How it turns out, this game session, I acted so dumb in many ways that you could really wonder if I ever even played Elite beta1 before.
Starting at Chango Dock in I-Bootis, I immediately find two missions which lead me to BD+47 2112. On my way there, I stop in Aulin at Aulin Enterprises. No more missions to the same location to grab there, what a pity. Checking the shipyard, I realize that I could already afford a Cobra. It is almost similar to my beta1 ventures, where I completely forgot about the Cobra and was well underway in my Hauler. This time, too, I feel sentimental about the Hauler and want to stick to it a bit longer. Most missions do not require big cargo hold, anyways.
- night sky, in the shadow of a planet; impressive and very moody!
I also realize that Aulin Enterprises has, finally, some things in supply. E.g. performance enhancers; those were requested quite frequently in some missions. So I preemtively buy 5 of them, to fill my remaining cargo hold, in case such a mission pops up again. Unfortunately, with this I shot myself in the foot again. With a cargo hold filled to the brim, my jump range is too short to actually make it to CD+47 2112. Jeez, I better call myself Falkennoob, I really should have known better. However, I remember that performance enhancers were in demand at Chango Dock. So I backtrace there. This again is interrupted by a crash when exiting hyperjump, and then about 12 minutes of "docking request denied", and to add insult to the injury, around minute 8 warps in a CMDR Backer#xyz and docks in front of my nose!
- sun is raising on the planet; equally impressive scenery!
Only a relog finally alleviates this issue. Finally selling the performance enhancers yield me 1000 Credits. Well, at least I can mark this night in my calender, as beta2 would finally actually let me access commodities for trading! I do not buy new stuff because I want to be light on cargo to finally make my jump to BD+47 2112. However, I notice some "stolen" goods in my cargo hold. Uh? Where do they come from? Then I remember having read about it in the ED forum; when a transport mission expires, the goods stay in my hold as stolen goods. I see, so this must be still from last game session, where I did not complete the last mission.
I jettison the stolen stuff immediately after launch, right in the docking entrance, for fun. Haha, the joke is on me; Chango Dock has no humor and fines me 330 Credits for each unit, 1650 Credits. Just to make sure, I check if the expired mission must be still in my log. No, only the current two. When closing the menu entry, I mis-type and whooops, only one mission to BD+47 2112 is left. Sigh. This is not my night, I guess. With just one measly courier mission for 4000 Credits left, I abandon also this one and decide to start anew.
Check cash. 273k Credits. Good. In order to get a bit away from the old beta1 space bubble, I continue to Rakapila.Bradfort Orbital offers missions to Keries. And missions to Keries. And missions to Keries. Every time I accept a mission, the list gets filled up again with a mission to Keries. Stroke of luck, I guess! In the end, I have 14 missions to Keries in my book and look forward to get there. Yeah well, if it would be that easy. Galaxy map tells me "out of range". Nooooooo!
But I get lucky again. Checking outfitting, there is a frameshift drive for 160k Credits. It is class D and improves my optimal tonnage from 48 tons to 90 tons, and guess what, I do have the cash to buy it. Yay! But then, the outfit data gives me a range of 10 ly only. I had expected more... still not enough to get to Kerries! Then I see an option: My fuel tank has 4 tons capacity, and Rakapila has one for 2 tons only to offer. I never use up all fuel so I downgrade to have less mass on my ship and more jump range. Bingo. 11,11 ly, finally enough for Keries! And still 139k Credits cash left.
- Lakon Type 9, it will still take a bit until CMDRs will sit in one of them
When I want to initiate hyperjump, I get another bug. The control light for "mass lock" does not disappear and my frameshift drive does not react. A relog resets this. Finally in Keries, those 14 missions yield me enough profit to have now 193k Credits. And another positive surprise. After having unloaded everything, the ship description suddenly updates my jumprange: Freaking 34 ly when empty, 23 when fully loaded!!! Galaxy, here I come!!!
But suddenly, in a very noobish way, I get a change of heart and want to fly a Cobra. Yeah, I know, I guess I was pretty chaotic in this game session. Found a shiny cool frameshift drive and sell it the next moment. Somehow in the back of my mind, I half counted it to be transferred to the Cobra, I guess. Which is of course not the case.
So. Back to 10,46 ly jump range empty, 9,78ly full. I am still dumbfounded about this descision of mine. So here I am in a Cobra. I get as much cargo racks as I can and get a cargo capacity of overal 24 units. Underwhelming, and for this I sold a Hauler with 18 tons capacity and a far superiour jump range. Sigh.
There are a lot of missions which involve fetching coffee, tea and animal meat. This I will for sure get from agriculture-systems. So I accept all I can get. Yes, guess what. I visit about 4 agricultural systems, and none of them has any supply. According to the galaxy trade view, Magec, Eranin and Wyrd should have coffee. But nothing on Magec and Eranin. In between, I accept some transport missions to Chi Hercules, which I forget to turn in and thus have to fly back to. I also check every dock for new equipment for my ship and use the occasions to downgrade again the fuel tank and sell all guns; I am a full blood mission transporter right now. Interdictions did and do not happen, so nothing to worry. However, jump range increas is only minimal; 10,88/10 ly.
A bit resigned I settle into a mission grind routine. This brings me also to Wyrd and Lalande, where I am finally a bit lucky again to stack transport/courier missions between those two. I also start to take note of the supply I see in the commodity market. Yes, somehow, commodities suddenly seem to appear, also in places where there was nothing before offered the past three days. Also Lalande is a system which requires explorations, and I can sell a bit of data (bug: "sell all data" does not work, you have to sell one by one). My mission route repeats and revolves around those two systems, with the occasional excursion to Aulin, where I can buy commodities for some fetch missions.
After a long game session, I have at least achieved some level of success. In addition to a Cobra, i have now some 350k Credits on my cash account. However, a better frameshift drive (class 4 is needed) for my Cobra is more expensive then the one for the Hauler (class 2 was needed), the next one I could find was at Aulin for 500k Credits. So still a long way to go. But not tonight anymore.
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