Elite: Dangerous. I broke down.

[JudgeDredd]

And back in...thankfully where it kicked me out.

[Jarhead0331]

And back in...thankfully where it kicked me out.

Wow. How many beats did your heart skip?

[mikeck]

Kicked me too with $55k in vouchers. When I got back on, it showed i had lost them at first...but they reappeared a few minutes later. Phew

On another note, I have 230k in cash and my viper is worth about 520k. It's loaded with upgraded everything. I'm thinking of trading it in for a cobra. After the trade I should have about 350k. That should be enough to pimp my cobra right? I want food weapons, upgrades frame shift, large cargo, upgraded power, etc. I should be ok with 300k to spend right? (With 50k saved for insurance)

Also, how do turrets work? Do they automatically Fire on any guys showing up as red? I ask because sometimes a guy will show red because I took his bounty but I don't want to kill him

[SirAndrewD]

Yeah, I lost about a million and a half worth of rare goods in my hold for a few minutes.  They're back now. 

I was about to lose it. 

[Jarhead0331]

Kicked me too with $55k in vouchers. When I got back on, it showed i had lost them at first...but they reappeared a few minutes later. Phew

On another note, I have 230k in cash and my viper is worth about 520k. It's loaded with upgraded everything. I'm thinking of trading it in for a cobra. After the trade I should have about 350k. That should be enough to pimp my cobra right? I want food weapons, upgrades frame shift, large cargo, upgraded power, etc. I should be ok with 300k to spend right? (With 50k saved for insurance)

Also, how do turrets work? Do they automatically Fire on any guys showing up as red? I ask because sometimes a guy will show red because I took his bounty but I don't want to kill him

I am almost in EXACTLY the same position as you. I have a super upgraded Viper with about 200K in the bank and am looking to buy a Cobra.  Difference is, I am not going to sell my Viper...I love it far too much.  I just took down an Elite Anaconda for a 60,000 bounty and barely got a scratch.  It helped that it was a full on battle with Federal Security forces, but I used SirAndrew's advice and went for the power generator...worked like a charm. I fear nothing in space now.

[mikeck]

Hmm..I have never tried to target a specific subsystem. Will have to hot key that.

I was thinking about keeping my viper problem is I don't want to leave it in the station fly halfway across the galaxy and realize that I really want to be in my viper. I'm thinking it's easier to sell it investor beeping in my ship that if I want to fly Viper later I can always sell the cobra back

[Jarhead0331]

Hmm..I have never tried to target a specific subsystem. Will have to hot key that.

I was thinking about keeping my viper problem is I don't want to leave it in the station fly halfway across the galaxy and realize that I really want to be in my viper. I'm thinking it's easier to sell it investor beeping in my ship that if I want to fly Viper later I can always sell the cobra back

I'm a hoarder...I don't like getting rid of anything. Heck, I still have my Eagle in the garage.

My plan is to hang on to the Viper for dedicated murder and mayhem. I've never flown the Cobra, so while I know it is a dangerous target defensively, I'm not sure how good of an offensive striker it is. So, I would like to use the Cobra to get involved in serious medium range trading and resource gathering/mining. Hopefully it will be lucrative enough to serve as a springboard into an Anaconda or Python.  But, if I get bored of the mercantile grind, I'll still have my trustworthy Viper to fall back on for some assassination and bounty hunting. We'll see how it goes.

[undercovergeek]

your last post about bounty hunting and interdicting almost turned me away from honest trading, well, slave trading - i will do it one day, but i want to explore trading some more, promised myself a type 6 and then maybe an asp which is the nearest thing to an all rounder youll get

the beauty of the game is i can do that, and you can do what you wish too - still loving it

[Jarhead0331]

I can see how honest trading could be fun and very rewarding. It's why my next purchase is definitely going to be a larger ship with a substantial hold and lots of room for modules. However, bounty hunting is just too thrilling to give up altogether.

My usual habit was to take on quick courier missions for a few thousand credits and then look for wanted criminals while in transit to my destination. This would yield relatively modest steady income. However, I finally made it over to a resource extraction sight and the action is fierce, the pickings good and the rewards exceptional. I made about 90,000 credits in under an hour over there. Small battles are frequently raging between larger numbers of federal security ships and wanted criminals. It's great to intervene and snatch the often times generous bounties. If there is one nuisance with this approach it's that the battles are pretty wild and federal ships have on a few occasions flown into my line of fire causing me to gain an instant bounty and become a federal target. It's not that big of deal. It just requires me to eventually break off and head back to a station to pay off the small fine...usually 200 credits.

