Long range hauling missions... ?

[Seizewell Warrior]

I would be grateful just to get some decent haulage missions of any description!

Trying to make headway with Trade, faction rank and gathering engineering materials, the boards are plastered with "Kill Him", "Assassinate Him", "Knock Turrets off a Mega-ship" but precious little in the way of low risk "Please take 300 tonnes of Tea to Cemiess" type missions. The haulage or fetch missions that are on display are either for 1,000s of items (i.e. for a wing undertaking) or pitiful 30k credit courier runs. When I last grinded Trade (over a year ago) there were plenty of diverse ordinary missions for passive trading style gameplay.

And yes, buying and selling via EDDB can be very profitable, but it's not adding to rank (other than the local station faction) and certainly not getting the materials.

Maybe this will change in the next gameplay update, but not holding my breath.

 

[SpaceScania]

I would be grateful just to get some decent haulage missions of any description!

You can find 120-180t haulage missions farily easily once you put the legwork in. Get allied with the factions and look for systems that are in the Boom state. Refinery systems in Boom can offer 5Mcr for 180t of some valuable metal for example. Sadly 300 or more tons haulage missions do not yet exist in the game.

If you find that it is hard to grind the rep one way that I found useful just to get started is to do some exploration and then sell that exploration data to a cluster of nearby systems with related factions. I can get a few factions up to allied in that way and then once I have that getting other factions up to allied doesn’t take that long.

It can often be worth it to focus on mission REP rewards too for a little while until your little core trading/haulage area has good REP built up.

 

[Chromezero]

Is 100ly really a long haul in a trading ship? I've been away from the bubble a long time I think my sense of scale is off because of it.

It's not very far, no. Nearly all the cargo missions are one jump away, maybe two, right now. If it were 300LY away, then I'd need to refuel along the way or use a fuel scoop. I'd just like to see some more variety in the cargo missions.

 

[777Driver]

And yes, buying and selling via EDDB can be very profitable, but it's not adding to rank (other than the local station faction) and certainly not getting the materials.

Buying and selling adds to trade rank, any profit through trade and mining adds to rank.

Regarding missions, thousands of ports out there offering high paying haulage once allied. For no risk missions you can even do high capacity haulage and market trading between ports on the same planet (no supercruise, no interdictions) I used to have a bunch of those zero risk routes, haven't played ED much lately so those routes have likely changed or dried out.

You just have to understand how the BGS works and find yourself a good area to operate from. Locating those areas is part of the fun for me.

But if you want guaranteed high profit work, the Pliedes Bubble is the place to go. No point waiting for an update, everything you need is in the game and has been for a good few years now, the devs have made a bit of effort recently to make the BGS more transparent to newer cmdrs.

 

[SpaceScania]

I just love great space trucking threads! So much that can be learned. Keep it up CMDR’s!

 

[DragonIV]

You can find 120-180t haulage missions farily easily once you put the legwork in. Get allied with the factions and look for systems that are in the Boom state. Refinery systems in Boom can offer 5Mcr for 180t of some valuable metal for example.

If you find yourself in Empire land, boom states can have you delivering 180t jobs for up to 20Mcr. Imperial slaves, of course.

Civil war states often give rise to weapons trafficking missions for those 3-5Mcr missions, too, and are very easy to stack. Again, rep is king when it comes to juicy missions, and the higher your trade rank (elite or close to it) the better.

 

[Seizewell Warrior]

Thanks for the responses guys. Basically it's the lack of normal trading missions that's annoying me - just rocked up in Sol where I have good rep with many of the factions, but the boards are just full of Massacre/Kill style missions. When I did spot a trading mission, ruled out because my T10 is too big. And at this point it's not credits I need particularly, it's materials for the Engineers - which I thought originally was one of the changes introduced for mission rewards a while ago.

I'll keep grinding for now, but starting to get more than a little frustrated.

 

[SpaceScania]

Thanks for the responses guys. Basically it's the lack of normal trading missions that's annoying me - just rocked up in Sol where I have good rep with many of the factions, but the boards are just full of Massacre/Kill style missions. When I did spot a trading mission, ruled out because my T10 is too big. And at this point it's not credits I need particularly, it's materials for the Engineers - which I thought originally was one of the changes introduced for mission rewards a while ago.

I'll keep grinding for now, but starting to get more than a little frustrated.

Give the nearby Lung system a try if it is still in the boom state. Found good missions there recently in my Cutter.

 

[DragonIV]

Basically it's the lack of normal trading missions that's annoying me - just rocked up in Sol where I have good rep with many of the factions, but the boards are just full of Massacre/Kill style missions. When I did spot a trading mission, ruled out because my T10 is too big.

The wrong system states will definitely give lousy delivery missions--which is why I move around to find the best ones. Tends to vary week in and week out, but I have a solid six systems that I'm either fully allied with or mostly, and that means it doesn't take long to find decent ones.

