So, the plan is to do a few more mining trips this week then buy the reactive composites for the Anaconda. Then I think I want to get a full on combat ship which would be a Fer de Lance and a Beluga just for the laughs and obviously passenger missions.

I wonder how much a kitted out FdL costs?

just been out to sell some LTD, went back and swapped to my Corvette to go shoot some pirates and collect some material.
Had not noticed i had 4 diamonds in the refinery which was not sold and only realised when i was at the Nav Beacon and got a lot of attention due to having 4 diamonds in my hold 🙂

I wonder how much a kitted out FdL costs?

I haven’t much change from £150mil for my current sled. It’s pretty effective though. 😎

Only 150m? Half the price of the bulkheads I’m considering for the Anaconda 🙂

Feeling a bit overwhelmed by trying to tweak the BGS in four systems (I managed to win an election and claim a station!), so taking some time off to do a little relaxing mining tonight.

I’ll be in Borann around 2200 if anyone fancies a bit of chat or wing action. The aim is to be cashed out at the nearest station (Xhosatto (sp) was the best price yesterday. It has a black market, so was attracting freebooters) by midnight.

Matt

For once the price listed on EDDB was correct when i got to the station just made 377Millions, was worth the 15 jumps

@Mikkel nice work, you must be proper minted now. Aiming for 250-300M myself.

Matt

I need 2-3 sessions in but my wife has started binge watching another show, which makes it harder.

It took me to just over 2billion
That’s with the Corvette fully kitted out as well 🙂

305M for 186t of LTDs, the best system was a 260Ly drag though. There was one a third of the distance but the demand was only 420 so the price would have been nerfed.

Not bad, about 2.5hrs.

Matt

Right, that’s 288t of LTDs in the hold, and some more in the refinery. Let’s see if I can make it somewhere to sell them.

Decided to gamble and make a 15 hop trip to sell for 1.6m vs 1.1m that was much closer. Made it, had no bother at all. I’m now just short of being a billionaire.

I still haven’t decided if I want to blow a third of it on bulkheads though.

I think the risks of getting mugged for your LTDs are pretty low. Last night I did 16 jumps and didn’t even get any smack talk about the size of my load!

I definitely feel like the poor relation amongst you guys! Another week to go so I may fit another couple of trips in.

@Molgrips what are you going to spend it on if not bulkheads, hookers and lavian brandy?

Matt

Well I dropped 116m on an 8A power supply that made a noticeable dent in it.

I’ll try again tonight or tomorrow. It’s shit work though, four hours of slogging away. I may only have one more mega trip in me. Might try different locations and minerals post update.

That’s why I like the python. Only 192t fully loaded so should be 1:45 with good luck in the rocks (the first was a 36.06%, my record). I need to get less picky about which rock to prospect if I want to speed up, but then you get more limpet wreckers.

I think it would be around double that time to core mine for void opals, even in a double overlap. It’s still not bad money though!

Matt

My technique last night:

– Surface mining only – less fun but it means you can keep a decent stack of weapons since you only need two mining lasers.

– Small refinery, cos you are only interested in one mineral here, a 2A is ideal it frees up your other slots.

– Zoom scanners out to max distance to help you keep track of limpets (X and R1 on PS4)

– Almost fill your hold with limpets – I did 260 out of 288 limpets and I still had to throw a few away. But this is preferable to running out IMO.

– ignore the Pulse Wave Scanner entirely – it does absolutely nothing

– Pips to engines and weapons, cargo scoop out so your max speed is as close to 100m/s as possible meaning you can’t accidentally go over and risk losing a prospector. Even on my Anaconda I needed 3 pips to weapons to avoid draining the energy whilst zapping.

– Fly around at 60-70m/s ish shooting any rock that lines up nicely with a prospector. Speed should be low enough to allow your prospector to hit and you to peel away if it’s no good and line up with something else.

