Helping a friend get started... tips?

Hi folks,

I have convinced a pal to give the game a try, and now wondering - what's the best/simplest way to help them get some credits together, experience some bits and bobs along with me?

What's best? wings? multi-crew?

They are trying to avoid combat for now, whilst they work on getting better ship control/used to keybinds etc. The goal isn't to short circuit the learning experience, but rather to put enough credits in the bank to avoid early stage grind a bit.

I'm mainly an explorer, but am okay in combat and have dabbled in trading, but I play solo - never used multi-crew or wings at all, so it's a learning experience for me as well.

I had a wee look on the forum, but nothing obvious jumped out; so, any tips?

tj.
 
Show them a few of obsidian ant's getting started/tutorial vids he made when the PS4 version launched, let your friend get an idea what they actually want to do in the game (explore/fight/trade), then you can go from there and work towards a goal (if he wants to explore, work toward getting the cash for an asp and outfitting for example)
 
Tell them NOT to play in open mode.....not until they are used to the game

Form your own group & invite your friend to join, then you can play in the same instance
 
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Starting them off by directing them to a semi-sanctioned exploit is not the way to do it.

Data missions to begin with. Gets cash fairly quickly, has no cargo requirement, gets a lot of rep. Very soon you can be in a Hauler which is an oddly fun little ship. Cargo at that point. After that your friend should be able to choose their own route.
 
Fine tips (apart from Quince :p ) but I wasn't clear - there are some great guides that I have pointed my mate to, but I was looking specifically for options where we could play together in a mentor/sidekick fashion.
 
In terms of combat it is relatively simple - get yourself a ship comparable to his (do not bring your fully engineered corvette - it is not fun) and go into HazRES. Should be fun for both of you, and he can learn how to fight and earn some money too...
With other professions it is harder (impossible?) as there are no relevant interactions possible ingame in many cases...
 
As others have noted, Make a private group and play in that mode. You can Multicrew and show him some combat in a haz res, you can wing up and escort him around, do some BHing, Mining, ect. But first and foremost, have him play through ALL of the training missions
 
Don't know if this would still work the same but when I was starting a helpful commander gifted me a couple tons of Eranin Pearl Whisky to get me started. Back then they were tagged "stolen" but still, I found it quite helpful.
 
Grab a few bits of tasty cargo and transfer them over. It's good practice for scooping and you can then go onto limpet transfers after.

If you really want to speed it up, try it with Meta alloys (safe) or Unknown Artefacts (not so safe). UA's may short cut the learning experience in one way, but to get them scooped and then sold before the cargo hatch decays is definitely a learning experience!

Once your friend has a cobra or similar, they're at a point where they can join you in a wing for either exploration or rare goods trading. You may even want to get in on this weeks' rare trade CG. CG's made my beginning game that bit easier, I can certainly say!

Multi crew is good for learning combat, but the profits involved for trading are minimal (same as a wing trade bonus) and exploration data doesn't get shared so it's not ideal for your situation.
 
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What kind of ship and money are we talking about right now?

Basically, my first steps the second time around were:
- get some money to A-rate the Sidey by doing missions
- jump out to Maia to get some Meta-Alloys. The scans on the way will give some more money and lift your Exploration rank high enough so you can unlock Felicity (errr.... I hope you got him to get Horizons?). In this case, I'd suggest you try to get the MAs from Barnacles.
- once you got Felicity, you can really start
 
Stay in the same system, pick an early home and stick with it.


I wish someone told me that 3 years ago :D
 
What's best? wings? multi-crew?


tj.

Leave them alone to explore the game at their own pace and learn. Do not drag them around 'helping' and showing them cool things. Just be online and available to offer answers to any questions.

Few things are less fun than being showing 'how to play' by an experienced player of a game and dragged around, when all you want to do is learn how the controls work.
 
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If you own a good sized freighter, fill it up with Palladium in a system where you can buy low, meet them in a system where it's selling fairly high, wing with them, have them follow you out from the station they can sell this at, and drop cargo for them - rinse and repeat until they can afford a Collector Limpet Controller. They'll learn a few things doing this:

1. Some basic piloting, taking off, requesting docking, landing
2. following a ship in a wing, dropping at a specific location
3. manual cargo scooping, why manual cargo scooping is a pain.

And if you follow them back to the station when they sell, you'll get a trade voucher and still make some credits on the deal yourself.

Multi-Crew with them and let them operate a fighter to learn combat basics, then have them man your turrets to learn some more advanced combat.
You'll both make some credits in the process, and they'll learn some confidence in combat.
Also, haul around some cargo so they can see some interdiction attempts - demonstrate both Submit-and-Run and Evade. You can also demonstrate Submit-and-destroy as well.

A good session like this should last a couple hours, but will cover all the basics they should know, then turn them loose to try things for themselves.
And by this time, they should be able to afford at least a basic upgraded ship.
 
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Every time I try, I somehow make the game sound really really dull, and make myself sound like the ultimate nerd.

lol, I've given up explaining the game to people.

But... When mates come round and I let them drive around a planet in an SRV, they are sold... Or rather, they would be if the kit to run VR didn't cost so much! That didn't stop one friend, he should be set up by Christmas.
 
Tons of good posts there folks. I have sprinkled the rep dust about, cheers!

One of the most important ones was, in effect, "Don't ruin it for them"; that's the most important for me, I think.

They just moved from a Sidey to an Adder on their own - docking safely and what not. In terms of making some money, I am talking - enough to get an a-rated power plant to make fuel scooping a bit safer levels of cash, not taking fun out of the game.

we tried multi-crew, but they are not combat focused at the moment, so gunner wasn't much fun. Flying in a wing in a private group is where we have settled. just the right balance of interaction, without it being annoying. top tip.


And on that question - how did I convince someone to play the game.... "VR". Anyone who is even remotely interested in space flight gaming who can try Elite in VR and not want a piece of that doesn't have a heart... ;)
 
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