Finding friends is a like painite

[Walter]

My current assets are a smidgen over 1.9 billion, nearly 400 in walking around money and an assortment of ships.
Clipper, asp X, conda. Vette, cutter , Python etc etc.

In short I do OK;)

It's just like RL: after the first 10bn it's just numbers.

[Darr Valen]

T-6 (and higher) are good money makers for straight point A to point B trade routes.

I've managed find trades A-B-A that did about 125k so 250k back and forth. In a T6.

Took me bout 15 min. So that brings in 1 mil per hour. Not taking into account the regular interdictions

So I figured mining and waiting a bit for nice missions was the way to go. Though logging out no longer refreshes the missions as it did before.

Now with my T7 I never tried trading. Mining brings in a steady 3-5 mil a day. Can't get it any higher than that.

So forgot all about trading. Maybe I should park my Vulture for now and dust off the T7

The T7 is the first true start of the Bulk Traders. It's bulky, has terrible range, and isn't all that great.. but it does bulk trading well. IIRR, you want to keep a 2000-2500 cr/t loop going of some sort for that one. Certain ships have certain Credits per Ton bands that they fall into. Bulk traders stay quite a bit lower than smugglers and people doing the rare runs, but they're bulk traders. More lower Cr/T cargo for a higher payout.

That being said, use https://eddb.io/ or a similar type of program/webpage to try out some new routes, or to filter out things or places you don't want.

See I thought trading is not the best way to get money quick, and bounty hunting seemed more profitable. But then when I started mining and waited in dock for missions decided mining is the best way to get money.

I understand correctly trading is more profitable then I think? Or do you trade (cough) illegal stuff?

I think profitability is somewhat dependent on where you are in progression within the game. In my opinion (and others will certainly have different opinions) if you are flying something that carries less than 100 tons, straight A-B-A route trading is not very profitable. Smaller ships are more geared towards bounty hunting (which isn't as much of a money maker as it was before 2.1), long range smuggling (which can be quite profitable and exciting... and to answer your question, yes 'illegal stuff'), mining, or possibly rares trading which I haven't heard much about in recent months.

Winged bounty hunting can be a solid income source for a newer player. You split the profits with your experienced wingman who can do a lot of the heavy lifting. And yes.... I am volunteering my services to anyone who asks. Newer players tend to fair well at bounty hunting Community Goals, where they can be winged up in large groups most of the time and get fast kills.

A T-6 (and higher) are good money makers for straight point A to point B trade routes. A trade configured Python can make about $3-4mil per hour. A trade Conda will bring in $4.5-6mil per hour, and a Cutter brings home a lot of bacon at $10-12mil per hour.

I did several trade runs last week, and the routes that I've looked at (and used to use frequently pre-2.1) are still solid in our new 2.1 environment.

How are Surface to Station runs? I was doing a few of those in my Cutter before I hit Elite. It was quite a fun diversion, even if it added a minute or so to my flight times.

[Myrm]

I earn all my krona from exploration.

[Morgan Bateson]

A decent large pad trade route should net you at least $3k per ton of profit per loop. The routes that I tend to run are 3-4 hops, and around $3,500-4,000 per ton and take 12-15 minutes per loop.

From doing some quick math and using Coriolis, it looks like a T-7 should net about $2.4-3mil per hour. If you weren't getting that and want more detailed tips, feel free to PM me.

Bottom line.... if you enjoy mining then do it! The game shouldn't be about grinding credits. If you do that for too long it'll suck the fun right out of it. I've enjoyed mining in the past, but will admit that it's been a while. When I was mining, I found a few high-tech and Industrial systems nearby to sell to. After a few sessions your rep with the local factions goes up, and they'll offer you higher paying mining missions. I'd stop by 2 stations, cycle the board a bit and do whatever mining missions came up, then fly to the last (and highest profit per ton) station, hit the BB for a bit then sell the rest. Rinse and repeat.

If you are anywhere near Azrael and want to take your Vulture out for some pew pew, let me know. I'd be happy to wing up for some RES hunting.

I was actually thinking about moving towards Azrael. But I've been spending all my time up till now to get on the good side of the federation.

And was following up on the advice to rank up more quickly to befriend neighboring systems that are aligned to Federation.

But I don't think that would stay in the way to also get more on the good side of Mobius and hang out a bit there.

[JohnLuke]

How are Surface to Station runs? I was doing a few of those in my Cutter before I hit Elite. It was quite a fun diversion, even if it added a minute or so to my flight times.

To tell the truth, I hadn't looked at surface stations for A-B-A trade runs before. After a bit of poking around this morning, I found one that may well be worth testing. Thanks for the tip!

I was actually thinking about moving towards Azrael. But I've been spending all my time up till now to get on the good side of the federation.

And was following up on the advice to rank up more quickly to befriend neighboring systems that are aligned to Federation.

But I don't think that would stay in the way to also get more on the good side of Mobius and hang out a bit there.

It's good to be friendly /allied with both super powers. I was in Fed space for quite a while when I started playing E-D, but I found that after I moved over near Azrael (which was before OoM had a presence there), I found much more profitable trade runs, more plentiful RES sites, and more Mobius commanders to wing up with.

Empire space is where all of the cool kids hang out.

[Darr Valen]

How are Surface to Station runs? I was doing a few of those in my Cutter before I hit Elite. It was quite a fun diversion, even if it added a minute or so to my flight times.

To tell the truth, I hadn't looked at surface stations for A-B-A trade runs before. After a bit of poking around this morning, I found one that may well be worth testing. Thanks for the tip!

I was actually thinking about moving towards Azrael. But I've been spending all my time up till now to get on the good side of the federation.

And was following up on the advice to rank up more quickly to befriend neighboring systems that are aligned to Federation.

But I don't think that would stay in the way to also get more on the good side of Mobius and hang out a bit there.

It's good to be friendly /allied with both super powers. I was in Fed space for quite a while when I started playing E-D, but I found that after I moved over near Azrael (which was before OoM had a presence there), I found much more profitable trade runs, more plentiful RES sites, and more Mobius commanders to wing up with.

Empire space is where all of the cool kids hang out.

A: Empire Space is where it's at, because it's where the best profit exists. Once the Federation starts Slaving, I'm sure we'll see a shift. Besides, all hail the god king emperor and his anime princess daughter.

B: You really should. It adds an element of risk to the whole trip, considering you're in a space whale that has more mass than thrust, and the gravity of these worlds are not a consistent 1G. It requires you to use the piloting skills you've long worked to acquire, since every planet, every landing, every entry is different.

Plus, you get to have fun when some asshat tries upper-atmo interdicting, and doesn't realize the proverbial shitstorm they just dropped into, when, if you're like me and get bored of being a target, agree to allow them witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational battle station! space ship. Fire at will, CMDR NP, enjoy!

[TorTorden]

Just be careful with G's over 1.5 in most trading vessels.

Had to land on a 3.4G planet once to refuel my cutter and that got a little hinky...

[Darr Valen]

Just be careful with G's over 1.5 in most trading vessels.

Had to land on a 3.4G planet once to refuel my cutter and that got a little hinky...

I feel like the issue is the top end ships not really being equipped with adequate thrust for planetary landings. I hope this is *fixed* with the panther or we have the option to finally use cargo sloops stored onboard to drop cargo on planets. We know ship based fighters and such are coming.. would be a nice fix. I wouldn't mind parking my trade vessel in orbit, and doing 3-4 planetary landings with a Type-6 based craft or some such.

Would be a REALLY cool addition for the game.