Thanks! I wasn't sure if it was actually working that way since it seemed I never dropped back down the rankings when I stopped contributing before the CG ends. I guess it's simply a combination of the rank brackets being rather wide and the numbers of contributors so high that you can stay in the level as long as you were not right on the edge. It would take a large/ sustained movement by a huge number of players to cause a big shift that would knock you out.
One thing that is about to change (2.2) is that those that have signed up and NOT made a delivery will NOT be counted anymore in the overall percentage. This is because since you have been able to sign up anywhere, many CMDRs will join and not take part; The effect of this is 1 tonne will automatically keep you in 75%, negating the 99% bracket and also artificially lowering/widening the higher brackets. Prior to the addition of sign up anywhere you would have to work for you position, this is set to return.
(Hypothetical scenario now= 2000 people sign up, 1000 of them do not deliver anything. 1 unit delivered places above them and you into the top 50%. On top of that, once changed, instead of there being 200 Top 10% positions, removing the excess would mean only 100 Top 10% positions. That's an extreme example, but you get the idea.)
One thing that is about to change (2.2) is that those that have signed up and NOT made a delivery will NOT be counted anymore in the overall percentage.
To claim your reward after the completion of the CG go to the bulletin board of the station where the CG was being hosted and click on complete. Credit rewards are available immediately afterwards, but some players have reported a delay so wait a few minutes. Any rewards claimed do not count towards progress through your Elite ranks.
I do not understand this sentence regarding progression to elite ranks, does it mean that if I sell exploration data for a CG, I will not progress in my exploration rank ?
I do not understand this sentence regarding progression to elite ranks, does it mean that if I sell exploration data for a CG, I will not progress in my exploration rank ?
Sharing this with my guild, and happy to give you credit. Do you have this on a blog of yours as well? Would love to reference any more of your 'help'.
I believe the community goals (CGs) are a really good way for new players to get to learn about the game and meet new players who in turn can guide them further, but the goals are not always clear in themselves and can lead to frustration to new and old players alike. I am trying to write this guide to cover all the basics and the FAQs. Everything written in it is based on what we have seen so far, however it is possible that Frontier Developments might choose to implement features not seen before and then it will be up to intuition as a community to work that out. Anything I have missed out or you feel is missing, please feel free to comment and I will add it. Thanks.
Community Goal Basics. FINDING COMMUNITY GOALS
Firstly, Community Goals are open to players in Open, Solo and Private Groups; likewise XBox, Mac and PC players. Even though you will not always, or not ever see each other, your contributions are counted the same. There are a number of ways to find new CGs, most will start towards the end of the week (Thurs/Fri). The first information anyone willreceive is through the Galnet News, which can be found on the bulletin board whilst docked, on your left hand panel in your ship under Galactic Powers or on the Galnet Website. Often the article will finish with wording similar to "appealing to independent pilots" or "pledged to reward participants" and if in the game most times a button will be there to link you to the galaxy map and the system that the CG is being held. Sometimes the Galnet article can be published an hour or two before the CG goes live, so if you get there and can't find anything you'll need to wait. It is important to say that there is currently no automated way of updating information on CGs, this means sometimes information can differ from sources or not be up to date at that time. Or the CG will of finished all together.
From there the CGs will be displayed in the following places:-
The Active Community Goal Thread -A good place to go if you need to ask for help or follow developments. EliteCG- The Reddit equivalent of The Active Community Goal Thread. Inara.cz -Community updated website.
The Elite: Dangerous Launcher -This will link through to the FD website.
CONTRIBUTING AND TAKING PART
Community Goals can now be signed up at any stations with a mission board, above the usual mission givers is a CG section. This list all current ongoing CGs, including details, progress and location.
Make sure this is the first thing you do before delivering any goods, bounties, combat bonds, etc. or the contributions will not be counted.
Once you have chosen your CG, fly to the system and dock at the station issuing the goal, this means if you happen to be destroyed you will respawn at this station. You can now start contributing towards the goal. Contributing is always a case of collecting the necessaryassets and delivering them to the initial station through a variety of methods. Obviously ship type and layout will affect your performance in the CG so think about that before you set out to sign up, for instance bulk trading CGs will always favour the high end ships like the T9 and the Anaconda, but don't let that put you off as even the smallest contribution can earn large rewards. A rare goods CG might be better in smaller ships such as the Asp or Cobra due to the low quota of rares given out to CMDRs. Some CGs might involve mining or exploring and will require certain modules to be fitted to take part. The community goals so far can all be broken down into the following...
