Would love some advice/guidance

[Crystles]

It's been a pretty long time since I've played, and I'm kinda wanting to hop back in. I do have a few questions though, as I know things have changed up quite a bit.

First off the line: Should I bother with engineers now or wait until the new patch changes? I never bothered with them before, I was wildly sick of grinding by the time they came out, but I'm really thinking of giving them a go this time around. On the same note, what's a good way to get started with the Engineers and progress? Like, who should I start with, where do I get their garbage and what not.

Next thing, I know this is a really temperate question, but stow those dank Musk Flamethrowers if you would... For some one sitting ~30m credits, what's some ways to make creds? I dont mind if it's long or tedious, so long as it's efficient. I want build a value of ~125m at least so I can get into an FDL, or if I can endure it, 200m so I can finally kit out a Python (A ship I've wanted since Day 1). I know people gripe about "fast credits takes the fun out of the game" or something along the lines, but TBH, I find making credits to be the most tedious and stressful part of the game. Once I settle into one of these ships, I'll feel much more at ease to sit back and enjoy the game. I really, really want to just stop having to care about credits. I have no real motivation to get one of the big 3, so Python/FDL are kinda my endgame in this particular area.

Keep it cool, and thanks in advance!


EDIT:

Oh yeah, if anyone wants to leak some prime systems with HAZRES spots close by a station, that'd be awesome. Extra points for hazardous spots that have an awesome vista (I love ice rings, and any spot where the planet can occlude the sun. I love "night fights" =P

 

[Safepuppy]

If you do the passenger thing, you'll get your money, but it might put you off the game again. They take a long time on supercruise, like a lot.
Skimmer missions to take out pirates is my thing at the mo', at least you havr

See below

 

[Safepuppy]

If you do the passenger thing, you'll get your money, but it might put you off the game again. They take a long time on supercruise, like a lot.
Skimmer missions to take out pirates is my thing at the mo', at least you have something to do. They stack, a bit, too.
I was sorta similar to you, that Python ☺.
You'll enjoy it, but especially with dirty drives lvl 5. So you might want to start unlocking Farseer for Fsd and then Palin for the drives. Google for help with that, it's worth it.

Peace

 

[MottiKhan]

My opinion only, so take it as you may.

The main engineer to unlock would be Felicty Farseer in Deciat. She's on the Farseer Inc base.

With her, you can get a G5 long range FSD. Don't worry about getting a great roll. Just get a grade 5. Once the new engineers come out, you can re-engineer it starting at the highest level grade 4. That'll save some time.

You can also get grade 3 dirty drives and minor upgrades on your power plant and shield boosters from her.

To unlock her, you'll need one meta alloy. You can pick it up at Darnielle's progress in Maia or just ask for one in one of the many discord channels. There are a lot of us who would be willing to help.

Details on mats, gaining rep and pretty much everything else can be found on Inara.

https://inara.cz/galaxy-engineer/1/

 

[Majic-12]

Having come back after a long hiatus myself, I can definitely sympathize. The game was complicated as hell when I left, and it sure ain't any simpler now. I can't claim that my advice is the best, or even right, for that matter, but I can share what little I know.

I'm waiting on the Engineers, and focusing more my stable of ships and just getting a feel for the game again. Absent some of the more hardcore pursuits, I don't see an urgent need to start rolling modules yet.

For credits, I've been mixing it up with trade runs being the heavy lifting for credits (found some great routes on EDDB) and skimming bounties at Nav Beacons and Resource Extraction Sites.

In a less credit-focused sense, I've also been toying around with my new Space Bee (aka the Diamondback Explorer) for exploring, including bebopping around planets and moons with SRVs to gather materials and see just how vast procedurally-generated landscapes can be.

I have no preaching to do regarding "credits vs fun" other than to say that making lots of credits is plenty fun in my book, and having fun need not justify itself to anyone.

Anyway, welcome back! Your Mileage May Vary, but if it's anything like mine, I hope you'll enjoy the ride.

 

[drakhyr]

In terms of credits, nowadays most activities can quite easily generate quite decent amounts of credits quite quickly, so it's a case of doing whichever of them you enjoy doing. Bounty hunting in resource extraction sites, missions (particularly passenger missions or planetary scan missions) and exploration are just three examples that come to mind that can be quite lucrative; not to mention doing one run for each community goal each week (just to get in the top 100%) should net you >1 million a week.

 

[buck fizzle]

Try Nu Tauri. Was there for a community goal, awesome res sites: dark, dusty and with a white star occluded by the planet. Very cool lighting.

