[Particle Person]

Yeah, duh. Why should people who paid extra to play early have an advantage in online play over all of the players who join at release?

There's not really much in the game to give a great deal of advantage to anyone.

Except for little trivial things like credits, ships, and equipment. It's a beta, and glitches have been exploited to create wealth unfairly. As beta testers, we're supposed to break the game. It would be ridiculous if that sort of progress carried over into the real game.

[Ghost of V]

I'm up to 12k credits. Turns out just running around shooting pirates for their bounties is a lot more profitable than trading with the sidewinders tiny cargo hold.


I just learned I'm mostly wasting my time because all beta data will be wiped. That's a shame.

Yeah, duh. Why should people who paid extra to play early have an advantage in online play over all of the players who join at release?

You just described every Japanese MMO ever released.

[Particle Person]

You just described every Japanese MMO ever released.

Oh, Japan does it? It must be a totally reasonable thing to do, then.

[Ghost of V]

You just described every Japanese MMO ever released.

Oh, Japan does it? It must be a totally reasonable thing to do, then.

No. Japanese MMOs usually release in Japan before they are released in NA. So, when the game is finally released stateside there are thousands of maxed out JP players. I'm glad that Elite won't have the same problem.

[Saddam Hussein]

Are there leveled zones and linear quest chains yet?

[Rushy]

Are there leveled zones and linear quest chains yet?

Yes.

[Rushy]

Whelp, knowing about the wipe killed all enjoyment out of playing. If they want the beta to be solely for testing, then they should have made everything 1 credit (like Eve does) so everyone could test all possible ship configurations and scenarios.

[Particle Person]

They're also testing the economy and game balance, which involves things like how long it should take to earn enough credits to purchase an Anaconda, and how much certain missions should pay you. None of this would be possible if everything were essentially free. Plus, nearly everybody would be flying around in very powerful ships and killing each other everywhere if there were no consequences, which would be annoying.

[rooster]

Is anyone else using voice commands and TrackIR or is that just my nerdy boyfriend?

[Rushy]

Plus, nearly everybody would be flying around in very powerful ships and killing each other everywhere if there were no consequences, which would be annoying.

This is patently false, all you have to do is log in to Eve's Singularity server to see that. I will say that CCP has an active form of testing in Singularity, though. They have devs inside the designated systems that monitor test scenarios.

Also, there are currently no consequences in E:D. You can always get a free sidewinder no matter what you do and all things considered it is not exactly a harmless ship.

Is anyone else using voice commands and TrackIR or is that just my nerdy boyfriend?

definitely just him. Although I will be using the oculus rift as soon as the consumer version is released.

[Particle Person]

Also, there are currently no consequences in E:D. You can always get a free sidewinder no matter what you do and all things considered it is not exactly a harmless ship.

I'm sure the person who grinds for two weeks to buy their Anaconda and then loses it will agree that there are no consequences when they get their amazing free Sidewinder.

[Rushy]

I'm sure the person who grinds for two weeks to buy their Anaconda and then loses it will agree that there are no consequences when they get their amazing free Sidewinder.

You can buy a new one for a fraction of the cost via insurance. Further the credit retrieval in E:D is exponential. It takes a long time to work your way up to a Type 9 or Anaconda, but once you have one you can make bucketloads of credits in a fraction of the time. A Type 9, for example, can make about 200K CR in profit per trip (which should take 10-30 minutes).

Furthermore, one may only look to Eve (again) to see what happens when you make a free (or close to free) ship fairly powerful. I've seen entire swarms of "battle badgers" cost corporations billions because their jump freighter got badger'd.

A person who wants to go around blowing shit up is never going to get a slow-ass anaconda anyway. They'll probably buy a Type 9, use it to farm money for Cobra MK IIIs, then blow shit up using those. There is no real consequence using that strategy because E:D has no reputation system.

[Particle Person]

I'm sure the person who grinds for two weeks to buy their Anaconda and then loses it will agree that there are no consequences when they get their amazing free Sidewinder.

You can buy a new one for a fraction of the cost via insurance. Further the credit retrieval in E:D is exponential. It takes a long time to work your way up to a Type 9 or Anaconda, but once you have one you can make bucketloads of credits in a fraction of the time. A Type 9, for example, can make about 200K CR in profit per trip (which should take 10-30 minutes).

