Profit to Fun, Non-Trading Profits

Valo56

Valo56
Hey all. Looking for a bit of advice.

Right now I've got roughly 4 million in assets/credits altogether, which I got largely from biting the bullet and doing trading for a couple hours.

Originally I started just bounty hunting at nav beacons, which was fun, and got me my first 200k or so. Then I did mining for another 400k. Some exploration, combat zones and a lot more bounty hunting got me to about 1.3 million, and from there I quickly tripled my cash by trading within 48 hours of intermittent play. 300k in profit per full trade run is tough to compete with.

Since then I've tried a bit of piracy, I think I've made about two hundred thousand off of that. Took a trip 2k lightyears from Sol and made a few hundred thousand. Smuggling got me next to nil. Exploration would be interesting but I find supercruise a nuisance to deal with, and that very rarely do I come across a place that is a joy to explore (like HD 6494). Amazingly, it's more time consuming and monotonous than trading, with nothing to actually do out there yet.

I'm sitting at 4 million, which is a lot and I can afford to upgrade any of the cheaper ships as much as I want. It's really nice but I feel like I've reached a point where I'm overqualified for the smaller ships but still too poor to move on.

Now, I could spend the next three days trading and get myself up to probably 10 million, but that's not how I want to spend my time, and that would only get me up to an Asp. I want to get into larger ships that allow me to make an impact in community goals, and actually make a difference in conflict zones. But trading is so monotonous and boring... "Fly to Station X with Commodity Y then fly back with Commodity Z, repeat as necessary."

Sure, trading is highly profitable, but I'm looking for a balanced profit per hour to fun ratio. Any suggestions on profitable, but not monotonous tasks?
 

DAYLEET

DAYLEET
Even if you could repeatedly do Anaconda assassination mission without having to find it first you would not be able to match straight trading. But i guess those mission could be more fun to you than trading and they still give 100k+ dont know what else could pay.
 
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Cmdr Thrudd

Cmdr Thrudd
Generally when I'm feeling like that I mix things up. Rather than setting a goal I just see where the winds take me. I'll pick a point on the map, fly there killing stuff as I go, scanning a few planets then doing the odd mission or two or watching for a trade route. Basically I spend a few days not sticking to any one thing or watching the cash counter (it usually goes up weather you watch it or not). I spend maybe half an hour to an hour on each task then switch. Don't stick in one place, don't trade one route, don't even hunt in one spot just be a bit random and see what happens. :)
 

Jerakeen

Jerakeen
I would get yourself a Cobra, bite the bullet and trade the Lave - 39 Tauri rare trading run ( you'll find details of it here) and do that just for a couple of days to build up about 10 million or so. It won't take long. You'll get about 6-700k each way if you fill your Cobra at each end.
That will allow you to fully upgrade the Cobra and then you're set to take on just about anything.
 

Jaiotu

Jaiotu
Even with 10 million credits you're not going to get a real good load out in an Asp. I'm sitting on nearly 36 million in assets and my best combat loadout in an Asp left a lot to be desired so I'm back to fighting in a Cobra. I can get it A-rated and still have plenty of credits left over.
The only way to make the kind of credits you are going to need is to either be really patient in combat or start binge-watching the Bob Newhart show or something while doing mindless trading missions.
Don't get me wrong... I actually enjoy trading.
Right now I'm fighting for the Federation in the Banki system... they've got a community goal mission going there. You know what the award is for the CMDR who brings in the most kills in the next 6 days? 500,000cr!
I'm like... you are kidding right? I can earn twice that in an hour running cargo in a Type 7. It seems to me that six days of combat to ensure you get to number one on the leaderboard should be worth more.
Combat is much more exciting than trading (even for a guy like me who plays Elite because it is a trading game) but everytime I take a break from trading I feel like its delaying me from getting enough credits to put myself in that Python I really want (sadly I only want the python because I can grind credits trading faster).
 

Mohrgan

Mohrgan
I suggest the balance is up to you. In order to make the big bucks you either have to trade, or accept a slower pace to the largest ships. That's the path I've chosen. I'd rather fly a small ship, than resort to the trade grind. With that said, I still have to trade some to meet some of my short term goals.
.
Avail yourself of all facets to the game in the proportions that best suit your pleasure, needs, and mood.
 

Steve72

S
Pick a rare route and drop into anarchy on route. Take your time have fun and the credits also roll up. Yes you can spend 30 mill on asp but 15 will get you a very descent spec that ok for pve. Took out first deadly anaconda last night. Only used one shield cell. Still got a long way to go but thats the fun. Tried exploring found boring. Started trading in trade spec asp which is lot cheaper just boring.
 

