Newcomer / Intro What are you up to?

Since I frequently play in VR, using a 3rd party site isn't really an option. Not that I want to use them anyway. My methods work, even if I can't use the paper, pencil, and tablet. I can get my info from in-game anyway, since my 'out of game' tools are just me taking notes on what I see in-game.
That goes, strictly speaking, for all of the out-of-game tools, too. All of them are "just" the collection of all CMDRs (well, those playing on PC and running tools like EDMC or EDDiscovery and having enabled ED database upload) taking notes and loading them into a spreadsheet. The note taking happening automatically from the information available on their PCs and the spreadsheet in this case actually being a database, EDDN, that is serving most of the web tools. No matter whether you're using EDDB or INARA, they're all frontends for EDDN. EDSM uses a different database (and different data), so that's another account (and upload).
None of these tools are using privileged information from Frontier or are going datamining in the game files. Crowdsourcing is amazing.
 
Just a word about TCE MkII from the venerable CMDR @eventure - that is not dependant on EDDN (though it can obtain market data from it), it uses information from your own commander's travels. So people that want to keep their favourite trade routes from being destroyed by mindless hordes can keep their market data secure on their own machine.

I don't use it any more as it relies on being an overlay you can call up on a windowed game - I found that windowed rather than full-screen was not suitable for me. I don't know how well it might interface with VR though but it is something else to perhaps investigate?




I might even give it a go again myself since I see it has been greatly expanded from when I did use it - but when the weather cools down. ;)
 
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If it works as an overlay on a windowed game, then it probably doesn't work with VR. It might work if you're running a VIrtual Desktop to play your non-vr games on a large screen (such as a cinema screen). But for VR mode, probably wont work at all.
 
If it works as an overlay on a windowed game, then it probably doesn't work with VR. It might work if you're running a VIrtual Desktop to play your non-vr games on a large screen (such as a cinema screen). But for VR mode, probably wont work at all.

There is a note about VR use in the thread - apparently links a reddit post about how to do it - I know nowt about that, just thought TCE might suit your needs.
 
When I first start running in the bubble. I always took the highest paid single mission with the longest jump I could do.
Kept running, mostly avoiding interdiction and re-buys if I could. At the edge of the bubble I'd turn around and headed back,or north or south.
To the other edge of the bubble. I did eventually realise that reputation and influence meant bigger missions.
However most were to much and to many return loops. I was out to see the bubble any ways...Kept going till Elite Trader.

I have always found the market economy to hard to fathom, always changing to the contrary of what I thought.
Not too sure that trying to keep accounts and trying to repeat deals will work. I do book mark systems/stations that have high levels
of high value goods. Beker has good reserves of palladium right now. That can change in a Thursday tick..
 
After selling Tritium to a distant FC, made 20Mcr profit. I brought his VO's and LTD's. hmmm...
Managed to sell the VO's for 34Mcr profit. Seems I am stuck with the LTD's, might have paid to much...
So, found a good use for the FC, store the left over's of deals, and to hide your bad deals away awaiting better days....
 
Well I wouldn't say I've mastered mining but I now feel I am competent, enough so that I believe mining fuel for my carrier is easily possible and storing other goodies for when I hit population. My carrier has all the services I need. I may just tie up a few loose ends in Colonia today, get my carrier balance up to the point that I don't have to worry about upkeep for a few months then start back toward the bubble.
 
Since I'm not using 3rd party tools beyond "paper, pencil, and spreadsheet loaded up on my Surface Go" I'll have to be finding my trade routes by exploring. I'll probably accept delivery and courier missions to new places in order to make a profit while learning the markets.

That is hardcore. You have my respect.


Since I am more the explorer type, I pick a star system I have not visited and map it, and then the next. Trying to move in some kind of general direction just to be able to offload the data before I boost into a ravine in a 0.3G planet because I am used to the 0.0xG planetoids...

Anyway, had my first rebuy this year and lost two system worth 1m+ each. :-( Just because I was too impatient on a planetary landing, pancaked from more than 1000 meters.

The money would have been nice, but the real pain was mapping the last system all over again.


In the crash I lost a small load of Any Na Coffee. Hint: Do not bother with rares, they require you to go 100-200 ly before selling,and for a total profict on 50-80k which is just not worth it. As en explorer, it draws interdiction attempts. I noticed that with an empty hold I can just submit, and kill them when they try to leave... Remember that the systemse close than around 30-50 ly will not even pay the origin price for them. :(
 
I discovered this lovely water world today. It matched my ship, kinda :)

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I'm in an undiscovered system, doing some mining. I drop in to this hotspot, we all know the drill, a pirate appears from nowhere, scans you, because you just arrived (and if you're smart) you have nothing to give so he Bah!'s you and toodles off. Well this time I dropped in, I'm pulse waving and boosting at the same time. I see the flicker of the incoming pirates, I'm not worried, I keep boosting, finally seeing a golden nugget in the distance. When I arrive, I look around, no pirates. I wait around a minute, no pirates, I start going about my business. I've refined 1t of Trit (4 collectors out gathering more fragments) when the pirate shows up. I've never been in this position before.

