Newcomer / Intro Odyssey vs Horizons start

[Imathil]

I took advantage of the recent Frontier sale to pick up another account (base and Odyssey expansion) for a new project so I thought I would do some testing to see if there was any substantive difference between starting in Horizons or Odyssey.

CASE 1: Start in Horizons then restart into Odyssey
You get the pilot training tutorial and upon completion (or skipping) you get a Sidewinder and 1000Cr with a follow on mission to another location inside the Pilot's enclave for 10,000Cr.
If you then relog into Odyssey it starts you in the ground training mission right away and upon completion (or skipping it) you get 250,000Cr and you are returned to your station in the Pilot's Enclave.

261,000 Credits and a Sidewinder.

CASE 2: Start in Odyssey.
You get dropped into the ground mission and upon completion (you can skip) you get 25000Cr and dropped off at ground starport (Chamberlain's Rest - HIP 97950) outside the Pilot's enclave and no Pilot's enclave permit. If you go to the shipyard rep at the station you can choose a dialog option to refresh your pilot's training and upon completion you are returned to Chamberlain's Rest with a sidewinder in the docking bay.

250,000 Credits and a Sidewinder.

CASE 3: Start in Odyssey and restart in Horizons
And then if you relog into Horizons (if you are still at the ground starport you get dropped into space above the planet since Horizons does not support planetary outposts on atmospheric planets) you will get a mission message asking you to go to a nearby system and check in at a station worth 10,000 Cr. Note: you can do the ground mission and then restart in Horizons and it will award you the Sidewinder and put you in space so you can shortcut the talking to the shipyard rep)

260, 000 Credits and a Sidewinder.

In the end there is no real substantive difference between which way you start, if you like the idea of learning in a safer environment (though frankly you can achieve the same thing with playing in solo or a private group) then go the Horizons route first and play in the enclave for the start else you can just start in a regular area. I did note that Chamberlains Rest seemed to have higher reward missions in general but Matet did have the spicy notice to spacers of Fleet Carriers kidnapping Commanders.

Hope it helps someone

 

[Zieman]

Wow.
Sidey 250k Cr right at the start.

 

[Para Handy]

....
CASE 2: Start in Odyssey.
You get dropped into the ground mission and upon completion (you can skip) you get 25000Cr and dropped off at ground starport (Chamberlain's Rest - HIP 97950) outside the Pilot's enclave and no Pilot's enclave permit. If you go to the shipyard rep at the station you can choose a dialog option to refresh your pilot's training and upon completion you are returned to Chamberlain's Rest with a sidewinder in the docking bay.
...

I thought it was supposed to be that after you do the Pilot's Evaluation (the initial tutorial in the noob zone) even after having started in EDO that you get the noob-zone permit and a sidewinder (complete with Emergence repaint) situated in the noob-zone.

If they have screwed that up I am not at all surprised.

 

[Imathil]

I thought it was supposed to be that after you do the Pilot's Evaluation (the initial tutorial in the noob zone) even after having started in EDO that you get the noob-zone permit and a sidewinder (complete with Emergence repaint) situated in the noob-zone.

If they have screwed that up I am not at all surprised.

You do get the emergence paint job for the Sidewinder, a notification of that is sent via message in the in-game mail system. But you do get left in the HIP 97950 if you start in Odyssey, maybe my start was glitched but I did wipe and restart a number of times testing various scenarios. It did kind of take me by surprise. The advantage of starting in Matet etc would be if you could make a ton of money before you let the enclave you probably would have your pick of pre-engineered suits.

 

[d8veh]

In Horizons, instead of going direct to Dromi for the first mission, you can plot a route through Chambo, which gets you about 80k when you scan it and sell the data at Dromi, so already you can upgrade all your modules from E to D and buy a fuel scoop to get you out of the loser post haste.

i've never explored the area around HIP 97950. I wonder if there are any high value planets to scan and/or stations where you can get an A-rated FSD and fuel scoop. That would save a lot of time in a new start.

 

[Imathil]

In Horizons, instead of going direct to Dromi for the first mission, you can plot a route through Chambo, which gets you about 80k when you scan it and sell the data at Dromi, so already you can upgrade all your modules from E to D and buy a fuel scoop to get you out of the loser post haste.

i've never explored the area around HIP 97950. I wonder if there are any high value planets to scan and/or stations where you can get an A-rated FSD and fuel scoop. That would save a lot of time in a new start.

Arapahoma has A class FSD, fuel scoop and scanner for a Sidewinder and it is about 7 light years from HIP. One station in system has sells surface scanner.

I was able to get into a Cobra MKIII in about 4 hours using the following method. There might be more optimal methods.
Buy maverick suit.
Take on multiple salvage missions up to threat level 2 preferably on the same planet. Lots of those in HIP 97950 (you only have a pistol but you do have a Scarab which deals quite nicely with NPCs at the salvage sites).
I was able get it down to 20 minutes per salvage mission, including stripping everything that wasn't marked illegal, and generally netted about 130K per mission.
At the end I had about 1.1 million, enough to buy a cobra, a rifle, and do some min outfitting on the Cobra including a detailed surface scanner.
There are about 10 systems in 20 light years of HIP 97950 with ELWs so next step would be do some ELW scanning and some trading. Refinery station in system with lots of Silver so transporting out should net a nice profit with the ~32 tons of cargo space on the Cobra.
Downside is that salvage missions don't really generate rep on the same level that courier missions do but they pay better and bounties from NPCs that spawn at the sties are minimal.
You could easily stack 20 salvage missions but I doubt you could actually clear them all with the mission time limit of 6 hours.

All in all it is not a bad system to start in and empirical evidence from one start - am planning on wiping and redoing - is that it is quicker than my memory (before Odyssey) of my last commander in Matet.