– When you get one over say 18% park up, zap it and I throw max collectors at it which in my case is 6

– Whilst they are working, pivot and prospect nearby rocks. If you find one say 15% ish that’s really close, move over and zap that one. It’s not worth stopping for a 15% generally but the point here is that you already have your collectors out, and their clocks are ticking, so in that case it’s better to hit a lower density roid you know is nearby than waste their remaining lifespan flying around looking for something better. In terms of tonnes per limpet I think this is better value but I haven’t modelled it. I’m too lazy to be a spreadsheet **** 🙂

– Prospecting technique: use max 2 limpets as any more and I lose track of where they are. I fire at a nearby one, target that drone, then fire another drone at a farther rock. Then when the first one hits I see the results whilst watching the second one. If the first one is good then mine it and try and remember where the second one went. If the first one is no good then just target the second. That way you have two prospectors in flight at all times which makes for faster prospecting.
– Do not pause, do not go AFK, do not leave the ring, do the entire thing in one sitting or you’ll meet pirates again.
– On the way to your market scoop every star you can where it’s quiet and top up your tank, so that when you jump into a system with lots of people you have enough fuel to hop straight back out again, and you aren’t exposing yourself by being forced to scoop when there are ships and potentially pirates everywhere. Scanners to max range here too so that you can see who’s getting ready to line up behind you.

This method is quite wasteful on limpets, but it’s more time efficient, and I still ended up getting more units of LTD than I brought limpets. And given how cheap limpets are and how much money you’re going to make it’s worth the cost to save the time, which is the real burden here.

I definitely feel like the poor relation amongst you guys!

Err, hi 👋😂 ‘only’ 350mil in the bank and no large ships here; I know how you feel! I struggle to get the time to get on as much as some so most of the time I enjoy my space zapping vicariously through you lot…

Filling 288t really is a chore, I’ve only done it a few times. Doing 90t at a time might work out better in the long run if you enjoy it more and do it more often. Once the update hits I won’t be doing that much at a time again.

Change the subject – I was looking at the Eagle last night. It occurred to me that it might be good for a laugh to buy one to try and skill up as a pilot. They’re so cheap that if you have a bn or so in the bank you could just rebuy all day and not really be bothered.

OTOH you could do the same thing with fighters which would be even cheaper.

Here’s a tip off from a mysterious stranger.

If you receive a tip off from a mysterious stranger about a crashed ship on an obscure planetoid 22 jumps away with coordinates and encryption keys….don’t go.

They’re pulling yer plonker.

1 container of materials, a 167k data package and a message telling you that your tadger has been well and truly tugged.

Totally not worth it.

Mols, that exactly how i do my mining too.

My Elite Dangerous playing has taken a bit of a sideline due to the new Stellaris update.

I tried an Eagle and I was crap at it. Found combat was taking an age because of the small weapons Now I roll into a fight in a Krait with 2 beams and 3 overcharged multicannons, plus drop my fighter out before it kicks off.

It’s usually over pretty quickly, unless they’re Elite or in a tank, in which case it’s pips to thruster and boost away

@molgrips thanks some good stuff there, including a few bits that I had not really considered.

With the Eagle, that’s what I use my Viper for, you don’t really need much in the bank to suck up a few ‘rebuys’. The three small hardpoints are going to be a bit limiting, but you’re probably not looking to take down ‘condas.

Matt

I’ve not put a stopwatch on it, but my collectors seem to last longer with one module than with two. Makes mining a bit longer but less intense job, for my money.

Just a heads up, anyone heading for the LTD sell station at BD-15 447 there are three Cmdr ships, though I was quick enough in the Python that I didn’t see what they were up to.

Matt

I got jumped by them. Ran away, jumped, interdicted…and repeat. Lost all my systems then whilst they were sending limpets across managed to reboot and boost and then jump to another system. An hour of calm mining followed by 5 minutes of frantic activity and panic. Great game! I think I owe my Python a new paint job.

Great stuff, bloody pirates! Glad you got away. Typically one hatchbreaker will take 6-7t but I wouldn’t rely on it.

