MegaSack DRAW - This year's winner is user - rgwb
We will be in touch
Just don't do what I've just done, happily making my way back from a 900Ly each way trip, landed on a planet to collect some elements from biological signals. Decided to move to a second site, so in the middle of a cruise round the planet, I get asked to help fold some sheets.
No problem, it's a 5 min cruise. Next thing I know I'm on the rebuy shelling out half a million. I can't even think about the scan data. Bourbon is helping!
Matt
Well ****. Everything I do, the controller buzzes. Launch the ship? Buzz. Collect a mining fragment? Buzz. Drive the SRV? Bloody thing never stops.
Not watching the screen and we fly into the sun? Not a ****ing peep. Pissed off.
Still, as Maximo Park say, what happens when we lose everything? We just start again. 🙂
That's the spirit!
On the plus side I seem to have been promoted by the Feds! The Empire have the coolest ships, but in a Mitchell and Webb way, you can't help feeling they're the bad guys.
Matt
The are the bad guys but they bought my principles along with the spoils of my first successful mining trip. I only found two decent roids, one with alexandrite in the void opal hotspot and one with void opals in the alexandrite hotspot. Both were deep cores.
I didn't find any subsurface deposits. And I couldn't find any clues as to where the deep cores were, it just seemed random.
900ly?
Balls, my current flounce is 3700 odd just to get to the dogleg, probably that again to get to the nebula! Only 130odd jumps I think, not checked the route for fuel stops so may end up more.
That's kind of my plan next time. The first two trips were just looping out scanning as many planets as possible.
The next trips are going to be with a target in mind.
Matt
I’m on the Road to Riches trip at the moment. I thought I was close to Elite in exploration but I still had another level to go. Hopefully this will take me there.
Using this
Road to Riches
As I lost all my explorer data, I might do that next. 🙂
Has anyone done that huge passenger mission where some guy pays 135mCr to be take to the other side of the galaxy?
Cor - no, but I'd be happy to see that pop up! 🙂 Saw a few 30mCr ones but didn't take them on as they were over 20k Ly and a route couldn't be plotted - I'd take one now, though. 🙂
It was literally the other side of the galaxy. 22kLy.
I see them pop up and think it would be good to do one, but I'm a whore for the credits at the moment and I can make 100m an hour or so mining. I think once I've a billion in the bank I'll go for an explore
After my exploring train wreck I jumped in the Cobra and became Matt, wandering space adventurer, roaming around the bubble seeing what I could find.
The Cobra is fitted with all the scanners, decent guns (now) and an SRV so ready for anything. I think when people talk about the grind they have missed this part of the game. Just mooching I found so much, High grade emissions, a barnacle, class 5 raws, loads of data and telemetry. I'm off home to play miner this evening, but popping in to see an engineer on the way.
Showing my age, but I can't help thinking; Felicity, Felicity you fill me with electricity, every time I see Farseer Inc.
Matt
I’ve done quite a few passenger sightseeing missions that involved 90-100 20ly jumps each way but I did them over a number of weeks. The big ones usually have a 4 week time limit. They’re not massive payers but the money comes from scanning every system visited and in some places I had first discoveries.
To be honest I didn’t start doing this kind of mission until I had enough credits in my account that I wasn’t worried about the rate of earning. It is a slow way to earn credits, for sure.
Just made 6m on LTDs in about 45 mins.
You people making 100m an hour, are you going to the triple hotspots that people are telling you about, or are you finding things on your own? Just want to know how crap I am 🙂
Triple hotspot for me.
It's one of those things where the speed does improve over time. You can optimise the scanning, rock recognition, collection etc.
If you are deep core mining, you will never get to that 100-150 million per hour, it is just slower. For surface the triple hotspot increases the number of high percentage rocks, to the point that you can pass anything with less than 20% LTD.
Matt
Surface mining Triple hotspots in an Anaconda. Can fill 100t easy in an hour with 5A limpet controllers and 2A refinery. I get bored before I can fill the up. Think it’s got 192t cargo capacity at the mo. I’m Only picking up LTD. I discard everything else
Do you just fire prospector limpets at anything for surface mining? Or do you still use the PWA?
I've fired loads of limpets at orange roids and most of the time it's nothing but low value stuff. Even in the supposed 'hotspots', but then I'm only in single hotspots.
I’m Only picking up LTD. I discard everything else
Seems to be quite a few other minerals worth as much or more than LTDs...?
