Question on Modding Sidewinder

[DojoGrant05]

I've been following Elite for a long time, but just now been able to play thanks to the PS4 port. I put in about 6 hours yesterday, and I'm having trouble earning money. I've made several mistakes that I have learned from, but I still can't seem to find good missions, for the following reasons:

1) Mining missions require mining lasers, and I don't know where to get them (or how much they cost).
2) I got cabins, but all the passengers want to go places outside my jump range.
3) Rescue/recovery missions seem to be guarded, and I'm getting blasted to bits.
4) Cargo delivery requires more slots than I have.

My main concern here, though, is that the Sidewinder seems to not be able to handle everything I need. It's like, if I want a fuel scoop, I have to ditch some other important mod, or if I want more cargo space, I'm going to have to go without a shield generator.

Am I missing something as far as outfitting goes? Everyone said to bulk up the Sidewinder before getting a new ship, but it looks like I have no space to put on a few necessary mods without severely crippling it in other equally important areas.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Kalibhan]

I've been following Elite for a long time, but just now been able to play thanks to the PS4 port. I put in about 6 hours yesterday, and I'm having trouble earning money. I've made several mistakes that I have learned from, but I still can't seem to find good missions, for the following reasons:

1) Mining missions require mining lasers, and I don't know where to get them (or how much they cost).
2) I got cabins, but all the passengers want to go places outside my jump range.
3) Rescue/recovery missions seem to be guarded, and I'm getting blasted to bits.
4) Cargo delivery requires more slots than I have.

My main concern here, though, is that the Sidewinder seems to not be able to handle everything I need. It's like, if I want a fuel scoop, I have to ditch some other important mod, or if I want more cargo space, I'm going to have to go without a shield generator.

Am I missing something as far as outfitting goes? Everyone said to bulk up the Sidewinder before getting a new ship, but it looks like I have no space to put on a few necessary mods without severely crippling it in other equally important areas.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

I was in the same boat, then i learned some things:

You must complete the first mission called "Wellcome commander" before everything
You can buy you mining lazer in the stardocks .
You may upgrade your FSD first

Dont know if i am helping since im a starter noob... thats what i learned yesterday

 

[Herschel]

You're not missing anything. To some extent outfitting all ships ends up being a bit of a compromise; there is always something you want to take with you that you have to leave out.

 

[Chunky007]

Taking a while to learn how to outfit, i forgot to upgrade my fsd first and bought a docking computer, so had to do a few back and forth little missions to afford the fsd upgrade, now thinking of what to upgrade next. Wish work was over so i can play!

 

[DerDzvero]

You've seen all correctly - starting ship is only good for starting up. My advice as soon as you've ~1-1.5mln credits ( go help police in a high res site), get a Cobra mk3. It will allow you to try different professions. If you play in Solo it's not a problem to upgrade it in the course of action so no need to farm 10mln credits in sidewinder. If you want to go pure fighting or cargo there are other cheap ships, but cobra is a great all-rounder.

Cobra is cheap as stock version, but as any other ship gets expensive with upgrades. So think ahead a bit and never fly without credits for insurance! Never!

 

[Cmdr Smeggers]

I use this website https://coriolis.edcd.io/ to find out the right loadout for what you want the ship to do before committing to buying ships and modules.

 

[utterdread]

Rather than spend my Space Bucks on a new ship right away I spent the 32K on the Upgraded Sidewinder Package. (It was available in the ships menu at Beagle 2 Starport). Significantly improved power rating and jump range.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

My thoughts are that the best way to do things in a sidewinder is to build it for one job and focus on that job. It's a great ship - I love flying them - but they are limited. The Cobra is probably the first ship you can multi-role in.
Also upgrading the FSD is the first thing to do. You need to get a better jump range

 

[Rob Himself]

Sidewinder is a starting ship to help get you started. It's not mean to be outfitted for passenger missions or heavy mining duties. I made enough in the Sidewinder in 4 or 5 hours to buy a Eagle and a Hauler and outfit them both. I make money in the Sidewinder just doing delivery missions (only 2 slot cargo rack, I only upgraded the FSD). Only take delivery missions that offer 90,000+ and you'll have enough money to buy a better ship in no time.

 

[FiveFootNinja]

Only take delivery missions that offer 90,000+ ....

