Robigo runs vs legitimate way to make tonnes of cash

You basically have to be rich already to do that. Are there any million cr jobs for like 32/64t cargo holds? 532 tonnes of slaves every 16 minutes? What are they building pyramids or something?
There are missions paying out $3-4Million for transporting 30-40 Tons of illicit cargo 350LY or so.

But no slaves for you. I don't know about legal hauling.
 
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FD needs to balance smuggling with other professions. That way people can go do what they enjoy the most, instead of being forced into one single (shady) profession to make the most credits.

How can you make more credits than smuggling?

1. Go rank up, this will take for ever but needs to be done
2. Go get several hundred million credits, so you can buy the best trade ship. I know this makes no sense as you need this ship to make millions of credits in the first place, but just go do it anyway
3. Spend hours finding a good trade route (and keep finding them as they constantly change)
4. Make the most credits possible!! haha just kidding....

A Robigo smuggler that invests almost no time into ranking up and buys one of the least expensive ships (cobra) will make almost twice as much as the best trader.. If you want to compare other profession the gap is even bigger. Nice balance you got there FD (im kidding about that too btw).
 
Who said anything about working? I rather think of pleasure ;).
hh. Sure but there are a lot cheaper ways for that. Even if you are smuggling sex slaves, they are paying you millions of credits for them. Unless you are smuggling Aisling's clones, how could a prostitute ever be that expensive?
 
FD needs to balance smuggling with other professions. That way people can go do what they enjoy the most, instead of being forced into one single (shady) profession to make the most credits.

How can you make more credits than smuggling?

1. Go rank up, this will take for ever but needs to be done
2. Go get several hundred million credits, so you can buy the best trade ship. I know this makes no sense as you need this ship to make millions of credits in the first place, but just go do it anyway
3. Spend hours finding a good trade route (and keep finding them as they constantly change)
4. Make the most credits possible!! haha just kidding....

A Robigo smuggler that invests almost no time into ranking up and buys one of the least expensive ships (cobra) will make almost twice as much as the best trader.. If you want to compare other profession the gap is even bigger. Nice balance you got there FD (im kidding about that too btw).

All top-tier levels in their respective professions, Powerplay, Smuggling, bulk trading, combat, earn on average a top dollar of $10Million/Hr.


Smuggling, to me at least, had the exact same entry-level costs as combat. I spent $20Million on a vulture (though, I could have done less) to farm LowCZs and RES sites, and was getting about $7Million/Hr.
I spent $20Million on an Asp and am making about $10Million/Hr smuggling.

I wouldn't say that's wildly out of balance. I think it fits well in the mix.
 
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What are they building pyramids or something?

I think those slaves are for cmdr Noob's Harem, either that or Archon Delain is creating a pirate army... You'll have to do smuggling missions to get 1 million + credit jobs for small cargo amounts. High paid hauling missions require a big cargo hold most of the time.

Believe me you have it easy, back in the early days 600,000 credits round trip was big money hauling 500 tonnes, T9 fuel bill was 350,000 credit round trip, if the ship wasn't damaged enroute you made a profit.
 
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All top-tier levels in their respective professions, Powerplay, Smuggling, bulk trading, combat, earn on average a top dollar of $10Million/Hr.


Smuggling, to me at least, had the exact same entry-level costs as combat. I spent $20Million on a vulture (though, I could have done less) to farm LowCZs and RES sites, and was getting about $7Million/Hr.
I spent $20Million on an Asp and am making about $10Million/Hr smuggling.

I wouldn't say that's wildly out of balance. I think it fits well in the mix.

But the thing is, to buy an expensive ship for legitimate combat and bulk trading in the first place, you have to earn those first 20M somehow. And the only easy way to do it fast it seems are illicit activities.
 
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Two of the ten powers give you bounty/bond bonuses. Zachary Hudson (President, Federation), and Arissa Lavingy-Duval (Empress, Empire). The others have different bonuses for exploration or trading.

