Realistic expectations about skill gain and cost to play these days?

So I've just decided to make a concentrated effort to be more active, again. I was wondering if anyone can offer me some insight on what realistic expectations might be as far as skill gain and cost to play.

I had previously chipped out, but over the last 3 weeks I've gotten back up to about level 30. Sadly it won't be like the old days for me, rolling out of bed, hunting for 16 hours straight, then rolling back into bed. I'll probably only be able to play maybe 16-20 hours a week.

I never thought I'd find myself depositing regularly , but today's PE is a much different universe than the one I grew up in. I'm sure I can budget maybe 500 PED a week, but I hope I won't have to, feffoxes have been pretty nice to me so far.

So my question is: Has anyone else been in a similar situation as far as time available to hunt and budget? If so could you share with me your experience and how quickly you've gained skills? Is level 70+ at all a realistic goal, ever?

From 1 to 70 hit, took 1.2 million ped cycled for me with a very small amount of chipping. I'd say 1.5 million to cycle including going after relevant mission rewards.

Depends on your playing style.

Well my play style is:

If I'm not repairing, TTing, or auctioning, I'm shooting.

I don't usually use EU as the worlds most expensive chat room like a lot of people do

Feffox have been quite kind to me, since I started them I've only had two hunts in the negative. I tend to stick to youngs as I can't efficiently take higher maturities without significant armor decay. Mostly because I'm still using either p5a's or LLC 16's because there are literally NEVER any lvl 20ish pistols in auction.

Raine said:

So I've just decided to make a concentrated effort to be more active, again. I was wondering if anyone can offer me some insight on what realistic expectations might be as far as skill gain and cost to play.

I had previously chipped out, but over the last 3 weeks I've gotten back up to about level 30. Sadly it won't be like the old days for me, rolling out of bed, hunting for 16 hours straight, then rolling back into bed. I'll probably only be able to play maybe 16-20 hours a week.

I never thought I'd find myself depositing regularly , but today's PE is a much different universe than the one I grew up in. I'm sure I can budget maybe 500 PED a week, but I hope I won't have to, feffoxes have been pretty nice to me so far.

So my question is: Has anyone else been in a similar situation as far as time available to hunt and budget? If so could you share with me your experience and how quickly you've gained skills? Is level 70+ at all a realistic goal, ever?

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Don't think 70+ is a unrealistic goal as long as you don't chip out.
These days we have pills and missions, so i suggest using any pill that gives skill gain and go for the right missions in order to increase the levels, that being said it will go allot slower then you are used to, going from 16h a day to 16-20h a week.

Raine said:

Is level 70+ at all a realistic goal, ever?

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It is, but aim for level 50 first.

If you get to level 50, then you can worry about getting to 70, because the incline is a lot steeper and the skillgain a lot slower.

But, the view is great if you get to 70 and you get a great health boost as a bonus!

Well I've answered my own question. Even with being in the top 5 loot/globals on feffox for the last couple weeks I've still managed to lose 6000 ped. I guess as soon as I run out of ammo I'm going back on hiatus. $200 a week for an MMO is way too much for me.

Raine said:

being in the top 5 loot/globals on feffox for the last couple weeks I've still managed to lose 6000 ped.

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Um.... you do know that the less you global the less you loose right?
Your logic there seemed backwards to me, but maybe I wasn't understanding properly.

Globals are big loots, you can't profit on average loot, you can't profit without globals, at least not these days. Not understanding the confusion.

Raine said:

Globals are big loots, you can't profit on average loot, you can't profit without globals, at least not these days. Not understanding the confusion.

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That is probably why you are frustrated then.

"Globals are big loots" - True.... kind of....

Globals are loots above 50ped (or global limit for that creature)
Globals are part of your average loot, its just loot there is nothing special or magical about globals.


If you kill 1 creature and it globals, then yes you can profit. (if the kill cost was <50ped)
BUT......

