I have been doing this around a Nav Beacon - I just turned in 463k worth of bonds
I wondered about the high conflict zones - Not sure if I am prepared yet enough for that. The Nav Beacon seems pretty chill with moments where a wing of 3 pirates will warp in and I'll tag each of them and net ~75-90k a group with smaller bounties in between.
The high conflict zones have more bigger ships with the pilots having higher combat rating...tougher but more fun! I took down an Anaconda in one last night, and his bounty was 275 K!
I've got about 700k saved up right now. I see Vipers are pretty cheap, but their stats aren't that much better than a Sidewinder. The cobra so far seems to be the biggest leap in stats I can get at around 350k and end up with Cargo space as well... However, now I'm hooked on combat and would rather buy a better fighter, but I'm not sure what that would be.
I personally like the cobra better than the viper...however the viper is more manueverable.
With more weapon hardpoints, you'll need to make sure that your distributor is top notch!
I'm doing a lot of the engineer upgrades to my Python and Asp explorer. My Asp now has a 47.5 year single jump range! The Python fully loaded out does 20!
Nice! I feel like I can get somewhere in the game now - I've gotten the hang of the rest of the mechanics and now it's just a matter of building credits and getting outfitted enough to handle myself solo.
I bought a Cobra late last night - upgraded to ~C and B class upgrades for the important slots and upgraded to Class A Distributor as recommended.
Definitely feel like I have a lot more control and power over dog fights now. I just swoop down right under my target and just blast away with all 4 hard points
The handling is definitely a bit "stubborn" - but so far I have been able to out maneuver any NPC I've come across in it.
I've found that you can easily compensate for it's wider turning during fights by slamming yourself into reverse and hitting your top thrusters to drop under the enemy ship when they do the typical "U-Turn and try to blast you in the face". This way you end up under them as they fly over you and all you have to do is keep your pitch correct and blast away. It might just be "a feel", but it surely seems this is the easiest way to "loop" yourself quickly around if you need to do a U-Turn to get yourself back behind or under someone and away from their hard points.
My strategy with my Python (has 2 medium beam turrets and 3 large humble multi-cannon):
- get them in range, let the turrets go (with 3 pips in weapons, they fire without draining the weapons capacitor)
- maneuver (tough for a Python) to get my MCs on target
The large MCs take a few seconds to spin up.
The beam weapons shred shields, and destroys all fighter-sized craft.
The MCs are for larger targets.
To keep my front guns on target, I thrust up as I am pitching up.
Didn't get too much done last night - just another couple hundred thousand in credits and a few upgrades.
Can't figure out why my Cobra is over it's available mass when I go to upgrade Thrusters - As far as I can tell I've stripped everything I can and should be at the lowest possible mass. :/
You could save some cash on the frame shift drive (unless you are going to travel, then it's worth it). This lets' you play a nice "what if" game with your ship.
This site is good until you start doing engineer upgrades...then you need to use this site:
The second site lets you do engineer tweaks, but I find the first site easier to read.
What's nice about the sites, is that they will tell you if you have enough power supply, and if you have enough power distributor to run your shields, engines, and weapons. I also put together a spreadsheet that calculates how many pips you need in weapons to have continuous fire (or how many seconds to deplete and replenish the weapons capacitor).
The "D" models for the equipment are always the lightest. The "A" models have the same weight as a "C", but perform much better. The "B" models always weight more than the "C" or "A" models.
I found Coriolis from just browsing for ship types today This was the site that came up when I was looking for a "Guide to ships". https://ebg.cmdrshub.com//
Thanks for the info about the modules! I had no idea what the real difference was other than just looking at their stats over and over and comparing!
I still have no idea what Engineering tweaks are or how to get them. Next thing I'll need to google.
Engineer tweaks allow you to modify ship modules and weapons. Each of them have different types of mods you can do, with positive and negative affects.
For example, you can increase you Frame Shift Drive optimal mass which will increase your maximum jump distances, but it may weigh more, have less integrity, and draw more power.
