Well this is something, I suppose. [Gameplay discussion] [Long read]

[Deleted member 110222]

A few weeks ago I commented on the possibility of heavily adjusting how I play this game in order to not end up having five trillion credits in two minutes. (Yes, that last bit was an exaggeration.)

Well I needed a break from ESO last night, so I decided to finally get that new save going and see if my earlier thoughts would make the game enjoyable.

The crucial thing here is that I do not accept missions unless they are essential for progression. So things like unlocking engineers, or receiving materials or cargo not available from other sources. I'll also be looking to note down my mission rewards, specifically the credits, so that I can donate them via the mission board as opportunities arise.

I have no problem with the way reputation is awarded in this game. The only reward mechanic that's truly broken is credits.

Aside from missions, my activity will be focused on direct sourcing. Credits will be made with free-form activities, such as buy-to-sell trading, opportunistic bounty hunting, and looking for salvage items that can be sold/rescued.

Mining is a little trickier to manage. But by focusing on low value ores I can still take part in the activity and not find myself with a billion credits added to my account thirty seconds later. (Again, this is an exaggeration.)

Heck, just to prove that point, my Freewinder is indeed currently equipped with basic mining equipment. I was able to extract a whole ton of Indite last night. That didn't sell for stupid amounts of credits and thus I was very happy and fulfilled by it. When I log in again today, I can leave my current dock carrying a slightly more valuable cargo and make an extra thousand credits over what I could had I not acquired that Indite.

This has taken me about three hours so far, to get to a point where I can equip some C-rated core modules on this mining-spec Sidewinder. And that's only because of the bonus 100k credits from the Pilot's Federation for leaving the starter district.

Most of that 100k is now gone as it is tied up in the modules I've equipped. I logged out after those hours with about 15k Credits to my name.

Due to the increases in pricing of higher rated modules, getting those B-rated and A-rated pieces will take time.

Especially as I'm refusing to use outside tools as well. I identify profits in game. When I need a modules, I have to guess.

When the time to add a new ship to my collection comes, I will have to actively explore the bubble to find a seller. I also won't be selling my ships now. This will slow down progress further as it effectively means that credits used to buy equipment are never going to be available to me for spending again.

Last night's findings have really driven up my motivation to play again. Do not get me wrong. I still think that Frontier has made a mistake by inflating rewards so much.

But it does now seem clear that by not following the herd and chasing the meta, I can enjoy a significantly better experience where choices really do matter. It feels more immersive. More natural. More fun.

I'll be treating module storage differently as well. I'm now considering it an armoury for different weapons. No more engines or bulkheads. No more cargo racks and fuel tanks. Just weapons.

Of course one last thing comes to mind. Whilst I won't be doing missions often, passengers only come in this form. My intention is to only offer simple A-B, station-to-station taxi flights. Tourism and fugitives are for someone else to deal with.

If you've made it this far, this is the end of my post. Thank you.

 

[Shiro Akai]

As someone who poured many hours to get me to the current point and unwilling to loose this progress due to save clearing (also not a fan of buying another account, despite actually having 2nd account <my son's, unused>) not that long ago I launched my 2nd account just to check if it's working.

Armed with OP knowledge of know-how and stuff I managed to move from E-sidewinder to D-Adder and 200k Cr in one short evening. All within starter area. It was somewhat rushed as I was experimenting. Now I'm tempted to clear that CMDR and star anew, more calmly this time. Not as hardcore as you but similar.

 

[FrogsFriend]

Welcome to the slow lane. Game-play experience over credits/possessions is so much more satisfying. Good luck and enjoy ☺

 

[Galaxias]

Well I needed a break from ESO last night,

Are you on Greymoor?

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Are you on Greymoor?

Oh yeah. And loving it. I needed a break simply from the time I've put in. Bit Of variety. Still highly recommend that other game.

But of course discovering this "slow lane" in ED, as another user posted above, has made my enthusiasm for ED go up again.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Another thought I have is to hire fighter crew ASAP so I have a passive earnings penalty.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

The game is so much better if you don't rush for credits, grind for rank or whatever. It is unfortunate that a) Frontier have allowed inflation that the Weimar Republic would be ashamed of to propagate and b) so many influenzers post the "make 20 quadrillion credits in half an hour" drivel on social media.

