Elite Dangerous Catch-All

Papageno wrote:

Big +1 to what zeroKFE wrote, especially the part about not selling your metals before first going to the BB and signing up for the community goal. Due to n00bness I missed out on (as it turned out) 10 MILLION credits I could have made for participating in the recent CG in Achenar thanks to selling the goods before signing up. By the time I made it back the next day the CG was over.

Well, that was very interesting. I interrupted some boring PP trucking to move a few tons of metals over to Kooshpoos.

After about 120T I was in the top 70% (worth 7M CR right now). I hauled a few more loads (60T capacity) and dropped a total of about 300T. Still top 70%.

I was flying in the Mobius PvE group, and there were a bunch of commanders there. At one point there were nine other commanders in the same instance with me! I don't think I've ever seen that many around before. It made me a little nervous even though it is a PvE group. I've never been so careful going in and out of a station.

Someone asked on comms how much was needed to get the next level (top 40%), and the response was about 900+ T. I don't think I'll be moving that much metal tonight, so hopefully my paltry 300T will keep me in the top 70%.

While I was there someone came in and dropped off 2T, so that's profit of at least 1.5M CR per ton for him. He's hoping a bunch of people drop off 1T so that he moves up.

The CG was still at the 7th tier, but more than half-way to the 8th. There is a day left in the CG, but I think it will expire before that.

WTF?

I drag my ass half way across the map to Robigo for the community goal. There's only a couple of days left, but I figure it's got to be worth something. When I get there, there's only one "low intensity resource extraction site". I camp out for a while and get two bounties.

Ah well, at least I can get on the board.

When I get to Robigo Mines, there's no community goal in the Bulletin Board and all I get is 48K for my bounties.

It looks like the CG finished early. They do that? Well, that sucks!

Life as an independent bounty hunter just 'aint all it's cracked up to be!

Yeah, community goals can either complete by time expiring or by the end goals being reached, whichever comes first. Once they start to get close to the end, they tend to accelerate and finish faster.

I spent a while at the CG trying to bump myself up to 40%. I stopped at around 680 because it was after midnight and I had to work today, so I guess I came in at 70%. I won't argue with 7 million though.

I found a good loop between Kaushpoos and Wolf 335 (three jumps fully loaded for me). Was buying Indium in Wolf and Advanced Catalysers in Kaushpoos and (at the end) making about 170k per loop. Probably won't work if the CG is over since Kaushpoos won't be buying that much metal anymore, but I made enough that about halfway through the night I bought a Type 6. 100 tons at a time was fun. Sounds like I should have stayed up another hour and made another 3 or 4 loops.

Is the Kaushpoos one complete? I was hoping to get into it tonight, but I doubt it will last that long. Plus trying to get there from Orcus in my Python will take foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Going forward, what's the best way to stay on top of these Community Goals?

Bear wrote:

Going forward, what's the best way to stay on top of these Community Goals?

Check this link every once in a while.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...

You can also check the launcher - there's usually a link on there to the current CG list on the community site.

Bear wrote:

Going forward, what's the best way to stay on top of these Community Goals?

23 posts earlier on the same page I wrote:

As for how to keep on top of what's going on, the official Frontier community site posts information, and the in game GalNet news generally features stories that will point you towards places where goals are happening. However, probably the best resource (currently, at least) is the following SubReddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteCG/
Check in a few times a week and you'll always be on top of what money making opportunities are currently available.

2 posts later Carlbear95 wrote:

If you're like me and hate sifting through reddit, there's always an updated post on current CG's and their progress on the forums here

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...

The OP is always updated. This is thread #3, as there is a maximum size, but I find it easier than other sources.

zeroKFE wrote:

23 posts earlier on the same page I"]As for how to keep on top of what's going on, the official Frontier community site posts information, and the in game GalNet news generally features stories that will point you towards places where goals are happening. However, probably the best resource (currently, at least) is the following SubReddit:
https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteCG/
Check in a few times a week and you'll always be on top of what money making opportunities are currently available.

Was I supposed to go back and read all your posts?

Was I supposed to go back and read all your posts?

Maybe just the one on the most recent page of the thread that was specifically about community goals.

Asterith wrote:

Is the Kaushpoos one complete? I was hoping to get into it tonight, but I doubt it will last that long. Plus trying to get there from Orcus in my Python will take foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Was not complete as of 9 pm PST last night, but was on the last tier.

mguenther wrote:
Asterith wrote:

Is the Kaushpoos one complete? I was hoping to get into it tonight, but I doubt it will last that long. Plus trying to get there from Orcus in my Python will take foreverrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

Was not complete as of 9 pm PST last night, but was on the last tier.