You can mod your engines to make them go faster, but they may require more power and generate more heat.
In general, if you modify a thingy that's a grade 3A to level 3, it will be better than a 4A equivalent for the positive stats.
The engineer upgrades require collecting stuff from exploded ships, mining, surface prospecting, and buying unique components from various stations. Each engineer has a requirement to "unlock" them first.
I'm not even close - I've unlocked one engineer so far and that's about it.
I'm a Novice for combat rank so last night I bought 2x16T and 2x4T cargo racks for my Cobra. Loaded up and did some quick trading. At one point I was able to stay in the same system and make about 75k a trade for a few runs between two stations. I was able to rank up my trader level 3 or 4 times doing this.
Thank you again for all the explanations you've given - I would not be making all this progress if it wasn't for the guidance! I'm really glad I've been able to get into this game and that I didn't spend 60+ dollars on something I'd only touch a handful of times.
It IS absolutely a massive game and by all definitions is an MMO, but it has an entirely different feel I love about it that takes it away from the typical "MMORPG" genera.
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As far as long distance trading goes - jumping is just that tedious I take it? Just one system to the next?
If I recall correctly you said stick to the shipping lanes anyways because pirates will likely interdict me if I just take the quickest path to my destination?
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And I forgot to add that it appears the trade route sites are quite off lately. Is that normal?
What's cool about the game is that it is massive...and very open.
I like the fact that I can set goals for myself, and then plans to achieve the goals - hehe.
Trade route sites: I wouldn't trust them 100%. Remember that every player in the game affects the economies in the various systems...even if you are playing in solo mode. So, if a good profit trade route shows up, players start running them (and NPC traders too)..supply goes down (driving purchases prices up) and demand goes down (driving selling prices down)...driving profits down!
Here is my general "rule book" I use after researching on many sites:
This gives you the "general" rules of what to buy from a particular economy type to sell to another economy type...you can filter these on the galaxy map. If I can avoid it, I tend not to trade to "mixed" economies, unless both economies are a "buy" or "sell" to. For example:
1. I would not trade this:
--- Buy: Agriculture
--- Sell: Industrial/Agriculture
--- This will drive down your sell prices on the agriculture to the Ind/Ag system as there is already a "supply" of Ag close to the Ind port.
2. I would trade to this:
--- Buy: Agriculture (tea/coffee)
--- Sell: Industrial/Refiner (or Industrial/Extraction or ...etc)
--- The tea/coffee you run will get a better price as the selling system does not have a close supply of these. You then bring crop harvesters or marine supplies back to the agriculture (depending on if it's land or water based) and get profit both ways.
You get much better profit by trading between systems. You should be able to find good trade loops within 1 or 2 jumps of each other.
Also, when I look for trading routes, the closer to the star for the stops...the better. It's that much less time you spend in super-cruise. In general, I try to stay 2,000 Ls or less from the main star. Anything over that takes too much time.
When you get good at jumping, you basically spend about 1 minute per jump (set target star, jump, FSD cool down, set target star, vector away from star, jump, etc.). If the buy/sell stations are under 1,000 Ls from the sun, you'll spend very little time in super-cruise.
I always take the most direct route to the destination station in super cruise. Here is how I deal with pirates:
1. Submit to the interdiction (your FSD recycles quicker)
2. When you get to normal space, set 4 pips to shields (max resistance), 2 pips to engines, and full throttle
3. Boost, boost, boost until your FSD is ready to go, and then hit FSD
4. Most times, the pirate won't follow you again into super-cruise (I have had a few elite ones who keep tracking me down)
5. Check the pirate vessel's size compared to yours (you can do in super-cruise when they tell you they are coming to get you.) If he's bigger than you, a jump to super-cruise will take longer due to the pirate vessel's mass lock...just keep this in mind. However, with a cobra and good engines, you should be out of gun range of the big nasty big ships (Pythons, Anacondas, Federal Gun/Assault/Drop ships, Imperial Clipper/Cutter ships) before they can take down your shields.
