Time to nerf exploration!!

[the source 0179]

Getting the best ships in the game with best gear (sans engineering) for 3 hours of completely risk-free play undermines the game.

Perhaps you don't agree, but the game would be completely dead now if it was developed using your principles, as it would have had no longevity. It would be an akward arena shooter where absolutely everyone had the top setups. Which is not the case today, so your claim that "anyone can do jadda jadda" is obviously not true.

There is more to game design than your personal experience. Elite is obviously meant to be a bit slow and to carry a sensation of risk for most players. If you want to argue that rewards could have been done differently, sure I'm listening. If you want to argue that the grind should be more fun, I'm listening.

But to claim that everyone should be allowed to do some braindead activity for 3 hours and buy the biggest ship in the game would be a fairly spectular design principle for a space opera game, and to be honest... not a game I would have purchased.

Yes the grind needs to be more fun and rewards should be looked at but not nerfed. Refined.
On my principles well i didnt mention my principles. I mentioned people should focus on their own game not other peoples.
If people choose to do things the fast way its there choice. I dont do things the fast way. I've been playing the game on and off since the preview program which is what? 3 or 4 years now. And only just bought a conda which isnt outfitted yet. My favorite ship is my python. And probably always will be. R2R is a choice not forced. And it wouldn't be quick to do. I havent done it and probably never will. I'm just sick and tired of people continued call for nerfs because someone else can if they choose make alot of money. Again who cares what other people do.
But it seems you feel personally hurt but the fact someone else can make more money than you.

 

[Strangepork]

So far the nerf gun has been taken to cargo delivery, war massacres, pirate massacres, passenger missions and almost every other way to make a decent amount of credits.

It is now time to nerf exploration to fetch it more in line with the terrible rewards for everything else. Especially the Road to Riches, it's pretty stupid that humanity keeps paying for the same scans of the same systems, it makes no sense whatsoever.

I propose the value of every stellar body be brought to 25% of what it is currently, explorers have had it so easy lately it's almost an exploit.

agreed.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

So far the nerf gun has been taken to cargo delivery, war massacres, pirate massacres, passenger missions and almost every other way to make a decent amount of credits.

It is now time to nerf exploration to fetch it more in line with the terrible rewards for everything else. Especially the Road to Riches, it's pretty stupid that humanity keeps paying for the same scans of the same systems, it makes no sense whatsoever.

I propose the value of every stellar body be brought to 25% of what it is currently, explorers have had it so easy lately it's almost an exploit.

So you think geologists go look at a volcano once and because its not erupting mark extinct and never go back right? map makers make one map of a city and then nobody else bothers - not like people build new roads or homes right? earthquake faults either move making a constant earthquake in your world?

some people may be a little concerned with solar atability. that means sending someone to the system to scan it. or paying someone who did scan for the info. knowing a star within a few ly of your home system is getting unstable by waiting until it starts exponentially getting brighter is a little too late to leave it to jump out for billions of people in inhabvited worlds within a ly or so. scans give warning if a star is looking like flaring up as a nova/supernova and then everyone can move out in time. because they have years to do it.

when the exploding system has become a second son you might only have a few days. i think thats reason enough to be scanning stars constantly. im not even going to mention asteroid belts and collisions sending rocks into tracks that might intersect a planet...

by the way, i have been out on 3 trips. its taken me months to get within 215 jumps of great annihilator - thats a few months of real time since i dont only play elite. it will take me a week or so off work doing nothing but eat sleep elite to get back to the bubble in my ship. and thats without scanning. it wont be terribly interesting. not like say trading biowaste between two systems for a week. i dont see the need to nerf exploration just because you dont do it and cant exploit any more.

 

[CMDR ANCALAGON]

The most I made it the shortest time while exploring was last month. I set out from Hillary Depot around the end of January, went "north" a bit and then due "east". After a couple of weeks I read about the colliding moon event and decided to make a detour, a 15k ly detour to about 1,200 ly east of Colonia.

I spent around three weeks exploring, and handed in $76mil cr. $5.8 of that was from one system (an g awesome one at that...my own planetary nebulae with multiple TWW, an ELW, and several TMHC!)

I could have made more in a few sessions just running random missions.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Exploration is self-nerfing.

Instant gratification seekers need not apply.

This.

I made it to Colonia from the Bubble stopping off at Rohini. Took me the best part of 4 weeks playing (if you call honk/scoop/jump with the occasional side exploration "play") between one and two hours a day. Made the princely sum of 35 million credits. Won't be buying my Anaconda any time soon on that. Currently about half-way between Colonia and Sag-A and, two nights ago, the sheer tedium broke through not to mention the RL eyestrain from having a bright sun on my monitor for the best part of every 90 seconds.

