Things it feels like I'm missing here...

[DustyArne]

I accepted a "kill a Goliath" mission yesterday, that was definitely a mistake. I flew there with a friend, both of us noobs and not really prepared. First we thought we would have to destroy a ship, but it was a ground target. He landed too close to it and got destroyed, I just managed to escape...

Use a Viper with Dumbfire missiles.. you can hit them Air to Ground with it.. Make sure you hit them though.. lol

 

[Factabulous]

You can mine anywhere in the ring. You might get one or two dodgy npcs sniffing around wherever you drop, so don't go in defenseless.

Or go with an empty cargo hold - they'll scan you and then you'll be left in peace

 

[Mr. Stevens Catering]

Most sane people stay well clear of resource extraction sites to extract resources.

Cowards!

 

[phong]

lol - I thought that was the only place you could mine. Haven't tried mining yet, but it was on my list to try as I fumble my way through the early days in ED.

So what other options are there for mining? Or is there a ship/build that'd let you mine whilst also giving you some teeth to fight off pirates?

You can mine in any ship*,but you need a refinery,limpets and a limpet cotroller,+ a mining laser and cargo space.You can also mine asteroid fields.
*can't speak for the eagle.Never tried.

 

[Foddy]

You can mine in any ship*,but you need a refinery,limpets and a limpet cotroller,+ a mining laser and cargo space.You can also mine asteroid fields.
*can't speak for the eagle.Never tried.

To be pedantic, you don't need the limpets or the controller ... the cargo scoop is perfectly workable without!

 

[Factabulous]

To be pedantic, you don't need the limpets or the controller ... the cargo scoop is perfectly workable without!

... but it's not the most interesting thing to do, though you'll get good at scooping cargo

Then again, mining with limpets is still pretty zen. For use with limpets you want something like a T6 or (preferably) Python (or even larger) to make it worth while. If you want to try out mining I suggest doing it after checking out the Engineers (if you have Horizons), as some engineers want you to mine stuff for them (Painite?), and since you have to mine for that you can combine it with trying out mining (I know I did )