[EL] I must be missing something

[AcePalarum]

Okay, after a goodly amount of reading here in the forums and a bit over 9 hours of flight time, I have to conclude that on some level, I am not playing the same game as the rest of you.

In 9 hours, I have managed to put over a million credits into my account (as well as acquire a bit of pricey equipment, e.g. a deploy constructor). Honestly, that seems like a fair trade of time for reward. No problems there.

However, in the shipyard, I find that my million-plus bank account is insufficient to get even the most modest improvements to my starting tin-can-with-delusions-of-grandeur (I don't consider an increase of 1 capacity and 25 assembly a remotely significant or interesting change, so I've got to go up at least two tiers of frame selection). This, I have a problem with.

A million credits should be sufficient to do something interesting. Yet somehow I'm still a couple hundred thousand away from my modest desires. And on average, the contracts I'm being offered pay ~18K or so. By itself, that sounds okay (~10-12 contracts to achieve), until you remember a) the time already sunk into grinding through contracts; and b) the fact that success results in a modest change of +4 capacity (the only ship characteristic I really care about at the moment) and takes me from being a millionaire to flat broke.

I'm open to the notion that I'm just not in the right frame of mind for the system to click for me. I just can't help feeling like there's some huge component of Legacy that I'm flat out not seeing. I want to be playing the exciting game everyone else describes, finding cool hidden stuff and building little empires on forgotten worlds; instead I'm stuck running fuel to stranded AI pilots and delivering cargo because my cheap little ship just doesn't seem up to the rigors of flying anywhere interesting.

If anyone has any ideas here, I'd love to hear them. I've had all kinds of fun with Mercenary; I want to like Legacy just as much, but man does it seem dull so far.

[CS-ACI-]

Hello,

There are several different things here.

I will cover just one for now, and you can test if for yourself.

Only do contracts from one station, watch the amount you get paid each time. You will now see a bit more light at the end of the tunnel.

It is indeed expensive to get all the right kit and then you have to store some of it as you can't carry it all.

Steve

[Marvin]

A million credits should be sufficient to do something interesting.

Wikipedia: "[This guy] intends to hold the world ransom for one million dollars, but doesn't understand that isn't as large a sum of money as it was in the 1960s, because of inflation" ...

[XenonSurf]

However, in the shipyard, I find that my million-plus bank account is insufficient to get even the most modest improvements to my starting tin-can-with-delusions-of-grandeur (I don't consider an increase of 1 capacity and 25 assembly a remotely significant or interesting change, so I've got to go up at least two tiers of frame selection). This, I have a problem with.

Yep, with 1M you are not going to make significant changes in the shipyard, to my experience you need 2M-4M to step into a higher better frame. A good possibility to obtain excellent fighter classes is to go in the warzones and buy a military frame that you can later transfer (store) in other locations, here also you need more cash.
It all depends what you want to do in the game. Have you hired a scientific operator, or other crew to improve your ship handling? If not try it out.

Generally, EL will not give you any hints about how to succeed in doing something, you have to find out, if logic fails, also by trial and error.

XenonS

[Raven0]

Trading can be a good way to boost your profits. Even cheap items are valuable somewhere, especially if you chose to allow a dynamic economy when setting up your profile. Salvaging containers is more or less random chance, but can be VERY profitable.

[matchbox2022]

Best bet is multiplayer contacts with higher ranks and getting into the "equipment" black markets.

[DaveK]

Spoiler for fairly quick money

Mine diamonds - better than platinum in this game - and trade in a system with 150-200% mark up; if you can fins a system with a nearby station you can make money steadily and quickly (several million is a lot less than an hour's play)Since the sell value reduces the more you sell, find a second similar system and move there until the first recovers

To see the spoiler just select the text above

EDIT ... @ Marvin or Vice: if this is too much of a spoiler please delete the post - I've only given strong hints, not details

[Edited on 5-6-2016 by DaveK]

[Slayer]

Hello!

I understand your frustration, as on my first pilot (that I accidentally deleted while alt tabbed) it took me hours to make any financial progress. Buying fuel, replacing missiles and repairing damage made major dents in my contract profits. However, that's probably what it would be like to be a real space mercenary, so I appreciated the immersive role playing experience (everyone's mileage will vary on that; I walked and never fast traveled in Oblivion or Skyrim).

On my replacement combat pilot, I literally just focused on combat contracts and was flying a Typhoon frame by the fourth hour. By the sixth hour, I was piloting a nicely loaded Razor military frame (which costs over three million credits). Would that be considered grinding? Yes, but I was polishing my dogfighting skills while netting increasing profits every contract and having a lot of fun doing it (but again, your mileage may vary). As a result I became better at the game and made money quicker.

On my second pilot profile, I decided to focus just on mining, trading and non-combat contracts. By the tenth hour I had a moderately kitted Renegade, with a Mantis Drive and a Terrain Walker, excellent at running cargo and exploration.

I wouldn't consider myself great at the game, especially compared to the veterans on this forum. If there are any "get rich quick" tricks in Legacy, like there were in Mercenary, I don't know about them. Some patience is required when starting a new pilot in Legacy, as there's not much instant gratification (other than averaging 3.4 Vonari kills a minute!), but satisfaction of piloting a nicely kitted ship once you can afford it is much, MUCH sweeter than it was in Mercenary.