On that note, what is your plan id all the missions at a particular station and rubbish? How do you decide where to try next?

I found myself in position last night where a commodity trade wasn't going to give me any value and all the missions available to me were sub 10k credits. I ended up just super cruising over to another station but it wasn't any better there really.

 

[Rob Himself]

On that note, what is your plan id all the missions at a particular station and rubbish? How do you decide where to try next?

I found myself in position last night where a commodity trade wasn't going to give me any value and all the missions available to me were sub 10k credits. I ended up just super cruising over to another station but it wasn't any better there really.

Maybe I have just been lucky, but I have not come across any delivery missions paying out that sum. When in the Sidewinder, I almost always got missions 90,000-130,000 for simple deliveries. The least I would come across were 18,000-25,000. When in that situation, I'd just take the mission which was closest (some times within the same system, at most one jump away) and do it and hope the station I deliver to has better missions, which in my case they always did.

Now that I am in the Hauler and have way more cargo racks, when I only have low-paying missions, I accept as many as I can and one of the stations I deliver to is bound to have much better missions.

 

[JetsonRING]

I've been following Elite for a long time, but just now been able to play thanks to the PS4 port. I put in about 6 hours yesterday, and I'm having trouble earning money. I've made several mistakes that I have learned from, but I still can't seem to find good missions, for the following reasons:
1) Mining missions require mining lasers, and I don't know where to get them (or how much they cost).
2) I got cabins, but all the passengers want to go places outside my jump range.
3) Rescue/recovery missions seem to be guarded, and I'm getting blasted to bits.
4) Cargo delivery requires more slots than I have.
My main concern here, though, is that the Sidewinder seems to not be able to handle everything I need. It's like, if I want a fuel scoop, I have to ditch some other important mod, or if I want more cargo space, I'm going to have to go without a shield generator.
Am I missing something as far as outfitting goes? Everyone said to bulk up the Sidewinder before getting a new ship, but it looks like I have no space to put on a few necessary mods without severely crippling it in other equally important areas.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

Since you are so close to the start of the game, I am going to advise you that you always have the option (in "Options") to "Clear Save" or reset your game back to its very beginning. You can start again, with the same minimum 1000 credits, in the same starter Sidewinder in the same starter station and you will have the opportunity to do a couple of things right at the very beginning, things that FDev does not tell you about, which will help you in getting a good start in the game:

[noob] Starter Tips:

(1) Go to Outfitting. Exchange the (half-size!) cargo racks that came with the starter Sidewinder for full-size cargo racks. Instantly doubles your cargo capacity and profits from cargoes. Fill any additional module slots with the largest cargo racks that will fit.
(2) Upgrade the FSD of the starter Sidewinder as far as you can afford. This gives your Sidewinder the legs (jump range) needed to complete some smaller missions.
(3) FUEL THE SHIP BEFORE ACCEPTING MISSIONS and always fuel the ship FIRST on docking so the ship is at its maximum mass BEFORE you accept any mission cargo mass. Take my word for it.

Do not try to do too many things right up front. There's a lot to do and you will eventually get to try it all in fact, the game will eventually force you to try it all. Being a beginner you will need to pay dues, to start small and earn your way up in the universe. You are not capable of putting up a fight, everyone in the game (for now) has a better ship and more experience than you, so don't try. At least not yet. Be the rabbit for now. Rabbits do not fight, rabbits RUN! Learn to break interdictions and RUN FORREST, RUN! Remember though, there comes a time, when cornered, even a rabbit must turn, bare its little tiny teeth and FIGHT!
You want maximum gain with minimal risk. You have no (REP)utation with any factions, no (INF)luence anywhere, no RANK in any major power and no credits left to speak of. Now what?

Run delivery missions. Be PlanetExpress Ship. I suggest moving away from the "starter" systems and stations, as new players make for easy prey and get picked on in the starter systems. Find a station you can use as a "base" for running missions, increasing your local REP and RANK at that station and surrounding systems and building up a decent credit balance. Run cargo and data delivery missions (minimal risk, decent earnings) to the local systems in the area, always eventually returning to your base. As you complete more missions for those LOCAL factions, your REP with those local factions will increase and they will offer you riskier and more lucrative missions. As your REP grows, your credit balance grows and more options open up to you, new ships unlocked, new systems unlocked, engineers unlocked, etc.

