Why not give Anacondas as starter ships?

[Clarion-Z]

Here's the background for this..
Decided to fly around with my sidey for a bit yesterday, two hours of gameplay (couple missions, some RES and shot a pirate) earned me bit over 7 mill.. in a damn sidewinder I know there's people who can make double of that with mission stacking and elite trickery.
But what's the point of credits at this point? I know "back in the day" when missions paid about 4-10k each, money making was insanely hard and some payout increases were needed. But now it seems we have gone the opposite.. With a full day of gameplay you could potentially jump from a sidey to a python (not a-rated, but python anyway).
And if i remember correctly, there's even more increases for payments coming up.
So at this point it kinda starts to feel that players could just pick whatever ship whenever they want and get rid of the credits completely.. or do some real balancing.. continuous increases of payouts are just ridicilous at this point..
And before you all crucify me for this.. Here's a small example of what I mean.. and no, it's not an exception, these happen quite often.


Did couple similar ones for 12 cargo being carried with adder.

And I'm not against people being able to make money, but it should be balanced.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Not such a good example. You are in a rank locked permit system and most likely allied to the faction. I'm pretty sure that the mission board still takes your rank into account with the missions that it offers. So a noob isn't going to see this one.

 

[Clarion-Z]

You are in a rank locked permit system and most likely allied to the faction.

True.. but it really doesn't take much to get friendly or allied with a faction. System doesn't really matter much, booms happen everywhere and missions generate the same way.
Mission board keeps telling me that low traderank missions pay well. I have no second account to actually check if it changes when the player is in those low ranks, so at this point I just have to trust what the game tells me.
Also, you can accept higher level missions too.

 

[JetsonRING]

7 million is not so much. Back in the C/S days my Anaconda was earning 60-70 million every 90 minutes or so doing long-range (400+ LY) cargo hauling . . . good times . . . o7

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

Mission board keeps telling me that low traderank missions pay well. I have no second account to actually check if it changes when the player is in those low ranks, so at this point I just have to trust what the game tells me.

I'm going of threads like: Have built up 800k now what in the newcomers forum. This player has earned 800K in the last two days, certainly more than it used to be, but not in the 3 million per mission category.

There are guides on how to get an Anaconda in a day, so you do indeed have a point, but doing this takes a fair amount of metagaming and would be beyond your average noob.

Unfortunately, too many exploits have been left available for far too long in this game. For many players, credits are meaningless now as they have several billions. Frankly, I don't much care how fast other players are making money, except when these same players are asking for credit sinks so they can get extra benefits from their exploits.

 

[NW3]

The thing is, an Anaconda is not the "best" ship. There is no best ship; they all have pluses and minuses.

The Anaconda has some serious drawbacks (* listed below), which make it less fun than many of the other ships. If you rush through the ship progression, you're missing out on much of the "content" E: D has to offer. (The other content is, of course, the galaxy itself.) Those other ships, like the Eagle, Cobra, Viper, and Vulture, are fun to fly. By ignoring the small and medium sized ships, you're only cheating yourself. You should enjoy those ships, for what they have to offer. I made a point to fly each ship for several weeks or even months, so I could truly appreciate them and what they have to offer.

* The Anaconda can't land at outposts (which don't have Large landing pads). You can't visit Hutton Orbital. The 'conda is slow and tricky to fly through the "mail slot". It's expensive to repair and maintain. The cockpit view is quite limited. IMO, these drawbacks make an it a lousy starter ship.

Yes, the Anaconda has a great jump range, can carry a lot of cargo, and makes a decent explorer ship, but that doesn't make up for its weaknesses, as far as I'm concerned. I much prefer to fly an Asp Explorer or even a Type-9, if I need to haul cargo.

 

[Hooplah]

"Higher ranked missions are offered as your reputation increases. These come with higher risks and rewards."

That pretty much says it all. The Elite trading rank decides what you can accept. A new player with a Penniless rank will not be offered this mission.

 

[Clarion-Z]

I'm going of threads like: [thread=335717]

Unfortunately, too many exploits have been left available for far too long in this game. For many players, credits are meaningless now as they have several billions. Frankly, I don't much care how fast other players are making money, except when these same players are asking for credit sinks so they can get extra benefits from their exploits.

I don't mind too much either if someone makes billions of credits, but I do love this game. And I think the payout balancing has gone way over the "sweet spot" and I'm voicing my opinion about it. Maybe the game keeps lying me about the mission ranks required or they are really offered as the game displays them. And exploits are completely another thing. I'm sure you can beat my 7mill in 2 hour in a sidey with exploits easily. probably do 4-times as much

The thing is, an Anaconda is not the "best" ship. *snip*

That wasn't really the point of the thread, but I do agree with you. There's no best ship.

"Higher ranked missions are offered as your reputation increases. These come with higher risks and rewards."

That pretty much says it all. The Elite trading rank decides what you can accept. A new player with a Penniless rank will not be offered this mission.

Before Elite, I was offered Elite missions. It did warn me that it exceeds my rank but was acceptable. Also, those high paying missions come in VERY low ranks as well.

 

[Morrenwell]

This does actually seem like an exceptional case:

* the cargo is 84 tons of superconductors, which is a fairly valuable shipment
* you're Allied with the mission-giving faction
* you're in Sol (I think) which is both permit-locked and very populous/secure
* the base mission payout is a combination of both distance to the system and in-system distance to the destination. Alpha Centauri is close to you, but Al-Din prospect is at least a few thousand light-seconds from the drop location.

All these factors are mulitplicative. Now, when you consider that the trip to Al-Din will take you about 20 minutes, this isn't actually THAT fast of a way to make credits, especially since it's not reproducable.