The Mining nerf was likely the worst implementation of a Balancing in Years...

[SENA-]

They're pretty constant. I took that screenshot yesterday morning. I logged back in in the evening and stacked the Cutter full of such missions. I did that three times. In less than an hour I made over 300Mcr, which I think compares favourably with mining at its peak.

As I've said, I expect FD will dial this back soon. I intend to look to see if they've yet done so tonight. If they leave missions like this I don't think any other earning method will come close.

Pretty constant is NOT 3 times, in my view.
Pretty constant is to get ALL DAY LONG that, day after day....
Usually such missions "dry up" after 5-10 runs, in the same day.

I did have the luck to get a pair of those yesterdays ( deliver 90 tons of gold for 25 millions..) , but after 2 runs the offer dry up; I returned after a couple of hours, and was nothing like that, again... Sure was a nice and fast profit, but not "constant"...

 

[Northpin]

I miss the days when it took me 6 months to buy an Anaconda.

Bet those days were fun.
But you cant expect this to hold in a game that is 6 years old.

The newcomers need ways to catch up with the rest of the player base without having to play for several years.
At least in wealth and opportunities in game
(Flying skill is a different thing)

Seriously, you cant really expect a newb to work 6 months for an anaconda - and then lose it at the first trip to Deciat

 

[Brrokk]

Pretty constant is NOT 3 times, in my view.
Pretty constant is to get ALL DAY LONG that, day after day....
Usually such missions "dry up" after 5-10 runs, in the same day.

I sense that you are reluctant to believe what I'm showing. All I can say is that this kind of mission has been the main plank of my credit earning for about a year now, in more than one location. They have been very reliable. The only change yesterday was that they now pay 35M rather than 10M. I'll carry out more "research" to see if this continues.

 

[SENA-]

Bet those days were fun.
But you cant expect this to hold in a game that is 6 years old.

The newcomers need ways to catch up with the rest of the player base without having to play for several years.
At least in wealth and opportunities in game
(Flying skill is a different thing)

Seriously, you cant really expect a newb to work 6 months for an anaconda - and then lose it at the first trip to Deciat

I suppose the introduction of FC have a significant role in this... Before to have one, I was more than happy with 100 millions in my account. After I bought one, and equipped, I start to worry about "not enough credits to keep this running" and that pushed me to hard mining.
Funny thing, I started to enjoy mining, the rush, the adrenaline when you hit that 64% rock... but fast enough, a billion start to look smaller than 100 millions BEFORE the FC, and the need for more and more credits just grow up....

 

[Florenus]

Seriously, you cant really expect a newb to work 6 months for an anaconda - and then lose it at the first trip to Deciat

After 6 months you're not a noob anymore and you've learned the game enough to better avoid danger.
"Noob in Anaconda" is a thing because we have this ship progression completely out of whack.

 

[Northpin]

Funny thing, I started to enjoy mining, the rush, the adrenaline when you hit that 64% rock... b

Heh, i know that feeling.

When i first had to mine something was because of engineers and i so much hated it.
But then i didn't.
First deep core got my attention, then laser mining was suddenly not such a chore i was thinking it was

 

[SENA-]

I sense that you are reluctant to believe what I'm showing. All I can say is that this kind of mission has been the main plank of my credit earning for about a year now, in more than one location. They have been very reliable. The only change yesterday was that they now pay 35M rather than 10M. I'll carry out more "research" to see if this continues.

I am a bit reluctant, indeed, because I never got more than a handful of those from one place.... at least in last year. My thing was with Polymers, in a Boom imperial sector - I did that in a T9, give me some nice credits ( in the range of 9-10 million / trip) but almost each trip I got at least one interdiction, and sometimes I was forced to get the cargo on planetary ports...
Not what I would call "easy money", tough...

 

[SENA-]

Heh, i know that feeling.

When i first had to mine something was because of engineers and i so much hated it.
But then i didn't.
First deep core got my attention, then laser mining was suddenly not such a chore i was thinking it was

For me was the same story, the need for engineers... I hated then, after first 5 minutes.... especially when, like a noob, I started in a .... rocky asteroid ring, orbiting a Sun !!
You know the kind, with a rock here and another 15 km away ! Add the occasional pirate who wanted to steal my hard mined piece of... Cobalt !
Add the fact I was picking the frags manually, didn't know about Collector Limpets in my Sidewinder...

