Money-Making Question!

So, quick update;

Am running Rare trades on the Laves loop that Jetson suggested. Seems to be goin well at the moment. Laves to Witchhaul was around 1-1.5mill alone.

I'm using the ASP Explorer, it's a very nice ship. Have a 5 (I think it's a 5?) B class FSD. Gives me 20something jump range, which is nice.

Next step is to optimise a loadout for the run, so I don't have to attempt this fuel scooping thing and end up overheating or coming in too close to a star trying. I just can't figure the damn thing out. Once I figure out the maximum cargo space needed for an entire loop, I'll get rid of some of my cargo space for fuel tanks, hopefully I will then have enough to jump between stations that are further away (witchhaul being close too 200Ly away).

Thanks again everyone! Am finally back on track!

Commander, out.
 
Community goals are your friend if you don't want to engage the cheese.
They are awesome early game. By the time you are trying to save up a half-billion for your 'conda: not so much.

I don't mind things like the old Sothis run blocked by some sort of experience-or-equipment wall; but they should at least exist.
 
I did look into Rare trade, but I wouldn't know a rare commodity if you jettisoned it into my face. Haha!
Rares are easy. First, they are colored YELLOW in the commodities market so they sort of stick out. Second, just follow the diagram. How much to buy? All that they have, they buy cheap and sell for crazy credits! Then wait 11 minutes and buy some more! Keep doing that until they will not sell you any more, then go to the next station on the list. Sell at the indicated stations. You do not need this diagram, it is just a primer. I worked my way into a Python using this run.
 
Great. Glad you have a new ship. Asp is great. And rare trading really has a special feeling. Nothing quite like it. It feels a bit like racing.

Enjoy and good luck!
 
So, quick update;

Am running Rare trades on the Laves loop that Jetson suggested. Seems to be goin well at the moment. Laves to Witchhaul was around 1-1.5mill alone.

I'm using the ASP Explorer, it's a very nice ship. Have a 5 (I think it's a 5?) B class FSD. Gives me 20something jump range, which is nice.

Next step is to optimise a loadout for the run, so I don't have to attempt this fuel scooping thing and end up overheating or coming in too close to a star trying. I just can't figure the damn thing out. Once I figure out the maximum cargo space needed for an entire loop, I'll get rid of some of my cargo space for fuel tanks, hopefully I will then have enough to jump between stations that are further away (witchhaul being close too 200Ly away).

Thanks again everyone! Am finally back on track!

Commander, out.

Fuel scooping is really easy.

[video=youtube;PSH0lvBcjro]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PSH0lvBcjro&t=2s[/video]

Just be sure to fit at least one heat sink into a utility slot, just in case things go south - I sneezed once and wound up at 129% heat and 88% hull. Ouch!
 
Yes, uneffected

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I know :p he did ask for the best legit way tho, so I answered it

I do realize I'm channeling my avatar name a bit here :D

Actually... guys who drive the big fancy trucks...
 
Just to add to the stack of replies, and even though you've seemingly made up your mind:


I'll add another voice in the mix in favor or a Cobra MkIII and rares-trading. That's how I cut my teeth early on in the game, and you get a good mix of travel/navigation/exploration (if you fit an ADS and honk along the way), lots of docking practice and some trade rank, a fair bit of escaping pirates, and once you're more comfortable, fighting back! I wish it was more lucrative, as it was a very fun, very diversified way of playing the game.

I traded rare commodities for a couple months until I could afford a Vulture.

The most obvious rare commodity is Lavian Brandy, that you can get at Lave Station in Lave. There is a small "bubble" of systems/stations around Lave called "The Lave Cluster" in alliance space that all have rare commodities. I purchased rares in that bubble, then traveled a few hundred LY to another bubble of concentrated rare-commidty systems in Federation Space close to Altair.

If you PM me I will give you a copy of a spread sheet another CMDR gave me early on that outlines the route.
 
So, quick update;

Am running Rare trades on the Laves loop that Jetson suggested. Seems to be goin well at the moment. Laves to Witchhaul was around 1-1.5mill alone.

I'm using the ASP Explorer, it's a very nice ship. Have a 5 (I think it's a 5?) B class FSD. Gives me 20something jump range, which is nice.

Next step is to optimise a loadout for the run, so I don't have to attempt this fuel scooping thing and end up overheating or coming in too close to a star trying. I just can't figure the damn thing out. Once I figure out the maximum cargo space needed for an entire loop, I'll get rid of some of my cargo space for fuel tanks, hopefully I will then have enough to jump between stations that are further away (witchhaul being close too 200Ly away).

