So, I have a question, why is the explorer career so unbalanced? This applies to all modes, but this is mostly about Open. The context here is when your ship is destroyed as opposed to your time investment.
Let me explain.... (hint, there is a TL;DR to this.)
The Combat Role:
If you are a career combat pilot, well, this is the game for you! PvE, PvP, you know your risks, you can manage your losses. You lose only your rebuy if you fail at combat. The rule: "don't fly it if you can't rebuy it" applies even to solo to some limited extent. This is all well known. Many enjoy the thrill of combat, risks and all. It can be quite enjoyable for those who love this work! If you die, you lose maybe an hours worth of work, 2 or 3 if you have a really expensive ship.
The Trader:
You also know your risks, If you get attacked, you loose only that haul, it might be a little expensive, but nothing a few extra jumps and a new load of cargo can't fix. Some like the thrill of the hunt, to be the sneaky prey who enjoys out foxing the hunters and pirates. Some might even role play the drama if caught by a pirate. For the good trader, a risk of loosing your cargo is the cost of doing business on occasion. But much of the time, it's your docking simulator day job. Time wise, You can manage your risk as a trader pilot. an hour or two worth of work, the rebuy of the ship, which won't be as expensive as a combat ship because of less armor, but that's made up for the cost of cargo.
The Explorer:
Ah, to uncover the mysteries of the galaxy, to explore the depths of the unknown and to be the first to place your name on that long distant star. Combat is not the life of the explorer, but the lonely vast void is your constant companion and your worst enemy. The combat pilot makes his money with his guns, The Trader makes his money with his cargo holds, but the explorer's best friends are his scanners and engines. To spend, in some cases, literally weeks or even months in the depth of the black..... only to have the entire journey erased by a ganker on the return to civilization.
You can not manage your risk as a explorer pilot. The rebuy, plus the entire week or even month(s) of a journey, in a ship that has been stripped down for exploration, and even weakened because the hull integrity will likely be at 0. (not the hull repair, but that second one next to the paint job on the advanced maintenance screen.) Also, the hull and other modules won't likely be at 100%.
A role not intended for combat has the least ability to manage risk in relationship to the activity of combat.
This is not about anything but balance. Let's sum up what you loose and don't loose on ship destruction:
When you get back from the black, even a freewinder looks a little too dangerous! And not just an hour or two of work at risk but all of it.
The balance issue here is you face losing all of your work, not a portion, if you get destroyed when no other role faces that, with game mechanics that favor the two roles and punish the explorer for failure? When obviously your ship has some kind of backup mechanic. You somehow keep a box of physical materials and data, yet somehow, scan data, with can be 1000%++ more valuable, inexplicably gets lost?
Again, this is in relationship to the time investment to getting that data. Combat Bond Data is lost, but you don't spend weeks getting that.
One sec, gotta deal with some folks:
I know how we can balance this:
When you die you:
1. Fail every mission.
2. All of your materials/data can be lost.
3. You have to fully restock every weapon and fuel. (why does an insurance company pay for ordinance and fuel anyway?)
4. All of your engineering has to be redone. How is it they can resupply your ship, but also the exact specs of it's construction plus refitting? Why can't we just buy these engineered then? Once the first ship is kitted out, just buy it wholesale supped up?
Wait? Too much? really? Oh, Come on, that's how much it costs an explorer to loose his ship from a 2 month journey, why can't we make this more fair? I mean, after all, the explorer is only carrying 100 to 200 million credits worth of scan data in a ship that's no more sturdy then an egg after all that took a month to collect. Surely we can put that much at risk for everyone else upon a single death!! Come on people, where's your sense of danger!! It's Elite DANGEROUS after all, lets give everyone else the same risk a lowly explorer enjoys! What's with you all!!??
Now that that crowd has left...
One might reasonably argue that "well, they can go to the far side of the galaxy, then blow them selves up, and be back and sell their data." The risk of death is the key point.
No, the risk of death is NOT the key point. Exploration IS the key point, why? Because the time investment nullifies it - Period.
I can understand how the 'risk of losing it all' out in the black keeps the explorer on his toes, and I think that might have been the intent behind this, however, that crashes headlong into the combat role, on return. But again, the time investment nullifies this. You spend 2 days getting combat bonds, and if your concerned about it, you can turn them in when your ready, and if you don't get them all turned in and die, the loss isn't so bad, you had a way to mitigate that risk. A deep range explorer has no way to do that.
Combat or Trading doesn't carry their entire 100-200 million of risk on their back upon a single death for the amount of time they invested into that single activity. Imagine you couldn't cash in bounties except for the first of the month, and you had 5 billion worth of bounties and bonds sitting on your ship, and you hunted for over 3 weeks, and at a single death, you'd loose it all, what would you honestly do? But remember, an explorer doesn't even have the luxury of a Space Station defying shields armored warship to hide in. They get to ride in a flying egg.
Oh, yea, I'd love you to take that warship out on an exploration. You'd smash it into the nearest star in frustration after the second lap the little explorer ship passed you by on. Guns don't help you out there, assuming you don't succumb to space madness first.
TL;DR --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honestly, I think most explorers have no need to blow them selves up to sell their data. Given the time invested, that's not the mindset of the typical deep range explorer. The distance alone is enough of a risk and the time to get there, rather then the loss of scan data on death. Therefore, allow scan data to be retained on ship destruction like the other data on the ship. Not playing Open shouldn't be my only recourse to mitigating combat risk to my weeks or months worth of stellar scan data in a weakened ship.
Let me explain.... (hint, there is a TL;DR to this.)