The real mining I learned much later, and took a time....

 

[Cairton]

I can heartily Recommend Loren's Reapers... But they are mainly based in Colonia... But wars have been plentiful in the last few months

I've been thinking of kitting out a dbx or an aspx for exploring, so I might very well head out to Colonia. Thanks again.

 

[Screemonster]

After 6 months you're not a noob anymore and you've learned the game enough to better avoid danger.
"Noob in Anaconda" is a thing because we have this ship progression completely out of whack.

I'm flying a T7, the ship that's supposed to be "you want to haul python amounts of goods but you don't have the budget for a python which costs several times as much"

The first time I took it out, an anaconda logged out on me after I left them drifting in space with no thrusters.

A mostly harmless guy in a krait interdicted me the other day and lasted seven seconds from the moment I pulled the trigger to the moment he hit 0%.

There was a guy in system chat getting mad at people for daring to suggest he learn the trickier parts of a game in a cheaper ship to save on rebuys costs. The time to be a newbie and die a lot is when your rebuys still cost less than a million apiece, not to get yourself some massive boat of a thing and get soaked for 40 million because you can't get it through the toaster rack.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

Bet those days were fun.
But you cant expect this to hold in a game that is 6 years old.

The newcomers need ways to catch up with the rest of the player base without having to play for several years.
At least in wealth and opportunities in game
(Flying skill is a different thing)

Seriously, you cant really expect a newb to work 6 months for an anaconda - and then lose it at the first trip to Deciat

There is no end game and its not a race, new players can only fly one ship at a time... like the rest of us.
Rebuy wasnt a big deal back in the day, 'Dont fly without a Rebuy' was the Mantra. It's not rocket science.

When Frontier took away the win and the loss of a ship from the game they took away some of the essence which made this title exciting and worthwhile, the centre peace of this game was always the 'Starships' which have now ultimately been made cheap and throw away, like shoes purchased from primark.

Once upon a time my ships felt earned, they felt real because of the real hours i put into getting them... finally buying that ship which took months to earn was exciting.
Now however, i could self-destruct them all day long and not give a to$$. The game now feels overtly pretend to me and im honestly bored of it.

Elite is now just a play ground filled with trillionaires who still whine about things not being fair.

 

[Northpin]

I'm flying a T7, the ship that's supposed to be "you want to haul python amounts of goods but you don't have the budget for a python which costs several times as much"

The first time I took it out, an anaconda logged out on me after I left them drifting in space with no thrusters.

A mostly harmless guy in a krait interdicted me the other day and lasted seven seconds from the moment I pulled the trigger to the moment he hit 0%.

There was a guy in system chat getting mad at people for daring to suggest he learn the trickier parts of a game in a cheaper ship to save on rebuys costs. The time to be a newbie and die a lot is when your rebuys still cost less than a million apiece, not to get yourself some massive boat of a thing and get soaked for 40 million because you can't get it through the toaster rack.

Yea, all of those are hard lessons for the other guy.
So yea, i have nothing against noobs in Anacondas and I would hate to see them quit because they worked hard for 6 months to get that Anaconda and have no credits for rebuy after losing that ship to a G5 murderboat

 

[Exeider]

W/e, you already lost me at the previous question I was referring to people who don't mine (like me), you come up with people who never mined (not like me, I've been mining for years), and how they should refrain from yada yada...

If you don't mine, then stop trying to tell miners how mining should be since you have neither the experience nor inclination. You said you don't mine, and then I've been mining for years, so which is it?
You dont see me offering commentary as to how combat should be, in fact, I've been listening to combat players and when they say they need X or Y, their arguments make logical sense, and I agree but overall, they have more experience at how their chosen profession should play. What I don't agree with is combat players coming to me and telling me how to play MY profession that they have said they have no experience playing, no motivation to play but they are certain that it's somehow "broken" because they've decided it is.

 

[Northpin]

When Frontier took away the win and the loss of a ship from the game they took away some of the essence which made this title exciting and worthwhile, the centre peace of this game was always the 'Starships' which have now ultimately been made cheap and throw away, like shoes purchased from primark.