 

[Galaxias]

Frontier have allowed inflation that the Weimar Republic would be ashamed of

Short History Lesson on the Weimar Republic and inflation.
The 1920s German inflation started when Germany had no goods to trade. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this meant payments within Germany were made with worthless paper money, and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. This also led to pay raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from it. Circulation of money rocketed, and soon banknotes were being overprinted to a thousand times their nominal value and every town produced its own promissory notes; many banks and industrial firms did the same.

 

[VR jefranklin18]

Short History Lesson on the Weimar Republic and inflation.
The 1920s German inflation started when Germany had no goods to trade. The government printed money to deal with the crisis; this meant payments within Germany were made with worthless paper money, and helped formerly great industrialists to pay back their own loans. This also led to pay raises for workers and for businessmen who wanted to profit from it. Circulation of money rocketed, and soon banknotes were being overprinted to a thousand times their nominal value and every town produced its own promissory notes; many banks and industrial firms did the same.

Yes, I am pretty familiar with the German inter-war years. I contemplated not using that metaphor, but figured we're all adults so nobody would take offence.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

A few weeks ago I commented on the possibility of heavily adjusting how I play this game in order to not end up having five trillion credits in two minutes. (Yes, that last bit was an exaggeration.)

Well I needed a break from ESO last night, so I decided to finally get that new save going and see if my earlier thoughts would make the game enjoyable.

The crucial thing here is that I do not accept missions unless they are essential for progression. So things like unlocking engineers, or receiving materials or cargo not available from other sources. I'll also be looking to note down my mission rewards, specifically the credits, so that I can donate them via the mission board as opportunities arise.

I have no problem with the way reputation is awarded in this game. The only reward mechanic that's truly broken is credits.

Aside from missions, my activity will be focused on direct sourcing. Credits will be made with free-form activities, such as buy-to-sell trading, opportunistic bounty hunting, and looking for salvage items that can be sold/rescued.

Mining is a little trickier to manage. But by focusing on low value ores I can still take part in the activity and not find myself with a billion credits added to my account thirty seconds later. (Again, this is an exaggeration.)

Heck, just to prove that point, my Freewinder is indeed currently equipped with basic mining equipment. I was able to extract a whole ton of Indite last night. That didn't sell for stupid amounts of credits and thus I was very happy and fulfilled by it. When I log in again today, I can leave my current dock carrying a slightly more valuable cargo and make an extra thousand credits over what I could had I not acquired that Indite.

This has taken me about three hours so far, to get to a point where I can equip some C-rated core modules on this mining-spec Sidewinder. And that's only because of the bonus 100k credits from the Pilot's Federation for leaving the starter district.

Most of that 100k is now gone as it is tied up in the modules I've equipped. I logged out after those hours with about 15k Credits to my name.

Due to the increases in pricing of higher rated modules, getting those B-rated and A-rated pieces will take time.

Especially as I'm refusing to use outside tools as well. I identify profits in game. When I need a modules, I have to guess.

When the time to add a new ship to my collection comes, I will have to actively explore the bubble to find a seller. I also won't be selling my ships now. This will slow down progress further as it effectively means that credits used to buy equipment are never going to be available to me for spending again.

Last night's findings have really driven up my motivation to play again. Do not get me wrong. I still think that Frontier has made a mistake by inflating rewards so much.

But it does now seem clear that by not following the herd and chasing the meta, I can enjoy a significantly better experience where choices really do matter. It feels more immersive. More natural. More fun.

I'll be treating module storage differently as well. I'm now considering it an armoury for different weapons. No more engines or bulkheads. No more cargo racks and fuel tanks. Just weapons.

Of course one last thing comes to mind. Whilst I won't be doing missions often, passengers only come in this form. My intention is to only offer simple A-B, station-to-station taxi flights. Tourism and fugitives are for someone else to deal with.

If you've made it this far, this is the end of my post. Thank you.

Very similar to how I play the game and I still love it after all these years.