A good, short-term goal for you might be to earn your way into a COBRA Mark III. It can do everything in Elite Dangerous, albeit on the "small" scale and it was the most common small ship in the eighties version of the game. A-rated, it can fly sideways faster than many other ships can fly forwards. A great ship, I still have mine. o7

 

[JetsonRING]

On that note, what is your plan id all the missions at a particular station and rubbish? How do you decide where to try next?

I found myself in position last night where a commodity trade wasn't going to give me any value and all the missions available to me were sub 10k credits. I ended up just super cruising over to another station but it wasn't any better there really.

You can consider whether you have a long-term goal involving the major powers such as "Do I want to eventually own a Cutter or do I want a Corvette?" Such decisions can drive your choice of where to accept missions from since if you are trying to grind up Federation RANK for a Core-Dynamics Corvette you may not want to waste cargo space hauling Imperial mission cargoes and so in such a case, you do not necessarily accept missions from IMP-aligned, local factions. o7

 

[DojoGrant05]

Thanks to everyone for the stellar advice! I should state that my ultimate goal in the game is exploration, with a bit of dabbling into the political factions along the way. I really see myself doing deep-space exploration, so I will probably want to work my way toward a ship that will facilitate fast travel, survivability, and excellent scanners. Is the Asp Explorer a good long-term goal for that?

 

[utterdread]

OP, I think I figured out a pretty good trick yesterday to make some space bucks. I headed to the ringed planet in my starter system. In the rings is Resource Extraction Sites. I hung around one of those and there were "Federal Security Forces." DON'T SHOOT THEM. Lol.

Every few minutes they would start to fly off in a specific direction. I figured out that they were intercepting new contacts (NPC's) in the area. Most of these were Wanted. Press X, complete the scan and if they are Wanted you can fairly safely engage them as the Security Forces will also start shooting them. You'll rarely get attacked as they have their hands full. If you get the killing blow (and it seems like the game is designed to let you get that shot) you get the bounty. I made about 400K in about 2 hours doing this last night.

Don't forget though, you need to go back to a base and land in order to turn the bounties in. This is through the "Contacts" in the Starbase Services. If you die you lose every bounty you have.

(I learned that one the hard way.)

 

[DojoGrant05]

OP, I think I figured out a pretty good trick yesterday to make some space bucks. I headed to the ringed planet in my starter system. In the rings is Resource Extraction Sites. I hung around one of those and there were "Federal Security Forces." DON'T SHOOT THEM. Lol.

Every few minutes they would start to fly off in a specific direction. I figured out that they were intercepting new contacts (NPC's) in the area. Most of these were Wanted. Press X, complete the scan and if they are Wanted you can fairly safely engage them as the Security Forces will also start shooting them. You'll rarely get attacked as they have their hands full. If you get the killing blow (and it seems like the game is designed to let you get that shot) you get the bounty. I made about 400K in about 2 hours doing this last night.

Don't forget though, you need to go back to a base and land in order to turn the bounties in. This is through the "Contacts" in the Starbase Services. If you die you lose every bounty you have.

(I learned that one the hard way.)

Thanks, yeah, I just finished watching ObsidianAnt's latest video, and I feel more confident tackling some of those bounty missions to help get me some starter credits to upgrade a few key components.

Let me ask this: for those who have a good handle on the game, and knowing the starter Sidewinder, what in there is expendable if I want to add things like a fuel scoop to the mix? I think I'm just really worried that something that I think is not important will turn out to be and I'll regret it.

 

[Kalibhan]

Can some1 tell me what i need to start with a cobra? I am noob and poor

 

[Rob Himself]

Is the Asp Explorer a good long-term goal for that?

From what I hear, the Asp Explorer is the "best" or at least most popular exploration ship. But this was a year ago when I last played on XB1. Personally, when I played on XB1, I went with the Diamondback Explorer (much cheaper) and, once optimally outfitted, I didn't have any issues traveling to the far reaches of the galaxy with it. I can't wait to get her back now on PS4.

 

[JetsonRING]

Thanks to everyone for the stellar advice! I should state that my ultimate goal in the game is exploration, with a bit of dabbling into the political factions along the way. I really see myself doing deep-space exploration, so I will probably want to work my way toward a ship that will facilitate fast travel, survivability, and excellent scanners. Is the Asp Explorer a good long-term goal for that?

