Newcomer / Intro I need help evolving in this game

[enghedi]

Hi.
After playing for some hours and getting the hang of space flight and parking my Viper near some Navigation Points to collect some bounties, I got the feeling that maybe I'm doing this too slow. So I wanted to point out some difficulties in order to, maybe, get some help from the veterans.

- Conflict zones. I kept reading that the best way to get some credits and evolve is to enter the conflict zones and pick a side. Well, I did encounter a few, and did engage a side. Since I am a recruit in the Federation, I tried engaging the Empire first and did help blow up a few ships but... got no bounty or apparent profit, other than wasting ammo. So I decided to get out and return and picked the other side... Again, I did blow up a few ships... but... again, no profit. What am I doing wrong?

- Commodities and finding proper locations to buy/sell. This is killing me. I spend hours in the galaxy map figuring the routes of given commodities to buy or sell. Let's say the system I'm at, is asking for food. I go to the galaxy map, filter the routes for Food and find a few lines FROM (not towards, assuming it's a place where the commodity is being exported, right?) a certain system. I travel there and... nothing... they also want it? What gives?

- Is there any way to see a nearby mission within the game so I can trace where to go next, where are the nearest battles, where to get suitable missions? The map is so vast and there's no information at hand about what the systems have and if it's worth it to travel there.

- Pirates! Like I said, I often park my ship near the Nav Points to engage wanted ships. Sometimes I pick a bounty regarding killing pirates, but... No matter how many wanted dudes I shoot, the bounty is rarely fulfilled. How do you know a dude is a pirate?

- Assassinate who? These assassination bounties are kinda frustrating. If I accept one, the tracker tells me he/she can be in one of three systems. Again, I navigate to the nav beacons on each system to... miss him/her... Can't we just have a single system to search for the guy/girl?

- No interdiction. I dunno if the FSD Interdictor is any good pulling someone out of a jump, but why can't I use it to INTERDICT someone when he's charging his FSD drive? I remember we had that with the Interdictor Class Star Destroyer in Star Wars Tie Fighter, it PREVENTED you from entering hyperspace. It made perfect sense. Maybe my FSD Interdictor works that way, but I can't use it in normal space. Am I wrong?

- Ships caught in the crossfire get me a bounty? This happens to me too many times to call it rare. I try my best to follow wanted ships and dogfight them, all of a sudden some derp crosses my line of fire and out of nowhere I get a stupid bounty and all other ships around shooting at me. I engage the Wanted guys first and then they engage my fight, the opportunists. I often get engaged by accident but no bounty is issued to them. This is very unfair.

- General lack of funds to get top ships. Some of the best ships are worth millions. I don't get it. Why did my viper cost me about 150000 cr and then the next best ship costs 3 millions? Evaluating how much I am earning per wanted bounties or commodities trading, I am acquiring about 100.000 cr per week, but spend more than half of that on outfitting, refuel, rearm and fines. Plus, you have to outfit this giant ship if you buy it. I would say you would need double the ship price to get it fit. Am I playing this game wrong? Is there any other way to earn BIG money to buy a big ship?

- Sense of loss. You get a bounty to planet aqweddaaearty 2235. I need to get about four times in and out of the Galaxy Map to attempt to write that system down. Couldn't we just have a button for "track this bounty"? Is there anyway to do that?

- What happens when I run out of fuel and there's no near docking station/port to reach? I self destructed but some guy said there could be a sort of insurance company to get to you and sort of tow your ship. Is this true?

 

[YDS55]

Hello bounty hunter in training

You can get money from combat zones but so far I haven't used many, I still kill the wanted guys fluying around at USS's or NAV beacons, or assassination missions.

You can't see nearby missions, you just have to go there and find out what they have to offer.

You don't always know who's a pirate but when you scan them you can see who they work for, sometimes it says they are pirates, one way to see who's a pirate is by looking at the colors of their ship, pirates have their own colors and wear a skull on their ship, or take a look at extraction site, they are filled with pirates.

Assassination missions take some time, but you can't find them at NAV beacons, you have to go to the USS's and get tips for their whereabouts. When you know where someone is you need to look at USS's again untill you find him and kill him, killing them isn't so easy, they are elite ranked pilots in anaconda's most of the time.

You can't interdict someone who's going to jump, you have a frame shift wake scanner to use, it shows you where he jumped to, and you can then pull them out of supercruise.

