Just fired up Elite to see my Orange has returned. What the?

Oh well, I wanted to experiment with some other colors anyway. What's the deal with the changes not sticking?

The patch may have reversed it?

New patch today? Didn't even notice. That could explain it.

Hopped back in to get some more bounties, but I'm a little burned out on that for the mo. But if I don't keep up then my standing will drop and cost me cold hard space ducats. Damn the wrongly-compelling gameplay!

How often do these community goals show up and is it worth trying for nubbery half-assed irrational players at all or should I continue my current path?

They're every week I think, and yes, you should sign up, especially for ones like the current one with a bounty hunt and a trade side to it. Some have different requirements, like the one last week.

I wrote this earlier

For a new player, all this means you sign up for the CG and fly there, taking along at least one ton of a required commodity Sell it at Lyakhov Dock. Now leave the station, get one bounty claim, and turn it in. Congrats, you are now 1.6m richer! But you have to come back at the end to collect (or pay an Interstellar agent to cash it in for you at a 25% loss I think)

Unless you are located very far away I'd say that it's well worth the effort. It's probably too late to make a dent in higher reward tiers, as it's almost over. But you could fly two missions and make that money.

It comes and goes every week or two. Whether you want to join or not would depend on 1) location of the CG from you, 2) CG rewards, and 3)what you are currently doing.

It won't do if the CG is all the way across the galaxy and might finish before you get there.
It won't do to join the CG if you don't like the rewards or can get better with what you're currently doing.

Well, that CG was a rousing success I'd reckon. Both sides completed early. I turned in 16.2 million in bounties and made another 21 million in rewards. Since I would be doing some bounty hunting regardless of whether there was a CG or not --as I enjoy the combat-- it's a no-brainer to get involved for the free stuff. It's like a 401k as I said earlier. Well, way better than a 401k actually! 16 million isn't a lot, nor is it a little. It takes a significant investment in time, but if you were playing Elite anyway.....

On top of this I got another 800k from the trade side for turning in just 56 tonnes of goods. How'd everyone do in the CG?

So for anyone new that wonders if the CG is worth your time, exhibit A:

16M in bounty
21M in rewards
800K in trading

How many hours do you reckon you've been in the CG?

Well at the risk of having my time invalidated by being shown how I could have bettered my profit rate with a T-9 and hauling hops....

I don't know, I'd guess I spent 10 hours or so doing CG-related activities. (edit: it was probably more like 12-14. I have no idea!)

But before you do so, please consider that I enjoy bounty hunting, and already know it's not the most profitable venture one could undertake in Elite

As mentioned, I would have bounty hunted regardless of whether there was a CG or not, this just gives me more moolah for doing so. Plus, I'm part of a community effort.... OK, well it sounds philanthropic anyway.

Hahaha... you knew exactly where I was going with this.

Indeed, and you wouldn't have been wrong. I like making money in this game, because it gives me cool ships. But I don't attempt to maximize it, just make sure I'm doing OK. If I can make good money AND enjoy what I'm doing I've won

It's gotten to the point now that I'm making good money and I'm enjoying making good money. Sitting at 80% Tycoon trade rank so that's 528M of 660M and I only need 132M more trade profit to hit Elite trade rank. At 4M or so per trade run, that's 33 more runs. 5 runs per hour so 7 more hours of trading.

Almost.


There.

Wow, that's a lot of profit. Each ranking has 9 levels, and I am level 6 at all of them (aside from CQC). I'm surprised honestly to be level 6 trader (Broker) as I just haven't done as much of that. The others are Master and Pathfinder, all are in the 20% region so I still have a long way to go.

You had mentioned Founder's World, and I see that is a place that has everything, along with a 10% discount, but is only for pilots who have achieved Elite rating. I saw on the Pilot's Federation Wiki that reaching Elite in one category qualifies every pilot for a 2.5% discount across the galaxy. So that is certainly something to shoot for. Learn a little more each day.

Oh, I didn't know the 2.5% discount. Must've been new?