Once upon a time my ships felt earned, they felt real because of the real hours i put into getting them... finally buying that ship which took months to earn was exciting.
Now however, i could self-destruct them all day long and not give a to$$. The game now feels overtly pretend to me and im honestly bored of it.

I dont see it like that.
Frontier didnt took anything. They gave options.

When i started my alt on PC i pretty much enjoyed the new starter experience.
I worked hard in a CG using a C3 and a T6 - non-engineered of course - and with the gains i got me a Dropship.
And flew that a lot in all sorts of missions.

After about 2 months i decided to start to unlock engineers which inevitably took me to mining.

So it's a option to fast forward and i really dont care if a newb get into an Anaconda in 1 day.
Well, 1 week now, after the recent balances

 

[OnTheEdge]

so they lied to us. they said there will be no more changes to mining. so before rolling out this they should have fixed the damn PWS scanner. or buff other stuff...leave us miners alone

 

[Vasco Sapien]

I dont see it like that.
Frontier didnt took anything. They gave options.

When i started my alt on PC i pretty much enjoyed the new starter experience.
I worked hard in a CG using a C3 and a T6 - non-engineered of course - and with the gains i got me a Dropship.
And flew that a lot in all sorts of missions.

After about 2 months i decided to start to unlock engineers which inevitably took me to mining.

So it's a option to fast forward and i really dont care if a newb get into an Anaconda in 1 day.
Well, 1 week now, after the recent balances

Well, id be happy to see Frontier find a compromise between our two mindsets. These re-balances i hope are a step in the right direction. Tuning back the ridiculous cartoon economy of ED. But im not holding my breath.

 

[Exeider]

Yes and no. In CZs you know how much each ship is worth (and know on the map where they are), but for all other NPCs you have to KWS them for the full amount, otherwise you take it as is or just blow it up and find out (what most people do). You also have to get back to cash them in, subtract any IF fees and SLF pilot fees too so its not exactly cut and dry.

Traders have tools to know where to buy and where to sell ahead of time, whereas NPC spawns are random and you only know the general area to get high paying examples.

ok granted, what I was meaning was that you can generally get feedback from the game rather quickly on how much money you're making per hour at any given time with combat and trade. But mining it can be hours or even days to get a final, credits per hour tally depending on when you go to the sell system. And with combat even if you have to turn in the bonds, that's what a 5-10 minute trip in SC to dock and redeem. With mining and exploration, travel time can factor greatly into your total credits per hour calculations.

 

[Brrokk]

Hello, this is new. Maybe not generous for the time needed, but a new type of high-paying mission.

 

[Screemonster]

Yea, all of those are hard lessons for the other guy.
So yea, i have nothing against noobs in Anacondas and I would hate to see them quit because they worked hard for 6 months to get that Anaconda and have no credits for rebuy after losing that ship to a G5 murderboat

The point is more that credit rushes and the like are all well and good, and it's good that endgame earnings are high (Buying yourself a second or third big ship as a sidegrade is, and should be, easier than working yourself up from a sidewinder to buy the first one) but there's very little to encourage people to work on things in the smalls while they find their feet, or to push them to work on engineering - which often makes way more of a difference than merely buying a more expensive ship.

I didn't buy a medium ship until I was unlocking Liz Ryder and wanted something that could move more landmines than my cobra. I bought a T6 for that job and sold it when I was done. By the time I'd worked up to a python, I had at least the G3 engineers unlocked on just about everything.

Conversely, I've lost count of the number of people I've introduced to the game that didn't bother with engineering at all until they were up into kraits, even condas, and burnt out when they found their big battleship was still vastly less capable than it could be, and suddenly the prospect of doing all the engineering unlocks at once hit them like a brick wall.

 

[Exeider]

Well, id be happy to see Frontier find a compromise between our two mindsets. These re-balances i hope are a step in the right direction. Tuning back the ridiculous cartoon economy of ED. But im not holding my breath.

The irony here is the very people complaining about it being too easy to earn credits are the same folks that last year complained about the grind. I would prefer less grind but that's just me. If people want game satisfaction, then petition Fdev for new gameplay. This idea that making less money somehow makes the game more satisfying because it increases the grind is a dubious assumption at best. Good gameplay is what makes fun, not moving the goalposts father apart between achievements