Need some noob advice: how to hunt pirates and trade?

[Ghostlight]

I have a mission to hunt 3 pirates in system X. What is the best way to go about this? I tried heading to X and hanging around the Nav beacon. Is that the best plan? All the wanted ships are either Anacondas or the pilots are Deadly or whatever. And the cops keep kill-stealing after a 10-minute fight. Really really frustrating.


Also, on the way to the Nav Beacon at super cruise, if I see another signal of interest, how can I investigate it? How do I stop and check things out I that I discover?


Having a very hard time to get into the game. So far it's just been an exercise in frustration. Even trading is horrible as the profit per ton is so low. I am buying whatever they have high supply of, and whatever has the best profit per unit, and then heading to a nearby system where the trade map is showing they import. Minimal profit and often a loss, every damn time. Not sure what else to do. I watch all these tutorial videos and people make like 1000 profit per tonne, yet for me the margins are tiny.


Please help me not rage quit this game, I really want to like it.

 

[Yellonet]

You've got the general idea with pirate hunting, another way is to fly around in supercruise and go to USS's (Unidentified Signal Source), sometimes there are pirates there. Also, let yourself be interdicted as that will most often be a pirate, and then you're alone with the pirate, no one to steal the kill.
A good way to earn some extra money is to have a kill-warrant scanner, then you can often get a higher bounty from killing the pirate.

Personally I don't bother with trading yet as there seems to be obvious problems - as you've apparently seen

 

[el_bloom]

I have a mission to hunt 3 pirates in system X. What is the best way to go about this? I tried heading to X and hanging around the Nav beacon. Is that the best plan? All the wanted ships are either Anacondas or the pilots are Deadly or whatever. And the cops keep kill-stealing after a 10-minute fight. Really really frustrating.


Also, on the way to the Nav Beacon at super cruise, if I see another signal of interest, how can I investigate it? How do I stop and check things out I that I discover?


Having a very hard time to get into the game. So far it's just been an exercise in frustration. Even trading is horrible as the profit per ton is so low. I am buying whatever they have high supply of, and whatever has the best profit per unit, and then heading to a nearby system where the trade map is showing they import. Minimal profit and often a loss, every damn time. Not sure what else to do. I watch all these tutorial videos and people make like 1000 profit per tonne, yet for me the margins are tiny.


Please help me not rage quit this game, I really want to like it.

The profit from trade was nerfed hard (intentional or unintentional I don´t know) .... you´re not alone in that boat..... sorry cmdr. it´s FDev´s choice to let us suffer

 

[Kandra]

The profit from trade was nerfed hard (intentional or unintentional I don´t know) .... you´re not alone in that boat..... sorry cmdr. it´s FDev´s choice to let us suffer

yes and no, while huge money making trades are rare, they are still there
I found a 1 system jump trade route where I could make 800 credits per ton on slaves

 

[wolverine5pl]

I have problem with that too.
My mission kill 2 pirates in X system.
So far killed 10 but still mission not finished so what im doing wrong?
Pirates = WANTED ?
and trading do sucks

 

[Druinthor]

I have problem with that too.
My mission kill 2 pirates in X system.
So far killed 10 but still mission not finished so what im doing wrong?
Pirates = WANTED ?
and trading do sucks

How I understand it 'wanted' does not = pirate. Pirates are those NPCs that scan you and say things like 'what have you got for me today'. The problem I have is that in my experience these 'pirates' are clean.

I tried to instigate a battle with them by ensuring that I had cargo in my hold for them to scan but they simply attacked me all the while staying clean (surely that is not by design?). There was two of them and they got me down to 1% before I jettisoned my cargo. I will be giving it a go again today to see if I can attack them as soon as they turn red on my radar without incurring a fine.

 

[Druinthor]

How I understand it 'wanted' does not = pirate. Pirates are those NPCs that scan you and say things like 'what have you got for me today'. The problem I have is that in my experience these 'pirates' are clean.

I tried to instigate a battle with them by ensuring that I had cargo in my hold for them to scan but they simply attacked me all the while staying clean (surely that is not by design?). There was two of them and they got me down to 1% before I jettisoned my cargo. I will be giving it a go again today to see if I can attack them as soon as they turn red on my radar without incurring a fine.

Okay. I have a hunch that all of these missions are set in lawless star systems so attacking a 'clean' pirate will have no negative affect on you since there is no law to fine you.

 

[Niddi]

Nope, just did one in an imperial system. I just killed everybody that was "wanted" and 5/6 counted towards the mission goal.