Iv'e now uprgaded to a type 6 transporter. (100t cargo space.)
Iv'e found a nice little loop trading route which only takes 1 jump. I make 162k going one way and 132k on the return trip.
Nearly 300k in the space of 15 minutes...I'm going to make some serious money now. Once i have enough for a type 7 I'll be making more than double the rate too.
I've already got over 2 million.
The downside to all this is that this is a really boring way of making money, bounty hunting and cashing in on the odd smuggling mission was way more fun. Also, i'm pretty much defenseless out here. Some git pulled me out of HyperCruise earlier and opened fire on me while i had a full cargo of gold, my cargo bay door some how got damaged and i was jettisoning cargo all over the place. Lost about 250k worth of stuff before the FSD kicked in:(.
As all I've done so far is jump aimlessly about and pick up the odd courier job I decided to reset my game yesterday and start over - hopefully I can now get a decent game going.
I've also joined the Frontier forums and put my name down for Nova Fleet.
urrghhh......Constant trading is boring. Back and forth, back and forth...over and over.
I was saving up for a Type-7, but, even at 1 million an hour I'd still need to keep this up for another 10 hours to afford one.
According to the link that Matt kindly shared earlier in the thread an ASP can carry up to 122t of Cargo which will help gain me more money in the long run. Unfortunately I'd have to be very careful as this requires putting a cargo bay in the spot that usually houses the shield generator meaning i would be traveling without any shields.
I may buy an Asp for cargo runs, ditch the type 6 and then buy an Eagle for when I'm feeling a little bit fruity and decide to go on some bounty hunt runs....I think that's the plan.
Edit: Actually, looking again, the Asp seems like a very good all rounder. Great jump distance, plenty of hardpoints, reasonably agile, good cargo space... I could go for a level 3 shield generator, have a FSD interdictor, plenty of weapons and still have space for 106t of cargo...Try to steal my gold now bitches!
My exploration rank never seems to change... Im probably about 100 jumps away from the starting point too. Once I've saved enough credits to get the asp with a decent set up I'll try my hand at some exploring,maybe scanning a few planets.
You *only* gain exploration experience by selling exploration data.
The more money you make from selling exploration data, the more experience you get.
You get more money the further away you are from a system when you sell its data, and you get more money for doing more detailed scans.
With a basic discovery scanner, you can detect new astronomical bodies within a certain range, plus can do basic surface scans of unexplored stars etc. by selecting them. It will automatically detect bodies that are close to you (e.g. an unexplored star you jump to), plus can be used actively (by assigning it to a fire group) to detect other new bodies within the range limit.
The better discovery scanners scan over longer ranges.
You can also get a separate detailed surface scanner that gives more info (and so more data to sell) when you scan a body. It needs a discovery scanner to work.
You *only* gain exploration experience by selling exploration data.
The more money you make from selling exploration data, the more experience you get.
You get more money the further away you are from a system when you sell its data, and you get more money for doing more detailed scans.
With a basic discovery scanner, you can detect new astronomical bodies within a certain range, plus can do basic surface scans of unexplored stars etc. by selecting them. It will automatically detect bodies that are close to you (e.g. an unexplored star you jump to), plus can be used actively (by assigning it to a fire group) to detect other new bodies within the range limit.
The better discovery scanners scan over longer ranges.
You can also get a separate detailed surface scanner that gives more info (and so more data to sell) when you scan a body. It needs a discovery scanner to work.
Wow, thanks for this...
I honestly didn't know. I don't think iv'e sold a single piece of data.
Apparently there will be a an announcement about this at gamescom, hopefully we get something good, maybe a decent update.
Personally i think bounties need raising,they should reward around 60k each on average. I hate having a battle with some random guy in a half decent ship for 15 minutes and gaining a small 7k bounty.
Apparently there will be a an announcement about this at gamescom, hopefully we get something good, maybe a decent update.
Personally i think bounties need raising,they should reward around 60k each on average. I hate having a battle with some random guy in a half decent ship for 15 minutes and gaining a small 7k bounty.
The bounties vary by person. I did some bounty hunting last night at a RES and earned >140K for 3 kills.
It is worth installing the kill warrant scanner. I only left the killing field after 3 because I accidentally hit a Navy ship.
Anyone else have a problem with the bulletin board last night?
I jumped on for a quick game last night, but the board would not load - I even did a cargo run to another station, but still no luck, the BB whouldn't load up there either.
There seem to be regular new threads started at the official forums from people who have had their very expensive ship destroyed, and are now sad/angry that it's lost forever because they didn't have enough money left for an insurance rebuy.
