I love elite. I love the art design, I love the atmosphere, I love the gameplay, I love everything about this game except one thing. The grind. If you want to get anywhere in this game, you have to grind for hundreds of hours. I've put in about 100 hours of meaningful playtime and I only have one ship, the Cobra MkIV, and about 3,000,000 credits. I also have a crappy sidewinder but who uses that for very long? I spend tons of time doing bounty hunter missions in the game, and i only make a few million credits a day, minus what I spend rebuying my ship after I accidentally shoot a Federal Security Service Member or fire on a pirate before my ship has finished scanning them. This mechanic is shoddy and needs reworking in my opinion and I'm sure if this has ever happened to you, you would agree. I've put a hundred hours in to the game, which if you put into any other game, you would have all or most of the things in the game. I just want my damn anaconda, because that's when you can start making real money, but right now i feel like if i ever want to get it i have to treat elite like a full time job. That's the other problem, it feels like a job. It's rewarding when you can move up and buy an awesome ship, but a lot of the core mechanics of the game, bounty hunting, trading, etc. don't feel as rewarding as they probably could. I urge FDev to really put more time into the rewarding part of doing these things. Making them feel like they have more weight and making the player feel like they are really making steps toward getting the ship they want. Maybe adding some kind of mechanic to the game where players can have their own bases on planets that they can build, and using this kind of system to make players feel like they are making progress. IDK, i respect people who have cutters and anacondas, but I feel like when i see someone who worked their way to that ship, they really just wasted a good 200 to 300 hours. I think something like a cutter should take 80 to 100 hours to earn, and it shouldn't be a huge grind fest doing the same boring missions over and over again to get a better ship so that you can do the same boring missions again but make more money because you have a bigger better ship. I hope FDev can rework this game so that it doesn't feel like a grind. I'm sick of elite for now so I probably won't be coming back until the update in Q1 next year to see how they've done. If it still feels like a full time job to get the ships that i want, then i'll probably just be dropping this game completely. I'm sure i'm not the only one who feels this way. If anyone has any suggestions on how they think FDev can make this game feel more meaningful and less repetitive, I urge you to present those ideas to them. But if this game continues it's reputation as a big grind then I don't think it'll ever be fun for me again.
The Grind
- Thread starter tmant321
- Start date
Back when bounties were paying a lot less I took 2 months to make the 200M to fully A grade a Python. That was around 3 hours of bounty hunting a day. It's even easier to make money now. Recently that A grade Python made 500M in 2 weeks doing passenger missions; before the recent explosion in passenger mission payouts. It's never been hard to make money in this game.
I agree with almost everything you said. But i think "grinding" is subjective.
You've chosen to make the anaconda your goal. And yes that will take you a good amount of hours, especially in a cobra. But if you set your goal lower for example to a Vulture or an ASP Explorer then youll find that the "grind" is suddenly a lot easier.
I know you may not want a vulture or ASP but setting your goal high and trying to achieve it basically right from the get-go isn't the best way to play this game in my opinion.
I currently own a Federal Corvette and i can honestly say the only real grind there is in this game is the ranking for the cutter/corvette (and even the clipper and gunship). Never once did i feel like i was grinding for credits or engineer materials.
Now i know I'm saying this from a position where i have hundreds of millions of credits at my disposal and buying another corvette or 2 easily fits in my budget. But i also started off in a sidewinder and had to earn credits to buy a cobra. But setting small goals really helps. Like getting that A rated module or getting that vulture so I can claim bounties and whoop more efficiently. That's what kept me going.
So get out of your cobra and maybe buy another ship that will speed up your progression to your end goal of an Anaconda!
Also as a long-time Anaconda owner i can say that the Anaconda isn't everything. While it defintely is one of the most durable ships in the game and is an amazing all-rounder, being capable of carrying and dishing out fearsome loads of cargo and punishment, its also VERY (Won't reach 300 when boosting) slow and handles like a brick.
Good luck and fly safe!
-CMDR Bazziegamer
You've chosen to make the anaconda your goal. And yes that will take you a good amount of hours, especially in a cobra. But if you set your goal lower for example to a Vulture or an ASP Explorer then youll find that the "grind" is suddenly a lot easier.
I know you may not want a vulture or ASP but setting your goal high and trying to achieve it basically right from the get-go isn't the best way to play this game in my opinion.
I currently own a Federal Corvette and i can honestly say the only real grind there is in this game is the ranking for the cutter/corvette (and even the clipper and gunship). Never once did i feel like i was grinding for credits or engineer materials.
