Void Opal Mining - Broken?

I'm fine with one path being easier than the other two, but not that easy. If people are really hitting Elite in a day (I'm skeptical about that) then I would say it's a problem of balance.

I'm skeptical too DDastardly00. I mean, I play ED a lot. Even with an easier obtained trade rank, you don't make Elite in trade in one day. It takes many missions and activities, starting from first entering that Sidewinder, leading up to that big day.
 

Lestat

Banned
Here one thing we have to look at also. I posted An Elite Trader way to fast. I posted in this Topic somewhere to point out the issue I have seen in Trading rank. I started out Penniless. Note that the topic is a month old. If they made the mining harder since then. Then Frontier did something about it.

What I can do. On a day off I can go to the same area I mined in and see if anything has changed and Mine 220 Void Opal.

Note on when did you decide if it was a bad area. it when I did not see Void Opal in 10 Minutes or less.
 
Regular mining is extremely profitable as well.... as long as you go for Painite. Just find a good Painite Hotspot and you will find plenty. I actually have done that more than Void Opals.

Also, LTD piracy is very profitable as well. You can easily hit 100+ mil / hour if you are skilled enough.
 
My 2 cents:
FD made an inverse haircut for credits, just like they did for engineers.
Remember god-rolled ships? Was completly unballanced. FD could have nerfed them, but that would have created a huge biowaste-storm. So instead they changed engineering and made god-rolled ships availabel for anyone. This of course had some downsides ballance wise on it own.

Void opals is the same for credits. Some people made 10s of billions with some get-rich-quick-schemes (maybe even with exploits, the line is a bit blurry there), completly unballanced. FD could have deleted these billions, but that would have causes a hugh biowaste-storm, so... FD made billions available for anyone. Of course this ruined the credit ballancing in this game. I just hope they have plan for this.

P.S. The worst thing about that credit unballancing IMHO is, that 90% of the ships lost their reason to exist. Who needs a T6 if you can get a conda for an hour of opal mining.
 
Regular mining is extremely profitable as well.... as long as you go for Painite. Just find a good Painite Hotspot and you will find plenty. I actually have done that more than Void Opals.

Also, LTD piracy is very profitable as well. You can easily hit 100+ mil / hour if you are skilled enough.

Roger that. LTD piracy is what gave me the final push to making Elite in trade. It's a blast as well.
 
Elite doesn't need to be only for the elite. It's nice that new players with enough equipment can be somewhat successful doing this activity. Otherwise it's pretty much reserved for the select few and that might be good for the morale of the select few but doesn't help the game much.

I don't believe the void opals should be that difficult to find. Not everyone has ample time to enjoy all of the fruits of the game so they should not be put so far back on the shelf that only those with long arms can reach them.
 
There's plenty of grindy stuff to go do, all of which restricts end-game content and offers a challenge for veterans. If you want to grind, go grind, the stuff in this game that's restricted by spacebux is primarily low to mid level stuff (how much does an engineer charge to do your mods?). Mining is super fun and requires just enough skill to actually make it engaging for the people who need creds the most; early to mid level players. Stop bringing salt to one of the more fun aspects of the game, trying to 'raise awareness' of an "exploit". Trying to nerf that is a fool's errand that will cut early player base.
 

Lestat

Banned
Elite doesn't need to be only for the elite. It's nice that new players with enough equipment can be somewhat successful doing this activity. Otherwise it's pretty much reserved for the select few and that might be good for the morale of the select few but doesn't help the game much.

I don't believe the void opals should be that difficult to find. Not everyone has ample time to enjoy all of the fruits of the game so they should not be put so far back on the shelf that only those with long arms can reach them.
Well It only takes 1 day to get to Elite Trader. So it so easy a caveman can do it.
 

DDastardly00

D
Image result for fish stories
 

Lestat

Banned
That's not how it works. You do not go from day 1, in your first sidewinder, to trade Elite on day 2...
I went from my First Sidewinder to Trade Elite in ONE day. I think you have the worse luck ever. We can take someone from one of the earlier posts on my Topic.

