Confusing advice, not enough internal slots, what ship to buy?

[noxteryn]

Hello!

I'm new to this game, I play exclusively pacifist solo and I just got my first million space dollars, but I'm not sure how to continue. I've read plenty of tutorials, but their advice is kinda confusing, because everyone says I should get a bunch of stuff that I have no way of having at the same time. For example:

• Get a fuel scoop, so you don't run out of fuel.
  
• Get a refinery, so you can mine.
  
• Get an autodock computer, so you can dock easily.
  
• Get a cabin, so you can carry passengers.
  
• Get a cargo rack, so you can carry things.
  
• Get a discovery scanner, so you don't have to use the nav beacon.
  
• Get a surface scanner, so you can scan planets.

How am I supposed to have all these things? All the ships that are affordable to me seem to only have like one or two spare slots max. Currently, I'm flying without shields just so I can have a refinery.

Can anyone recommend a ship with plenty of slots for me to buy, so I can have all these things? Or maybe I'm missing something. Any help will be appreciated. Thanks in advance!

[Straight White Male]

1st - don't try and do everything all at once.
Pick one thing and see how you like it for a bit.

Try doing some data delivery missions. If you like those, try cargo.
If not, try mining or exploring....just not too far. :)

About ships.......try as many out asap to see what ones feel the best to you.
If you skip a bunch, you will just be back later.

[xPEDx]

With only 1 mill in credits its not much. i would buy the cobra 3, and just do data deliveries until you can afford something better, a cobra can do combat pretty well. If you want to do mining then you would be better with the t6 (type 6 transport) which has a better internals for mining , it also has a good jump range . its sister the Keelback has a fighter bay which can also be used as a cargo bay or what ever you need on size 5 slot.

[Agony_Aunt]

There are really no ships you can outfit to do everything at once. You don't need a fuel scoop unless travelling long distances. You only need a refinery for mining.

Having just one ship for all tasks is not only a pain in outfitting different loadouts when you want to change what you are doing, but you might not always want to use the same ship for all tasks.

Now, i'm a bit crazy and often have identical ships for different tasks, but they are separate ships.

If you want to run a single ship with different loadouts then you want something that has plenty of internals. Its not going to be optimal though.

With a million credits you are limited in choice anyway. I'd say the Cobra Mk4 but you won't have access to that. The Viper Mk4 can do combat and other roles and has plenty of internals.

Later on, when you have more money, you will find running multiple ships the better choice though. Maybe an Eagle for courier runs. A dolphin or Orca for passenger runs. A vulture or better for combat. etc.

[grapplehoeker]

Are you going to mine, carry passengers, or explore? You can certainly specialise your early ships for one or possibly two of these activities, but not all three. So choose what it is you want to use the ship for ;)
If you mine, then you'll need every available optional internal for mining gear and cargo, including both prospector limpets and collector limpets. You'll also need seismic chargers, abrasion blasters and maybe sub-surface displacement missiles.
If you're going to be a passenger service then you need to equip the passenger cabins and perhaps a variety of classes/sizes of them so that you can accommodate larger travel parties and perhaps more than one if they're going in the same direction. You really won't want weapons because most passengers don't like to be involved in combat.
If you're going to explore then you need to travel light, so you'll only need fuel scoop, scanners and plenty of patience.
So, you kit out your ship for the purpose you intend for it.
Since you're a pacifist, then there's no need to consider any of the ships designed for combat. Consider a ship and outfit it for speed, so you can get away fast, in which case, I'd recommend a Krait Phantom as a medium size. It's pretty quick, has plenty of slots for equipment and it's relatively cheap.
When you change your mind and want to do something else, either use another ship or if you want to use the same one, then simply store any unnecessary equipment at a station and you can always refit it later. Even if you're far from where you stored it, you can request the station you're at to transfer stuff to you for a small fee and a wait time dependent on the distance.... good for taking a break to make coffee or something to eat ;)
Hope that helps ;)

[Maxpowerammo]

You don't need to have all these things on one ship, only take what you'll need to do whatever you plan on doing.

If you're never far from inhabited space, you won't need a fuel scoop, however carrying one when you're just starting out is recommended, you can scoop fuel from O, B, A, F, G, K and M stars with a fuel scoop.
If you don't plan on going mining, leave the refinery behind. If you can dock without much trouble, leave the docking computer behind, etc.

The Cobra MkIII is a nice ship to upgrade to out of the Sidewinder, however 1 mil is not enough to get all the equipment you want and upgrade the ship's internals.
A ship's initial purchase price is misleading, while the Cobra is 350k to buy, it can cost upwards of 6 mil just to get A rated components for it, and you'll also want some money leftover to cover insurance in case you get killed in it.

When I was starting out I just did data runs and cargo runs, upgrading my Sidewinder as I had money to do so.
I eventually bought a Cobra and started doing black box missions mostly since they payed around 1 mil to just go find 4 pieces of cargo somewhere (although sometimes I'd get jumped by 4 ships at once and had to get out quickly), but otherwise I did a little bit of everything in the Cobra.

