Just starting out in Elite: Dangerous

[Kenadian]

I finally started putting some time into Elite: Dangerous and continue to be completely blown away by pretty much every aspect of it.

Last night I found myself frustrated just trying to land at a Space Station because what few landing pads it had were all tied up. This in itself, although frustrating, is pretty awesome given that's what would probably happen at a small Space Station.

Instead of just sitting there I flew around the Space Station with my lights on just checking it out. Even though it was uglier than hell it still doesn't cease to impress given it's scale and modelling which are all beautiful really.

Ultimately I failed the mission however as I misinterpreted the mission parameters and didn't have enough money to buy the full amount of resources to resell, damn.

...which is also awesome really as now I have a cargo hold with this mineral in it and nobody who wants to buy lol.

The entire time I'm botching this mission my friend Jeff is trying to coax me into outfitting my ship with cannons so I can blow Space Pirates out of the sky.

I probably will attempt this at some point but right now I'm content just getting familiar with the game mechanics and enjoying the awe inspiring visuals.

Getting to my original point, how did you guys start out and what is it you do now? Was there a non-violent method of securing decent trading missions that netted reasonable credits in the beginning?

Please share your tales of how you started out in Elite: Dangerous.

 

[tmtm]

I'm glad you have someone helping you get started. It can be intimidating at first until you get your feet under you.

I started just running bulletin board hauling missions, then I found a trade route selling commodities between two stations in Eravate. Fill your hold at one station, sell at the other. What system are you in/around.

After earning enough I bought a Viper and I'm bounty hunting in Resource Extraction Sites. It gets me 100k an hour or so, which isn't a lot compared to other things but it's fun. I've probably earned around a million from it so far- and spend half on a Cobra and other goodies.

 

[Kenadian]

Right now I'm not really tied down to a particular system as I've been moving around a lot simply taking it all in.

I think I'm currently at Kiwi, or Kiki, or Kiji; or whatever the hell it is?

After tonight I may be several systems from that spot depending on how things go.

Just out of curiosity, if I'm to focus on trading and perhaps mining in the beginning, what is a good ship to save up for and how many credits will I need?

 

[tmtm]

Get an Adder. It's only about 87,000 and you can do a lot with it. Stay in the Sidewinder until you get a little over 100k, and always ALWAYS make sure you have enough to cover insurance on your ship, preferably a few times over.

 

[Kenadian]

It's funny you should mention that because I was already looking into the Adder.

 

[tmtm]

Or save up a little more and buy a Viper. A few nights of NPC bounty hunting will net you enough for a Cobra, a ship with vastly more speed, cargo room, jump range, armor and weapon capacity. I felt like a mobile target in the Adder.

 

[skerwball]

Bounty hunting is a good starting way to make credits. I went from Sidewinder to cobra. 349K i think for cobra, started trading went i got 40T cargo on her. Trading is boring but you need the cash and it is fast compared to BH. Cobra is a very good Multi-purpose ship, but it really is up to how you want to play the game.

 

[Kenadian]

I'm still not sure how I want to play the game to be honest. I have all the quick paced action I need in iRacing so I'm looking for something a bit more laid back right now.

This is why I think Trading, Exploring and Mining may be up my alley better and help me understand the mechanics of the game that much sooner.

Bounty Hunting is something I can do anytime really and I'd probably want to tackle it when I have plenty of cash stored to outfit my ship right.

Incidentally, do you guys have a system you think may be a good place to make a home base for all us friends?

 

[tmtm]

I don't know well enough yet, but I'd be willing to pack up and move my ships if somewhere was decided. Play in solo or private group unless you want the real experience. The NPC pirates are easier to handle, and you can use sector security to help, unless you're in anarchy space.

 

[skerwball]

I do trading in solo, just easier with no people asking for % of cargo.

 

[little P]

Hey Duke, good to see you are enjoying ED.

Here's how I got to where I am now;

- Started with a Sidewinder

- Quickly went to pick up my Eagle

- Did some delivery missions until I could afford some decent weaponry then went out to Nav Beacons to bounty hunt. Spent a good while doing this and upgrading weapons, systems etc.

- Traded the Eagle in for an Adder. I actually used the Adder to explore a little bit and run missions before kitting it out with some decent weapons and bounty hunting with it at Nav Beacons and Resource Extraction Sites. I was still struggling for money at this point.

- Shilka helped me out with a rare trade route. I saved up enough to trade in the Adder for a Cobra then continued running the rare trade route to upgrad emy systems and weapons on the Cobra. Once I was happy with my Cobra I started saving up credits.

- Traded in the Cobra for a Lakon Type 6. I stopped trading rares, and tried to find myself a decent commodity trade route. This took a long time (was very enjoyable though) with a lot of moving around trying to improve my profit per ton. I eventually found a decent trade run with two jumps between systems that was netting me over 2k per ton both ways (good enough with just two jumps to do). I have not and will not use a trading tool etc. I wanted to do it the hard way as for me I enjoyed the challenge of finding a good commodity trade route for myself, once I understood how it worked.

- Saved up enough to trade in the Type 6 for a Type 7 and upgraded it with just enough modules to continue running the previous trade run (with a much increased profit due to the bigger cargo hold). It was about this time I realised how much I wanted the Imperial Clipper and so I bought a Cobra MKIII. I outfitted out the Cobra in a full A Class loadout and started to alternate running missions for Imperial factions in the Cobra and trading in the Type 7. I then found another trade run while running missions in the Cobra to increase my Imperial Rank, which was much more profitable, with the added bonus of only needing one jump between systems. I downgraded some modules on the Type 7 to net some CR as I didn't need the bigger fuel tank and FSD etc.