Also if you hop into a python try large, double shot (engineered) gimbal frags and railguns. Tis quite the pain train.

 

[Majic-12]

Ah yes. Still time to snag a quick 1.1 million in Wangal by tapping the CG there.

A fast, easy milk run in a proper Space Bee.

 

[CMDR Stealthy]

I definitely can relate OP, I simply faded from playing the game for almost a year or so and was genuinely pleased with how much better the game felt to play, stuff actually felt rewarding enough for me to start experimenting with ships and whatnot again.

Anyway you want to DL on getting back in so I'll just give you the skinny on how I integrated back into the game. First off get some trading done and mess around in EDDB commodities for routes to transport, once you reach a certain tading rank threshold you'll be given missions moving sizable quantities of cargo for nearly a million per 1 way trip. On the flipside there's also Planetary scan missions which are fairly easy to complete, low risk, and pay out quite a fair bit as well but those rewards scale from exploration rank.

So you're probably going to say "holy that kinda sounds boring" (at least I found it that way) so with those profits I made I decided to gear up for combat and blowing up the wanted for BH in my vulture, sturdy enough ship, agile, has the weapons to fairly deal with both small and large anyways... Just look around in some extraction economy based systems and they'll usually have some great spots, especially if the system is around medium security I tend to find pretty good bounties in those systems.

And lastly Engineers... I think someone previously posted saying go to Felicity Farseer first and grab that reputation with her and those FSD range upgrades, super important you have those as it's something I consider standard on any ship. With the system currently in place just get the rolls up to grade 5 and you're golden for the update which will allow some carry over without totally screwing you over, oh and internal module experimental effects will boost that up as well depending on what you want to go for. With the update materials will be a lot easier to acquire with the addition of the materials/data/raw traders and the storage cap for all material just as well to 100 per every material in game, but I do still recommend gathering some now, take some collector limpets controllers, some limpets, an SRV, maybe even a wake shift scanner too and spend a day or so just gathering and you'll have a good supply pre-update.

This all boils down to having a nice variety of things to do without boring you too much, after all variety is the spice of life.
Before I forget too, definitely put in the effort for community goals as they always tend to be well worth the time investment, some sweet payouts for those.

Well hopefully you're transition back is a smooth one and I may just see you out in the black CMDR o7

 

[krylite]

You've come back during interesting times for ED, OP. I'd point to looking up "road to riches" on the forum which is just a list of systems to explore for exploration data, where particularly you have to scan earth-like worlds and high-metal content worlds of unpopulated systems outside the bubble. The popular list is worth almost 300 million and will take several hours to complete but probably not more than a hundred hours and you can do it in parts or system by system. I wouldn't consider it an "exploit" since you have to do the "survey" exploring and it's more or less a one-time thing like the Palin missions.

With 200-300 million, you have enough for a survivable python, FGS, iClipper, or the new decent T-10 or probably in a month or so when the beta is over, the anticipated "chieftan". Also as mentioned, maybe good to get farseer's FSD upgrade at some point, it'll help with the road-to-riches and in general. Have fun.

 

[Crystles]

Thanks for all the replies! Bounty hunting has always been my bread and butter since pre-release, and always will be. I'm glad to hear that you can make some good creds doing it!

Hows this "passanger" stuff work? Wasnt a thing when I last played (I dropped ED around the time frontier was messin about with the AI, and there was a golden little point where they constantly ran away when their shields dropped. Was ultra annoying, but I kinda perma rage-quit when I accidently broke a ships shield generator, and they would just sit beyond my weapons range (I think they had long range weapons) and pluck away at me until I was forced to leave. Never enough to be dangerous, but always enough to be a problem... I couldnt catch them either, they were faster than my vulture, and as such also couldnt get away u.u...


Anyway, I'm interested to hear, see, or read more about this passanger/planet scan stuff. As I said, all new to me, so it'll be interesting for like, the first... Minute...

But that's fine, I'm totally prepared a week in misery to just not have to deal with it again.

Also, whats a "skimmer" mission? New thing?

Regardless of what I do, I just want it done. I feel much of my experience with ED has been tainted by "I could be making more creds doing something else", especially with my long time desire for a python.

And yeah, this upcoming update is something I'm rather excited for. My love for the Python may very well be usurped by the Chieftain. I messed around with the game a bit, mostly to see how many creds I had sitting in my account (not a ton, though I'm sitting in a FAS. I'll probably go back to a Vulture though, I find the FAS just like it for flying ontop of something, and bombarding them with all the cannons on the bottom of my ship)

 

[Apina]

My vote would also go for exploration. With the data you can unlock 5G FSD from Farseer. That makes life a lot easier inside the bubble and outside.

