Oh wow, its a lot more than just trading like i thought. I was expecting just picking up cargo and flying it to another place to make money, and i knew about piracy to make more money on the black market. But hunting and mining, this is just awesome. Ok i'm sold, Frontier, TAKE MY MONEY!!
Quick primer on the career paths...
Trader: This ones your truck simulator in space. But you're more than a driver, for the most part you are closer to a company operating an old style tea clipper. You've got to buy what you haul and sell it for a profit, often without knowing for certain what price you'll get at the other end. Take lots of notes, learn the likely commodity types st each economy type. Steep learning curve because a lot of the trade info in the game is very easy to misinterpret sticking you with a loss on what looked to be a sure thing. Pirates will be after your cargo and potentially your hide too, get good at fighting or running or preferably both.
Everybody's trades affect the markets so npcs and other players impact your profits.
Smuggler: Like the trader but specializing in "salvaged" cargo, which the authorities regard as "stolen", and illegal goods. You won't be grinding up to a big rig like the trader, but you are going to need to be an expert pilot to get into stations before the fuzz scan you because the fines for illegal cargo are huge and once the fuzz start firing on you so will the station, which mounts a lot of guns and can boil you in seconds. In addition not every station has a black market to sell illegal goods on and there's no in-game way to find out other than going there to see.
Mercenary: Get yourself a ship equipped for a fight and take combat missions from stations or head for a conflict zone (the hundreds of little factions are always fighting each other) and join in on one side or another to claim combat bonds based on how many enemies you kill. The more players join in on one side or another of these little squabbles, the more the eventual outcome tilts to one side or the other. The side you're fighting against will rapidly get to hate your guts and some combat missions are against civilians which will end up with a bounty on your head in territory controlled by the enemy faction. Bounty hunters might start taking notice if you let it get too high before paying it off.
Bounty hunter: Fly around looking for wanted ships and fry them. Obviously you want a ship equipped for a fight, just like the merc. There are missions in stations against high profile criminals but those are usually against serious ships with a lot of firepower so watch out. Be careful boiling a crook that's part of the same faction as controls the system, that can get the local authorities annoyed at you. Buy a kill warrant scanner so you can claim ALL the bounties on somebody you fry, not just the ones active in the current jurisdiction. Buy a Frameshift interdictor so you can pull your target out of supercruise instead of just prowling sites where you might catch them in normal space.
Pirate: Also needs a ship equipped for a fight (duh) but you also need cargo space for your booty. A frameshift interdictor is a must. NPCs will drop cargo if you shoot them enough and if you pirate a fellow player there's a chance you might be able to bully them into giving you their lunch money.. errr cargo... without much of a fight. Be aware that the penalties for killing your target are MUCH higher than those for simply assaulting them with a few well-placed shots. You'll face the same issues as the smuggler in finding places to sell your ill-gotten gains.
Explorer: Go and map distant systems, come back and sell your data. You're going to want a ship with long jump range, fuel scoops and a large tank. Upgrade your discovery scanner and invest in a detailed surface scanner to get more complete info on the places you visit because that makes it worth more when you get back. If you happen to be the first to sell data on that particular system it's worth a LOT more. It's dangerous out there, don't go without decent guns. Properly fitted exploration ships are EXPENSIVE.
Miner: Like real-world mining, this is a hard grind with minimal profits unless you really strike it rich. (pristine, metallic asteroids that yield chunks with high percentages of gold, palladium or other valuable metals) Working on locating these puts you in a similar situation to an explorer and system data you discover while prospecting is as valuable to you as it is to a dedicated explorer, although in all probability you won't be traveling quite so far so can go with slightly cheaper ships. Unlike the explorer, you do need hold space and you also need to give up a weapon mount for a mining laser and fit a refinery module. Giving up the weapon mount is significant because on your way back with full holds you're a target for pirates.
