Newcomer / Intro Newb here.

[Lasobar]

Hello!
I just recently started playing this game (total 10 ingame hours). And I feel totally at loss of how to make any credits at all!

So far I’ve done some courier missions which netted me about 2k credits which feels like a drop in the Nile. Tried to do some trading that netted me about 2k more which I later re-invested but lost to a pirate. Tried some exploration which ended in fuel shortage in a system with only a sun. And after that I tried a mission to take down a npc pirate who destroyed my ship with ease.

At the moment I have about 5k credits and nothing more, no fancy modules or anything, only the default sidewimder modules you get with the ship.

I have played Eve online for many years and I know about steep learning curves, but Elite dangerous beats anything I ever played before!. Reading here on the forums makes everything sound so easy, but my experience is different . Docking/un-docking which many people seems to have trouble with was probably the most easy part for me.

So my questions is: what to do and where to go as a newb? Am I rushing things and don't realize that it takes time? How long did it take you to get your second ship the first time?.

And a second question more generally about the game: How is it with player imteraction? Is it possible to trade with other players? Form corporations/guilds etc. Or is the only interaction you have the occational pirate/wingmate?.

if you read this far, I thank you for your patience! .

 

[Gully Foyle]

When I started, I did the little cargo missions until I could afford better weapons. Then I would go to the NAV beacons and only hunt wanted Sidewinders. Once I could afford a bigger ship, I sold everything off my old sidewinder before selling the hull (you get more credits that way) and slid into a sweet Eagle. Sold the pulse lasers, bought a gimballed beam laser and a multicannon and went hunting at Resource Extraction Sites and NAVs again. Hunted Sideys and Eagles etc. About two weeks later to mix it up a little, I traded in the Eagle for a Hauler and use one of the many trading tools online (Slopeys, Thrudds etc.) to tell me what to carry and where to take it. I went unshielded to free up cargo space, but upgraded the FSD and plant so I could boost away and run if I got interdicted. I would also take carry stuff missions from the bulletin board at my home station and make credits.
Eight months into this awesome game, I have a T6 for trading, a Cobra for multirole, a Vulture for hunting and my old Sidey and Eagle sitting retired in dock at my base in Alcor.
I don't get to play much with work and all.
We cannot trade with other players yet, but you can scoop each others cargo. If you do, it becomes stolen however so you got to watch for authority scans and sell it at black markets. If you drop your own cargo, you can pick it up clean however.
Hope this helps!
07 CMDR

 

[Universal Evil]

It's not correct cmdr Gully_foyle...
You can actually drop cargo for another to pick up without it being marked as stolen I just gave another guy ca. 100K of paladium so he could buy a viper and those were not marked stolen as he picked them up in fact there was some kind of bug I believe since some of the time when he was finished scooping up the cargo and he got them all I still could see some on my hud and could actually scoop them up and then dump them againg to him....

You have 2 options when you dump cargo 1 will mark it as stolen if picked up by anyone but your self and the other will mark it as leagal cargo....

 

[cheekibreekisuka]

Jettison = dump cargo
Jetisson (Abandon) = dump cargo with "stolen" flag attached to it

 

[Gully Foyle]

I did not know that, thanks CMDRS!

 

[Fen Harel]

There is a steep learning curve, but its not by any means insurmountable. I'm glad you are out and about and asking questions. I worry about people who start, play a little bit, get confused and then quit. Elite is a wonderful game. A bit of a grind at times, but we're flying starships, how cool is that!

When I started I was incredible nervous. And there was much I didn't know. I screwed up my first BB mission to deliver some animal meat simply because I didn't know how to turn in the cargo to complete the mission. (I assumed it was automatic for some reason, it didn't occur to me that I needed to get back on the bulletin board to complete the mission.)

I self-destructed my first Sidey because I popped into a system and scrolled down list of systems on my nav panel. Later, I suddenly realized I was very low on fuel, didn't scroll back up for some reason, and panicked - I didn't think there was a nearby station. There was (I think this happened in Kini) as I learned when I flew in with my second sidewinder.

I made money on BB mission and fighting off NPC pirates and then bought myself a shiny new Adder, hmmm, several days into the game? I scrimped and made a couple of flights without insurance. I knew it was a bad idea, and I was incredibly nervous, but I made enough to cover it anyway. I tried trading in my new ship, but got confused by the trading system. Frankly it still confuses me. But, I wanted to explore, so I set out for "down." I had no idea at the time it lead from Federation Space to the Empire. In fact, it was weeks until I realized you could filter the Galaxy map to see where they were in relation to each other. I wandered for about a week, slowly moving and doing some trading and exploring and pirate-fending-off before I found the Cao Gong system which I made my base.