 

[d8veh]

Quickest in Horizons has always been to go straight to the high RES in Dromi that gets you about 5 mil per hr. As soon as you have a few mil, you can get a T6 and go do Robigo passenger missions or "Road to Riches" planet scanning. Robigo pays about 60 mil/hr and R 2R about 30 mil/hr. I was just wondering whether there was a faster route to a T6 in Odyssey. When I have time, I'll check it out. thanks for that info.

 

[WINGBACON]

I was thinking if you have a PlayStation account with fleet carrier you could thoeritically board it on you Oddysey pc account if you are starting out and give yourself free rides. Jump the carrier to Hip 97950 and pick up your alt. Lol Edit: Station don't exist in Horizons however technically the fleet carrier spawns.

 

[Talespinner1]

I have an account that I often restart, in order to try different scenarios. If you want to start in Horizons, try this:
From your starting station, Coelho at Matet, you will be offered a starter mission for 10k credits. Don't take it. Instead, complete a single small courier mission (around 25k), preferably to Mawson Dock at Dromi. Unless you are ready to graduate out of the starter zone, don't do any other missions or trading yet.

At Mawson Dock, upgrade your sidewinder to use D-rated modules. Go to the Resource Extraction Site (High Security) at Otegine. Follow the System Authority ships around and help pick off their Wanted criminal targets. Don't shoot until your target's hull is down to around 45%. At that point they are to busy to mess with you and your pea-shooter. Stay close until your target is destroyed. You will get a message about a bounty you can claim. After racking up a few bounties, check your combat status. Stop collecting bounties if you are close to leveling up. At this point, after turning in your bounties, you will have enough money for a better ship, if you want it. If you do, I recommend a Cobra III.

Now it's time to fly to a destination outside the starter zone. Don't worry, as long as you have not leveled up, you will be able to come back. Find a close-by station that sells Detail Surface Scanners (check INARA.cz) and buy one. You will need it to scan the planets you go to next. (But don't sell the mapping data unless you are ready to level up.) You should also buy a better FSD if you can. You will be driving around abandoned settlements and scanning all the comm beacons at the site. Be careful not to shoot anything. Once all the settlement's beacons are scanned, you will get an intel data package that is worth a large payout. Each one will automatically increase your Exploration reputation, so don't do more than these four for now. At his point, I would switch to Odyssey (I skip the on-foot tutorial for now), because some Horizons goodies got buried and never fixed, including a lot of these abandoned settlements, apparently. Make sure you have an SRV, a fuel scoop, and maybe an extra fuel tank on board, and go to these locations in order:
Hermitage 4 a at -53.7548, 157.5843. 815,000 data package. Four comm beacons in addition to the central pylon.
Velasques Centre, on LP 389-95, body 7. A 908,000 data package.
Almeida Landing at Conn A3 a. 847,000 data package.
Hogan Depot at HIP 7158 A 2 b at -44.6309, -63.7982. 906,000 data package.

Back in the starter zone, go ahead and cash in all your packages and exploration data. This will immediately level you up, so the next time you dock outside the starter zone, you won't be allowed back in. But here's one last tip -- if you want to leave with a lot of money in the bank, first do enough courier missions inside the zone to become allied with the Pilot's Federation. Do this in Horizons, because once you are allied, you can pick up missions that total to a couple of million or more. Before you leave, accept as many high paying missions as you can, then go ahead and leave. The first time you dock outside the starter zone, these missions will automatically pay out, resulting in a windfall. That's it. Have fun!

 

[Shattermage]

Posting here because I just reset my Alt CMDR that was still at Coelho Station in Matet (this account does not have Odyssey). Oddly enough, once flying through the tutorial and arriving at Coelho at the end, I was given the option of the SRV Sidey or the regular Sidey as usual, but with no option to continue in Matet. It instead teleports me to Baker's Prospect in Asellus Primus (the stock Sidey ships you over to LHS 3447)! It seems there is no longer any option to start in the Noobula anymore. This has to be a bug. Anyone else experience this now post U14 or before?

EDIT: It appears I'm not alone. There is a report here in the issue tracker already. I've added my contribution. If others would please do the same, it would be appreciated. o7o7o7

 

[Fnord Velkor]

Posting here because I just reset my Alt CMDR that was still at Coelho Station in Matet (this account does not have Odyssey). Oddly enough, once flying through the tutorial and arriving at Coelho at the end, I was given the option of the SRV Sidey or the regular Sidey as usual, but with no option to continue in Matet. It instead teleports me to Baker's Prospect in Asellus Primus (the stock Sidey ships you over to LHS 3447)! It seems there is no longer any option to start in the Noobula anymore. This has to be a bug. Anyone else experience this now post U14 or before?

EDIT: It appears I'm not alone. There is a report here in the issue tracker already. I've added my contribution. If others would please do the same, it would be appreciated. o7o7o7

That is one of the old starting locations. Looks like F D made yet another total male-bird-up.

 

[Shattermage]

That is one of the old starting locations. Looks like F D made yet another total male-bird-up.

Yeah, my main started in Asellus all those years ago. When I reset my alt (that was already in Matet from a reset 2 years ago, mind you) last night and had my gf start her's there telling her we could both fly around the noobula to start out with before setting out, imagine my surprise when we were both teleported to Baker's after the tutorial. Apparently it's happened to others too. I just spoke with another who did the same with their alt this morning; not in Matet. Players in NEWP are saying the same thing now, too. Just wish more would toss a contribution to the bug tracker so this thing doesn't expire. https://issues.frontierstore.net/issue-detail/56174

In the mean time we've both submitted support tickets to see if they'll relocate us to Coelho Station with the permit (because you don't have the permit either with this new bug).