Valo56

Valo56
Thanks for the suggestions. Another quick question: How many credits does one earn bringing in metals for a starport's construction efforts? Is it a decent amount?
 

Ekar

Ekar
Jerakeen said:
I would get yourself a Cobra, bite the bullet and trade the Lave - 39 Tauri rare trading run ( you'll find details of it here) and do that just for a couple of days to build up about 10 million or so. It won't take long. You'll get about 6-700k each way if you fill your Cobra at each end.
That will allow you to fully upgrade the Cobra and then you're set to take on just about anything.
Click to expand...

That's what I've been doing roughly the last couple of nights. My goal is to buy an Asp (from a Cobra) and I thought I was doing Ok profit wise, but then I realised I'm still about 4mil away from simply buying the ship. Atm I'm getting about 300k one way. The rares trading is pretty monotonous as it's a long haul with fuel scooping to bog you down... I don't know if I'll be able to maintain this route.

I think I've got 18 units cargo on my Cobra currently, and can jump around 14 ly. Is it possible to go much higher than that? I have a few weapons, basic scanner etc, so I might try to strip things down and increase my jump range atleast to speed things up.
 
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Dr Roly

Dr Roly
As other people have said you need a lot of money to outfit an Asp; 35mil bare minimum and even then I would not use it for fighting other players, only NPCs. 10 - 11mil will give you a top-of-the line Cobra for combat use, which is in many ways a better choice than the Asp for fighting.

Personally, rather than an Asp, I would have a Type 6 (just outfitted with cargo racks, a good FSD and cheap shield) for trading and a Cobra optimised for combat. The two ships combined would come to around 15mil. The T6 hauls almost as much cargo as the Asp and the Cobra will be a much less risky proposition for combat as you loose less money if the ship goes boom.
 

lolanon

L
I do not understand this asp expense. I've spent 12m on mine and it's a great ship. Brest so far and insurance isn't too much!

You do NOT need 35m!!!
 

alexnode

A
Trading is a bit boring but you can try doing missions at the same time ... Elite is boring that is the point of the game. If they wanted a game with fast thrills they would have designed it differently. The problem is that there are a few points that you have to do a lot of trading and for a long time moving from type 7 - or clipper to a python (with A fsd ) requires a lot of trade runs , a lot of trade runs , i was ready to give up the game but there is nothing interesting out there at the moment.
For trade i tried to get in a good area and do circular routes while getting some missions too. also putting a timer and see how quickly i could do a run. Then try to improve the time ... Buy a cobra in your local high tech store and start shooting things for a bit of variety - When i got the python and earned another 14 million in three days I bought an ASP again. Now I am going to the center of the universe for the first time . This is boring too but i hope to stumble to something interesting. I haven't found another earth yet neither a black hole ... but loads of water worlds ... I just press the scanner and move on i am stopping at the interesting spots only--- it is unbelievably dull but i am starting getting used to it. A lot of trade runs ...
 
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Jetset

J
lolanon said:
I do not understand this asp expense. I've spent 12m on mine and it's a great ship. Brest so far and insurance isn't too much!

You do NOT need 35m!!!
Click to expand...

Find me in my fully A rated Asp & I'll show you, very quickly, just how good your 12M Asp is......make sure you have the insurance money to rebuy it!
 

DizzyRonson

D
if you like combat you can go cobra hunting in a RES with a viper..
quite a lot of fun and 200-300k cr per hour or so..
theres even the odd anaconda for you to pester:)
snake hunting:D
 

Darshendros the Eternal

Darshendros the Eternal
Trade in rare items. It's not as boring as regular trading, plus the risk is higher! Mapping out an efficient route, making corrections to said route, adding more stations, etc. for maximum profits. Way more interesting than running palladium/crop harvesters/slaves back and forth.

And the rush you get when a wannabe pirate tries to gank you... :D
 

lolanon

L
Jetset said:
Find me in my fully A rated Asp & I'll show you, very quickly, just how good your 12M Asp is......make sure you have the insurance money to rebuy it!
Click to expand...

You do not need an a speed asp straight away though. This asp from my screenshot on this thread has an asp that is a dream to fly after t6 and even cobra.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=111868&page=3

My point is you don't need the top end asp to start with because stock it is still better than what players have had up to that point. But you veterans forget that because it was a year ago!
 
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