Hello Commanders, I've got a few questions for anyone willing to answer.

I've decided to "join" the Alliance, as it were. I made my way to the heart of Alliance territory: the space around Alioth. I think I've got a pretty good idea of what I'm doing (keeping notes on the factions and their allegiances, only doing jobs for those allied with the Alliance, or at least Independents) but it's slow going. I'm not sure if that's just the way the game is or if there's something else I could be doing to increase my reputation at a faster rate. Any thoughts?

I see that 78 Ursae Majoris is a Federation system right in the Alliance's back yard. I found this thread on the Frontier forums where players have been trying to get the system to switch allegiances and become an Alliance territory. It appears to be working, slowly. Has anyone here contributed to the cause? Have you found any tactic to be particularly effective? I'm interested in helping make it happen, but making an enemy of the Federation in the process seems a bit daft when you look at all those blue dots on the galaxy map.

Credits. The eternal question: what's the "best" way to make them? Exploring and selling cartographic data has been pretty lucrative, especially on my trek from LHS 3447 to Alliance space. Picking up lost cargo at Unknown Signal Sources and selling it on the Black Market has been profitable too. There's too much random chance involved in that though, and I've been thinking of trying my hand at bounty hunting. Have you found any particular areas to be the best place to hunt? Any tips from pro bounty hunters out there?

Keep in mind I've only got an Eagle with a few upgrades. I've been saving my credits as best I can in an attempt to upgrade to a Cobra. I like to keep my options open as far as earning potential goes, and the Cobra seems like a good all-around ship. What do you think, is the Cobra a logical upgrade? I've considered the Viper as well, although it seems to be a combat oriented ship which doesn't fit my jack-of-all-trades play style. Is there another ship I should be looking at? Whatever ship you recommend I'd appreciate knowing where I can get one in the general area of Alioth if at all possible.

As far as I'm aware, the Alliance isn't fully integrated into the universe yet; you can increase your standing with them, but they have no ranking system like the Empire and the Feds. Not sure if that will be updated in the future, but keep in mind that you'll be missing opportunities to unlock system permits / new ships by going Alliance.

The fastest way to earn money early is to trade in rare goods. Trading is hands-down the fastest way to make money, but also (arguably) the most boring, and running rare routes is nice because it doesn't require a large cargo capacity. Once you earn enough money to get a Type 7, then you can switch to simpler commodities routes with large amounts of cargo. Here's an example of a "beginner" rare trading route. (The idea is to fly along the black lines and trade along the green lines, e.g. buy Formula 42 in AZ Cancri and sell it in Aerial. The rare goods are colored yellow in the commodities market and have a limited supply.)

I use bounty hunting as a break from trading. Squatting at Nav beacons and Resource sites makes finding wanted ships pretty easy, though if those ships are allied with the Alliance you will lose rep by killing them (even if they are wanted).

For ships, the Viper is excellent for combat and much cheaper to outfit, but the Cobra is more versatile, so it really depends on what you intend to do. If you end up grinding a rare trading route for a bit, you should be able to easily afford both. My progression (for rare trading) was Sidewinder -> Adder -> Type 6, and I have a fully upgraded Viper on the side for bounty hunting.

Hmm, I knew they didn't have a ranking system which made some sense when considering how they're structured. Not being able to unlock ships worries me a bit, although I didn't have any intention of ruining my rep with the Federation or Empire in the process of gaining rep with the Alliance. Perhaps that's unavoidable to some degree?

I found some rare goods once, I forget where exactly. I didn't get very far with them before being interdicted by an Imperial Clipper. I got some decent damage in, but it wasn't really a fair fight. That Clipper was a $23,000,000 ship versus my $45,000 Eagle. It took me out as I was trying to escape, and the rare cargo went down with the ship!

Thanks for the chart, that'll be handy. It must take hours to make that loop, doesn't it? What kind of a jump range would you say is a good minimum to have?

I didn't realize killing wanted ships allied with the Alliance would hurt my rep. That's good to know, even if it doesn't make a lot of sense. They're wanted for a reason, so the Alliance will pay their bounty, but at the same time look down on me for collecting it? I must be missing something, otherwise bounty hunters would have a shitty rep everywhere they went.

Another reason I was thinking Cobra was so I didn't have specialized ships scattered all over the galaxy. Since there's no fast travel (which is fine considering the game runs real time all the time whether you're playing or not), and no way to get your ships consolidated into one station it seemed like it would be a pain in the ass to go fetch a different ship whenever I wanted to do something my current ship wasn't suited for.

