I think I've found the perfect long-term play style for me...

[CATPAIN KIRK]

I'm pretty much doing the same as the Op.

I fly a multi purpose python which means it's somewhat mediocre at everything, yet allows me to do everything I generally do in the game without the need to refit.

I don't explore, so the poor jump range isn't so much of an issue and I don't mine.

Other than that, I can do regular trade runs (of course without any oog tools), occasionally do a rares run or an assassination mission if I feel like it.

Compared to someone grinding, my income must look ridiculously low, but the credit balance climbs slowly but steadily, so I'm fine...

 

[WelshRambler]

I traded up to a hauler and did simple bulletin board/trading, no combat or USSs until I'd built up enough for my Cobra. I kept my sidey/freagle and hauler rather than trade in as it seemed the right thing to do.

At this time I made Aphra my hub and also started Fed missions. Once I had my Cobra, I set off on a pilgrimage to Sol, stopping to explore and system along the way, quite long winded with only a basic scanner.

In Sol I grinded silver between Galileo and Abe Lincoln quite a bit until I could afford an intermediate and surface scanner, also dropping into USSs to kill the odd pirate.

Now I'm off to Lave, again exploring evey system along the way. Maybe do some rare trading, save up for an advanced scanner and head off to see if I can get my 'name' on some system data. Once that's done, buy another Cobra (or maybe Viper) and equip it for combat first.

If only there were more hours in the day!

 

[Stonecoldamason]

My Asp is rigged for multirole, aiming toward full 'A's, but currently a mixture of A's n b's, I do everything, except mining at the moment, do a little bit of trading, 1 jump 2 way trip earning me 268k profit per round trip. Get interdicted a bit so build up a kill count and as have a kill warrant scanner, earn creds doing this type of bounty hunting, build up my Empire Rep, currently Knight, have a petty officer rank with Fed's, I do the bulletin board missions when I want a change of pace, then if I need to upgrade ship parts, tend to fly out to high tech systems see what I can do. Lastly if I fancy a change of view, rig up the scanners and go exploring, return to by trade route, when I want to top up the bank balance, really enjoying the game, no notable bugs being experienced, played since beta, total assets of 20.5mil, so steady, rl takes me a way quiet a bit as well as work, so do what I can when I can, and loving it, part of the Elite Dangerous Community on Facebook, great bunch of people.

 

[starsphinx]

I have actually got my cobra almost multi role as described in the opening post - although I do not make big bucks. Getting the cobra was my first goal so sidewinder to hauler to cobra by exploration/trading and running away from every interdiction and using Thrudds list of rares and dotting about at random by things like visit a star in all the families star sign. I upgraded all the internals in the cobra got an intermediate scanner and detail scanner (income from exploration went from a small bonus to significant). Then with the 1.1 upgrade wanted to see my name in lights so went on long exploration. Was a bit jaded when I got back from that so bought myself a viper and went to see if I could maybe fight back a little and discovered actually I could. Started exploring USSs and decided I could do the the same better in the cobra (after finding collections of 8 canisters and only being able to pick up some of them). So I am back to pick a random target some distance away by whatever floats my boat that day (I have in the meantime visited some minor stars in my own birth sign found they had some non discovered planets and got my name on them which I am uber chuffed about) and set up exploring along the way, shooting anything that interdicts me (the cobra has turreted weapons which has increased my success rate massively - I dont fly well) visiting USSs collecting whatever is there if its canisters, or joining in with security services battling a wanted. So I get the odd bounty, smuggle the odd canister, and trade and explore and it keeps me happy.

I am aiming for an asp as there are some places I want to visit a long long way away but will do it the same as the cobra and carry on a bit of this a bit of that.

 

[49rTbird]

Assassination missions are great, too. Probably the most fun activity for me. Profits aren't bad (I earn ~600k/hr which is good for a bounty hunter) and it keeps me on my toes. 1.1 made it harder by quite a bit, but that just gave more incentive to get better and not fly as sloppy as I used to.

