People playing: estimated 80 +/- 10%
Economy: 30 mins trade = 1.5M$ *Dublin - Omicron Mu in a 5ker* // Dublin Gold mining (with a Hegemon): 900K$/5k ore / 30 min (dock - mine - dock; I am well aware of the previous discussion on this topic, so I timed everything and I HATE MINING!)
Credit Generating events: Lackluster, sorry to all the guys involved, fun for the pews but not so rich (previous best event was the Cardamine which was awesome profit + pew)
New Content: Ships, Guns, Equipment - with skyrocketing prices; which compared to the revenue requires grind; which not most of us are willing to do nowadays or have the time. Oh, did I forget the x2 required materials for ships "update"? Fun fact: the first Consul was in game after 3 days of non-stop hauling and producing materials, with shipyard construction etc. 72 hours non-stop. Keep that in mind!
Encounter Code Farming: Tedious grind; personal experience: 1 Novaspear drop in 2 days, with a party of min. 5 players, shooting for aprox. 6 hours total.
Battlezones: Ugh... Omicron Delta and Omega 5 which are activity hubs cause DTR, R/, Wilde, Core, Order, RPA but not that rewarding credit wise.
Penn Zoner event: Oversight from the Ec. Dev team. Players traded, there was no toxicity, it still required activity and time spent in game (for all those comparing it to the 2B$ bug), there was some piracy, some shenanigans with Barges and Jumpdrives, some new players logging their LN Ships to clear the Rogue Encounter and save the "poor traders".
Yes, I was part of that. No, I am not ashamed, I sank 200M$ in codes + ships in the last months and I'm not a whale when it comes to credits as I do not have the time to grind encounters or trade.
Harsh punishment: What for? Exploit? Where's the harm? Who got hurt? Game saw activity, people got $ to buy new ships, new codes, build their PoBs and start making stuff in them. These things generate activity and keep the players invested.
Admins Bastilled barges and ships and zeroed accounts. More than enough for the majority of players involved, which is around 20-30. If you compare the numbers of players involved with the server population, its 1/4 or 1/3.
Those who laundered the money so its hard to track and find, I'd say they are experienced and know what they are doing. It's hard and tedious, not impossible. To them, whatever you see fit.
To the "White Knights": hypocrisy
P.S.
There is a lot of new content for which we are grateful, but we are still poor. The 2 last events were fun pews, but not so rewarding $ wise. Give us rewarding $ events so we can get the new stuff; you'll see it too in action in game faster. You're keeping a game alive so you and other people can have fun. Keep in mind that and that the server population is not that large. Throw the dog a bone. And increase the drop rates for encounters! Less grind, more fun!