Thanks again everyone! Am finally back on track!

Commander, out.

Yo, it took me a while to get used to fuel scooping, but it's worth it! I can handily fly across the whole galaxy without a care in the world!

My favorite part of this game is swooping and skipping from star to star!
 
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Fuel Scooping:

Pitch up in loops around the circumference of the star you're scooping. You'll want to keep the "outline (?)" of the star (yellow circle that shows around stellar bodies) about in line with your scooping indicator at the top of your HUD. Go as fast as you can and keep a steady altitude.

Figure out what the MAX scoop rate for your fuel scoop is. I use an A4, IIRC, fuel scoop on my long-distance Asp. The max scoop rate, which I most certainly recall, is 343 (units?).

To maximize scoop rate/heat flux ratio, don't hold that maximum scoop rate, because odds are you'll be diving too deep into the scooping zone and over heat. I try and hold 340 (units) of fuel scooping, at this scoop rate/heat flux ratio I can completely fill up my fuel tank from about 1/4 tank by the time I've reached 80% heat build up. Don't worry to much about the alarms and sparks. Nothing damaging happens until 100% heat build up, and nothing seriously damaging happens until 120%.
 
Yo, it took me a while to get used to fuel scooping, but it's worth it! I can handily fly across the whole galaxy without a care in the world!

My favorite part of this game is swooping and skipping from star to star!

Well, not entirely without a care, as you will find out when you encounter your first glut of unscoopable stars. Remember "Oh Be A Fine Girl, Kiss Me" - the main sequence, types OBAFGKM. Hang around close to anything else, you're just gathering heat, not fuel.
 
I took a hiatus from ED for awhile, summertime has too much outdoorsy stuff to do. Anyways, I started back in feeling like a green horn at about 100 mill credits, give or take, and wanted to begin increasing that to get a larger ship. To get to the point I started back in at, I've pretty much used my "Money Maker" Type-6 doing rare runs. So, being back behind the wheel on a more regular basis, I decided to start off doing a few rare runs to get up to speed with the feel of the game. Before, I had used Inara.cz or eddb.io for locating and planning my rare run routes...nothing fancy. This time, with the addition of bookmarks somewhere along the way, I used Inara.cz's website to list all the rares and their locations and bookmarked all of them. So now, I just use the galaxy map, pick a sector/side of the bubble and when I have a full load, I cruise to the other end of the bubble so I could just drop all of the rare cargo at one spot, 300-350ly away from the closest system where I purchased rares from. So much easier this way IMHO and it's kind of neat to see all the little blue flags scattered quite evenly within the bubble. If you decide to use bookmarks, I suggest adding a [R], for example, to the front of the system name so it sorts them out nicely in the list.
 
A-rated means having the best module for its class.

For example if your ship has grade 5 thrusters, than A5 would be considered A-rated , and if all your modules are A, then your entire ship is A rated

...however actually A-rating every module is rarely a good idea. For example A rated sensors provide the dubious benefits of a load of extra mass which makes your jump range less, being significantly more expensive and using a lot more power which you could better use for other things, all to increase your sensor range by a couple of kilometres which is essentially a worthless change. If you look at pretty much any build for any ship that anybody has posted on here, ever, you'll notice that the sensors are D rated, simpy because D modules are the lightest.
 
...however actually A-rating every module is rarely a good idea. For example A rated sensors provide the dubious benefits of a load of extra mass which makes your jump range less, being significantly more expensive and using a lot more power which you could better use for other things, all to increase your sensor range by a couple of kilometres which is essentially a worthless change. If you look at pretty much any build for any ship that anybody has posted on here, ever, you'll notice that the sensors are D rated, simpy because D modules are the lightest.

Technically correct. Absolutely.


"Colloquially," I have come to understand that in 95% of conversations, when a CMDR claims to have "A-rated" his ship, it is most specifically in reference to the Power Plant, Thrusters, Power Distributor, FSD, then Shields and Shield Cell Banks (if equipped, and not necessarily included). It is generally understood that most players will employ a D rated sensor module, as well as life support.


Anything else (utility mounts/other optional modules) is flavor.


But you're not wrong by any means. Just point of clarification.
 
Greetings Commanders!

Let me get this out of the way first;
This is not a "Err merrr gerd! Thay nerf'd sothis, wahhhh!" thread. So, please, do read on.

I think I've kind of dug myself into a hole and I am struggling to get out!

I was doing okay money-wise for someone that hasn't got all that much experience with the game. I currently hold about 10 million in assets (I know, not much, I'm working on it).

