Favourite activities, and why?

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

So, with all the different types of activity, what does everyone like playing?

 

Personally, I've gone with exploration. I love just checking out systems, I like flying towards nebulas and see them get bigger with each jump. I recently returned from my pilgrimage towards Sagittarius A*. While the journey was definitely its own reward, it was fun to see over eighty million credits added to my account as I sold pages and pages of info.

Spoiler

 

I've been flying with a Diamondback Explorer, the Dragonfly:

Spoiler

 

My current plan is that now I'm back in the bubble for the first time in months, to do some stuff around here so I can save up for an Anaconda (and then save up for its adjustments). Once I have the Anaconda ready, I'll make a second pilgrimage, to Jaques Station and Beagle Point.

 

Other activities I enjoy are trading, and ferrying passengers. I might just buy a cheaper but bigger ship and use that instead of my Diamondback. Perhaps I'll buy a Dolphin to do some good passenger missions (I'm friendly with the base faction where I sold my stellar info). I have a Hauler somewhere, that might be better than the Diamondback if I'm going trading (I'd have to check the Elite Dangerous wiki, don't know for sure).

 

I usually check for data transporting too. Doesn't require any space so I check if there's anything to be delivered near places where I'm already going because of other missions, or if there's a bunch of data deliveries to the same system.

 

I don't think I've ever done any mining beyond the tutorial. but I'll probably get to that eventually.

 

Edited March 6, 2018 by Cool Rick
data transporting

[BarneyBadAss]

Congratulations on making your journey to Sagittarius A! Nice looking DBX and pics of your extended vacation. You make it sound quite enjoyable and I hope to get their someday. Were you using an engineered FSD on your DBX?

 

I have been doing the exact opposite as you. I've been doing passenger missions from White Mines to Smeaton. You will want to upgrade to a Python (your DBX is fine until you have momey) and pack it with Economy Cabins. I even have a 2 person eco cab that gets around 5 mil per trip. Get your Rep up with White Mines and VIP missions. You can google search on White Mines and see what I'm talking about. The Smeaton run is LOOOONG. About 1,891,000'ls long, which is about 40 mins.

Yes, this was nerfed but I still make 50-100 mil per trip if you get lucky. This takes about 30 mins to board flip missions at White Mines, then 40 mins to run allllllll the way to Smeaton. I now have over 1.8 Billion.

It's a great way to earn money passively. I have yet to shoot a single person down or even have any weapons at all. You will want some heat sinks though to toss just before you enter Smeaton and run "Silent" engines if you are carrying "Illegal Passangers".  This makes things more exciting.

 

Edited March 8, 2018 by BarneyBadAss

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

18 hours ago, BarneyBadAss said:

Congratulations on making your journey to Sagittarius A! Nice looking DBX and pics of your extended vacation. You make it sound quite enjoyable and I hope to get their someday. Were you using an engineered FSD on your DBX?

 

Yeah, I have an engineered FSD. Going to look into engineering for the Anaconda once I have the funds.

 

18 hours ago, BarneyBadAss said:

I have been doing the exact opposite as you. I've been doing passenger missions from White Mines to Smeaton. You will want to upgrade to a Python (your DBX is fine until you have momey) and pack it with Economy Cabins. I even have a 2 person eco cab that gets around 5 mil per trip. Get your Rep up with White Mines and VIP missions. You can google search on White Mines and see what I'm talking about. The Smeaton run is LOOOONG. About 1,891,000'ls long, which is about 40 mins.

Yes, this was nerfed but I still make 50-100 mil per trip if you get lucky. This takes about 30 mins to board flip missions at White Mines, then 40 mins to run allllllll the way to Smeaton. I now have over 1.8 Billion.

It's a great way to earn money passively. I have yet to shoot a single person down or even have any weapons at all. You will want some heat sinks though to toss just before you enter Smeaton and run "Silent" engines if you are carrying "Illegal Passangers".  This makes things more exciting.

 

 

Wait what? Thanks for the tip, going to look into that. I'm thinking with around 160-180 million I'll have enough for a great Anaconda build, and my cartography data from my Sagittarius A* pilgrimage was worth 80 million so I'm about halfway there now. I want to find a quick and fun way to cross that 100 million gap because I really want to start my pilgrimage by first going to Jaques Station and then Beagle Point. If I return from that trip, I'll probably look into other stuff to do, like mining or something. Anaconda should be great for shipping goods and people as well.

