Cheap Pimped-Out Ride or Expensive Plain Vanilla Ride

[Old Duck]

So I find myself very back-and-forth regarding how to spend my early credits. I can get a cheaper ship (under 100,000 credits) and invest in better weapons and modules, or I can save up for a more expensive ship (early game "expensive" like Cobra or Diamondback) which will be vanilla for awhile since all my credits went into buying the ship. Of course the eventual goal is a more expensive ship that's also pimped out, but I'm taking early game here.

I'm not looking for advice - this is a road I must travel myself, but I am very curious what the rest of you plan to do with your early credits.

 

[Mr Fad]

On a recent fresh commander restart I found plenty of one jump delivery missions ranging from 80 to 130k in the starter system.

I did about 10 or so and went to the nearest discount station and jumped strait into an upgraded cobra mkiii

Money is much easier to aquire than in the xbox gpp and first year!

 

[CMDR Lukas Vance]

I will put a LOT of time in early on, based on the time I spent playing on FO4 (and this didn't really drop off until very late on in the game, after I had completed the story line and I take a very indirect route on this , completing most of the radial and DLC first). Because of this I suspect I will get quite a lot of credits in a relative short space of 'out of game' time. My plan is to play as much as I possibly can in the Sidey and upgrade the heck out of that to be able to afford the DBX and then engineer this. The way I look at it, people are discovering things through exploration every minute, so the sooner I start exploring the better chance I have to find something else no one has. Yes, I know the Universe is massive and we've only found x%, but finding the routes to unexplored areas is not so simple, so the sooner the better to me. I don't think that time is as much an element in combat or trading (the main other ranks) or the other areas of the game that you can choose.

Whether or not that is feasible in practice I don't know until I start playing. I am done with reading up and watching videos, I just want to play now. To me, if you can get money in a high security resource extraction site in a Sidey when you first start out, upgrading the Sidey will just make that more efficient. If not I have hear the DBX is a pretty good all rounder for zipping about the bubble so even when you are looking for stuff for the engineers the vanilla DBX should be ok. I hope to have a fully kitted out DBX with all the bells and whistles for the 'Grand Day Out' with DRX.

If all this doesn't seem to be working out, or is too much hard work in the Sidey/DBX I plan to buy a Cobra Mk III as it's well known as a good all-rounder.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

So I find myself very back-and-forth regarding how to spend my early credits. I can get a cheaper ship (under 100,000 credits) and invest in better weapons and modules, or I can save up for a more expensive ship (early game "expensive" like Cobra or Diamondback) which will be vanilla for awhile since all my credits went into buying the ship. Of course the eventual goal is a more expensive ship that's also pimped out, but I'm taking early game here.

I'm not looking for advice - this is a road I must travel myself, but I am very curious what the rest of you plan to do with your early credits.

Save units until skill level increases to match ships maximum abilities. A large high end ship doesn't make a good pilot. Though a good pilot can make a small low end ship great.

I'd suggest to sny experienced pilot getting board, do what experienced fishermen do. In which they attempt to catch large fish with lighter and lighter gear. Fully engineer a winder and then see what, your abilities can do.

 

[Snowbeard]

Gold winder to Hauler to Cobra. A rate the Cobra. Buy a Viper for bounty hunting and A rate that. Use Cobra and Viper to make enough for a Vulture and A rate that. Phase One complete

 

[Racetrack]

I think I'm gonna play in my Adder for while. It's a good early mission ship and can hold more cargo than a Hauler. It has a class 2 hard point and costs less than 100k. I'll upgraded it for a bit then store it and buy a Viper mk3. The Viper will be for bounty hunting and I'll swap into the Adder for courier missions.

Also. TWO WEEKS TO GO!!!!!!

 

[Old Duck]

On a recent fresh commander restart I found plenty of one jump delivery missions ranging from 80 to 130k in the starter system.

I did about 10 or so and went to the nearest discount station and jumped strait into an upgraded cobra mkiii

Money is much easier to aquire than in the xbox gpp and first year!

I have mixed feelings about 'easy coin'. This is probably in response to people complaining about the "grind", but it takes some of the challenge out of the game. "Never done an honest day's work for all that coin you're carrying, eh, lass?"

My plan is to play as much as I possibly can in the Sidey and upgrade the heck out of that to be able to afford the DBX and then engineer this.

I'm leaning in this direction, though probably with a different "cheap" ship, for similar and different reasons. I want to "enjoy" vs "grind", and I read lots of posts in Dangerous Discussions about people getting bored because they grind, grind, grind, get their 'Conda, and then are like, "Now what?" Many even go back to the smaller, cheaper ships because they find them more fun. There's a new thread about "boring" ships, and many are listing the commonly sought after ships because there is no challenge after getting those ships.