The Combat Role:
If you are a career combat pilot, well, this is the game for you! PvE, PvP, you know your risks, you can manage your losses. You lose only your rebuy if you fail at combat. The rule: "don't fly it if you can't rebuy it" applies even to solo to some limited extent. This is all well known. Many enjoy the thrill of combat, risks and all. It can be quite enjoyable for those who love this work! If you die, you lose maybe an hours worth of work, 2 or 3 if you have a really expensive ship.
The Trader:
You also know your risks, If you get attacked, you loose only that haul, it might be a little expensive, but nothing a few extra jumps and a new load of cargo can't fix. Some like the thrill of the hunt, to be the sneaky prey who enjoys out foxing the hunters and pirates. Some might even role play the drama if caught by a pirate. For the good trader, a risk of loosing your cargo is the cost of doing business on occasion. But much of the time, it's your docking simulator day job. Time wise, You can manage your risk as a trader pilot. an hour or two worth of work, the rebuy of the ship, which won't be as expensive as a combat ship because of less armor, but that's made up for the cost of cargo.
The Explorer:
Ah, to uncover the mysteries of the galaxy, to explore the depths of the unknown and to be the first to place your name on that long distant star. Combat is not the life of the explorer, but the lonely vast void is your constant companion and your worst enemy. The combat pilot makes his money with his guns, The Trader makes his money with his cargo holds, but the explorer's best friends are his scanners and engines. To spend, in some cases, literally weeks or even months in the depth of the black..... only to have the entire journey erased by a ganker on the return to civilization.
You can not manage your risk as a explorer pilot. The rebuy, plus the entire week or even month(s) of a journey, in a ship that has been stripped down for exploration, and even weakened because the hull integrity will likely be at 0. (not the hull repair, but that second one next to the paint job on the advanced maintenance screen.) Also, the hull and other modules won't likely be at 100%.
A role not intended for combat has the least ability to manage risk in relationship to the activity of combat.
This is not about anything but balance. Let's sum up what you loose and don't loose on ship destruction:
- Your Ship: You loose your rebuy. As said above, "don't fly it if you can't rebuy it." simple.
- Your Cargo: You loose your cargo. You can have several million credits worth of cargo, but that's not unrecoverable.
- Your Missions: Not lost, but some will fail. The Trader role is the most sensitive to this, as lost cargo or passengers is a thing, but again, manageable.
- Your Data: I am referring to the recon type data, Shield scan emissions and such, you never lose this
stuff. - Your Materials: Same as data, you don't loose this.
- Your Stellar Scan Data: You lose all off it.
When you get back from the black, even a freewinder looks a little too dangerous! And not just an hour or two of work at risk but all of it.
The balance issue here is you face losing all of your work, not a portion, if you get destroyed when no other role faces that, with game mechanics that favor the two roles and punish the explorer for failure? When obviously your ship has some kind of backup mechanic. You somehow keep a box of physical materials and data, yet somehow, scan data, with can be 1000%++ more valuable, inexplicably gets lost?
Again, this is in relationship to the time investment to getting that data. Combat Bond Data is lost, but you don't spend weeks getting that.
One sec, gotta deal with some folks:
I know how we can balance this:
When you die you:
1. Fail every mission.
2. All of your materials/data can be lost.
3. You have to fully restock every weapon and fuel. (why does an insurance company pay for ordinance and fuel anyway?)
4. All of your engineering has to be redone. How is it they can resupply your ship, but also the exact specs of it's construction plus refitting? Why can't we just buy these engineered then? Once the first ship is kitted out, just buy it wholesale supped up?
Wait? Too much? really? Oh, Come on, that's how much it costs an explorer to loose his ship from a 2 month journey, why can't we make this more fair? I mean, after all, the explorer is only carrying 100 to 200 million credits worth of scan data in a ship that's no more sturdy then an egg after all that took a month to collect. Surely we can put that much at risk for everyone else upon a single death!! Come on people, where's your sense of danger!! It's Elite DANGEROUS after all, lets give everyone else the same risk a lowly explorer enjoys! What's with you all!!??
Now that that crowd has left...
One might reasonably argue that "well, they can go to the far side of the galaxy, then blow them selves up, and be back and sell their data." The risk of death is the key point.
No, the risk of death is NOT the key point. Exploration IS the key point, why? Because the time investment nullifies it - Period.
I can understand how the 'risk of losing it all' out in the black keeps the explorer on his toes, and I think that might have been the intent behind this, however, that crashes headlong into the combat role, on return. But again, the time investment nullifies this. You spend 2 days getting combat bonds, and if your concerned about it, you can turn them in when your ready, and if you don't get them all turned in and die, the loss isn't so bad, you had a way to mitigate that risk. A deep range explorer has no way to do that.
Combat or Trading doesn't carry their entire 100-200 million of risk on their back upon a single death for the amount of time they invested into that single activity. Imagine you couldn't cash in bounties except for the first of the month, and you had 5 billion worth of bounties and bonds sitting on your ship, and you hunted for over 3 weeks, and at a single death, you'd loose it all, what would you honestly do? But remember, an explorer doesn't even have the luxury of a Space Station defying shields armored warship to hide in. They get to ride in a flying egg.
Oh, yea, I'd love you to take that warship out on an exploration. You'd smash it into the nearest star in frustration after the second lap the little explorer ship passed you by on. Guns don't help you out there, assuming you don't succumb to space madness first.
TL;DR --------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Honestly, I think most explorers have no need to blow them selves up to sell their data. Given the time invested, that's not the mindset of the typical deep range explorer. The distance alone is enough of a risk and the time to get there, rather then the loss of scan data on death. Therefore, allow scan data to be retained on ship destruction like the other data on the ship. Not playing Open shouldn't be my only recourse to mitigating combat risk to my weeks or months worth of stellar scan data in a weakened ship.
