I am a beta backer but I haven’t had a huge amount of time to play this game. Today I have started normal trading for the first time in ED. I am sitting in an imperial clipper with the new car smell wafting through the air vents and 240T of cargo space. After the first few hours of trading I can see how normal trading could be a real grind for some people (and the biggest grind for me so far) so I wanted to tell my story of progression to give new players some alternatives to trading (not that trading is bad!). There is an undercurrent of opinion that you have to trade if you want one of the big ships (like an imperial clipper J) and this is not necessarily the case. If you want big ships quickly then trade is your only option but I have had a lot of fun to date doing things a bit differently. I have also been in open the entire time. This isn’t an experts guide on how to progress in Elite, this is the story of a dumb noob who ended up avoiding trading through the early stages through ignorance but ended up having an enjoyable time in the game anyway. My story might help new players to understand some of the options that are in the game to try. There are other options and probably better ways to progress in the game.
When I started in a sidewinder I didn’t understand how module classes worked (the wiki is good for this) so I thought I was stuck with 4 tons when I could have upgraded the cargo racks. I played the original elite so was very familiar with trading but I just couldn’t get into it initially (with 4 tons!) so I started with missions. In the original elite ships were very expensive so I wasn’t thinking about a new ship but after reading the forums I found that you could buy a hauler for 52K so missions got me to a hauler.
I then started mining, I persevered with it in the hauler to get a cobra. I found the hauler to be great at running away during interdictions. Given that NPC’s are harder now that might not have worked so well without some upgrades. I found areas to mine that were uninhabited so there was no danger of PvP piracy. Also, the good thing about mining is that whatever you get is pure profit. You don’t have to place some of your savings into the cargo hold each time. 1 Ton of palladium that you mine is equivalent to 16 tons of Palladium that you trade (approx. of course!).
I upgraded to a cobra as soon as possible and this is where the fun really starts. I don’t want to run from pirates, I want to kill them and take the bounty so my cobra was fitted out with two fixed class 2 beam lasers, one small slot for a mining laser and the other with whatever I felt like. I also had the full class 4 shield. I found 32tons of cargo space plenty for mining as it would take quite some time to fill it with the top 4 metals. I actually made some money from combat as a result and I never worried about interdictions as the cobra is a ship that lets you try fighting the pirate and run away if things are going bad. A great ship to split between mining and combat for me. The mining purists will say that a single class 1 mining laser is too slow but I wasn’t going to give up the two massive beams of death. My mining method was to blast off a chunk, use the thrusters to place the ship in the path of the chunk then move forward to capture it keeping the rock in front of you. It was quite challenging to work out the vector of the chunk as you moved laterally to the chunk and the cobra was nimble enough to make this possible. If I got interrupted by a pirate he died then back to work !
I used mining (and combat) to fully A grade my Cobra and at this stage I realised that I needed a better earner to get to my next ship which I decided would be an Asp. I decided to dabble in rares trading with my 40ton cobra and I had a 3 station run that worked well. I needed to save up about 12mil to get the Asp then upgrade it to the standard needed to do more rares trading. I also kept the cobra in storage for emergencies (fully A rated not stripped down). I now had 80tons of storage space in my new Asp for more rares trading. Keeping my cobra philosophy I made the Asp as combat capable as it could be including A rated everything eventually. The Asp is capable of (I think) about 120tons but once again its great to be able to defend yourself against most threats so the compromise was 80tons. During this time I have only been PvP’ed twice. The first was some idiot in a Vulture who just started shooting. I got shot up and my shields went down very quickly but when I decided to run I was surprised how easily I was able to run away (I had mil spec hull so I was able to take the hits until I got out). The second was a genuine pirate in a Clipper. I tried to run but that was a pointless mistake in hindsight. With thrusters dead I was given one more option to jettison all cargo (about 70 Tons of rares) but I was kind of shellshocked (first time) and he didn’t press for an answer and destroyed me. I lost 1.4mil insurance + the opportunity cost of the rares and with considerable hindsight I should have given up the cargo but I don’t regret being in open. Its things like this that make think how to avoid this in the future (he says now sitting in a clipper – that’s one way to avoid it). After this incident whenever I flew into a new system and I saw human players I immediately went to comms to see what type of ships were around. Anything but Clippers, Pythons, Anacondas etc and I breathed easier. That apprehension is really what open is all about IMO.