The ships crossing your pad are annoying sometimes, try not to shoot all over the place, and turn off the option report crimes against me, that way the FEDS won't come to your aid.

You have to keep playing and complete tho's assassination missions for 200k to get more money, money is hard to get in this game as it is in real live. So keep working and you'll get your money.

We can't track a bounty, you'll just have to remember the name or write it down.

Can't help you with running out of fuel, never happened to me, so always check your fuel before getting on your way.
Oh and I highly recommend to get a kill warrant scanner, most of the time they show up as clear but when you scan them you'll see sometimes that they are wanted by another faction.

 

[Zylark]

- Conflict zones. I kept reading that the best way to get some credits and evolve is to enter the conflict zones and pick a side. Well, I did encounter a few, and did engage a side. Since I am a recruit in the Federation, I tried engaging the Empire first and did help blow up a few ships but... got no bounty or apparent profit, other than wasting ammo. So I decided to get out and return and picked the other side... Again, I did blow up a few ships... but... again, no profit. What am I doing wrong?

You need to pick a side in the right hand panel, under functions.

- Commodities and finding proper locations to buy/sell. This is killing me. I spend hours in the galaxy map figuring the routes of given commodities to buy or sell. Let's say the system I'm at, is asking for food. I go to the galaxy map, filter the routes for Food and find a few lines FROM (not towards, assuming it's a place where the commodity is being exported, right?) a certain system. I travel there and... nothing... they also want it? What gives?

Ingame map may help for common goods, but not always. Best bet is to keep track of what system/station got what items at bargain prices and sell for top credits. I keep a spreadsheet to keep track of such things, plus where there is black markets and where more hard to get items can be found (personal weapons and such)

- Is there any way to see a nearby mission within the game so I can trace where to go next, where are the nearest battles, where to get suitable missions? The map is so vast and there's no information at hand about what the systems have and if it's worth it to travel there.

See above. Know your stellar neighborhood.

- Pirates! Like I said, I often park my ship near the Nav Points to engage wanted ships. Sometimes I pick a bounty regarding killing pirates, but... No matter how many wanted dudes I shoot, the bounty is rarely fulfilled. How do you know a dude is a pirate?

Go to a Resource Extraction Site, and the pirates will find you. Also try hunting in Unidentified Signal Sources (USS for short).

- Assassinate who? These assassination bounties are kinda frustrating. If I accept one, the tracker tells me he/she can be in one of three systems. Again, I navigate to the nav beacons on each system to... miss him/her... Can't we just have a single system to search for the guy/girl?

you won't find them at Nav Points, but in a USS. Actually, 9 times out of 10, in a USS some NPC will tell you they know where to hunt, then you need to get there and try another USS.

- No interdiction. I dunno if the FSD Interdictor is any good pulling someone out of a jump, but why can't I use it to INTERDICT someone when he's charging his FSD drive? I remember we had that with the Interdictor Class Star Destroyer in Star Wars Tie Fighter, it PREVENTED you from entering hyperspace. It made perfect sense. Maybe my FSD Interdictor works that way, but I can't use it in normal space. Am I wrong?

The FSD Interdictor pulls people out of Supercruise. If in normal space, having the bigger ship will mass-lock the target increasing the time for the FSD to engage. If a target escapes into Supercruise, you can easily find it again by yourself going into Supercruise and then interdict it again. If the target escapes into Hyperspace, you'll need a FSD Wake Scanner to find out which system the target jumped to in order to follow.

- Ships caught in the crossfire get me a bounty? This happens to me too many times to call it rare. I try my best to follow wanted ships and dogfight them, all of a sudden some derp crosses my line of fire and out of nowhere I get a stupid bounty and all other ships around shooting at me. I engage the Wanted guys first and then they engage my fight, the opportunists. I often get engaged by accident but no bounty is issued to them. This is very unfair.

Unfair yes, but how it is for now. Will be fixed in next major patch arriving this week. Until then, use good fire discipline. You don't have to kill the target yourself to get bounty, it is enough that you did some damage to it if someone else kills it afterwards.