If your ship is destroyed, you can get it replaced for a mere 5% of the cost of the ship (and any upgrades) thanks to the automatic insurance system - you don't need to have the full cost in the bank. (Or you can get a free basic Sidewinder if you have no money.)
If you don't have enough credits to cover the 5% rebuy cost of the ship and all the upgrades, you can deselect upgrades to lower the rebuy cost, or take out a loan up to a certain amount.
But, if you do not do a rebuy there and then, your ship is lost forever (which is fair and makes sense, despite all the bitching I've seen). If you skip the rebuy and get a Sidewinder, you can't get you old ship back later via the 5% rebuy, you have to buy from scratch at full price.
Anyone else have a problem with the bulletin board last night?
I jumped on for a quick game last night, but the board would not load - I even did a cargo run to another station, but still no luck, the BB whouldn't load up there either.
It was completely screwed.
Lots of people at the official forums were suffering it.
May be a time of day thing. Increased demand (US players) + no one at Frontier to sort it due to the time difference.
I've been playing with my Cobra build more, and have shifted toward combat rather than long distance trading. Gonna try my hand at conflict zones, crime sweeps, and bounties.
I love the Cobra. It's so versatile. Just a pity that it only has a couple of utility mounts.
I've been playing with the power management and module priority, too, so as to be able to have a higher power demand than my power plant can actually handle.
My FSD and cargo hatch are now lowest priority (and the hatch is actually off anyway, as it's only needed for cargo scooping). Now if I deploy my hardpoints, the excessive power demand causes the FSD to turn off, freeing up power for my weapons and other systems needed for combat (can't use the FSD when weapons are deployed anyway).
It means I can squeeze that little bit more juice out to run a shield cell in addition to my shields, shield booster, weapons, thrusters, etc.
That is very good advise. I have lost a few ships and only once did I not have the money for the insurance. Now a days I make sure that I have enough. I had bought my first viper this week and fully kitted it out and the rebuy cost was only 25K which was good as within 2 hours it got destroyed in a conflict zone.
Played a for a while this morning, found a place that has a very high supply of imperial slaves and noticed a smuggling mission for 225k, sold the slaves at the same destination for 140k profit. 365k for one quick run...:p
Now got 4.5 million and my Type 6 Transporter which is worth 2 million and an Eagle for the bounty missions worth around 500k
I'm not sure if i want an Asp or a type 7 yet. I may save the Cash until Gamescom, see if they announce any new ships. I'd love another transporter right now that costs around 8 million and has 150t+ cargo potential.
That is very good advise. I have lost a few ships and only once did I not have the money for the insurance. Now a days I make sure that I have enough. I had bought my first viper this week and fully kitted it out and the rebuy cost was only 25K which was good as within 2 hours it got destroyed in a conflict zone.
Yup, I've lost a few ships already.
Ran out of fuel once in my starting Sidewinder and had to self destruct (if it happened now, though, I'd call in the Fuel Rats for help).
Flew too close to a star one time while fuel scooping and my ship overheated. I got away in time, and jumped, only to then realise that jumping generates even more heat, and so my ship blew.
Died in combat a couple of times too, including in my Cobra (thankfully before the rebuy on that got to the level it is now).
I now try and have 3 x the rebuy cost as a buffer, to have a safety net.
Played a for a while this morning, found a place that has a very high supply of imperial slaves and noticed a smuggling mission for 225k, sold the slaves at the same destination for 140k profit. 365k for one quick run...:p
Now got 4.5 million and my Type 6 Transporter which is worth 2 million and an Eagle for the bounty missions worth around 500k
I'm not sure if i want an Asp or a type 7 yet. I may save the Cash until Gamescom, see if they announce any new ships. I'd love another transporter right now that costs around 8 million and has 150t+ cargo potential.
I may save up for a transporter, and use that for large scale short distance trading, instead of doing long distance rare trading in my faithful Cobra.
It adds some other systems at each end, to maximise the rare commodity quantities and therefore profits.
Obviously, if you have a ship that's a bloody huge bastard for cargo capacity (e.g. Type 6 or higher) then you're better off finding a short trade route for normal but profitable goods, and just buying/selling 100t or more at each end of a run that only needs a few jumps at most.
But for new players, without the money for a bigass ship, rare trading is a good way to make money due to the high profit not needing a high cargo capacity.
Been doing OK with this for bounty hunting, Conflict Zones, RES, etc. If I want to do some assassination or merc missions from the Bulletin Board, I can just swap out the third Shield Cell Bank for an FSD Interdictor (to pull targets out of supercruise) and swap out a utility for a Frame Shift Wake Scanner (to see where a target has gone if they've jumped away before I can kill them).
