Newcomer / Intro New Player Can't Find Obtainable Missions

[mydartswinger]

I'm currently at Gidzenko Ring in the Chamunda System. I've traveled through Eravate, LHS 3447, and Frigaha. I'm looking for cargo runs that provide the cargo at the station I accept the mission in. Most of what I'm finding is "go find this and bring it back", slave trade, and bounty missions. The few missions that are basic cargo runs require more space than the stock Sidewinder has. I currently only have about 7,200 credits. I'm also trying to avoid anarchist systems (I've already been interdicted twice and lost my ship and it's then cargo of beer once).

Is there a way to find out what's at my next port by way of missions before I get there so I can ensure that I'm not going to just wander around aimlessly hoping that the next station has a job that I can/want to accept?

Thanks for helping out a newbie.
Dart

 

[Ancipital]

Not really. One thing that might help, though, is when you're looking at a fetch quest, check Thrudd's to find where the nearest source of that commodity can be found. That might only help once you've upgraded your cargo space a bit in a better ship. mind. Meantime, you can use it to help you find profitable trades while you're seeking missions.

The very first bit in a Sidewinder is a bit of a scrabble, it snowballs as you gather resources and upgrade, take heart

 

[UnKle]

You will make more money bounty hunting and it is cheap in a Sidey if you lose a ship. It is also a lot of fun.

Find a gas giant with rings and it should have a Resource Extraction Site - basically an asteroid belt full of bad guys. Fly around and if an NPC scans you then lock them up, check if they are wanted and blast them. Avoid the bigger ships until you are more confident and you can make 100,000 Credits (or more!) before heading to a starport to cash the bounties.

Do this a few times for an hour or so each time and remember you need to cash the bounty in - if you die you lose any that are not claimed. Before too long you could afford a Cobra Mk III.

You CAN do this - just be careful, remember to run away if you lose shields and don't slam into an asteroid.

 

[mydartswinger]

Thanks for the advice guys. One more question, though. Should I upgrade the Sidewinder, or hold the creds for a better ship (looking at the Adder at the moment).

 

[Brieus]

It won't hurt to upgrade your modules in the Sidewinder to D class. You'll get a nice range upgrade, especially from going to a D class frame shift. Plus you can always sell them later when you get a new ship.

One thing you can do is sell the Basic Scanner module and replace with a 2 ton cargo hold. That's almost a 50% increase in capacity.

 

[UnKle]

Thanks for the advice guys. One more question, though. Should I upgrade the Sidewinder, or hold the creds for a better ship (looking at the Adder at the moment).

Well you can sell any upgrades you add (before you sell your ship) so its up to you and it isn't 'lost' money in that respect but this will also increase your insurance soooo if you want to fight then maybe upgrade shields and powerplant but the cargo is so limited you need something else for cargo missions imho.

A fully upgraded Sidewinder can have 2 Million Credits spent on it (no I'm not kidding) so its up to you but when you buy a new ship you MUST make sure you have:

1. Enough money for insurance
2. Enough money for essential upgrades
3. Enough money for insurance AFTER you buy the upgrades

You can use ED Shipyard to get an idea of costs of ships and upgrades without spending any dosh in game, useful so you know what to aim for before upgrading.

If you get a taste for combat then go for the Viper but the Adder is a good stepping-stone its a bit like a smaller Cobra (which is a great multirole ship and really fast too) just make sure you have spare cash so you don't end up in the stock Sidewinder again!

 

[ClayMatthews52]

What I did was: Bought +2 cargo to my sidewinder, use Thrudd's trading tool to make some cash trading. Around 60-70k Credit I bought an eagle with 2 gimballed lasers and headed out to an RES at a planet with rings. I was lucky because I managed to shoot out an anacode with the help of 4-5 federal dropships, and BAM 130k Credit. Yesterday I made about 150k about an hour. Good luck!

