Who is playing the old fashioned way?

[Rowander]

I got to a fully kitted Anaconda shortly after Gamma, mostly by trading and bounty hunting, very "old school". After that, I used some of the exploits that where really fun, and passed on the ones that where no-brain moneymakers. I loved doing smuggling runs when they were very high paying, but very risky bussinesses. Good times. But there's no need for that anymore.

Today, getting money is perhaps too easy. I made 40 millions in the last couple of weeks just by completing 4 delivery runs in each CG... around 3 hours tops. Now I'm finishing the Guardians mission, which is very high paying too, around 20mil/hour thanks to the awesome community we have ingame and their guides.

Looking forward to reaching Elite in one of the disciplines still... I'm in the last step in all of them, but there's no hurry, right?

 

[CMDR-AD]

I'm an "old school" player. The most I'll do is write down a system or station name if I find something interesting. But the Galaxy Map Bookmarks handle most of those needs for a while now.

The only 3rd party site I use is the ship outfitting stuff, mostly EDShipyard. The reason for using that 3rd party website is, otherwise, there is practically zero way to plan a build for specific task needs.

If Frontier is out there listening, a short list of QoL items for the post 2.4 era:
1. A ship build preview/planner screen. Let me put together a ship build plan and see the stats, then save and name that plan.
2. Let me use that plan to place an "order" to build that exact ship. If all the parts aren't available at the current station... simply add a delay for their shipment, and perhaps a surcharge for the parts that have to be special ordered.
3. Add a "Market Snapshot" screen. Suppose I'm looking at a Commodity Market, and I'd like to retain this information for some local trading. At the top, put "Save" and "View" buttons. I click save and this entire Commodity Market listing to one of 50 slots, with it automatically named by system/station/date. Now at another station, I can click the view button, choose an entry from those 50 last snapshots, and view that market's snapshot, for comparison with the station I'm at.
4. Add a "Commodity Sources" button to the Commodity Market screen, where I can see the full list of every Commodity offered for legal sale within 20-30LY, and the nearest system/station that sells it. Either this, or make the Galaxy Map lines that show the flow of Commodities accurate as to coming FROM a system where that Commodity is actually FOR SALE. To often, they simply are not.

Just those 4 things alone would solve, for me, 90% of the hassle in Elite. Things such as:
1. Can't find a ship module I want, station after station, system after system. Last night I got tired of trying and signed off for the night.
2. Having to leave the game to look at my ship build plans, or even see how a different module might impact my ship build.
3. Making the most of trade opportunities along my route.
4. Being able to keep a record of where I can get certain odd commodities.
5. Having to hunt and hunt through systems that *should* sell a certain Commodity, maybe even are indicated to sell them, but apparently don't.

 

[Mobius]

our private group of over 40,000 play the old way, us vs the Environment no killing other players the way it was originally played.

 

[GG7]

The current builds of the game lack too many needed resources to play any kind of "Old School" approach without wasting tons of game time looking for ships, modules, resources, trade routes etc. etc. etc.

If you want to forgo all of the excellent third party resources out there that take up this slack, knock yourselves out. But in my opinion, that is a very inefficient way to approach playing this game.

 

[jasonbarron]

our private group of over 40,000 play the old way, us vs the Environment no killing other players the way it was originally played.

Some might consider doing it risk free the ultimate exploit

 

[Mohrgan]

Some might consider doing it risk free the ultimate exploit

And, they would be wondrously wrong. I believe the phrase: "Working as intended" is in order here, or maybe "Baked in goodness" might be more appropriate.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

i play the old fashioned way. i would use exploits if i found out about them before they got patched - i usually read about the exploit in the patch notes that fix it. but yes, i play solo only. no multipew for me, no being ganked or griefkilled by bored immature 12 year olds with a lack of empathy.

i usually have a plan and just like original elite (where i was younger and got to deadly at my best) i tend to set myself goals as i play. the difference is, i have multiple ships now to choose from, built for differing thing - exploring, mining, missions/trading/combat, passenger carrying, surface missions/trading. and i can also set long term aims unlike the original. i have a long term goal to get to Sag A* - i have been on true exploring trips, and got my name on a few thousand objects in a few hundred systems. but my long term plan requires the maximum jump range i can have, so as my asp is only about 44ly modded range, im saving up probably to go anaconda. so thats one difference to old style. another is, when i explore i tend to use EDD tool and upload to EDSM. i rarely do that when im in the bubble, since just starting EDD makes it download from EDSM something that takes at least 20 minutes to download - and i play over pay as you go so i have to buy data in 7gb chunks. it can get costly to let EDD download too often.

i also use a couple of websites to do things like find pristine reserve systems in the bubble when i want to mine. now i dont even need a lore reason to go outside the game and use the websites or tools - but i can immediately think of reasons why even though its NOT all in game, you would have access to those things.