Fact of the matter is that it's harder to make big money and find certain items in Legacy. Does that improve the gameplay over Mercenary? I don't know, but what I can tell you is that I haven't been able to put Legacy down since I purchased it on May 3rd.

[matchbox2022]

Get rich tips

Find some lost equipment to resell....or even
Start making your own expensive products to resell.

Engineering lab is there, if you have a template use it!

For example, building or finding an AMS will get you a cool 3 million.

[XenonSurf]

Actually you can just sit at the station and make money...by trading with incomming NPC ships. Most of the NPCs will fall into buying stuff at higher prices or selling their cargo cheaper, but you have to know the regular prices by memory, once you are in the trading window (F4) you cannot consult the news section

EDIT:
I know this works in Mercenary by sitting in a station. In EL if you are outside the station, this will also work but maybe the station will refuse your commodities when selling. Check it out.

XenonS


[Edited on 6-6-2016 by XenonSurf]

[AcePalarum]

The tips are all appreciated. Thanks to a few lucky breaks and stubbornness, I have finally pushed through the major hurdle of frustration. (My ship is still crap, but at least it's sort-of-functional crap.)

I stand by my assertion that the price differentials on the low-end frames are overkill. I'd prefer if it were moderately easy to upgrade by one or two frames in the first four to eight hours of play. After that, the player (veteran, experienced or novice) should have a feel for what type of frame resources they are concerned about (i.e. capacity vs assembly vs agility etc.) and on how to make financial progress, making larger price differentials for continued frame upgrades seem less daunting.

That's my 2 cents, anyway (value degraded due to inflation).

[Delta99]

I would agree there is too much of a progression needed from the first frame to anything else if memory serves me correctly. It almost seems like there is low end stuff and then high end stuff and nothing really in the middle or of useful small progressions.

[Marvin]

...nothing really in the middle or of useful small progressions.

Eight secondary weapons slots (without sacrificing much else in the way of equipment or cargo space) can be found among the middle-class civilian ships. Which means you can load Excals. Which, for some mercenaries, is the Holy Grail of missile systems.

[Slayer]

I went from an Arrow to a Typhoon, to a Razor, to a Nighthawk, in under 8 hours. The first major upgrade seemed like the longest, at around 4 hours. In Mercenary, I could go from broke new pilot to multi millionaire, with a fully decked out Starmaster or Evoch-E, in 42 minutes.

Progress takes longer in the beginning to pad out the play time, which is understandable.

[DaveK]

Hello!

I understand your frustration, as on my first pilot (that I accidentally deleted while alt tabbed) it took me hours to make any financial progress. Buying fuel, replacing missiles and repairing damage made major dents in my contract profits. However, that's probably what it would be like to be a real space mercenary, so I appreciated the immersive role playing experience (everyone's mileage will vary on that; I walked and never fast traveled in Oblivion or Skyrim).

On my replacement combat pilot, I literally just focused on combat contracts and was flying a Typhoon frame by the fourth hour. By the sixth hour, I was piloting a nicely loaded Razor military frame (which costs over three million credits). Would that be considered grinding? Yes, but I was polishing my dogfighting skills while netting increasing profits every contract and having a lot of fun doing it (but again, your mileage may vary). As a result I became better at the game and made money quicker.

On my second pilot profile, I decided to focus just on mining, trading and non-combat contracts. By the tenth hour I had a moderately kitted Renegade, with a Mantis Drive and a Terrain Walker, excellent at running cargo and exploration.

I wouldn't consider myself great at the game, especially compared to the veterans on this forum. If there are any "get rich quick" tricks in Legacy, like there were in Mercenary, I don't know about them. Some patience is required when starting a new pilot in Legacy, as there's not much instant gratification (other than averaging 3.4 Vonari kills a minute!), but satisfaction of piloting a nicely kitted ship once you can afford it is much, MUCH sweeter than it was in Mercenary.

Fact of the matter is that it's harder to make big money and find certain items in Legacy. Does that improve the gameplay over Mercenary? I don't know, but what I can tell you is that I haven't been able to put Legacy down since I purchased it on May 3rd.

You can have 100 profiles so it's worth making a couple of backups of your main profile(s) to save the frustration of accidental deletes

I have 3 for my FDN and three for my ALC and one for each interesting but hard to get to place (so I can go and potter round if I need to check something out). I also have some research frames to check out different cannon on different frames or different engine classes

[Marvin]

The trouble with backups is that, after you've saved your profile, only the profile you now use will be given credit for further TIG (time in game). Which, in EM, meant a change in reputation, rank and wealth. But, in Legacy, it also means a change in awards and decorations ... which are really a cool addition to game play.

[DaveK]

I use one profile to play, which accrues TIG. At the end of the session I copy it to two other profiles so if one becomes corrupt there are two spares available. I also back up the playing profile at intervals during a long gaming session to minimise the progress loss if it all goes pear shaped!

Effectively I just have one FDN and one ALC profile that I actually play - the rest are just recent copies. It's simply the gaming version of backing up documents you're creating so the amount of work you can lose is the stuff you've created since the last backup - which is why Word, for example, autosaves every 10 mins or so!