Now i know I'm saying this from a position where i have hundreds of millions of credits at my disposal and buying another corvette or 2 easily fits in my budget. But i also started off in a sidewinder and had to earn credits to buy a cobra. But setting small goals really helps. Like getting that A rated module or getting that vulture so I can claim bounties and whoop more efficiently. That's what kept me going.
So get out of your cobra and maybe buy another ship that will speed up your progression to your end goal of an Anaconda!
Also as a long-time Anaconda owner i can say that the Anaconda isn't everything. While it defintely is one of the most durable ships in the game and is an amazing all-rounder, being capable of carrying and dishing out fearsome loads of cargo and punishment, its also VERY (Won't reach 300 when boosting) slow and handles like a brick.
Good luck and fly safe!
-CMDR Bazziegamer
My 330 boosting Combat Conda would like to have a word with yours... Lol
Get that G5 Dirty Drive my friend
Yeah i should get palin probably
-CMDR Bazziegamer
I fine you one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute.
I fine you one credit for a violation of the verbal morality statute.
You approach this the wrong way... If the Anaconda is your goal to riches... then you must realise that there are a few more ship between your current ship and the Anaconda.
I do not know if you are purely self taugh or check out guides/youtube videos etc, online, but by sound of it, you appear to the kind of self taught kind of person. Over all the time I have played, I have learned that it has never been easier to earn money in Elite.
Since you seems to be into combat, I would suggests that you try to find other CMDR's to play with, I do not knowyou venture out in Open or just play in Solo. If you play on PC, there are plenty of CMDRs that friendly and do greetings by shooting first and then perhaps say hello. I have no experience on consoles, so on these I do not know it is. I might just be really lucky, but I have only been interdicted by another commander once, and I had no problem in escaping that situation. Knowing how interdictions works and how to react if you cannot win the minigame, is a useful skill.
Sadly, Frontier did a really poor job at encouraging communication between players, as I many times have been on mission across the bubble, and then a few jumps later, notice an friendly hello from another CMDR, not unable to reply.
But venture out in Open, try to meet new CMDRs and perhaps they too would wing up to do some pirate hunting.
Elite is no different than many other games, as bigger ships tend to be more powerful, but also require more skill to use well.
I have learned a few tricks since I have been where you are now and I had the same goal as you, at one time own an Anaconda.
I had with great effort managed to buy myself an Diamond back explorer when I stumbled upon a few months old money meta, this was the stacking of skimmer missions, as it happened, they where offered alot to two bases in the next system from where I had my base.
So at first I went there and did the SRV thing, took a few tries and a few blown up skimmers and then I wondered if I could blow them up from space, and tried different weapons, and settled on Beam lasers, I had not used internet for any game related guides at this time, so I did not know that half the skimmers missions the wrong way... I should relog to to boardhop for more missions, use a sidewinder and equip them with dumb fire missiles, and then crash myself into the ground instead of flying back... since we had so many of these mission all of sudden, so did not really need to boardhop to collect 20 mission, and since I had the option to during breaks at work launch elite and collect missions, until I had 20, that could spend ~20 minutes when I got home to complete. I made alot of credits in a very short time, so in 2-3 weeks I had reached my Anaconda, with a few ships in between. Before this all I ever did for money was bounty hunting with friends, and back in those days, you shared the bounty when playing in a wing, now all in a wing get the same amount!!! since I was the newest player in the group, I had the weakest ship and I died alot, and when you died you lost all the bounties collected, so I usually lost over 50% of all my earnings this way.
We also got a another player into our group, and he went form sidewinder to an Anaconda within 2 weeks, and then he got boored with the game, as he now believed everything to be so grindy, he would never own a Cutter/Corvette, and then we had engineers, and unlocking these was a task he just hated. So he lost interrest very soon, and he had no concept of danger, or how much beating his ship could take. Me on the other hand, loved my Anaconda, and for once, I now had the ship that could survive and take me home from most bad situations. But I still lacked ALOT of skills and I really hated all the small ships... and I had a special hatred for Vulture pilots. So I realised that I had to try out the Vulture to learn what makes this ship tick, so that I could learn how to beat them. So for every smaller ship I now learned to have made my love for my Anaconda even greater as I know understand much more about how to whip my beloved Anaconda around with better control.
This is about now I realised that alot of skills needed to fight in the bigger in the ships (bounty hunting/conflict zones) are learnt by flying the smaller ships. And remember our newest member? he never learned this and was panicky afraid of loosing hos precious Anaconda, and he felt it as a punishment to fly a small ship.
