Elite Questions for "uber" Elite players

[JudgeDredd]

Ok, so I wanted to go and try and give Elite another try having given up some time ago losing money hand over fist and watching others report lucrative profits.

It was me. I didn't get the game. Fine. Cool. I'll take that.

So what I need to know, if I point out specifics, is why I'm not getting the game. Why are things not making any sense to me. I don't need things spoon fed to me - but I do expect the game to provide some assistance. If I'm missing what the game is telling me, then I would be greatly appreciate (again given specific situations) what it is I'm missing that is apparently clear for others to see - and not me.

So - my first load today for months resulted in me at the last dock I was at Killouch Port in the V22 13 OPHIUCHII system. Ok. So lets look at what missions are available.

Given my very ridiculously low reputation (I actually think it's lower than when I first started the game!) I'm presented with 3 missions I can take part in.

• Shadow Deliveries for 43,168 Credits
  On this one, I have to deliver 3 slaves to Andrade Dock Station which is in the system I am currently in...handy
  It points out slaves are illegal in both Killough Port and Andrade and the mission will fail if the ship is scanned and I have 2hours and 7 minutes to complete the mission.
• Painite Urgently Needed at Killough Port for 122,769 Credits
  Here I have to pick up 1 tonne of Painite and bring it to Killough Port to receive this handsome reward and I have 15 hours and 32 minutes to complete it
• Fund the Victory of Unionists
  For this, I have to pay 8,000 credits to the unionists to fund their cause

So to the dilemma. The first obvious thing is the time on the first mission. It's unlikely I am going to get 3 slaves and run in Silent mode to avoid being scanned in order to get those slaves successfully to Andrade Station.

The second mission is massively lucrative and looks like a no brainer given 15 hours to complete. But here's where everything falls apart for me.

I have absolutely no idea where to get slaves or Painite and the galaxy map is of no help at all.

For the Slave Mission
I get that it may not show slaves as they are a black market commodity. Even so - how do you find this out? By going to ports, one by one, and finding where slaves are sold on the black market? If that's the case, that is where I often run out of time or fuel or both and end up in the predicament I often found myself - frustrated, dead and with a new Sidewinder. But is that seriously the way you do that? Also - how do you avoid scanning? All ports will scan as will authorities around ports and any you find on route. Can you actually avoid scanning by running silent? If now, how do you avoid scanning?

For the Painite Mission
It's a mineral and is listed under minerals in the Commodity Market of Killough Port...and yet it's not showing on the galaxy map as a selectable item. So - again - I have no idea where in the hell I am going to pick up Painite.


I'm not just crying here for no reason. I have done missions like this, and for considerably les money, and travelled huge distances to try and find the product I want. Thi9s often resulted in me obviously going through systems that are uncharted and as such I have no information on them...and an awful lot of times I found myself at a system maybe 3 or 4 systems away from the last place I discovered a station providing fuel...and wondering if I should use my remaining fuel to go back and fuel up or continue another few systems in the hope of finding a station. Sometimes I would choose to go back, and sometimes that resulted in me not having enough fuel to go back anyway and other times I choose to continue - only to find the next 3 or 4 systems (or however many) didn't have stations and I ran out of fuel anyway.

So my biggest issue seemed to be and - with this current fire up - still is finding the things I need in order to complete the missions presented. I now have a ridiculous fear (a real one as I often encountered it) of being stranded in space and having to start again.

There. No bitching about how the game sucks balls. No crying about why the game isn't playing fair. No moaning about the game cheating. Just - wtf are you actually meant to do given those two missions.

If any of you interstellar capitalists can point out how I'm meant to proceed given those two missions, I'd be extremely grateful.  O0

[Pete Dero]

Slave mission :  i think you get the slaves from the persons who gave you the mission.
I guess you do not use silent running (it will still get you scanned) but you should boost yourself into the station to avoid getting scanned.

Check out how ObsidianAnt does it :

Painite : Painite is a mineral that can be mined in a few Asteroid Rings (Pristine metallic rings).  I don't think you can buy it anywhere so you have to mine it yourself or pirate it from miners.

[JudgeDredd]

Thanks Pete

I'll have a look at some of his other videos too. 5.5m cr for a mission LMFAO! I wish.

[undercovergeek]

i have no idea what hell hole of a system youre in but according to the traders tool there is no painite within 150 light years of your location

[Pete Dero]

i have no idea what hell hole of a system youre in but according to the traders tool there is no painite within 150 light years of your location

There probably is no painite for sale in the whole universe.
You have to mine it yourself if you want some, but it seems a very lucratif activity.

Off topic : how long does it take on your system to get into the galaxy and system maps ?  What took a second a year ago now can take 10 or more seconds.

[JudgeDredd]

Well the Painite mission was gone anyway. So I took a Staying Power one where I had to keep a hold of a consignment. Simple enough. It just meant I had to stay out of interdiction.