I'm Pathfinder in Explorer (rank 6), Expert in Combat (rank 5), and Tycoon in Trade (rank 8). I'm a Duke of the Imperial Navy (rank 12 out of 14) and Rear Admiral of the Federation (rank 12 of 14), so I have access to both Cutter and Corvette. Dammit, now I'm thinking of getting a Corvette as well.

I'm Helpless in CQC though Shows how much pew-pew I've been doing!!

There are a few new ones. The last one I didn't care for. It wasn't well thought out It was a CZ one, and everyone waited to see which side took the lead then signed up for the same side. That needs a rethink, I think.

The current one is the standard trade/BH style, with a third in a different system. Gold is the stuff, and as a new Python owner I am actually doing more than a few token runs to qualify at minimum. The load I took to kick it off was 192 tons for over a million profit. Reconfigured at the CG, dropping the cabins, scoop and SRV for a bit to do one-jump outpost hops. Keeping the scanners and shield that's 216 tons she can hoist aboard, which isn't all that much, but far more than I could ever carry before. Plus it's gold. Found a nearby outpost with a good price and stock in Krathamani, shhh, keep it on the down low :D, reasonable arrival distance. Should be able to make a good amount of money on this CG. I'll get in a little bounty hunting too. I had my Vulture shipped over for some combat later.

Who's in?

It turns out that this CG is another one with no RES in the system, so you'd need to search elsewhere. I did a little hunting in two neighboring systems, but the bounties aren't accepted at the CG. Just need to find the correct controlling faction I suppose. On the plus side, the LTT 7138 system had a few high grade emissions USSs that netted some good loot.

The trade CG is going well, but the bounty side is weak, and probably won't hit top tier so maybe don't bother with this one after all.

Checked out systems for Bounty Hunting;
“CF 16001” A9 has 1 haz rez, A10 has 3 hi res and conflict zones
“Mehet” 2 has 2 hi res and 1 haz, Mehet 3 1 hi and 1 haz
Both are two jumps from CG.

Wingy

Did you turn any in? Maybe tonight I will go to Mehet and score enough for min. I saw that system mentioned at the Frontier forums, and thanks for the others. I have to at least make back the cost of the Vulture transfers. Maybe run a couple more loads for the trade CG. I was in the 75% last night, but I think you need a big hauler to really compete in trade. 200 tons a pop isn't going to cut it when there are so many T-9s and Cutters involved. The Cutter is once again the most flown ship in the CG system.

But then perhaps I will get the Asp ready for my long leap in to the void and not attempt to rise up the rewards tiers for this one.

Good call on Mehet. Flew there in the Vulture, but it's two hops for this bird. Got a fantastic spawn in one of the High RES. First thing I battled was a 3-ship of Pythons. My Track IR wasn't working for some reason so I didn't stay as long as I would have. Cashed in 900k for the CG, and I think that included a bonus due to this system being controlled by Zach Hudson. I'm guessing 20% which is nice.

900k isn't much, but it put me straight in to the 50% due to a poor turnout for this one. Only 2000 had signed up at the time I logged on tonight. I took on a two-ship of high level Condas with no one around to help. It took so long to kill the first, that his wingman was able to get my whirlybird in his sights and shot away my freshly engineered shields and 20% of the hull to boot before I was able to dive away in to the asteroid field. What am I being shot with when Covas is saying it's a heat attack? Plasma?

Coming back from my exploration adventure I stopped off in Sothis for reasons, and after leaving to head to Sol I noticed Lamdba Arae was right on the route, so I couldn't help but stop by, switch to the Vulture which was still waiting there, and head off to Mehet for another go. I desperately needed some whirlybird combat after thousands of light years of honking and scooping.

After being off in the Void for 4 days I was still in the top 50%, hard to believe, and that was only with 2+ million. Added another million and should hit 50% since it ends soon.

Got 7.8 million bonus (plus 4 mil profit) from the trade side (top 75%) for 4 runs in the Python that brought in 650 tons. Easy money!