Ships aren't paywalled. No need to buy arx. Like exploring, buy a Mandalay in game and kit it out with bare essentials. I get almost 90 ly range with striped down Mandalay with engineered fsd and guardian fsd booster.

Originally posted by Sharp777:

Ships aren't paywalled. No need to buy arx. Like exploring, buy a Mandalay in game and kit it out with bare essentials. I get almost 90 ly range with striped down Mandalay with engineered fsd and guardian fsd booster.

Is it worth it? Only you can answer that :)

For me, when I was doing Exo and saving for my FC the grind was getting to me, so I came back closer to the bubble and did a couple of weeks of mining. Not the greatest way to earn credits, but I enjoyed it.

As for the paywall, I only bought one ship for RL $$$ the Mandalay and although I have not hit the 90 LY range, it is at 76 LY and I am using it as my exploring ship and getting around the galaxy ship.

I also been tinkering around with engineering some of my FSD drives, thrusters etc., that takes a while and breaks things up. When I do that, the game becomes more enjoyable

OP only you can decide that. Massive amount of things added the last couple of years.
I highly recommend visiting the (for now dormant) Spire sites and Titans for the view.
-take note that Titans require caustic sink launchers available from rescue ships.

A guide/overview can be found here:
"Is Elite Dangerous Worth It In 2024?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4K_ruveoD8c

Originally posted by Sharp777:

Ships aren't paywalled. No need to buy arx. Like exploring, buy a Mandalay in game and kit it out with bare essentials. I get almost 90 ly range with striped down Mandalay with engineered fsd and guardian fsd booster.

>No need to buy Arx
>Goes on to suggest buying a ship that is not yet available for credits

OP, word of warning regarding the "Three months" you mentioned.

The Type-8 broke that right away, and it was closer to four months than three before it became available for credits.

I'm keeping an eye on the Mandy but I don't expect it to be up for credits until four months have passed either. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. There's not actually any kind of pattern yet to make a call on this, other than the second ship to get released immediately broke the "three months" wait that everyone had been led to believe.

Yeah it's worth it. If you're into this kind of game, that is.

They've fixed material gathering, they've introduced a new BOOOOOST for supercruise, missions include rewards for all materials, etc, etc.

But if you want it to be a different type of game instead, no.

Originally posted by Un1k0rn:

OP, word of warning regarding the "Three months" you mentioned.

The Type-8 broke that right away, and it was closer to four months than three before it became available for credits.

I'm keeping an eye on the Mandy but I don't expect it to be up for credits until four months have passed either. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. There's not actually any kind of pattern yet to make a call on this, other than the second ship to get released immediately broke the "three months" wait that everyone had been led to believe.

I think they match the release to whenever an update is due. There was an update about a week before the '3 months' for the T8, which was too soon. The next update was a month later, after being pushed back a week.

Originally posted by Septimus:

Originally posted by Un1k0rn:

OP, word of warning regarding the "Three months" you mentioned.

The Type-8 broke that right away, and it was closer to four months than three before it became available for credits.

I'm keeping an eye on the Mandy but I don't expect it to be up for credits until four months have passed either. Maybe I'll be proven wrong. There's not actually any kind of pattern yet to make a call on this, other than the second ship to get released immediately broke the "three months" wait that everyone had been led to believe.

I think they match the release to whenever an update is due. There was an update about a week before the '3 months' for the T8, which was too soon. The next update was a month later, after being pushed back a week.

And perhaps that is the case.

Either way, it doesn't change the fact it ended up being a not insignificant longer wait than expected.

I'm not going to hear excuses on this one: They were dishonest. There's no other way to take this at the current time. The ships are outright in the game for credits anyway if you buy the early access: I fail to see how they couldn't have pushed out a small update that made the Type-8 available when it was suggested it would. The feature to buy them for credits is in fact there already. It's why Cobra Mk Vs show up in shipyards now when I play: I have the ship via Arx.

Like I say though, this is too early to be a pattern (Two points of data do not make a trend)

That doesn't mean it should be discounted, either. Simply something to consider when we see how long the wait for the Mandy actually is.

As someone who prefers exploring to combat (not great at it and 3 month paywalls don't exactly fill me with confidence) should I come back or not?

I've never got into combat since I started (also suck at it lol) and ships you have to use real money to get, are just a way for the Co. to make money and keep the game going, you can help or not. I know for a fact (because I bought them) that the T8 and the Mandalay are worth the few bucks I spent. To me it's no worse than a week's coffee you stop and get when you're off to work. Some say it's the principle of it not the actual cost that stops them from getting them but it's all a matter of how you see it. In the end it's just a few bucks you spend to have fun.

Personally waiting the 3 months for the Mandalay to become available. Planning on going on a long trip once that and the Cobra Mk5 drop.

In the meantime, plenty of other good exploration ships to fly. The Asp X is still my main exploration ship.

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Personally waiting the 3 months for the Mandalay to become available. Planning on going on a long trip once that and the Cobra Mk5 drop.

In the meantime, plenty of other good exploration ships to fly. The Asp X is still my main exploration ship.

I've already used an asp