TRADE(Includes Smuggling, Mining, Rares and Salvage)
Probably the most common of CGs and will just require you to source the right commodity and sell it back to the station, your level of contribution is based on the quantity of tonnes delivered and not overall profit. Generally the commodities will fall into a category so anything listed under a heading like FOOD or MEDICINES will count towards that particular CG's progress, this can be useful when the higher profit goods are running low in close by systems. If the goods are illegal in the system you will need to sell them on the black market and can occur fines if scanned whilst carrying the cargo. Sometimes the required items will not be available to purchase in any other systems and usually means that it will have to be mined (I.e. Osmium, Painite, Platinum, etc.) or could involve salvaging discarded canisters in weak signal sources (WSS), these canisters are also classed as illicit so fines will be given if scanned.
In the case of rare goods these will only be available from a specific station usually some distance from the start. Rare goods have a maximum allocation amount to the CMDR and the number available on arrival can be any random from 1-X. Generation of the rares is on a 10 minute cycle, refreshing the market page after that time will allow you to fill your ship up to the maximum allocation of the good.
COMBAT
There are two types of combat CGs, bounty hunting and combat zones (CZ) and in both your contributions are based on credits earned and not ships killed. In the case of bounty hunting you will be required to hand in bounties collected from wanted targets that have been issued by certain factions or powers, not all bounties will count towards the progress and the only way to determine which have been placed on the target is to destroy their ship, so this can be a bit hit or miss. You will get an idea of the correct faction bounty vouchers needed by reading towards the end of the CGs description. Fitting a kill warrant scanner (KWS) is not essential to doing this type of CG, but is useful for racking up more personal profit. The wanted targets can be found in that system through interdiction, unidentified or strong source signals, NAV Beacons or if available resource extraction sites. Any bounties you have claimed are handed in under contacts at the station issuing the CG.
For CZ based CGs you will need to determine which are the warring factions and decide which one you need to be fighting for, often this type will have multiple CGs to sign up to that are in competition of each other. The combat zones will always be within the same system but sometimes other civil wars will have broken out, this will mean you might not find the correct CZ with the right factions in first. CZs will only show up in navigation once you are under 1000 ls away and will be found around planets, so explore the system until you find the right one. The first thing to do on entering the CZ is to choose the faction to fight for from your right hand panel in the functions tab, this needs to be done to make sure any ships destroyed payout the combat bonds. Any combat bonds claimed are handed in under contacts at the station issuing the CG. In all combat CGs PvP does count towards contribution as long as they fill the criteria required.
EXPLORATION
Exploration data can been collected from anywhere in the galaxy and then sold to the station issuing the CG at the Universal Cartographers. Your contribution is credit based and not on number of systems or astronomical bodies scanned. Currently only the system scan is valid and individual scans of bodies do not count towards the progress. So all you will need to do is jump to a system that is unexplored by you, that is at least 20 light years distance from CG start, scan it and move on to the next. Exploration data that you hold prior to CG start can be handed in provided you have signed up first.
REWARDS
Your contribution towards the CG will not only progress and unlock higher rewards as a whole, but also determine what level of rewards you will be eligible at the end. If a minimum target is not met then no rewards will be given. The percentages of contribution can vary, but will roughly follow a TOP 5%/15%/40%/70%/100% structure or similar. Sometimes the largest rewards will be offered to individual CMDRs who contribute the most, this can be any number from top 5 CMDRs through to a single player. The rewards amounts are not always known from the beginning and will only be displayed on meeting a tier's target.
To claim your reward after the completion of the CG go to the bulletin board of the station where the CG was being hosted and click on complete. Credit rewards are available immediately afterwards, but some players have reported a delay so wait a few minutes. Any rewards claimed do not count towards progress through your Elite ranks.
