New and need legal advise on illegal missions

Torqulence

Torqulence
Hi Commanders!

I'm still very new at all things Elite Dangerous (not just Odyssey). Been playing the game now just over a week. Been doing my best to keep my missions all legal-like, and low threat as I get to know the game ins-and-outs before I venture into illegal and dangerous things.

From what I'm seeing, it seems to be very difficult to progress in the game keeping things legal. Here is what I mean:

1. Seems as though most missions that you pick up from station consoles are illegal. Probably 80%+ are illegal, which confuses me because these missions are coming from stations with security scanning you all the time for illegal stuff.

2. Several times I've accepted salvage missions with a threat level of 0 (zero) and ended up getting shot and killed and in the Armored Saint facility. What's that about?

3. I'm not quite sure about all this Warrant, Bounties, Fines, etc... and how to resolve them. Seems that getting involved in illegal missions would rack up so many of them that I wouldn't be able to dock anywhere.

4. Are illegal/combat missions really the only/best way to make big money? This would seem to be the logical conclusion when looking at the Mission Board at the station consoles.

5. If illegal activity is the main thing here, how do you stay 'below the radar' so-to-speak so you can get supplies, fuel, repairs, etc. ?

6. I know there are other ways to make money such as Mining, Exploration, etc... but not sure how much can be made doing these things as there is nothing to look at to see how much they make. I guess the main question here is..... Do I need to become a criminal to make money in this game?

7. What are the long-term implications of a criminal career in this game versus a legit career?


I could really use some advise. Thanks in advance!!!
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
I basically never do anything illegal so I'm not sure what you're on about. About the most illegal thing I'll do is illegal salvage in Odyssey, never do anything illegal in Horizons. There are plenty of legal missions.

Pirate massacre missions are one of the best ways to make money atm. There are also non-mission related ways to make CR, like trade or mining.

Crime and punishment is a consequence-less joke in ED. The worse that happens is you get a bounty and have some NPCs after you, you might have to wait for Notoriety to pass before you can cleanse your record at an Interstellar Factor.

If you want more detail go to the Galactic Academy discord, we teach new players how to play the game and that's all we do.
 

Chro

Chro
Ok here we go:

1 - The missions that show up are strongly tied to the Background Simulation and how the different factions interact with one another depending on their current state, most of the time you will find the majority of missions being legal, but it can happen of most missions available being illegal ones, but this is not a problem at all, you just have to know what to do when you have a bounty on you, you can still turn in and pick missions with a bounty on but you have to be careful to not be scanned, and this is where Silent Running and Heatsinks can play a big role in keeping you undetected.

2 - Even Threat 0 missions can spawn hostiles but they will be only Tier 1 Scavengers which are the weakest type of enemies you can find, however for the unprepared commander even those encounters can be tough so make sure to use cover, and play smart, use high ground, grenades, explosive barrels to deal with the enemies. Scouting the area in stealth (crouched) can algo give you and advantage on spotting where the enemies are, once you aim at them they will be tagged on your mini-map, if you are feeling lucky you can even attempt some takedown with the overcharge function of the energy transfer tool.

3 - Fines are gained by doing stuff such as loitering pads, shooting your guns on non fire zones, trespassing, stealing etc, these will inhibit you of using station services until you pay them in the Administration Services under Contacts in the Station Menu however they wont trigger lethal responses if you are scanned by an Authority Vessel or a Settlement Guard. Now Bounties will also inhibit you from using station services but they will trigger lethal response from the authorities if you are scanned and the only way to pay them is by turning yourself in at the station under the Admnistration Services under Contacts or by going to a Low Security system and paying your bounty at a Contact called Interstellar Factor, this way you can just pay your bounty and it will be gone, also this is what most people do since turning yourself in a Station will send you to the nearest Prison Megaship which can be quite a few LYs away depending on where you are, so getting back home can be tricky. Also one more detail: If you commit too many crimes and earn lots of bounties you may start to gain Norotiety, having Notoriety will prevent you from paying bounties at the Interstellar Factors and will allow for more tough authority forces to hunt you down, it takes 2 in-game hours for each Notoriety point to decay, so keep that in mind before you start blowing other clean commanders or npcs.

4 - In the current state of the game pretty much everything is profitable: exploring, trading, mining, combat, except piracy ( :( ) , my advice would be to not try to grind credits, just find something you have fun doing and the credits will start to pile up.