Just find something you want to do, and outfit your ship for it. If you find something that you really like doing, you can eventually buy a specialized ship for the task (a fighter for combat, a cargo ship for hauling, etc).

Edit: It's worth noting that there are large PvE-only private groups out there that you can join if you want to meet other people without the risk of being killed randomly by another player. A well-known one is Mobius PvE https://elitepve.com

[tomg2012]

You can store the things you buy so you can swap them out when you need them. If you’re going long distance, fuel scoop. If you’re going to fight ships, Hull reinforcements, etc...

[ExtremelyMift69]

Do the smaller jobs to begin with, data run & small cargo run. Cargo runs are of two types i) go deliver this and, ii) go find this and bring it back (you'll find something called EDDB very useful for finding what ever's being asked for, just google EDDB, download & install). It's also worth staying in one system to rank up with the controlling faction. The higher your rank the greater the payouts for work done. Try to pick a boom system controlled by either the Empire, Federation or Alliance and stay until you're allied. If you rank up in Empire or Federation you will eventually be offered a Naval rank up. These naval ranks give you access to ships unavailable to the lower ranks. Alliance has no naval ranking. Fly safe Cmdr and have fun. o7

[malorob]

https://beta.coriolis.edcd.io/outfit/adder

use this tool to work out what sort of build or ship you want.

[T-Bone Biggins]

Combat, passenger, mining, or exploration are the typical career paths people set a ship up for in this game. A Cobra Mk3 is a decent choice to save up for because if you A-rate it's internals (with a Class D life support for lighter weight) you can set it up for any of those jobs and it won't fail you. Just remember to only set up for one job at a time.

If you want to try your hand at dogfighting and make decent money collecting bounties I suggest you fully A-rate a Viper Mk3. Slap on bi-weave shields, 2 medium gimbal multi-cannons and 2 small gimbal pulse lasers, a single module reinforcement and then a bunch of hull reinforcements. This thing at a high REZ site can make you a lot of money and earn your rebuy in just a few minutes, just remember to use the lateral and horizontal thrusters along with the main throttle and think of it as maneuvering a helicopter more than a plane.

[Cerealkiller1]

Buy the Cobra MK3 as several people mentioned, You don't need to A-rate it, just A-rate the FSD and run cargo missions (all you need are cheap cargo racks). I probably wouldn't even add weapons, no need to fight pirates, just add shield boosters and run like hell. Pick a system that you want to call home for a while and get allied with several fractions (once you are allied mission payouts are larger). You can run simple data or cargo deliver missions until the cows come home.

PS: My first ship purchase was the Cobra and I keep it all the way until I earned around $55 million before I bought a 2nd ship (ASPX). I liked it that much!

[Forrest Gimp]

I personally recommend Viper MKIV for new players, as it was absolute blessing for me. It is true early game multi-purpose ship with ton of module space for a small vessel, can defend itself very well, and you can slowly just build it up however you want. If you don't go for A-rating it asap, but stick with B-D models, that would be reasonable pricing and will allow you pretty good flexibility.

I'd also recommend Cobra MKIV along with Viper over Cobra MKIII, but for some stupid reason devs still don't wanna unlock this ship...

[Vurrath]

this might sound *facepalm*-simple, but could you have simply not noticed, that you can replace or remove slots? or, not-noticed how-to / where-to ?

Frontier assumes you'll screw around, trying things, and discover basic stuff by yourself a lot of the time. there's few tutorials for basic stuff, or at least they're not in the in-game tutorials.

-----------

There is no VISIBLE remove or replace ... 'button'.

it is a window-pop-up-menu, after you hit enter when having moved the cursor/highlighter to the slot, in each menu - optional, utility, whatever.

like in this image,.. clicking on the highlighted slot on the left, opened the menu on the right.

[ https://drive.google.com/open?id=1vO36dihneRIliOcxv7_PErEY5BgeRebm ]

[AISTHESIS]

You are the only player I have ever known to state playing completely pacifist. I am doing the same now. There is plenty of good advice here already. Fly safe o7

[Blackfyre]

Put modules into storage instead of selling them, especially A and D rated. Keep the E rated after buying, if you sell the ship, refit it with E rated modules before you sell it and keep the A and D rated. Very important once you play with engineered modules.
If you are trading and mining, there is no need for weapons, as mentioned already.
Find a good system, Federation or Empire will automatically give you ranks, and access to Faction specific ships.
Find a system with Pristine Icy rings somewhere and make it your base for a while.
You can keep changing your activity based on your mood.
Cargo, Data, Mining, Surface mats in SRV, and so on.
Also doing powerplay for a month gives you access to special modules only available from certain leaders. Worth looking into, especially prismatic shields and a few others. Some are weapons and therefore not interesting to you.

[grapplehoeker]

Originally posted by AISTHESIS:

You are the only player I have ever known to state playing completely pacifist. I am doing the same now. There is plenty of good advice here already. Fly safe o7

Oh? I would have thought that there were many. In any case, I don't take part in combat and the only reason for my 'Mostly Harmless' ranking is due to having destroyed Guardian Sentinels.
I'm currently a Ranger Broker and I've never needed to engage in any combat to enjoy this game.