I didn't mention the advanced discovery scanner. This was the last thing I upgraded on my Cobra but the first thing I upgraded on my Asp. It can be a great money earner as you fly around. The advanced discovery scanner shows you everything in a system. The basic discovery scanner which you have only looks 500ls out from your position. To give you an example if I fly into an unexplored sun on my way somewhere I will point my nose at the sun, target lock it to scan it and run the advanced discovery scanner. If you find that the system has 50+ objects as an example you will make about $20K for doing very little.
After I had A spec’ed the Asp I decided to do some fed missions while collecting rares, I managed to get up to ensign in the federation before hearing about cheap clippers. I hadn’t planned my next step yet but I had about 17Mil in the bank and I could see this as a good next step so I went for it. I got to baron rank and then visited Nu to buy my Clipper. I didn’t even fly it out as I felt I needed a bit more cash to give it the minimum spec needed. So I did another rares run in the Asp, then I went to my A spec’ed cobra and sold it off as the Asp will be my new backup. I then moved both ships to founders world and prepared the Clipper for normal trading.
To fully A spec a ship is a very expensive process but for the first time with the clipper I have experienced the opposite. I have no weapons, a light power supply and understrength shield and everything is about getting the max jump range and max cargo tonnage. I even downgraded the fuel tank from 16T to 8T to give me the final bit of range I needed to have. There is nothing I can upgrade on the clipper while it is dedicated to this role! It feels strange.
What does my future hold ? I’m thinking T9 at this stage and I’m just accumulating money. I definitely want to arm up the clipper and blow some stuff up but this game is cruel to those who rush so I’m anticipating a time when I have a T9 rigged for trading and a clipper rigged for combat. This plan can change of course. With V1.3 close it may open up other doors as well. Mining is getting some love, the ability to have extra fuel tanks gives other ships more flexibility to explore which is another item I want to do (I’m waiting until the Thargoids so I can go exploring in a combat vessel).
TL;DR – soon after I first started I was reading posts about people cruising around in Anacondas and I couldn’t even imagine getting the money to get anywhere near this but as you get more knowledge of the game the money does flow in eventually. The purpose of this post is the get new players thinking about how they want to get there and how quickly they want to get there. My advice is there’s no rush, enjoy the journey and try different things. There is nothing wrong with trading but if you are not in a hurry then there are other options that also give you variety.
UPDATE : after reading this again maybe I've played ED far more than I thought and I'm in denial.
When I started in a sidewinder I didn’t understand how module classes worked (the wiki is good for this) so I thought I was stuck with 4 tons when I could have upgraded the cargo racks. I played the original elite so was very familiar with trading but I just couldn’t get into it initially (with 4 tons!) so I started with missions. In the original elite ships were very expensive so I wasn’t thinking about a new ship but after reading the forums I found that you could buy a hauler for 52K so missions got me to a hauler.
I then started mining, I persevered with it in the hauler to get a cobra. I found the hauler to be great at running away during interdictions. Given that NPC’s are harder now that might not have worked so well without some upgrades. I found areas to mine that were uninhabited so there was no danger of PvP piracy. Also, the good thing about mining is that whatever you get is pure profit. You don’t have to place some of your savings into the cargo hold each time. 1 Ton of palladium that you mine is equivalent to 16 tons of Palladium that you trade (approx. of course!).
I upgraded to a cobra as soon as possible and this is where the fun really starts. I don’t want to run from pirates, I want to kill them and take the bounty so my cobra was fitted out with two fixed class 2 beam lasers, one small slot for a mining laser and the other with whatever I felt like. I also had the full class 4 shield. I found 32tons of cargo space plenty for mining as it would take quite some time to fill it with the top 4 metals. I actually made some money from combat as a result and I never worried about interdictions as the cobra is a ship that lets you try fighting the pirate and run away if things are going bad. A great ship to split between mining and combat for me. The mining purists will say that a single class 1 mining laser is too slow but I wasn’t going to give up the two massive beams of death. My mining method was to blast off a chunk, use the thrusters to place the ship in the path of the chunk then move forward to capture it keeping the rock in front of you. It was quite challenging to work out the vector of the chunk as you moved laterally to the chunk and the cobra was nimble enough to make this possible. If I got interrupted by a pirate he died then back to work !