I made some exploration missions in that Adder, the first out to a "whopping" 500 ly. But, I found a system with 3 water worlds - though later when they added the tags, I hadn't been the first. Eventually I moved to an ASP and etc. etc.

Okay, this story has gone on for too long. The point is, the game has a steep curve, but that curve will help you to live your own story in the Elite universe. Good luck and fly safe Commander!

 

[Kole]

Hi Lasobar,

I've got about 20 hours in and am sitting on a couple 100k even after taking a 50k loss from pancaking into the station once. Here's what I did if you want to try something similar (I don't advise pancaking into the station though):

I got the heck out of the starter station and headed in a random direction for a couple of jumps. Then I used a trade tool to discover a fairly profitable trade run. This is the one I used: http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/

I sold my discovery scanner and added an additional 2 ton cargo rack - its a costless exchange. This slightly increased the number of missions I could accept and obviously increased how much I could trade. Always keep an eye on the bulletin board.

As I traded I slowly upgraded my sidewinder, first a better power distributor, then thrusters, and fsd. This let me travel faster and farther.

After getting tired of trading I switched to RES (resource extraction source) hunting. Look for a system with a lot of gas giants with rings they seem to be the places to have RES. Once you get into 1 just keep an eye out for laser fire, target the ship everyone is aiming at and wait for your scanner to show them as wanted. Then open fire. I just started this this evening for maybe an hour and made over 100k easily. Another evening and I'll be jumping into a viper I think.

I hope this helps you.

 

[TorTorden_VR]

Also an Eve-online vet (7 years total..) here and sure starting elite seems a bit like a brick wall atm, but it's nowhere as long a learning process as what "knowing EVE" was, heck I even studied the SQL dump for more info on stuff.

ED is also very new compared to EVE, but I wouldn't want ED to turn into "Eve with cockpits" any more than I would want cockpits in eve.
Only played a week myself, but just learning how thrusters and shields has an optimal mass is an eye opener, I think I was running around with the wrong modules for a while there adding to my suckage

 

[the100thmonkey]

The fastest way in the early game to make credits is to head to resource extraction sites (RES) or navigation beacons and shoot bad guys. You can't see nav beacons on your contacts list while in the station!

Wait until you see the police ships shooting at something large and dangerous, get closer and wait until it's down to about 10% hull, then start shooting. The large ships are slow, but they can flip round quickly so take care to NEVER LET AN ANACONDA POINT ITS NOSE AT YOU - it will probably one shot you with a plasma accelerator. Keep zipping around the target while taking potshots - the police will distract it so it doesn't focus exclusively on you - and keep firing until it blows. You should get a hefty bounty from that. The largest bounty I've had was some 240,000cr. Alternatively, you can engage wanted Sidewinders, Haulers and Eagles as you please: The bounty is lower, but so are the risks. Significantly.

Cash your bounty vouchers regularly as you'll lose them if you die. Don't bother engaging if another CMDR is shooting at your target - they are far more likely to get the bounty, especially if they are in a superior vessel (which is almost certain given your position.) Additionally, many CMDRs frown upon kill stealing and will just blow you up if they don't get the kill and associated bounty. Always accept wing requests from other CMDRs in the RES, as if you both shoot at something, you will both get a share of the bounty, and a CMDR is rather unlikely to shoot his own wingman!

Add me in-game - the_naked_ape - I'm taking a wee sabbatical from my player group and will be happy to head back to the starter systems to give you some help and show you the ropes. I usually only play Tuesday, Friday and Saturday in the evening JST (GMT+8), so we might have trouble actually getting in-game together, but if we can both swing it I'm happy to help out. Work and parenting commitments mean I can only play full-time during the holidays.

 

[Dorohedoro]

Man, cant wait to buy this game, Im playing the tutorial training demo and I love it. Did those missions many times and never gets old for me, I think its time to jump into the full game...

 

[lefty1117]

The thing about this game is that it's not necessarily hard, just grindy, and especially in the early game it can feel like it's taking forever to progress. Once you get in a viper or better yet a cobra, the game starts to open up.

 

[TMC]

I recommend playing in Solo mode until you learn the ropes and have a decent Viper or Cobra.

 

[Chrisfs]

I started doing some courier missions and some trading. As a newbie, courier (delivery) missions will get you more cash than simply trading will because of the small hold in a Sidewinder. I also went exploring. They have really increased the rewards for exploring since I started in December, so you can make a decent amount of money. There are no guilds and no intra player trading (you can arrange with another player to meet and both of you jettison cargo and pick up the other's cargo, but that's messy and complex).
A large part is practice. You can expect to lose a ship or two early on. I am not big on (and not great at ) shooting, so I do exploration and that has made me decent enough money. A non combat community goal can give you a bunch of money.