Wow, nearly got ganked by an NPC!
I was just heading towards Deciat (about 5-6 jumps out) when I see some smack talk in chat. Usually it's just pirate stuff so I didn't pay attention and just submitted straight away when the interdiction came, ready to give chase when they see I have no cargo. Not this time, he came out all guns blazing and in no time my shields were gone and hull was 66%. I got my pips to shields and boosted/high waked out of there by the skin of my teeth. Never come across such an aggressive NPC before.
Just landed at Deciat, to give Felicity her courtship gift, won't donate, funny. Check inventory, 2t of meta-alloys nowhere to be seen, cargo hatch errors when I was being attacked, you bastard! 13 jumps back to Hyades sector! Frustrating this game sometimes.
Matt
@molgrips the PWA is just for cores. I find that for surface, the oranges which are not cores (if that makes sense) actually give lower surface returns than random rocks.
For surface, fire prospectors at rocks which you could mine easily, round and/or slow spinning, then choose the ones with the best content. You have to be generous with the prospectors, fill your hold. In contrast core, you will only prospect actual or very likely targets, which you have ID by shape and PWA
In the triple hotspot there are loads of high percentage rocks.
Matt
“Do you just fire prospector limpets at anything for surface mining? Or do you still use the PWA”
Nah I just turn up with 200 limpets and fire them at anything. I’ll set one of the hotspots as a target so I know my orientation so I’m not going over stuff twice. Then fire prospectors until mine anything over 20%
”Seems to be quite a few other minerals worth as much or more than LTDs”
I’ve found there’s places you can sell LTD for over 1m a ton within 10 jumps of Borann, so I just concentrate on LTD. Not really looked at anything ekse
Plus I have a 6A shield generator and military hull reinforcement. So if I get interdicted I submit. There’s very few ships that can mass lock mine so I stick the pips on the shields and jump away
Most of the time...
I think ultimate price there isn't anything better than LTD, especially due to the triple hotspot. Other things are worth mining, but if you want to maximise cash LTD in Borann, well until the next release.
Matt
I’ve found there’s places you can sell LTD for over 1m a ton within 10 jumps of Borann
Took mine to the Osanartar System, the Kuchemann Installation were buying slightly higher but cant dock their so had to go the planetary one at Shirley Depot which was buying slightly cheaper.
Just made 153 million doing, took me a while to get used to mining again but at least now I can buy a bigger ship but still not sure whether to go full combat or continue mining.
Well I'm halfway to the dogleg which appears to be equidistant between Barnards and the bubble. Got a couple of WW discoveries and DSS, few unique systems scanned. Enjoying the calm.
Mining the hard way still - trying to find my own stuff, but it's not that easy! Still about 6-10m/hour.
Also just discovered the remote play client for Mac, I can sit here and play whilst my Mrs is watching telly 🙂
Sneaky.
After four 300+ Ly trips I finally dropped the meta alloys off at Felicity's place. I got pulled by the same NPC (I think) in Trianguli sector and interdicted by a cmdr in an Anaconda at Deciat. I was waiting for it and followed my plan, four pips to shields (two to engines), boost as often as possible, while charging for a high wake to another system. Lost 2% hull.
Felicity has tweaked the ship so it's only three jumps home! Get back tomorrow for some mining I think, I fancy a Krait Phantom as my new exploration ship.
If anyone needs them I have 3 units of meta alloys which I haven't used.
Matt
Hello. Longtime listener, first time caller. Do i need to purchase(should i purchase) the commander pack and/or the horizons season pass?
Thanks in advance.
Horizons I think is worth having (gives access to engineers, planetary access, your first ship gets a docking computer and supercruise assist) - it was a game changer (pardon the pun) for me when I had my first flounce because I found it all a bit tricky. Started again with Horizons activated, and found it loads better. 🙂 Don't know what the commander pack is - but I'll look into it! 🙂
Minxed the Asp again last night - drinking and flying don't mix. 🙁
Edit: The commander pack just looks like paint jobs for a handful of ships, I wouldn't get too excited about that. 🙂
I'm gradually working my way through the Engineers.
So far I've unlocked Grade 5 mods for FSD, Thrusters, Power Disti, Hull Armour, Multicannons and Grade 4 for Power Plant. I'm close to unlocking the Grade 5 Shields guy and then I need to unlock Missiles lady (which I don't really use) so I can unlock Laser guy.