 

I bought a Dolphin yesterday, for passenger shipping. The couple of trips I did took a long time for just a few million so I'm going to look into different options. Really want an optimised Anaconda as I doubt I can cross The Abyss in any way with my Diamondback.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

@BarneyBadAss I'm probably doing it wrong but I'm now making a Smeaton trip that will only net me 7 million.

 

Probably should install even more cabins but then again there didn't seem to be that many passengers willing to go to Smeaton anyway even after restarting the game.

 

Anyway 7 million is still nice, and a quicker way of getting money than the alternatives, and this way I can watch or listen to something on the side.

[BarneyBadAss]

Make sure you are allied with most of the fractions on White Mines. You don't have to worry about any other stations or pledging to a power. Just do some courier missions or Passanger missions. Once you get allied, you are offered VIP pass missions. The one with the crown. These guys don't like sharing. You know those types, right?  I have 7 Economy Passanger Cabins on my Python. 3 of then can hold up to 32 ppl. 2 are 16 ppl. Then I have one 8 person cabin. Last I have a cozy 2 person economy pass cabin. Now, that last cabin usually will bring 3-4 million.

 

The biggest VIP groups are around 16 ppl. If you get a good flip (changing your mode from Solo to Open) they can bring in around 20-25 million credits. On average I'm getting 70 to 90 million per trip for all the cabins combined.

 

Flying in style with your Dolphin is fine. Just remember that you can't land Large ships on outposts!

Edited March 9, 2018 by BarneyBadAss

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

3 hours ago, BarneyBadAss said:

Make sure you are allied with most of the fractions on White Mines. You don't have to worry about any other stations or pledging to a power. Just do some courier missions or Passanger missions. Once you get allied, you are offered VIP pass missions. The one with the crown. These guys don't like sharing. You know those types, right?  I have 7 Economy Passanger Cabins on my Python. 3 of then can hold up to 32 ppl. 2 are 16 ppl. Then I have one 8 person cabin. Last I have a cozy 2 person economy pass cabin. Now, that last cabin usually will bring 3-4 million.

 

The biggest VIP groups are around 16 ppl. If you get a good flip (changing your mode from Solo to Open) they can bring in around 20-25 million credits. On average I'm getting 70 to 90 million per trip for all the cabins combined.

 

Cool, thanks. Yeah I sold the cartography data I had racked up in the past few days (just over a million in credits) to immediately get cordial (heh) with the leading faction. I'll make sure to do some extra stuff so I find more. I switched from solo to public to find the ones I shipped now.

 

I got interdicted right before the end planet by the way, luckily I'm good at following escape vectors.

 

So those VIPs still accept economy seats? I ended my game at Smeaton yesterday and I've started shipping some cabins I had in storage, to put them in instead of the cargo space I had.

 

3 hours ago, BarneyBadAss said:

Flying in style with your Dolphin is fine. Just remember that you can't land Large ships on outposts!

 

Thanks for the tip but the Dolphin is a small ship; the Belugia is the large one. Luckily Jaques Station can handle large ships, makes it easier to do the pilgrimage with the Anaconda.

 

Too bat Whit Mines doesn't have a large landing pad, being an outpost, or I'd buy a Belugia now and sell it once I had enough extra credits.

[BarneyBadAss]

Exploring is awesome and easy way to make money. You have definitely go that down.  Great job.

 

INTERDICTIONS! Yes, they will happen from time to time. Especially if your carrying a VIP that's wanted. The interdictions will decrease as you rank up in Rep. 

 

LTT 4955, O'leary Station has just about every upgrade you need, if you want to cruz around. I just ditched my cargo bay since you don't really need it. I'm running shieldless too. The 3.0 update eliminated the need for that cargo bay.

Edited March 9, 2018 by BarneyBadAss

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

What exactly changed in 3 that the cargo bay is not needed?

 

Edit: Shitzu, I opened the game and Smeaton is now on lockdown, so I can't install the passenger cabins. Off to check if I can find one close by not on lockdown, I guess.

