Mission Income

[Gerdofal]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but mission income seems really low compared to other ways of making money. (I mean general mission income in the bubble, not counting the long range transport missions and such)

Trading seems so much better. Bounty hunting took a big hit in 2.1, but it still is better than missions.

I love the idea of doing missions. It would be nice to be involved in the story in some way, but right now they just seem a waste.

Am am I making a mistake or are they just basically not in balance with other ways of making a profit?

 

[WhosYourDaddyNow]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but mission income seems really low compared to other ways of making money. (I mean general mission income in the bubble, not counting the long range transport missions and such)

Trading seems so much better. Bounty hunting took a big hit in 2.1, but it still is better than missions.

I love the idea of doing missions. It would be nice to be involved in the story in some way, but right now they just seem a waste.

Am am I making a mistake or are they just basically not in balance with other ways of making a profit?

True indeed. The amount of time you spend on most missions from accepting to completion is WAY too high compared to making credits any other way. And it is almost a complete joke how much more TIME you have to invest in order to get a high rank/friendly status with a very particular faction just to get even remotely comparable income/time with other ways of making credits. And even then it might be closer to bounty hunting but still nowhere NEAR the most boring profession of all time (trading).

If you want credits for whatever reason in ED (even if that is not your ultimate goal, which it shouldn't be), you have only 2 options:
(1) Have fun and spend 100s of hours until you get there.
(2) Suffer immense boredom for dozens of hours through trading until you get there.

Then again you might give up altogether and hit the cap of the game (as set by your own standards of living, time and boredom) and stop playing because you can't do either of the 2 options anymore.

 

[S~P]

What kind of missions? If a faction likes you they will offer better paying jobs. Right now I can get 500k and upwards for hauling missions (inside the bubble).

 

[DukeIronHand]

If you are not making more money in missions then trading then you are "doing it wrong" (hehe...always wanted to say that) unless, of course, you have a T9 and are dealing in slaves or dope.

Four things make a big difference:
1) Find a good station with a lot of factions. I like a lot of Fed factions (that way I rank too) but it's just personal preference.
2) Be sure you are there or taking missions from the factions in "Boom." Boom seems to be the big payout missions.
3) Keep working the same faction/station so your rep goes up. Higher rep means better paying missions.
4) A big ship helps as you can take multiple missions (sometimes going to the same system) plus some of the bigger paying missions require cargo space.

Just some observations of mine as a "missioneer."

EDIT: Ninja'ed by S~P. Gotta move fast around here.

 

[DragoonKnight]

I only do missions when they offer material rewards that I need. It would probably make sense to try every mission type at least once

 

[CMDR Kantos Kan]

If you are not making more money in missions then trading then you are "doing it wrong" (hehe...always wanted to say that) unless, of course, you have a T9 and are dealing in slaves or dope.

Four things make a big difference:
1) Find a good station with a lot of factions. I like a lot of Fed factions (that way I rank too) but it's just personal preference.
2) Be sure you are there or taking missions from the factions in "Boom." Boom seems to be the big payout missions.
3) Keep working the same faction/station so your rep goes up. Higher rep means better paying missions.
4) A big ship helps as you can take multiple missions (sometimes going to the same system) plus some of the bigger paying missions require cargo space.

Just some observations of mine as a "missioneer."

EDIT: Ninja'ed by S~P. Gotta move fast around here.

However, if you fly a big ship, you will cut yourself from many missions that involve an outpost... Best medium ship for missions is a Python with around 192 tons of cargo, IMHO...

 

[DukeIronHand]

Yes, excellent point. Thank you.
The Python is the largest ship I ever buy but I did forget to mention pad sizes above as for me the Python is my "big ship."

 

[Modgier]

Am am I making a mistake or are they just basically not in balance with other ways of making a profit?

I think it really depends on what you think the income should be.

I think short range missions pay too little, I think bounty hunting pays way too little given the risk and exploration pay is pathetic given the fact that in both of these if you die before you return to station you lose EVERYTHING. This is why people do long range hauling as other means of income are totally not comparable in profit/risk ratio.

 

[Makya]

Local faction rep plays a big part now. Also the state of the system (boom, war, etc.). I have a few home systems where I'm allied with nearly every faction. This past weekend, I had more 1mil+ missions than I could handle that were less than 50 ly away.

I'm sure there are bulk trade routes that can pay more per hour. I did them early in the game because missions paid squat no matter what your rep. But I just can't do the A-B trading anymore except for CGs I want to support.

