Big updates. Both in game…and here!

Conveyor getting the goods

Fleet Carriers are live in the game, mining is still a big money maker, and I’ve had a bunch of changes since the last time I updated the blog.

There’s so much here I’m not even sure where to begin. I’ve updated the about page with a new PC set up and I redid my ships of the line to be a little cleaner. There have been a bunch of changes in my life lately and with all the bologna in the world, I’m feeling like I need an outlet or something. Just something to make and put into the world? I’m not sure. But I figured I have this blog…it has a history, why not pick it back up again? But more on that later. I’m still figuring out what I want to do with this space.

But as far as Elite goes, that’s pretty straight forward.

When they first announced Fleet Carriers, I got hyped. They looked cool, they sounded cool and they were something new. But then they announced the price. And when I digested the price, my mind was still stuck in the era that I started playing in. There were no 400-500 million credit mining runs when I was coming up. The mining update changed how the money grind work. Suddenly, the only barrier to something like an Anaconda was your Federal Rank. Looking at Inara in April of last year (the last time I posted). I had around 900 million.

Look at that spike there at the end…that was like 2 weeks.

After the price of 5 billion was announced I was a bit put off. I felt like it took me forever to get to level where I was. To be told I’d have to quadruple that…woof. So I walked away for a while. I watched the Carrier live streams and read the blogs where I learned about upkeep costs and was turned off even more. That’s just so much money.

Then they updated how sub-surface mining works. That, coupled with Low Temp Diamonds selling for up to 1-1.7 million a ton, and you got yourself A LOT of credits. Deep Core mining is a lot of fun. Placing the seismic charges, hearing the rock crack, and navigating the fragments are great. But it gets to be time consuming looking for the right kind of rock. Some folks were able to mine a lot of opals, super fast. I never felt like I was raking it in as quick as them with Deep Core. So, for me, surface and sub-surface mining QUICKLY became the new meta. I was able to fill my Anaconda in less than an hour. When the final beta for Fleet Carriers went live, I started checking out some reviews. I still felt they weren’t worth it, but I wanted a goal in the game. We haven’t had community goals in forever so I got back into the game with that in mind. I followed the meta and started mining like crazy. Half a billion credit runs for the most part. At the time Carriers went live, I was near the 5 billion mark. Knowing how much start-up and upkeep costs were going to be, I wanted to plan for being able to fund the Carrier’s operation for at least a couple of years. That way, if I burned out on the game, or even if I just didn’t want to mine for a while, I wouldn’t be pressed into it. I got to 9.5 before patch notes indicated the overlapping hot spots would be nerfed. You can still make a ton of money with sub-surface and surface. Just takes a little longer.

I pulled the trigger on Columbia and to be quite honest, I’m super glad I did. It’s not just about having a place to store and refit my ships. It’s also about logistics and planning. I can go mine in Conveyor, fill up the hold, dump it into Columbia, restock limpets and missiles and go back out. Then I can jump Columbia to the highest selling station and sell it all at once. 2 runs I did this and made nearly a billion each time. My mining ships run without weapons. I’ve been known to slam pirates before… but the safest option if you’re re-instancing into a hot spot with cargo is to just leave and go sell what you have. Now, if I have to shut the game down in the middle of a run, all I have to do is drop off at Columbia and come right back. It’s like 10-15 minutes as opposed to 30-45.

Columbia proved her worth again in helping a new Commander leave the starting systems and quickly get ferried to our home system for bounty hunting. The starting player systems are great. A safe place for Commanders to learn the ropes. But eventually you have to take the training wings off. I still don’t know of a better system than LHS 3505/Olivas City for a Commander to cut their teeth in combat and be so close to a station to turn in bounty vouchers. The problem is getting there. It’s a long haul in smaller ships with minimal jump ranges. I was able to pick the guy up and get him there in 15 minutes. It was pretty slick.

So I take it all back. I’m loving this carrier. The new short term goal is to fund it for around 5 years of operation. This can give me a good cushion to account for the ebb and flow of my play style.

Man that’s a lot. It’s been a while! I hope you all are doing good. What kind of stuff have you gotten into? Want to take a ride in my carrier?