Exploit is abusing game mechanics by forcing the game to do something or act in a way that it would not normally through normal play.
Not quite. An exploit is taking advantage of unintended gameplay for your own gain. You're not necessarily having to force anything.
Good making method is the game working as the devs designed it, which may not be the way they intended it, but that's their problem and why they have PAID QA Testers.
Not at all. Good money making methods can be the result of intended or unintended gameplay. You can't just label it as 'their problem' and because it is their problem it's ok and legit to do it. That's not correct.
Now we've got that out the way let’s looks at some facts.
Do you mean opinions ?
Unlike games like Grand Theft Auto and many others, the base currency cannot be bought with real world cash. So players earning large amount of credits is not costing Frontier additional sales.
Irrelevant. What players earn does affect the organic flow of the game in several ways and that's a good enough reason for Frontier to stem the bleeding. Elite: Dangerous is not pay to win and if it ever hints at becoming that way, I'm first out of the door.
Besides, players who only see credits when they play, in my opinion, don't understand the concept of Elite Dangerous.
I would be interested to see as a result of the weekend Gold Rush, how many players got there first Anaconda or Python, and then went on to buy ship kits and paint packs. I'd say it's a fair assumption that this weekend’s Gold Rush made money for Frontier.
Again, your missing the point and seemingly just looking for reasons for justify get rich quick exploits. If Frontier were concerned about how many people bought paints and kits over how their game is played, they could just make all the ships free or all the mission rewards in the millions. This has nothing to do with the Frontier Store.
Some may argue that by allowing players to afford end game ships will cause them to lose interest in the game.
Yes some may argue that and for some that is the case. I know a player in my Discord, for example, who tells me he regrets progressing too quickly in the game. I can fully understand why and I guarantee he isn't alone. Some people don't care about the journey and are only concerned about having the biggest ships with the best loadouts so they can pew-pew. If they go in with that mentality of 'I want and I want it now', then the grind awaits them and the whinges come soon after when they realise how steep the wall just got.
Everything in this world now is geared towards being instant. Unfortunately Elite doesn't work that way and it's a shock to some, particularly the Call Of Duty type of player. With Elite it is designed for you to put in the time and the work. Some just want to find the fast path because they feel entitled to it.
To quote Obsidian Ant, "for many the game only truly begins when they get the ship they want and everything leading up to that is a grind". Over 100,000 follow him so it’s fair to say he has his finger on the pulse of the community.
I don't think it's fair to say that at all. I think his followers have their fingers on his pulse.
You will find CMDRs in this game with no YouTube channel who are far more knowledgeable with the in's and out's of Elite Dangerous.
And that's not a slight on Ant either, it's just how it is.
In addition to the above, one of the biggest complaints since day one has been Combat Logging. So let’s ask ourselves why do people combat log?
Numerous reasons. Loss of cargo, mission failings, not wanting to give griefers their next 'LOL'. Not wanting to play to the griefers timetable. Putting a finger up to griefers who have nothing better to do than spoil other people's games.
But again, this is off the point and not relevant to this topic.
Under the current economy is apparent that players are flying without rebuy, or with such low funds that the rebuy would wipe out too much progress. As a result they will easily combat log, or not play in open at all.
That is the players problem. You die without a rebuy and there's no-one to blame but yourself. Not playing in open until you can afford your rebuy is an option open to all. Most prefer to die at the hands of a role-playing pirate for non compliance than a griefer who just wants to kill you because he's insecure in himself and needs to feel better about himself.
Can you imagine if players had enough credits for 4 or 5 rebuy's, they'd be more inclined to stay in open and less inclined to log at the first sign of trouble.
Not so. I sit on 4billion CR. I can rebuy my entire fleet of 15 ships most likely. Yet I'm rarely in Open because I don't play to griefers timetables. I'm 100% ok with CMDR's who can and do properly role-play the pirate and bounty hunter, but griefers I have no time for. It's not a question of getting good either. I just choose Private Groups where griefers have no place.
Proper C&P that is strict instead of soft like we have in 3.0 would bring me back into Open. Without question.
So to sum up, should players be instant billionaires, NO, clearly not. But should players be able to sensibly earn the credits required to buy and build the ships in game, YES and the recent gold rushes prove the game does not currently allow them to do this.
Fine, on this we agree. But what is sensibly earning. With my ranks, rep and wealth I'm happy on 25m p/h max. But people who are expert or master should not be able to earn the same. Nowhere near. The missions rewards need to scale better but whatever Frontier do, they will NOT please everyone. If they try to, then they're lost.
The main issue is a lot of people need to realise that Elite IS a grind and it IS a timesink and if you cant put the same hours in as your mate then you don't get to progress as quick. Simple. People need to work for their earnings and stop exploiting the game and fast-tracking their way to what they think is some kind of space-nirvana.
I have no need for more ships or credits and am I having more fun now than I did when I was progressing ? No. And when I was progressing there were no engineers, power play or thargoids.
For me the mission board is mainly redundant, the AI too easy and I'm sat some days wondering what to do next. 3.0 has improved the situation a lot, thankfully.