The idea is that once I have them unlocked and up to G5 I can pin the blueprint I need so I don't have to visit them again. The only flaw is you need to visit the engineer to apply experimental effects.
I use my AspX to gather up encoded and raw materials - I've now got a 67ly jump range I'm pretty much 3 jumps from anywhere in the bubble. I wonder if I can get it past 70!
I bought a Fer-De-Lance but to be honest I don't really like it. It turns like a dog compared to my Cheiftain and this is with A-rated everything.
I might try a dedicated anti-ganking build next for a laugh.
If I get rich enough I'll make an anti-ganker build and we could wing up vigilante style.
@Richmtb I think you can get the AspX over seventy, just but you will need to sacrifice modules or G5 lightweight a lot of stuff. For exploring you may not need to compromise too much. Let us know how you go on.
In true Singletrack style, building ships is one of my favourite things, so I'm upgrading the AspX to a Krait Phantom (I think they have niche value as well!). I only have the one engineer (Felicity), but I had done plenty of 'finding stuff' so I had enough materials to spam her up to level 3 without leaving the station.
Matt
I just run 'anti-gank' on all my ships now (I've even sacrificed some jump range on the AspX), basically a decent shield, hull strengthening and 1 shield booster.
I'm not going to be in a position to fight, but I am going to get away, even from cmdr El_Vile who was camped at Deciat yesterday.
Matt
I've read a few ideas about dedicated anti-ganking ships.
I've resigned myself to the fact I'm not good enough to go toe-to-toe with determined gankers so instead you try and spoil their fun and tie them up for a while.
The idea is you build something really fast but unarmed in an unlikely ship. The Orca seems popular.
Fly in open and get interdicted. Submit and then boost away - nothing will catch you because your engeered Orca can boost at well over 600!
Now loop round and interdict the guy who just tried to gank you. If they submit just boost away and repeat until they give up chasing your uncatchable ship and leave the system!
Nice! 🙂
I’ve read a few ideas about dedicated anti-ganking ships.
I read that the best strategy is having a ship that is as fast as possible and as heavy as possible, with as many shields as possible.
The gankers are expecting you to run or shoot. No one expects you to ram them.
Mass + speed = victory.
Disclaimer: Not actually played the game but done a bit of internet reading based on my curiosity being piqued by this thread. Can't actually decide if i'd love it or hate it yet.
I think there's fun to be had with Rich's method, though I think once you have escaped once they may not bother to interdict you a second time. Plenty of fun pulling them out of supercruise though.
If you look at the guys who are well known and were at the the top of the distant ganks leaderboard, like Harry Potter and Cpt Pelley, their ships are only going to get damaged by the same kind of build. They have no other use in the game really. Saying that, I actually think Distant Ganks was good 'role-playing' (plus the stats/final report were kind of cool). With any grand expansion/exploration there would be other groups wanting to take advantage/rob/steal/kill the participants, so to me it made sense.
I carry on in open treating players like those as NPCs of psychotic murderers. However they justify it there is no 'gameplay', because it is totally one-sided and there is no player interaction. We either run or get blown up. Actually fighting in their style, massively engineered ships, constantly jousting and ramming each other, does nothing for me, so I am unlikely to go down that road.
Just keep a lookout for those hollow symbols on the scanners!
Matt
If you are camping in Deciat waiting to kill people going to see Farseer, then you are just an arsehole.
Most people in Deciat will be visiting their first engineer - probably trying to get increased Jump Range for their AspX or similar. So rocking up in an engineered FDL or Chieftain and blowing them up isn't really sport.
So winding them up with an anti-ganking build seems like fair game.
If you are wanting to PvP in Shintara Dehzra then fair enough - its a permit locked system for players with a least 1 Elite rank - that's not killing noobs who don't know any better.
Well I am not finding mining satisfying.
Found three cores so far with LTDs, but nothing else. Spent an couple of hours last night and found 6t of sub surface deposits (figured how to work the sub surface displacement missiles), then paused the game and when I came back pirates turned up and killed me cos I already had the diamonds. It appears that the first time you enter a ring *in a session* it spawns the pirates.
Flew around quite a lot looking for double or triple hotspots, found nothing. I also don't seem to be able to get anything valuable out of hotspots other than LTD or VO. Stuff like Benitoite doesn't appear to actually be in the places where the DSS claims it is.
Where are you? Go to Borann and hit the LTD triple hotspot at Borann A2
I haven't heard much good about the sub-surface missile system, I don't think it's widely used.