The mission system keeps improving. I'm looking forward to 2.2 to see if FDev adds even more differentiation between system security levels now that we'll have a route planner to support it.

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However, if you fly a big ship, you will cut yourself from many missions that involve an outpost... Best medium ship for missions is a Python with around 192 tons of cargo, IMHO...

I agree. The Python is my main mission ship. I get more high paying missions to outposts.

 

[Gerdofal]

Thanks for all the replies. I've been using a Python myself for a while now. I'll see if I can start getting specific factions really happy with me.

Also, I have to learn to avoid certain mission types it seems. Those "source x" missions are a pain.

 

[insanephoton]

Depends on what kind of missions you're doing. If you've got an SRV then 'kill skimmers' missions are reasonably lucrative and also some 'infiltrate the base and scan x' missions are great earners. I had one pay over a million with my alt character.

 

[MarcusKross]

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, but mission income seems really low compared to other ways of making money. (I mean general mission income in the bubble, not counting the long range transport missions and such)

Trading seems so much better. Bounty hunting took a big hit in 2.1, but it still is better than missions.

I love the idea of doing missions. It would be nice to be involved in the story in some way, but right now they just seem a waste.

Am am I making a mistake or are they just basically not in balance with other ways of making a profit?

Wait until you discover long range milk runs coupled with game mode switch mission stacking exploit.. But wait it gets even better!


In 2.2 you will be able to teleport your ship to your desired location which will make it even easier, hell you will be earning hundreds of millions in mere days! All from missions!

 

[Smykes]

The way Ive always seen it in most games is..theres a trade off..
In ED I can run a pure trade ship and earn say 10-15m/cr/hr.. or I can trade off some of that profit and do missions for faction rep with a smaller profit thrown in.
To me I dont lose out.. I just gain in other ways

 

[Gerdofal]

The way Ive always seen it in most games is..theres a trade off..
In ED I can run a pure trade ship and earn say 10-15m/cr/hr.. or I can trade off some of that profit and do missions for faction rep with a smaller profit thrown in.
To me I dont lose out.. I just gain in other ways

That's a very interesting way to think of it. Currently, faction is pretty worthless to me. Maybe that's a consideration, faction isn't something I value at this moment.

 

[CapitanAceRimmer]

The trick for earning a lot with missions is this, if you do enough missions for a faction
1. you will gain Allied status with them
2 they will enter a boom state
When these conditions are met you can really rake it in, not just with credits but with engineering ingredients as well.
For example, my Mundjiga allies regularly give me multimillion haulage missions to a system one jump away.

I particularly like the planetary salvage missions which can pay up to 800000 credits for retrieving 4 tonnes of items from a planet surface. Now if you get multiple planetary salvage missions to the same system, they will always appear at the same spot. They're relatively safe as well, I have only ever been attacked once by passing pirates just make sure you're not carrying anything before you start the mission. Even when I am, they usually scan me, ignore any items I am carrying, even if they are extremely valuable, and just move on, MOST of the time. The salvage is usually protected by 3 skimmers but these are fairly easy to kill with an SRV or even with a ship.

 

[the100thmonkey]

That's a very interesting way to think of it. Currently, faction is pretty worthless to me. Maybe that's a consideration, faction isn't something I value at this moment.

While the factions aren't important to you, the material rewards should be - missions are the only way to source micro-weave cooling hoses, for example.

 

[smiths121]

Those "source x" missions are a pain.

Gotta agree with this! High Tech running out of Performance Enhancers (infact 3 High Techs with no performance enhancers). Would not have happened in my day, which is clearly pre-2.1!!!!

I only have a 50% success rate in source X missions, in an area of space I know very well.

Silly game lol

Simon

 

[Kizbot]

It's all about the mission stacking. I have been working through my emperial rank and doing a lot of 'destroy skimmer' and 'destroy power plant' missions. It's exploity but you can frequently get 3-4 missions to destroy the same power plant or skimmers so doing the 1 mission pays 3-4 rewards. I just hop about all the stations in a system, takes about 20 minutes and then I have enough to keep me busy for the next 90 mins or so and usually see about 10 Mil profit at the end and a decent increase in emperial rank. Plus its fun.

If your combat rank is high and your hauling a bunch of engineer commodities then you will attract alot of attention but I like the spice and it keeps it interesting.

Hang out in emperial or fed system for more faction mission to increase faction rank which is always a good thing to gradually unlock ship access and keep starting from the same system so you build up rep with those factions to get access to the better payin missions.