GRcade

Is there even crossplay between PC and PS4?
What am I saying? PS4 crossplay? Lol.

I'm up for it. My CMDR name is Tafdolphin, obviously. And glad to see my rambling got you back into it Preezy!

So, I'm doing my first run on the 200mil/hr method...only I mucked up a bit. I misallocated my passengers meaning I didn't fill up and, something definitely worth mentioning, you need a decent rep with the locals in order to get the big payouts. Basically you need to run a load of BOOM data missions which will increase your rep, then you get a high chance of getting the 25mil+ passenger missions.

Also, this method is super dull. The supercruise journey from the destination system's star to the station is 40 real time minutes. Still, my first run should net me 6 or 7 million, which is a lot more than I was making on trade.

EDIT: Made almost 10 million. Not bad at all.

I can't imagine making that sort of money on single runs, I don't know what I'd spend it on! I find that I'm very tentative about getting ship upgrades - the compromise between top speed/FSD/cargo/energy etc is quite a juggling act!

So, on my "mucked up" run I earned almost 10 million cred. Which works!

EDIT: So yeah, the reputation thing is screwing this up a bit. Basically you need a good reputation with the passenger vendors in order to get the highest choice of missions. Finding enough missions to make a decent profit is taking ages at my current level (basically neutral all round). Now, I could grab a load of data courier mission that pay nothing but boost rep but I'm seeing if just running the passenger missions that are available is going to increase the rep enough on its own.

EDIT 2: Second run netted me around 6 million, third is on course for around 4. Definitely diminishing returns. BUT, it looks like I'm about to hit "Friendly" with some of the vendors which should net me some bigger fish.

EDIT: So this method isn't is simple as it seems. The Board Flipping looks like it's been nerfed so the number of missions you can stack from that one station is very low (at least at my reputation) so I've started taking passenger missions to stations one system over and gathering missions from them too. All in all, I've made around 45 million on 4 runs and a few in between. I'm now about 30 million off a basic Anaconda!

strawberry floated up today and ended up losing around 15 mil. Spent most of my time trying to build up rep with the factions and that went OK. Spent a load of money on those "Donate to the cause" missions which was fine. Ended up friendly with most of them, and allied with one.

Then I started taking passenger missions. Firstly, my huge increase in reputation seemed to have done exactly nothing. I was getting the same low level transport jobs and ridiculous Sightseeing jobs as I was before I spent 3 hours increasing my standing with the factions. Then when I tried to do those low level missions, I stupidly forgot to check the wanted status on the jobs. Twice in a strawberry floating row I got blasted out of the sky as I was accidentally hauling wanted passengers. Not only did this cost me 1.6 mil a time to replace my ship, it also reduced the faction rep I'd been building up all day.

Humpf. Should have stuck to hauling cargo.

EDIT: Oh strawberry float me. I somehow got a Dormant Bounty at my destination station. This should mean that the first time I'm scanned by a System Authority vessel it registers me as a bounty, kills me and the bounty comes off resets. Spent 40 real time minutes getting to the station not realising this and got shot down, losing 15 mil worth of contracts...and the bounty remained. I have no idea whats going on but I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with this now.

EDIT 2: It now turns out I cannot get rid of this bounty, so for 7 real days this method of making money is completely off limits to me for absolutely no reason (I got the dormant bounty as another player's ship glitched into mine). I'm now very close to giving up on this as that is some terrible, terrible gameplay design there.

Flying too close to the sun, Taf?

Urgh. Honestly, I think I'm done. If I'd done something myself to mess up, like forgetting to check the wanted status of passengers like I did, then fine. It's a fair cop. But now, for no reason of my own doing, I'm locked out of making money for a real-time week. I've just tried going back to space hauling and it's too dull.

I was having such a good time with it, and now due to a glitch and an utterly unbelievable gameplay rule, that feeling is gone and the game is ruined. It's like it's actively trying to make me hate it.

Tafdolphin wrote:Urgh. Honestly, I think I'm done. If I'd done something myself to mess up, like forgetting to check the wanted status of passengers like I did, then fine. It's a fair cop. But now, for no reason of my own doing, I'm locked out of making money for a real-time week. I've just tried going back to space hauling and it's too dull.

I was having such a good time with it, and now due to a glitch and an utterly unbelievable gameplay rule, that feeling is gone and the game is ruined. It's like it's actively trying to make me hate it.

No don't give up Taf, you're my inspiration to keep playing!

Might be worth sending a tweet to the Elite developers, they might be able to fix it for you? Or try their official forum, there's a superb player community there.

Tafdolphin wrote:Urgh. Honestly, I think I'm done. If I'd done something myself to mess up, like forgetting to check the wanted status of passengers like I did, then fine. It's a fair cop. But now, for no reason of my own doing, I'm locked out of making money for a real-time week. I've just tried going back to space hauling and it's too dull.

I was having such a good time with it, and now due to a glitch and an utterly unbelievable gameplay rule, that feeling is gone and the game is ruined. It's like it's actively trying to make me hate it.

What? What glitch/rule? I've never heard of anything that bans you from making money.