I had a go last night with 2 x 2D gimballed Beam Lasers on the medium hardpoints, and 2 x 1G gimballed Multi-cannon on the small hardpoints. The 2D Beams were great. But... having the Multi-cannon on the small hardpoints on the underside of the hull restricted their field of fire because they need to lead the target. As such, I went back to having 1E Beams on the small hardpoints and 2F Multi-cannon on the medium hardpoints.
For trading, especially long-distance rare trading, I revert to the Lightweight Bulkheads and replace the Hull Reinforcement Packages and Shield Cell Banks with another Fuel Tank and some Cargo Racks: Trading Cobra. I did think about stripping out the weapons to decrease my ships total mass, but it didn't make a significant difference to the jump range.
Comments
Iv'e found a nice little loop trading route which only takes 1 jump. I make 162k going one way and 132k on the return trip.
Nearly 300k in the space of 15 minutes...I'm going to make some serious money now. Once i have enough for a type 7 I'll be making more than double the rate too.
I've already got over 2 million.
The downside to all this is that this is a really boring way of making money, bounty hunting and cashing in on the odd smuggling mission was way more fun. Also, i'm pretty much defenseless out here. Some git pulled me out of HyperCruise earlier and opened fire on me while i had a full cargo of gold, my cargo bay door some how got damaged and i was jettisoning cargo all over the place. Lost about 250k worth of stuff before the FSD kicked in:(.
I've also joined the Frontier forums and put my name down for Nova Fleet.
As boring as it is, trading is a good way of making money to start with.
Rares are very good if you don't have a lot of cargo space, but the downside is that you need to travel quite far.
Standard commodities can be very profitable without having to travel far, but as He4rt has found you need a *big* cargo hold.
Smuggling missions via the Bulletin Board can also give very good money.
I was saving up for a Type-7, but, even at 1 million an hour I'd still need to keep this up for another 10 hours to afford one.
According to the link that Matt kindly shared earlier in the thread an ASP can carry up to 122t of Cargo which will help gain me more money in the long run. Unfortunately I'd have to be very careful as this requires putting a cargo bay in the spot that usually houses the shield generator meaning i would be traveling without any shields.
I may buy an Asp for cargo runs, ditch the type 6 and then buy an Eagle for when I'm feeling a little bit fruity and decide to go on some bounty hunt runs....I think that's the plan.
Edit: Actually, looking again, the Asp seems like a very good all rounder. Great jump distance, plenty of hardpoints, reasonably agile, good cargo space... I could go for a level 3 shield generator, have a FSD interdictor, plenty of weapons and still have space for 106t of cargo...Try to steal my gold now bitches!
My current Cobra Mk III.
I've been back on the rare trading between Diso (& Lave & Leesti) and Fujin (& 39 Tauri) to make money for upgrades.
Once I've kitted it out how I want, I'll probably swap the extra 16t fuel tank for another 16t cargo rack.
I'm currently Merchant rank for trade and Scout rank for exploration. My combat rank is still Mostly Harmless, though!
I started at Trevithick Dock, LHS 3447 and I'm still only a few systems away from there.
I can't remember where I actually started in ED.
The more money you make from selling exploration data, the more experience you get.
You get more money the further away you are from a system when you sell its data, and you get more money for doing more detailed scans.
With a basic discovery scanner, you can detect new astronomical bodies within a certain range, plus can do basic surface scans of unexplored stars etc. by selecting them. It will automatically detect bodies that are close to you (e.g. an unexplored star you jump to), plus can be used actively (by assigning it to a fire group) to detect other new bodies within the range limit.
The better discovery scanners scan over longer ranges.
You can also get a separate detailed surface scanner that gives more info (and so more data to sell) when you scan a body. It needs a discovery scanner to work.
Wow, thanks for this...
I honestly didn't know. I don't think iv'e sold a single piece of data.
Maybe i can not be 'Aimless' anymore.
It was a while before I found it out. I think I'd been Googling the ranking systems.
I've not done any pure exploring yet, but as my rare trading runs tend to be around 160-180ly each way I generally get some good data each time.
Correction: Distance is apparently irrelevant. You just need to be at least 20ly away from the system you scanned.
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Explorer
Personally i think bounties need raising,they should reward around 60k each on average. I hate having a battle with some random guy in a half decent ship for 15 minutes and gaining a small 7k bounty.
The bounties vary by person. I did some bounty hunting last night at a RES and earned >140K for 3 kills.
It is worth installing the kill warrant scanner. I only left the killing field after 3 because I accidentally hit a Navy ship.
