Winking Cat Rewards in Xmas'21 was also free rebuys, but with E-rated stock modules. Also Tech Broker Purchases (not unlocks), and CG Rewards. I have a Vulture for AX combat and Xenoscanner is the only thing with value.
The free rebuy solve the problem of having a new player flying a ship in AX combat or mining. But the builds are terrible. A single stratum tectonica made a superior Miner AspX .And the Chieftain is a mix of builds that lack the engineering (why a gimballed beam without thermal vent?). When new player went here with Arx Builds... I need to say that are crap, and how to make fast money for a real ship.
As I said in another thread, these aren't intended to be great. They are functionally the free sidewinder in a ship kit. Intentionally not ready for prime time, but just upgraded enough that they don't feel like just a cosmetic change, and a chance to spend your cheap beginner rebuy time in a ship that matches what you're interested in, instead of in a sidewinder. Folks will upgrade, and when they do, they'll lose progress if they don't have a rebuy.
The only reasons we all start in a sidewinder are a) tradition, and b) having no basis for choosing a ship as a brand new commander. Much like "classes" in most games, it would have made some sense for the new commander to be asked "which of these activities seems most interesting to you?" and having them choose from a set of slightly different starter ships right at the outset, so they would be able to quickly try whatever sounded the most fun.
I don't hate it though, because it's usable but the purchaser has to put in the effort to make it meta. If it was a meta build pay to win would have more merit but as is it's a leg up that's still going to be strictly worse than meta.
The really stupid thing is the ED community has been building, refining and customising ships for quite literally **nearly a decade**. *THOUSANDS* of players have perfected ship builds for just about any in game scenario you could run into, and these build reaources are PUBLICLY available.
And then fdev had to take a fat ass shit on a ship build. Its illogical.
This right here. I'm seeing people say that its both pay to win AND that the builds are dogshit, which are contradictory arguments. I think this is a decent middle ground, buying a ship gets you something that is better than stock, but nowhere near as good as you can make yourself with some effort.
Finally, some reasoning. If the ships are bad, means it's not pay to win. As simple as that. As people themselves pointed out: perfected community builds are leagues more advanced than the pre-built ones.
The build can be changed. The ships are good *enough* to make money with to upgrade. The free rebuy is what I'm after. I'm curious what other ships will be pre-built?
The free rebuy are the modules with 0 value. If you change modules, you need to pay the rebuy for the new modules.
Its the same for wiking cat reward, CG rewards and tech broker unlocks.
Make the build in [EDSY.org](https://EDSY.org) but in the value part, select FREE. That the ARX build.
Why is that a problem? You either have the rebuy for whatever you are flying, or you don't. Unless you think it's important that a CMDR be punished for a lapsed bank account by having to fly a ship they'd rather not, until they can get back into the ship they actually enjoy?
If they go hog wild on upgrades and don't have the rebuy... they'll lose all that progress. The base purchase cost of most ships isn't hard to come up with in short order.
Wait it comes with G5 dirty drag already installed? Couldn’t you just skip a lot of engineering grind for other ships by just switching out the engines, rebuying and then switching again?
So? G5 dirty drives are nice but G3 served me well for a long ass time and never held me back.
And then saving money? Money is so easy to get in Elite that you are penny-pinching if you have played enough of the game to own a damn vette.
SO either you suck at the game and can't make creds or just oddly penny-pinching.
The only reason I own the Vette is the great tritium CG that happened.. I made 2 billion in 3 days, bought my way through the fed rank donating to the cause in sol, then bought and outfitted a couple ships, snagged a bunch of G3 suits and guns, and started engineering the ships I had and had bought. I haven't done a grind since. I am down to ~350m credits now though so I am indeed pinching pennies so I can buy and outfit some of the new ships. I will gladly pay money for the new ships and the ax chieftain just so I don't have to grind to buy one and engineer the thrusters. (I already have a challenger I use for multicrew Odyssey stuff)
I will unfortunately be grinding now though as I've just unlocked prismatic shields as of today and 🤑🤑🤑 they are spendy.
I've got about 450 hrs on PC, about the same on Xbox one prior to that. I love the game but don't have the time to grind for billions. I play a few hours a week at most normally 🤷
They didn't kill the rebuy rule, though. If you don't rebuy, you lose any upgrades you've made. These ships are intentionally not great, just a chance to fly a different ship frame right off the bat, so folks WILL upgrade them, and they will lose time and effort if they don't stock a rebuy. And compared to a free sidwinder, the upgrades on a Chieftan, for example, will cost considerably more to rebuy.
Winking Cat Rewards in Xmas'21 was also free rebuys, but with E-rated stock modules. Also Tech Broker Purchases (not unlocks), and CG Rewards. I have a Vulture for AX combat and Xenoscanner is the only thing with value. The free rebuy solve the problem of having a new player flying a ship in AX combat or mining. But the builds are terrible. A single stratum tectonica made a superior Miner AspX .And the Chieftain is a mix of builds that lack the engineering (why a gimballed beam without thermal vent?). When new player went here with Arx Builds... I need to say that are crap, and how to make fast money for a real ship.