Furthermore, one may only look to Eve (again) to see what happens when you make a free (or close to free) ship fairly powerful. I've seen entire swarms of "battle badgers" cost corporations billions because their jump freighter got badger'd.

A person who wants to go around blowing shit up is never going to get a slow-ass anaconda anyway. They'll probably buy a Type 9, use it to farm money for Cobra MK IIIs, then blow shit up using those.

The person in my scenario didn't wait until he had the extra 10% of the base cost of his fancy new ship, so when he lost it he couldn't afford to replace it. Obviously you can mitigate consequences through preparation, but there are always consequences.

If you want to zip around and blow things up, buy a Viper, not a Cobra. The Cobra sacrifices firepower potential for cargo space.

[Rushy]

The person in my scenario didn't wait until he had the extra 10% of the base cost of his fancy new ship, so when he lost it he couldn't afford to replace it. Obviously you can mitigate consequences through preparation, but there are always consequences.

Basically what you're saying is the system only works if the player is an idiot. That isn't a very good system.

[Particle Person]

The person in my scenario didn't wait until he had the extra 10% of the base cost of his fancy new ship, so when he lost it he couldn't afford to replace it. Obviously you can mitigate consequences through preparation, but there are always consequences.

Basically what you're saying is the system only works if the player is an idiot. That isn't a very good system.

That's not what I'm saying at all. The system works either way. People who make poor decisions and buy things they can't afford to replace are punished severely if they mess up, and people who are more patient and plan for the worst suffer less severe consequences.

[Rushy]

That's not what I'm saying at all. The system works either way. People who make poor decisions and buy things they can't afford to replace are punished severely if they mess up, and people who are more patient and plan for the worst suffer less severe consequences.

... That's not what I'm getting at, though. The game has no punishment for continued suicidal behavior and exponential profiteering is a bad mechanic.

[Particle Person]

That's not what I'm saying at all. The system works either way. People who make poor decisions and buy things they can't afford to replace are punished severely if they mess up, and people who are more patient and plan for the worst suffer less severe consequences.

... That's not what I'm getting at, though. The game has no punishment for continued suicidal behavior

You lose money every time you die. Unless you have infinite wealth, you will be unable to afford replacement equipment at some point if you keep killing yourself. That seems like punishment. It's pretty similar to EVE's system, actually, except insurance is mandatory and simpler in Elite.

and exponential profiteering is a bad mechanic.

How? As your wealth grows, your ability to create wealth grows accordingly. That's how it works in reality, and that's how it works in other games.

[Rushy]

You lose money every time you die. Unless you have infinite wealth, you will be unable to afford replacement equipment at some point if you keep killing yourself. That seems like punishment. It's pretty similar to EVE's system, actually, except insurance is mandatory and simpler in Elite.

I've died quite a bit and never lost money.

How? As your wealth grows, your ability to create wealth grows accordingly. That's how it works in reality, and that's how it works in other games.

It should grow linearly, not exponentially. I shouldn't be able to grind for weeks to afford a Type 9, then buy an additional Type 9 in the span of a few hours. Yes, you should earn money faster, but the rate of growth is ridiculous.

[Particle Person]

You lose money every time you die. Unless you have infinite wealth, you will be unable to afford replacement equipment at some point if you keep killing yourself. That seems like punishment. It's pretty similar to EVE's system, actually, except insurance is mandatory and simpler in Elite.

I've died quite a bit and never lost money.

You're dying in a vanilla Sidewinder, then. The game has to give you a free starter ship, otherwise your character could permanently die.

How? As your wealth grows, your ability to create wealth grows accordingly. That's how it works in reality, and that's how it works in other games.

It should grow linearly, not exponentially. I shouldn't be able to grind for weeks to afford a Type 9, then buy an additional Type 9 in the span of a few hours. Yes, you should earn money faster, but the rate of growth is ridiculous.

I don't actually have relevant experience, since I'm still in an Eagle. Up until a recent update (I think, either that or it's coming soon), supply and demand were static, so it was very easy to make a lot of money through trading. Things won't be so simple in the full game.

[Snupes]

This is literally the first I've seen of this game, but holy Goddamn is it awesome.