Logged on last night with a purpose, a definitive goal. I gave in to the grind, and it was glorious. OK, well, maybe not, but it was very productive. I decided yesterday that I would get myself a freighter. And not just any old garbage scow, but the pinnacle of the class, the Imperial Cutter. But it is rank-locked of course. You gots to be Duke, and not a lowly Count, as I was. So the goal became to find a way to gain those three ranks, as fast and as painlessly as possible.
So I took Parabellum, my rumble bus Krait with newly-minted SuperDrives™, 200 light years deeper in to Empire space, to a few outposts in the middle of nowhere. The number of courier and sensitive data missions on the boards is insane. I set up triangle trade between three close stations. Stacked some missions and promptly got interdicted by a deadly FDL on the first one. Submit and scoot and I was on the way. As I stopped at each station I saw that there are zero passenger missions going to the places the courier missions are for. So having the bus was pointless. After the run-in with the FDL I decided to do this in a better combat ship. But outposts have no shipyard, and no transfer. So I flew 120 light years to the closest orbital, whistled for Poison Whiskey, and then walked the dog for most of the 30 minutes to would take to arrive (1.1m transfer, spaceway robbery I tell ya!)
Once it did I resumed the triangle, stacking a hell of a lot of missions, often 20 at a time. I found this is Elite's mission limit haha. I took any on the board for either of the other two stations, and this way just kept docking and launching, for several hours. These missions are all either Rep+ or Rep++ so not much help, but when you are turning them in at a such a rate the superpower rank climbs quickly. Before long I was Earl, and by the end of the session (1 AM!) I docked for the night at 14% Marquis. So just 86% more of Marquis to hit Duke and unlock the Imperial Cutter. That won't take but an hour or two.
I'm staunchly anti-grind, but here I found it necessary with such a goal, and anyway, spending three or four hours total doing the same thing is more like micro-grind in the grand scheme, isn't it? And because progress was so quick and immediately obvious, it spurred me on. If I hadn't needed to work today I would have kept right on going.
It's funny, but after the FDL and changing ships I got interdicted just one more time, in dozens of runs. That was a Deadly Conda who was kind enough to drop a PI! I also started hitting some HGEs, but it's all Imperial Shielding, and I didn't have the foresight to clear out that bin at the trader a couple days back. Anyway, if all goes to plan, I'll be flying a tricked out Cutter back from the Imperial dealer in Shinrarta tonight!
One other thing.... I am beginning to resent carriers. Nothing against the ship, but I am starting to be fed up with what they do to system maps and especially the navigation panel. A hundred carriers to sort through just to find the HGE I am trying to target. I tried filtering them out, but if it is possible I didn't see how. Gotta be a way. If I could get rid of all of them aside from Angband that would be swell. By the way Bo, I stopped by during the last CG and dropped a small load of tritium. Is there a way I can see from a different system how full your fuel tank is?