The strange thing about the factions is that you can still rank up with a bad reputation, so you never really need to worry about blocking progress by making enemies. The system overall seems a little underdeveloped, especially with the lack of mission variety. (Also, there's only one ship to unlock for each faction, and neither is really that great compared to the standard ships, so you won't be missing much.) Killing wanted ships that are allied with the local system can piss off the local security forces, even if they are friendly to you, and will decrease your rep a tiny bit. Doesn't make sense, just an example of two systems that aren't integrated together well. I believe this only holds in a local instance though, so once you jump the sec ships won't follow you. And also, not every ship is allied with a faction, so it is possible to bounty hunt in a faction-neutral way.

The goal of running rares / trading is to upgrade your FSD as quickly as possible (which is usually one of your top goals for any new ship), thereby decreasing the number of jumps required to get around the loop. Ideally you will be at 15-20+ ly per jump laden, which makes each station about 4-5 jumps away, but anything will work starting out. Transit time isn't really that bad, since you hit each system along the way and immediately jump out, but the monotony of the process makes it dull. Also, you'll probably want a fuel scoop to start with, so you don't have to detour and refuel midway through your trip. Each station is <100ly apart, which means your nav computer will be able to plot the entire route in one go (but you have to sit there for a bit and let it think). The loop I'm running right now is just an extended version of the small one that you would upgrade to once you have 50+ cargo space. I use the time to listen to podcasts to keep my sanity.

I started running rares in a stock Sidewinder plus fuel scoop, and the first few trips were painful. However, you soon earn massive profits and can quickly upgrade to a better ship.

This site is also very useful for finding things, if you feel like registering for it (it's free). You can search for locations of ships and upgrades--the prices are standardized across the galaxy, but buying and selling at a particular station will earn rep at that station, which is why some people develop a "home base" and do most of their shopping there--, and it also has tools to find trade routes and rare trading goods. For example, you could use it to make a rare loop only in Alliance space, so you can gain rep faster (as you'll be selling high-valued goods, the rep gains are not insignificant).

The Cobra sounds like a good ship for you; it is nice to be able to do everything in one ship. Just keep in mind that insurance/fuel/repair costs go up significantly with each tier of ship, so it's usually best to wait to upgrade until you have about 1.5 times the price of the ship in credits. This gives you a nice comfortable buffer to work with, should you do something foolish. (Getting a new ship and then "trading" it in for a new Sidewinder is never fun.) If you decide to sell your old ship in the process, be sure to sell/downgrade each module beforehand, since you'll get slightly better value out of the ship--and you can sometimes buy-back upgrades for the new ship at a cheaper price.

Thanks for the tips, @eternalrift.

I've been doing some bounty hunting around resource extraction sites and that has been my most profitable venture by far. Within an afternoon I had enough credits to buy a Cobra and some initial upgrades.

I'm liking the Cobra so far, I can see the potential for being a well-rounded ship. It maneuvers like a brick compared to the Eagle, which wasn't unexpected given the stats. It does have me thinking of trading in the Eagle for a Viper though. The Cobra and the Viper have the same maneuverability stat but surely the Viper must be more maneuverable than the Cobra given that it's intended to be a combat ship.

You said you have a Viper. If you've flown either an Eagle or a Cobra (or both) how does the Viper compare?

Hey there you two (@eternalrift & @bane), it's my 3rd day playing and am having fun tackling the Eve-like learning curve. I'm currently doing a small hop that yields me about 100k every 15 minutes with 48 cargo slots in a hauler-modified Cobra MK III. Do you think your rare runs(s) do better than that? I'm tempted to try but I'd drop my cargo slots down to 34 and grab a shield for the extended travel. I've sort of rigged the Cobra for this 20LY round trip I'm pulling, but it is extremely boring and hardly commensurate for the vessel. Thoughts?

@landomatic: That's a good question. It doesn't have a straightforward answer though (at least to my knowledge).

The general consensus around the Frontier forums seems to be that rare trading is more lucrative than regular commodity trading until you get into the larger cargo bays of the Type-7, Type-9, Python, and Anaconda. Once you have those larger bays regular commodities become more profitable due to the sheer volume that can be moved.

400k an hour doesn't seem that far off of what you can earn running a rare route in my experience. I averaged somewhere around 500k an hour if I remember right. I'd have to go back to my notes to be sure.

