how does everyone make their money?

[DrwHem]

in x3 i made a killing selling weapons, in this game that is not an option so i figured i would go to the next level and sell the ships that carry the weapons.
I have almost the entire production chain from the ground up. i mine the ore and collect the gas. the only thing i import is smart chips and scanning arrays. I made surplus intermediate parts like microchips, quantum tubes ect so i have those stations also set to sell those.
Despite this, if i let the AI just order their own ships and underpay me, i only make around 50 mil or so an hour. if i manually create the ships and manually sell them i can get that up to 75 mil an hour. Nowhere near whats needed for these end game missions where you are giving away hundreds of millions of credits at a time. Just looking for some expansion ideas that require significantly less micro management. The AI STILL wont buy the food or meds on it own.

[BaneBlackGuard]

space truckin and missions mostly, until i can get a station set up. people say mining is the way to go, but that hasn't been my experience. And I don't really like mining. i wait for mining until i have a station set up for it and then let NPC's do it.

it's sounding like you are wanting a way to make tons of money fast rather than knowing how others make their money. if that's the goal there are many mods that make it easier to acquire large amounts quickly.

[StormhawkV]

I collect and sell those SETA components until I can afford a transport (Demeter Sentinel is my favorite) and a corvette (Nemesis Vanguard ftw) which I use to do escort missions in the space of factions which police licenses I own.

Then I invest this money into miners (I prefer the Manorina Sentinel) and a destroyer. Once I have 20-30 running I buy 2-3 large transports (I like the Shuyaku Sentinel) that I use to set up a big factory.

I never felt that you need obscene amounts of production or income in this game as there aren't any ridiculous plots in X4. What was needed was already on my bank account once I got there.

You're right about the ship production and selling them manually tastes a lot like selling Nividium filled ships back in the day. Even though it's much easier in X4 to make money early on, the ways to reach those really high numbers are more limited but as I already said I never felt that this was needed.

Ofc I might just have spent a lot more time exploring the universe and collecting upgrade materials than many other players while my factories were producing. So if you want a higher income, set up more stations/miners.

However, there's a maximum for everything since the demand of the universe isn't infinite. Just use the filter option to find out which wares are most sought-after and then build the stations producing them.

[[Slayer]]

You can make a small space weed/fuel factory in unclaimed sector and get fast scouting ships to trade it for you. Boarding ships is another cheesy way to get credits quickly. Also, selling personal components and making SETA drives to sell can bring in a few million.

Basically, you win the game once you have a closed loop shipyard as you can scale up exponentially from there and a couple L class ships can already take over whole sectors themselves.

I normally have a fleet of miners as well. About 30 of them early game to a hundred for factory needs.

[Oddible]

Never use SETA in this game, so much to do it's so unnecessary.

Early game I farm combat zones for drops. A few easy missions. Then I buy silicon and methane miners and auto mine for the factions.

Mid game I start making intermediate wares at a couple different sites. Hull Parts, etc. Whatever's needed in the area with right production chains.

Late game top end wares and I distribute them widely via Trade Stations as hubs. I don't sell ships to factions unless a faction is really suffering. I hated the money funnel selling ships was before they nerfed it and still don't do it. High end wares is enough for me. I don't my own wharfs and shipyards.

[🎮 PalkoVvodets 🔑]

Originally posted by Oddible:

I hated the money funnel selling ships was before they nerfed it and still don't do it.

Just curious and too lazy to properly test it myself: there is "price for other factions" at Logic overview for each Shipyard/Wharf. Player can set it to 150%. Do people take that setting into account when mentioning for autoselling nerf?

[DrwHem]

im currently selling at 150%. if i let the AI buy a minotaur, for example, they pay me around $600,000. If i make and then manually sell that same ship i get around $1.2 million. so there is definitely a nerf somewhere in the code.

[hurepoix]

May be except at the very beginning of a game, I dont make missions (I cant use words > play missions for that). I even dont understand how people can play missions but it is an other matter.

Most of my money come from my shipyards. Earlier in game I can earn money from mining, including nividium.

I never used nor built SETA before the V4.00. Up to the V3.3 my most used key was pause. After the V3.3 SETA has became a must havem and I often lets game run during work or sleeping time.

[Bozz 💀]

Make money the way you enjoy making money, in my current game I'm playing an architect faction, we have a scrap yard that uses recycled ships as ressource and once processed we build stations for the AI factions, I started low with the war missions that pay around 4-5M and now I build them huge defense stations that get me around 20m each, I also did TOA plot and built a solar power plant in avarice that now makes around 12m / hour and I'm about to build a second scrap yard... very fun way to play

[rudi]

I had (when it’s fun) few large chucks of cash by doing ship delivery missions. When they ask for generic ships, I buy terran ships (PIO if possible, TER if not), and upgrade in equipment dock. They tend to be very expensive so +50% profit adds up a lot.

[Herethos]

Have a couple of fast scout ships on repeat order to collect drops x2-x3 orders near conflict zones then an drop off inventory at HQ order, you'll have millions in items and mod upgrades sitting in the HQ safe, while you're off doing other things.

[arrak]

Full Vanilla here. Playing this playthrough since 6 months now.
Am Not a pirate. But doing very lucritive shady deals with the only pirate faction i like,
to earn my billions. i need for spending.

Have 4 production factories, small. for Advanced electronix, Turret component, and
2 other intermediates thats inportant to me since game start.
Yeh ... minerals and methane is also on the menue

I have really many warehouses.
1) Bulk warehouses all materials for my use only. (as i have a shipyard to build Only for me)
2) Bulk warehouses in main sectors of weak AI, I use as barometers to determine what is
needed for them to recouparate and survive.
3) Bulk warehouses near the AI that become overpowering, to help suck them dry of
key components, to supply the poor "needy" elsewhere. Thus make the strong weak,

In short, to manipulate the strengh of factions to keep the ballance.

As my product aconomy depends on AI. I deviously steer them for me to excecute
"friendly" hits

There are many well "hidden agemdas" in game, to be enjoyed by a master detective

As the "Bozz" said: "Make money the way you Enjoy making money" :D