Decided to take a break and start a fresh game of FO4 for a few days.

Don't get me wrong long distance is compelling but it is also extremely tedious and that is not helped by out of the populated systems there is nothing else to do but jump to the next one - other than flying out a bit for an extra 1K credits for a close up scan or 20 minutes in the SRV blowing up rocks, 90% of which offer the same four common elements (iron, zinc, sulphur, phosphorus). When I get to Sag-A, I'm sure the screen drop of the Black Hole will look very nice but, like a climber on the summit of Everest, once you get there the only thing to do - "play" - is come all the way back again.

So I actually think exploration should be buffed a bit. There is the ever present risk the sheer monotony could result in a stupid mistake and you burn up in a star four weeks into your trip. Taking the neutron route home, every jump becomes a nail biting exercise in survival as you try and trim those 700 jumps down to a more reasonable number.

 

[sb413197]

As a longtime explorer, I think they should nerf general exploration payouts to like 10 percent of their current levels but increase first discovery 20 times - encouraging ACTUAL exploration, not road to nonsense. Also give a "system fully explored" bonus for scanning every body, and a massive bonus for driving around on a planet for a certain distance (maybe 100x multiplier)

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

As a longtime explorer, I think they should nerf general exploration payouts to like 10 percent of their current levels but increase first discovery 20 times - encouraging ACTUAL exploration, not road to nonsense. Also give a "system fully explored" bonus for scanning every body, and a massive bonus for driving around on a planet for a certain distance (maybe 100x multiplier)

Actually that is a good point. On my Colonia trip I had a raft of first discoveries but the bonus is a pitiful 600c per item, plus your name on a star/planet which - given you're the first to find or at least be bothered to scan it in four years of the game being out - will probably never be seen by another player!

 

[Mengy]

The most I made it the shortest time while exploring was last month. I set out from Hillary Depot around the end of January, went "north" a bit and then due "east". After a couple of weeks I read about the colliding moon event and decided to make a detour, a 15k ly detour to about 1,200 ly east of Colonia.

I spent around three weeks exploring, and handed in $76mil cr. $5.8 of that was from one system (an g awesome one at that...my own planetary nebulae with multiple TWW, an ELW, and several TMHC!)

I could have made more in a few sessions just running random missions.

Yep, exactly.

To anyone claiming exploration pays too much, I dare you to actually do it and then report back what your credits per hour was. I've measured it, both before the exploration payout buff and after, and simply running missions pays out far, FAR more lucratively than exploration does.

Again, the road to riches is not exploration, it's flying a pre-planned already explored route scanning preset targets for maximum profit.

As a longtime explorer, I think they should nerf general exploration payouts to like 10 percent of their current levels but increase first discovery 20 times - encouraging ACTUAL exploration, not road to nonsense. Also give a "system fully explored" bonus for scanning every body, and a massive bonus for driving around on a planet for a certain distance (maybe 100x multiplier)

Huh, now that's actually a pretty nice idea. I'd have no problem at all with that change. In fact I think I'd absolutely love it.

 

[the source 0179]

This.

I made it to Colonia from the Bubble stopping off at Rohini. Took me the best part of 4 weeks playing (if you call honk/scoop/jump with the occasional side exploration "play") between one and two hours a day. Made the princely sum of 35 million credits. Won't be buying my Anaconda any time soon on that. Currently about half-way between Colonia and Sag-A and, two nights ago, the sheer tedium broke through not to mention the RL eyestrain from having a bright sun on my monitor for the best part of every 90 seconds.

Decided to take a break and start a fresh game of FO4 for a few days.

Don't get me wrong long distance is compelling but it is also extremely tedious and that is not helped by out of the populated systems there is nothing else to do but jump to the next one - other than flying out a bit for an extra 1K credits for a close up scan or 20 minutes in the SRV blowing up rocks, 90% of which offer the same four common elements (iron, zinc, sulphur, phosphorus). When I get to Sag-A, I'm sure the screen drop of the Black Hole will look very nice but, like a climber on the summit of Everest, once you get there the only thing to do - "play" - is come all the way back again.

So I actually think exploration should be buffed a bit. There is the ever present risk the sheer monotony could result in a stupid mistake and you burn up in a star four weeks into your trip. Taking the neutron route home, every jump becomes a nail biting exercise in survival as you try and trim those 700 jumps down to a more reasonable number.