- General lack of funds to get top ships. Some of the best ships are worth millions. I don't get it. Why did my viper cost me about 150000 cr and then the next best ship costs 3 millions? Evaluating how much I am earning per wanted bounties or commodities trading, I am acquiring about 100.000 cr per week, but spend more than half of that on outfitting, refuel, rearm and fines. Plus, you have to outfit this giant ship if you buy it. I would say you would need double the ship price to get it fit. Am I playing this game wrong? Is there any other way to earn BIG money to buy a big ship?

The next ship is actually only 300,000cr - the Cobra. But yes, ships do get very expensive as they get bigger. And cost a lot to upgrade. Even the humble Cobra can cost 7 million when all upgraded. Best way to make credits, is to have a dedicated trader-ship (for max cargo capability) and a very good trade-route between two or three systems. By very good I mean profit per tonne of 1000cr and more.

- Sense of loss. You get a bounty to planet aqweddaaearty 2235. I need to get about four times in and out of the Galaxy Map to attempt to write that system down. Couldn't we just have a button for "track this bounty"? Is there anyway to do that?

No - and what is wrong with pen and paper anyway? Besides, most system names are easy to remember.

- What happens when I run out of fuel and there's no near docking station/port to reach? I self destructed but some guy said there could be a sort of insurance company to get to you and sort of tow your ship. Is this true?

Out of fuel means you are stranded and have no options but to self-destruct. Best advice I can give: Don't run out of fuel.

 

[cmdr lowest]

Such a big post I had to use notepad to compile a response.


- Conflict Zones. I don't know where you heard this was the best way to get credits, that's not true. You get a 3K per kill, even if it is a Sidewinder or an Anaconda and I think you need to pick up a mission first to qualify. Not sure, I have only popped my head in once to have a look at the majesty then I exited.


- Commodities take a bit of time. You need to do a bit of research on the different economies of the systems and look for opposing economies. Then you need to fly to each station and note the prices, do the same at the other end and compare prices for high margins. You should really note the prices for every station you visit. Aim for getting a margin of at least 1K per ton then work up from that.


- Seeing nearby missions etc. No. You have to fly and dock to find out.


- Pirates! Yes, you're doing the right thing. Eventually you will have killed enough to claim the reward. One way to identify a pirate however is to pop a couple of ton of Gold or something in your hold and wait for them to scan you and say they are going to take it.


- Assassination. The large reward you get (and note the time you get to complete the mission, it's normally a couple of days) is an indication that the mission isn't easy. You have to locate your target first before you can attempt to kill them. If you don't want to put in the leg work, don't take these missions. The reward price and time to complete should always be an indication of how long/difficult a mission is.


- FSD jumping. When in combat you can sub-target the pilots FSD drive. This will stop them from jumping. Sub-targets are on your LH screen. There is also a keyboard binding you can assign to go through them.


- Crossfire. I've been playing since release in December and this has happened to me once. After I did it I learned and have managed to never do it again. It's about finesse in combat and not firing away your lasers like a hosepipe. However you will be happy to know this is being looked at in an upcoming (imminent) patch where you will get a couple of shots in before they agro.


- Price of ships. Elite is game for the long haul. However earning 100K per week is pretty low. I could do that in 10 minutes trading if I wanted to. (T6 100T cargo space, can sell gold between two stations for 1K profit per tonne). Trading is really where the money is and rares trading, that's something on a different level (approx. 15K profit per ton).


- Button for tracking planets. Good idea. I'd also like some kind of indication of how many jumps my 100LY journey is going to be and which leg of the journey I am on. I'm sure the developers will refine the UI as they go.


- No towing. Self destruction is the only option. Get a fuel scoop...




You'll find some useful tips in this guide:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=80291

Fly safe commander.

 

[SpydersByte]

Conflict zones don't give bounties as far as I know. It's a good way to find a big fight if that's what you're looking for but it's not a good way to make money.

Also, your issues with trading..... get Slopey's BPC market tool
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=76081&highlight=slopey's+bpc
Trust me, if you're doing any trading, you want this.

Also, for hunting pirates and the assassination missions you're going to need to go to USSs. I'm surprised you didn't mention these considering they are usually how you get these types of missions done, and I think the game tells you to search USSs.

Sense of loss. You get a bounty to planet aqweddaaearty 2235. I need to get about four times in and out of the Galaxy Map to attempt to write that system down. Couldn't we just have a button for "track this bounty"? Is there anyway to do that?

Gotta admit I got a laugh out of that. I do agree with you here, it'd be nice to have a link to the system.

