So how do you make money?

[Armand]

I've been playing the Premium Beta 1 for a few days now.
I learned how to dock and take off, to use the supercruise, I even beat Crimson in SP.

In multiplayer, the ship is so weak it's useless. The laser can't do any damage, cargo space is small. What are my options?

One thing I can't stand is grinding. I have a full-time job that's long but rewarding, when I play I want some excitement dammit, not do something boring all day long.

I tried joining the Federation in High Conflict Areas but I just couldn't do any real damage with the puny laser.

 

[Jenner]

Unfortunately you've hit on a problem that currently exists in beta - limited options for starting cash generation. With the Sidewinder the only (in my opinion) 'fast' way to make money is by grinding out NPCs. Make enough to get a second laser and buy that, then rinse and repeat until you can afford something bigger.

I don't find it personally very satisfying either, especially since I've been doing the same thing since Alpha 1. However, this is just a beta right now. There will be other ways to make money coming - faction missions and exploration are two I'm really looking forward to.

I also hope that the new trade ship that's coming in the next beta release has a reasonable price point so that budding traders can get out from under that Sidewinder sooner rather than later.

Try one of the resource extraction sites to kill NPCs. It's a bit easier than the Fed distress, I think. Not so easy to agro multiple hostiles and you may even pick up some cargo drops.

 

[Commander Dave]

Well if you don't want to work for your money then you're screwed.
If you don't mind putting in a bit of effort then probably the best place to go first so you can get enough to afford a couple of decent lasers would be the Extraction Sites in the rings of some of the planets.
Make sure your legal status is clean.
Scan ships to find those that are wanted and shoot them.
Anywhere from 100 credits to 3k is the most I've had from an NPC.
Players can be much, much higher. But obviously they will have their bounty for a reason: They've been in a lot of fights.

 

[Lekaner]

i wait for wipes

 

[Jenner]

Well if you don't want to work for your money then you're screwed.

Well..... I think OP's point is that there's a fine line between having fun progressing in a game and being on a treadmill. Now that's subjective of course. Some people live for treadmilling. I personally don't.

Sure, you have to put in some effort for progression to have any kind of meaning, I agree with that. But having it be needlessly laborious is (for some) just not enjoyable.

 

[ZeeWolf]

Yeah what we currently have is foundations for more interesting game play, but currently we have sort of place-holder activities so players end up grinding in federal distress call (when I would expect that to be an occasional mission in the final game, unless those fed capital ships are permanently in distress 24-7).

If you don't have time, don't grind now. Leave those nice ships until later on when you can actually enjoy the game's features such as accepting missions, making contacts, reading newsfeeds and speaking to other players. Just enjoy messing around in your sidewinder. Treat it like what it is, privileged access to an early build of the technology behind the game.

Explore the 5 systems, pop into an 'unidentified signal source' you might find something interesting.

 

[Mysturji]

It would be nice if Frontier tweaked the trading markets and/or bounties to make such things more profitable. That way, we'd all have more fun, log more hours playing...err I mean testing, and we could afford a wider range of ships to test

Plz?

 

[Armand]

Yeah, considering the next wipe on 24th, I certainly don't want to start investing right now; fortunately I still have enough to practice.

I do hope to be able too buy an Eagle and some decent weapons without spending hundreds of hours in the game....

 

[Jenner]

Yeah, considering the next wipe on 24th, I certainly don't want to start investing right now; fortunately I still have enough to practice.

I do hope to be able too buy an Eagle and some decent weapons without spending hundreds of hours in the game....

Learn From My Fail - Don't buy the Eagle before you have money for an insurance payout!

 

[MikeSnos]

Learn From My Fail - Don't buy the Eagle before you have money for an insurance payout!

If you're trading as well, make sure you have enough to pay for some goods as well.... I usually try and keep twice the amount my ship is worth back to cater for multiple losses etc

 

[Riandor]

Lol...
Have to say I took a risk when I bought Eagle and kitted it out, did NOT have enough for insurance, but did ok.

phew...

