I'm finding Beta 2... err... complete rubbish.

[Shelleen]

The following is only my (wasted) opinion, nothing more.

I don't know what's happened to the game it seems to be really crap and not a lot of fun. Despite drinking copious amounts of alcohol I really don't understand what's gone on.

Trading (as far as I'm concerned) has been nerfed. Missions are really boring and prone to being unable to complete if you do the 'Fetch me this' types. Combat is, meh. The Eagle still has no reason to exist and the Hauler is a complete waste of space. Add to that the bounty hunting has netted me no cargo drops at all, so what's the point?

I've spent the past seven hours making about 20,000 credits and it's been a rubbish experience on the the whole. As it stands I don't see the point of leaving Eranin to do anything. I'm now back in a Sidewinder after flying the Hauler as the combat with the loaned pulse lasers is at least a tiny bit exciting compared to running crap missions.

I bought the Eagle to see if it was any better than in Beta 1 but it's not. How can you have a ship that can't mount basic lasers in its three slots without going the oxygen depletion route when it deploys them? It beggars belief that you have to go somewhere to upgrade bits to enable it to function. Absolute crap.

As it stands this (apart from the pretty graphics) is a retrograde step compared with Beta 1. If this is the route the final game is taking then I don't know what to think of it.

I'll carry on at the Nav Beacon and FDS in Eranin until Beta 3 but I'm not liking what I'm seeing in Beta 2 so far.

[RogueZephyr]

The following is only my (wasted) opinion, nothing more.

I don't know what's happened to the game it seems to be really crap and not a lot of fun. Despite drinking copious amounts of alcohol I really don't understand what's gone on.

Trading (as far as I'm concerned) has been nerfed. Missions are really boring and prone to being unable to complete if you do the 'Fetch me this' types. Combat is, meh. The Eagle still has no reason to exist and the Hauler is a complete waste of space. Add to that the bounty hunting has netted me no cargo drops at all, so what's the point?

I've spent the past seven hours making about 20,000 credits and it's been a rubbish experience on the the whole. As it stands I don't see the point of leaving Eranin to do anything. I'm now back in a Sidewinder after flying the Hauler as the combat with the loaned pulse lasers is at least a tiny bit exciting compared to running crap missions.

I bought the Eagle to see if it was any better than in Beta 1 but it's not. How can you have a ship that can't mount basic lasers in its three slots without going the oxygen depletion route when it deploys them? It beggars belief that you have to go somewhere to upgrade bits to enable it to function. Absolute crap.

As it stands this (apart from the pretty graphics) is a retrograde step compared with Beta 1. If this is the route the final game is taking then I don't know what to think of it.

I'll carry on at the Nav Beacon and FDS in Eranin until Beta 3 but I'm not liking what I'm seeing in Beta 2 so far.

It's the Beta. The way I figure it is that they have just released exploration and want to iron out the bugs in that,to the detriment of trade. Think about it. If it worked n Beta 1 then I highly doubt they've cast it aside.

[Nemetos]

The following is only my (wasted) opinion, nothing more.

I don't know what's happened to the game it seems to be really crap and not a lot of fun. Despite drinking copious amounts of alcohol I really don't understand what's gone on.

Trading (as far as I'm concerned) has been nerfed. Missions are really boring and prone to being unable to complete if you do the 'Fetch me this' types. Combat is, meh. The Eagle still has no reason to exist and the Hauler is a complete waste of space. Add to that the bounty hunting has netted me no cargo drops at all, so what's the point?

I've spent the past seven hours making about 20,000 credits and it's been a rubbish experience on the the whole. As it stands I don't see the point of leaving Eranin to do anything. I'm now back in a Sidewinder after flying the Hauler as the combat with the loaned pulse lasers is at least a tiny bit exciting compared to running crap missions.

I bought the Eagle to see if it was any better than in Beta 1 but it's not. How can you have a ship that can't mount basic lasers in its three slots without going the oxygen depletion route when it deploys them? It beggars belief that you have to go somewhere to upgrade bits to enable it to function. Absolute crap.

As it stands this (apart from the pretty graphics) is a retrograde step compared with Beta 1. If this is the route the final game is taking then I don't know what to think of it.

I'll carry on at the Nav Beacon and FDS in Eranin until Beta 3 but I'm not liking what I'm seeing in Beta 2 so far.

It's the Beta. The way I figure it is that they have just released exploration and want to iron out the bugs in that,to the detriment of trade. Think about it. If it worked n Beta 1 then I highly doubt they've cast it aside.

Good post sir ...

I'll drink to that ! There has been a total change of dynamic. Trading has gone out of the window . As for general bounty hunting ... well Ive not really tried much , only a brief bit of combat with a default Sidey in a High intensity combat zone ... which resulted in me having to make a hasty exit, due to my basic weapons being a bit ... .. crap.

The overall impression for me in Beta 2, after plodding through a few courier/ fetch carry missions .. is.. That the incentive is to upgrade your ship and get out to test the exploring side of it ... and get the cash by trying the courier/mission route rather than trading ( which was done in Beta 1 )

Upgrade as in, get a better frame drive, thrusters, cargo holds, scanners and the like. I havent got my head around what is what yet , but there is a lot of stuff to get to grips with upgrade wise.

The basic default ship seems a bit naff, but ... It took me a while to get a hauler ... and when I upgraded various systems on it... it became a totally different ship. Jump range increased ... extra cargo holds. The cost of buying a ship is ridiculous .... but .. that's the point.
Use your credits on upgrades ... test them out.

Ive not yet got a decent scanner, but ... money is to be made going into systems to scan unknown planets.

Stick with it mate ...

