New player troubles

[JKMorahan]

I've already watched a horde of tutorials and read guides. Starting my first play and decided to take a cargo haul mission to begin with. Can't find the key or tab or whatever to pick up my cargo after accepting the mission. Watched a tutorial video on cargo runs for beginners and they mention don't forget to pick up your cargo after accepting the mission and that's great, I'd love to but they don't show how. Feller doing that tutorial is using key bindings for everything instead of walking you through it using UI access so how am I supposed to know how to get to the screen that lets me select pick up my cargo? Can't find anything in the UI about it, there doesn't seem to be any key bindings in the options menu specific to "pick up cargo" so how in the hell do you do it? The cargo doesn't just appear in my ship after accepting the mission, cargo bay is still empty, in fact neither does the mission appear in the left UI screen tab "outstanding missions" which I thought it should once you accept it until it's completed.
Once I accepted the cargo mission it did give a pop up saying it's refreshing the missions list, is it a bug and I didn't actually get the mission? How do you tell if you've got active missions? Is there a tab or screen to check what missions you have currently active? Couldn't find one.
So how do I pick up my cargo, and how do I see what missions I have active?
I'm using X56 if it makes any difference with telling me what to press.
Thanks for your help..

 

[Ashnak]

Usually, you should have the mission, once accepted, in the missions list in your left HUD screen. Until you picked up all of the cargo, you also should have an exclamation point in the main station screen, next to the faction you took the mission from, indicating you have unfinished business with them.
This, however

...
Once I accepted the cargo mission it did give a pop up saying it's refreshing the missions list, is it a bug and I didn't actually get the mission?
...

Sounds like you tried to pick up the mission after it had expired on the server. Missions list gets updated every 10 (IIRC) minutes. Say you opened the missions list at 10:28, scrolled through it for a while, then selected (accepted) the mission at 10:32 after it had disappeared from the server - that would explain what you're seeing. A lot of missions stay active over multiple server cycles, some don't - and you never know if that mission has been hanging around for half an hour already before you arrived at the station.

As far as keybinds go - there aren't any. You'll need to go through the UI with whatever keys you have assigned for cursor/UI control.

 

[d8veh]

Sorry I can't help you with your cargo mission. They've made it so complicated now that they confuse everyone. My general advice is not to do cargo missions. The earnings rate is not good compared with other ways of making money, as you have to buy the cargo.

whenever I start a new commander, I always start with bounty farming. No matter how bad you think you are at combat after doing the ridiculous tutorials that put nearly everyone off combat, it's surprisingly easy to make money fast. Plus, it's a lot more fun than simply jumping from one place to another.

Once you have some money, you can get do what you want. The fastest money earning for a beginner is probably Robigo sightseeing missions for which you start with a T6.
Here's my walkthrough that shows you how to farm bounties in a Sidewinder in Dromi. I had previously jumped out of the noob zone to Chambo to scan a system to get enough money to upgrade to D grade modules. That's not necessary, but it makes you friendly with Dromi, which turns the police green. Without that, the police will still turn green when you hand in your first bounties, so go back to the station after your first couple of kills:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xdX-dZR3-aY

 

[Factabulous]

1) Find a Delivery mission

2) Open it - hit ACCEPT

3) Mission page opens - select/click the '+' button.

Keep pressing the '+' button until you have all the cargo, or until you are full. You do not need to take all the cargo in one go. Note how the 'Items you are collecting' changes

4) Select/Click 'Collect Items' to .. collect the items. UI changes to show you have the items

5) Your Inventory Panel now shows you have the goods, and that they are mission specific

 

[Factabulous]

6) And your Transactions Tab shows that you have the mission. Note that it also shows how much you have on-board/delivered:

7) Delivery is much the same in reverse...

 

[Para Handy]

I've already watched a horde of tutorials and read guides. ......

Here is a video I made of a delivery mission, it is of the current type and should show you what you are having issues with:

 

[JKMorahan]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate it. Can be frustrating first time around when you don't know how things are supposed to look when you're doing it correctly. Since what Factabulous has described is not what happened after I hit "accept" and there was nothing in the transactions/mission tab after accepting when I checked, the answer must be what Ashnak said and the mission timed out on the server before I accepted. That's cool. I just had to check with someone before continuing gameplay because if I made a mistake it does something to reputation and federal bounty hunters put spiders in your ears while you're sleeping or something like that, apparently.

 

[SMcA]

if I made a mistake it does something to reputation and federal bounty hunters put spiders in your ears

It is not the spiders you have to worry about it's the elephants.

 

[WaveRider]

Something new everyday!

Once again, reading threads posted by those having difficulty, has allowed me to learn a few new things too!

More importantly it highlights those great community contributors. Thank you. <O

 

[Craith]

Thanks everyone I really appreciate it. Can be frustrating first time around when you don't know how things are supposed to look when you're doing it correctly. Since what Factabulous has described is not what happened after I hit "accept" and there was nothing in the transactions/mission tab after accepting when I checked, the answer must be what Ashnak said and the mission timed out on the server before I accepted. That's cool. I just had to check with someone before continuing gameplay because if I made a mistake it does something to reputation and federal bounty hunters put spiders in your ears while you're sleeping or something like that, apparently.

If you fail a mission, it is not the end of the world. The following will happen:

• your reputation with the issuing faction will take a hit (if you keep doing it, they will offer worse missions and finally become hostile, which is a problem when you are docked in their station)
• your reputation with the superpower the faction is aligned with will take a hit (if they are aligned. This will influence slightly how other factions aligned with that superpower view your actions)
• their influence in the system will take a hit (this can lead to them getting into trouble with other factions, or staying clear of the trouble, depending on the situation in the system. they might even be forced to retreat from the system - not by your single mission though. If you are not invested in the system, you can ignore this - supporters of that faction might take offense if they ever find out though)
• you might get a fine - the fine is placed on the current ship, blocks access to most services in stations the issuing faction owns and makes transfer of the ship to other sysems more expensive
• you might have some stolen cargo in your hold - if you collected some, and didn't turn it in.

If you suceed on the mission, the following will happen:

• You will be offered with a choice of rewards. All include money, reputation (REP) and influence (INF). Usually one choice has the most money with minor REP and INF (designated with + or ++), the other two can include a little less money but more REP or INF (+++ to +++++), commodities (those show a value), materials or data (showing an engineer-symbol)
• your reputation with the issuing faction will improve (more if you chose a REP +++ or higher reward) - useful until you are at allied to get access to better missions, not useful afterwards. It will also help you towards new navy ranks in the Empire or Federation (proper faction alignment required)
• your reputation with the superpower the faction is aligned with will improve (more if you chose a REP +++ or higher reward), improving how other aligned factions view your actions
• their influence will improve (this can lead them into conflicts with other factions, to go for control of the system or expand to a nearby system. Again, a single mission won't change much)
• Materials or data - usually the best choice, if you don't actively try to manipulate the factions in the system or want to rank up with a navy. You don't lose a lot of money, money comes easy anyhow, and can use them for engineering.