 

Edit: oh wow, guess O'Leary is close by for that too, and very close to the jumping point.

Edited March 9, 2018 by Cool Rick

[BarneyBadAss]

Damn lockdowns. Same thing happened to me when I started doing Passanger runs. I think in 2.4 some of the Passanger missions gave you commodities as part of your reward. You couldn't claim them if you didn't have the space. Now you can choose.

 

I've seen some Business Class Passangers wanting to go to Colonia for 50 million at White Mines. They give you 3W 6D 23.99hrs to complete it. If you could stack those, that would be nice for you. I have no idea how long it would take. You are waaay more experienced at exploration than me. Is it worth the time?

 

P.S. You can still run from White Mines to Smeaton. Just not the other way around. I now have 9 eco pass cabins. All of them full except the 2 person. I will make 120 million on this trip. If they only knew I had no shields, poor bastards.

 

 

Edited March 9, 2018 by BarneyBadAss

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

1 hour ago, BarneyBadAss said:

Damn lockdowns. Same thing happened to me when I started doing Passanger runs. I think in 2.4 some of the Passanger missions gave you commodities as part of your reward. You couldn't claim them if you didn't have the space. Now you can choose.

 

Ah yeah, that's true.

 

1 hour ago, BarneyBadAss said:

 

I've seen some Business Class Passangers wanting to go to Colonia for 50 million at White Mines. They give you 3W 6D 23.99hrs to complete it. If you could stack those, that would be nice for you. I have no idea how long it would take. You are waaay more experienced at exploration than me. Is it worth the time?

 

Personally, I'd offer them passage in a heartbeat - Colonia is where Jaques Station is these days (don't know if you know the station but it can travel).

 

You'll be gone a while though, Colonia to and back should be at least fifteen hours of game time, possibly more. My last stretch back from Sagittarius A* was almost only jumping/scooping and it took me around seven hours, for about 400 jumps. That's why I'm now saving up for an Anaconda, it'll really save time when exploring (and an Anaconda should be good for most other activities, too).

 

If you want to make it worth your while, there's often scientists who want to go to Sagittarius A* and back, those are worth upwards of 120M credits. I thought Sagittarius A* was really cool. There's also a trophy for travelling that far (there isn't one for Beagle Point, I really just like exploring).

 

1 hour ago, BarneyBadAss said:

P.S. You can still run from White Mines to Smeaton. Just not the other way around. I now have 9 eco pass cabins. All of them full except the 2 person. I will make 120 million on this trip. If they only knew I had no shields, poor bastards.

 

 

 

You can also run the other way around, but nobody in Smeaton wants to go to White Mines with lockdowns, you can still do passenger boards and missions, just not trading, outfitting and stuff.

 

I'll be making around 25M on the run I just started. Bought a Python today so I had more space. My first run today (on my second one now) gave me around 15M, but I failed one of them because they were too unhappy after being scanned and me crashing into the bay doors of Smeaton - not used to a craft this big yet. Immediately after, when leaving Smeaton, I crashed into the wall and blew up. I now realise that with a Python, I really should enter/leave at the same angle as the opening. That sort of thing doesn't matter with a Diamondback.

 

Anyway biggest hitter last run was 6M, this time I've got one who offers 11.5M so I guess I'm getting a better reputation and can get the big bucks soon. Couple more runs and I can get my Anaconda, then it's first delivering stuff for the new community missions and I'll be off to Jaques Station.

[BarneyBadAss]

15 hrs back and forth. Wow. When you get to Sag A, can you kill yourself and spawn at a different station? It sounds like a cool place to go and die!

Beagle's looks like a nice run if your crazy. I can't believe they dont have a trophy for that.

How are you going to outfit your Conda for Jacques? I assume you want some srv's, too?  

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

41 minutes ago, BarneyBadAss said:

15 hrs back and forth. Wow. When you get to Sag A, can you kill yourself and spawn at a different station? It sounds like a cool place to go and die!

 

Problem with dying is, you'd lose all your scan data. So you might not want to do that, especially if you have those scientists on board.

 

41 minutes ago, BarneyBadAss said:

Beagle's looks like a nice run if your crazy. I can't believe they dont have a trophy for that.

How are you going to outfit your Conda for Jacques? I assume you want some srv's, too?  