Kato's right go to A2 in Borann. I'm there at the minute, dodging an elite Asp scout i have pissed off.
Matt
I'm there too...
And now elite.
😲
Gratz! 🙂
Congrats, exploring, trading or combat?
Jameson Memorial it is then!
Matt
Where are you? Go to Borann and hit the LTD triple hotspot at Borann A2
I know that's there. I kind of wanted to find my own stuff, but frustration got the better of me. I went there last night ready to mine.
I haven’t heard much good about the sub-surface missile system
It was good for me, the issue is finding enough sub-surface hotspots. What frustrates me about this sub-game is that there are too many false signals. The PWA is nearly useless, because it picks out anything with any minerals in it at all, and given the disparity in price between the cheap and expensive stuff the cheap stuff is utterly useless.
You should be able to tune the PWA to look for something specific. Then you'd get far fewer signals from it, but flying around pinging would be a lot easier to deal with than farting about with prospector limpets of which you have a limited supply.
I feel like I'm cheating a bit by mining there, but I want to have enough money to enjoy a long explore and it's a quick way to get trading Elite.
Once I've both of these, I'll leave it alone. Or until they nerf it at the next update!
Trading elite - easiest way.
Sub surface is the worst of both worlds, slow to do and not the rewards of core.
The triple spot is the best place to exclusively surface mine something quite valuable - all about flat out speed, normal surface mining isn't great. Remember that triple spot is mental, before that it was double spot painite that was the gold rush.
Core is the slowest (until you recognise the shapes) but gives a massive reward when done - generally a minimum of 10 tons of v valuable minerals.
I set up for core and surface. Fill the ship up with 80 Percent limpets as they are cheap and scoop up anything worth over 10k each in a refinery with loads of bins.
Steady, strangely therapeutic pottering in space.
If you want to spam cash, the triple spot and smash and grab mediums over 20 percent.
Once I’ve both of these, I’ll leave it alone. Or until they nerf it at the next update!
Doing exactly the same, managed another 300m last night and decided that was enough for now. Bought an FDL and decided to kit it out for hunting/combat missions as thats whats fun for me, although I'm having trouble with the power distribution, with weapons deployed I'm over the power threshold 🙁 Didn't have time to fully test it last night but before I logged off so I moved all my ships to Deciat just in case i need to go mining again and the engineer is in close proximity.
Who's been to space jail then?
I shot the cops by mistake (In my defense m'lud they were flying the same ships as the bad guys)
I got a small fine and thought nothing of it, went to pay it at the local station and I got flung in space klink!
Bought an FDL and decided to kit it out for hunting/combat missions as thats whats fun for me, although I’m having trouble with the power distribution, with weapons deployed I’m over the power threshold 🙁
With a 6A power plant you should be able to run whatever you like in an FDL, even all beams.
Heat is a different matter but with a decent powerplant you should have no issues powering everything
Purchased - Deluxe edition down from £39.99 to £13.49 on the Xbox store if you have Xbox Live Gold.
Standard edition is six quid for the next 6 days.
I have been to space jail three times, I think. The first time I was in the station, saw a chance to pay off a bounty, but ended up in jail about 60ly away!
Last night I suffered poor mission choice, dropped in (in my Cobra) on 7 ships, including three pythons. As I shot back I got bounty notifications, then when I ejected I woke up in the cooler after the rebuy.
I had some great tussles last night in the Cobra, an elite Asp Scout (really bad choice to open hostilities, those things turn really well), a mamba and a deadly type 7 were the standouts. I ended up running from the first two, but managed to take down the type 7 by basically flying 400m behind it as much as I could, multi-cannons on full chat. I think that close the chaff made no difference and they stayed locked.
With core mining, an optimal explosion will liberate about 8-16 chunks with about 6-12 surface deposits, I reckon each one is ~0.6t so 10-12t per core sounds reasonable.
Matt
Welcome Perchy, see you out there!
Matt
Sounds like I need to make an XBox wing then. I'll create one tonight
Purchased
Perchased, surely? 🙂 *smoothes moustache suavely*
Welcome aboard, enjoy. 🙂 I sprinted through the tutorials then found the game frustratingly hard - if I was starting again, I might do them a couple of times, there's lots of info and half of it didn't sink in for me first time round. 🙂
I got about 15-18t from one core probably twice.
Re learning - yes it's really confusing at first. The UI doesn't help. I played a bit, gave up for a few weeks, then went back as I'd paid £40 for it and didn't want to waste it. Glad I did.