as a pilot, you would know lots of things. you would exchange info on some things with other pilots in that little bar we all tend to go to near the ship docks. traders wont give up much info about trading routes, but WILL tell each other about systems with bad pirate activity, confirming what the Gal map tells you about state. traders will guard their map data (explored or just rescanned systems even if they sell the data) but if this includes them physically taking some memory thing from the nav computer in the ship everywhere they go for security idk. but drunk pilots might let some things slip, such as about they were 'mining in such and such and had found a high % low temp diamonds/painite rock when -' and they finish the space story and you are thinking to check out that system on the map when you get back to the ship, which is the equivalent of searching that website in lore terms - you got a tip from elsewhere.

i tend to do what i feel like doing in the main - for example i have a mid term goal of trying to find an equivalent ship to my FAS in capability for combat, which DOESNT have the overheating problem so im grinding rep for imperial rank. plus i want to try imperial ships. but i took time out to help out on a community goal only 11 jumps away, on a whim, and got over 8 million when it ended early. and long term i want to go do the tourist thing to see Sag A* - maybe take a passenger mission too, make some money at it. so i play old style - but i dont have to stick to just trading and combat while trading any more.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

I'm an "old school" player. The most I'll do is write down a system or station name if I find something interesting. But the Galaxy Map Bookmarks handle most of those needs for a while now.

The only 3rd party site I use is the ship outfitting stuff, mostly EDShipyard. The reason for using that 3rd party website is, otherwise, there is practically zero way to plan a build for specific task needs.

If Frontier is out there listening, a short list of QoL items for the post 2.4 era:
1. A ship build preview/planner screen. Let me put together a ship build plan and see the stats, then save and name that plan.
2. Let me use that plan to place an "order" to build that exact ship. If all the parts aren't available at the current station... simply add a delay for their shipment, and perhaps a surcharge for the parts that have to be special ordered.
3. Add a "Market Snapshot" screen. Suppose I'm looking at a Commodity Market, and I'd like to retain this information for some local trading. At the top, put "Save" and "View" buttons. I click save and this entire Commodity Market listing to one of 50 slots, with it automatically named by system/station/date. Now at another station, I can click the view button, choose an entry from those 50 last snapshots, and view that market's snapshot, for comparison with the station I'm at.
4. Add a "Commodity Sources" button to the Commodity Market screen, where I can see the full list of every Commodity offered for legal sale within 20-30LY, and the nearest system/station that sells it. Either this, or make the Galaxy Map lines that show the flow of Commodities accurate as to coming FROM a system where that Commodity is actually FOR SALE. To often, they simply are not.

Just those 4 things alone would solve, for me, 90% of the hassle in Elite. Things such as:
1. Can't find a ship module I want, station after station, system after system. Last night I got tired of trying and signed off for the night.
2. Having to leave the game to look at my ship build plans, or even see how a different module might impact my ship build.
3. Making the most of trade opportunities along my route.
4. Being able to keep a record of where I can get certain odd commodities.
5. Having to hunt and hunt through systems that *should* sell a certain Commodity, maybe even are indicated to sell them, but apparently don't.

Interesting ideas ... I wonder if it would be appropriate on a simple level to drop in a CGI scene of the ship being reoutfitted I.e. With welding or such. Probably not just not really needed ....

Chief

 

[shadragon]

People who use exploits only cheat themselves.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

People who use exploits only cheat themselves.

Agreed ... but I don't think this is meant to be an exploit. Of course I could be mistaken.

Chief

 

[Saxon Kili]

I started the game two weeks ago and I realy like it. No I am totally into it. Like most people might do I do inform myself on the internet and I stumbled over exploids and how to grind fast articles and trading tools stuff and I wonder who is even playing the old fashioned way. Looking what does the game offers me in opportunities? What can I do now? Just free of any pressure from knowing there is a goal presented by "been there done that look at me I am super cool youtube videos here is how you can be so awesome like me guides" (no offense, I do apreciate video guides) and without googleling what is the fastet way to get there? I am a little bit older and I remeber the days where you started a game and just played the way it was presented to you. How do you play and why do you exploid or refuse to or keep it at minimum?

It might be fun for the OP to revisit this thread in a year or even two years and see how they still feel about the game. The simulation is very nice as well as the freedom to do whatever you want. I've done a number of things in the game but after a while got a bit bored with undirected game play.

Some players discover that the game does not really have much new and different content as you level up. The major noticeably different content is the different ships you can buy ... and end up doing the same space game content with. So some people like to get rich quick (and grind naval rank) to somehow push past the general boredom of normal gameplay so they can have a new shiny.

 

[yodajedifishmaster]

It might be fun for the OP to revisit this thread in a year or even two years and see how they still feel about the game. The simulation is very nice as well as the freedom to do whatever you want. I've done a number of things in the game but after a while got a bit bored with undirected game play.

Some players discover that the game does not really have much new and different content as you level up. The major noticeably different content is the different ships you can buy ... and end up doing the same space game content with. So some people like to get rich quick (and grind naval rank) to somehow push past the general boredom of normal gameplay so they can have a new shiny.

some confuse rank (and rep) and getting the 'top' ship as 'completion' or 'end game'. im assuming a lot of the ones who do that are those who grew up very recently, and have never known the old elite, never grew up playing games with other kids that were not on computers and where you had to make up things and imagine a lot while acting out scenes from star wars or pretending to be a fighter pilot on your bike with your friends. they expect the token single player (and never remember games like Dark Forces which took days to complete the 'campaign' because there WAS no online MP in those days) and then expect the online to be a deathmatch mode, where you rank up to the top equipment and try to be top dog by killing other players. im sure thats part of it. and if they have never known the games from the early days they dont know anything else but the identikit call of duty online style exists.

