Elite: Dangerous Kickstarter Launched

[BiggerBoat]

Gods that looks great! I loved my Mako time, so I’ll be all over this! Has there been any word when the beta will start?

Not as of yet. My guess would be mid to late November.

[Knightsaber]

I pulled off a couple of Sothis smuggling missions (I forget what my trade rank is, I’m pretty sure it’s just Merchant), but each one was almost 4m credits, which means I made more in 2 hours of (broken) FSD jumping than I have in X hours of playing the game normally.

Still can’t buy a decent ship though. A Type-7 if I’m nuts, I guess. My little Cobra is working fine, even though it can only take one of those missions at a time…okay that’s a lie, it could probably handle multiple smuggling missions from Sothis at once, it’s just that I overly worry at the mission timers. This is a silly thing, I’m doing 4h timed smuggling runs in 40 minutes. I should probably try the method of ‘fill your cargo hold’ with Sothis missions and have at it.

[conVurt]

My little Cobra is working fine, even though it can only take one of those missions at a time…okay that’s a lie, it could probably handle multiple smuggling missions from Sothis at once, it’s just that I overly worry at the mission timers. This is a silly thing, I’m doing 4h timed smuggling runs in 40 minutes. I should probably try the method of ‘fill your cargo hold’ with Sothis missions and have at it.

If you have time for one, you probably have time for four or five missions, because the destination systems are typically 2-3 hops away from one another. When you look at a mission, now, the screen should give you the option to check the galaxy map to see where the destination is. When you do, you’ll also see markers for systems you already have missions for, so that should give you a general idea of where they are relative to where you want to be.

I did about three runs myself (likewise in a cobra) before getting bored and wandering off. I’d grab 5-6 missions at a time, and after all the jumping, scooping, getting interdicted, boosting, and docking was done, each run would take 2-2.5 hours from the point of launch from Sothis.

You can also fill any remaining cargo space in your hold with then new rare Sothis crystalline gold, which now spawns in quantities up to 40. Profit for tonne is around 22k – chump change compared to what the mission payouts are, but hey, every little bit gets you that much closer to a shiny new ship (and that intoxicating new ship smell)!

[Knightsaber]

I was just overly not thinking. :)

I’ll likely be doing just that tonight. The only drawback to the whole Sothis business is going back there. It taught me how to handle long distance trips at least.

[MrCoffee]

Wait, someone explain what Sothis is and how you are making that much cash.

[agapepilot]

Wait, someone explain what Sothis is and how you are making that much cash.

Yes please! Is this more worthwhile than the community goal currently going on?

[Kelan]

Man, even those low intensity zones can be crazy at times :). I did manage to break into the top 40%, though, and am up to 892k contribution so far.

I also like that you can see the progress in % on your combat and other ranks. I finally made expert combat and got 2% in! woot! :)

[Papageno]

A community goal is a mission you need to accept on a bulletin board somewhere. It’ll be available from one station in a particular system. So in the example of bounty hunting in Carnoeck, which is finished and done and no longer available, yes you would have gone to Bacon City, checked the bulletin board there, and accepted the mission from it. If you had done that, then specific bounties turned in at that station would have counted towards the community progress for that goal. There’s no hard and fast rule for what applies to bounty hunting CGs, some will accept Federation bounties, for example, and you could have had millions you hadn’t yet turned in that could have counted. Others might have you hunting pirates in a system where most of the pirates are from a specific faction, so naturally that faction won’t honour bounties turned in on them. If the goal has reached at least its first tier and then finishes (either by hitting its final tier or by timing out) then you can turn in that mission at the same station you received it for some kind of cash bonus. If the community goal fails to reach even its first tier, then everyone’s work will be for nothing as there will be no additional payout.

That’s bounty hunting. Trading CGs work differently in that after you accept the mission, specific items that you sell on the commodities market at that station will count for the CG. Combat zones CGs have you fighting in low and high intensity combat zone areas in the system, pick a side, and kills generate combat bonds instead of bounties that you can turn in. Exploration CGs have you turning in system scans.

Occasionally the goal will be for some global reward that anyone can benefit from. There is a current CG to deliver slaves to Achenar, with a reward schedule featuring discounts and rank requirement reductions on specific imperial ships. If that one finishes, you won’t need a rank of Baron to purchase an imperial clipper anymore, and if history is any indication, you’ll have about a month afterward to take advantage of that.