I got lucky and two of them were in the station when I arrived. I just docked at high speed and banked the cash!

Matt

Managed to squeeze a mining sesh in before the kids school time this morning; I’m very aware of the 9/6/20 ‘everything changes’ deadline. Prices back down to 1.1mil/tonne, unfortunately but still got 200+ mil for my 193t load. Uneventful save a poor attempt at an interdiction by an NPC. Pushed me into trading ‘Elite’ too, which was nice 😎

Congrats on the Elite!

It’s quite a ‘shock’ when you only get 1.1M per ton! I took the opportunity to unlock an engineer while selling my LTDs so a constructive evening.

Not sure what the hell I’m going to do with the increased range on my sensors, but it pushed me up to level 5 access.

Matt

Next expansion just announced

link

steam link

10 Billion Cr per leg, grind for all your worth. Borann here we come!

Matt

Bought an Anaconda, kitted it out as best I could with the kit / funds available, loaded up with 400 tons of cargo on my regular Federation rank grinding route.

Got interdicted 3 times, lost twice.

It’s just too slow and cumbersome.

9 million rebuy first trip out and lost all the cargo. Bah!

I feel the same about the Anaconda, mine’s been in the garage pretty much since it’s first outing. I should really get it out and have another go.

So what is the trick to route finding to far away places?
Want to go to colonia but can’t plot a route.

ohh and this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wu8oqlXUag

I feel the same about the Anaconda

Grade 5 dirty drag drives are your friend in this situation I think. You should try a type 9 with D rated thrusters if you want the Anaconda to feel sprightly!

That update looks (literally) game changing. Wow 🤩

I love my Anaconda. If you get interdicted, submit then boost away and jump out – not much can interdict you. But I normally stop and fight, I’ve not yet had anything I couldn’t finish off with 7 hardpoints worth of pew pew.

Grabbed another 250m and I think I’m done with Borann for a while. I’m off to Shinrarta Dezhra to spend some of my 1.2bn credits.

Best thrusters you can find and engineer them, more important than the drive. If you are going to fight it four pips to engines, then switch across to sys if you lose.

I am about 50:50 with no engineering in the Space Cow.

I don’t think a ‘conda is the solution to every problem in the game, but it does seem to solve many of them!

Matt

Went shopping. Bought a Fer de Lance and A-rated everything. Went looking for pirates and tbh struggled a bit. The ship turns reasonably well but doesn’t actually change direction, it drifts more than Ken Block. I could come around to point at my pursuer and still be going backwards, even with FA on. Took a few hits, decided to return to base so my wife could watch telly, and then realised I had not actually upgraded the thrusters. So maybe later I’ll take it out again.

Also bought a Beluga just for the laughs. It’s really nice but utterly massive. Like flying around space in an exclusive airport lounge. Such a shame I can’t get up and walk around in it and help myself to the hospitality.

Sounds like you’ve all been busy. I pretty much only read this thread on STW these days 🙂
I took a break from mining at Borann in my AspX to kit out a Cobra mk3 and do some missions for the Feds. I’m keen on the permit for Sol. Made it to Recruit so far and lined up as many missions as I could in an area, got quite confusing remembering where I was meant to go next. Then some NPC was sent to hunt me down – he failed, I hightailed it from the fight as my FSD was already charged. I’ll get back into the mining before the deadline, I could use the top up to my cash, “only” about 300Mcr left in the bank. Plan is for a Python and something for dogfights to get my rating away from Mostly Harmless. Once I’m half decent at anything I might join in some of your multi-crew/wing action.

@mikkel – yes, I’ve been watching some of the analysis of the new Odyssey release for next year. I quite like the look of it but I’m not much of a 1st/3rd person shooter fan. I prefer space flight simulations, although I’d be very interested if base building came into it and it worked a bit like Sim City – zone it, set taxes, provide utilities, manage the population & resources. I just can’t believe how utterly VAST this game/simulation is.

Right, time to get some limpets and head back to Borann!

o7 CMDRs