After 4 round trips I managed to have 1800 credits, only to crash my sidewinder and have to repair it for 1300. The canopy cracked so I had to make an emergency landing, but first I had to exit the station before I was allowed to request docking permission – despite the fact that I was inside the station already.
It looks like I need 53.000 to buy a hauler with 8 cargo slots, compared to the meager 4 slots I have now.
My profit is around 700 per round trip currently. 420 one way, 280 the other.
So; at least 75 round trips that take 4-5 minutes.
Grind much.
Once I have a hauler I should be able to make a bit more, as it has 8 slots.
Would be nice to find some combat missions suited for new players than having to do 75 repeats of a trade run just to be able to afford a bigger ship and then do more trade runs.
The trick with the pirate hunting missions is to find NPC ships with a one word name, like Cheese or Anaxagoras. It’s pretty lame that they don’t explain that. Also, if you’re in an Anarchy system, you have to KW scan them before firing on them, since you don’t know otherwise if they’re wanted or not. The NPC that gives you the counter offer is likely also wanted (in my case she was), so giving them the KWS treatment keeps you from getting a bounty in that case. (after completing the scan you check the contact list info for the target to see if they have a bounty).
@instant0, there should be some non-combat bulletin board missions to do, especially as your rep increases with a station, that pay more than that. Barring that, the Sidey itself is fairly upgradeable. I think you could ditch the discovery scanner and fit a basic interdictor there, and then just run around in SC and interdict wanted Sidewinders in a non-anarchy system (so you didn’t have to bother with a Kill Warrant Scanner). The only caveat there would be that you’d have to make sure to get back to the governing station (a Fed one if the system is considered Federal, etc.) regularly to redeem the bounty vouchers, because if you die you lose unredeemed ones.
I had no problem making enough money at first with my starting Sidewinder by doing courier missions, and supply missions. Most of these net 3k to 7k, with some of the supply missions giving you 15-20k (these usually involve traveling a few systems to find a source, but well within jump / fuel range). If there’s nothing offered at the station, check the galaxy map and look for other stations nearby. Also, always check the board before you leave because sometimes they update while you’re there. Also, if you find a platform with a black market, finding and returning illegal cargo by visiting USS sites in the relevant system will net quite a bit of cash, plus you can often find abandoned cargo in the USS sites which can also be sold at black markets for mucho cash. Of course if you’re playing a squeaky clean pilot that might not appeal, but desperate times call for desperate measures! Never, ever try to land at an orbital with any illegal cargo on board, unless you are proficient with silent running (which is way too stressful!).
Those pirate killing missions require you to kill actual pirates, as Papageno points out. I may have to take out a dozen Wanted / bounty ships before I kill the required number of pirates, but I kill any ship I can handle with a bounty because those bounties can be significant. You can definitely do this in a starting Sidewinder, you just have to pick your targets with care (other Sideys, Eagles, maybe a Cobra IF there are others taking it on as well). Don’t be afraid to run and let your shields recharge / recover when needed. Watch out for the occasional bonanza of a really big ship with a huge bounty being whittled down by the Feds. Jump in at the last minute and get the kill shot and the bounty is yours.
Also, with those combat tutorials, don’t feel like you need to complete them all to get into the main game. I couldn’t get past the silent running mission, but I’ve never really had to use those skills (yet) in the game. The really essential ones would be launch, docking and travel.
Yep, trying to make early cash purely through trading is definitely a slow slog. Move around to different stations and pick up courier and delivery missions from the bulletin board for significantly more coin. I also made plenty of cash from early exploration because I was travelling constantly to new systems. Every several hops I’d have several k worth of exploration data to sell, plus I was always checking new bulletin boards for mission. I probably had 70-80k and a mildly upgraded Sidey before I started to get my feet wet on a few combat encounters.
Enjoying my upgrade to the Adder at the moment, with the exception of the massively reduced cabin visibility, compared to the Sidey. Got a decent beam laser and gimballed multi-cannon, mining equipment, upgraded shields, FSD and power couplers and just added a point defence system and KWS to the utility hardpoints. Combine that with the 8 tonne cargo bay and I have a flexible little platform!