 

Beagle Point is only important because the community made it important - one explorer was trying to get as far as possible. These days, with the engineering you can get a bit farther, but Beagle Point (a renamed planet; the explorer named it after his ship, which he had called Beagle) remains an important goal for explorers.

 

I wouldn't want SRVs because I don't want to ride on planets; I wish to scan a lot and get far quickly so I'll take system and planet scanners, an engineered FSD, an auto-repair unit or two, heat ejectors and other than that I'll keep the ship as light as possible so I can jump as far as I can, ensuring I'll need dozens if not hundreds of jumps less. Nobody out there so I don't need weapons, shields or whatever.

 

If I sell back my Python I can now get the Anaconda and have 10M to spare, so thanks for the tips. I'll do one more Smeaton run since I just got a few 'friendly' upgrades, let's see if I can smack it out of the park.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Alright, so my Anaconda, pre-engineering:

 

Core: everything on D, except Frame Shift which is A. Downgraded power distributor to 1D, don't need one when I'm exploring.

 

Optional:

6B fuel scoop (have not enough money for higher or I'd get 7A)

2x AFMS, one 5D and one 2B

4G planetary vehicle hangar with 2 SRVs (yeah, okay, it doesn't matter that much for jump distance)

4D shield generator just to be safe

Detailed surface scanner

Advanced discovery scanner

5D hull reinforcement

... And four fuel tanks, totalling for 320T extra capacity from 32T.

 

Now, to find that engineer that can overclock my FSD...

 

Current jump max is 36,23 LY by the way. Should do for Beagle Point even without engineering so everything I do now is just a bonus.

 

Also going to make it a bit prettier.

[BarneyBadAss]

Your Conda sounds awesome! Nice jump rang. You're going to have a lot of fun. I'll definitely use this as a guide. So your jump range should almost double when engineered? Glad to see the Srv's on there. You'll be able to stretch your legs and take some more awesome pictures! 

 

I read all the lore about Beagle's. Did you use a certain guide to plot your way? It sounds like you're on your way to go completely around the Milky Way! You are going to be a Fuel Rats worst nightmare ! (jk). 

Edited March 10, 2018 by BarneyBadAss

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Damn, mining is booooring...

 

I find the whole engineering thing to be tedious as you can not just buy the damn components. I had enough data and machine bits to trade for the stuff I actually needed but I'm just not getting any of the useful raw materials.

 

I did enough to do two out of five full FSD upgrades so I'm at around 43-44LY per jump now (I removed some of those fuel tanks by the way, they were horrible on my jump range, only left one extra), but the last few hours of mining have been a bust. Seeing as there seem to be routes to Beagle Point for only 33-36LY jumps, I should be fine as long as I keep it cool.

 

Going to get the rewards from last week's community mission, and then it's off to Colonia.

 

1 hour ago, BarneyBadAss said:

Your Conda sounds awesome! Nice jump rang. You're going to have a lot of fun. I'll definitely use this as a guide. So your jump range should almost double when engineered? Glad to see the Srv's on there. You'll be able to stretch your legs and take some more awesome pictures! 

 

Yeah fully optimised it should get around 60LY but I'm beginning to doubt it's worth the hassle. It'll take loads of unrelated engineering before I unlock the final FSD upgrades and I don't have the patience for all that mining. 

 

Those first explorers managed on 30LY, so I don't see why I should snooze for a dozen hours in mining if I can just get going.

 

And yeah I'll definitely take pictures!

 

1 hour ago, BarneyBadAss said:

I read all the lore about Beagle's. Did you use a certain guide to plot your way? It sounds like you're on your way to go completely around the Milky Way! You are going to be a Fuel Rats worst nightmare ! (jk). 

 

Haven't used a guide yet, first I'm going to Colonia and then I'll see if I can plot something on my own. Depending on the state of my ship when I'm around Beagle Point, I'll either go back to Colonia or the other way around, clockwise back to the bubble.

[Oobedoob S Benubi]

Here we go....

 

 

 

[BarneyBadAss]

Mining is very tedious! I agree .

I have only unlocked the first 2 engineers. If I can get Conda to do 60ly I'd be happy.

 

 God Speed Commander!  o7