Anyway, if I stick to this zone, I'm pretty sure I'll have my cobra n a few hours of play.

[SirAndrewD]

Hmm..I have never tried to target a specific subsystem. Will have to hot key that.

I was thinking about keeping my viper problem is I don't want to leave it in the station fly halfway across the galaxy and realize that I really want to be in my viper. I'm thinking it's easier to sell it investor beeping in my ship that if I want to fly Viper later I can always sell the cobra back

I'm a hoarder...I don't like getting rid of anything. Heck, I still have my Eagle in the garage.

My plan is to hang on to the Viper for dedicated murder and mayhem. I've never flown the Cobra, so while I know it is a dangerous target defensively, I'm not sure how good of an offensive striker it is. So, I would like to use the Cobra to get involved in serious medium range trading and resource gathering/mining. Hopefully it will be lucrative enough to serve as a springboard into an Anaconda or Python.  But, if I get bored of the mercantile grind, I'll still have my trustworthy Viper to fall back on for some assassination and bounty hunting. We'll see how it goes.

This is exactly what I have done.  I have a Lakon Type 6, kitted out with a top FSD and 88 tons of haulage for money making.  I have a kitted to the nines Viper for killing.  Between the two ships I could get a decent kitted Asp, but I think I'll hold off on that a while. 

Having to take the night off as it is.  The earlier crash has adversely affected trading, and people are both losing and getting cargo duped in equal measure. It looks like something hugely bad went down server side, and I'm going to wait for them to fix it.  Don't want to get hosed in a rollback.

[Yskonyn]

If you go on a bounty Hunt how do you find the target?
Usually the mission tells you in which systems the target has been last seen, but then? Do you visit each Unidentified Signal Source, do you just cruise around in SC from planet to planet in a system scanning All ships you come across ?


.

[JudgeDredd]

If you go on a bounty Hunt how do you find the target?
Usually the mission tells you in which systems the target has been last seen, but then? Do you visit each Unidentified Signal Source, do you just cruise around in SC from planet to planet in a system scanning All ships you come across ?


.

That sounds like the process. Perhaps a better target scanner (one of those that show wanted targets) would be a good option. I've never done one partly because it seems so difficult (without additional kit?) but also because I don't have a kitted out bird yet.

[Jarhead0331]

If you go on a bounty Hunt how do you find the target?
Usually the mission tells you in which systems the target has been last seen, but then? Do you visit each Unidentified Signal Source, do you just cruise around in SC from planet to planet in a system scanning All ships you come across ?


.

My experience has been that you fly around in each of the named systems for awhile. Have your scanners interrogate everyone you come across and investigate unidentified signals wherever possible. Eventually, a ship will communicate with you and give you intel regarding news of where your target was last seen heading. Go there, fly around, look at the unidentified signals and boom. You'll find him.

THat being said, I've learned that those missions, at least the lucrative ones, are pretty dangerous, and not really worth all the tedium in tracking the target down.

I've had much more fun and overall success hunting random criminals in the resource extraction zones.

[jomni]

What's the best way to earn money as a newb?

[Jarhead0331]

What's the best way to earn money as a newb?

I think the consensus, as we have already discussed a few times, is to start with simple local courier missions. Transport goods from one station to another for 2,000 credits here, 3,000 credits there. This is different than trading. You do not have to buy the commodity. The customer supplies it and you just deliver it.  Think of UPS in space. After you make a few bucks, continue to look for those missions, but when in transit, start looking for wanted criminals and hunt them down. You can earn very reasonable bounties this way and before you know it, you'll be earning 15,000 to 20,000 on the average per run. Eventually, after you have earned enough to upgrade into a better ship with more advanced modules, head to a resource extraction zone and start aggressively hunting criminals. This will earn you steady and reasonable income. I'm earning between 50,000 to 100,000 credits per run now and I do not even look at the courier missions. My sole source of income at the moment is bounty hunting and I would consider myself reasonably wealthy. Not rich, but definitely successful. 

Alternatively, you can skip the bounty hunting and once you saved up some money, you can buy a larger transport ship and get into heavier trading.