Newcomer / Intro intro and questions about solo/multi trading

antodena

antodena
Hi all, I am a 39 years old Elite Veteran, I've played all of them EXTENSIVELY and had TONS of fun with them all... And finally I'm here... I can't believe... After all this years back to my well-deserved CMDR seat... Anyway just a couple of questions after a brief intro.

I've started playing ED in online mode, and at the beginning I've had difficult time at getting at some real results.

After 1 month I've make it! I found an optimal trade route for a newbie and started to gain some money to purchase an Hauler after some hours of grinding.

But I got interdicted by a random pirate in a very delicate moment... I was almost broke since I just purchased the Hauler and I had only 5000credit... In fact I just leaved the station for my first trade again with the same route and purchased Uranium leaving me only 600 credits... This guy didn't listen to my request to leave me alone because I would be bankrupt if he destroyed my ship... And so he started shooting. I fled leaving the cargo and my Hauler was 34% hull and some system damaged. But I survived...

I docked and my morale was shattered... I was almost quitting.

Then I checked the Bulletin... And I was lucky... there was a simple task to do 2000 credits... I've done it... Then I learned I could sell the charts of my discovered planets...

A little bit later I've sent an help request to a flyby MKIII and the guy was so nice to give me an advice due to the fact a station was always rejecting my docking request, he told me that if I'm in a hurry, switch to solo... So I switched to solo mode... And the life of a trader is much more simple in that way.

Now I'm back to full business with my dear Hauler and almost 200.000 credits...

I need some suggestions... I mean should I pump up the shields and whatever and get back to online? Or should I continue to soloing until getting really rich... I mean... I feel a little lonely out there... In the case I stay here on solo mode... Should I strap away the Shields to give me 8 more cargo spaces to speed up the grinding?

What will happen If I get destroyed by a random guy or NPC? Do I will lose everything and bye bye my commander career?

Need some help, since I hope I will find the courage to get back to online trading soon... :)
 

Markos

Markos
When you get destroyed you buy back your ship for a fee, it`s more expensive with the more good gear your ship has.
I have never used a hauler so can`t really suggest if you should beef it up and fight or focus more on escape.
Also I am on open play but never get grief from human players.
 

Traceracing

Traceracing
Rule 1 - never fly without insurance money
Rule 2 - never fly without enough money to replace lost cargo after ship insurance has been deducted
Rule 3 - Have enough CR to cover rules 1 & 2 twice
Rule 4 - If you have met the first 3, then go back into open

Option - join a PVE group (see my sig) where you won't be lonely and won't get shot at by another real player (the AI's will still come for you :) )
 

antodena

antodena
Traceracing said:
Rule 1 - never fly without insurance money
Rule 2 - never fly without enough money to replace lost cargo after ship insurance has been deducted
Rule 3 - Have enough CR to cover rules 1 & 2 twice
Rule 4 - If you have met the first 3, then go back into open

Option - join a PVE group (see my sig) where you won't be lonely and won't get shot at by another real player (the AI's will still come for you :) )
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Hi, thanks all for your help, I'm quoting Traceracing because I find very interesting the possibility to join the Group, also I have my Brother that just joined Elite and wants to understand and find a good way of playing, I will tell him to subscribe here and post something to meet you. I the next few days I will contact you if possible just need to explain that due to long hours of work in office, a son and a real life I can play not very often so I cannot be very active. (about 6 hours per week)... Also due to the fact I'm the leader of an active Platoon in Battlefield 4 the only free time I have usually must be used to help my brothers on the PS4...

But hey, really thanks for your help, I think I will surely try to join you if you think I can be of some use.

See ya soon out there. ;)
 

Chrisard

Chrisard
To repete what was said: Don't enter open mode unless you have the credits (or don't care) about losing your ship and cargo immediately upon entering.

The fear you described is what happend to me. Except I had just spent every penny from 2 weeks of trading on an 7 mill credit asp. I logged onto open for the first time, I was in a system that in open mode was full of pirates (players not npc). Got interdicted with an empty ship and destroyed before I could say I had no cargo....no money for buy back I started back with a sidewinder and 1000 bucks

As a trader open mode means you will at some point be destroyed by players....more interdictions.....much much much more risk selling rares (pirates camp systems that sell them) as well as possible wait times to dock at busy ports.

*the only reason for a trader to ever play in open mode is purely to chat with other players, all other aspects of open mode make your life harder from degrees of "mildly irritating" to "rage quit, burn game to a cd, uninstall game, break cd and put peices in microwave, send peices to frontier with a note that says "open play needs positive incentive for traders"
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
Open is fine for trading.

It's inevitable that eventually you will be interdicted by a player if you play open. It's happened to me trading several times and I've just given them the cargo (and not without a fight on the occasion I've reasoned that I had a chance at giving the pirate a bloody nose.) I've never been interdicted and shot up for no reason, although I don't deny that it's a problem. All I'm saying is that it isn't necessarily a widespread problem.

