As someone who probably prefers trading and mining, having combat pay more is a great incentive to do it. Can always sit down for a trucking session. Combat to me feels like doing the same thing over and over again (with zero risk).

EDIT: I got a little bit edgy once. In my type 10, i decided to solo a wing of 3 dangerous federal ships. I just lost my shields. That's as risky as i got.

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

I need to go find that old tool that isn't so well known. Need credits, and killing NPC's is still fun for me.

 

[Chaines]

I need to go find that old tool that isn't so well known. Need credits, and killing NPC's is still fun for me.

try edtools

 

[Jmanis]

try edtools

Thanks. Truthfully, i wasn't deliberately avoiding posting it here, i just genuinely didn't know. I just know of four such systems within a jump of each other, smack in the bubble

 

[metatheurgist]

Honestly, I think they should've looked at what combat was earning prebuff and brought everything down to it.

 

[varonica]

As per the thread title, since update 3 was apparently the final balance pass, it seems massacres + assassinations is one of the new big cash cow.

So once again nothing for us poor explorers, scrimping and scraping on our Fleet Carriers with our meager fleet of Conda's and Krait's and....and....oh I can't keep it up, essentially there has always been enough money in the game to support anything you want to do and all balance passes do is move the balance somewhere else, they don't really change anything.