5 - As i mentioned everything is profitable, but if you pick some illegal activities you might want to know how to use Silent Running and Heatsinks to support it. You can activate Silent Running by pressing the Delete key, this will turn you shields off and close all the thermal vents, this way the heat generated by your ship will stay inside and it will confuse and sometimes even inhibit other ships from scanning you. However this will generate great amounts of heat and it will start to damage your modules and eventually your hull so you want to use Heatsinks to control all this heat gain and remain undetected AND alive until you do whatever you have to do. As for refuel/repair/restock you can only do it with no fines and/or bounties on you, so you may have to use another station not owned by the Faction you have a bounty/fine with to use those services or just pay them the way i mentioned on topic 3. Oh and you can turn Silent Running on/off at will but every time you activate it, it will disable your shields as if it was "broken" by damage.

6 - The Pilot Handbook in your Codex has a lot of information regarding the professions and activities you can do in Elite, check them out, there is a lot of good info there.

7 - While piracy and most illegal missions are really fun it can make your life difficult since bounty hunters npcs will track you down and sometimes players too, also you wont be able to use most services on the stations owned by the factions you have bounties with so you will need either be contantly on the move, like a nomad lifestyle, or spend some time managing your bounties and fines by paying them and keep everything in order, the ideal home system for a pirate or criminal-wanna-be are stations in Anarchy systems.

I hope these informations can help you, its a steep learning curve but there is a lot of fun to be had CMDR, stay safe out there. o7
 
Last edited:

Torqulence

Torqulence
Chro,

I can't thank you enough for the info you posted, and certainly for the time you put in to that post. I REALLY appreciate it!!!!!! That is EXACTLY the type of info I was looking for. I've already read it twice, and will likely read it again as there is ALOT of good information there. I hope it helps other as much as it just helped me.

I'm gonna start putting it to use right now!!!

Thanks again!
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
Torqulence said:
Hi Commanders!

I'm still very new at all things Elite Dangerous (not just Odyssey). Been playing the game now just over a week. Been doing my best to keep my missions all legal-like, and low threat as I get to know the game ins-and-outs before I venture into illegal and dangerous things.

From what I'm seeing, it seems to be very difficult to progress in the game keeping things legal. Here is what I mean:

1. Seems as though most missions that you pick up from station consoles are illegal. Probably 80%+ are illegal, which confuses me because these missions are coming from stations with security scanning you all the time for illegal stuff.

2. Several times I've accepted salvage missions with a threat level of 0 (zero) and ended up getting shot and killed and in the Armored Saint facility. What's that about?

3. I'm not quite sure about all this Warrant, Bounties, Fines, etc... and how to resolve them. Seems that getting involved in illegal missions would rack up so many of them that I wouldn't be able to dock anywhere.

4. Are illegal/combat missions really the only/best way to make big money? This would seem to be the logical conclusion when looking at the Mission Board at the station consoles.

5. If illegal activity is the main thing here, how do you stay 'below the radar' so-to-speak so you can get supplies, fuel, repairs, etc. ?

6. I know there are other ways to make money such as Mining, Exploration, etc... but not sure how much can be made doing these things as there is nothing to look at to see how much they make. I guess the main question here is..... Do I need to become a criminal to make money in this game?

7. What are the long-term implications of a criminal career in this game versus a legit career?


I could really use some advise. Thanks in advance!!!
Click to expand...
1. A lot of the ground based missions are illegal, in essence deniable ops vs. rival factions (espionage). These will likely result in a bounty being posted on you, though it shouldn't be more than the reward offered by the mission giver.
As a beginner I would take these from Docks in low security systems with Interstellar Factors, these allow you you to pay off the bounty without much fuss as long as you don't gain Notoriety.

2. Salvage missions come in both legal and illegal varieties and when grabbing the item be prepared to to run straight in id the target from Contacts, scoop and wake out fast.

3. Fines and Bounties can be paid off at an Interstellar factor in Contacts in a port in a Low Security System, as long as you have zero Notoriety.

4. I'd take these missions for rep and mats over Cr. trading is my main money source.

5. Fines/Bounties etc. can be for a minor faction in which you won't be able to dock in stations controlled by that faction or by a superpower which could make the superpower hostile, but won't affect your relationship with other factions or superpowers and can be reset by clearing your bounties ASAP.

6. I can make 45 million per hour trading Cryolite & Pyrophilite. Mining can make more but I can't stand mining. Exploration is something I do for rep rather than credits.

7. A criminal career doesn't tend to pay that well other the long term, legit trade will pay more though there are times when you want to get a job done (build rep, advance a faction, gather mats). Learning how to get in and out of stations without being scanned is a very useful skill to have.
 

Torqulence

Torqulence
Felix, thanks for the info, and the time you put into the post. Greatly appreciated. I have a follow-up question in regards to bounties.....

Just got a fine and a bounty from getting too Close to Bear's Foley facility in HIP 99750. I've read many places that you can pay a bounty at a Station with an Interstellar Factor. This is about the 3rd time I've gotten a bounty on me, and never once has the bounty showed up in the Interstellar Factor at Chaimberlain's Rest.