 

[Deleted member 257907]

I like to chastise myself while I play and I always wear a full gimp suit

 

[DaveB]

I've been in the "slow lane" since launch. Welcome to my world, Cmdr!

I did the "gimme gimme gimme" thing all through beta, because I wanted to experience as much as possible of the developing environment and find out how stuff worked, get at least a minimal handle on the kind of things I'd maybe be "aiming towards" after everything went live. Once it did, though, I was "playing my Cmdr" - not as a "pureRP" thing in any sense, but if there wasn't a reasonable way for my in-game self to know something or an in-character reason to do it, I wouldn't act on info received outside the game or go do something simply because I wanted the shinies it could bring.

Now, I'm an "old RPGer"-it's easy for me to do this, to draw the "mental line" between what I - as a player - know or could do and what "my character" knows or would do.To experience the game environment through that lens. More than once in my RPG history I've been the GM who caught a player not doing this and had to come up with a creative way to slap them for it without breaking the whole campaign. Being able to do this in ED tremendously enhances the gameplay experience.

I understand this is not something that will suit everyone. There are players enjoying the ED universe for whom even this minimal level of RP is anathema, that their goal is to "be good at the game" and that means using every tool or technique at their disposal and measuring their "success" against that of other players. I respect their achievements, acknowledge that by the metric of "ED skill" the vast majority of them rapidly became "better than me" and I'm perfectly OK with that.

But...

Having set my goal as building my Cmdr as a "complete person in the ED universe" rather than just a "game save slot" it means that I'll never be a "famous" (or infamous) player. On the other hand it also means that folks remember my character (if they remember me at all) as the crazy guy who in the early days of the Buckyball races would bring his 'conda along in the spirit of "run what ya brung" and cheerfully prang it with the Grateful Dead blaring from its external speakers as it slammed into the station wall trying to cross the finish line a little too fast to control its drift, the guy who would work for anyone if they paid his price, but who wouldn't take certain types of contracts or cargo for ANY price. The pilot who was unswervingly loyal to a very narrow group of principles and factions unless somebody was actually buying his loyalty elsewhere, and if bought it was nothing personal, just the job... yadda yadda yadda, you get the picture. And because of this nerfing the latest goldrush doesn't make me salty. Introducing a game mechanic I don't like doesn't diminish the game for me because I don't have to use it... And I'm still around, still enjoying this same galaxy, when a lot of others aint.

You have a wonderful journey ahead of you, Cmdr. I wont wish you joy of it, because I don't need to -I'm pretty sure you'll find it.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

I like to chastise myself while I play and I always wear a full gimp suit

Cool story bro.

Two things:

1) Some people genuinely enjoy what you literally describe.
2) Me nerfing my own earnings does nothing to stop you getting another Cutter after half an hour mining.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

I've been in the "slow lane" since launch. Welcome to my world, Cmdr!

I did the "gimme gimme gimme" thing all through beta, because I wanted to experience as much as possible of the developing environment and find out how stuff worked, get at least a minimal handle on the kind of things I'd maybe be "aiming towards" after everything went live. Once it did, though, I was "playing my Cmdr" - not as a "pureRP" thing in any sense, but if there wasn't a reasonable way for my in-game self to know something or an in-character reason to do it, I wouldn't act on info received outside the game or go do something simply because I wanted the shinies it could bring.

Now, I'm an "old RPGer"-it's easy for me to do this, to draw the "mental line" between what I - as a player - know or could do and what "my character" knows or would do.To experience the game environment through that lens. More than once in my RPG history I've been the GM who caught a player not doing this and had to come up with a creative way to slap them for it without breaking the whole campaign. Being able to do this in ED tremendously enhances the gameplay experience.

I understand this is not something that will suit everyone. There are players enjoying the ED universe for whom even this minimal level of RP is anathema, that their goal is to "be good at the game" and that means using every tool or technique at their disposal and measuring their "success" against that of other players. I respect their achievements, acknowledge that by the metric of "ED skill" the vast majority of them rapidly became "better than me" and I'm perfectly OK with that.

But...

