Pennsylvania Helium Drop Rate

[driftwolf]

To deal with just one line of your original post:

...
At this point almost NOBODY goes to Gallia, other than to /restart for their ships. It could be an opportunity to get them to want to try something new.

As a new player I encountered this problem. I start as a Freelancer, supposedly a neutral.
But in fact the default seems to be that I'm a LIBERTY faction. Which is at war with Gallia. I didn't realize this. It's not exactly obvious. Sure, I start in Liberty, but I could be from anywhere. Like Trent was.

So I take my new shiny Freelancer and go exploring. I head to Gallia, because I've heard it's interesting. I arrive, and promptly get my shiny new arse shot off by a battleship. Yet nothing shows in my reputation that says "hey, they're hostile". They just start shooting.

I EVENTUALLY, after much research and reading, discovered the /restart command, and was able to restart as a Kusari civilian (why can't I restart as a FreelancerKu I don't know...). That allowed me to enter Gallia and do some trading.

Is a typical newcomer to the game going to figure that out? Probably not. They'll just go explore elsewhere. Probably get their arse shot off by a Wilde or something. Haven't gone that side of the map yet...

So here's my take as the de-facto loudmouthed newbie: start folks off as NEUTRAL to the major factions. Sure, have a few discontented unlawfuls trying to plug my not-so-shiny-anymore arse with plasma bolts. I can deal with that. But not being able to dock ANYWHERE in a entire section of the map is a little disheartening as someone just arriving and wanting to look around before diving in.

[driftwolf]

(EDIT: If you think it should be changed via moving the sell points for the Helium out of Liberty, vote on the poll for "We should just leave it as it is.")

I for one have noticed that many players getting into the game have yet to even explore, and have really just been mining Helium, and I watch them do it for hours on end, and a multitude of them have battleships before even exploring the majority of the game.

I've tried to mine there, and quite frankly, speaking as a newbie, if you discover the couple of simple tricks if all you're doing is farming for cash to afford to do something else there's very little reason to ever leave the system until you have enough. It's a lot more efficient than ANY of the trading I've desperately been trying to do to earn money. Saw one guy there mining with what looked like a train, for crying out loud! [edit: although maybe just a large freighter?]. Even I think that's going too far.

Is there perhaps some way to make the helium drop off over time on a per-player basis? Such as count how much they've mined and keep dropping the drop rate so it gets harder and harder? Kind of like visiting wrecks, but slower? Or maybe make the drop rate inversely proportional to the current cargo capacity?

It was really nice useful to be able to get my Sunburst in a single load of 40 helium, but at almost half-million credits per timed 2 min (incl docking time) with a Sunburst it's by far the fastest money-maker in the game that I've found so far, especially since trading seems to be maxed out at around 15 million per hour and that's with a Bumblebee and intensive FLCompanion research!

[Electronic Attack Squadron 141]

I EVENTUALLY, after much research and reading, discovered the /restart command, and was able to restart as a Kusari civilian (why can't I restart as a FreelancerKu I don't know...). That allowed me to enter Gallia and do some trading.

If you type /showrestarts, it'll show you all of them. I think KuFreelancer is the Kusari FL restart, but it's been a while since I've used a restart command so I might not be correct.

[driftwolf]

If you type /showrestarts, it'll show you all of them. I think KuFreelancer is the Kusari FL restart, but it's been a while since I've used a restart command so I might not be correct.

Couldn't see one called KuFreelancer or FreelancerKu anywhere, even using /showrestarts

[Light]

(bumpity bump bump)

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Up, up the long, delirious burning blue
I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or ever eagle flew —
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr