Find yourself a system that is affiliated with the Major Power you like (Ranking Up Link), and has the type of base you prefer - Coriolis, Ocellus, Outpost. Then settle in for the long term. I prefer the beauty of an Orbis station like ITO. It's fun to fly through the station's rings on your way to dock, looking in on the green fields of crops.
Be aware that there are different types of station interiors as well, based on their function in the galaxy.
(Station photos source: http://elite-dangerous.wikia.com)
Regular:
Wealthy:
Tourism:
Refinery:
Tech:
Agriculture:
You will be jumping to your home station a lot. I mean, a LOT. I mean, "holy shit if I have to jump to this system one more time I'm going to vent the hatches", a lot. So you may want to pick a base that is relatively close to the star where you jump into the system.
Minor Faction Reputation
Each station will have minor (a.k.a. local) factions that operate there. These factions can have presence in more than one station and system. Your goal should be to work for these factions to eventually gain favor with them, and make more money.
Go to either the Mission or Passenger Lounge boards in the Starport Services menu, and you will see all of the local factions listed. Look at the screenshot below. See "East Galaxy Company" listed at the top? Right under "CONTROLLING FACTION" is the reputation meter. It is filled all the way, meaning I am "Allied" with that faction and receive the highest-paying missions from them.
Under the Labour of Rhea faction I have only filled to the next highest reputation section, which means I am "Friendly" with them. And for Rhea Travel Interstellar I have "Cordial" rep.
As you run missions for the same factions over and over, the reputation meter will SLOWLY fill up, allowing you to get access to higher paying missions.
Faction reputation meter:
- Lower fuel and repair costs
Less attention from local enforcers, including your ship being scanned (smugglers rejoice!)- You get more friendly docking messages from friendly stations, and the station shows up green on your HUD
- Allied enforcer ships show up green on your HUD, making it easier to spot friendlies
- If the local faction is affiliated with a major power (look for the Federation or Imperial watermark logo under the faction name), then you are also earning higher reputation and rank with that major power
At times, even with good reputation, the local factions do not offer very high paying missions. When this happens, exit the ship and change your mode from "Open to Solo" or "Solo to Open". This resets the missions board and frequently results in more profitable offerings. With your ship in Open mode, you have a greater chance of encountering a more dangerous level of pirate. But it's a big galaxy, and the dangerous pirates are scattered. And you may also come across some friendly Reddit scholars in this mode. In Solo mode your ship maintains a lower profile, only attracting a lower class of pirate. But you also will not find any scholars to help you on your journey.
Expand Your Home Region
Good advice from fellow blogger Cryptography (http://wowdecrypted.blogspot.com/) regarding expanding outside your home system:
"As a medium term goal, aim for not just a home system, but a home region. Visit many of the systems that your home system generates as mission/passenger destinations, then take any missions that send you back home. Eventually, you will have a network of local systems that all have high faction reputations that you can simply cycle through."
Minor Faction States
You should factor in a station's current "state" when selecting a home station. Pilot activities in a system can affect the current state of faction activities. This can, in turn, affect the availability of station services (outfitting, mission board). More heavily populated systems are not as easily affected by pilot actions, so you will find more stability in those systems.
Possible faction states:
- Expansion
- Boom
- Bust
- Lockdown
- Civil Unrest
- Famine
- Outbreak
- War
- Civil War
- Election
Commander Walt Kerman wrote an excellent guide for faction states. This link will take you to that site:
Thanks for the article, found it helpful and amusing (vent the hatches!) and had some great pics too
ReplyDeleteThanks! That might be the most important piece of advice in that article - pick a home station close to the jump-in point...
DeleteAs a medium term goal aim for not just a home system, but a home region. Visit many of the systems that your home system generates as mission/passenger destinations then take any missions that send you back home. Eventually you will have a network of local systems that all have high faction reputations that you can simply cycle through.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. I will incorporate your comment in the article.
ReplyDeleteAs a further point to my earlier comment, you should also look to see if there is a human player faction in your proposed home system. Frontier have added several hundred player groups as local minor factions into the game. Initially they start in a single system but through the mechanics of the game's Background Simulation, these player factions, like NPC factions, can grow and develop, eventually expanding into multiple systems.
ReplyDeleteOn one of my game accounts, I've been working fairly steadily to advance the interests of "SEPP" the Social Eleu Progressive Party, a moderately well known player faction based initially in the Eleu system. They now control stations in several star systems and are present in several more, making a "home region" of stars where I have high reputation.
On another of my accounts, I've been working "against" the interests of "Order of Mobius", as they are trying to force an NPC faction to grow into Mobius territory, thus preventing later player factions from also expanding.
Neither of these accounts are formal members of either player
faction- there is no need to be.
When I was a new player, I was inadvertently serving the interests of "Wolf 406 Transport & Co" without realizing they were a player faction. They now control ~28 systems.
In researching for this comment, I noticed that East Galaxy Company in Rhea is also listed as a player faction. I suspect this one is an abandoned one however as they have no presence outside of Rhea. Perhaps Javelin can lay claim to the faction and attempt to invigorate it again!
The only place I've found that tells you which factions are player factions is the galaxy section on Inara.cz
https://inara.cz/galaxy-starsystems/
though there is something on frontier official forums somewhere.