It's more about the journey than the destination.. That said, I do have my eyes on a particular mid-level ship, and if coin is so easy to come by in this game, perhaps I'll have my cake and eat it too!

 

[BanzaiMike]

My plan is to either start off buying and building up an iEagle to learn the combat side of things, or buy and build up an Adder for Hauling to learn the trading and economy mechanics.
The group I game with are all planning similar things to me but given that most want to do BH/Escorting the trade ships I will most likely it will be the Adder i buy first.

Next aim is to then upgrade the iEagle to the Viper MKIV and the Adder to a Type-6, then I haven't a clue which direction to go in probably continue to do both.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

I have mixed feelings about 'easy coin'. This is probably in response to people complaining about the "grind", but it takes some of the challenge out of the game. "Never done an honest day's work for all that coin you're carrying, eh, lass?"



I'm leaning in this direction, though probably with a different "cheap" ship, for similar and different reasons. I want to "enjoy" vs "grind", and I read lots of posts in Dangerous Discussions about people getting bored because they grind, grind, grind, get their 'Conda, and then are like, "Now what?" Many even go back to the smaller, cheaper ships because they find them more fun. There's a new thread about "boring" ships, and many are listing the commonly sought after ships because there is no challenge after getting those ships.

It's more about the journey than the destination.. That said, I do have my eyes on a particular mid-level ship, and if coin is so easy to come by in this game, perhaps I'll have my cake and eat it too!

Agree, given some experience (more for me than others) would be needed. I'd like to be involved in a wing of tricked out, enginered to the max, sidewinders with all with common goal like hunting griefers. There's no chalange in forming a wing of the biggest, badest, tricked out, engineered ships doing the same.

 

[Mr Fad]

I have mixed feelings about 'easy coin'. This is probably in response to people complaining about the "grind", but it takes some of the challenge out of the game. "Never done an honest day's work for all that coin you're carrying, eh, lass?"



I'm leaning in this direction, though probably with a different "cheap" ship, for similar and different reasons. I want to "enjoy" vs "grind", and I read lots of posts in Dangerous Discussions about people getting bored because they grind, grind, grind, get their 'Conda, and then are like, "Now what?" Many even go back to the smaller, cheaper ships because they find them more fun. There's a new thread about "boring" ships, and many are listing the commonly sought after ships because there is no challenge after getting those ships.

It's more about the journey than the destination.. That said, I do have my eyes on a particular mid-level ship, and if coin is so easy to come by in this game, perhaps I'll have my cake and eat it too!

It used to be much much slower with average delivery missions being worth more like 12k for one jump and maybe 30k for a few jumps!

People used to post on the forums when they made their first million but now you can do it in just over an hour lol

 

[HHKaaL]

I'll start upgrading my sidey (fuel scoop, ADS etc), I like that I won't have to buy a vehicle hangar and SRV (because of starting with a horizons sidewinder), so i'll save some credits, and after that I'll buy a Hauler for the DRX event

 

[Ashnak]

Well, if you want the suggestion from a not-so-old PC CMDR: go for cheap and pimped over expensive vanilla every time - and never fly what you can't rebuy!

The vanilla ships are death traps, while a pimped Sidewinder can be a serious problem if you're looking into the wrong end of its railguns Problem is that, apart from the admittedly rather limited Sidey, there are no cheap multi purpose ships.

But that Sidey's good value for its money. What I did after a clear save in March:
- stick with the Sidey
- don't go for combat. You can do a little bounty hunting with support of the fuzz, i.e. follow the system security around in a RES, then scan and shoot what they are shooting. 15 (assisted) kills let you unlock Tod.
- do missions instead until you can upgrade the Sidey to at least A-rated FSD, fuel scoop and advanced discovery scanner. If you can squeeze in a SRV or a detailed surface scanner, the better
- make the trip to Maia, collect some Meta Alloys and pick up Soontil Relics on the way back. That trip should easily push your exploration rank high enough so that you can unlock Felicity (meta alloys) and Elvira (relics)
- with those two engineers unlocked, you can really start to upgrade your sidey - e.g. with the enhanced thrusters
- do some shooting, unlock Tod and upgrade the guns

Now you can get a ship that really is worth it. For example... You just have to flexible and switch modules on the fly (easy, since you can store high graded or upgraded modules and have them shipped to wherever you are), since the Sidey just has four slots. Now make some money to get a T-6, and unlock Selene Jean.