I jumped on for a quick game last night, but the board would not load - I even did a cargo run to another station, but still no luck, the BB whouldn't load up there either.
Don't fly what you can't afford to lose!
There seem to be regular new threads started at the official forums from people who have had their very expensive ship destroyed, and are now sad/angry that it's lost forever because they didn't have enough money left for an insurance rebuy.
If your ship is destroyed, you can get it replaced for a mere 5% of the cost of the ship (and any upgrades) thanks to the automatic insurance system - you don't need to have the full cost in the bank. (Or you can get a free basic Sidewinder if you have no money.)
If you don't have enough credits to cover the 5% rebuy cost of the ship and all the upgrades, you can deselect upgrades to lower the rebuy cost, or take out a loan up to a certain amount.
But, if you do not do a rebuy there and then, your ship is lost forever (which is fair and makes sense, despite all the bitching I've seen). If you skip the rebuy and get a Sidewinder, you can't get you old ship back later via the 5% rebuy, you have to buy from scratch at full price.
http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Insurance_costs
It was completely screwed.
Lots of people at the official forums were suffering it.
May be a time of day thing. Increased demand (US players) + no one at Frontier to sort it due to the time difference.
I love the Cobra. It's so versatile. Just a pity that it only has a couple of utility mounts.
I've been playing with the power management and module priority, too, so as to be able to have a higher power demand than my power plant can actually handle.
My FSD and cargo hatch are now lowest priority (and the hatch is actually off anyway, as it's only needed for cargo scooping). Now if I deploy my hardpoints, the excessive power demand causes the FSD to turn off, freeing up power for my weapons and other systems needed for combat (can't use the FSD when weapons are deployed anyway).
It means I can squeeze that little bit more juice out to run a shield cell in addition to my shields, shield booster, weapons, thrusters, etc.
That is very good advise. I have lost a few ships and only once did I not have the money for the insurance. Now a days I make sure that I have enough. I had bought my first viper this week and fully kitted it out and the rebuy cost was only 25K which was good as within 2 hours it got destroyed in a conflict zone.
Now got 4.5 million and my Type 6 Transporter which is worth 2 million and an Eagle for the bounty missions worth around 500k
I'm not sure if i want an Asp or a type 7 yet. I may save the Cash until Gamescom, see if they announce any new ships. I'd love another transporter right now that costs around 8 million and has 150t+ cargo potential.
Yup, I've lost a few ships already.
Ran out of fuel once in my starting Sidewinder and had to self destruct (if it happened now, though, I'd call in the Fuel Rats for help).
Flew too close to a star one time while fuel scooping and my ship overheated. I got away in time, and jumped, only to then realise that jumping generates even more heat, and so my ship blew.
Died in combat a couple of times too, including in my Cobra (thankfully before the rebuy on that got to the level it is now).
I now try and have 3 x the rebuy cost as a buffer, to have a safety net.
I may save up for a transporter, and use that for large scale short distance trading, instead of doing long distance rare trading in my faithful Cobra.
(found via the official forums)
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RitrGeA_1jL48AcY1NUx6JUEMrFXZhZI7F05Y4cExrQ/pubhtml
It adds some other systems at each end, to maximise the rare commodity quantities and therefore profits.
Obviously, if you have a ship that's a bloody huge bastard for cargo capacity (e.g. Type 6 or higher) then you're better off finding a short trade route for normal but profitable goods, and just buying/selling 100t or more at each end of a run that only needs a few jumps at most.
But for new players, without the money for a bigass ship, rare trading is a good way to make money due to the high profit not needing a high cargo capacity.
My Combat Cobra.
Been doing OK with this for bounty hunting, Conflict Zones, RES, etc. If I want to do some assassination or merc missions from the Bulletin Board, I can just swap out the third Shield Cell Bank for an FSD Interdictor (to pull targets out of supercruise) and swap out a utility for a Frame Shift Wake Scanner (to see where a target has gone if they've jumped away before I can kill them).
I had a go last night with 2 x 2D gimballed Beam Lasers on the medium hardpoints, and 2 x 1G gimballed Multi-cannon on the small hardpoints. The 2D Beams were great. But... having the Multi-cannon on the small hardpoints on the underside of the hull restricted their field of fire because they need to lead the target. As such, I went back to having 1E Beams on the small hardpoints and 2F Multi-cannon on the medium hardpoints.
For trading, especially long-distance rare trading, I revert to the Lightweight Bulkheads and replace the Hull Reinforcement Packages and Shield Cell Banks with another Fuel Tank and some Cargo Racks: Trading Cobra. I did think about stripping out the weapons to decrease my ships total mass, but it didn't make a significant difference to the jump range.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=171844