I am having difficulty finding targets in the navy progression missions. How does one search an enter system for a given target? Thanks for any help as I am not good at this.

I like to a little of everything!

Send any help via PM.

 

[Fian]

I have just got a Clipper, so will stay in that for a long time as its a lovely ship to fly. Will use it for trading, at 180T its a decent size, and Bounty Hunting, but will need decent gimballed weapons. It will take me ages to A grade everything I need to. I tend to fly from A to B to c to D to trade, so always stop off at the Nav point to pick up some spare cash to pay for my fuel. I stay entirely in Empire space as its quieter than around Sol.

With a clipper for trading you can easily downgrade to a 3A shield and have 232 cargo. It is a beast of a trader ship, with class A thrusters and power coupling you basically never need to fly slower than 400km/s. Of course you would be wiser to keep larger shields if you intend to bounty hunt while you are trading.

 

[Hilight]

Since you're going to have this game for years, you will eventually end up with more cash than you need so who cares how long it takes if you're having fun with the game

Exactly...that's a good way to look at it

 

[deej]

I fly the same ship I flew in the original elite.

 

[ffletchs]

I do it very similar as OP, I'm flying an ASP too and mainly been trading rares recently with a bounty/exploration/missions mix in between.

Just upgraded from the Cobra, love the view in the ASP!

 

[rennarda]

I'm on an extended hiatus from my Rare trade route, doing some bounty hunting in Alliance space. It's a great spot to hang out, because there are multiple Anarchies nearby, and it's not far to travel to any of the three main interstellar factions to cash in bounties.

I've been switching between an Eagle (fun, but fragile) and an Asp (a bit lumbering, but powerful) and racking up the kills. The Asp has it at the moment - its just devastating rigged with 2 x class 1 cannons, 2 x class 2 multi cannons and 2 x class 1 beams. It might be tricky getting an Eagle in the sights, but once it is, it doesn't last long. Only dropships, clippers and anacondas are any real threat - Pythons are easy meat.

I'll go back to trading once I get bored of this

 

[Scoob]

I doing pretty much the same thing. The Asp really has proven to be very much a (potential) jack of all trades. I run a Trader load-out for normal, safe trade runs, so 116t cargo but only an A3 shield. I can chop in one of the 32 cargo racks for a 7 hopper refinery and go mining. Equipped with a class 5 shield, I retain 80t+ of cargo space for Rares runs - a little extra defence for those Anarchy sectors. Finally, I have my combat config with a class 6 shield.

I usually run two C2 Gimballed Beam lasers and four C1 Gimballed Multi-Cannons - though I just switched the latter to Gimballed Cannons, not tried them out yet though. So, my Asp always has teeth, it's just the shield strength that changes.

Scoob.

 

[waimser]

Glad I found this thread. Ive pretty much decided this method is the way for me too.

I fired up a 3rd party program and bough a T6 with the intention of making sure I had enough to buy one of the new ships next month. I was already siting at about 10mill and by the time I got to 12mill(the target id set before I could buy an Asp), I was thoroughly bored with the route.

I bought my Asp and a few mods and kind of just, left, the area I had been calling home. If I see a RES ill stop and buzz a few pirates. If I find a good trade I do a couple runs. I do kind of miss the variety of ships I had since I wanted to get involved in the combat tournament and the racing, but I do not regret what I have done at all.

I did mess up a bit by getting rid of the D scanner, it would have made me some coin by now. I plan on doing a big explor to some Nebulas at some stage though so no big loss.

I just found a 1.8mill/hr trade route with hundreds of thousands of supply that I never would have come close to without doing this. Might call it my home for a few days, or I might decide to not come back after a run. Who know. Who cares.

 

[BobbyConkers]

Asp is far too broad in the hips to just take her from behind. She is the Kama Sutra of affordable shipping.

My milieu: pick a route, carry some cargo, and at my last (or penultimate if it's anarchy) stop spend a good half hour at the USSs. Pick a different route each time and you're trading, exploring and bounty hunting, ticking all three boxes for me.

You'll note I haven't included mining in there.