From discussion in the threads, it will be ending any minute now.

zeroKFE wrote:
Was I supposed to go back and read all your posts?

Maybe just the one on the most recent page of the thread that was specifically about community goals. ;)

I'm always looking forward, I never look back!

Seriously, my bad, I didn't realize it was on the same page. I thought you were referencing something on page 232.

No worries -- we're all filthy skimmers from time to time.

Bear is a shark. Sharks don't swim read backwards.

zeroKFE wrote:

From discussion in the threads, it will be ending any minute now.

I see an emerging pattern in which trade CG's succeed wildly when I can't sit down and play, while combat CG's languish after I join them and end up offering minimal bonus payouts.

misplacedbravado wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

From discussion in the threads, it will be ending any minute now.

I see an emerging pattern in which trade CG's succeed wildly when I can't sit down and play, while combat CG's languish after I join them and end up offering minimal bonus payouts.

Yeah, that's why these days I generally wait until a goal reaches its first or second tier, then evaluate whether it's worth visiting. At that point you can usually extrapolate from the early tier rewards what the final ones might be (although sometimes reaching the final tier gives an unexpectedly huge increase), and you can get an idea from how long it took to get to the first tier or two whether or not it's likely to finish. It's not an exact science for sure, and sometimes you can miss out on the early super profitable rush on trade goals by waiting, but most of the time it can keep you from investing time in a goal that's not really going places.

misplacedbravado wrote:
zeroKFE wrote:

From discussion in the threads, it will be ending any minute now.

I see an emerging pattern in which trade CG's succeed wildly when I can't sit down and play, while combat CG's languish after I join them and end up offering minimal bonus payouts.

I think this trade CG in particular went well because metals can be pretty high profit. If you mine, its 100% profit, just trading you can be easily clearing 1500cr/ton moving metals (I didn't participate so no idea how much the system was paying). Compare that to a trade CG where you have to bring "animal meat" and your profit potential is probably less than 100cr/ton. End reward aside, I can do a lot better with a regular trade route than that.

Trade is also relatively easy compared to combat. While my Python may outgun your Cobra... i'm not sure its 4x or 5x faster. My tradaconda can move 430+ tons each run which is 4x an asp/T6 and almost 10x something smaller, so given a choice, I'll take a relatively riskless and fast action that I know I can excel at.

Personally, I like the bounty hunting CGs the best. Good excuse to do combat and I like the whole art of the hunt.

Updated OP with zero's info and links on CG's

Wayfarer wrote:

Updated OP with zero's info and links on CG's

Since you've linked directly to the post, I updated it to add a few points of clarification about when you get your reward. Also, I added a link at the end to this much more thorough guide to how CGs work:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showth...

Kaushpoos is done.

I got 10 million bonus for top 40%. Not bad. Probably made around 15 million all up with rewards+Profits and it really wasn't that much work - 2 or 3 holds of mined metals plus about 3 runs of purchased metal in a python.

Yeah, I got 8 million for 70%; probably around 10 million total. I'll have to keep an eye out for CGs; I didn't realize how lucrative they were.

Flew my Cobra back to Orcus. Will probably pick up a Sidewinder later tonight to fly back to Kaushpoos to pick up my Type 6. Need to get a paint job for it too...

The recent Empire CG was my favorite so far. Unlocked all the Imperial ships without having to rank up and got me 20 million on top of that to pay for them.

tanstaafl wrote:

Yeah, I got 8 million for 70%; probably around 10 million total. I'll have to keep an eye out for CGs; I didn't realize how lucrative they were.

I also ended up with the 8M CR.

Stupid me, though, had not traded in a long while. I also hadn't planned on taking more than one load over, so did not spend much time to figure out how to maximize profit on the metals I brought. So, I didn't make much more than the 8M, but I guess I will just have to be happy with that.

Seems I missed out on some good CG fun.... Leaving Hong Kong in a bit for the 15 hour flight back home. Hopefully I can sleep on the flight and play when I get home... No really, I am a grown up.

2 new CG's in Kaushpoos. Link. Reddit Thread.

First is a Bounty Hunting CG. Turn in Bounties to Neville Horizons.

Second is a mining CG. Total tons of Palladium delivered to Neville Horizons. It's been proven that it needs to be mined, not just delivered. Several Pristing Metallic belts in the surrounding areas. Best bet is 38 Lyncis. Marina Mining Corp is there (Player Faction).

EDIT: Subreddit devoted to CG's

I switched my Python to be closer to a hunter class link here, and most importantly stuck on 6A thrusters from 6C. Man, I'm not sure if its because I've been flying my anaconda for the last week or so, but it felt like I was in a Cobra again. Taking off from the landing pad towards the exit of the station I thought I was going to smash into the wall it was so fast.