I used mining (and combat) to fully A grade my Cobra and at this stage I realised that I needed a better earner to get to my next ship which I decided would be an Asp. I decided to dabble in rares trading with my 40ton cobra and I had a 3 station run that worked well. I needed to save up about 12mil to get the Asp then upgrade it to the standard needed to do more rares trading. I also kept the cobra in storage for emergencies (fully A rated not stripped down). I now had 80tons of storage space in my new Asp for more rares trading. Keeping my cobra philosophy I made the Asp as combat capable as it could be including A rated everything eventually. The Asp is capable of (I think) about 120tons but once again its great to be able to defend yourself against most threats so the compromise was 80tons. During this time I have only been PvP’ed twice. The first was some idiot in a Vulture who just started shooting. I got shot up and my shields went down very quickly but when I decided to run I was surprised how easily I was able to run away (I had mil spec hull so I was able to take the hits until I got out). The second was a genuine pirate in a Clipper. I tried to run but that was a pointless mistake in hindsight. With thrusters dead I was given one more option to jettison all cargo (about 70 Tons of rares) but I was kind of shellshocked (first time) and he didn’t press for an answer and destroyed me. I lost 1.4mil insurance + the opportunity cost of the rares and with considerable hindsight I should have given up the cargo but I don’t regret being in open. Its things like this that make think how to avoid this in the future (he says now sitting in a clipper – that’s one way to avoid it). After this incident whenever I flew into a new system and I saw human players I immediately went to comms to see what type of ships were around. Anything but Clippers, Pythons, Anacondas etc and I breathed easier. That apprehension is really what open is all about IMO.
I didn't mention the advanced discovery scanner. This was the last thing I upgraded on my Cobra but the first thing I upgraded on my Asp. It can be a great money earner as you fly around. The advanced discovery scanner shows you everything in a system. The basic discovery scanner which you have only looks 500ls out from your position. To give you an example if I fly into an unexplored sun on my way somewhere I will point my nose at the sun, target lock it to scan it and run the advanced discovery scanner. If you find that the system has 50+ objects as an example you will make about $20K for doing very little.
After I had A spec’ed the Asp I decided to do some fed missions while collecting rares, I managed to get up to ensign in the federation before hearing about cheap clippers. I hadn’t planned my next step yet but I had about 17Mil in the bank and I could see this as a good next step so I went for it. I got to baron rank and then visited Nu to buy my Clipper. I didn’t even fly it out as I felt I needed a bit more cash to give it the minimum spec needed. So I did another rares run in the Asp, then I went to my A spec’ed cobra and sold it off as the Asp will be my new backup. I then moved both ships to founders world and prepared the Clipper for normal trading.
To fully A spec a ship is a very expensive process but for the first time with the clipper I have experienced the opposite. I have no weapons, a light power supply and understrength shield and everything is about getting the max jump range and max cargo tonnage. I even downgraded the fuel tank from 16T to 8T to give me the final bit of range I needed to have. There is nothing I can upgrade on the clipper while it is dedicated to this role! It feels strange.
What does my future hold ? I’m thinking T9 at this stage and I’m just accumulating money. I definitely want to arm up the clipper and blow some stuff up but this game is cruel to those who rush so I’m anticipating a time when I have a T9 rigged for trading and a clipper rigged for combat. This plan can change of course. With V1.3 close it may open up other doors as well. Mining is getting some love, the ability to have extra fuel tanks gives other ships more flexibility to explore which is another item I want to do (I’m waiting until the Thargoids so I can go exploring in a combat vessel).
TL;DR – soon after I first started I was reading posts about people cruising around in Anacondas and I couldn’t even imagine getting the money to get anywhere near this but as you get more knowledge of the game the money does flow in eventually. The purpose of this post is the get new players thinking about how they want to get there and how quickly they want to get there. My advice is there’s no rush, enjoy the journey and try different things. There is nothing wrong with trading but if you are not in a hurry then there are other options that also give you variety.
UPDATE : after reading this again maybe I've played ED far more than I thought and I'm in denial.
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