Got a bounty yesterday was well, same thing, not showing up at the Interstellar Factor on the station console. I figured I'd deal with it today. When I logged on today, no more bounty??? what? I just disappeared.

What's the deal? There is obviously something I'm not aware of happening here.
 

sidereal6

S
metatheurgist said:
I basically never do anything illegal so I'm not sure what you're on about.
Click to expand...
I might be able to explain what @Torqulence is seeing, when he says that 80% of missions are illegal.

Every system has a "gang" faction, it seems like. A bunch of outlaws, or a mafia, or whatever. But they usually have like 1% influence. And I bet most experienced players have just started ignoring them. As other commenters here have noted, this is not the best way to make money.

But, if you're a new player just scrolling through missions, I can understand why you might think there are a lot of illegal missions out there.

@Torqulence , what I do is to pick a faction that I like, and I try to support that faction and kind of role play my interaction with them. A lot of other people do this too and if you just google the factions, you can find discords and such where you can meet up with people.

Here's a list of such groups: https://inara.cz/playerfactions/

If you're supporting a certain faction (and they're not an explicitly outlaw faction) then most of what you do for them will be legal stuff. However, when the get into a conflict with another faction, they will sometimes ask you to do illegal things. At that time, you can make a moral decision about how you want proceed. As for me, I never do missions where I'm supposed to massacre civilian ships. I'm just not going to do it. I've never had a slave in my cargo hold either.

To answer your question about crime and punishment, there are two aspects: (1) there are fines and bounties. These are applied to your ship. These are "no big deal" in the sense that, (a) you can pay them off (b) they apply to a specific ship, so you can just switch to another ship and you're clear and (c) they apply to a specific faction, so when you leave that faction's space you're no longer wanted (bounty hunters will come after you, but the police will leave you alone).

I do scanning and ground attack missions. The way I role play this is by creating a story in my head where the faction I'm supporting has a legitimate reason to go to war with this other faction, and the ground attack disrupts the other faction's ability to call for reinforcements. Anyway, when I do that I get bounties.

So, I'm supporting faction A based out of station Ayy in the AyyLmao system. I take a mission to kill some skimmers belonging to faction B in the BTFO system. When I do that mission, I become wanted by faction B. But when I fly back to AyyLmao and dock at Ay, that's not B's territory so I'm no wanted there.

As long as you pay attention to the factions, you can dance around this stuff pretty easily. Roleplaying and supporting a specific faction means hanging around in one area a lot, and you will learn the politics of the region and become familiar with who controls what station. It's a much better gameplay experience, in my opinion, than just aimlessly drifting about the bubble.

Which brings me to (2) the other aspect of this is faction reputation. If you're supporting faction A, and they have beef with faction B, then eventually faction B is going to hate your guts. Switching ships doesn't get you around this. If a faction hates you sufficiently, then they will fire you ...and space stations they own will fire on you (one of the few things in this game that is legitimately scary) even if you aren't wanted.

It's pretty cool when you've been supporting faction A for a while and a conflict starts and you know that if you lose, faction B will gain control of the Ayy station and you'll not be able to dock there anymore! Those seem like realistic stakes.

Anyway, one last tip that I have is this: the bubble is huge. Pick an area of the bubble, go there, and roleplay for a while. Base a few ships in that area. When you get tired of that, leave that "character" for a while, go to another area of the bubble, and roleplay something else. You can have an area of the bubble where you play the pirate and work with the criminal gangs, running drugs, attacking megaships, whatever. All the lawful factions in that area will hate you, and all your ships will be wanted. You'll only be able to dock at "anarchy" stations.

When you need a break from that, go to the other side of the bubble and support a lawful faction and be a fine, upstanding member of the community.

I have a cobra and a krait in an anarchy asteroid base. I'm allied with the criminal faction there, and both ships are wanted. Occasionally, I go there, assume the persona of a pirate, and cause trouble. But in a different area of the bubble I have a persona that runs a legitimate mining operation. I have laser mining ships and transport ships and I support a minor faction without ever breaking the law. I also have combat ships and I support that faction in some of its wars.

There are lots of ways you can play this game, and you don't even have to pick just one.
 

William J Smith

William J Smith
I do a lot of high speed trading and salvaging, all I know is that I've never done anything illegal*

your legal status varies from system to system, dealing in battleweapons is illegal in most systems, however in places they are legal to buy ..along with drugs personal weapons, various health related products.... the trick is to find out where its cheap to buy the stuff legally, and wheres happy to pay you 3000cr/ton more to buy it from you

Oh and having a fast ship helps.. also guns because pirates like your stuff, oh and if the cops turn up while you fighting off a pirate and you have a hold full of narcotics.... the cops will scan you..... very bad... ;)

Bill


*This is from Slant the zombies advice "If you have'nt been caught and charged by the police , then you have'nt done anything illegal"
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
Torqulence said:
Felix, thanks for the info, and the time you put into the post. Greatly appreciated. I have a follow-up question in regards to bounties.....