So I did, 6 times on my way to RontGen Station. Got there, nothing. No instructions and then the mission was updated with 12 minutes to go....Target was BiggZ and location was Space. So I headed out and searched everywhere and every ship I came into contact with (scanning them) and not one was BiggZ.

Mission Failed.  ::)

[JudgeDredd]

i have no idea what hell hole of a system youre in but according to the traders tool there is no painite within 150 light years of your location

I went exploring ages and ages ago. Left the "home base" I was "created" at and got lost along the way.

The System and Galaxy maps don't take long to load for me at all Pete

[SirAndrewD]

I don't take these smuggling missions that often, but when I do there are a couple of things that make them easier for me. 

First and most importantly, I make sure to always take a mission that wants me to smuggle goods to an outpost, not a station.  Outposts are low security and won't scan you coming or going, this makes things much much more simple. 

If you want to refresh the missions, you can swap back and forth from open and solo.  Each time you do, the missions offered will reset, giving you a better chance of finding something that is doable.  This is not considered an exploit.

Try also to take missions that only fail on ship destruction, not scan.  I have found that there is a high chance of an NPC spawning to interdict you once you jump to the target system.  If you can't evade the interdiction, you will get scanned and if it's a fail on scan, you're done. 

If you can make the trip to the deep fringe, like Sirius Reach, you can stack large numbers of these types of missions paying sometimes as much as a million plus per delivery.  These missions will also be legal hauler missions rather than smuggling.  It's a high risk trip though, lots of chances to run out of fuel and it takes hours to get there and then fly back, but if you've got the ship for it, you can make tens of millions in a day's run.

These missions are best run in Cobras, Asps or Pythons since they offer a good mix of cargo, escapability, combat capability and ability to land on outposts.  Never run these in huge ships or haulers as you'll be stuck to the large landing pad stations.

[TacticalWargames]

I found just traveling convultued and still cna't work it out..I always seem to overshoot or overheat or somesuch.

[SirAndrewD]

I found just traveling convultued and still cna't work it out..I always seem to overshoot or overheat or somesuch.

In supercruise keep your throttle in the blue zone on the right throttle indicator.  If you're in the middle or low middle of the blue zone, your speed will automatically reduce and you won't overshoot. 

As for overheating, whenever I jump I always kill my throttle when the countdown starts.  That way I'm not nosediving into a star when I come out of hyperspace.

[bob48]

This is a useful site;

https://eddb.io/

[JudgeDredd]

Thank you all.
Due to the 2 hours wasted on 2 missions where the targets I was meant to rendezvous with never showed, I went and did some modelling (Sea Harrier - not underwear!) 

[Yskonyn]

The rendezvous missions have random timers. On top of that the time given to rendezvous is usually the time AFTER which the contact will be able to show up. Not the time you have left to find him.

I once had a 20m timer and only after about 30 minutes the NPC I needed contacted me. So they are weird and require patience.

Panite isn't called 'pain'-ite for nothing; you have to find astroids that contains it and finding those is a pain. ;)

There is no shortcut to Elite. It is a grindy game whichever route you take. Perhaps that's why it doesn't click.
Its just reality that you spend a lot of time in game and often have a feeling you only achieved little.

If you hook up with others they might want to jettison some cargo you can pick up and turn in for some quick cash. Once you're in a Cobra and above cash will be much easier to come by. For example, kit a Cobra Mk3 or a Viper Mk4 for combat and go into RES (Resource Extraction Sites). Scan wanted ships with a Kill Warrant Scanner to get the biggest bounty you can for the ship and start hunting.
On good sites (and with a small wing) you can easily make 600k an hour.

[JudgeDredd]

Thank you Yskonyn...but I actually got a mission failed on both. I noticed the timer difference "thing" - but I was flying about for a considerable amount of time (in both missions) and not only did I not notice anyone called whatever they were called but no-one contacted me either.

I scanned a shed load of ships on both missions (as I assumed I had to find the person).

Both timed out with Mission Failed.

I guessed the Painite was going to be troublesome to get (because of the amount of money I was getting). The interface was the issue though. It is listed under Minerals in the "Commodities" list for the station, but it's not listed as a mineral in the galaxy map. That's fine, now I know it's something you mine - but nothing in the briefing mentioned mining. Even if the briefing had said "blah, blah, blah and to collect your money, mine 1 tonne of Painite"...I would've known then to mine the stuff (though I wouldn't have accepted it as I got rid of my mining gear (it removes guns iirc from your sidewinder leaving you defenceless).

Anyway - no worries. I am almost finished my Harrier now ;)

[jomni]

Thank you Yskonyn...but I actually got a mission failed on both. I noticed the timer difference "thing" - but I was flying about for a considerable amount of time (in both missions) and not only did I not notice anyone called whatever they were called but no-one contacted me either.

Did you actively seek out all unknown signal sources?  This is how I found the person.