I tend to prefer the trading missions to stand-alone trade, purely for the variety of scenery. I like seeing and visiting different spots, especially if they are surface ports.

Yes, tonight was a Prime example of them not Spawning well, but I did take 4-5 missions throughout the session for 1.2 - 1.4 million a pop for single jump transactions. AND NO INTERDICTIONS....

On the forums, they said that Extraction Economies tended to spawn more, basically because they exported a lot of Metals. Indeed the most lucrative ones I have found WERE from an Extraction economy (Liu Baja), Not tonight, unfortunately. Also have seen them elsewhere, so maybe it is the RNG more than the LOGIC of the economy that governs it.

Indeed! One of my stops was a Tourism port and the station was beautiful! I'm hearing good stuff about passenger missions too and may well try that!


Thanks! So I take it find an Extraction system.... what ship do you recommend (aside from the obvious Python)? I'm guessing massive cargo hold isn't a requirement? Is jump range an important factor, ie, needs at least 20+ LY jump range?

OK, back to the Python.... I was able to bump up the 6A shields to about 700 with the reinforcement modification. Grade 2 Dirty Drives and OC'd power plant. I am a full 10 MW short of max power. It handles much better now.

The class 6 shield is undersized, I'm well over shield optimal mass for this ship, so it really needs some love to get it to a level where it's reasonable protection for such a ship.

Well, you were the one who was talking about appreciating shortcomings on certain builds A Size 6 shield is the best you can put on a Python, so if it's undersized even at that size, well, we'll have to compensate for it some other way.

Personally, I just run with SCB and HS and use them as necessary. No issues so far; I just need to always be mindful of my shield status.

I needed to restore some buoyancy to my bank account so spent some time running cargo missions in the Python. I've been complaining lately about the poor payout on boom time deliveries which were my main money maker back in the summer. The Python however gets those outpost deliveries and I was finding a number of single-hop deliveries paying about 1 million. These are nice, take 10 minutes to complete, depending on the arrival distance of course.

This will seem like I'm seeing things, but I'm fairly sure it happened. When looking at the mission board at one station I saw a few good missions, one for 700k, another for 700 and another for 600k, all to the same station. With only 96t of cargo space I needed to go to outfitting and add a 6E rack. Did so and came back. Those missions were gone. Went back and removed the new rack, and the missions returned. Outfitted with 160t of cargo space I saw a poor mission selection. With 96t I was getting really good ones. Hmmm.....

I want to learn more about economies and how it affects mission generation, like Recluse and Ice talking about. This seems key to efficient profits.

Yes. I sometimes wonder if it is RNG or something more insidious. Like when you take a contract for Osmium and spend all your time in the asteroid field finding everything BUT including precious metals like Platinum, Palladium and Painite, but as soon as you are looking for Platinum, Palladium or Painite, Osmium is as common as dirt everywhere you look.

For awhile I was doing Planetary Scan Missions as I was finding them for ~3 million credit rewards. While in the Cobra or Asp with SRV, I would find plentiful Transport missions for 5,6,7 million credits, but did not have the Cargo Capacity. After the scan missions, I would return in the Python to find them largely GONE...

I enjoy a good conspiracy theory, and there is a certain school of thought on the official forums about exactly this, and that FDev uses these techniques to extend play time. I can't say if it's true or not, but I wouldn't put it past them.

Do you know of any good resources that discuss economies in depth? I'm ready to pull up stakes and move to a system with a more advantageous economy than the agricultural one I currently call home. I'm looking mostly for good passenger missions and boom time deliveries.

I've stayed away from the BGS mostly, so I don't know of any resources offhand that describe the economies other than these which came up in a quick GOOGLE search for which I have no real ability to evaluate.

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Market_Economy

http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Commodities/Supply_and_Demand

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...-Background-Simulation-Guide-Help-Needed


I guess I have been following the general rule that EXTRACTION economies export Metals to Industtrial economies since the higher paying transport missions I have seen were often GOLD or PALLADIUM from Extraction economies to elsewhere..

As chronicled, still hit and miss...

Thanks, that's very useful. I haven't done much commodity trading, but now I have a ship capable of carrying a decent amount so maybe I should start. I'd like to learn more about economies and mission generation. I moved my home base to a nearby high tech industrial refinery system so we will see how it goes. I'd like to get good sightseeing missions and good delivery missions. And maybe some loops running transports one way and deliveries the other.

Interesting Observation:

I mentioned to ICE that Passenger Missions seemed to increase my TRADE rank more than anything else (including Trade Missions). Last night I crammed a bunch of Passenger Cabins into the Python. Unfortunately, I couldn't cram enough 1st Class Cabin space to get the really high paying Bulk Transport missions (e.g. Transport 40 VIP's for 3.5-5 million) but managed to do quite a few loads of 1-3 million credits apiece on round trips, and one jump trips for about a 25 million credit night (Also grabbed some Assasination Missions in the Gunship to alleviate the boredom for about 4 million of that. I noticed that my Trade Rank went up 4% on the night. Far more than it did when doing Cargo Missions even when the payout was about the same on the night. So, it looks like Passenger Missions are good for Trade Rank. Might have been because MOST of them were rated as ELITE missions for some reason...

Yes, those rich tourist transports are how I have any decent trade rep at all I think.