 

[the100thmonkey]

The systems in the kill missions are never more than one jump away. Use the navigation tab in the left-hand panel to find them.

 

[KulKulcan]

- Conflict zones. I kept reading that the best way to get some credits and evolve is to enter the conflict zones and pick a side. Well, I did encounter a few, and did engage a side. Since I am a recruit in the Federation, I tried engaging the Empire first and did help blow up a few ships but... got no bounty or apparent profit, other than wasting ammo. So I decided to get out and return and picked the other side... Again, I did blow up a few ships... but... again, no profit. What am I doing wrong?

- Commodities and finding proper locations to buy/sell. This is killing me. I spend hours in the galaxy map figuring the routes of given commodities to buy or sell. Let's say the system I'm at, is asking for food. I go to the galaxy map, filter the routes for Food and find a few lines FROM (not towards, assuming it's a place where the commodity is being exported, right?) a certain system. I travel there and... nothing... they also want it? What gives?

- Is there any way to see a nearby mission within the game so I can trace where to go next, where are the nearest battles, where to get suitable missions? The map is so vast and there's no information at hand about what the systems have and if it's worth it to travel there.

In the beginning if you are hauling say less than 100 tons, I think it is pretty much a waste of time to spend hours and search for the highest payout of goods. Just take missions they are a pretty good guide for letting you know what is in the general trading area, add a bit of gold or alcohol whatever you can afford and learn what different kinds of stations produce. Just make runs!

- General lack of funds to get top ships. Some of the best ships are worth millions. I don't get it. Why did my viper cost me about 150000 cr and then the next best ship costs 3 millions? Evaluating how much I am earning per wanted bounties or commodities trading, I am acquiring about 100.000 cr per week, but spend more than half of that on outfitting, refuel, rearm and fines. Plus, you have to outfit this giant ship if you buy it. I would say you would need double the ship price to get it fit. Am I playing this game wrong? Is there any other way to earn BIG money to buy a big ship?

A tough question for me to answer. I cannot understand the expectation of having the shiniest shiny in the game after you played for a few hours. Is this what you are asking? Am I misreading this?

You do not need the biggest ships in the game to do everything in the game.

If you want to earn big money, you HAUL BIG, and presently, locate a luxury dealer. No other way around it.

To outfit a ship to your liking costs way more than the price of the hull. The insurance on my Cobra is more than the price of the hull.



Flying and outfitting different ships, even though they may be the lowly haulers and vipers and cobras have been the best evolution in my game. Each ship is a teacher.

 

[Chrisfs]

Trading: Unless you are going for really huge returns, people make this too difficult. Trade between different economies. Go to an Agricultural, buy some agricultural things , cheaper ones at first. Write down some prices of what an Ag economy might need (like crop harvesters), find a nearby non Ag economy (Industrial, extraction, refinery etc). Fly there and sell what you have, and check what they are selling with the prices you wrote down a little bit ago. Unless you are having a good time doing it, don't worry about colored lines on the galaxy map or where it says which places trade with which.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Easiest was to find pirates is to stick a ton of gold in your hold. Be warned, this can result in multiple pirates attacking you at once if you are at a RES or nav beacon.

Personally i hunt in empire systems with repirt crimes on which is different to how most do it.

This way the police help me kill pirates and i am allied with them. I just have to watch my fire around them. I have had a couple of fines but a quick run to the nearest outpost clears that lityle misunderstanding up, and i get to stock up on ammo anyway. Then im back in businesd.

Bounties at nav points vary between a few hunded up to around 250k, perhaps they go higher.

You also have to be careful that the targets are wanted first before using your KWS so you dont hurt your rep and get a bounty on yourself.

I dont like hunting at RES because i dont like playing dodge the asteroid.

Apparently anarchy system bounties are higher but when i tested this i didnt notice any difference.

 

[enghedi]

Hi All

I tried all suggestions here. And it was kinda nice to see you understand me. I thought I would get some flame from my observations.

I think I am improving my odds. But this last patch did something to collisions. For the first time I colided with a big ship and unlike previous times when I got the shields down and some damage to the hull, the window slowly cracked and my entire window blew out. I tried to make supercruise to the next station for repairs but the countdown was only 5 minutes and had to eject before I could arrive at the station.

I just bought a new Cobra... I was happy... now I'm in debt...

This game kicks me in the... well you know where...