At the moment it feels totally different to what it was in B1 ...but once we have plodded through this, the next phase will come in and all change again.

The end package is going to be massive IMO ... if you dont like this part of it .. just hang in ... It will all come together.

Would like to try out the Mine launcher/bomb thing to see how that works.

I'll stop typing ... Im sobering up

Cheers.

[Zarkon]

I have to agree that Beta 2 is a completely different beast, and I haven't even had anything to drink tonight! FD seems to be switching elements of the game back and forth between the extremes. A perfect example is the lift that takes your ship into the maintenance bay; in PB it was slow, in B1 it was very fast, and now it's slower than it was in PB. Just seems weird to me. In all honesty I'm not even attempting to grind anymore. I'm just tooling around in my sidewinder until the beta phases are finished. They keep changing things, even stuff that seemed perfect, but I'm holding to the hope that it will all come together by the time it reaches the Gamma phase. Be sure to post your likes and concerns on the Frontier forums (politely of course) so that the devs know how you feel, just incase they're not reading posts here.

[Rune]

Was discussing this with a mate last night, reckon trading had deliberately been nerfed as it got fully tested in B1 and they're trying to encourage people to do exploration and the mission system.

Get out of Azerban as there are some great paying courier jobs to be had. In CE Draconis you can pick up Fed courier jobs to 41 Gamma to drop off propaganda. They're about 4000CR a pop but you can usually get about 4 or 5 of them on the same board to deliver to either the same station or ones that are close by to each other.

Exploration and part upgrades are early days and bound to get better with more depth added to them, they've already said they plan on having a lot more stats when upgrading so you can work out what parts work the best. For me the ship upgrades are my favourite part of B2, love how we can now customise them to our liking and gives a lot more incentive to stay with the same ship to see how good you can get it rather than just using it as a stepping stone to the next ship on.

[Silverwolf]

I think trading has been nerfed to encourage people to try the missions and that is what I have done. Lots of missions now.

They will not nerf it so much on release.

[Cmdr Kharma]

Get out of Azerban as there are some great paying courier jobs to be had. In CE Draconis you can pick up Fed courier jobs to 41 Gamma to drop off propaganda.

WHAT !!!!!!......

That's your name on the list........Lucky this is a PVE group..........

[GlobusDiablo]

The following is only my (wasted) opinion, nothing more....

Good post Shelleen.

As others have said already, I too think it is being nerfed on purpose to push us towards other aspects of the game. I hope it will level out for the gamma.

I am however a bit concerned about the flight mechanics. I've read somewhere that thrusters have been nerfed, as the FA-Off mechanic, trying to push players towards a more "on rails" combat style of flying forwards and in circles. And I'm not liking it. It seems to be limiting/simplifying my flight options. In lack of a better word "arcadey"... Yuck....

[Rune]

Get out of Azerban as there are some great paying courier jobs to be had. In CE Draconis you can pick up Fed courier jobs to 41 Gamma to drop off propaganda.

WHAT !!!!!!......

That's your name on the list........Lucky this is a PVE group..........

Lol, what can I say. I have no ethics and will happily peddle anyone's propaganda if they pay me enough If it makes you feel better I've done the same for the communists with getting their pamphlets to the feds territory

[Shelleen]

Thanks for the replies guys.

I should probably state that anything I post after midnight is going to be alcohol driven and possibly best ignored.

Right. As has been pointed out Beta 2 is a different beast to Beta 1, the problem I was having was attempting to play it the same way. Once I figured that out (quick on the uptake I am not) a lot of things clicked into place.

First, forget about trading in the 'old' bubble systems there's not a lot going on there.

Second, combat in the FDS is strangely unsatisfying, so don't do it.

Third, Nav Beacon bounty hunting can net you big bounties, far bigger than in Beta 1, so the lack of cargo drops isn't so bad. Get rid of the Sidewinders cargo hold completely and use the space to upgrade something(s). Using the NB bounties can get you out of the old core systems pretty quickly. Twin fixed cannons on the Sidey still take out Haulers and Lakon 6s pretty efficiently for easy kills and will take out Vipers, Cobras and Anacondas for more of a thrill. They are however not so good against the small Fed fighters in the FDS.

Four, missions that require you to source and deliver something are prone to failure, so don't do them.

Five, buy a(nother) Hauler Dump the laser. Do some of the delivery/courier missions and look for ship upgrades with what you've earned. I'm now flying a 16 ton cargo capacity ship with 2 x upgraded Frame Shift Drive and upgraded Systems/Wpns/Engine management. I can now jump nearly 16 LY unladen although less with 16 tons of cargo and can use boost time after time very quickly to get out of tricky situations.

Six, having the 16 ton cargo capacity means I can do multiple drops in the same system, earning a good bit in the process. I still don't do any trade runs back and forth as I've realised that that's not what it's about. Instead I'm now going from one system to the next taking some deliveries to pay for the fuel/upkeep without trying to get a huge wedge to buy another ship. That can wait for Beta 3 or Gamma.

Seven, you are given a basic astronomical scanner with your ship, so use it! I've made approx 10,000 credits scanning planetary bodies in unknown systems and while it is time consuming (and some might say, boring ) it can also be strangely exciting and, dare I say it, emotional

Eight, I should remember my sig (below) at all times and do like it says, although to be fair I do get one third of it right most of the time.

Nine, always go with the flow. If something feels not right, boring or whatever then don't keep doing it. As Einstein said, "The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

Ten, if you've read this far you're crazier than I thought.

Edit: To Cmdr Nemetos. What you suggested in your post is pretty much what I did. Some pretty weird Cosmic Voodoo going on there!