Unusual ways to make money?

[Nerwan]

So,

After I embarked on my self imposed iron man mode after resetting my alt-user last week I've been having a great time. I'm trying to only make money in fun ways (so no haulage missions for example) I have a Cobra III and I've been making most of my cash from various forms of NPC piracy, collecting the odd bounty too but only incidentally. I've done a bit of rare trading too, but I'm not trying to get rich here, just to slowly get some dosh while having as much fun as possible. I've discovered the art of pirating rares and low-temperature diamonds from NPCs which is great fun and makes quite a bit of cash (not to mention involving a bit of skill if you want to get every last drop of cargo from them). I've been wondering though if it's possible to make much money from finding POIs on planets. Has anyone managed to make this pay? I raided a few mining bases that I could spot by flying over the surface but I was only able to get minerals like Rutilite worth 200CR or so from these which didn't really seem worth doing considering the effort which is a shame.

So question 1: Can you make much money from the surface of planets? (And I don't mean spamming planetary scan missions or anything cheesy like that, I want to avoid the mission system completely)
Question 2: Have you discovered any other ways of making money that are unusual and fun? (Criminal if possible but I'm open to legit work )

EDIT: No doubt I'll get back to pirating players soon, but given that I'm doing iron man mode and don't yet have access to the engineers I'm approaching that with a little caution right now.

Thanks!

 

[goemon]

1) yes. you need tourism ecomomy and boom, and go for taffeite, platinum and them like, which you can find in a lot of pois.

2) several things i like: in system trade. the fun here is searching for it. there are some systems with a lot of different markets - as a fun project i still plan on "no high-wake for a week". smuggling to military outposts, as they are heavily guarded. just feels good, and needs silent running convoy attacks on the unknown probe convoys. searching for AI relicts and other highly valuable salvage, which sell for a lot. going to a syste at the edge of the bubble, and scouting my own pristine ring (deep space mining). backing federal or imperial rebel minor factions with whatever they need, or alliance freemen.

 

[Nerwan]

1) yes. you need tourism ecomomy and boom, and go for taffeite, platinum and them like, which you can find in a lot of pois.

2) several things i like: in system trade. the fun here is searching for it. there are some systems with a lot of different markets - as a fun project i still plan on "no high-wake for a week". smuggling to military outposts, as they are heavily guarded. just feels good, and needs silent running convoy attacks on the unknown probe convoys. searching for AI relicts and other highly valuable salvage, which sell for a lot. going to a syste at the edge of the bubble, and scouting my own pristine ring (deep space mining). backing federal or imperial rebel minor factions with whatever they need, or alliance freemen.

What a great answer thank you, right you've given me a few ideas there. I might try tourism systems first.. those sight seers won't see me coming

 

[IndigoWyrd]

So,

After I embarked on my self imposed iron man mode after resetting my alt-user last week I've been having a great time. I'm trying to only make money in fun ways (so no haulage missions for example) I have a Cobra III and I've been making most of my cash from various forms of NPC piracy, collecting the odd bounty too but only incidentally. I've done a bit of rare trading too, but I'm not trying to get rich here, just to slowly get some dosh while having as much fun as possible. I've discovered the art of pirating rares and low-temperature diamonds from NPCs which is great fun and makes quite a bit of cash (not to mention involving a bit of skill if you want to get every last drop of cargo from them). I've been wondering though if it's possible to make much money from finding POIs on planets. Has anyone managed to make this pay? I raided a few mining bases that I could spot by flying over the surface but I was only able to get minerals like Rutilite worth 200CR or so from these which didn't really seem worth doing considering the effort which is a shame.

So question 1: Can you make much money from the surface of planets? (And I don't mean spamming planetary scan missions or anything cheesy like that, I want to avoid the mission system completely)
Question 2: Have you discovered any other ways of making money that are unusual and fun? (Criminal if possible but I'm open to legit work )

EDIT: No doubt I'll get back to pirating players soon, but given that I'm doing iron man mode and don't yet have access to the engineers I'm approaching that with a little caution right now.

Thanks!

1. You bet your Asp you can! Salvaging cargo canisters can rack up some fantastic money - 100% profit. Taaffeite, Jadeite, Moissanite, Platinum, Palladium, Gold, Narcotics, Nerve Agents - all frequently found laying around on planets, all great sellers. One of these days I'll have to find and post my screenshot of my Type-9 fully loaded with Taaffeite - 424 tons gathered over the course of 6 or 7 hours and 3 moons in the same system. 10,503,328 is no small bit of change for nothing more than driving around, picking up litter.