In my opinion, it's a lot more fun trading in open, simply because there is that risk. I'm not sure that there needs to be any positive incentive - trading is the most lucrative career path in the game, and opens up the possibility of the big powerful ships that are simply inaccessible to players who don't want to grind rares runs with 200 tons of cargo space.

That said, the risks of sensible trading in open are minimal to say the least. The system I've been playing in tonight had 4 players in it over six hours. One of them was allied to the same faction as me; the other two jumped in, scooped and headed for the starport with rares. The issue seems to have been running a ship without the buy-back insurance cost kept aside. As long as players fly sensibly and pay attention to what might happen in the system they jump into, they should be fine.
 

Chrisard

Chrisard
As a hauler, your options are to give the pirate what he wants and let him kill you if he decides to, you cannot out run A cobra or a viper, you cannot win any engagement with a cobra or a viper as a hauler (or type 6 unless the pirate is retarted)

And depending on your trade route you may not see anybody. Pirating is heavily localized in certain systems. However if you do not have the knowledge of what those systems are and are unlucky enough to be flying a hauler, type 6, sidewinder, adder, cobra, viper or asp, then you can put yourself on the list as prey for the common cobra pirate.

90% of the human pirates I've encountered have been in cobras. Only one has been in a viper and he didn't bother to hail me just open fire he interdicted me twice and by the second engagement had me to 11% as I jumped away (had no bounty but I did not give him any goods)

The only ship that has a chance of out running a cobra is another cobra. And I can say my cobra that has boost speeds of 450, was still chased down and destroyed by a cobra pilot (again I did not give him any goods and lost everything I had).

9 times out of 10 a human pirate in a cobra will be faster than you and have more or the same firepower, untill you get up to a type 7 and even then you can expect to be pulled over by cobra pirates. I highly suggest lots of chaffs and heatsinks this way you can feel like you al least tried to survive when your getting your hull blown to bits by these fine upstanding pirates.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
And yet your bank balance is still positive, I'm sure.

If you're that worried about getting interdicted and shot up, look into the Asp. If you can afford to upgrade it, it's a mighty, mighty ship and any pirate worth their salt will think twice before interdicting you.

If you can't afford the Asp, stop trading rares and work on commodities instead. In a T6, the progression is, perhaps, a bit slower than rares, but you won't get shot out the sky every night if you're 200LY from Lave, Diso, Leesti, Zaonce, Diso,etc.

The only times I've ever been pirated were on rares runs and the Yembo community event. Even then, they didn't bankrupt me - it just slowed me down for half an hour.
 

Chrisard

Chrisard
Chrisard;1804174 The fear you described is what happend to me. Except I had just spent every penny from 2 weeks of trading on an 7 mill credit asp. I logged onto open for the first time said:
*sorry I suck at life and cannot fix the above quote to appear correctly

It's true an asp does give the option of some good firepower, however you lose the option to run from an engagement as the only thing the asp is outrunning is a type 7 or a dead possum floating through space. Now assuming your asp is equipped with some nice weapons and shields you can happy engage the cobra, unless your a terrible in combat as I am. I didn't fire a shot off at that cobra in my asp, as he shot up behind me and happily did donuts around me as my slow asp as unable to get him infront of even after turning off flight assist.

A good Asp pilot should be able to hold their own even against a faster and more maneuverable cobra or viper. I am not a good pilot hence the reason i'm trading in the first place. The only thing the asp does is force you to engage the common cobra pirate and maybe you'll blow them all away, maybe you laugh in their face as you gun them down for their bounty, or maybe you'll be blown away in what seems like seconds as you wonder how in the holy hell a cobra destroyed your asp before you had a chance to properly respond.

Early game when your money is low playing is open mode is downright foolish, as situations like the one you described and the one I described are likely to pop up as you often spend "more than you should" buying ships, goods, and the like that leave you with less than enough cash to buy back you ship. Likewise an general ignorance as to what systems pirates hang out and how to properly deal with interdictions (according to your ships loadout and current financial status as well as the pirate ship that interdicted you and the loadout that he is rocken).

I didn't go back into open play until I had a cobra, now I've been killed three times by human pirates since then two of them hailed me first with demands one did not, but this time I waited until I had enough cash to buy back my ship with all its trimmings as is suggested above. It set me back an hour or two of play time but again this was all after I spent some time in solo grinding out enough cash to buy a cobra as well as have enough in the bank to re-buy it.

*One side note make sure you have a little more than just the re-buy as I was destroyed one time and after the re-buy I didn't have enough cash to buy even the cheapest of commodities and had to hunt around a few systems doing one way hauling missions until I had enough to start trading again. Regardless of how common pirates are or how honorable they/or others tell you they are. Just remember that low cash can = hours/days/weeks or if your really careless much more in progress made in the game if your destroyed by a pirate or otherwise. (I chuckled at the idea of an honorable pirate, I'm sure they all tell you the're honorable)
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