In order to get the bonus:

1. Pledge to either of the two which grant you the combat bonuses (ZH, ALD).
2. Earn at least 100 Merits for them by any means (Fortification, Control, Undermine), and turn them in at a station in a system CONTROLLED by your power. You cannot just turn them in anywhere.
3. Wait until the Thursday cycle.
4. You now have your 20% bonus on bounties and bonds -

- However there is a catch. The bonus only applies in (someone please step in and correct me if this is not accurate) CONTROL systems for that power, and systems EXPLOITED by that power.

For example you cannot pledge to Hudson, and go bounty hunting in Imperial/Alliance space and expect the bonus to apply. You need to stay in the bubbles of systems controlled and exploited by your chosen power to receive the bonus on bounties/bonds.

ALSO - only half of your merits transfer from on cycle to the next, so you will need to earn a few merits each week to maintain the rank (2) necessary to receive the bonus.

There is a passive 20% bonus in ALD control/exploited systems, regardless of pledge. Hudson and ALD give you a bonus at rank 2, increasing at rank 5. Antal gives a bonus at rank 5.
 
Believe me you have it easy, back in the early days 600,000 credits round trip was big money hauling 500 tonnes, T9 fuel bill was 350,000 credit round trip, if the ship wasn't damaged enroute you made a profit.

I remember. I got bored and never earned anything before I quit. Now I'm back for Horizons and even though I don't do much surface missions as they are too bugged and arcadey for now, I can now at least earn something up in orbit.
 
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There is a passive 20% bonus in ALD control/exploited systems, regardless of pledge. Hudson and ALD give you a bonus at rank 2, increasing at rank 5. Antal gives a bonus at rank 5.
And Hudson currently still a bug: the rating 2 or 5 bonus is applied twice.

For ALD, this bug was fixed as well as bonuses on combat bonds removed.
 
But the thing is, to buy an expensive ship for legitimate combat and bulk trading in the first place, you have to earn those first 20M somehow. And the only easy to do it fast it seems are illicit activities.

It isn't too tough to find legitimate routes in a T6 that will give you over 1million per hour. Likewise, it isn't too tough to make 1 million per hour in a viper hunting pirates. There is of course an entry to get into a viper or T6, but even in a sidey you can make a couple hundred thousand an hour bounty hunting, or the same in a hauler or adder moving rares.
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It takes a bit to get the ball rolling, but I found it to be incredibly enjoyable to do, the moment I bought my cobra III was one of the most satisfying in the entire game and I got all the money for it bounty hunting in my sidewinder. There is a reason that sitting in the shipyard next to my Anaconda, are the vipers, an eagle, a sidewinder and the cobras, and they don't just gather dust.
 
All top-tier levels in their respective professions, Powerplay, Smuggling, bulk trading, combat, earn on average a top dollar of $10Million/Hr.


Smuggling, to me at least, had the exact same entry-level costs as combat. I spent $20Million on a vulture (though, I could have done less) to farm LowCZs and RES sites, and was getting about $7Million/Hr.
I spent $20Million on an Asp and am making about $10Million/Hr smuggling.

I wouldn't say that's wildly out of balance. I think it fits well in the mix.

I think making 7m/hr in Rez is stretching it a bit. You are talking about an average of about 250k every 2 mins, than includes finding the ship, scanning it and destroying it and be able to keep up that pace for 3hrs straight to make 21mil (also you would probably need a faction bonus to make that much).. And even if you could keep up that pace, I can make DOUBLE that smuggling, while watching tv.. In fact i would say triple that. I did 3hrs worth of smuggling yesterday for a total payout of about 55m..

Bottom line, smuggling pays way more than anything else.. and if you average 10m/hr smuggling you are doing something wrong. Btw try spending 20m on a trade ship and see how much you make per hr.
 