With 30mils you can outfit a good explo Aspx.

Dont forget to bring fuel scoop (be wary when using it), remember to bring advanced discovery scanner and detailed surface scanner. Scan what is worth it.

Go as far as you can with stamina to come back. (important!)

Good luck!

 

[Arry]

Passanger missions: Cobra IV or possibly a T-6 to start with. Build with cabins. Business are good, because you can also carry economy as well. A crown on the mission icon will mean, they will not share a cabin.
Short runs, under 100Lys are good credit makers. Fill up, have a small cargo hold for rewards and any data or cargo missions in the same direction. Deliver them and pick some for the return journey. Friendly and Allied with local factions, help up the rewards. I mostly do stations and outposts, as planets are a time sink.

The dangers: Wanted criminals. LOOK OUT FOR THE SMALL PRINT, or sometimes red typing in the mission briefing. You get scanned with someone wanted in any of the systems you past though, it is death to you and your ship. Yes you can high wake and escape, but at stations, that is really hard to do. They can be wanted in any system, so just because they are not wanted where you pick them up, does not mean you are safe else where. Treat it as smuggling, but with a death penalty instead of a fine. It is good credits, I have a Cobra IV with 20 berths over 3 cabins and make between 5 and 12 million per 30 minute return trip. Don't bother with sightseers, they take too long and can be very picky. All passengers can ask you to collect things; you don't have to, they will still pay if you don't.

 

[CMDR Percivus Keenblade]

Guess you might want to wait for the engineering update, but know that in the next patch you will upgrade your modules like, two or three or four clicks per grade level starting from 1 up to 5. For that you might require some materials, but if you were to upgrade anything to grade 5 right now, in the next patch you can convert them straight to g4 so you'll be skipping the initial 1st, 2nd and 3rd levels. So if you got a bit of materials go for a little bit of engineering. Also start with upgrading your FSD from the first engineer that is unlocked for you. Real handy and faster to travel around with that.

I'd say passenger missions, surface scan missions, skimmer missions, pirate kills/conflictzone kills missions to stack along with their respective individual kill rewards, simple conflictzone grinding, simple res site grinding preferably stacking it with the weekly community goals and trying to attain nice and easy first couple of ranks in said CGs would be a good way to go while doing gameplay stuff without getting too mad on cred per second calculations.

Passenger missions, in short work like this: Go to a base and notice theres a second mission board for passengers, check those. To get one that catches your eye, fit some cabins on your ship, try to fill groups to cabins and go where they ask you to go, that is, in most cases go find the tourist beacon and scan it, then come back. Make sure you read the mission details throughly. You don't wanna grab a mission asking to go to the other side of the galaxy without proper preparations for that kind of a travel.

Skimmer missions are, eh, kill the little ground drones. Two popular ways to approach the situation; either lurk around the target base like up to a couple hundered km and find little pockets of skimmers guarding stuff, and shoot them (with srv, possibly) or a tougher approach, directly go all boom-boom on the base itself, nuke its generator and defences out, take out the skimmers then done.

Surface scan missions are similar. Go to the system, use discoscanner or scan nav beacon, go to mission location, land, deploy srv, kill a couple wanted skimmers, try to go in and out of the red trespass zone quickly before getting a bounty as you come in, use your srv to scan that data point thing, then done.

I'd suggest you do whatever you like the most, or, do them all as opportunities present themselves on a mission board.

 

[Crystles]

Passanger missions: Cobra IV or possibly a T-6 to start with. Build with cabins. Business are good, because you can also carry economy as well. A crown on the mission icon will mean, they will not share a cabin.
Short runs, under 100Lys are good credit makers. Fill up, have a small cargo hold for rewards and any data or cargo missions in the same direction. Deliver them and pick some for the return journey. Friendly and Allied with local factions, help up the rewards. I mostly do stations and outposts, as planets are a time sink.

The dangers: Wanted criminals. LOOK OUT FOR THE SMALL PRINT, or sometimes red typing in the mission briefing. You get scanned with someone wanted in any of the systems you past though, it is death to you and your ship. Yes you can high wake and escape, but at stations, that is really hard to do. They can be wanted in any system, so just because they are not wanted where you pick them up, does not mean you are safe else where. Treat it as smuggling, but with a death penalty instead of a fine. It is good credits, I have a Cobra IV with 20 berths over 3 cabins and make between 5 and 12 million per 30 minute return trip. Don't bother with sightseers, they take too long and can be very picky. All passengers can ask you to collect things; you don't have to, they will still pay if you don't.