 

[Jools]

I quit playing a while ago but I used to play 100% on my own. I have read the first version of the manual when it was released and that`s it. I do that with all my games. I do, look up stuff on the internet occasionally but only when i return to a title after a long while, or when i feel completely stuck for a long period. I`ve been gaming like that since childhood and i like it the old fashioned way.

The problem is... Playing like that... The game feels broken. It took me a while to understand things in frontier Elite 2 as well but I was 10 or something, didn`t own a manual and didn`t know any English. Still, I feel like that game, due to its far higher immediacy factor (and the ability to save) was much better suited for empirical self learning and exploration of game mechanics than E. In ED everything takes 10x more time than in FE2 and the penalties are quite severe, making you grind even more. The missions were better too in frontier games imo especially in FFE.

Then you have the real problem. Constant rebalancing patches and the always on-line . Whatever data you manage to gather on your own, gets outdated before you can get anything out of it. It`s a complete mess. Content feels pretty stagnant, but the balancing/rng changes are happening all the time. Without reading up on it on the internet it feels like complete chaos. The game explains nothing and even the data it gives you is often confusing, like galnet or even outfitting screen... although that has probably changed many times too.

I didn`t quit the game because of those reasons (I quit because of poor connectivity, lack of seamlessness and imo underwhelming PG - For this aspect i have some hope for improvements though) but I would not recommend playing this game in the old fashioned way to anybody, it lacks the structure, its a game that expects you to read up on the internet and use third party tools, it`s just a different beast and is probably better enjoyed like that.

 

[Saxon Kili]

People who use exploits only cheat themselves.

I cheated myself out of hours of frustration by using Inara, Coriolos and eddb.io websites.
I cheated myself out of hours of monotony by doing Sothis/Ceos and Quince.

 

[metascrawl]

I use EDDB on occasion to look for a ship module I need, but I'm not a trader so I don't need it much. You won't find too many people who consider a tool like that an exploit. In fact, when the guys behind that site threatened to take it down due to a lack of support from the developer, Frontier reached out to them to prevent this.

As for the rest, no. I've never been to Quince or any other location because the internet says that's where the money is. I pretty much play the game as it's presented to me, without much outside influence on where I go or what I do.

 

[MottiKhan]

It might be fun for the OP to revisit this thread in a year or even two years and see how they still feel about the game. The simulation is very nice as well as the freedom to do whatever you want. I've done a number of things in the game but after a while got a bit bored with undirected game play.

Some players discover that the game does not really have much new and different content as you level up. The major noticeably different content is the different ships you can buy ... and end up doing the same space game content with. So some people like to get rich quick (and grind naval rank) to somehow push past the general boredom of normal gameplay so they can have a new shiny.

+1. Grinding and quick credits aren't an exploit in any way. They're just a means to an end. Usually that shiny new ship.

I've found new life in a little ship, but need lots of rebuys in the coffers for my current playstyle. Quince helps with the credits and engineer stuff as well. One engineer also needs a bit of Imp rank, so it's like a one stop shop. That, and Dav's Hope.

There are those who might even think Dav's is an exploit. It's pretty funny to see those types post.

 

[Mohrgan]

I cheated myself out of hours of frustration by using Inara, Coriolos and eddb.io websites.
I cheated myself out of hours of monotony by doing Sothis/Ceos and Quince.

Line one: Sounds about right.
Line two: Sounds about wrong. I'm sure it took you hours to go to all three locals, and take advantage. What could be more of a grind, than doing stuff that doesn't matter to you, to get credits, credits that appear everywhere?

 

[Riverside]

our private group of over 40,000 play the old way, us vs the Environment no killing other players the way it was originally played.

You play Solo? I thought you played co-op PvE?

 

[Darth Ender]

I play without voice attack, without macros, using a Hotas, no use of 3rd party websites for trade routes or tracking my exploration. No disconnections, open only, no exploits (unless they can't be avoided like the time when powerplay was bugged for over a month where npcs spawned without weapons), and I've been pledged to Utopia for about 110 weeks (which draws additional enemy spawns).

Been playing since launch, and i have close to 2 billion in net worth. Could have much much more but i can only take the game for so long before the repetitiveness and emptiness gets too boring. Most of my money was gained by bounty hunting (1.4 billion). Space Trucker 2017 is still too ridiculously boring. So I've spent the other half of my time wandering the galaxy hoping to be proven wrong.

 

[DaveB]

old-style player here too. I use online tools for two things only.
1: coriolis to simulate ship configurations before putting in the effort to go get the pieces.
2: EDDB to show me trade hops to avoid because they are too popular. The ones I actually run are all prospected old-school. (the online tools can't show me the 5 or 6 leg loops I prefer to run anyway, except by the most extreme chance)