Mission credit rewards seem ...

[Highlightning]

Almost not worth the effort the vast majority of the time. For example (and I'm paraphrasing here), "Commander! We need your help acquiring tea! We're completely out and riots are imminent! Please bring us 4 canisters of tea! We'll pay you 6,245 credits!" So....off you go in search of tea. You may find a station selling it right off the bat. You may not. It may only cost you 400 credits in fuel. I've had it cost me near 4,000 creds looking ALL over for tea...or whatever else. My point is....these missions probably should pay several times the amount they currently do to make it worth the effort. Of course I'm not talking about the 160K credit payout for hunting down a murderer who will likely hand you your backside wrapped in ribbon on a golden platter if you're not geared to the teeth.

I'm talking about the lower tiered missions. Admittedly, I'm new to the game and simply may not know how to go about this properly. So far I reallly see a lot of potential for it and AM having some fun, but for the most part it seems excessively grindy and the missions very random. My friends and I are trying to gain rep with the Federation, but the missions that will further your rep with them are few and far between, or so it seems. And they pop totally randomly.

Anyway, forgive my ignorance if I'm displaying it. Mainly I just wanted to say, at least, that many of these missions need to pay quite a bit more than they do. They're usually not worth the cost in fuel and effort to complete them. Pirate hunting missions are right out at present, too. Usually you get sent to a system where you'll fly around for easily an hour, or many more, waiting for a single pirate to show up. It's just not worth the time. LOL Thoughts, mates?

 

[Garagiste]

Instead of the "go get me this" missions, work on the "deliver this to here ones" first.
Make notes (yes, I know - pen and paper in 3301 etc.) of what you see when you get there and then you'll have some basis to work from, plus you'll gain rep and more lucrative missions will come.
Keep an eye out for those that don't even require you to leave the station that you're in - some may call this an exploit, I call it arbitrage.
Good luck in the big black commander.

 

[Goilveig]

Also, those aren't too bad when you have a bigger cargo hold and can do ten or twelve at once; there are some higher-tier missions that can pay a lot better; 250k+ in profit for 40 cargo sometimes.

For federation reputation, every mission for a federation faction boosts your rep with them. If you mean rank, keep doing missions for federation factions. Each rank needs more than the last.

 

[Highlightning]

Very nice! Thank you both!

 

[Twelvefield]

"Space Trucking" is taking contract missions, usually carting scrap or waste from one flying cesspool to another. These missions aren't all that creative, but they do pay out in the beginning when you could be trading fuel for a loss. You get to learn where everything is and you shouldn't go broke trying. After a while, you'll see a bunch of systems and gain some reputation. You can sell your star charts.

Use space trucking to hone your piloting skills. Soon enough you'll be in the fray, and you'll be glad you know where all the controls are in your ship when the fireworks begin.

Now me, I've taken space trucking to its pathological limit. It's way faster in ED than doing it in FSX. Space trucking is my favourite thing, and as I've said before, there no way in the game of making less money over time unless you do nothing at all. At least you won't be one of those sad sacks in a brand new Asp that loses it to a griefer or a paranoid space police.

 

[ollobrains]

Once u get to allied or friendly with a faction theres an increased chance of moving gold, silver palladium missions those will be 100-400,000 credits sometimes for one jump, turning in exploration data gets u there faster to

 

[Garagiste]

Oh, and get yourself a fuel scoop as soon as you can afford / have room for one. I haven't given a cent to the oil barons in ages and would be a lot richer if I'd got one sooner!

 

[Amaze]

Instead of the "go get me this" missions, work on the "deliver this to here ones" first.
Make notes (yes, I know - pen and paper in 3301 etc.) of what you see when you get there and then you'll have some basis to work from, plus you'll gain rep and more lucrative missions will come.
Keep an eye out for those that don't even require you to leave the station that you're in - some may call this an exploit, I call it arbitrage.
Good luck in the big black commander.

The only trouble with "deliver this to here ones" is they are so rare.

Those "250k+ in profit for 40 cargo" missions are also extremely rare.

Gaining Rep with doesnt seem to effect the missions available at all.

It seems the only reasons to do missions is either you are just starting out and have little money
or you want to gain rep with the faction.