When I am trading, I put in as many shield boosters as possible into the "Utility Mount" positions. Each grade A shield booster gives you 20% more shields...that's 20% more hits you can take before they go down.
My main trading ship is now my Python. I've got it outfitted pretty good now...and I'll attack most of the interdictions (free bounty on top of trade profits!) But, if I have a big cargo and my shields get below 25%, I consider running...depends on the situation.
If you are going to trade, your goal is to work up to a Type 6 as quickly as you can (keep your Cobra for combat fun - hehe). More cargo space means more profit per trade (but also more "seed money" required to buy cargo as well). Once you get a Type 6 with an A Rated FSD, you can start the 71-stop rare-trade loop, see more of the galaxy, and start to get some real trading profit. You will do the Happy-Dance the first time you see a 500 K profit for a sale - hehe. Here is a Type 6 build for about 6.3 million (advanced discovery scanner is a must - you'll make good discovery credits):
The grade A FSD is a must...otherwise you will spend forever jumping between trading stops. As I said earlier, you can work in "gas station" stops to trade between Ag/Ind as per the picture above.
The Type 6 will start to run tight on cargo space on some of the longer legs of the 71 stop route. So, you're goal here is to work up to a Type 7...here is a 29.2 million build that works nice:
Oh - another thing to try your hand at...running missions!
The best is to find 2 or 3 systems that are close to each other, but 30+ Ly away from any others. You hit the mission boards and start running missions between them.
You can stack up to 20 missions at a time.
When you first start out, they won't pay much. But as you run more missions your reputation goes up...so do the number of available missions and the payout.
I have run a few smuggling missions that are worth 500K to 1 million a pop. Don't worry about smuggling illegal cargo...you just get a fine if you are scanned...pay off the fine as quickly as you can and you are good (just eats into profits.)
There is a trick to not getting scanned:
1. Approach the station entry point in an erotic fashion (harder for the cops to get you targeted to scan you).
2. Once you are lined up and about 2.5 Km away, hit the docking computer.
3. In most cases, you will auto-dock before they get a scan on you.
If they do scan you while you are auto docking...you have about 5 seconds to get through the dock "force field". They can't scan you through the force field. If you get scanned during dock...hit full throttle to get through the shield as quickly as you can...then throttle back to 0 to let the auto dock land you.
If you are brave, you can hit your booster!! I do this sometimes, but you got to be prepared to stop as quickly as possible...slamming into the back of the station will hurt a bit...and get you a reckless driving fine!
I never was able to figure out the "silent running"...I always seemed to still get scanned.
Yep, I definitely don't understand how to do missions yet effectively.
The smuggling sounds fun, but won't that affect my reputation? I am trying to go Federation so I can get the Corvette in the long run. I also still need to pledge my support to a leader, but haven't done that yet because I don't know what the complete ramifications are.
I am using the shield boosters for sure - I have one right now on my Cobra.
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Trading last night though was very boring. I am going back to bounty hunting until I have enough for a Vulture - from there I think I can bounty hunt until I have enough for a Type-7 to do some serious trading. Doing it right now at 40T per trip isn't worth it.
Smuggling doesn't affect your status...just a fine if you get caught. You can also get rep with Federal for a smuggling mission if it's offered by the right guy!
I'm playing around with fixed point mounts...much more punch when you hit!
Also - I prefer The Empire. I think it's a great thing for galactic prosperity that they string distinguish between an Imperial Slave that will definitely help The Empire...vs some regular skum bag slave...
I am trying to go Federation so I can get the Corvette in the long run. I also still need to pledge my support to a leader, but haven't done that yet because I don't know what the complete ramifications are.
You can climb the ranks of both major powers, although it may mean you can't participate in some things that require you to help one side by blowing up the other.
The leader support thing, I assume you mean PowerPlay. The main benefit of that is you eventually get access to their exclusive equipment or other benefits, so people often choose based on that. Be aware though you will essentially become an enemy of all the other powers, so your travelling into their controlled areas will get more interesting.
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