Transports increase trade rank, and sightseeing is exploration rank.

What's the scoop with assassination missions. Can you describe a typical one?

Assassination missions usually something like:

"Urgent Kill Order on Pirate Lord "So and So". or "ASSASSINATE PIRATE LORD (or Deserter, etc..) "SO AND SO" Reported to be in system xyz between time t1 and t2.

Pay attention to the RANK requirement. Whatever the Rank listed is, the target will be of a LOWER rank generally. There is very little difference between the ELITE ranked mission payouts and the "Dangerous" or lower ranked payouts in terms of credits. Single missions range around the 1-2 million credit mark. I generally take lower ranked missions unless the reward is really high for an ELITE style mission. Typically I tend to stay DEADLY or BELOW for an easier time of it.

You take a mission and go to the specified system, but often the actual Time Interval doesn't matter. Sometimes it does... Hard to tell...

Often, you will be interdicted by one of the Pirate Lord's Minions, who will be of a similar rank. You get extra bonus for killing them..

When you get to the target system, you used to be able to find the target with the Advanced discovery Scanner, but now, you have to Scan the Nav Beacon to find the area where you find the guy. OFTEN he will drop in on you AT THE NAV Beacon immediately, so have your weapons primed just in case. Otherwise, go to the Target Body and Supercruise around until you get the special MISSION SIGNAL SOURCE. It will be in BLUE and you will get and AUDIO Alert that you have found it. Drop into it, Deploy hard points and make some cash.

When choosing a low ranked mission, the target is quite easy to kill and very often, there will be a bunch of other ships in the Mission Signal Source who the guy is Harrassing. They will join the fight and make your job even easier! The other night I picked a DESERTER Assassination, and when I dropped in, there were 5 Federal Security Service ships pounding him!! I had to hurry to get a shot in!!!

You can filter the Mission board for only LEGAL missions, or pay attention to the Mission Description to be sure it doesn't say that the Activities May be Illegal, in which case you could end up with a Bounty and Notoriety.

Here's a video. This was from an earlier version, but things are PRETTY much the same...

Thanks. I think if I can get some good ones I can boost the combat rank faster than bounties. Is there any reputation or relations concerns with these missions? Can you piss off any factions?

Ever bite off more than you could chew in one of these? I was cruising around last night in the Vulture and came across a distress signal. Oh what the heck, let's go see if there's a damsel in need of a white knight. Jumped in and was immediately beset by I don't know, a dozen Eagles all shooting at me. Managed to knock a few down and then had to jump when the shields were gone. Gotta be careful!

Well, not a good way to boost combat rank (unless the enemy rank is the same or higher than you are for max value). RES zones are better for that. From time to time I HAVE seen reputation decrease with the faction that the Pirate belonged to, which is odd since being WANTED in a system itself can give bad rep!!

Right now I have 2 "Follow ON" Assassination Missions in my queue that are at ELITE level. I am waffling on taking them as I find that spawning DEADLY ANACONDAS can be bad for my GUNSHIP to handle. So far the enemies have been mainly Pythons/FDL but I think at the ELITE level they tend to be Anacondas. Might have to enlist a Wingmate for backup...

I see you flying mainly in SOLO. I think you are in The_Nephilim Private group already. Drop into PRIVATE GROUP and that way if there are any others on and in the vicinity, you can Wing Up. Otherwise, it is really no different than SOLO.. For Single Assassinations, the Wingman doesn't get a share, other than whatever Bounty the guy has on him, along with the satisfaction of helping out.. but SOMETIMES it is possible for wingmen to grab the SAME mission off the board, in which case the guy SPAWNS multiple times in multiple places, and everyone gets the full share.

This is the "Wing Mission" that we used to do before WING MISSIONS were a thing. Unfortunately both are slightly bugged in that sometimes it is impossible to DROP on the Wingman's BEACON or NAV-LOCK to lend a hand. It works OK at the NAV Beacon, or in an INTERDICTION, but sometimes when the MISSION SIGNAL SOURCE is near a PLANET, you always end up dropping on the wrong side of the Planet. Bug has been reported numerous times and is an impediment to REAL Wing Assassination Missions as well as the Pseudo-Wing missions.

I thought the rank was based on profit no? So a 2 million assassination is the same for the rank as getting 2 mil in bounties, which takes a lot longer, presumably? If not profit, what raises combat rank?

Combat rank is raised some fractional percent for every ship killed with larger fractional amounts when the ship killed is a Higher Combat Rank. That's why it gets harder to raise Combat Rank as the levels increase because there are fewer ships at or above your rank, and the percentage is reduced. Probably takes as long to get from DEADLY to ELITE as it did from MOSTLY HARMLESS to DEADLY or near it.


http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com/wiki/Combat

Excellent thanks. Rank only seems to go up when cashing in, so I assumed it was tied to the money. Thanks Recluse for clearing it up.

Yes I am in his PG. I should show up with my super-vulture

I could have sworn I have seen my Combat Rank go up in the RES zones before cashing in... TRADE/EXPLORATION ranks require turning in the missions, of course but I don't think you need to turn in Bounties...

Recluse is correct. Combat rank increases as you make your kills, not when you turn in bounties. I was in the middle of a bounty hunt CG when I got the mail notification of elite status.