That said I totally agree with Jenner, Grinding it out is usually more tiresome than it is fun and I personally look forward to FD introducing more mechanics into the game, mining Missions (my personal favourite), etc... anything that gives you multiple ways of making cash and feeling like you are progressing something, anything, preferably not just cash.

I am a big fan of content, missions and status over cash grinds. Yes cash is important, but I really hope the content going forward strives to push the game beyond a quest for credits and one way to do that is obviously the push up the "Elite" ladder and have content grow out of that concept and less out of what you can "afford".

 

[Profster]

I saw David Braeburn somewhere mention, that they were going to do some balancing work to make trading more profitable.

 

[Half Giant]

Yeah, considering the next wipe on 24th, I certainly don't want to start investing right now; fortunately I still have enough to practice.

I do hope to be able too buy an Eagle and some decent weapons without spending hundreds of hours in the game....

Just wanted to check you knew the 24th wasn't a start from zero wipe.

 

[Armand]

Just wanted to check you knew the 24th wasn't a start from zero wipe.

As far as I understood, purchases will be wiped but players will get the cash equivalent.

 

[Jenner]

Lol...
Have to say I took a risk when I bought Eagle and kitted it out, did NOT have enough for insurance, but did ok.

phew...

That said I totally agree with Jenner, Grinding it out is usually more tiresome than it is fun and I personally look forward to FD introducing more mechanics into the game, mining Missions (my personal favourite), etc... anything that gives you multiple ways of making cash and feeling like you are progressing something, anything, preferably not just cash.

I am a big fan of content, missions and status over cash grinds. Yes cash is important, but I really hope the content going forward strives to push the game beyond a quest for credits and one way to do that is obviously the push up the "Elite" ladder and have content grow out of that concept and less out of what you can "afford".

Yup. My feelings exactly.

Glad your gamble with the Eagle paid off! I took mine out to do some more NPC grinding - the same thing I'd been doing for HOURS and I'd only gotten killed like twice. Sure enough, the first scrap I got into (NPC Eagle) he just cleaned my clock. After I picked my jaw up off the floor I signed off and haven't played much since, lol.

Now it wasn't just me rage quitting - I've fired it up a few times since to putz around. I just felt that I wasn't really getting anything new out of the experience and I figured 'why bother when the wipe is coming anyway?'

Now we know that FD are gifting back credits for the next drop, which is nice of them. I still don't think I'm going to rush back in and grind it out. I'm ready for new experiences in the game.

 

[Memnoch]

I'll definitely be testing out the new Hauler, along with buzzing around the new station design.

 

[MikeSnos]

I'll definitely be testing out the new Hauler, along with buzzing around the new station design.

I think most peeps will be heading for that new station as soon as they can... Looks superb!

Won't be trying the hauler out I don't think... Cobra (already have) or Anaconda for me at the moment

 

[Commander Dave]

Well..... I think OP's point is that there's a fine line between having fun progressing in a game and being on a treadmill. Now that's subjective of course. Some people live for treadmilling. I personally don't.

The point is that there is infinite gradation between treadmilling/grinding/whatever and getting everything easily.
They are not both sides across a fine line.
There is no line.
Sure you can grind away making 500cr a trade trip or do something else. Or you can do something interesting that also hones your skills.
Whatever one chooses, the goal is far away.
As are all goals worth achieving.
Work for the things you want.
There are no silver platters here.
There will be no silver platters in the game come release.
If people think this is hard now they're in for a bloody shock come release day.

If someone does not want to grind then find something they do want to do.
If their definition of grinding is honing their combat skills or trading then at the moment they're going to be out of luck because that's almost all there is at this stage.

 

[philmo]

Yeah, considering the next wipe on 24th, I certainly don't want to start investing right now; fortunately I still have enough to practice.

I do hope to be able too buy an Eagle and some decent weapons without spending hundreds of hours in the game....

I thought after the wipe they were going to give everyone credits to buy back their ship and inventory ??.

"""Premium Beta 2 will unavoidably reset your progress, although we will automatically gift you credits to the approximate value of your progress to date (including credits and ship, so you will be able to immediately buy your ship again). """

At least I think that's what this means.

 

[OldSalt]

Will that take into account equipment or should we all be flogging our gear last thing on Monday night ?