Newcomer / Intro When/where to start shooting baddies?

Iain L

Iain L
I'm being all boring and sensible, and trying to avoid getting Wanted status - my Commander's a good person like that. I've spent a few hours transporting cargo and exploring in my starter Sidewinder, and it's slowly gained a better drive, better shields, and had the free pulse lasers replaced with a beam laser and gimballed cannon along the way.

Anyway, I'm now holding my own to the point where unless I'm in a hurry I'll submit to most interdictions and take the pirate down, and noticing that it racks in the credits rather better than the trading does. So what's my best option if I fancy a scrap that doesn't involve grinding until I've got millions of credits for a beefy fighter ship? Hanging around nav beacons and scanning for wanted people works quite well (apart from the time I foolishly did it in an Anarchy system and promptly got massacred by the big boys)? Trying to find one of these Resource Extraction Sites I've been reading about?

How long should I leave it before one of these conflict zones becomes something other than suicide? The Bulletin Board mission rewards don't look like they'd pay well enough to be only suitable for people in multi-million-credit craft.

edit - or should I just forget all this "souping up a Sidewinder" nonsense and buy an Adder to strap a couple of guns on?
 
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Rob_the_Sparky

R
Really when to change ships is up to you, you get 100% of the cost back on selling upgrades so no reason not to. The current tip is to sell your upgrades though rather than sell the ship with upgrades. Although you are better off not selling your starter sidewinder anyway as it is the only free ship you will get, wish someone had told me this before I sold it with upgrades in the shipyard - duh.

Personally I never traded until I started rare trading in my new shiny Cobra (it is no longer new and shiny!) before then I went from Sidy to Adder ASAP and then did a mixture of mining and combat, that was a while ago so not sure how the re-balance has effected things. I believe that the current best route is bounty hunting followed by rare trading once you jump range is long enough (you can make ~15k per tonne rare trading but need to travel ~200lys).

Scanning a few systems will also net credits but as you have to travel +20lys to sell it this may not be relevant yet. Also if you are in LHS 3437 then go somewhere else with a high security, the stations are a very long way from the sun in LHS and moving almost anywhere else will improve this.
 
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Lupin

Lupin
Easy way to get pirates to attack is fill your cargo bay with gold or something of value and go to an anarchy systems. And fly around nav beacon.
 

Dommarraa

Dommarraa
Nav points are suitable for a Sidey. Some may say RES, but you cant get involved in proper fighting, its more like wait till they are on 5%, then fire. Dull and a bit gamey
Combat Zones are suicidal or at least not worth the risk until you have 10 Mil to waste

I would get out of the Sidey just as soon as possible, I went to a Hauler and did some Rares until I could afford a Cobra, but the more steady route via the Adder is fine. The Cobra really is the most usefull ship, not the most dangerous, but you can go anywhere and do anything in a Cobra as long as you know your limitations. Dont discount the eagle if you want a rumble. If you sneeze you are likely to rip a wing off, but it can be used for fighting.
 

Razorwire

Razorwire
Sounds to me like your sidey is ready for taking on the smaller ships at RES; find a gas giant with rocky, metallic or metal rich rings and approach it and then drop into the RES like you would any other waypoint. Once in there, you'll see a mixture of bounty hunters, miners, pirates and enforcers; I'm sure you can figure out which ones are which.

Combat ship progression is generally sidewinder -> eagle -> viper at the low end.

You can tell what the rings on a planet are from the system map, select the planet and look at the info panel (near the bottom).
 

Iain L

Iain L
Thanks everyone. I'm currently in a high-tech system well away from the starting area (wish there was some sort of history feature in the Galactic Map so when I point myself 20 light years from where I was I don't head back the way I came by accident) in orbit around a gas giant with rings, so now seems like a good time. Rebuy value's only about 10k, so I'll stick my head in an RES and see how long it takes to get it blown off, then maybe come back in an Adder when I'm sure I can afford a good one - I do like pottering around exploring, so the jump range is really tempting.
 
