Why even bother playing the game? The fun's in the journey, surely?
Where do they get it all????????
- Thread starter Jaxxus27
- Start date
Why ride the ten miles to work in a howling thunderstorm when you can walk? Oh yes, don't forget to leave the umbrella and raincoat at home now.
Sometimes all we need to make the journey so much sweeter is a loaded picnic basket
Remember your ship cost, upgrade cost etc. Go to a Shipyard and try to buy another ship to find out how much yours is worth (select an Anaconda if you're worried about hitting "BUY" by accident!!) Your trade-in cost may be higher than you think if you've been casually upgrading as you go.
And... The game isn't just about pounds'n'pence. It's about enjoying yourself, whatever you do. Some people will always be saying "ooh, Python" or "ooh, Anaconda". Others will dot around earning a living from doing what they do, be it mining, exploring, trading, trading rares, bounty hunting, missions, piracy or whatever they choose. My total worth is just over 6M credits after 2 months (I played a little Gamma, but only up to about 100,000Cr as the wipe/not-wipe thing at the time wasn't clear) Most of that is wrapped up in my Cobra.
People with mega-bucks have resigned themselves to buying Hauler/T6/T7/T9 and grinding some lucrative trade routes. That's too mindless for me. I'd rather make 600,000Cr from a hold-full of rares, and take an exotic route to pad out some exploration on the sales leg than zap across the galaxy in 15 hops once an hour. If all you want is money, buy a trade-only ship and grind. And grind. Once you've bought your uber-ship and can't afford to buy all the upgrades, buy another trade ship and grind some more. Bigger/better isn't how to play Elite, and hasn't been since the first game, unless that's exactly how you want to play.
Go to a metallic asteroid belts (not 'metal rich'). Pristine or major resources ... or at least common resources. You'll find pure gold, pure palladium or gold/palladium asteroids. Also platinum, but that mostly mixed with some crap like silver. In those belts taking on silver isn't even worth your time or cargo space (I just dump it). It certainly isn't the fastest way to make money, but it's 200k an hour, easy. And if you're lucky you'll add a couple bounties from the occasional pirate trying to rip you off.
For people just staring out that's quite a bit of money without any (big) risk.
Really? I find that they are, if anything, even more numerous in extraction sites than before (and a bit better armed, it seems). Before you only ever got a single one before another one spawned. Now you get several at once.
If everything fails you can just jump into a ring away from an extraction site. But you may be sorry that you did.
Depends on what you're flying. Getting a million in a T6 or cargo-Asp in an hour is quite doable with regular trade.
You're quite right with "unless that's exactly how you want to play" and I think that's the crux of it all
I would however disagree with the idea that trading is mindless - if you're using Thrudd's exclusively, then just rinsing the route until it's done, then yeah, you might be right.
But the *hours* that I've spent scouting, running around the most populated systems, those in boom, those in expansion, the far off systems, the core systems, trades between the various economies, hunting for trade routes within/split amongst several systems etc etc - I have literally spent hours if not days poring over the map and market prices.
I daresay I've spent *more* time doing this than I've done anything else in the game, and it sounds right cheesy, but I've learnt more about how the galaxy works, how to spot more likely trade routes from the map, and trying to make the use of my time more efficient - it's quite the opposite of mindless, in fact it's very cereberal, for a "game".
Granted - efficiency isn't quite the right word there, given that I'm spending more time searching for routes nowadays than I do actually running them (the grass will always be greener on the next route)
I would however disagree with the idea that trading is mindless - if you're using Thrudd's exclusively, then just rinsing the route until it's done, then yeah, you might be right.
But the *hours* that I've spent scouting, running around the most populated systems, those in boom, those in expansion, the far off systems, the core systems, trades between the various economies, hunting for trade routes within/split amongst several systems etc etc - I have literally spent hours if not days poring over the map and market prices.
I daresay I've spent *more* time doing this than I've done anything else in the game, and it sounds right cheesy, but I've learnt more about how the galaxy works, how to spot more likely trade routes from the map, and trying to make the use of my time more efficient - it's quite the opposite of mindless, in fact it's very cereberal, for a "game".
Granted - efficiency isn't quite the right word there, given that I'm spending more time searching for routes nowadays than I do actually running them (the grass will always be greener on the next route
)
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Who says you have to resign yourself to the Lakon Type-x life? I never touched a Hauler on my grind. Type-6 is a logical choice, but many went from Cobra straight to Asp. After that, you can go Clipper instead of Type-7 then to Python & straight to Anaconda instead of Type-9. Trade in style, with bounty hunting on the side.
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Actually we had a lot of fun! In a couple of hours we did some trading, took a mission or two, kept the interdictors at bay, beefed up a sidewinder (later an adder) in the outfitters, played catch with a few tons of palladium and took silly screenshots of each other in front of the station. Probably some of the most fun I've had in the game if I'm honest.
When I first started playing a fellow CMDR helped me out with my first trades and missions, I'm just paying it forward as they say
I used to think it was impossible at first but eventually you will find the nice route and will begin to understand the mechanics a bit more. I make 250k per hour now with the latest patch it was 300k before. Its a 2 minute route at most. Still working on getting bigger ship for more cargo hold. That's the trick, "cargo space" and route time.
On the contrary, trading is the ONLY thing that pays out in this game, and from what I personally have seen since early beta this will never change, you better be ready to find yourself a good trade route and grind it.