2. See #1 above. Not all salvage is legal, or all commodities legal in a given system (Nerve Agents and Narcotics notably), but this is a great deal of fun.

 

[Dommarraa]

Good luck on those High Value Convoys, there were designed for Wings. If you do one in a Cobra, buy yourself a well deserved beer

 

[Nerwan]

my screenshot of my Type-9 fully loaded with Taaffeite - 424 tons gathered over the course of 6 or 7 hours and 3 moons in the same system.

Wow that is kind of impressive! 6/7 hours of driving might be a bit too much for me I think, I like to change activities a few times each evening when I play but fortunately I only have a Cobra 3 so 32 tonnes will do nicely

- - - Updated - - -

Good luck on those High Value Convoys, there were designed for Wings. If you do one in a Cobra, buy yourself a well deserved beer

I've been doing the smaller convoys, I steer clear of the threat 4 ones. I found a convoy of 4 T-6's yesterday all carrying imperial slaves. I separated one from the others after following his wake a few times and got him on his own. Managed to fill my cobra nicely after taking his power plant. The only issue is that they reboot/repair now so you really have to watch them carefully while you're collecting so you can hit their power plant again! After a few times they tend to blow up too which is a bit annoying.

Mostly though I just find individual traders in SC and pull the ones with refinaries!! Yummy.

 

[Thetele]

Piracy?

Or ore mining without mining lasers. (refinery is still needed) Go to res site (heavily armed ship or really fast), find npc miner and follow it. Then when it mine fragment launch limpet or scoop it before the npc can. Just remember when you get first ton of cargo in your hold npc pirates will start attack you.

And tip off scenarios (these drop rarely so you can't live off these but they are nice).

 

[Winterwalker]

I have a bit of fun flying a kind of In-System Patrol.

Usually in Imperial Eagle myself, interdicting wanted ships sometimes you'll find security vessels carry out the interdiction and you can drop in on the low wake (security assistance is obviously helpful for bigger ships if you're in a small one). Not the fastest money you'll ever make of course but I probably do a couple of evenings a month, dropping on the occasional high threat signal source to spice things up a bit.

What's also fun about this is making a really short range fighter. Loading out for more or less zero jump range gives headroom for more power/less weight elsewhere on the ship. With no jump range you can either camp with a faction in one system or, with ship transfer, move your interceptor around and stay out of the traffic reports.

 

[VR andysonofbob]

1) yes. you need tourism ecomomy and boom, and go for taffeite, platinum and them like, which you can find in a lot of pois.

2) several things i like: in system trade. the fun here is searching for it. there are some systems with a lot of different markets - as a fun project i still plan on "no high-wake for a week". smuggling to military outposts, as they are heavily guarded. just feels good, and needs silent running convoy attacks on the unknown probe convoys. searching for AI relicts and other highly valuable salvage, which sell for a lot. going to a syste at the edge of the bubble, and scouting my own pristine ring (deep space mining). backing federal or imperial rebel minor factions with whatever they need, or alliance freemen.

Awesome!

@Nerwan
Scavenging can be lucrative. Just skip the pants loot. Obvs!

Why does your alt need to make money? Can't you set a minimum he needs to make to 'survive' and just play aroucnd that? Limit the playtime with your alt?

 

[Nerwan]

Can't you set a minimum he needs to make to 'survive' and just play aroucnd that? Limit the playtime with your alt?

Sure I could, but making a little bit of money can be fun. It's weird actually, I have 5 billion in my primary account, I'm triple elite and I have every ship in the game fully engineered. And yet I'm really enjoying bumming around in a cobra making small amounts in my secondary account It just feels nice to make small amounts so that I can upgrade stuff as I go and eventually go crazy and buy a T-6 ;-) I guess having less has made me enjoy small amounts well earned a lot more There's a life lesson in there somewhere...

 

[goemon]

And yet I'm really enjoying bumming around in a cobra

i personally think, the whole game is "balanced" for a cobra mkIII (/viper mkIV/DBE/...). to give a recent exampel: i helped to cure a station by delivering meta alloys. now, i don't mode switch. so i set of to harvest barnacles one after the other at the pleiades. was fun and interesting till having ~16 T. i could have done that in my cobra, silly me brought a python. similar things apply to combat zones, trading, salvage, etc. pp.

harvesting meta alloys, sneaking below the federal ships, shooting goliaths and other defenses is also a fun way to make CR