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Blaubart

B
Iain L said:
Thanks everyone. I'm currently in a high-tech system well away from the starting area (wish there was some sort of history feature in the Galactic Map so when I point myself 20 light years from where I was I don't head back the way I came by accident) in orbit around a gas giant with rings, so now seems like a good time. Rebuy value's only about 10k, so I'll stick my head in an RES and see how long it takes to get it blown off, then maybe come back in an Adder when I'm sure I can afford a good one - I do like pottering around exploring, so the jump range is really tempting.
Click to expand...
Good plan. Just remember: you only get the money if you can make it back to a base and cash in the voucher. So don't get cocky when you had your first few bigger kills without problems. Or you'll hate yourself when you have to respawn at your last hangar visit. Already lost more than 2 million that way... (didn't realise my shields were so low, didn't realise how far away the AI feds where)
 

Iain L

Iain L
Thanks - I think the plan is to bag one or two just to get an idea of how weak this setup is, bail to safety and then assess how to improve matters - whether it's the firepower or shielding that's weakest. The beam laser's a bit of a pain with how quickly it overheats.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
I put railguns on my Sidewinder for a few days before upgrading to a Viper. It's hella fun, but the Sidey is, no matter which way you put it, a limitation on your combat readiness. It's a fantastic ship to learn dogfighting tactics in, but your firepower, even with silly guns like the rails on it, is too limited. It's good for the smaller ships, but I'd be very wary taking on anything above a Cobra, and even that is going to be dangerous.
 

Iain L

Iain L
Well, that certainly went about as expected.

First trip: Oh, there's no RES areas at this ring near a handy station; I'll have to head elsewhere.

Second trip: Right, here's a RES. Oooh, pretty... And a craft that's Wanted! Scan it with the warrant scanner for maximum credits... Well, this cheap scanner definitely leaves room for improvement, as it's slow and needs me to get up close. Never mind; no shooting yet (possibly because I'm not carrying any cargo). Eat Laser Death, scum! Oh, that didn't make much dent. Guess this Imperial Clipper's bigger than I thought. Ah, Dougal - these cows are small, but those are far away. Gulp. OK, dump some multicannon rounds in it too. Still not much, and now it's shooting at me. What's more, I only now discover I wasn't paying enough attention, and bought the non-gimballed multicannon. LEG IT!!! Right, let's limp back to base with 34% hull left and tool up -properly-.

Trip three: I AM A GOLDEN GOD. Made almost as much money in an hour as I did in the last 10, and sensibly bank it before I get myself killed. One or two more trips like this, and it's ship upgrade time, I think.

Trip four: 20 minutes more of the same, sitting on a juicy bunch of bounties, before I accidentally take on a second Imperial Clipper, without noticing that my Cop mates have cleared off to better things.

Panic.

Run.

Bit of weaving to stay alive while the shields build back up and I can get FSD.

More weaving. This is going to be squeaky.

No. It's not. Because I dramatically banked away from the lasers and into the side of an asteroid with no shields at all. Ooops. Splat.

Still, that's about the most fun time I've had in the game yet, so I'll be going back for more punishment soon, I think!
 

Bariel

B
That's what I like about this game - you can go from hero to zero in no time at all :)

Sounds like you are having fun, which is, of course, the whole point.
 

CMDR Booboo

C
Those clippers are bigger than they first seem, aren't they? And their (AI) pilots have no sense of direction - they fly along backwards in front of you unloading a horrifying amount of ammo into your shields (and hull). But it's such a good feeling once you finally take one down!

Only thing I'd add to all the excellent advice above, and you probably alrady know this but it bears repeating, is don't forget insurance. When you first upgrade your ship out of the free sidewinder, the cost to rebuy if you crash and burn takes a sudden BIG leap upwards. I'm only in an Asp, and yet my re-buy cost is already close to a million credits. Make sure you always have a safety net of spare cash over and above the cost of the shiny new ship.
 

Iain L

Iain L
One of the advantages of not picking up the game until recently is that I've done a bit of reading first, and yes - making sure I can always, always, always cover insurance is one thing I've been careful with, because you never know when you'll accidentally mistake the landing gear button with the boost dash, and lunge straight into your landing bay.
 

GeneralIdea1964

G
I'd say get out of sidey asap. it's hard to make money. If you want, once you've made your millions, buy one for fun afterwards.
The Adder is a great little all-rounder. It's twin the Hauler is ok for cargo running, but no good in a fight.
The eagle is a good fighter, but a bit fragile. Really it's for the expert flyer.

You then have choice of upgrading to the Viper or (for a bit more) a Cobra. As an all-rounder, the Cobra is hard to beat.
 
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Smauler

S
At Resource Extraction Sites, don't try to take on anything (that you don't know you'll beat easily and quickly) single handed. There's no point.

Look for where the fights are (beam weapons firing that aren't mining beams - you get to know the difference pretty quickly), go to them, scan the wanted ship fighting the feds while still neutral, then attack and scarper if needed. You can safely attack individual ships that are attacking the feds, whatever their size, basically, because they almost always get beaten, and you can run if you need to while they are distracted.

Be slightly more careful with ships that are in wings - it can get more complicated quickly.

You can also get friendly with the Empire and Federation just doing this. You also might make a few enemies along the way, but not with any major consequences.
 
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