- After a while I had enough credits to buy a Clipper and outfit it with some basic module upgrades, but I didn't have the Rank. It took a long while before reaching Baron Rank and getting the opportunity to buy the Imperial Clipper. By this time I had enough to buy and upgrade it enough to upgrade the Cargo Bays, which when done meant I could carry more Cargo than a Type 7. So I went ahead and traded in the Cobra MKIII and the Lakon Type 7 and this is what I'm currently piloting;

The H.M.S. Bodacious.



I'll be sticking with this ship for the time being, it will take a long time to fully upgrade it to A Class all round, and I'm cool with that :icon_cool:

 

[ElektroVodka]

I do trading in solo, just easier with no people asking for % of cargo.

Playing in the private group also works the same right?

 

[Shilka]

Yep, works the same, no public players, just people inthe group and AI.

 

[Kenadian]

Sounds like you had a lot of fun getting there little P, thanks for sharing.

Last night I had a rather rocky start. I ended up being ripped apart by a ship that looks eerily similar to yours little P; I never had a chance.

The worst part is I had nothing in cargo, no wanted status, no fines, nothing; just a random hate crime I guess lol.

Then in my new ship I took a Mission to deliver intel and got caught out between two systems with nowhere to refuel and no fuel scoop.

Onto ship#3 and I take another intel mission only to get immediately intercopulated. This guy I'm ready for though and I pummeled his ass good. Shields down and heavily damaged he somehow managed to warp away from me as I have no way to interdict.

Felt good though because he attacked from nowhere and got his ass pwnd. :icon_twisted:

I finally got back on track and found a low value trade route within the same system. It's not a lot of money but it's steady money and that's all that matters.

I was having a really dry spell finding missions that I qualified for so this helped a lot. Now all I have to do is take commodities from one station to the other and then usually there's a higher cred mission for me to take on.

I'm sure it's laughable to you guys but the most credits I've made on a mission so far is about 5000 or so.

Having said that thought, it's so exceptionally gratifying as I'm doing it my way and learning a lot about the game by doing this way.

Jeff also put me onto the Night Audio Mode which evens out the volumes on everything much better. It represented a tenfold boost in immersion instantly as you don't really realize how much audio you're missing until that point.

I'm loving the game, it's awesome with Track IR and looks and sounds amazing.

Even the frustrating stuff and grinding is exceptionally rewarding and I always find myself thinking that's probably exactly how it would be in real life.

This game is awesome and I have no qualms about recommending it to everyone.

...and this from a guy who typically hates Space games.

 

[tmtm]

5k on those little Sidewinder missions is decent cash. I remember there would be the occasional mission to deliver a commodity you could usually find in a nearby system, those usually paid well.

 

[Kenadian]

5k on those little Sidewinder missions is decent cash. I remember there would be the occasional mission to deliver a commodity you could usually find in a nearby system, those usually paid well.

That's exactly whats happening.

I'm still at work but can't wait to get home and play again lol.

 

[tmtm]

Yeah, join the club. I've been sitting here all day thinking about spending 500k on my Cobra.

 

[Kenadian]

I don't know any other way to put this other than wow, simply wow!

I had a really productive night last night and even though the credit total is laughable to most it still felt like I'd accomplished something.

I'm really starting to get a handle on trading and have to say that it's enjoyable work. It doesn't feel as grinding as you'd think especially if you accept some of the resource sourcing missions.

Last night I had to source Coffee and some mineral (forget which) and it really helped me understand the commodity market all that much better.

I also noticed that sometimes you only need to find 1 or 2 so you have only a half full cargo bay which is a waste. I ditched my scanner and picked up another 2 cargo bays and started taking missions along with playing the commodity game.

Sometimes the commodity trading would pay next to nothing (once I made 8 credit profit) but other times you can make thousands.

I'm starting to see slightly higher payouts and as of last night was well over 50,000 credits (I started the night with less than 10,000).

You do not make money fast this way but I find it to be the best way to increase your understanding quickly of how not to get shot down by Space Station defenses.

Speaking of which, I nearly got my ship exploded by these defenses last night. I was right in the path of the lasers as they were shooting someone trying to land with illegal goods.

That was a pretty hairy situation but it looked absolutely awesome!!!

Also was interdicted twice; once I got away and the other time I shot the guy down quickly.

Another few nights and I'll be upgrading to a new ship. I'm waiting to have a good 30 - 40,000 extra credits in the bank before I do so however as I'm sure I'll want some upgrades rather quickly. I also want to make sure I'll be able to re-purchase it should I get blown up.

This game is amazing!

 

[little P]

Glad you're enjoying it chaps

Duke - it's all about scale, you've done really well there to be 40K up in one night!

tm - I was the same, too many times I'm supposed to be thinking about something else and I'm calculating how many more trade runs I'll need to do before I can afford the next upgrade lol

Once you get into it the game really grabs you, and it's so relaxing to boot eh.

You got into it at just the right time too, with wings just around the corner and a lot of the silly bugs already ironed out. Really from this point on it will just keep getting more content added. There aren't any major bugs or anything that I know of. Good things to come

EDIT: Always have a pen and notepad handy too if you don't already, I've got pages of info I've been noting down. I kind of like that about this game, there's not many games out there with which it's useful to do anymore and it beats alt-tabbing out to tap it into a .txt file

 

[ElektroVodka]

I reinstalled last night and got into the bounty hunting at nav beacons with Jeff and Triskalion, and i must say i enjoyed the combat very much.

In the few kills i got i netted about 60k in one night.
I went after some larger ships that had federal ships attacking it so it would focus on them while i had all the time in the world to circle around it and kill it.

I even bumped into Petr Whackov last night!