Newcomer / Intro Loving the game.... but...

[RodHull]

So I love it so far, but is it just me or is being a combat pilot in a stock sidewinder in release version just a bit tedious. I mean I got started in some far off edge of nowhere place, its all federation, indie and anarchy systems (all the anarchy systems have sod all in them btw) I tried some simple (one would hope) combat missions, 10k reward I thought sounded nice. It was a tad more than the hauler missions but nothing spectacular.

So I cruise into the suggested systems in my lowly sidewinder, find an signal drop out of supercruise only to find a cobra MK3 with deadly rating pointing straight at me, luckily he offers me an out and suggests I kill 5 federation security vessels instead of his pals. So now I can either hunt down 7 cobras or equivalent or 5 federation security vessels for 13 and 10k respectively... yeah right - abandon mission, go back to delivering tea for 5k a pop.

I mean dont get me wrong I love that its kinda random and can go bad quickly, but in my now 2 days of playing solidly I have encountered just 3 viable sidewinder targets (either wanted or mission targets) everything else is like cobras, vipers a few eagles if im lucky with deadly or similar ratings. Am I just in a bad part of space thats unlucky. I feel like a useless turd floating in my crappy ship, today I popped into a signal source to find 3 federal dropships taking out a python, I tried to help but just got in the way and achieved nothing my feeble lasers barely dented his shields and one salvo of fire at me left me near dead... engage FSD go back to delivering tea

Yeah so in closing am I missing something, are you not supposed to bother with kill missions in the standard sidewinder, cause honestly for 10k they aren't worth it.

 

[h2bz]

did you preordered game? if yes you should have eagle as well. but with minimal and cheap upgrades you shouldn't have trouble popping eagles, adders and occasional cobra too

oh yeah, as soon as you got couple of creds buy eagle if you are going for combat or hauler if you want trade

 

[Jasta85]

bounty hunting is the best way to earn cash as a sidewinder (at least for me). Go to the nav point in an independent system (one with medium/low security) and just scan ships that come through. for me probably 1/3 of the ships I can are wanted and I take out the ones that are easy kills (nothing larger than a viper right now).

I got gimballed weapons to make the job a bit better and a kill warrant scanner to get extra bounties. It's worked out really well so far, I've actually put quite a few upgrades into my sidewinder and can take in around 50k credits an hour (at least when the stupid authorities aren't stealing my kills).

 

[Richard]

Ahhh - the kill stealing police. That can work the other way too though - I've jumped into a couple of USS's, found the police taking down a big ship and generously 'helped' them by shaving off the last few hull plates on their target. It's a nice way of claiming some fat bounties.

To OP: Anarchy systems aren't necessarily hives of scum and villainy. Some of them are just such dog-ends of systems that not even the pirates can be bothered to hang out there, and they get flagged as anarchies by default. And yeah - target selection is important when you're fighting in a Sidewinder. I've noticed quite a few Wanted pilots cruising around in Sidewinders/Eagles/Vipers - without any shields. Those are usually good targets.

 

[RodHull]

Ahhh - the kill stealing police. That can work the other way too though - I've jumped into a couple of USS's, found the police taking down a big ship and generously 'helped' them by shaving off the last few hull plates on their target. It's a nice way of claiming some fat bounties.

To OP: Anarchy systems aren't necessarily hives of scum and villainy. Some of them are just such dog-ends of systems that not even the pirates can be bothered to hang out there, and they get flagged as anarchies by default. And yeah - target selection is important when you're fighting in a Sidewinder. I've noticed quite a few Wanted pilots cruising around in Sidewinders/Eagles/Vipers - without any shields. Those are usually good targets.

All the anarchy systems ive found are empty bum holes of the universe with nothing in them... lol
As for target selection thats the thing I find way more cobras or equivalent (master/deadly eagles) than anything else, have yet to find a wanted novice or standard strenght sidey target and never found anyone without shields. Guess its just bad luck... back to trading my paltry tea route

 

[DMLeeroy]

All the anarchy systems ive found are empty bum holes of the universe with nothing in them... lol
As for target selection thats the thing I find way more cobras or equivalent (master/deadly eagles) than anything else, have yet to find a wanted novice or standard strenght sidey target and never found anyone without shields. Guess its just bad luck... back to trading my paltry tea route

Hit the smugglers flying haulers at nav beacons, big(ish) slow and most don't run with shields, they are good practice

 

[Sentdex]

Upgrade your FSD, head to any of the money places that have rare goods.

In one trade, you'll buy a hauler. In 2-3 trades you can buy a viper, or do a few more and get a cobra. From there, you can trade with the cobra or do combat. You can also stick with the viper and do combat.

I'd recommend getting the Viper + a hauler, I found the Viper to be superior to the cobra personally. Then you can haul rare goods for a few bouts to get new weaponry or whatever you might want.

Until you have more than the 22 cargo slots, and like... way more... rare good trading can keep you upgrading very fast.

If you're not familiar with rare good trading, you trade between two stations that are ~150LY apart. They usually have stock of 5-20ish of rare goods that you buy for 300-1kish (sometimes more or less) each, then 150 lightyears away these goods sell for 15-20k each. Once you have your route all nice and planned out, you can do routes in ~30 minutes until you get something with a large fuel tank, then you can do them in 10-15 minutes.

Here's a link to the rare goods thread: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=63119

Tons of great information there.

 

[MaccGyver]

All the anarchy systems ive found are empty bum holes of the universe with nothing in them... lol
As for target selection thats the thing I find way more cobras or equivalent (master/deadly eagles) than anything else, have yet to find a wanted novice or standard strenght sidey target and never found anyone without shields. Guess its just bad luck... back to trading my paltry tea route

I think Richard is talking about random NPCs in various locations like Nav Beacons, while I think you're talking about targets for missions. I guarantee if you spend 5 mins in either a Nav Beacon or (better yet) a resource extraction site, you'll find Wanted NPC Sidey's and Eagles. Keep in mind that a KWS (Kill Warrant Scanner) will let you check and see if they're Wanted anywhere (by checking the ships details on the comms page), not just in the local system as the target panel on the main HUD will.