So by now I guess you are bit annoyed about all my talk about my Anaconda, but it is not taunt you or anything, but to let you know that you do not need an Anaconda to make lots of credits.
Current ingame mechanics to make lots of money is in passenger missions, you can make a descent earning with just 30-60 minutes gameplay. And of course larger ships can give bigger rewards, but even smaller ships are still very much viable, especially as a stepping stone to get a larger ship. So even you do not like the passenger business, this is where the money is at currently. so do a few of these, and then go and what you find more fun. There are lots things todo in Elite, and most if it does NOT require a big ship. Take that player who earned tripple Elite in a SIDEWINDER! yup, that is the only ship he flew!
And there are always some kind of best method of making money in the game, if you want to chase those or not is up to you.
But I do not think you would be happier if you got your Anaconda tomorrow, as then you would have to do all the "work" with engineers to upgrade you ship. Unlocking the engineers is most of time designed good, despite people rage about some aspects of it, as I see that part for what it is, get you try most of the things you can do in Elite, even those you have opted out of. For example, I did not expect myself to like mining as much as I did... Collecting grade 5 material is another story, with lots of bad design from FDEV, especially with how the game is NOT giving us hints of where to find stuff, or how they manages to repeatedly make stuff unavailable ingame...
And I would not start to think about the work you would have to put into unlocking the Cutter and Corvette. I do however agree that they mechanics FDEV have for unlocking these ships are totally bonkers and prove of bad game design.
You might be right the game might not be for you, I have had times where i have hardly played, for a while, but then I get back and we do some new stuff, and the spark ignites again and we have lots of fun. for me, most games is more fun with friends to play with. Even if we are not doing the same things, we play the same game and can share experiences, and we are using multi crew to jump to eachothers to see what we are doing and also Steam streaming is nice if you have an extra monitor. Just to share the experience of flying around in the same universe.
And one last thing, there is no end game in Elite, you are never done in Elite. I found alot fun by just now try out smaller ships, with whacky builds. I have had alot fun with a friend of mine who just loved to fly a Sidewinder or Eagle alongside my Corvette pirate hunting, and a few I managed to get my Corvette in a pinch and got saved by my friend in his tiny little ship, so that I could make a strategic withdrawal! we have great fun during those sessions! At the moment I'm out exploring, I have managed to get my ship out to Beagle Point (65k LY across the Galaxy), and I have over 1200 jumps back home, I really start to miss the combat... so once I am home again, I will not go out exploring like this again... to much lost potential to make exploration more engaging...
I do not know if you are purely self taugh or check out guides/youtube videos etc, online, but by sound of it, you appear to the kind of self taught kind of person. Over all the time I have played, I have learned that it has never been easier to earn money in Elite.
Since you seems to be into combat, I would suggests that you try to find other CMDR's to play with, I do not knowyou venture out in Open or just play in Solo. If you play on PC, there are plenty of CMDRs that friendly and do greetings by shooting first and then perhaps say hello. I have no experience on consoles, so on these I do not know it is. I might just be really lucky, but I have only been interdicted by another commander once, and I had no problem in escaping that situation. Knowing how interdictions works and how to react if you cannot win the minigame, is a useful skill.
Sadly, Frontier did a really poor job at encouraging communication between players, as I many times have been on mission across the bubble, and then a few jumps later, notice an friendly hello from another CMDR, not unable to reply.
But venture out in Open, try to meet new CMDRs and perhaps they too would wing up to do some pirate hunting.
Elite is no different than many other games, as bigger ships tend to be more powerful, but also require more skill to use well.
I have learned a few tricks since I have been where you are now and I had the same goal as you, at one time own an Anaconda.
I had with great effort managed to buy myself an Diamond back explorer when I stumbled upon a few months old money meta, this was the stacking of skimmer missions, as it happened, they where offered alot to two bases in the next system from where I had my base.
So at first I went there and did the SRV thing, took a few tries and a few blown up skimmers and then I wondered if I could blow them up from space, and tried different weapons, and settled on Beam lasers, I had not used internet for any game related guides at this time, so I did not know that half the skimmers missions the wrong way... I should relog to to boardhop for more missions, use a sidewinder and equip them with dumb fire missiles, and then crash myself into the ground instead of flying back... since we had so many of these mission all of sudden, so did not really need to boardhop to collect 20 mission, and since I had the option to during breaks at work launch elite and collect missions, until I had 20, that could spend ~20 minutes when I got home to complete. I made alot of credits in a very short time, so in 2-3 weeks I had reached my Anaconda, with a few ships in between. Before this all I ever did for money was bounty hunting with friends, and back in those days, you shared the bounty when playing in a wing, now all in a wing get the same amount!!! since I was the newest player in the group, I had the weakest ship and I died alot, and when you died you lost all the bounties collected, so I usually lost over 50% of all my earnings this way.