Some CGs will have global rewards also and work slightly different to normal rewards. Global rewards are things that affect the game for all players regardless of contribution or if they have even signed up at all. The level of the global reward is determined by the tier met and can be anything from limited time discounts on ships/commodities, new rare goods created or can be something that develops an ongoing storyline such as cures for diseases, discovering terrorist cells or defeating enemies. Global rewards are not automatically applied and need to be done so manually and can takes hours or days to be available, if the CG completes out of UK office hours or on a weekend you will have to wait.
Uncollected CG rewards will be automatically payed to your balance after 2 weeks of the scheduled end date, no matter where you are in the galaxy.
DURATION
This can cause quite a lot of confusion and frustration. Community Goals are usually a week long but can be longer, but quite simply the time left or end dates stated anywhere at the moment is a time limit and does not indicate the total duration of that CG. As mentioned before there is no automated update on the progress of a CG without signing up first. Depending on the level of participants or required targets a CG can easily reach the final tier in a couple of days, when that happens it finishes regardless of the end time. Equally if the time runs out and certain tiers are not met then it finishes even if no rewards are available.
ADVERSE EFFECTS OF BGS
The Background Simulation (BGS) can have a number of effects on the functionality of CGs. Recently we have seen a trade CG have it's Market removed by a player group putting the system into Lockdown, by committing criminal activities. This effectively closed the CG. To counter this bounty hunting would be need to counter the effects.
This is not a bug, neither is it an exploit. It is however currently being reviewed, to see if it is currently balanced, to allow a fair chance to fight back against such actions. It is worth researching on the forums to find out the current state of development, if/when you are affected by this .
(Another form of disruption to CGs is UA Bombing, delivering large quantities of Unknown Artifacts to a Black Market of the hosting the CG. This can cause technical difficulties for the station, closing some services. Again this open to changes, so researching on the forum is the best way forward.)
QUICK ANSWERS.
*SIGN UP AT ANY BULLETIN BOARDS IN STATIONS WITH A MISSION BOARD.
*COMMUNITY GOALS ARE PLAYABLE FROM OPEN, SOLO AND PRIVATE GROUP MODES.
*XBOX AND MAC/PC PLAYERS ALWAYS CONTRIBUTE TO THE SAME GOAL, ALTHOUGH NEITHER WILL SEE EACH OTHER IN THE SAME SPACE INSTANCE.
*THE AMOUNT YOU CONTRIBUTE DETERMINES YOUR REWARD.
*CREDIT REWARDS ARE GIVEN AT THE END OF THE COMMUNITY GOAL OR VERY SHORTLY AFTER.
*IF NOT COLLECTED, COMMUNITY GOAL REWARDS WILL AUTOMATICALLY PAYOUT AFTER 2 WEEKS, NO MATTER WHERE YOU ARE IN THE GALAXY.
*REWARDS ARE NOT ALWAYS STATED AND USUALLY ONLY REVEALED ON MEETING TIER TARGETS.
*GLOBAL REWARDS WILL SOMETIMES NOT BE IMMEDIATELY AVAILABLE AND CAN TAKE HOURS, DAYS OR IN SOME CASES WEEKS TO APPEAR.
*GLOBAL REWARDS ARE AVAILABLE TO ALL PLAYERS WHETHER THEY TOOK PART OR NOT.
*THE END TIMES STATED IS A TIME LIMIT AND DOES NOT MEAN THE COMMUNITY GOAL IS NECESSARILY STILL ON GOING.
*OCCASIONALLY THE IMPLEMENTATION OF THE COMMUNITY GOAL IS NOT SET UP RIGHT, IF YOU THINK THIS IS THE CASE ISSUE A BUG REPORT SO THAT THEY CAN VERIFY THIS.
All of the above is based on my experience as a player, I gathered all this information in exactly the same way anybody else would, via playing the game or reading this forum. Initially I knew nothing about community goals and as with all things in Elite there is a steep learning curve that don't always immediately make sense, hopefully this small guide can help you all enjoy the Community Goals a little more.
CONTRIBUTIONS WELCOME!!!
I wasn't sure if it was actually working that way since it seemed I never dropped back down the rankings when I stopped contributing before the CG ends. I guess it's simply a combination of the rank brackets being rather wide and the numbers of contributors so high that you can stay in the level as long as you were not right on the edge. It would take a large/ sustained movement by a huge number of players to cause a big shift that would knock you out.