I use a Python and a large hauler around for these kind of missions, as sometimes you'll see all of the great missions going to platforms, or a mix of the two.

 

[Hossi]

There were long range hauling missions back then. I made my first billion hauling from outside collonies (mostly Aditi), about 400ly. With an unengineered clipper these trips required some planning. I remembner back to the bubble with cargo was about 30 jumps, with a 4 minute scopping break every 5 jump. About 1 and a half hour, with a dozend pirates on your heels and no inhabited system for the next 10 jump. That was fun.
They completly vanished when passenger missionons were added. Don't ask me why, it not like the income was excessive. A full ship got me up to 30MCr, but there and back again together with the distribution to ~10 different systems it took at least 5 hours, mostly I distributed it over two days.

 

[DNYI]

We had these long distance cargo hauling missions before. A lot of people liked them, because they paid more credits the further the distance. Then they got removed/nerfed partly because of the "back in my day you had to work really hard to get an Anaconda" mentality and the "long haul missions are the new gold rush, we have to nerf them". Granted alot of these now nerfed/removed missions were found at the edge of the bubble, but you still had a good chance to get a long distance haul mission at a destination from a previous mission.

FYI: I'm triple Elite with over 1300 hours in the game and have been playing since the v1.2.6 Wings Update

 

[Chromezero]

They completely vanished when passenger missions were added.

And this is why I now have several "passenger" ships. It similar enough to long range cargo missions that I started doing them, and rather enjoy them now. I really like the 200-300LY range types, and I get a little exploration credits in there too.

 

[DMC831]

Yeah, it bugs me that these aren't really in the game any longer, for both legal and smuggling missions. When I started in 2015, I loved criss-crossing the bubble doing both medium to long haul cargo missions, and really loved the long range smuggling. From 2016 to late 2017 I was gone from the game, and when I came back the missions didn't seem to be around anymore (and smuggling was mega ultra super nerfed).

Also, longer range passenger transport (not sight seeing) can't be found anywhere as far as I can tell. I remember taking 2 criminal VIPs on a one way passenger transport something over 100ly back during 2.4, and I liked to imagine I was helping a criminal get out of town as the heat dies down. Then I realized these longer range missions only popped up immediately after the weekly tick.

This was during 2.4 and I haven't experimented with it much recently-- immediately after the server downtime for the weekly tick, I could get the old long range smuggling missions spawning from places like Robigo and Maia (with Robigo's anarchy faction normally offering no missions whatsoever, unless that recently changed since I haven't checked in weeks). And Shinrarta Dezhra's factions would have "go supply this system" missions that went further out and were for higher amounts than normal (over 200 tons, 320 if I remember right sometimes)... I don't have a screen cap, but the wording of the title of the mission was something that I didn't see anywhere else and haven't seen at all recently.

It reminded me of those even-older Dark Wheel missions where you're dealing with that unique weird cargo that is totally gone now, the name of it I can't remember but people who've been here longer than me prolly remember it. The flavour text and cargo was hinted to be Raxxla related.

During 2.4, I was more obsessed with finding these long range missions since I'd bring it up here and on Reddit that they were gone and folks would say they still see them, so I'd get Allied all over and try to find them before realizing I was only seeing them for an hour or two after the server comes back online after the weekly tick. Since 3.1 or so, I haven't been logging on right after the weekly tick to see if the old long range missions are still spawning.

Since I wanna focus on smuggling and I had so much fun doing those long range missions, I've been interested in getting these missions back into the game. I don't need the money these days, but I enjoyed doing them as a newer player and I imagine there's other versions of me who'd also enjoy them. Everything being under 20ly short range cargo/smuggling/transport missions is boring and doesn't take you all around the bubble like before.

 

[FrogsFriend]

If they could just get whatever happens to the delivery-mission generator on a Thursday morning, after the server downtime, to happen at other times we'd be sorted. It tends to produce delivery missions from one group of systems to mostly be directed to another group of systems 200-300Ly away, rather then to local systems. Unfortunately after an hour or two it's back to normal.

 

[SpaceScania]

If they could just get whatever happens to the delivery-mission generator on a Thursday morning, after the server downtime, to happen at other times we'd be sorted. It tends to produce delivery missions from one group of systems to mostly be directed to another group of systems 200-300Ly away, rather then to local systems. Unfortunately after an hour or two it's back to normal.

Is it possible that this is a bug? Or do we know that this is intended?

 

[Hank]

The OPs suggestion would be great. I would like to run some 80-100 Ly delivery or passenger missions that pay well.

I look at those long distant passenger missions to Colonia or nearby for 20-25 million credits and think to myself ... heck I can make a lot more than that just doing normal mission in the time it would take me to fly to the Colonia (and back). But if I saw missions to Colonia that paid 150+million credits, I may be interested.

 

[DMC831]

In the theme of longer-range missions, I'd love a "Supply the Colonia Highway" series of missions. Each stop is so isolated, they'd be needing supplies constantly I assume and SHOULD pay really nicely for truckers willing to do the haul.