 

[CyberGrim]

wait until you get bigger ships then the missions are why underpaid.

 

[Asmodivs]

Once u get to allied or friendly with a faction theres an increased chance of moving gold, silver palladium missions those will be 100-400,000 credits sometimes for one jump, turning in exploration data gets u there faster to

I've found this to be the opposite. The more missions I do the more of "things needed" missions I get. I don't mind paying for mission items to turn in but it's getting tedious, it's almost like the progression missions are generated randomly. As far as exploration goes I've fitted my Asp with an advanced discovery scanner and a detailed surface scanner so I'll see how it goes.

Enjoying exploration again so there is that.

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The only trouble with "deliver this to here ones" is they are so rare.

Those "250k+ in profit for 40 cargo" missions are also extremely rare.

Gaining Rep with doesnt seem to effect the missions available at all.

It seems the only reasons to do missions is either you are just starting out and have little money
or you want to gain rep with the faction.

I actually lost Federation rep doing a mission for a minor faction. No big deal but having rep + or - before accepting a mission would be helpful.

 

[Jmanis]

A couple tips too.

- Location is *everything*. A lot of the popular trade spots are good for one really good thing, and that's about it. Trading a little bit of profit from standard trading comes with having a lot of different economies close by.
- Don't do them all straight away. You usually have 6-10 hours to finish them, and quite often the type of goods they're after come from the same type(s) of economy. That way, instead of going X jumps for just 2000cr profit/tonne on that 6 tonne of tea, wait til you have requests for 100t of agricultural goods or similar.

I have Agriculture, Industrial, High Tech, Extraction and Refinery (and Anarchy!) all within a jump of each other in my location, so I can get what I want, when I want*

* except Performance Enhancers and HE Suits, despite what this suggests. I guess government type, other economies in system and wealth might actually influence this too.

 

[[VR] Deggial]

The only trouble with "deliver this to here ones" is they are so rare. ...
Gaining Rep with doesnt seem to effect the missions available at all.

Oh, reputation does effect these missions! Without enough reputation you will not get them at all. With high reputation, they are rare.

 

[Amaze]

Oh, reputation does effect these missions! Without enough reputation you will not get them at all. With high reputation, they are rare.

You are right it does effect them, it just doesn't effect them in the way that I would like.

 

[clivewil]

Keep an eye out for those that don't even require you to leave the station that you're in

just got one of those types as a 'naval progression opportunity' - i had to go get 4 personal weapons. when i picked them up, there was a bulletin board mission for almost exactly the same type at the supply station. i gave them 2 of my cargo and completed the mission, bought 2 more from their own shop (!) and went home, gave them their 4 cargo and completed that one too. that was an easy path to Warrant Officer rank...

 

[Garagiste]

The only trouble with "deliver this to here ones" is they are so rare.

Those "250k+ in profit for 40 cargo" missions are also extremely rare.

Gaining Rep with doesnt seem to effect the missions available at all.

It seems the only reasons to do missions is either you are just starting out and have little money
or you want to gain rep with the faction.

Well OP is just starting out, and as Deggial pointed out, the missions available really do depend on what you've done before.

 

[Tempus-Fugit]

Oh, and get yourself a fuel scoop as soon as you can afford / have room for one. I haven't given a cent to the oil barons in ages and would be a lot richer if I'd got one sooner!

Depends what you are flying. The time taken scooping in a T9 for example might save you 50k in fuel bust cost you 750k in one less delivery.

 

[Clawhammer]

This missions should scale by your ship. If you fly a small ship you get smal missions. If you fly anaconda, you get anaconda style missions with more cash.

 

[Stein]

I never do missions anymore. Except the occacional 150K kill mission. In the beginning I tried most of the low-tier missions. Most of them - the ones involving USS's and "we need x stuff" just takes way too long time for the paltry rewards. The only missions I did with some regularity was the "bring this cargo to station x", until I had enough money to do regular trading.

 

[flynnmichael81]

I don't think missions, BH, or exploration needs too much of a boost, they only seem low because trading earns so, so much. I'm still of the opinion that trading profits should be cut in half (at least) to balance everything out.