Having set my goal as building my Cmdr as a "complete person in the ED universe" rather than just a "game save slot" it means that I'll never be a "famous" (or infamous) player. On the other hand it also means that folks remember my character (if they remember me at all) as the crazy guy who in the early days of the Buckyball races would bring his 'conda along in the spirit of "run what ya brung" and cheerfully prang it with the Grateful Dead blaring from its external speakers as it slammed into the station wall trying to cross the finish line a little too fast to control its drift, the guy who would work for anyone if they paid his price, but who wouldn't take certain types of contracts or cargo for ANY price. The pilot who was unswervingly loyal to a very narrow group of principles and factions unless somebody was actually buying his loyalty elsewhere, and if bought it was nothing personal, just the job... yadda yadda yadda, you get the picture. And because of this nerfing the latest goldrush doesn't make me salty. Introducing a game mechanic I don't like doesn't diminish the game for me because I don't have to use it... And I'm still around, still enjoying this same galaxy, when a lot of others aint.

You have a wonderful journey ahead of you, Cmdr. I wont wish you joy of it, because I don't need to -I'm pretty sure you'll find it.

Aye. been going at it on real RPGs for a year or so now and frankly it's no wonder I am so unsatisfied with the current mega-bucks offered. I like the "level-up" experience, and yes, grind.

 

[Galaxias]

Yes, I am pretty familiar with the German inter-war years. I contemplated not using that metaphor, but figured we're all adults so nobody would take offence.

I too am familiar with that period, great time to be alive (not!). Hope I wasn’t being rude, just an opportunity to give a background to your phrase.

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

Well I needed a break from ESO last night, so I decided to finally get that new save going and see if my earlier thoughts would make the game enjoyable.

... same thing for me and i dusted off modded skyrim which i never played, and with a new interest in elder scrolls lore finally enjoying the efforts of all that mod installing.

There's going to be alot of community podcasts for oddesey coming up so might as well be playing elite while listening to those.

Starting again isn't the same. Should be a poll on how long you can make it stick before giving up and going back to the main account.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

... same thing for me and i dusted off modded skyrim which i never played, and with a new interest in elder scrolls lore finally enjoying the efforts of all that mod installing.

There's going to be alot of community podcasts for oddesey coming up so might as well be playing elite while listening to those.

Starting again isn't the same. Should be a poll on how long you can make it stick before giving up and going back to the main account.

I am playing on main account lol

I've only got one because frankly, any more is a waste.

 

[Galaxias]

Oh yeah. And loving it. I needed a break simply from the time I've put in. Bit Of variety. Still highly recommend that other game.

But of course discovering this "slow lane" in ED, as another user posted above, has made my enthusiasm for ED go up again.

After the last month or so of ‘carrier madness’ I too will be calming down to do some slow trips into the black.
As for Greymoor, I’ve only been playing ESO for 2 months, started on Greymoor but after a while decided to go back to the base game and go through all the DLC’s in order.

 

[BL1P]

I enjoyed watching Isinona videos, On his last plays (about a year ago) what he would do is never use rebuy.
He treated the ship destruction as final and would get the sidewinder or another one of his ships from the rebuy screen.

It was very immersive as he never used the OP mining, OP exploration or any of the Easy mode money stuff. (which I have used extensively on my main account )
One day I want to do the same with my alt account. I just have really poor willpower and tend to honk and hand in my exploration data while travelling for the Engineers stuff for example. End up making 10mil just travelling to Maia and back for the Engineer.
Really wish there was a hardcore mode for people like me with really poor willpower

 

[CMDR Karrde Sun]

I am playing on main account lol

I've only got one because frankly, any more is a waste.

At one point i thought you could justify at least 2.. one for out of the bubble and one to stay around to take part in all the new stuff as it was added.. but since the turned off new content for so long you won't be missing out on much anyway so yeah.

Funny your experience in elite i did the exact same thing in eso, and having a blast. As first a questing sandbox, ignoring multiplayer metas, and doing any of the mmo fillers casually as you feel like, its absolutely brilliant. I tried doing the same in elite last year or the year before and got annoyed by having to consciously avoid things to experience progression. Make a plan for when you actually get in trouble, because its too easy to just take that 2 million credit mission to catch up to where you were and your whole rp gets knocked around.