I'm only a few weeks into the game, and loving it so far. However, I'm hitting a wall with money-making that is starting to make me wary of continuing on.
I've managed to carve out a good reputation in my stellar neighborhood, with a few local systems in which I am allied or friendly with most factions residing in those systems. This gives me access to some reasonably good sources for hauling missions. I don't often engage in combat missions because these don't seem nearly as lucrative for the potential risks (lower rewards than hauling a load less than 20ly). I tend to hang around in systems with RES sites near friendly starports for some stead bounty-hunting when I get bored of hauling, or vice versa. However... whether hauling or hunting, I'm capped at less than 5mil credits per hour, and it is often less if the mission selection or hunting is bad.
I have an A-grade Asp Explorer and a wide selection of modules that will let me fill just about any role, as well enough cash on-hand for trading if I wanted to... but mining seems better for engineer materials than money-making, passenger transport is too hit-or-miss, and trade routes seem to be less lucrative than simple hauling (especially at my tonnage capacity).
As I'm pretty new, I've been reading up on various ways to boost my income per hour, but most every method I can find in searching is more of an "exploit" than a legitimate way to optimize the game systems in your favor - and most (if not all) of these seem to have been patched out of the game at this point because of how extensively they've been abused.
So, I'm looking for a legitimate source of good income that will help me progress from that Asp to Python and beyond that actually WORKS in a post-2.2.03 game environment. I don't need a 40mil-per-hour exploit, but I'd be much happier if I was able to make several times the amount I'm used to in the same amount of time - especially if it's a perfectly legitimate way to earn money.
I've heard that finding two inhabited planets in near proximity with no other inhabited systems around can help to "focus" hauling and passenger missions between those systems, which can help increase the steady number of high-income missions you can stack. Previous patches had systems like Sothis as a target for this sort of optimization. Are arrangments like this still lucrative (even if not as much as they were)?
I've managed to carve out a good reputation in my stellar neighborhood, with a few local systems in which I am allied or friendly with most factions residing in those systems. This gives me access to some reasonably good sources for hauling missions. I don't often engage in combat missions because these don't seem nearly as lucrative for the potential risks (lower rewards than hauling a load less than 20ly). I tend to hang around in systems with RES sites near friendly starports for some stead bounty-hunting when I get bored of hauling, or vice versa. However... whether hauling or hunting, I'm capped at less than 5mil credits per hour, and it is often less if the mission selection or hunting is bad.
I have an A-grade Asp Explorer and a wide selection of modules that will let me fill just about any role, as well enough cash on-hand for trading if I wanted to... but mining seems better for engineer materials than money-making, passenger transport is too hit-or-miss, and trade routes seem to be less lucrative than simple hauling (especially at my tonnage capacity).
As I'm pretty new, I've been reading up on various ways to boost my income per hour, but most every method I can find in searching is more of an "exploit" than a legitimate way to optimize the game systems in your favor - and most (if not all) of these seem to have been patched out of the game at this point because of how extensively they've been abused.
So, I'm looking for a legitimate source of good income that will help me progress from that Asp to Python and beyond that actually WORKS in a post-2.2.03 game environment. I don't need a 40mil-per-hour exploit, but I'd be much happier if I was able to make several times the amount I'm used to in the same amount of time - especially if it's a perfectly legitimate way to earn money.
I've heard that finding two inhabited planets in near proximity with no other inhabited systems around can help to "focus" hauling and passenger missions between those systems, which can help increase the steady number of high-income missions you can stack. Previous patches had systems like Sothis as a target for this sort of optimization. Are arrangments like this still lucrative (even if not as much as they were)?