Lagamorph wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:Urgh. Honestly, I think I'm done. If I'd done something myself to mess up, like forgetting to check the wanted status of passengers like I did, then fine. It's a fair cop. But now, for no reason of my own doing, I'm locked out of making money for a real-time week. I've just tried going back to space hauling and it's too dull.

I was having such a good time with it, and now due to a glitch and an utterly unbelievable gameplay rule, that feeling is gone and the game is ruined. It's like it's actively trying to make me hate it.

What? What glitch/rule? I've never heard of anything that bans you from making money.

I was working on a passenger trade run that was earning me, on average, 10 million creds a run. This is because the destination station is 40 minutes supercruise from the warp point. On one delivery, another player's ship glitched into my own (I moved out of the way, the ship then teleported back in front of me and I hit it). This caused a Dormant Bounty to appear, meaning every time I go near that station, I get shot down and the bounty's 7 real day cooldown is reset. This means this incredibly lucrative way of making money (not to mention something I spent the last 2 days reputation farming) is completely off limits for a week, for no reason I could have avoided.

There is no way to pay off a Dormant Bounty, it is meant to act as a "cooling off" period for players being arseholes. It's idiotic in this context as I did nothing to earn such a long cooldown and have to go back to cargo hauling to make money, something I feel is a step backwards and now find incredibly dull. It also nets me less than half my previous profits and I'm beginning to wonder whether I can be bothered continuing.

Saying that, I just bought a Type 9 heavy to try and maximise profits. strawberry float this thing handles like a disabled whale.

Preezy wrote:No don't give up Taf, you're my inspiration to keep playing!

Might be worth sending a tweet to the Elite developers, they might be able to fix it for you? Or try their official forum, there's a superb player community there.

I've been looking at the forums and the common consensus is that Dormant Bounties are broken and need to be replaced. All they seem to be doing is stopping people doing things they want to do for ridiculously long times.

EDIT: Now earning 1.9 mil per run, but each run only takes around 10 minutes.

EDIT 2: Down to 1.7 as I reinstalled my shields. The Type 9 is massive, and really hard to pilot.

I mean, I've come a long way since my Sidewinder but I'm now thoroughly bored. If my encounter with the Fuel Rats showed me just how good this game can be, this stupid Dormant Bounty thing has shown me it's tedious side. Like I said, it's a mechanic seemingly custom built to build resentment towards the game's systems.

U ok cmndr xxx

Elite? More like Eshite amirite

I've calmed down a bit now. Spent 20 minutes looking at a screenshot of an Anaconda and chanting "What would David Braben do?"

I'm just going to grind the strawberry float out of the trade route I'm on, buy an Anaconda and pirate the gooseberry fool out of some folks.

Guys, I am so, so close. My total wealth is around the 140 mil region, and the Anaconda is 146 to buy. However, once I've gotten it I'll need to kit it out so I'm grinding some more and then I'm blasting off to find one of the systems that has it at a 15% discount.*

I'll be sad to get rid of Coconut Maggie though, she's served me well:





*

Tafdolphin wrote:

15% discount (system -- station):
BORR -- Armstrong City
LP 356-106 -- Carrier Dock
LHS 20 -- OHM City
Diaguandri -- Ray Gateway
Dinda -- Mount Sunday
Qama -- Thurston Ring
Arimil -- Pippin Dock
Seleru Bao -- Leinster Ring
Lalande 4268 -- Lowry Ring
V491 Persei -- Rand City
Arjung -- Hiyya Orbital
Capukanga -- Melnick Station

That list just reinforces how little of the galaxy I've seen

Preezy wrote:

Tafdolphin wrote:

15% discount (system -- station):
BORR -- Armstrong City
LP 356-106 -- Carrier Dock
LHS 20 -- OHM City
Diaguandri -- Ray Gateway
Dinda -- Mount Sunday
Qama -- Thurston Ring
Arimil -- Pippin Dock
Seleru Bao -- Leinster Ring
Lalande 4268 -- Lowry Ring
V491 Persei -- Rand City
Arjung -- Hiyya Orbital
Capukanga -- Melnick Station

That list just reinforces how little of the galaxy I've seen

Apparenty all the systems under the rule of one of the factions has a passive 15% off all ships and modules...permanently. Which is a bit odd. Thanfully they're all quite close to where I am at the moment.

Whoof. Finally, finally, mission accomplished. After almost 70 hours, an untold number spent grinding, I did it. Gents, The Dapifer:






It handles like a fighter compared to the Type 9, and the interior and sound effects are just lovely. I think I've decided to kit it out for exploration. I'm going to grab a top rated frameshift drive, an advanced scanner and set out into the void.

The hull on that

I'm going to plonk down the £20 for Horizons so if anyone fancies joining me for a Multi-Crew cruise sometime, let me know!

Are you PS4, Taf? If I ever get Plus again I’ll be up for that!

Played for an hour this evening (barely enough time to get going really, but such is life) and managed to make 400k doing a few basic cargo runs. Got interdicted but managed to outrun them in Munich lightning quick Mk3