Either via selling for a nice profit in the market, or taking missions, I think players who do wanna be Space Truckers should be able to make a good living going the thousands of light years with supplies. I always liked taking a mission, so I lean that way, but I'd understand if someone preferred to do it on spec. Those stations don't really offer missions last I saw (maybe some mining missions? I'd have to double check), and they SHOULD be saying "bring us food for the love of God we'll pay you millions for it" and other comforts from the Bubble.

In my head, I'd like it to be a fun route similar to the old rares routes.

(Speaking of that, taking rare goods up to stations along the highway or even to Colonia itself should pay GREAT and not just the max that ya find when traveling in the bubble... like the in-bubble max could come from traveling 150ly, and then the DEEP SPACE max could gradually increase from 5k ly, 7.5k, 10k, and so on, up to 20k ly for the big money coming from taking it all the way to Colonia).

CMDRs can pick up commodities or missions in the Bubble, head to the first stop along the Highway, and then bring stuff from there to the next stop, or pick up everything in the Bubble and a lil' bit goes to a few different places-- whatever works for me.

Then players can combine a nice exploration trip with some Space Truckin', and make a nice living in a way that feels logical for our game world (to me at least).

And for someone like me, I'd love to make good money smuggling drugs and other illegal goods to those isolated stations. Addicts gotta be fiending, and it gets boring out there I bet! Ya need Onionhead or whatever to just get through the day.

 

[Cmdr Aeries Hunter]

Why don't we have some long range hauling missions in the bubble?

By that I mean missions that would require you to take cargo to a system at least 100 Ly away. And I don't mean missions in a system that's eaither far from the bubble, or on the edge - destinations for those missions are generated to next inhabited system that just happens to be further than usual.
I'm not sure if they were ever a thing, but I seem to remember that after 3.3 update, when every system state was reset, for a very short time there were missions that required you to go somewhere further than next system. Therefore is this some side effect of how BGS works? Or do I remember it wrong?

There are systems and stations that are home to big interstellar companies that sell ships, engines, build stations all around human space etc. If long range hauling missions can't be more common for some reason, those would be great places to generate them. I think it would create interesting gameplay option for a space trucker.

I remember back in the day making several billion credits hauling poop with my cutter from Sothis 500ly into the bubble. I still can't get the smell out so refitted it to rescue passengers from burning stations

 

[Jmanis]

Why don't we have some long range hauling missions in the bubble?

Go to tourist economies. They offer cargo/courier missions to Colonia. Reason they're bumped to just tourist economies is because FD never resolved this issue: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/long-range-missions-are-nice-and-all-but.373385/

Thing is... there were over-100LY missions, but then Robigo happened. Problem is, missions are generated from templates; and (I imagine) for your everyday mission (not chained/affected by a state) there is one template. So when FD nerfed the heck out of Robigo-missions, it made shorter-range missions ridiculously underpaid (situations like delivering cargo for =~ 1,000 cr. It's a push-me/pull-you problem; you can't fix Robigo without breaking the rest of the galaxy, and you can't fix the rest of the galaxy without breaking robigo.

Of course, if it's RNG-generating from templates, a second template (one for over 100LY up to, say, 250LY, one for under) would double the usual amount of cargo deliveries on the mission board. I can imagine that sort of thing becoming a PITA to manage in the future with that sort of mission system, so they just don't exist anymore.

Yes, there would be ways to fix it, but not under this system easily.

 

[DMC831]

It's a push-me/pull-you problem; you can't fix Robigo without breaking the rest of the galaxy, and you can't fix the rest of the galaxy without breaking robigo.

The missions that would spawn immediately after the weekly tick were decent paying, but far outclassed by passenger missions and, of course, mining blows it out of the water. So it may be a struggle to deal with long range pay by the previous standards of big money, but these days anyone wanting to grind cash would still do mining and to a currently-lesser-extent passenger missions.

But those who enjoy long range missions would be able to do decent financially and have missions they like, fulfilling a role they want their character to fill, and I think it helps the game to have a variety of good paying jobs on the high end so it's not the situation we often fall into where "everyone" is only killing skimmers, or doing scans, running passengers, mining, etc.

I don't doubt tweaking the missions that spawn is a pain, but aside from the cargo requirements for the smuggling missions (they'd mostly require a Python and often couldn't be done with other ships due to Outpost access and high cargo amounts that only a Python can handle, in addition to not having a cargo depot for smuggling) they wouldn't really need to be changed from what would spawn after the weekly tick. I don't know why those missions would spawn after the weekly tick for an hour or two and then stop spawning though, and maybe there's some bigger problem beyond getting the pay balance right.

EDIT: Plus, last I looked, we have both Robigo broken AND no long range missions... since at least 2.4, when I came back to the game. I'm not sure when it started being like this, but others may remember. The factions there don't spawn regular missions, just passenger missions.