Thanks, conVurt, for the detailed explanation. My next question for whoever knows is, where does one get official word of new community goals? Galnet news, the official forums or what? There is this thread currently, on the official forums, but I haven’t read enough of it to figure out where they’re getting their info: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=187372&page=27

EDIT: Duh, here’s a site linked from the launcher: https://community.elitedangerous.com/node/301

[Papageno]

Yes please! Is this more worthwhile than the community goal currently going on?

I haven’t been, but Sothis is a system out in the sticks (on the galactic frontier, about 500 LY from most inhabited systems) that apparently was part of some recent CG to get a station there to start making a rare good called “crystalline gold” snort. Anyway, in the last week or so people discovered that the smuggling missions available from there (since they often involved transporting illicit goods a few hundred LY back to the bubble) were extremely lucrative, especially if you already had high trade rank. So everyone and his brother that can make the trip is flying out that way for the $$$. I haven’t done it yet because I’m only a “dealer” in a Cobra, so I don’t know if it would be worth it.

[Knightsaber]

I went as a Dealer in a Cobra and was handed 3.9 million - 4.4 million credit missions. It’s up to you to decide if those are worth it. I also gained a trade rank on the first turn in (5% into Dealer). So, yeah.

Fuel scoop + patience = millions from Sothis. Millions. In about an hour or less (one way).

[Papageno]

Oh that definitely sounds worth it. Just got to the 2 million credits in cash mark, so making 200% of that per (long-ass) round trip works for me. I gather you can even game the system a bit by quitting to main menu, switching modes between open/solo/pg, and getting the BB to refresh the mission offerings more quickly. Hope they haven’t killed that golden goose by the time I get there.

[Knightsaber]

Oh that definitely sounds worth it. Just got to the 2 million credits in cash mark, so making 200% of that per (long-ass) round trip works for me. I gather you can even game the system a bit by quitting to main menu, switching modes between open/solo/pg, and getting the BB to refresh the mission offerings more quickly. Hope they haven’t killed that golden goose by the time I get there.

You can indeed do so. In fact, that’s how you fill up your cargo hold with multiple smuggling goods. All of the destinations are in a relatively small cluster together, so…

I’d also just reached 2 million credits and a Cobra, now I have a seriously pimped out Cobra and 5.9 million in the bank, and I was only doing one mission at a time…which is a huge waste.

Also, if you arrive at Sothis, and there are no 3m+ smuggling missions, do the game-the-system-trick you mentioned, and they’ll eventually pop up. It’s been like this for at least a week, so I doubt they will suddenly disable it. It’s been going on long enough that (wild guess) it would take a patch to remove.

The trip -is- long and fraught with peril (mostly fuel peril).

[Knightsaber]

I just stopped at Sothis, picked up 3 missions (cargo full) (it’s just a Cobra).

Two destinations are 1 jump apart, the last is 3 away from my 2nd stop. 17 million plus credits when I get there.

This will probably be patched sooner than later.

[agapepilot]

Do you need to have a certain rank to trade at sothis?

[BrianRubin]

So to do these fun runs, one heads to Sothis and takes a mission, right? I’ve got time to kill tonight and I wanna dive in.

[agapepilot]

So I just spent awhile killing ships in a combat zone for the CG, never saw any indication I was getting bonds but I was only targeting the “enemy” side. I go back to the dock where I got the mission and now what? How do I turn in bonds? When I select the mission again there’s no option to turn anything in

[Knightsaber]

Do you need to have a certain rank to trade at sothis?

Nope, I got 3 million + missions at the lowest trade rank. I’m still at Merchant rank and carrying a 3.8m, 6.8m and 6.1m mission right now (fuel scooping and forum reading.) Higher rank will pay more, so I’ve heard. You don’t need Naval rank either, but it’s a Federation system, if that matters.

So to do these fun runs, one heads to Sothis and takes a mission, right? I’ve got time to kill tonight and I wanna dive in.

Yep, and if you don’t see one, just do the Open > Solo > Open > Solo trick until they pop up. Sothis is on the fringes, it’s quite the jaunt.

[BrianRubin]

Thanks Knightsaber.

Wow, 118 jumps using economical. Wowie.

[agapepilot]

Yeah I’m 40 jumps into my 109 trip, not sure I’ll be finishing tonight

[BrianRubin]

How long did it take ya?