Dont forget to register your feat to get to Sag A. Theres a thread out there that you can put you name on for visiting sag A. You just need proof a photo of there cockpit view with your cmdr name and sag A highlighted in front of you.

 

[yolomcbobbinz]

People make credits from exploring? [haha]

I have over 21K systems explored and have probably made around... 400M from it.

The funny thing here isn't that you aren't being serious, it's that you think you're making a point.

No one cares about credits. They're pretty much worthless in the game.

Yet, fdev keeps nerfing all ways of making them

 

[Darkhaert]

Road to riches is what? 20-25 million an hour? An A-rated conda is close to 2 billion... so you're looking at a hundred hours, and the road would end well before you make the 2 billion anyway... not to mention that playing it safe will increase your time-frame, and you need a little setup to make it work.

The skimmer exploit could give you an a-rated conda using a sidewinder (the first few rounds would by you the missile pods), and you could do it a single sitting and with no risk. I mean, if it was left in the game you might as well just do away with ship purchasing mechanics altogether.

Actually A rated conda is exactly 368,547,732 cr..... no where near 2billion...(And if they get it at discount system take off 15%) but i agree with you non the less .

As to the op. Uh...... No, nuff said.

 

[Darkhaert]

As a longtime explorer, I think they should nerf general exploration payouts to like 10 percent of their current levels but increase first discovery 20 times - encouraging ACTUAL exploration, not road to nonsense. Also give a "system fully explored" bonus for scanning every body, and a massive bonus for driving around on a planet for a certain distance (maybe 100x multiplier)

That is what i have been thinking and telling my wing mates for months you should pitch the idea to fd if it han't neen mentioned to them yet.

 

[Captain Willard]

You durned, burned explorers are ruining my solo experiance. Was this the right thread?

 

[Mugur]

Yeah, Frontier should suspend exploration at least for a few weeks until they find the correct balance...

I'm sure that not many (new) players know that the lack of mass of the fuel scoop was an oversight in the beginning of the game. So I also propose to rectify this, using the usual progression of in-game modules: 2,4,8,16,32,64 tons for the 1,2,3,4,5,6, etc. size.

I am terrified by the lack of sarcasm detection in this thread.

Or the lack of knowledge regarding some mechanics (for example, hauling passengers goes to trade rank, sightseeing adventure towards exploration in theory, but they were nerfed into oblivion some time ago and only exploration passenger missions really counts towards the exploration rank).

On a serious note, I think that the rewards should also be directly proportional with the distance from Sol. I'd also want to get the name of the stars/planets by ADD scan only (with an *unexplored after the name), the DSS role being the same as now. There are also some good ideas in this thread, regarding exploration incentives.

 

[Cmdr Eran Mintor]

People make credits from exploring? [haha]

I have over 21K systems explored and have probably made around... 400M from it.

The funny thing here isn't that you aren't being serious, it's that you think you're making a point.

No one cares about credits. They're pretty much worthless in the game.

Oh yea? Well I guess all the whine threads about excessive skimmer mission rewards were just a figment of my imagination.

 

[smiths121]

Someone way back asked how long for first 100mcr.

Took me 2 weeks (real time). I did a 133KLy tourist mission. Towards the the west of the centre of the galaxy from the bubble. Rubbish spot when I got there. Many first discovers though, clearly no-one had done it with a 34LY jump Type-6.
Payout waspretty good, mind you 15MCr of the 100Mcr was mission payout, and I seemed to get a lot for first discovery, about 15MCr I think. I calculated this as 3.0 beta did not pay anything for 1st discovery, so when I handed it exploration data at the beginning of beta, I got about 15Mcr less.

Payout in general about the same as doing things in the bubble, the problem is once started you are somewhat committed, as it takes time to come back. I was going space crazy by the end. I think it was a lucky trip, not sure every 2 week trip ould net the same

Simon

 

[Dan Dare]

Nerf nerfing ;-)

 

[Han Zulu]

Nerf nerfing ;-)

And buff buffing.

 

[WR3ND]

Oh yea? Well I guess all the whine threads about excessive skimmer mission rewards were just a figment of my imagination.

Not your imagination, the people who mistakenly think credits are important – their imaginations.

But hey, many of us play this game for make-believe anyway. To each their own.

 

[Mengy]

Not your imagination, the people who mistakenly think credits are important – their imaginations.

To some people credits are important, it's their goal in Elite and what they strive for. That's not a "mistake", it's a preference, and they aren't "wrong" for feeling so.