Said a similar thing when I started my alt-account a couple of months ago.

Literally, the most laborious part of the process of going from newbie to Elite (in trade, at least) was earning the first couple of million credits in a sidey... and that took about 2 hours (IIRC).

Launch Sidey. (0 hours)
Take missions paying up to Cr200k each.
Earnings: ~Cr3m. (2 hours)
Buy Mining Cobra.
Go mining.
Earnings: ~Cr15m. (2 hours 10 minutes).
Buy AspX and swap mining kit across.
Go mining.
Earnings: ~Cr100m (4 hours)
Buy Krait.
Go mining.
Earnings: >Cr1bn (14 hours)
Hello Elite and SD access.

Must admit, I took a "break" in the middle of that in order to go and unlock a couple of engineers 'cos it was bugging me to fly around in vanilla ships but a newbie who wasn't distracted by that could definitely reach Trade Elite (and set themselves up with a heap of credits) in well under 20 hours - and it's not like mining is a "hidden exploit" that only a veteran player could know about.

If it was me, I'd probably set Trade Elite at, say, Cr10bn instead of Cr1bn, given the current ability to earn credits.
Mine was a little different. I went from Sidewinder. To a Cobra with Combat Only Earning 600k, When you are dealing with Large ship you earn credit really fast. Move to Kolage made a mining Rig and two trips I was able to buy a Python and 3 trips from that I was Elite Trader. Oh, let not forget to point out the third Party websites that supplied the info needed to sell the Void Opal Current price was 1,688,000. I tend to just put down 1,650,000.

So calling people liars because you have the worse luck. Boo hoo. But I been playing elite as long as Elite Been out.
 

DDastardly00

D
Oh I believe you are Elite in trade, but you didn't do that in a day. Period. I'm sure Frontier could look at your account and see exactly how long it took you to get Elite in Trade (if they really felt was an issue)
 
Oh I believe you are Elite in trade, but you didn't do that in a day. Period. I'm sure Frontier could look at your account and see exactly how long it took you to get Elite in Trade (if they really felt was an issue)
50 Void Opal cores yielding 12 VO's each is a conservative path to 1 billion credits (40 cores is a very realistic number if one knows how to get reliable yields around 15) If you are somehow only finding and mining 4 cores an hour (once again very conservative, I'd call 1 core every 15 minutes an unlucky outing), that is 12.5 hours. Whatever time it takes to get out of your Sidewinder and into a Cobra along with finding the required modules can be added to that. I doubt I could personally pull it off in one day, but it is absolutely possible.

I arrived at Colonia and bought and totally outfitted an Asp X there then proceeded to make over 1 billion credits in one day VO mining a while back. It was the 2nd time I had ever VO mined.
 
Last edited:

Lestat

Banned
Oh I believe you are Elite in trade, but you didn't do that in a day. Period. I'm sure Frontier could look at your account and see exactly how long it took you to get Elite in Trade (if they really felt was an issue)
Let me guess you having a misfortune of being a bad miner? That not my fault. Go watch a few Youtube Videos on how to locate Void Opals and reset your account and try it. If you have an issue please ask questions.

Note this guy did not start on a new account. But a Billion credits in a day and Elite Trader. 4 Runs.
I obtained an Elite trade rank in a single day mining void opals. 4 mining runs. Boom, done.

Rank wasn't the main goal. I wanted the billion credits. I now own one of every ship in the game (except the Cobra Mk IV) and I can learn to fly at my leisure, in whatever ship I decide to fly. I don't worry about being destroyed anymore, because the mega billions means I can always afford my rebuy, even when it exceeds 25 million, whenever I have to pay it.

I have tricked out my shiny new Imperial Cutter to maximize my void opal mining experience, including rhinestone cup holders, and now I make 1 billion per mining run. Whenever I need a quick load of credits, I pull the cutter (aptly named Cha-Ching!) out of dock and go to the nearest icy ring.

Although, I learned the hard way, accidentally boosting a fully laden Cutter in an asteroid field does not end well.
 
Back
Top Bottom