The Asp Explorer (Asp-X) is a good choice for what I like to call "light" exploring, that is, no redundant modules, minimal surface exploration however, if you want to go really minimal for exploration, the Diamondback Explorer (DBX), thanks to a recent buff has edged out the Asp-X in jump range, though at the cost of even fewer module slots. The Asp-X has a better view out through the canopy, though and can multi-crew. For "heavy" exploration, i.e.: redundant AFMS, SRV and SLF, multiple scanners, etc. etc. consider the Anaconda. The Asp-X is a really great all-around-er too, very flexible and capable. o7

 

[Alex Brentnall]

I've been following Elite for a long time, but just now been able to play thanks to the PS4 port. I put in about 6 hours yesterday, and I'm having trouble earning money. I've made several mistakes that I have learned from, but I still can't seem to find good missions, for the following reasons:

1) Mining missions require mining lasers, and I don't know where to get them (or how much they cost).
2) I got cabins, but all the passengers want to go places outside my jump range.
3) Rescue/recovery missions seem to be guarded, and I'm getting blasted to bits.
4) Cargo delivery requires more slots than I have.

My main concern here, though, is that the Sidewinder seems to not be able to handle everything I need. It's like, if I want a fuel scoop, I have to ditch some other important mod, or if I want more cargo space, I'm going to have to go without a shield generator.

Am I missing something as far as outfitting goes? Everyone said to bulk up the Sidewinder before getting a new ship, but it looks like I have no space to put on a few necessary mods without severely crippling it in other equally important areas.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

So some advice here that I feel like I'm giving all too much: You don't need missions to get cash

Simply head out and do bounty hunting or exploration or mining or whatever and you'll get cash from that.
Mining early game is terrible, wait until you at least have a T6 or bigger ship to do that as you don't have the internal space for it.

In the sidewinder I'd start off with heading to kremainn system (3 jumps away?). Dock, refuel and go to the Resource Extraction site nearby in the asteroid ring around the planet. Scan ships till you find the "security service". Follow the police around until they weaken pirates and killsteal them. Be sure to fully scan your enemy before attacking (should show "wanted" in the info panel lower left when targeting them.

That will quickly get you 100,000 credits or so. Buy an Eagle and start upgrading, try a few different weapons and see how things go, experiment, have fun with a railgun or torpedo or whatever. Make those mistakes early whilst it's cheap.
When you get comfy buy a kill warrant scanner and use it (in a fire group) before killing targets for bigger payouts (it's a press and hold to scan until it completes).

Soon you'll get the hang of things and start getting towards the 1-2 mil credit mark, be sure to experiment with flight assist off to see how it works, practice staying behind ships out of their main firing arc etc. Even if you are not planning to do combat the fun of trying to master a few tricky things like FA-off really doesn't hurt. Again, experiment, you may enjoy it!

Anyway, when you get 2-3 mil credits see below.

Thanks to everyone for the stellar advice! I should state that my ultimate goal in the game is exploration, with a bit of dabbling into the political factions along the way. I really see myself doing deep-space exploration, so I will probably want to work my way toward a ship that will facilitate fast travel, survivability, and excellent scanners. Is the Asp Explorer a good long-term goal for that?

Yes is the short answer.

I'd rank exploration ships into 3 groups (no particular order within each group)

Best:
Anaconda
Asp Explorer
Diamondback Explorer
Type 6

Good:
Orca
Asp Scout
Diamondback Scout

Ok (Mainly early game exploration):
Cobra III
Adder
Hauler

And then all the rest of the ships in the "You can but I probably wouldn't" category

Any ship can explore but you'll need internal space to be able to do more like a vehicle hangar etc. Certain regions of space need big jump ranges to access but otherwise range doesn't really matter apart from getting out and back in.

A good 90-95% of explorers will use the Anaconda or Asp E. Personally I'd advise the Asp E or Diamondback E as a good goal to aim for. Build a few different outfittings here: https://coriolis.edcd.io/
Take a look at both ships and decide which you want to go with.


If you want an early cash fix to get into that Asp Explorer consider getting a Hauler or Adder and hitting some nearby Earth Like Worlds: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-credits-for-anyone-who-has-3-million-credits
They pay stellar (yes jokes) credits and as they are known you can fairly quickly scan several and get the rewards