If you get 100 globals, or 250 globals, etc.... (easy to do on hp mobs, I am too lazy to look at your actual record)
Then without looking, I know that you can not have globaled on every kill, and in fact by having a 'large' number of globals your turn over is sufficient for somewhat of an 'average' return.

So, that being the case, globals in your case ARE average loot, and no you can not profit.

To profit with high turnover (which removes the random luck factor) You need markup, or you need extreme random luck with a huge hof.

Like many others, I dont like hunting on calypso due to the lack of markup, and though I am not familiar with feffox beyond knowing they are high hp, I can draw conclusions that they are a favorite gamble mob exactly because they have high hp and can produce globals which are fun, even though they are meaningless.

My original point was, you can not mindlessly grind a single mob without markup, and expect that just because you are one of the top hunters on that specific mob that you are deserving of 'profit'. Of course you will loose peds, your turnover is high. You have to scale your activities to your budget.

If 6000ped is too much for you to be comfortable loosing, then scale your activities accordingly.
If 6000ped is chump change for you, then buy an explosives bp, and a bunch of L13 amps and go have some fun.

You should know all of this however, since in your own words you have been around forever, and anyone that hasn't been around as long as you is 'noob'.

We all have our seasons in this game, some burn out fast, some last like what seems forever, but for you, for me, for each person, things change, and what we know as 'facts' of the game become a weakness others see in us because they were able to adapt when we could not.


Edit: TLDR: Globals are just a turnover counter. Lots of globals just means lots of turnover, and if hunting mindlessly, then lots of turnover equals lots of loss.

Raine said:

Feffox have been quite kind to me, since I started them I've only had two hunts in the negative.

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Raine said:

Even with being in the top 5 loot/globals on feffox for the last couple weeks I've still managed to lose 6000 ped.

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This math also doesn't add up for me.... if you wouldn't mind clarifying the discrepancy?

That was 4 days ago, since then I've probably cycled 30k peds.

Raine said:

That was 4 days ago, since then I've probably cycled 30k peds.

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So you profited every hunt except 2 for 2.5 weeks, and then lost all of that profit + 6000 more ped in 30k cycled?

Its easy to loose 6k ped in 30k cycled that is 80% and not at all unheard of, esp after coming off a high period, but what happened to all your profit from before?

What is your average markup in loot?
What % of your hunts cost is in defense?

These are all fundamentals to the game.

I didn't exactly 'lose' 6000 ped, maybe that was a poor choice of word. That's how much I've deposited over the past 3 weeks, and basically that means $600 lost because I'll never see it again.

Feffox aren't really big hp mobs, I'm only on youngs and matures. True they do not really drop that much with good MU, but at the moment I'm getting about 40% tt return, so even if I was looting items with a 200% MU, it would still be a horrible loss.

Anyway, the whole point of my original thread was to get opinions on whether or not it was reasonable to play EU with a maximum monthly budget of $200, and considering that's what I've spent per week, I answered my own question.

Raine said:

I'm getting about 40% tt return

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BS.......

Just like you can kill 1 mob and it globals it can be called 'profit'......
You can kill one (or we even a few) mob and call it '40%'

But....... even with all my own issues with MA, I can't stand bad math.

If you don't want to play within your set budget I don't care. I don't need to convince you of my views but at the same time...... if you don't want to play then why post about it?


As to your original question. Yes. If you can reach L70 with $50 a month and have some withdraws. Then you can play on 200 a month as well.

