Back after some time away and I have a few questions!

[CoyoteXStarrk]

I needed to take a break for awhile because the grind was getting to me a bit and I was getting a tad salty about a few back to back Bounty Hunting mishaps and last night I came across an Elite Video in my recommended tab on YouTube and it outlined the 3.0 changes and I could not believe how much has changed in just a few months! As a result of these changes I decided to jump back in, but I have some questions regarding the current state of the game that can't be answered by simple patch notes. A few of them are just asking for opinions, but please feel free to correct me, point me in the right direction or give me your personal take.
So when I left off I had finally gotten my Clipper and was using it to Bounty Hunt because I had grinded Trade/Passengers missions for so long to get rank and credits that I wanted something else to do, but now that I am have been away for a bit I don't mind going back to them. My ultimate goal is a Conda at this point, but I am stuck at a measly 39 million credits so I have quite a bit to go.


Money is what I need. Which brings me to my first question...



1) Should I trade in my Clipper for a Type-9

I saw that the Type-9 got an extra 8 slot and that is AMAZING. It puts it in the ballpark of the Cutter for a fraction of the price. So if I combined that with the latest trade missions that require large quantities of good to be moved I could knock those out fairly quickly. The question is should I?


I have never flown a Type-9 and I have no idea how to properly build one. I wouldn't even know where to start. But if I did would it be worth it? I mean I am looking for money at this point. Don't really care how I get it.


2) Has the mission payouts for each mission type changed much?

I have seen in the patch notes that the payouts have changed, but have heard many conflicting reports on the actual numbers. So I would greatly appreciate a ballpark average for each type.


3) What is this new "Crime and Punishment" system and why do so many people hate it?


I have seen the horror stories of being stuck in limbo in a system, but is that just obscenely common or is there other issues that I am not seeing? Like is it good on paper, but just bugged? Or is it that the whole system is broken from top to bottom?


4) Is it true that ranks are no longer the insufferable slog they were before?


I have seen this said on a few videos, but it just seems too good to be true. Did they actually fix the system so that I might get a Cutter before I die of old age?


5) Are there any new bugs with the Docking Computer?


This one is more specific because I know not many people use the DC or at least they don't seem to, but I heavily rely on it. I can barely land my ship on my own and certainly with no degree of regularity. I would give myself a 60% success rate if I try to do it at normal speed. I can do it everytime if I take forever to do it, but I am not going to do that.

I just wanna make sure that when I jump on tonight my ship isn't going to fly itself into the side of a station. And before I get any snarky people saying that the DC does that anyway no it doesn't. Well not for me. In all my time playing the game I have only had 2 incidents and both times it was not the fault of the DC but rather the ships around me crashing into me.





I have other questions, but they could possibly be answered by the answers to these so I will just start here for now. All help is appreciated!

 

[Punchdrunk]

1. I would say yes. Capacity is king for traders. The clipper has less capacity than a python which can use a medium pad, let alone a type9.

2. Yes it's a huge improvement. You now have 3 choices for mission rewards. Max cash, less cash but extra materials, or less cash but extra faction reputation gain.

3. Many discussions on this, basically if you commit a crime, your options in a station are limited until you pay the fine.

4. They are hugely improved due to the changes in point 1. Basically choose the faction gain boost for mission rewards and you gain reputation miles quicker than before.

5. No idea sorry, never used one.

 

[CMDR Dizzy]

5. Not that I have noticed and I ran my type 9 every day for the now completed trade CG. I did loose one layer of shields due to a crazy NPC while docking but only had this happen once so far in months of game play however each patch is a new adventure

 

[Sylow]

I mostly agree with what Punchdrunk already wrote.
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1. If bulk transport is your goal, the T9 is what you want. But you above wrote that you used your Clipper to go Bounty Hunting. For that, the Clipper is a capable ship. It can bring good shields, it has very good speed, it packs good firepower (sure you need to rely on gimballed weapons, but they are not as bad as some people here claim them to be), it's a rather good choice for that.
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In contrast, the T-9 is a pure cargo carrier. It is lightly armed for its size and giving it just adequate shields (means, enough for actual combat, instead of just surviving an encounter till you manage to run away) requires significant sacrifices on the setup. Even worse, it is slow, so it can not dictate combat, and it's agility is somewhere between an asteroid and a cathedral.
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So if you only want to transport cargo and do nothing else, then go for it. But don't expect it to be anywhere near as versatile as the Clipper you currently have. Also, even for cargo transport, you might want to take a look at the Python. Sure it carries less, but it's the largest cargo ship able to use outposts. For community goals i often found that i was able to deliver more than people in bigger ships. All big stations nearby were drained empty in no time by Cutters, so everybody had to fly quite far to get the goods. My Python in contrast still had sources nearby. So while Cutters or T9s are far ahead when you get to a Community Goal early, later on the Python can be the better choice.
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Ponder what you actually want to do, then pick your ship accordingly. Note that for your above mentioned activity of Bounty Hunting the T9 is terribly bad, while the Python can also be turned into an acceptable combat ship. I personally would still use the Clipper over the Python for Bounty Hunting, but that's a bit of personal preference. Neither of them is the best choice, but both of them can do it.
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2. What he said.
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3. It's finally a system where crime actually has consequences. It's not as good to prevent seal-clubbing as people hoped for and yes, it still has a few small problems. But most of what people rage about is that crime suddenly is "inconvenient", as many perceived problems can easily be worked around. Don't be troubled, while some people make it seem like it's the end of the world, most people are not troubled by it.
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4. Yes. As said, the new system of being able to select mission rewards makes it much easier to progress in ranks.
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5. Also not using that one, sorry.
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[Requiem Mortis]

You may want to look into the new wing missions, we had one last night that was paying out 26MCr for source and supply 1860T of Thorium, sourced from relatively close, when done in a wing sharing the cost of purchase and each gaining the full reward these are well worth doing....even solo you could clear a tidy profit on these.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

1) There are certainly some good ways to make lots of money with that sort of cargo capacity - cargo missions can pay very high if you find the right ones. But I'm not a T-9 expert.
2) Generally most mission types will pay 0.5-3 million (if you're Allied, if you're taking high-rank missions ... much less otherwise). Data courier pay a lot less (but are easy to fit around anything else), certain passenger and cargo mission types pay a lot more, wing assassination missions pay a bit more (but unless you have a proper combat ship and know how to use it, need the wing). It's also a lot easier to get useful materials from missions.
3) In most cases it won't be that bad. Make sure that your ship has a big enough FSD to leave the system if necessary, and know where the nearest low security/Anarchy system is that it can land if you do need to clear a bounty. As in the old system, try not to accidentally kill anyone.
4) The rep bonus rewards for missions speed these up a lot (and are also useful for getting quickly to Allied rep and the big payouts)
5) I've not seen many NPCs stuck in the mailslot lately, so it's probably reasonably safe to use the DC.

 

[CoyoteXStarrk]

Thank you everyone for the advice!