Once you get the basics down.
Then this is the best quick start guide I've found:
And now elite.
Congratulations. I did it through missions and regular trading. Took ages, but I wasn’t in a rush. A bit like with the exploring I’m doing at the moment , I put Spotify on in the back ground and flew around space listening to music. Still haven’t tried mining, after two years of playing.
I only "rushed" it because I suspect it will be nerfed soonish.
Wife hates it, so I've actually put less hours in than I would generally with a game.
I just need arsenic, upgrade the fsd and I'm going for sol and sagA.
After that, I'll look at the trophies I guess (tea is one).
@molgrips not to wind you up, but the winner of D2EA's mine-a-ton mined 215t from station to sold in under 60 minutes for just over 203M credits!
Matt
Yeah my post wasn't a brag, more of a complaint!
With a 6A power plant you should be able to run whatever you like in an FDL, even all beams.
downgraded my beam lasers to burst and it seems ok now but im talking 25.10/25.20 deployed power usage with a 6a, 3/6 utility tools are shield banks so they are quite the hog.
Next plan is to try the AspX as my trading/exploring ship. Get the best fuel scool and go see some pretty sights.
20mCr bagged, now in 65mCr in the bank. Python, or something else? Keep saving?
Who finds mining relaxing? Threading my ship between all the floating chunks is stressful but not as much as flying back to a market with 45t of the most valuable cargo in the game on board.
I can’t thread my Anaconda round things. I just have to let things bounce off
I like my Python. I’ve kept it. Might move on my AspX as the Anaconda has a similar jump range when engineered, so I’ll use that for exploration
The Python is one of the most versatile ships in the game.
But you want enough cash to be able to A rate at least the thrusters and FSD.
Top tip.
Head over to Diaguandri - Ray Gateway for a 15% discount on all ships and modules at the station
XBox Squadron created.
Far Away Enterprises
Tag STW2
Trying to figure out what I enjoy about the game. I think I prefer the mission aspect, I might enjoy powerplay. So for that I'd need a multipurpose ship I suppose. I could sell on my Crusader since that was a bit of an all-rounder too. Or, I could maybe fit that up for mining - haven't considered that.
I think I'd keep the AspX for exploration cos it's so cheap; a top all-rounder e.g. Python and a combat build - not sure what. On the other hand, I haven't done any passenger missions and I could afford a nice passenger ship.
If you want to mess around with a dedicated fighter then go for the Vulture.
It's great for learning combat without the cost or upkeep of something like an FDL
Who’s been to space jail then?
Yup. 🙁 Few times, I think - last one was returning a dodgy passenger to the station I picked them up from, which felt a bit unfair.
Mining's all right, but without the hotspot I wouldn't bother, and even then I only fill the Python if EDDB tells me the price is good - bit of a trek but 1.6m per ton at HIP 19934 ce soir, Fozard Station, I think?
Done a bit of trekking the last couple of days but I think I need to adopt a more chilled approach (and definitely and egineered FSD!), set off yesterday to get 20kLy out of the bubble - many hours, 4500ly and 220 grindy hops later, I've had enough, so this morning was working my way back. Scoopable stars pretty much every hop on the way out, much harder to find on the way back. Gonna try a different plan, actually LOOKING at what I'm flying through, instead of just grinding my way to The End.
First mission for the Feds today - it was a "buy and deliver grain" job on the board so put some racks in the Asp, but by the time I got back to the board to accept it, it had become a pirate assasination jobby, so I stuck a load of guns on the Asp's face and went and shot a man down.
Head over to Diaguandri – Ray Gateway for a 15% discount on all ships and modules at the station
I "live" there! 🙂 Has a decent range but not everything - Asp's got a 5B FSD for example, they don't have 5A there.
Spent last night making a few trips back from Mercy's Hammer jail station. Stupidly picked up an assassination mission of a politician who's surrounded by police ships...
He's in an ASP Explorer and I cant figure out what weapons to use to kill him with.
Some missions are worth abandoning.
@molgrips too right! I have no qualms about dropping out if I have overextended myself. I also drop out if the mission goes all Imperial on me and I need to start slaughtering space kittens or something.
Matt
hmmm I have thought about it. Doh.
Anyone done powerplay yet? I'm tempted - wonder if I can work against the Empire?
I want to get involved as well. I think I'm at the point where I can contribute something apart from dying, maybe not much, but something!
Matt