Incursion Drops
The junk/cargo drops in incursions are very low compared to similar progression-level bashing areas. The cost of repairkits and destroyed astromechs means that at low levels you can struggle to break even if you take enough damage. Combined with the large amount of time it takes to actually fly to the area and back (and the high probability that someone else arrives with you), incursions aren't really worthwhile for earning marks. Most people can earn 3-5x in the same amount of time by bashing and with much less risk.
I suggest:
1. Increase the amount of marks earned by incursion drops so that players earn amounts similar to normal bashing. Don't decrease the costs of supplies, this adds a skill curve.
2. Increase the number of incursions spawned on the map or increase the number of mobs spawned per incursion so that having multiple people arrive at the same incursion isn't as much of a loss.
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Comments
Bashing has repair costs that are far higher than ship restocking costs, and cloning costs are at least on par.
That said, I still agree that something needs to change because it is really boring having to fly out to those incursions.
For example, there's the optimum distance between your ship and your target for maximum damage, so you use less ammo overall (and less repairkits, since your target won't be able to hit you for long). The angle at which your target is attacking you matters, too (that's how astromechs are destroyed, I think). Certain incursion types are also easier, some seem to give more experience, others drop more valuable junk.
- Ilyos (August 2019)
also things like astromechs cost a bit so costs do add up
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
- Ilyos (August 2019)
As for risk, it depends on the ship and type of incursion. With a Corvette, sure, I have pretty much 0 risk on easy incursions. But even if we argued that on a 10 ship easy incursion, each ship showed up every 30 seconds and you kill them immediately with 0 losses incurred, that's about 5 minutes to destroy a small incursion entirely. You get around 800 ~ 2000 marks, maximum I'd say from that, and I feel like I'm overestimating the mark rewards (though they do vary from types of incursions. Some may have more). The time it takes for ships to spawn, the ease to kill them, and the likelihood of having the incursion all to yourself are all factors you can't really account for an add variance to mark income, typically for the worse since I'm describing close to a best case scenario in a Corvette with dual cannons. Everything's harder and more costly time-wise with an Interceptor.
On the other hand, at level 20 ~ 30, I can bash up that number of marks in about 10 ~ 15 minutes, no problem. That's also consistent, with little variance in the time it takes to gather that many marks. At level 45, I earn 400 marks a minute, so in 5 minutes, I can earn about 2000 without needing to take time to fly back and forth, with competition in that bashing area. And I've never died bashing except to those pesky windmill drones the first time through (like everyone else T_T). To be fair, I've also never perished in an easy incursion even in an Interceptor (plenty of times trying my hand at Hard ones when they first showed up though...) But in the end, there's really no comparison in terms of rewards dealt between bashing and incursions in my mind. I easily earn 15k in a hour of casual bashing with breaks, and nowhere near that in a hour of incursions when you include flight time and the chance of not getting the ships to spawn or other people intruding.
That's not to say incursion money is terrible, but the variance is definitely higher. And the rewards from constant Hard incursions don't match up to even level 45 bashing for the same time commitment. I imagine that they'll make adjustments to incursion spawns and money as the economy settles here and there, but I can't really say that incursion money making is better than bashing in any way if you do both efficiently in the same time frame right now.
More precisely, I earn about 70 marks per mob I bash, and each one takes about 12 seconds to kill. That's 350 marks a minute assuming I always have something to hit adjacent to me. That gets augmented by item drops, so it's on average, around 400 a minute. Ten minutes is 4000, so while taking breaks, I earn 15k in a hour no problem. There are places that literally always have something for me to hit near me - if I had tougher competition, naturally this wouldn't be attainable, but earning money also means being efficient with hunting and knowing where to hunt.
I definitely know how long I'm bashing for. I have way too many things to do to not keep track of my time spent on Starmourn haha
Oh, it probably helps that I started off as a B.E.A.S.T. though. The hunting has always been smooth, that I'll admit probably helped a huge bit. I also have the lesson package, so having access to SUIT ROUTING early naturally made the early levels far easier. The difference between having routing and not having it for damage is absolutely huge
- Ilyos (August 2019)
If what you say is true, Beast is still completely broken. I just timed myself killing mobs slightly under my level (I am near your XP rankings) and was averaging 15 seconds to kill (no healing, one stim would add another 3 seconds). Also my friend who is level 67, earns about 10k an hour in junk at his level, assuming Thait is completely empty (it usually isn't). My other friend who is 75 is 5-15k an hour depending on complexity. In mid 40's, 15k seems incorrect.
https://ada-young.appspot.com/pastebin/AO03vn3e
setConsoleBufferSize("main", 5000000, 1000)https://ada-young.appspot.com/pastebin/OwYECJVe
I did get a lot of drops, but I always feel like I get a lot of drops. I once thought that B.E.A.S.T.s might be bugged in that regard since we have more weapon options, but I heard that was debunked somewhere.
(Scatterhome): You say, "Which by my calculations, it's your turn to pay."
(Scatterhome): Brantar says, "That's what my calculations have come to."
(Scatterhome): Paavo says, "My math adds up to that, yeah."
(Scatterhome): Cal says, "Bastards."
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
Edit: I actually tried finding a mention of this and on a simple search couldn't. I don't think I'm spreading any incorrect information here, but I couldn't find a source for these claims (other than testing it personally like @Maruna mentions below)
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
If this line of thinking wasn't obvious to you, I'd question what you've been doing with your brain.
— Oscar Wilde
"I'll take care of it, Luke said. And because he said it instead of her, I knew he meant kill. That is what you have to do before you kill, I thought. You have to create an it, where none was before."
— Margaret Atwood
And you could test with your lessons by quitting class, rejoining the same class, and respending your lessons.
And you could test with your lessons by quitting class, rejoining the same class, and respending your lessons.