Thanks a ton! This is good intel. I was considering doing it with a T7, maybe an Orca for authenticity. The T7 can hold a fair bit more passangers, but the at 18.5Ly jump, the Orca's 25.4Ly jump and 300+m/s base speed might make it more efficient in long runs

 

[Adhock]

I'd wait on the engineers until 3.0. Apparently they're making it less grindy and random.

Though I will say the best part is the fact you can trade in those materials you have no use for for stuff that you need.

Money can be made with just about anything. Missions however are a source of best money.

Here's the open secret among Vets that cash cow runners never learn in their haste for get rich quick: "Higher Reputation with Minor Factions unlocks higher rewards."

Pick a system. Start running missions for everyone. Focus mainly on missions with Rep++ or Rep+++. Once you reach friendly/allied. The money will start pouring in and you can pick the choicest of the bunch. Passanger missions now are the best payout but Reputation can still make the difference.

The T7 is practically a godship for passenger missions. My spacebus can hold a good mix of Economy, Business, and First class being well protected and can break 24ly. Equipped with a fuel scoop she can do long distance missions no sweat and pop those multi-millionare VIP missions easily. And she's not even fully A rated. Valued right now at about... I think it was 13mill last I checked.

Orca might be better but I didn't like the Dolphin. The Dolphin you kind of have to dedicate to one kind of passanger.

 

[Crystles]

I'd wait on the engineers until 3.0. Apparently they're making it less grindy and random.

Though I will say the best part is the fact you can trade in those materials you have no use for for stuff that you need.

Money can be made with just about anything. Missions however are a source of best money.

Here's the open secret among Vets that cash cow runners never learn in their haste for get rich quick: "Higher Reputation with Minor Factions unlocks higher rewards."

Pick a system. Start running missions for everyone. Focus mainly on missions with Rep++ or Rep+++. Once you reach friendly/allied. The money will start pouring in and you can pick the choicest of the bunch. Passanger missions now are the best payout but Reputation can still make the difference.

The T7 is practically a godship for passenger missions. My spacebus can hold a good mix of Economy, Business, and First class being well protected and can break 24ly. Equipped with a fuel scoop she can do long distance missions no sweat and pop those multi-millionare VIP missions easily. And she's not even fully A rated. Valued right now at about... I think it was 13mill last I checked.

Orca might be better but I didn't like the Dolphin. The Dolphin you kind of have to dedicate to one kind of passanger.

Oh nice! Could I badger you for the loadout you use?

Well, i've pretty much settled on passenger missions. I dont mind sitting around doing nothing really, I got google and uh... "other sites for entertainment during long straight line FSD runs.

Another couple questions on passenger missions. I've done some research, and many people recommend just piling on as many seats as possible, aka economy compartments... Any reasoning/merit behind this?

The other question is about distance. I hear that missions that have you ferry a full load of passengers 100k+ LS is the way to go, as distance has something to with how well they'll pay out. Any truth to this?


In either case, any suggestions for systems that would be good to go for? I dont mind spending my first day just getting my rep up for the local factions, but I've honestly never ever actively tried to do so. Usually just some one ends up liking me (or not) as I slaughter the wanted residents of the system.

 

[Adhock]

Oh nice! Could I badger you for the loadout you use?

I think I overstated her abilities a little bit. She's actually worth about 40 mill and only gets about 18ly but I was right about her not being fully A rated.

As far as Hardpoints go she's got Turret pulse lasers on the top and bottom and two forward multicannons. Not much for fighting bigger fish but she can drive off smaller pirates.

Point defense and two c rated shield boosters for general defense and to block pesky missiles and other nasties.

For the three class six slots I have a shield generator (A rated for protection because I like that but it's probably what's driving up my cost. You can fit something cheaper but still get best protection for hull mass) A First Class Cabin, and a Business cabin.

For the three five class slots I have two economy class cabins and a c rated fuel scoop. This is where the majority of my passangers go and the fuel scoop lets me extend my time in transit. It fuels up pretty quick so downtime is short.

In a slot 3 I've got a cargo rack for those commodity rewards as well as cargo room for when passengers demand I pick up and transport cargo for the extra payday. Generally it's about what I need. I also have an ADS so I can honk and pick up extra money running through unexplored territory.

Core internals are lightweight alloy, I'm not fighting in this thing but I can upgrade if I want to take on bigger baddies. A class powerplant to run everything and keep cool during fuel scooping. C Thrusters because average is best. A rated FSD because need best jump range. D life support and sensors because weight, and C class distributes for running off pirates.

