I really enjoy the combat. The rank is just arbitrary anyway, but it gives me a goal. I'd still be flying combat even if there were no combat rank at all. It's fun. I enjoy outfitting ships and engineering them too, and combat gives me that whole thing to consider as well when doing the builds. If you're not in to it that's cool, and one of Elite's strengths is allowing the player to go about things however he sees fit.

As for my goals.... I want to hit triple elite and own every ship in the game 'Bout time I bought a new one anyway lol. I'm on eight, so yeah, gotta spend some space ducats.

Got to alliance with, err, the Alliance yesterday. Nothing comes of it as far as I can tell. Now up to 30% Pioneer. I still can't get over how Chucky made such short work of this one

I may have an advantage over you. I'm single and retired. I put in 3-4 days of nothing but scanning planets using the Route to Riches tool.

I did notice that although the tool may only list a certain number of bodies to scan,there were others that were worth scanning as long as it didn't drag me too far from the listed ones. Plus,because of my jump range I often had 3-4 jumps to get to the next system the tool listed so I scanned those on the way. Also,I got really good at it so there was no wasted time. Thanks once again for putting me on to the tool DB

Exploring is also really profitable! There are no expenses involved.When I decided to grind the Fed and Empire ranks I started with about 175 mill credits. After I finished I was at only around 200 mill thanks to all the free Rep+++ missions and the hand-outs. Pushing through Ranger and Pioneer added around 300 mill credits.

Yes, don't think I didn't notice that bank balance.

I won't take this opportunity to suggest a new ship lol.

You may have more free time, but it's more that you dedicated yourself to the pursuit, beyond what I am capable of. Hats off to you Chucky sir.

Man, all that money and so few ships....

Considering that my gaming time has waned recently,I also surprised myself that I was able to do it. I blame you of course

Blame accepted, of course. And happy to have done so. Without you, I'd be basically talking to myself 'round here.

Well damn,I'm back in E:D right now. I can't leave it alone. I'm working on getting access to Sirius so it's off to Avik to rep up with the Sirius Corporation. That's pretty close to Sol btw assuming you're still there so if you need the permit that's where to go. You'll need a ship that can land at an Outpost.

Already got that one mate

Here's what I did.....

You need the Sirius permit to gain access to the engineer Marco Qwent (power plant and distributors). Marco will also tell you about the engineer Professor Palin (FSD and Thrusters), once you hit grade 3.5 rep with him.

Palin requires that you have flown 5000 light years from your starting system before he will talk to you. I did this first. I then used the explo data and sold it at Sothis, which is controlled by the Sirius Corporation. Got allied with them there, and then to Davy Dock in Procyon where I got the Sirius system permit mission.

I then needed to run a few missions that had Modular Terminals as the reward '(to unlock Marco), but this isn't needed for the permit.

So bottom line is, if you have any explo data left, find a station controlled by the Sirius Corp and get rep up that way. Then find the permit mission and it's done.

Yeah,I should have kept some explo data for just such an occasion but all I had was a couple of hundred thousand left. I may go explore for a while to get it because atm the Sirius Corp have me running around looking for commercial samples out in the middle of nowhere.

I'll be honest I didn't know why I was unlocking Sirius,I just saw it was blocked in my contact list and thought 'this looks like a challenge'.

Most of the permit-locked systems are nothing special, in my view. But if it's there....

I unlocked it for the engineer really.

And yes, the route I took was so I did not need to run missions for the rep. Short-tracked.

As I mentioned elsewhere I think it takes roughly 6m to go from neutral to ally. 6m is peanuts for you.

Promoted to Dangerous combat rank.

I'm slowly making my way up the rungs

Not far now then! What ship do you use for combat?

It depends, I use several.

Lately it's been the FDL. But I sometimes use the Courier or the Python.

The FDL is the only ship I currently have fitted as a pure combat vessel. I have two configurations

One for CG bounty hunting and Combat Zones, and one for assassinations.

This is my FDL in assassination trim

Takao

In RES and CZ hunting I swap the FSDI and scoop for 4D HRP and MRP. And I probably have nudged the weapons further down the engineering path since posting the build on Corilolis. But it's still mostly the same. Fast, agile and hits pretty hard. But as with the Python, no armor. With Bi-Weave shields over 1000 mj it's going to be really difficult for the NPCs to collapse it. And once I get around to further engineering the shield boosters it will be even better protected.

I think I'll be buying an Anaconda in the next few days, so will give that a go as well.

I completely forgot about my Vulture. Oh man, poor thing. Gotta get it out of storage and give it a whirl. I need to experiment with some different weapons on that ship. That one is also pure combat of course.

I was going to post a link to my Inara ship hangar in case anyone might want to check out any of my stuff. It appears you need to be logged in to see other commanders though. However while searching my Commander's name I came across this

https://inara.cz/search/?location=search&searchglobal=sinisalo

Looks like I have some checking out to do, and maybe a new home!

I used a Vulture for a while,it's probably the ship I did most of my combat in. After that I stuck to mostly multi-role ships.

Yeah, makes sense.

As my fleet grows I have essentially designated specific roles for all of my ships. This keeps them used, and useful. And cuts down on the re-purposing.

Keelback -- Planetary Lander. Outfitted with SRV and ship launched fighter. Used for raw material gathering and canyon joyrides in the Taipan

Asp X -- Deep Exploration and part-time module shuttle

Courier -- Mat gatherer. Used to investigate USSs and scan wakes

Vulture -- Bounty hunting

Python -- Multi-role. Used mainly for boom time deliveries, and other trading missions. But is sometimes reconfigured for assassinations and bounty hunting

Fer de Lance -- Combat, all types, bounties, assassination, combat zones,

Orca -- Passenger missions. Mostly sightseeing, some transport

Diamondback Explorer -- Bubble-runner, exploration, taxi. 60 jump range is sweet

That's a lot of ships! I have 2. But then again I only do at most 2-3 of those things you listed.

Now, what am I going to use an Anaconda for?

All of that? lol

The answer to the above questions is, yeah pretty much.

Earned Baron rank in the Empire, and can now buy a Clipper, but I spent all my money

I can also gain entry to Summerland now, wherever that might be. Sounds pleasant anyway.