Basically went from 200t capacity down to 100 or so by moving my shield cell from a 4A up to 6C, and dropping in a size 5 fuel scoop. I did buy an auto maintenance unit, but maybe I don't get how it works... I have to go to the Modules tab toggle it to repair, which actually shuts the module down? Then when its done repairing I have to go back in and turn it on? Which means you can't acutally repair your powerplant or thrusters or shields as shutting those down is not a good idea.

Also, with 6A thrusters and added manueverability, if I want to go full on hunter/fighter is it worth dropping a shield booster (i run 2x A class now), to put in a heat sink?

Vrooom!

Carlbear95 wrote:

I switched my Python to be closer to a hunter class link here, and most importantly stuck on 6A thrusters from 6C. Man, I'm not sure if its because I've been flying my anaconda for the last week or so, but it felt like I was in a Cobra again. Taking off from the landing pad towards the exit of the station I thought I was going to smash into the wall it was so fast.

No kidding, right? And then you go back to even an Asp, and the difference is even crazier. Still, though, I'll stick to my heavily shielded murder machines, I think.

Basically went from 200t capacity down to 100 or so by moving my shield cell from a 4A up to 6C, and dropping in a size 5 fuel scoop.

About a month or so back I encountered a very interesting post on reddit analyzing shield cell banks in general, and in the specific context of usage in a Python. Annoyingly, it appears I didn't save the post, nor can I find it, but if memory and a quick look at values on coriolis.io serve, here was the thrust of it:

EDIT: Found it! And here is the guy's spreadsheet with the data behind the information.

- As you step up in size, shield cell banks get better optimized in terms of power usage per recharge.

- You also (obviously) get more recharge per individual cell bank.

- However, they lose efficiency in terms of recharge per weight, and per credit spend on the cell bank.

So, on ships where you have a tight power budget (i.e., most combat ships, particularly Vultures and FDLs) you probably do want to shove in the biggest banks possible and use them one at a time. But, on ships with power (and internal compartments) to spare like the Python and Anaconda, you are often better served by coming up with some pairing of smaller banks and firing them all at once.

His suggested build was for an extreme scenario optimized for farming combat zones, where he had two sets of 2x3B+2x2B (i.e., firing four cells at once, and when he ran through one set of four banks he had four more to power on to keep going). Of course, there are certainly problems associated with firing four at once -- most notably, they generate pretty extreme amounts of heat. But if you look at the numbers, you can see that even firing two 2Bs at once generates a hair more recharge per press than one 6B, and at a tiny fraction of the cost and with 1/8 the weight. And two 3Bs are significantly more recharge for not much more money, and still only 1/4 the weight.

Anyway, it's well worth experimenting with and seeing what you can squeeze in on the power budget allowed by your chosen hard points, etc.

For what it's worth, here's roughly what I'm currently running on my Python. This is meant to be a capable of any kind of fighting or running any non-mining bulletin board mission without any refitting. It certainly could be slightly better optimized for any one kind of gameplay, and it would be even more flexible if I was willing to drop another 45 million to jump up to an A grade power plant, but as is it will do fine for anything that's not PvP. (I do frequently vacillate between the laser turrets and gimballed multi cannons for my size 2 weapons, depending on whether or not I want to have to go back to rearm when doing extended combat sessions. Also, I frequently switch between chaff and a shield booster because I really struggle to make up my mind about what I prefer there.)

For the shield cells, I opted for two pairs of 4B+3B banks. Each press recharges between a third and a half of my entire shield pool, which isn't bad given how big the shields are, but obviously it could be better. (If I wanted to carry a better interdictor unit, by the way, I would switch to a size 3 or 4, and then have my backup shield cell banks be either 4B+2B or 3B+2B, rather than a full second set of 4B+3B).

I did buy an auto maintenance unit, but maybe I don't get how it works... I have to go to the Modules tab toggle it to repair, which actually shuts the module down? Then when its done repairing I have to go back in and turn it on? Which means you can't acutally repair your powerplant or thrusters or shields as shutting those down is not a good idea.

Yeah, they certainly are a bit limited in their utility. You aren't really meant to use them in combat, and they can't repair your powerplant or hull. I definitely would equip them on an exploration ship, where most of the damage you are likely to take is cooking random internals by overheating, but on a combat ship, well, I feel like I have better uses for the internal compartment given the restricted utility of the repair unit. (And as you see above, I don't carry one on my Python.)

Also, with 6A thrusters and added manueverability, if I want to go full on hunter/fighter is it worth dropping a shield booster (i run 2x A class now), to put in a heat sink?

I would only switch to a heat sink if I was doing a lot of smuggling missions. Otherwise, shields remain king in my mind.