Just got a fine and a bounty from getting too Close to Bear's Foley facility in HIP 99750. I've read many places that you can pay a bounty at a Station with an Interstellar Factor. This is about the 3rd time I've gotten a bounty on me, and never once has the bounty showed up in the Interstellar Factor at Chaimberlain's Rest.

Got a bounty yesterday was well, same thing, not showing up at the Interstellar Factor on the station console. I figured I'd deal with it today. When I logged on today, no more bounty??? what? I just disappeared.

What's the deal? There is obviously something I'm not aware of happening here.
Click to expand...
I can't find an entry for the location in EDDB but you seem to be describing a high security ground base or something similar.
Sometimes these will issue you with a bounty for entering the Exclusion Zone, other times entering will just activate the ground defences without issuing a bounty.
Occasionally these are bugged and the bounty won't show up in your transactions, you should be able to pay it off if you visit later.
Of course Odyssey may have added new bugs I haven't encountered before so it may be something to keep an eye on.
 
Last edited:

Torqulence

Torqulence
Sidereal6: Thanks a million for the detailed post and the time you spent on it!! You gave me A LOT to think about. I never though of this game in the terms that you (and I'm sure a lot of others) do.

It makes since, and I can see where being a commander with a multi-personality disorder can be advantageous. Giving you multiple play styles in different areas. That's an idea I would have never thought of.

Once I get a little more game time under my belt, I think I may do the same thing. Sounds fun! Thanks again!!!!

Felix, Thanks again for your input. Bear's Folley is on HIP 97950 A 5, Bear's Folley (sorry, I think it got the system name wrong in my original post). As soon as you get within a couple kilometers of it your pegged with a fine for trespassing. Then a bounty is issued if you keep on. After getting the fine and bounty yesterday I headed back to Chamberlin's Rest on HIP 97950 ABC 2 K, looked at the Interstellar Factor on the stations console (going inside the station) and no mention of the bounty at all. Today, there is no change. If I look at my 'Transactions' option on the Q menu (hold Q key), I see a bounty from the 'Hachiman Progressive Party' for CR 1,000.

I don't know what to do about it. My notoriety is Zero, so that's not standing in the way. Do I need to find a system that belongs to the 'Hachiman Progressive Party' to deal with this, I'm thinking ill just get more fines and bounties if I show up in one of their locations. Maybe the Interstellar Factor thing is bugged?

Thanks again for your (and everyones) help!
 

Felix DiCestria

Felix DiCestria
Torqulence said:
Sidereal6: Thanks a million for the detailed post and the time you spent on it!! You gave me A LOT to think about. I never though of this game in the terms that you (and I'm sure a lot of others) do.

It makes since, and I can see where being a commander with a multi-personality disorder can be advantageous. Giving you multiple play styles in different areas. That's an idea I would have never thought of.

Once I get a little more game time under my belt, I think I may do the same thing. Sounds fun! Thanks again!!!!

Felix, Thanks again for your input. Bear's Folley is on HIP 97950 A 5, Bear's Folley (sorry, I think it got the system name wrong in my original post). As soon as you get within a couple kilometers of it your pegged with a fine for trespassing. Then a bounty is issued if you keep on. After getting the fine and bounty yesterday I headed back to Chamberlin's Rest on HIP 97950 ABC 2 K, looked at the Interstellar Factor on the stations console (going inside the station) and no mention of the bounty at all. Today, there is no change. If I look at my 'Transactions' option on the Q menu (hold Q key), I see a bounty from the 'Hachiman Progressive Party' for CR 1,000.

I don't know what to do about it. My notoriety is Zero, so that's not standing in the way. Do I need to find a system that belongs to the 'Hachiman Progressive Party' to deal with this, I'm thinking ill just get more fines and bounties if I show up in one of their locations. Maybe the Interstellar Factor thing is bugged?

Thanks again for your (and everyones) help!
Click to expand...
The Interstellar factor won't clear bounties posted in the same system, that would be through the Authority contact and may have you taken to a detention centre. If you went to an Interstellar Contact in a different system you'd be able to pay it off.
 

CMDR MagPaye

CMDR MagPaye
Felix DiCestria said:
The Interstellar factor won't clear bounties posted in the same system, that would be through the Authority contact and may have you taken to a detention centre. If you went to an Interstellar Contact in a different system you'd be able to pay it off.
Click to expand...
In addition to this, to be able to pay off a bounty with an Interstellar Factor, you have to be in a system where the faction that issued the bounty is not present.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom