Newcomer / Intro Sidewinder suicide, the frustrations of starting with very little

[Hawkshield]

Now don't take this as a " I want stuff fast" cause its not. Its about constant catch 22 with upgrading, making ends meet, and bulletin board jobs.
Case example, from the Station where I was, got a deliver Liquor. My complaint before was not enough cargo space, a game player "pro tip" said to drop scanner and get more cargo space. I did, get my 6T of liquor, planned navigation, went.........WELL 2 jumps in, not enough fuel for FSD because of the 6T, so looked it up online, one suggested drop the guns, loaned anyway and the less weight will help with fuel (I'm not a pvp'er anyway), did that, fueled up, went back on trip, low and behold 3 jumps in Out Of Fuel for FSD. and guess what? I am at a juxtaposition with my cargo and in a system with no stations, can't jump anywhere. So I take the hit, Jettison cargo. At least I keep my creds and ship, my useless sidewinder, which btw has been upgrading. Jump to another system hoping it has stations since on the Nav screen no info was available on sys nor could any be bought, took a chance....nope .....no stations, just stardust and rocks. Now I have no fuel to jump anywhere, SELF DESTRUCT, lost my creds and what dignity of effort and intent to grasp this game I had left. I am lost to this game, 3 times now I have had to go back to square run, my patients is running very thin and frustrated with this game waaaaaaay beyond anything I've experienced, even Eve Online (which is easy compared to this game).

Thing is, very helpful community, but it seems there are so many Engineer Grade educational barriers to the average gamer with this game, it involves a mutli-tasking mathematical focus, I guess I just don't have. I already just want to walk away and not look back, it seems any progress I make is stonewalled by yet another hidden barrier with teh starter ship, and trying to earn enough creds to upgrade Cargo, Power Unit, Fuel Tank etc.... seems compounded by the snails progress I have to invest in Real World Time to move forward. Even now typing I am so very frustrated I have probably stopped making sense. I will stop now, any comments good, Ill, or Condescending please do I want to see where I am failing and why I am perceiving this as a complexity that makes me shut down and self destruct...thank you

 

[EtherDragon]

The other thing you can do is be more careful about the missions you take. You can find out your ship's maximum jump range under full load relatively quickly. This is info every pilot should know on the back of their hand - unfortunately, the game kinda hides it.

Next time you are in the outfitters, check the stats for your ship (hell, take and print a screen shot) so you know exactly how far you can go at max mass. Then you won't get stuck with missions that you can't complete due to jump distance limitations.

 

[Legionnaire]

My advice for what its worth, is rather than extra cargo space to start with, swap the discovery scanner for a fuel scoop. the number of times thats saved me, and on the bigger ships, it saves so much money. start small even if its boring and repetitive. as Etherdragon said look at galaxy map, Navigation and set the slider there to show you max distance when loaded. Once you get to upgrading ship, power distribution, FSD, Power plant, Life support, then look at additional cargo space, and keep a note of that jump range. from there you should be able to start upgrading the ship more easily. and buy better, but i would serious contemplate always having a fuel scoop fitted. on later ships you will need the more expensive ones.

 

[Hawkshield]

Well thats good to hear about the Jump range, I'll check that out. Not a problem to take notes, didn't know that info was info was available. About the Fuel Scoop, man that sounds like a mandatory thing all beginning ships should be fitted with. I'll definitley will check that out, question is though what upgrades to avoid sun damage ? Thanks again all

 

[Eldost Dustlighter]

Even though you mentioned earning Money by killing "Wanted" Ship is not your kind of style, you should definitely give it a go at the beginning. The few trading Missions you get for starting off are quite lackluster in terms of reward....if you´re lucky, you can make 20-30 K credits in 20 Minutes by killing some of those Wanted Ships near a Navpoint or Unidentified Signal Source you get during Super Cruise mode. When you have about 50 or 60k credits, you can think about buying a Hauler with 10t of Cargo Space....those Missions do at least pay off a bit more...

 

[tricky]

Well thats good to hear about the Jump range, I'll check that out. Not a problem to take notes, didn't know that info was info was available. About the Fuel Scoop, man that sounds like a mandatory thing all beginning ships should be fitted with. I'll definitley will check that out, question is though what upgrades to avoid sun damage ? Thanks again all

There aren't any upgrades for heat shielding. You can safely go upto a maximum of 150% heat levels. Any higher and you start taking damage. Once you drop out of hyperspace, wait for the fuel scoop deploying message and immediately throttle back to zero orientate the ship so that the star is in the lower half of the view screen. You will end up travelling at at 30km/s and the heat levels just below 100% (or just above).

Make sure that you aren't near the star when you hyperspace to the next system otherwise your heat levels will rocket and you will start taking damage. I once made that mistake and was very lucky. Ended up at 240% heat level and 50% damage to the ship. Expensive and as I said very lucky I didn't blow up.

 

[curses]

I find trading with the sidewinder pretty tedious (I should know, I did it for weeks!). Maybe if this time doesn't work out you could try jumping to unexplored systems and scanning them with you basic discovery scanner and then going to each 'unexplored' body and identifying it by targeting it with your regular scanner until it's scanned.

Depending on the number of objects in the system you can make a lot of credits (couple of thousand a pop) with a bit of effort. I found it a good kick start for my latest reset.

 

[Chris M Fortune]

I find trading with the sidewinder pretty tedious (I should know, I did it for weeks!). Maybe if this time doesn't work out you could try jumping to unexplored systems and scanning them with you basic discovery scanner and then going to each 'unexplored' body and identifying it by targeting it with your regular scanner until it's scanned.

Depending on the number of objects in the system you can make a lot of credits (couple of thousand a pop) with a bit of effort. I found it a good kick start for my latest reset.

I always scan every unknown system I jump to, even if its just a waypoint on route to somewhere else, then if I find one with lots of bodies I will note it for later investigation when I am not busy.

Always fuel scoop when you can, I am only in a cobra atm but the fuel costs would eat most trade runs profit without it. Be aware tho some stars are not viable for scooping, I only use the big orangy ones. its best to learn in the free sidey as until you get the knack its not easy to avoid burnup

 

[fresher]

Now don't take this as a " I want stuff fast" cause its not. Its about constant catch 22 with upgrading, making ends meet, and bulletin board jobs.
Case example, from the Station where I was, got a deliver Liquor. My complaint before was not enough cargo space, a game player "pro tip" said to drop scanner and get more cargo space. I did, get my 6T of liquor, planned navigation, went.........WELL 2 jumps in, not enough fuel for FSD because of the 6T, so looked it up online, one suggested drop the guns, loaned anyway and the less weight will help with fuel (I'm not a pvp'er anyway), did that, fueled up, went back on trip, low and behold 3 jumps in Out Of Fuel for FSD. and guess what? I am at a juxtaposition with my cargo and in a system with no stations, can't jump anywhere. So I take the hit, Jettison cargo. At least I keep my creds and ship, my useless sidewinder, which btw has been upgrading. Jump to another system hoping it has stations since on the Nav screen no info was available on sys nor could any be bought, took a chance....nope .....no stations, just stardust and rocks. Now I have no fuel to jump anywhere, SELF DESTRUCT, lost my creds and what dignity of effort and intent to grasp this game I had left. I am lost to this game, 3 times now I have had to go back to square run, my patients is running very thin and frustrated with this game waaaaaaay beyond anything I've experienced, even Eve Online (which is easy compared to this game).

Thing is, very helpful community, but it seems there are so many Engineer Grade educational barriers to the average gamer with this game, it involves a mutli-tasking mathematical focus, I guess I just don't have. I already just want to walk away and not look back, it seems any progress I make is stonewalled by yet another hidden barrier with teh starter ship, and trying to earn enough creds to upgrade Cargo, Power Unit, Fuel Tank etc.... seems compounded by the snails progress I have to invest in Real World Time to move forward. Even now typing I am so very frustrated I have probably stopped making sense. I will stop now, any comments good, Ill, or Condescending please do I want to see where I am failing and why I am perceiving this as a complexity that makes me shut down and self destruct...thank you

Totally understand your frustration, and much as I love this game now - it's a steep learning curve - but persevere it's worth it. It's not really engineer grade, just getting to know your way around the interface and what information is available.

Some tips:

1/ Don't accept a mission until you have researched it - i.e, use the galaxy map to plan a route (click on the destination and select the 'plan route' icon - it will show you how many jumps / distance etc), and make sure you have time to make it. It might even show you if you need to refuel on the way (can't remember), in which case plan an extra 20 minutes as you never know if you're going to be forced ot refuel in a system with a station that's 100000 ls away!

2/ Check that fuel guage before you hit jump - when you select a destination to jump to you will see a small blue section appear on your fuel guage - this indicates how much fuel the jump is going to use up. If it's going to use up all / most of your fuel, well, if you know the system you're arriving in has a station (which you can find out in the system map) then fine; if not - change your plan and refuel first!

3/ For collection missions, use the commodities screen to see where that commodity is being imported from, so that you can plan the route and make sure you have enough time to complete the mission.

4/ Basic fuel scoop is just 300CR, so a worthwhile investment!

5/ Use your discovery scanner to make money while you travel - scan each system you travel through - sometimes you strike lucky and can make a nice bonus on your already planned trip!

6/ Plan a fuel scoop and frame shift drive upgrade as first priorities. Once you have better jump distance you have more options. If you want to carry on with missions / trade, go for cargo space next. If you want to go for bounties, upgrade weapons. If you want to mine, mining laser and refinery - tedious but can be very lucrative (and some people love it!). If you want to explore, you don't really need anything except the best jump drive you can manage - scanner upgrades are expensive and can come much later.

7/ Good luck - it's worth putting in the time to get skilled with the game - the more you play, the more you find.

 

[CMDR Saari]

About the Fuel Scoop, man that sounds like a mandatory thing all beginning ships should be fitted with.

Agreed. I think that at least the free Sidewinder should come with a fuel scoop instead of the discovery scanner. People who are interested in exploring can buy the scanner if they want, but with only 4t fuel tank a fuel scoop is practically required if you want to get anywhere.

 

[CMNDRMK]

Agreed. I think that at least the free Sidewinder should come with a fuel scoop instead of the discovery scanner. People who are interested in exploring can buy the scanner if they want, but with only 4t fuel tank a fuel scoop is practically required if you want to get anywhere.

Disagree, for me, using the discovery scanner was the easiest way to get started making money. Maybe it was my starting position, but did not find fuel conservation a problem as you can probably make around ~30LYRs+ of jumps on that 4T. One of the first areas I jumped to netted me about 15K worth of exploration data.

I did not "want to explore" it was just this system was on route for a mission. If I just had the scoop, yea maybe I save a few hundred credits on fuel, but I dont as a noob get 15K handed to me on about my third jump which is what the discovery scanner allowed.

Discovery scanner = lots of free monies for noobs.

Also given that I had to travel 20K to cash in the monies, this motivated me to learn how the galaxy map works. Most of the "game to hard" threads I read boil down to " I dont understand the galaxy map".

NOOB2NOOB advice: Learn how the galaxy and system maps work.

Learn how to get info, learn what the different economies are and how they interact, learn how to use the filters, learn how to plot jumps. Knowing this takes alot if not all of the oh sheet I am stranded, have inappropriate cargo, cant find cargo, etc etc out of the game.

Also learn to enable the discovery scanner to a different fire group, switch fire group by pressing N.

 

[snotface]

I would like to make a good point to this player.

I started with nothing just like you. I was blown up many times because of my own silly mistakes. then I realised that I could just simply do haul and crawl missions until I could buy a hauler ship. After that I just put more cargo slots on it and went to s system which I could make 1,000 per trip in the same system and I didn't have to travel anywhere except from dock to dock.

I haven't been playing long and IT Has Been Very Boring at times, But I not have an Adder and I am kicking Butt. I have made 12k on pirate which lasted all or 40 seconds.

What I am simply trying to say is, Don't think about the "I WANT IT NOW," and go with "If I Haul Can I buy This Upgrade?"

I'm just another old Parathin Lamp player from the 80's and I know we all start at the bottom and work are way up.

Good luck with the game, and take little steps and make money Combat comes with a long life...

 

[technophebe]

I have a new starter guide here which is intended to help with the frustrations you're feeling (and which I and many others also went through). Hope it helps!

 

[Hawkshield]

Thanks again all, this thread just keeps on giving

 

[LutherArkwright]

I found a nice bounty hunting place in a mining system, where there are resource extraction points in the belts of a gas giant. There, among the miners, are wanted cobras and sidewinders being chased by 3-5 security ships. Just get in the chase, it is easy to net ~5-10k per kill and there is little danger as the enemy is distracted by others. Only thing to look for is to _not_ shoot the security forces accidentally, as that makes for an very hasty exit . Upgraded from sidewinder to viper in few hours just by hanging around there and repairing in nearby station. Even managed to participate in shooting down two Anacondas - just get them before they jump away.

 

[Quineloe]

The sidewinder can already carry 10 tons of cargo.

 

[DaveB]

Well thats good to hear about the Jump range, I'll check that out. Not a problem to take notes, didn't know that info was info was available. About the Fuel Scoop, man that sounds like a mandatory thing all beginning ships should be fitted with. I'll definitley will check that out, question is though what upgrades to avoid sun damage ? Thanks again all

The other thing to do is to check the galaxy map before accepting a mission.. in the navigation tab the blue spiderweb shows jumps you can make out to a maximum 100ly radius. There is a cargo mass slider in the bottom left, set it to the amount of cargo you expect to be carrying on the run. Use the search function to center on the destination system. If there isn't a blue line coming into that system you can't make it, don't take the mission. If the line is dotted, you'll have to refuel on the way.