My sequence was Sidey -> T-6 (mining for Selene) -> Dolphin (which I'm currently using), with a Vulture on the side for some PvP action. If you want to go that way, the Dolphin can be a real money spinner once you get chummy enough with one or two minor factions in a tourist port.

 

[Tetzmol]

I plan to hang out in a RES in my Sidey aiding the security forces the first couple of hours, making 4 mil. before I get a Viper MKIII and kitting it out A grade. With the Viper I then will do some more active bounty hunting until I have about 10 mil. Getting a Cobra and upgrade it to A-grade. (Of course I'll keep the Viper in storage) With the Cobra I'd like to do some rare item trading while exploring the bubble, making more cash on the go. After trading for a while I'll get me a DBX, engineer it to the full, making sure it can jump around 50ly before I leave the bubble behind, doing exploration, seeing the beautiful sights, meeting you guys in the deep black. Unraveling the alien mysteries etc.
Life in space is good, adventurous and dangerous.

 

[Old Duck]

I plan to hang out in a RES in my Sidey aiding the security forces the first couple of hours, making 4 mil.

You realize how ridiculous that sounds, right? Not you, but that we can make 4 million credits in a couple of hours. Inflation must be out of control in 3303...

I need an IRL RES like this, then I could afford a PS4 Pro and 4K OLED

 

[=TK=]

On my XBox account my progression was:

Sidewinder - Adder - Cobra Mk3 - ASP Explorer. I only sold the Adder, and i now own a Viper MkIV that is A rated and awesome in RES zones. I had a Viper MK3 but i've stripped it and its in storage

For the Playstation I'm going to be doing this (assuming there'll be no new ships until later this year) :

1. Goldwinder - head to a RES zone and do some bounty hunting, upgrading a little as I go. Will eventually A rate and mod to covert it into a Suprisewinder
2. Adder - Kit out for range and head out to the nearby sysems with ELW and rank up Explorer rank while earning the Creds.
3. Viper MKIV - A rate the FSD and its a 20ly ship witjh decent cargo and weapons
4. Diamondback Explorer or ASP X - A rated FSD for multipurpose missions and some Exploring. Once purchased, Viper4 will be kitted out for Bounty Hunting
5. Python..... haven't thought about anything after that

 

[Snowbeard]

Just goes to show that there is no right way to play ED

 

[Cadarnfel]

What I tended to do when I cleared my save and started again in the PC version.

- Do a couple of delivery missions in the sidewinder to get some credits so I can beef up the FSD, for better jump range.
- start heading to my favourite system, surveying all systems on the way (easy credits - they've all been discovered, but the Cartographic institute always pays for updated surveys)
- once I'm home, start doing local missions to get up to a Hauler, for a bit extra cargo space. Usually only takes three or four hours of play to then afford a Cobra MKIII

At that point I will spend the credits as I earn them to fully A-rate the ships modules, for maximum performance, starting with FSD, thrusters, and powerplant.

Fly that for awhile, whilst saving and ranking up to get a Federal Dropship - I generally don't go beyond that, as I've found it to be a versatile ship, taking into account it's unique flight characteristics.

I did run a DB Explorer for awhile (hopefully I'll be able to buy the Chrome paint job on the PS4 that my PC version had), but it didn't really suit my pilot.

 

[CMDR Lukas Vance]

Fly that for awhile, whilst saving and ranking up to get a Federal Dropship - I generally don't go beyond that, as I've found it to be a versatile ship, taking into account it's unique flight characteristics.

I saw a video where someone had packed one of those with ballistic weapons. Man, that had some teeth!

 

[goemon]

even if you are not looking for advise ... you don't loose CR selling moduls, you loose CR selling a ship.

the starter ships are very limited (and a lot of fun to fly, you'll find me often in an eagle!) - basically, a 600 k cr cobra mkIII including hull and cheap outfitting will outperform a 1 mio fully maxed out sidewinder, in jumprange, speed, firepower, shields, cargo ... the only hard fact for a sidey in this case is it has a smaller hitbox and can land everywhere on a surface ... not much. and that cheap cobra is only outperformed in jumprange a bit by a 2 mio CR maxed out wonderfull Adder, while again having more speed, firepower, shields, cargo.

there is literally no reason to stick with the smallest ship in the beginning, but to outfit them better - if you don't simply love them. this guy for exampel intends to make triple elite in a sidey: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/229422-Insanity-or-a-serious-challenge

once you sit in a cobra mkIII, all other ships are sidegrades - you can enjoy and survive anything in the game in a cobra mkIII (but i personally love the variety of ships).

 

[M0rtr3k]

Get an Adder ASAP, do bounty hunting and trading so I can pimp it out and go outside the bubble and possibly Colonia.