Bounty hunting pays ok if you are only ever going to fly a Cobra
Mining is a joke of a career.
Missions are horrible for making money.
Exploration is terrible c/h
Pirating is also a joke.
Braben, himself said it that every career in the game should be equally as good so that no one feels pressured into doing one "best" thing in the game for the money, as it stands right now it's definitely not the case and nothing has been done since release and even during beta/gamma. I doubt that it will ever change.
Also, elitetradingtool is still usefull, keep sharing.
Lets eat those routes together, new ones will come anyway.
You're quite right with "unless that's exactly how you want to play" and I think that's the crux of it all
I would however disagree with the idea that trading is mindless - if you're using Thrudd's exclusively, then just rinsing the route until it's done, then yeah, you might be right.
But the *hours* that I've spent scouting, running around the most populated systems, those in boom, those in expansion, the far off systems, the core systems, trades between the various economies, hunting for trade routes within/split amongst several systems etc etc - I have literally spent hours if not days poring over the map and market prices.
I daresay I've spent *more* time doing this than I've done anything else in the game, and it sounds right cheesy, but I've learnt more about how the galaxy works, how to spot more likely trade routes from the map, and trying to make the use of my time more efficient - it's quite the opposite of mindless, in fact it's very cereberal, for a "game".
Granted - efficiency isn't quite the right word there, given that I'm spending more time searching for routes nowadays than I do actually running them (the grass will always be greener on the next route
Me too mate
There is some really good stuff in this thread - I read all the entries. My 2 cents, mainly for players that think there's an army of other players that got their cash via some kind of scam:
* sure most beta players like to keep the cash they'd accumulated in the gamma (I wiped), and it might sound a lot, but in truth there's been a lot more playing time available since then than was in the gamma, so it's not that big a deal and doesn't bother me. I had more fun restarting in the Sidewinder and working my way up to my current 65 mill than just carrying on where I left off (which was a *lot* less anyway). The real advantage of the beta was to be experienced when the prod game kicked off.
* Shuffling between a station and a local Seeking Luxuries was a good earner, but was really really boring after a few shuttle trips, so players still had to grind to build up the cash, and frankly deserved the money IMHO if they could keep that up for enough trips to really count.
* When you're in an early ship, earning a few thousand per trip, a 100 million credit balance just sounds insanely unreachable, but this is a misunderstanding. The game is 'kind of' linear in that when you've earned 60K in your sidewinder and buy a hauler, you now earn twice as much per trip (trading) but the jump in cost to the next ship doubles also. This actually continues as you upgrade through the fleet (I don't mean exactly doubles, but the goal posts move further away each time you get the ability to make more money). It's about the same amount of grind to get the 60K for a hauler as it is to get the 360K for a Cobra. I reckon my first 100K was harder to make than my first 1 million. Actually rares trading is much more advantageous for early-stage traders than those with T7+ so the early upgrades are easier than they might look.
So really, pretty much everybody with a high credit balance has at some point put in some serious grind to get there. It took me 20 hours of trading grind in a T7 to afford a Python, that's 5 round trips an hour, mostly between the same stations, for a total of TWO HUNDRED system/station jumps. Sure I got bored in the middle, did a rares run or two, and diverted to a bit of Luxuries trading, but these actually slowed down the cash-generation rate overall.
Favorite ships so far? The Cobra (360K) and the Asp (6.6Mil). So I hope the cash grind to get the Python will be worth it, but maybe I'll just end up with credits in the bank and go back to a heavily armed long-range Asp.
* sure most beta players like to keep the cash they'd accumulated in the gamma (I wiped), and it might sound a lot, but in truth there's been a lot more playing time available since then than was in the gamma, so it's not that big a deal and doesn't bother me. I had more fun restarting in the Sidewinder and working my way up to my current 65 mill than just carrying on where I left off (which was a *lot* less anyway). The real advantage of the beta was to be experienced when the prod game kicked off.
* Shuffling between a station and a local Seeking Luxuries was a good earner, but was really really boring after a few shuttle trips, so players still had to grind to build up the cash, and frankly deserved the money IMHO if they could keep that up for enough trips to really count.
* When you're in an early ship, earning a few thousand per trip, a 100 million credit balance just sounds insanely unreachable, but this is a misunderstanding. The game is 'kind of' linear in that when you've earned 60K in your sidewinder and buy a hauler, you now earn twice as much per trip (trading) but the jump in cost to the next ship doubles also. This actually continues as you upgrade through the fleet (I don't mean exactly doubles, but the goal posts move further away each time you get the ability to make more money). It's about the same amount of grind to get the 60K for a hauler as it is to get the 360K for a Cobra. I reckon my first 100K was harder to make than my first 1 million. Actually rares trading is much more advantageous for early-stage traders than those with T7+ so the early upgrades are easier than they might look.
So really, pretty much everybody with a high credit balance has at some point put in some serious grind to get there. It took me 20 hours of trading grind in a T7 to afford a Python, that's 5 round trips an hour, mostly between the same stations, for a total of TWO HUNDRED system/station jumps. Sure I got bored in the middle, did a rares run or two, and diverted to a bit of Luxuries trading, but these actually slowed down the cash-generation rate overall.
Favorite ships so far? The Cobra (360K) and the Asp (6.6Mil). So I hope the cash grind to get the Python will be worth it, but maybe I'll just end up with credits in the bank and go back to a heavily armed long-range Asp.