What am I supposed to be doing?

[NottedOkenStaf]

Total noob (obviously). I played through the tutorial missions. Since then I've run four delivery missions. (That's all they give me.) The wingman that I picked up during the tutorial just told me that I wasn't a good leader and left. Then the next government guy I talked to told me I should live a "more active lifestyle." Apparently, my ranger rating is lower than it should be.

What am I supposed to be doing?

None of the planets I land on have trade goods worth buying. I'm afraid to get into battles because I'm still in the ship that almost got toasted by the automated drone in the tutorial. (I've gotten it some frag cannons, and replaced some of the components with smaller versions.) Anyway ships I've seen blow up never seem to leave worthwhile salvage (a whole bunch of fuel tanks which you'd really think would be the first things to blow up).

I just got really excited because I picked up some nodes, but I don't know what to do with them. You can give them to science stations to speed research, right? But which station should I give them to, or should I keep for myself? Will I want them later?

I get that you start the game a sucky pilot in a sucky ship. That's a given, but I'm not sure what I need to do to get unsucky or why people keep giving me attitude about my lifestyle.

[Sabre One]

The trick is just doing a bit of everything at once. Don't be afraid to take out a loan now and then to afford some betterr equipment, since a regular one can be paid off in a couple of quest. Abuse the crap out of your afterburners as well, as they let you take more risk attacking ships your not 100% sure you can really kill. I think the biggest thing is salvage everything even fuel tanks, it doesn't add up a lot. But it will pay for all the repairs and fuel you use which leaves any other credits you earn as purer profit.

If you want a bit of a boost at the beginning, go and join the pirate faction and you get a nice 500 mass ship. You can simply leave the faction again at the same time as well.

Research is universal, so it speeds up the overall research reguardless I believe. Nodes can be used to buy programs from pirates(used to screw with dominators, you will need the communication one first however). You can also turn them into the ranger station for a better rating and to buy micromodules. I personally use them for research or to get programs from pirates. As my rating in the rangers usually is fine with just fighting and doing ranger things.

[HeirtotheStar]

I've always started with trading, Medical Supplies or Technics at very first then Luxury. You could also try Weapons or Narcotics but they are illegal at almost planets....The key is to use search for lowest selling price and highest buying price(have to paid 3 credits). Battling is like a joke when you are 0 exp with low tech weapons though using missles might get better results but end up bad or hostile relationship with planets which is not good idea at first part of game(Coaltion Forces dominate too little systems).

[NottedOkenStaf]

Originally posted by HeirtotheStar:

I've always started with trading

As a veteran of space sims like this, that's what I expected. And I've heard other people say they've done that successfully, but I don't see how. I started on easy difficulty which gives traders a boost too, but since I finished the tutorial I have not seen a trade good with the 3 thumbs up indicating a good buying price. I've found the information station price list, but it's awful hard to read. I once located a good price on it and went to that planet only to discover that the price had changed. I guess someone else bought it.

[HeirtotheStar]

I don't rely on that 3 thumbs up because from my experiences they are not the lowest buying price, use search instead. And for trading, you need engine with fastest speed at the moment - buy the best one and focus upgrade on speed.

Also when you reach systems you can scan planets too see the selling price(is it still high) or it become out of stock.

[Ballsm]

The great thing about this game is that there's tons to do and you can do any of it with new character. Once you learn the mechanics of the game the options are almost endless. Find something you enjoy and have fun