He comes over, he demands my solitary ton of cargo. I have never given up cargo in the past but I'm in my mining ship, no weapons so, for the experience, I give up the ton of Trit. The pirate has taken a few shots at me but he stops when the cargo drops. He says I have done the right thing, I'm still processing Trit at a champion rate, now have 6 ton. The pirate is faffing around doing something. He goes, he's out of contacts and off the radar. I finish my task with this rock but there are 2 white squares on the radar. One is the prospector limpet, the other is the canister of Trit I dropped for the pirate. He never took it.

I collected it, moved on to the next rock. Pirate comes back. Comes right over (still in red on the radar), just sort of sits there, then goes again. Never came back. It was weird.
 
I've been dragging my precious little Imperial Eagle around while I upgrade but I've retired the rover because it takes up too much space. It's not what she was designed for. I gave her some cargo space and collector limpets instead. Just in case an NPC pirate leaves something nice behind.

For most of the weekend I've been focusing on engineers and I now have more than double the number on my list. Most of those new ones are still blank and I'm kinda bored of the grind. Kind've ironically though, there is one which I think is near Colonia space and I've been threatening to go out that way for weeks. Marsha Hicks? I haven't explored for a long time and I don't see any appeal of sticking around near the bubble at this point. It might take a while though since my Friendship Drive is only at about 25.

But hey, it's better to move forward than be stuck in a rut.

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Anyway, had my first rebuy this year and lost two system worth 1m+ each. :-( Just because I was too impatient on a planetary landing, pancaked from more than 1000 meters.

The money would have been nice, but the real pain was mapping the last system all over again.
Ouch. I wouldn't have done that. I hate planet mapping. I've had three rebuys in recent weeks. Boosting inside a station, crashing into a planet, and being destroyed by a gang of gankers.
 
When using collector limpets, do not target the thing you want to collect for this shall collect that one item and the limpet expire. No. Target nothing, release a limpet and if items are in reach, the limpet will collect one then head back out to collect more.

Yes. Good tip. Unless you're on a salvage mission which requires you to pick up some very specific things before four nutjob NPC's come in to kill you. Which is what happened to me a couple of days ago. Feds coming in for a clean up job are also annoying.

Fortunately my re-entering supercruise created a new instant (or whatever you computer people call it) and they both happened at the same time. They were both so busy attacking each other I could gobble me up some cargo at my leisure.
 
How come? They're really easy to hit. Missing them now, especially when approaching a station that orbits inside the rings, is the real trick.


You use a Krait Mk.II, four pips to shields, two pips to thrusters. Equipped with a fighter, three Pacifiers and a couple of (gimballed) Multicannon. Charge enhanced/super conduits 6A distributor holds 45.6 MJ fully charged. Each of the guns draws 1 MW average from the distributor, a total of 5 MW - which gives 45/5 = 9 seconds firing all five. The fighter doesn't need any power from the distributor at all. The guns dish out a total of 380 points of damage per second, so 9*380 = 3420 points before the cap is empty.
A stock Cobra has 153 points of shields against kinetics, and 180 points of hull, so 333 points from full to bang. The few occasions I got a random interdiction by a pirate in a Cobra, the fight was over before my FSD cooled down - those pirates have a tendency to try and scan you nose to nose, which is kind of not exactly a good idea against a ship equipped with Pacifiers (or frags) 😈.
A stock FAS will hold out a bit longer - 221 and 450 points respectively, 671 points in total.
A stock Anaconda is still a bit more challenging - but also easier to hit. Still, 603 and 788 points, 1391 points in total - again possible as long as I don't miss (and the keep the SLF in the hangar).
Now add that one of the MCs runs corrosive ammo, which reduces hull strength by IIRC 30%, and things look even more grim for the NPCs.
I accidentally hit a thin black part of a ring that I didn't even know existed so I was never sure whether I completed a discovery or not after that. I have my name on some planets between the bubble and Orion Nebula so I'm satisfied with that.

And thanks for that second piece of advice. I left school a year early so that was like Latin to me. I've put it in a text file in case I need it later.

I was alright at maths though. In hindsight, it's probably your fault.
 
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