Well loot has actually picked up since I posted that, but yes the first roughly 1400 peds ammo and 270 peds repairs this evening, I had a TT return of ~700, not a single loot above normal. Obviously MA is lurking on the forums and they're afraid I'm gonna stop depositing cause now I'm getting loot again

Raine said:

Well loot has actually picked up since I posted that, but yes the first roughly 1400 peds ammo and 270 peds repairs this evening, I had a TT return of ~700, not a single loot above normal. Obviously MA is lurking on the forums and they're afraid I'm gonna stop depositing cause now I'm getting loot again

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IMO, it's all part of a pattern of some sort. If you can understand when the loot pattern is low then stop take a break, change mobs, do something else IG, etc. (be more 'dynamic', lol); besides just focusing on 'mindless grinding of when you think the loot pattern is above average' and/or only chasing after globals. Also, I think Narfi offered some great points to who ever is reading this in regards to MU, turnover expectations, and budgeting from this thread earlier on.

Raine said:

Anyway, the whole point of my original thread was to get opinions on whether or not it was reasonable to play EU with a maximum monthly budget of $200, and considering that's what I've spent per week, I answered my own question.

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Down to personal choice a few would say $2000 was about right, there might even be a few spending $1000 a week (only a handful though). I limited myself to $50 a month - which was / is the maximum deposit with an unregistered credit / debit card which forced me to really consider what I was doing rather than just reaching for the card whenever I was low on ped.

narfi said:

Um.... you do know that the less you global the less you loose right?
Your logic there seemed backwards to me, but maybe I wasn't understanding properly.

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Explain it how you will, but if you do not global in a run then you do not catch back up.

Globals only catch you back up from alot of loss, every time you hunt you will suffer alot of loss until your globals come to catch you back up.

No Global = REALLY bad looses

No matter what anyone says I and anyone who hunts knows that is a true statement.

Good loot is a VERY rare thing, basing any theory off good loot is a fatal mistake for anyone in this game.

KullXP said:

No Global = REALLY bad looses

No matter what anyone says I and anyone who hunts knows that is a true statement.

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I dont agree with it.

I'd agree if you get a global with a value higher than the amount of ammo you took out, then you had a good hunt though.

The one thing that sucks is I just can't quit feffox now cause I'm 2/3 the way to completing the next stage and 46 PED of rifle is a good first step for me to make the switch from handgun

Raine said:

The one thing that sucks is I just can't quit feffox now cause I'm 2/3 the way to completing the next stage and 46 PED of rifle is a good first step for me to make the switch from handgun

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it'd be cheaper buying the skill ;D it's dirt cheap

I duno about that

What is it like 1300% right now? Can't check I'm at work.

I figure I can finish the mission in about 6 or 7 more runs, so ideally if I could keep losses below 100 ped per hunt it would be cheaper to finish the mission. Plus I'd still be getting other skills from hunting, soo. xD

I'm determined to finish that, but once I have, if I survive, I may consider switching mobs.
Open to any suggestions

Raine said:

The one thing that sucks is I just can't quit feffox now cause I'm 2/3 the way to completing the next stage and 46 PED of rifle is a good first step for me to make the switch from handgun

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ROFL !!!

You always can stop on any iron mission, you will not lose your progress when doing something else.

GoNi said:

ROFL !!!

You always can stop on any iron mission, you will not lose your progress when doing something else.

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Yes I know that, I'm just determined to finish it

For what its worth, similar situation played awhile back in the day, sold it all in 2008. (approx 200k skills)

I came back mid 2011 with 10k skills.

Most of 1st 2 years back were auction hawking, data mining/research, and crafting.

In hunting I am:
69.1 BLP Hit (thinking another 10 days to hit 70, at 4-6 hours a day)
39.9 evade

and most of that is done in the last 2-3 years, heaviest by far is this year.

So yes possible without chipping, the rate could be much faster if not distracted with crafting )
EL only has me at 267k total loot in hunting for reference, which accounts for all of the loot since my return. 278k total skills. (some minor chipping for crafting unlocks)

And to compare my crafting is about 271k total loot and I recorded about 3.4 million PED returned (some of it I did not record and I can no longer record returns or run analysis on loot with changes this VU ), so that would roughly equate to 3-4 million PED cycled in hunting I suppose....if it were linear.

Hope that helps with the question.