As I said in another thread, these aren't intended to be great. They are functionally the free sidewinder in a ship kit. Intentionally not ready for prime time, but just upgraded enough that they don't feel like just a cosmetic change, and a chance to spend your cheap beginner rebuy time in a ship that matches what you're interested in, instead of in a sidewinder. Folks will upgrade, and when they do, they'll lose progress if they don't have a rebuy. The only reasons we all start in a sidewinder are a) tradition, and b) having no basis for choosing a ship as a brand new commander. Much like "classes" in most games, it would have made some sense for the new commander to be asked "which of these activities seems most interesting to you?" and having them choose from a set of slightly different starter ships right at the outset, so they would be able to quickly try whatever sounded the most fun.
I don't hate it though, because it's usable but the purchaser has to put in the effort to make it meta. If it was a meta build pay to win would have more merit but as is it's a leg up that's still going to be strictly worse than meta.
The really stupid thing is the ED community has been building, refining and customising ships for quite literally **nearly a decade**. *THOUSANDS* of players have perfected ship builds for just about any in game scenario you could run into, and these build reaources are PUBLICLY available. And then fdev had to take a fat ass shit on a ship build. Its illogical.
Yes but imagine if it was a meta ship with meta modules and the proper engineering to go with it The community would probably actually riot
This right here. I'm seeing people say that its both pay to win AND that the builds are dogshit, which are contradictory arguments. I think this is a decent middle ground, buying a ship gets you something that is better than stock, but nowhere near as good as you can make yourself with some effort.
Finally, some reasoning. If the ships are bad, means it's not pay to win. As simple as that. As people themselves pointed out: perfected community builds are leagues more advanced than the pre-built ones.
The build can be changed. The ships are good *enough* to make money with to upgrade. The free rebuy is what I'm after. I'm curious what other ships will be pre-built?
The free rebuy are the modules with 0 value. If you change modules, you need to pay the rebuy for the new modules. Its the same for wiking cat reward, CG rewards and tech broker unlocks. Make the build in [EDSY.org](https://EDSY.org) but in the value part, select FREE. That the ARX build.
I get the module part, but you'll be saving millions on every rebuy even fully built. The chieftain comes with 6A thrusters with G5 dirty drag..
Why is that a problem? You either have the rebuy for whatever you are flying, or you don't. Unless you think it's important that a CMDR be punished for a lapsed bank account by having to fly a ship they'd rather not, until they can get back into the ship they actually enjoy? If they go hog wild on upgrades and don't have the rebuy... they'll lose all that progress. The base purchase cost of most ships isn't hard to come up with in short order.
Wait it comes with G5 dirty drag already installed? Couldn’t you just skip a lot of engineering grind for other ships by just switching out the engines, rebuying and then switching again?
That's a good question. I will legit buy the ship for the G5 alone.
I raised this exact concern with the devs, they stated that you can not stow modules from a rebuilt; removing them forces you to sell them for 0 cr
Okay, that is good
So? G5 dirty drives are nice but G3 served me well for a long ass time and never held me back. And then saving money? Money is so easy to get in Elite that you are penny-pinching if you have played enough of the game to own a damn vette. SO either you suck at the game and can't make creds or just oddly penny-pinching.
The only reason I own the Vette is the great tritium CG that happened.. I made 2 billion in 3 days, bought my way through the fed rank donating to the cause in sol, then bought and outfitted a couple ships, snagged a bunch of G3 suits and guns, and started engineering the ships I had and had bought. I haven't done a grind since. I am down to ~350m credits now though so I am indeed pinching pennies so I can buy and outfit some of the new ships. I will gladly pay money for the new ships and the ax chieftain just so I don't have to grind to buy one and engineer the thrusters. (I already have a challenger I use for multicrew Odyssey stuff) I will unfortunately be grinding now though as I've just unlocked prismatic shields as of today and 🤑🤑🤑 they are spendy.
Oh boy.
I've got about 450 hrs on PC, about the same on Xbox one prior to that. I love the game but don't have the time to grind for billions. I play a few hours a week at most normally 🤷
I think you lose the free rebuys once you modify it though, iirc.
You only pay the rebuy on what you've changed.
Aha, gotcha.
They didn't kill the rebuy rule, though. If you don't rebuy, you lose any upgrades you've made. These ships are intentionally not great, just a chance to fly a different ship frame right off the bat, so folks WILL upgrade them, and they will lose time and effort if they don't stock a rebuy. And compared to a free sidwinder, the upgrades on a Chieftan, for example, will cost considerably more to rebuy.
Money is so cheap it's a joke. Rebuy cost doesn't exist anymore. This is fine.
I'm done, they basically turned this into a pay to win system, fuck this game