The problem I am having, is breaking the 10 million ball. I can't seem to gain any decent rep' with the Empire, or money for that matter. I sank almost every dollar I have into a Keelback (shut up, I know..) purely because it can house a fighter, and I want that experience. It's fun and everything, but I struggling to get anywhere. I can't seem to net any decent, worthy income from trading random commodities I buy cheap. Which in turn, I don't have a great deal of cargo space either. Being in a Keelback and all. I found a few missions that all had the same goal, "go to a CZ, kill a boat load of these guys and we will give you 500K a mission".. I thought, that's not a bad idea, I'll stack 4-5 of those and make a little bit in money. I got there, the second I opened fire, I was obliterated by every ship in the area. Not even the guys on my side could help me, literally, within seconds, every hostile ship turned on me.

I tried bounty hunting. It was a great source of income when I started, as I was aiming for hundreds of thousands. Not millions. Anything worth taking down, can and will annihilate me.

I tried smuggling Imperial Slaves over to Federation space and sell them on the Black Market. I made a daunting 50K on near 100ton worth of Slaves.

Now, I could sell my Keelback, buy something else.. That's all well and good, but it doesn't fix my problem of actually getting somewhere. Am I going to have to grind 1K missions with the Empire to open up better jobs or something? Somebody please give me some advice!

I'm not looking for a Sothis type deal, I don't want to make 500mill in a couple hours. I want something that will in the end, make me feel as though I've earned it. But I also don't want 15K rewards either.. I'm well beyond that point.

Sorry for the wall of text, and if you actually read it, thank you.. if you can give me some tangible advice, I thank you again!

I didn't read the whole thread, just the first page, so someone might have brought this up. currently the mission system is kinda bugged (we think anyway. Frontier say they're looking into it) That said, based off how the mission system was working before 2.2 I would say settle down in a system with a good range of missions that don't travel too far, 2 to 5 jumps max, and work the mission boards in and around that system until you're allied with most of the factions in a pocket of about 10 systems around that system you chose.

That's mostly what I did as a smuggler since 1.3. I went from a stock Cobra to a fleet of about 20 ships all A Grade doing mostly that. I'm not counting my Clipper as one of those cause that was mostly paid for by piracy in the Federation. But that was during 1.3 I doubt I can still do that and pay for a ship these days.
 
...however actually A-rating every module is rarely a good idea. For example A rated sensors provide the dubious benefits of a load of extra mass which makes your jump range less, being significantly more expensive and using a lot more power which you could better use for other things, all to increase your sensor range by a couple of kilometres which is essentially a worthless change. If you look at pretty much any build for any ship that anybody has posted on here, ever, you'll notice that the sensors are D rated, simpy because D modules are the lightest.

That's a bit old school, new school is getting A-rated life support, modding it with engineers by stripping weight but retaining 25 minute of oxygen.

Then cutting power to life support durring combat to have more weapons / modules active combined with low emission power plants :D

Seen some pretty funky meme builds that were surprisingly effective :D
 
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Technically correct. Absolutely.


"Colloquially," I have come to understand that in 95% of conversations, when a CMDR claims to have "A-rated" his ship, it is most specifically in reference to the Power Plant, Thrusters, Power Distributor, FSD, then Shields and Shield Cell Banks (if equipped, and not necessarily included). It is generally understood that most players will employ a D rated sensor module, as well as life support.


Anything else (utility mounts/other optional modules) is flavor.


But you're not wrong by any means. Just point of clarification.

Absolutely. I only clarified it because if OP is asking what 'A rated' means to begin with, it seemed reasonable that he may not be fully up to speed on such matters.
 
That's a bit old school, new school is getting A-rated life support, modding it with engineers by stripping weight but retaining 25 minute of oxygen.

Then cutting power to life support durring combat to have more weapons / modules active combined with low emission power plants :D

Seen some pretty funky meme builds that were surprisingly effective :D

So have I, rinzler's last vid posted here being a case in point. Although I quoted your post, my reply was obviously aimed at OP not you. I wouldn't still have all these Core Dynamics composites oin my material store were it not for your helpful advice, I was fairly sure you're not flying around with A rated sensors on all your ships :D
 
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So have I, rinzler's last vid posted here being a case in point. Although I quoted your post, my reply was obviously aimed at OP not you. I wouldn't still have all these Core Dynamics composites oin my material store were it not for your helpful advice, I was fairly sure you're not flying around with A rated sensors on all your ships :D

Hehe. No, D all the way obviously, dont you kbow thats where my name comes from?? :D
 
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