The biggest factor in your profits is going to be how much of the rare commodity is available to purchase at the station. There is a maximum amount the station will sell you, and that amount doesn't always appear all at once. Some people wait around for the maximum to spawn, some leave the station and do some local bounty hunting while they wait, and others, like me, just grab whatever is there and go. So if you get seven altairian skins on one run, but 21 the next that's a 200k difference in profits between the two runs.

Since the quantity is always in flux the Cobra often doesn't have enough cargo space to carry the rares long enough to sell at optimal distances. You'll find yourself selling some cargo at less-than-max profits just to make room. If you can get yourself a Type-6 with empty hardpoints, D modules everywhere (to reduce weight) except for an A frame shift drive and an A fuel scoop, and 100 cargo you'll be all set for any rare trade run you want.

Rare routes aren't any more enjoyable than regular routes in my experience. Since you find your current route extremely boring I don't think a rare route is going to liven things up at all. If you want to maximize your profits to minimize the grind it may be worth giving it a try. If nothing else you'll get to see some new systems along the way.

Personally, I've done enough trade grinding to know I don't want to do any more anytime soon. It just kills my desire to play the game. And I haven't done nearly as much as some or most people. The most expensive ship I've bought is the Type-6 at just over a million credits. I can't fathom doing enough trading to be able to afford even an Asp, let alone a Python or an Anaconda.

So now I'm cruising around in my Cobra doing whatever I feel like doing, and letting the credits come naturally. It's a far more enjoyable experience in my opinion.

Gallery

here is how i went from a side winder to a fully loaded asp in just a few days and got in to a few good fights.

I did a few initial missions. courier and delivery boy... that was just boring. so i wanted to go exploring a bit. and just with my stock sidewinder and basic discovery scanner. i made my way through 18 systems scanned every 500ls or so and found as much as possible. left from there 20 ly in any direction i could go. sold the data for a whopping 120000 creds to my disbelief.

i then purchased an adder upgraded the frames shift drive and weapons. took off for a few trade runs. i found a 2000 per ton average run. not much with the adder but allowed me to buy the cobra and max out its hauling ability. did some more trading with it. i made enough to buy type 6. traded enough to purchase the asp and continued to trade till i maxed it out. weapons and all. i did all this in about 5 days. I made on a bidirectional trade system to system and back about 290000 credits with the asp.

Ive been interdicted a few times but fully loaded asp is a formidable ship even took on an anaconda. a few federal drop ships. and i find it pretty easy to kill most anything that crosses my path. ive yet to be beaten in single combat but i was jumped by a group of 4 while i was carrying a mil worth of gold. not a good day to fight. so i took off in the other direction. the asp is a great running ship if you need it to be. and i was running with out shields or weapons at the time to increase speed cargo capasity and maneuverability. and the 8 extra tons got me around 14000 per run. so it was worth it. well at least to me. im greedy.

after i was attacked i loaded up the asp. 4 turreted multicannons, 2 turreted beam laser, and a missile rack. military grade armor and the best stuff you could buy for it. i then went on the hunt for those alliance thugs that wanted to pick a fight with a peaceful trader. they didn't want my cargo either as one of them followed me the first time i escaped. they wanted me to stop trading in the system i was in and move to another. i said no naturally. and followed him on his next jump. fsd scanner.

they were in a near by asteroid belt. as soon as i got there i ambushed them all and managed to kill the first two with out a hitch. the other two fled like the cowards they were. Im not new to flight sims or dog fights. seems they were unprepared for what i had in store for them. lol there were 2 vipers one sidewinder and an eagle. i put a real hurting on those fools and probably made them with they had never attacked the peaceful trader. now mind you when i ran the first time i had only 8 percent hull integrity left. after that fight i still had 98 percent left. all turrets were set to fire at will. it moves like molasses but the turreted weapons worked like a charm and with 4 defense turrets their missiles never hit the target. I wouldn't recommend doing what i did though, but i was out for blood and wanted to see what the asp was made of. The game is called Elite Dangerous after all.

I've been playing around with the game with a keyboard and mouse and have been having a good time. After that I bought a Saitek X52 Pro and went Unidentified Signal Source hunting. I wasn't making a lot of credits so I decided to hang out at Nav beacons and man, I have been making a crap-ton of credits. In a few hours I made 400k as opposed to 10k to 15k doing the USS thing. I have 500k in unclaimed bounties at the moment and am on the way to making 1 mil before turning it in. I can almost see that Python I want to buy.