We also got a another player into our group, and he went form sidewinder to an Anaconda within 2 weeks, and then he got boored with the game, as he now believed everything to be so grindy, he would never own a Cutter/Corvette, and then we had engineers, and unlocking these was a task he just hated. So he lost interrest very soon, and he had no concept of danger, or how much beating his ship could take. Me on the other hand, loved my Anaconda, and for once, I now had the ship that could survive and take me home from most bad situations. But I still lacked ALOT of skills and I really hated all the small ships... and I had a special hatred for Vulture pilots. So I realised that I had to try out the Vulture to learn what makes this ship tick, so that I could learn how to beat them. So for every smaller ship I now learned to have made my love for my Anaconda even greater as I know understand much more about how to whip my beloved Anaconda around with better control.
This is about now I realised that alot of skills needed to fight in the bigger in the ships (bounty hunting/conflict zones) are learnt by flying the smaller ships. And remember our newest member? he never learned this and was panicky afraid of loosing hos precious Anaconda, and he felt it as a punishment to fly a small ship.
So by now I guess you are bit annoyed about all my talk about my Anaconda, but it is not taunt you or anything, but to let you know that you do not need an Anaconda to make lots of credits.
Current ingame mechanics to make lots of money is in passenger missions, you can make a descent earning with just 30-60 minutes gameplay. And of course larger ships can give bigger rewards, but even smaller ships are still very much viable, especially as a stepping stone to get a larger ship. So even you do not like the passenger business, this is where the money is at currently. so do a few of these, and then go and what you find more fun. There are lots things todo in Elite, and most if it does NOT require a big ship. Take that player who earned tripple Elite in a SIDEWINDER! yup, that is the only ship he flew!
And there are always some kind of best method of making money in the game, if you want to chase those or not is up to you.
But I do not think you would be happier if you got your Anaconda tomorrow, as then you would have to do all the "work" with engineers to upgrade you ship. Unlocking the engineers is most of time designed good, despite people rage about some aspects of it, as I see that part for what it is, get you try most of the things you can do in Elite, even those you have opted out of. For example, I did not expect myself to like mining as much as I did... Collecting grade 5 material is another story, with lots of bad design from FDEV, especially with how the game is NOT giving us hints of where to find stuff, or how they manages to repeatedly make stuff unavailable ingame...
And I would not start to think about the work you would have to put into unlocking the Cutter and Corvette. I do however agree that they mechanics FDEV have for unlocking these ships are totally bonkers and prove of bad game design.
You might be right the game might not be for you, I have had times where i have hardly played, for a while, but then I get back and we do some new stuff, and the spark ignites again and we have lots of fun. for me, most games is more fun with friends to play with. Even if we are not doing the same things, we play the same game and can share experiences, and we are using multi crew to jump to eachothers to see what we are doing and also Steam streaming is nice if you have an extra monitor. Just to share the experience of flying around in the same universe.
And one last thing, there is no end game in Elite, you are never done in Elite. I found alot fun by just now try out smaller ships, with whacky builds. I have had alot fun with a friend of mine who just loved to fly a Sidewinder or Eagle alongside my Corvette pirate hunting, and a few I managed to get my Corvette in a pinch and got saved by my friend in his tiny little ship, so that I could make a strategic withdrawal! we have great fun during those sessions! At the moment I'm out exploring, I have managed to get my ship out to Beagle Point (65k LY across the Galaxy), and I have over 1200 jumps back home, I really start to miss the combat... so once I am home again, I will not go out exploring like this again... to much lost potential to make exploration more engaging...
There is a line in life, that if crossed, a Hobby, Game, or Anything, Becomes a Chore and no longer Fun.
It is at this point, one starts to consider how much their Time is worth, as Time is limited and Precious.
At that point I begin to look for a Check in the mail, or More Fun and less Grind.
That is the True Balancing Act.
It is at this point, one starts to consider how much their Time is worth, as Time is limited and Precious.
At that point I begin to look for a Check in the mail, or More Fun and less Grind.
That is the True Balancing Act.
Ilovethisidea.Justthinkhowmuchspacewouldbesavedwithoutusingspaces?
TICKTOCK, TICKTOCK