She's been a solid ship and I enjoy her as a nonluxury spacebus. She's had her fair share of scrapes and can run off the odd pirate here and there but I run from anything truly dangerous.

People are generally right in that you want to pile on as much seating as possible. Certain passengers demand a certain standing of transit. If someone requests business class you can put them in Business Class or higher being First Class and Luxury but they won't sit in Economy. Economy missions are the most common so the general consensus is right.

Passenger missions come in two flavors. Bulk and VIP.

Bulk missions are nameless passangers that just want to go from point A to point B. You can fit as many of them into your ship so long as you have the space and the right class of cabin. They pay well but lower then VIP.

VIP missions are those with named NPC's and a crown Icon. These passangers are willing to pay top dollar. However their missions come with extra conditions which can range from anything to include picking up and transporting a desired commodity, to dropping into active CZ's, to being chased by pirates or bounty hunters. Some may have other conditions like not wanting to be scanned.

READ THE MISSIONS CAREFULLY. They inform you of the traits of the VIP so you know what you're getting into. General VIP's are round trip and you'll end up at the same station you started at.

VIP's also come with an extra caveat. They rent out the entire cabin so if you put a VIP with a party of four into a class 5 economy cabin with 35 seats. They'll only take up 4 and lock out the other 31. This is why I take the class six higher cabins. They have less seating so I can put the VIPs into those cabins and keep my massive +50 economy seats open for the masses.

There IS in fact a correlation between distance traveled and how much a VIP will pay. A small round trip consisting of a single point and back of about 10ly will pay around the 100K range.

VIP's can also pay between 1-10 million for longer round trips. These will consist of visiting 3-4 destinations and will cause you to range out to 300-500ly of where you started. If you can succeed in loading up four VIP's like I did and keep them happy. You can bang out 12-20 million in a single trip. It will take a few hours though.

Then there the multi-million VIP's. They will offer over 10million or more per trip. They only want to see a single point but it will be somewhere deep in the black up to 20k LY away from where you started. They're very generous on the time though and will give you 2-3 real time weeks to complete but the payout is MASSIVE.

Any system will do but the thought is that you'll find more passanger missions with bigger payouts at Tourist systems. You just need the Rep.

Rep is generally gained by doing missions and turning in bounty vouchers.

 

[Jethzk]

As others have mentioned, the Road to Riches http://edtools.ddns.net/expl.php is probably the best bet. An asp explorer would be best for the job, but a simple Diamond Back Scout can be done without too much investment. Note that after you enter your starting system on the road, it has a section titled visited? No/Yes, you can click it to toggle yes and set a cookie on your computer, preventing it from directing you back to the same system if you happen to quit mid-route.

At 30 million you can afford an asp like: https://coriolis.io/outfit/asp?code...18WQ==.Aw18WQ==..EweloBhBmSQUwIYHMA28QgIwV0A=
Max jump range of 35.54 Ly with class 5 shields in case you get interditected, as your still in the bubble and some psycho/mad NPC's do exist. If your not worried about interdictions drop the shield class to 3. Note if your not far out in your search, you might consider dropping out every 50 or so systems scanned to cash in the data (to prevent catastrophic losses). You could also upgrade to a 6A fuel scoop. Total cost, 27.7 million with class B fuel scoop, or 49.3 million with class A scoop.

A cheaper alternative, which might allow you to keep some of your current ships, perhaps a bit stripped in modules; is the diamond back scout.
Https://coriolis.io/outfit/diamondb...w18UA==..IwOgrA9AzBqQDNATBALBApgQwOYBsMJZ4Sg=
Costing 15.9 million with a max jump range of 39.65 LY. The aspX is preferable because it has a larger fuel scoop which means less time scooping at stars.

Each road to riches planet that is scanned is worth roughly 300K. It adds up quick, especially when systems have multiple planets that are worth scanning.
When selling data, consider checking out https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet...--NJK0_AnlgFUldcCCxTFp5bY/edit#gid=1366185070
Particularly Sirius, as repping up with them is required for an engineer. Selling roughly 7-8 million data to a station owned by the faction is enough to become allied with them.

As others have mentioned, Felicity Farseer is probably the engineer to start with, the rest it may be worth waiting for the new system to hit.

 

[Manticore]

It's been said but:

Having tried the new Engineers mechanic in the beta I think it's simplified the process of engineering anything so it's more fun that way. There's still no instant gratification but this game was never about that.

I'd wait.