Nope, we’ve had this discussion several times in various threads, so I don’t want to derail for too long. Basically I only got past the Medical Frigate protection mission 3 times. And since the game resets your progress when you die, you need to be really, really good at the Medical Frigate mission and be able to get past it every time. But I usually died in that mission and either got killed or captured and had to start over. But even if you beat it, if you die in the rest of the campaign, you still have to start over and get past that mission again. I just wasn’t good enough. Most other people on this board cheated and backed up their save games before each mission, but if you don’t cheat, the game is verging on impossible to beat. At least it was for me.
I’ll put my hand up as someone that never beat X-Wing either. I can’t remember which mission it was, but i just seem to have a blind spot in being able to complete it (i think i even ‘cheated’ and tried using some online guides as well?). The saddest part of this story is that it meant i won’t let myself fully play Tie-fighter (i’ve given it a quick go just to see the changes/improvements etc) until i do complete X-wing (and i will one day, so don’t sweat it).
Still now ED is on the table and while quite tasty i do find myself looking around for that knife and fork i know should be around here somewhere :)
So. ED. Anyone else finding scanner ranges hugely limited compared to the size of space you can fly around in? Or that the whole targeting, losing targeting, losing target (…maybe forever) is rather poorly implemented? Granted i’ve just had access to the base scanner, and i understand ranges improve, but not by that much it seems considering the size of the sandpit around us to play in. I lose stuff (cargo canisters, other enemy ships) pretty much all the time and mostly for good!! It might just be an issue in the training missions though (as you don’t get access to the system map)? Please tell me in game this is not an issue.
schurem
3027
Whooo! bought an ASP today! Sunk every single penny I had into it too, because livin’ dangerous right? Got a A level power distributor on it and a C class plant. Getting the power right means a lot to overall ship usage comfort. The power plant’s quality also governs how hard it is for the ship to shed its heat. A good power plant will mean scooping fuel is easier. The power distributor makes for more boost use and also strengthens the shields to no small amount. In fact, having plenty juice flowing to she shields means more to their strength than the quality of the shield generator itself!
So now I’m doing the rares run in a pretty barebones but shiney as shit ASP :D dat cockpit homes! dat sound! rrrrrRRRRooooooorrrrrrrp
So. ED. Anyone else finding scanner ranges hugely limited compared to the size of space you can fly around in? Or that the whole targeting, losing targeting, losing target (…maybe forever) is rather poorly implemented? Granted i’ve just had access to the base scanner, and i understand ranges improve, but not by that much it seems considering the size of the sandpit around us to play in. I lose stuff (cargo canisters, other enemy ships) pretty much all the time and mostly for good!! It might just be an issue in the training missions though (as you don’t get access to the system map)? Please tell me in game this is not an issue.
You know you can adjust the range of the scanner, right? Not sure if it is bound from the get go, but there are options to bind increase/decrease scanner range.
I’ve not really had much of a problem with scanner range, once I started actually using those buttons. If you are losing your target on the scanner during combat, or while flying around collecting other cargo, I think you need to relax the setting it a little - I’ve not had a similar issue. I have even found it useful to keep track of the rock I am mining, since there is no way of tagging such an object.
Setting the scanner to max range (Page UP key) is the very first thing i do as the default min range is like what 200m (or feels like that). In the meantime i’ve lost the canisters again (probably).
I’m running an experiment in that first training mission. Set off towards the planet, having used thrusters to get me just outside the plain of the asteroid belt, making sure to go in one direction (so hands off controls), use one segment of fuel, then turn around (as best one can judge, no flight instruments to help judge in detail) and head back until the next fuel segment is gone, see if i can re find those canisters. Not managed to do it yet, but my second try is still underway.
Are you sure the game isn’t just un-spawning the canisters because it thinks you’re done with them? I haven’t played the tutorials, so I don’t know the details of the mission. I do know that when I’m mining, and chunks fly off the asteroids with the mining laser, I can pick them up for a while, but if I clearly don’t want them and leave them alone for a few minutes, the game gets rid of them I think.
Maybe? I suppose it is possible even in the sp training missions that it uses the same code it does in the mp game. So i guess they are getting ‘instanced’ out? Interesting. Actually this makes finding anything in game a moot point if so. Either you do while it is front of your nose and use it, or you never do as it just vanishes. That would be sucky imho, but it might explain the lack of ability to target and track things i’m currently finding. And it probably explains why the tools/systems in game for doing so are so basic. X-wing is super sophisticated compared to ED for all that!
