Lower bounties since Power Play?

[AndyB]

my problem isn't the cash rewards, its the rank advancement. i spent a total of about 5 hours in nav beacons over the weekend and my combat rank didn't even increase by a single percentage point, all the targets were mostly harmless and below so didn't count for much.

right now combat is more than a little pointless as it gets you nothing in the way of progress.

[Wolf]

Hm, the Pythons and Dropships were all Master. Not higher, but ok. I ranked up today. (But I was only Novice before )

[Xebeth]

Ha ha, I'd be pretty happy with 500k but I guess you're a bit further along than me!!

I did think 200 was a bit stingy.

FAOD I don't mean 200k, I literally mean 200!

The bounties do seem to be lower in general, but I've often seen 200 and 400 size bounties (even before 1.3) at Nav Beacons, it tends to be when an 'unwanted' ship with no other bounties turns up and suddenly decides to open fire on another NPC, they'll instantly become wanted, but because all they've done so far is shot at another ship they only have the basic bounty (a bit like our friendly fire bounty).

If you are so inclined, let them they destroy the ship they are firing on and their bounty will jump up.

[Xebeth]

my problem isn't the cash rewards, its the rank advancement. i spent a total of about 5 hours in nav beacons over the weekend and my combat rank didn't even increase by a single percentage point, all the targets were mostly harmless and below so didn't count for much.

right now combat is more than a little pointless as it gets you nothing in the way of progress.

To be honest Nav Beacons are not the best place to get rank-up kills, RES are better in general, and CZs are the best.

[Flip]

Hm, the Pythons and Dropships were all Master. Not higher, but ok. I ranked up today. (But I was only Novice before )

Congrats anyway, Wolf!

[Flip]

To be honest Nav Beacons are not the best place to get rank-up kills, RES are better in general, and CZs are the best.

Usually yes, but since 1.3 was released, CZ are rubbish. The NPC's, now, are Competent at best.

[Trinity Star]

You will find once you hit deadly that CZ is the only way to get to Elite, bounties in RES are practically worthless for rank since you need to be killing the same rank or higher than you.

[clivewil]

You will find once you hit deadly that CZ is the only way to get to Elite, bounties in RES are practically worthless for rank since you need to be killing the same rank or higher than you.

the last i heard was that under 1.3, CZs are not paying/registering kills any more - is that right? i don't really care about the money but i want my kills to count towards my (pitiful) rank

[Flip]

It happens sometimes that kills aren't registered, but it's not new in 1.3.

[stummies]

I really am not liking this change, it has effectively removed what I found fun in this game. I like combat, that's it, trade is something I refuse to do. Every time I try to trade I end up having a hard time staying awake, it's boring and dull for me. Combat zones are boring as they're just a bunch of ships all flying around each other in empty space, at least in a RES I had just as much fun whipping about the asteroids as I had blowing up pirates.

Even if I ignore the lack of rewards, the spawns at RES suck now. I'm still hunting but so far every RES I've visited, regardless of security rating, unfettered factional standing, etc... has been pretty much more of the same. Slow spawns of smallish ships, taking a long time to ramp up (if it even does), and when I do get a decent spawn they fizzle out after 2 or 3 big ships. I stay long after they stop spawning, traveling around in a 15k radius around the nav point, nothing to be found. I'm still trying to stay open minded here, and maybe I've just been very unlucky, but so far 3 days of forcing myself to try to have fun in a game that a week ago was.