Likewise, it isn't too tough to make 1 million per hour in a viper hunting pirates.

But how? The most I got was 130k bounty. But mostly they are ~20k-ish. I Got 700k once because he had 7t of scientific samples in the cargo hold. But it happened only once and even then it didn't total a million together with the bounty. There are some 200k-400k missions for bounty hunting but they usually involve master/elite Anacondas in wings. I can't take that in a Viper. But even if I could it would be more like 400k per hour, not M+.
 
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if the background simulation was working correctly , all this smuggling would be encouraging rampart elite npc piracy ( as well as the player kind) and smugglers would be getting interdicted by wings of 5 elite cobras or such. Lawlessness would be high, wealth, standard of living and legal trade at a minumum, an ongoing famine and drug use and unemployment would be skyhigh.

The local lawful factions would be giving out massive credit missions to kill pirates, alas this isnt happening cause Fdev havent worked the background sim.
 
legitimate way of making tons of cash:

Join ALD or Hudson for rank 2 PP bonus, make tons of cash bounty hunting.

Much more entertaining and also more profitable (if you do it right) than trading.

I think making 7m/hr in Rez is stretching it a bit..

I regularly make 10 million an hour with the rank 2 PP bonus, which increases your profits by 196% (if your pledged power is in second place). You can make close to 12 million an hour with the 225% first place bonus.
 
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legitimate way of making tons of cash:

Join ALD or Hudson for rank 2 PP bonus, make tons of cash bounty hunting.

Much more entertaining and also more profitable (if you do it right) than trading.

Well legal. Not legitimate. At least with ADL. Pledging allegiance to Duval means to support slavery and authoritarian regimes. On top of that, bounties that were put on someone by the Empire are hardly legitimate as they can include freedom fighters etc. Hudson, it currently seems like the best option but he seems very pro-war. Why doesn't that Clinton lady offer bounty bonuses or the Alliance dude? No one warring against them? All the others seem even bigger nutters to me.

How much play time per day do you need to keep those bonuses?
 
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Well legal. Not legitimate. At least with ADL. Pledging allegiance to Duval means to support slavery and authoritarian regimes. On top of that, bounties that were put on someone by the Empire are hardly legitimate as they can include freedom fighters etc. Hudson, it currently seems like the best option but he seems very pro-war. Why doesn't that Clinton lady offer bounty bonuses or the Alliance dude? No one warring against them? All the others seem even bigger nutters to me.

How much play time per day do you need to keep those bonuses?


If you don't want to pledge to ALD you can still pledge to Hudson. He's not pro-war, he's pro-corporate.

The rank 2 bonus takes roughly 30 minutes to obtain, including the time needed to jump to the relevant systems.
 
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If you don't want to pledge to ALD you can still pledge to Hudson. He's not pro-war, he's pro-corporate.

The rank 2 bonus takes roughly 30 minutes to obtain, including the time needed to jump to the relevant systems.

Oh great then. tnx.
 
But how? The most I got was 130k bounty. But mostly they are ~20k-ish. I Got 700k once because he had 7t of scientific samples in the cargo hold. But it happened only once and even then it didn't total a million together with the bounty. There are some 200k-400k missions for bounty hunting but they usually involve master/elite Anacondas in wings. I can't take that in a Viper. But even if I could it would be more like 400k per hour, not M+.

Rare goods routes can make you 1 mil per hour, or grab any ship and neutron farm.. You can earn enough to buy a Python quite quickly from Neutron farming, no drugs/hookers/slaves/weapons involved.. Just you scanning tiny dots and trying not to die for a week or so :/

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=101211

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=163816
 
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Jane Turner

Volunteer Moderator
Some of our guys are making 2 mill an hour mining pristine metallics combined with mining related missions. They were coming back 3-4 times an evening ships (Python/T7) loaded with just platinum, Painite palladium and osmium - even occasionally venting gold because it didn't pay enough.
 
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