So I’ve got a fairly upgraded Sidey going (all B/C class internals) but no weapons and about 70k in the bank. Been making most of my money on the random cargo mission and selling off exploration data but lately the cargo missions I can take have dried up for some reason. Do I spend that 70k on upgraded weaponry and get into the bounty business or do I buy a hauler to increase my cargo capacity?
As noted above, most of the early money is made by taking hauling missions back and forth between systems. Don’t confuse those with the “deliver me some X” missions. Those missions require you to go find a product, buy it and haul it back to the system where you obtained the quest. The hauling missions give you the goods right then and pay you some amount to haul it to another system.
I read that if a particular station doesn’t offer missions, you can exit to the menu and reload the game as single-player (or or online, whichever mode you’re not in) and it will generate different missions.
One early-game decision that really helped me was to ditch the discovery scanner for an additional 2 cargo bay slots. That upped the Sidewinder from 4 (I think) to 6, and believe it or not, that opened up a number of missions I previously couldn’t get because I didn’t have enough cargo space. I think it costs around 1,000 credits to get that cargo bay so it’s pretty do-able early on.
I didn’t start trying to do trading until I actually had a hauler. But if you are trying to do trading, one of the most profitable routes is buying Platinum and Palladium and moving it to a system that imports such metals. If you can’t afford those, you could start with lower priced ones like Silver or Gold or… those metals that are cheaper, I forget their names. I initially found two systems that were close (enough) to each other.
I would say it depends on what you feel like doing! I don’t think there is a right or wrong answer here.
I’ve started doing the Rare Goods trading and it certainly involves traveling! I picked up some rare legal drugs and/or liquor so now I’m paranoid about landing on a “wrong” place, so I’m always making sure I head for outposts or the like. One outpost I headed to was over a million LS from the entry point… it takes so freakin’ long to get there.
Took me about an hour to get from Frey to the systems I was aiming for, though. And I started in my Hauler but immediately realized I would need more space, so I upgraded it to a Cobra, and that’s got a lot of space, once you fit it out. I did keep the shields though, because I’m pretty wimpy.
Here’s a question for rare traders: how do you decide when to sell the item? I have been gauging it on the price the station offers versus the Galactic Average… so, for instance, if some Kobe Beef is being purchased for 19k at the station I’m at, and if the Galactic Average is 12k, I sell. Is that smart, or dumb, or what? I don’t particularly want to fill up my hold and travel for an hour across the galaxy (and I don’t even know if the prices will be better when I get there). Plus there’s the risk of having your ship blown up for one reason or another - I figured I’d buy and sell as I go around the trade loop and build up cash as I go. I realize prices for rare good go up as you get further from where you get them, but there’s some maximum amount they increase, right (I mean, if I go 150 LY from where I bought the goods, they’re not going to offer a million credits for the item, will they?).
Also, I’m starting to feel fuel costs. I am seriously going to ditch my size 2 cargo bay for a fuel scoop.
I think I read the sweet spot for selling rare goods was 170 LY or so.
So in a furious bounty hunting session last night, I dinged “Competent” at last! Still in the original sidey, and still no deaths. I think I’ve finally earned the new Viper I’ve had my eye on for so long.
geewhiz
3038
Would expanding the cargo space on your starting ship be better? I think it is cheaper. I saw someone do this in a video. One of the problems I have is that some of the videos might not be up to date on stuff though.
I have just started and just doing bulletin board missions for about 1000 - 2000 or so.
geewhiz
3039
Why are there three different controls for Hyperspace, Supercharge, and Enable Frame in options? From what I can tell the buttons all do the same thing?
Do I really need to have these buttons all mapped or would one be enough?
It seems like if I hit Enable Frame it will either do Hyperspace or Supercharge automatically knowing the correct choice.
Correct, but there are instances where you want to select one or the other specifically. Let’s say, for example, that you have a hyperspace destination locked but decide you want to supercruise around the current system for a bit before you make the jump to hyperspace. Or, maybe you’ve got a planet in front of you that’s blocking your hyperspace jump and you need to supercruise your way around it. Having the dual buttons allows you to do that sort of stuff without having to go in and unselect your ultimate navigation target.