 

[MrTomsk]

It won't hurt to upgrade your modules in the Sidewinder to D class. You'll get a nice range upgrade, especially from going to a D class frame shift. Plus you can always sell them later when you get a new ship.

One thing you can do is sell the Basic Scanner module and replace with a 2 ton cargo hold. That's almost a 50% increase in capacity.

My own opinion would be somewhat different, keep the BDS. When you drop in to a new system and you get a message saying New Astronomical Object, scan any remaining planets in the system.

Once you have traveled 20 ly away, you can then sell the data at any dock for 100-15,000. It's how i made enough money to upgrade my Sidewinder whilst doing a few missions.

 

[Brieus]

Well, since they cost the same amount, you can swap them back and forth as much as you want. If you are running back and forth between several systems you have been in before, use the cargo hold. If you're going someplace new, get the scanner.

 

[mydartswinger]

Thanks guys. Sorry it's taken me so long to reply, I've been busy playing and working. What I wound up doing was swapping the scanner for the +2 Cargo Hold and ran that for a while. I then finally found a way for me to make some OK credits. Well, OK for me. While doing a cargo contract in the Sidewinder, I found a trade run that I could do every time and make 300-600 per unit carried. The bonus is that I could run between 2 stations continuously like a dedicated truck route. It generally takes me between 10 and 15 minutes to make a round trip. (Thank you Ancipital for linking Thrudd's for me, it's helped me A LOT, and I have it open just about every time I jump into ED)

After running that route enough times, I was able to upgrade to the Adder which gave me the same cargo space stock that the Sidewinder had without the scanner AND the Adder had the scanner. Ran the route a few more times, and was able to get the Adder upgraded to carry 12 cargo units with a scanner, and can jump up to 17ly empty. That run is now making me about 11k credits per round trip. The downside of this route is that the cargo is actually valued at around 40-50k, and there's rarely contracts available that I can/want to do.

Unfortunately, I've been interdicted a lot more in the Adder than I was in the Sidewinder. Granted, I decided to go to other systems and see what I could get. In 1 trip, I was interdicted twice in the same SC to a station. After getting interdicted so many times, I decided to go back to my starting point for the 11k trade run. I was empty on my return trip because I couldn't find profitable commodities to get me back there for a profit and the fuel cost was negligible. Additionally, I had no fines or bounties on my head and got interdicted by an NPC (I'm still playing Solo). He took my ship down to below 38% before I was able to get out of there. In hindsight, it looked like I should've just let him destroy me because the insurance replacement cost would've been cheaper than my repair bill (about 6k for insurance and almost 8k for repairs).

I'm liking the Adder a lot more than the Sidewinder, despite the Adder's slower speed and maneuverability. IMO, it's a better looking ship inside and out, and is far more profitable for my purposes. The only thing I don't like about it is that it sounds like a broken down wreck when it drops from SC.

While I'm doing cargo and trade runs with a bit of exploring on the side, I do intend to get into combat later. Right now, though, I think I'll "grind" the Adder to get it upgraded even further, and continue to "grind" it until I can get enough credits for a decent dedicated combat ship and get it ready for action (along with a few extra credits for insurance costs). In doing this, I plan on keeping the Adder or upgrading it to a bigger cargo ship for reliable income.

Overall, I'm finding more enjoyment in ED now than I was when I first posted this.

Another question, though, is there anywhere in game where I can buy some type of different paint scheme for the ships, or are they all purchased through the online store?

Edit:
I also posted an Elite: Dangerous video. The trade run starts @ about 4:50. The first part of the video is an introduction to ED (for 2 main reasons, 1. I like the first video I post of a game to have an introduction to the game and 2. most of my previous videos have been from the other and still in development space sim and not everyone that plays that game seems to understand ED).
[video=youtube;8FTKSxS9WoA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FTKSxS9WoA[/video]

 

[willowfan]

All the paint jobs are store bought, there are no in-game player paint jobs available.