Quick guide to infinite riches... and more! - improvements in upcoming update 1.2

[Da-V-Man]

UPDATE: So I went to all the trouble of buying and equipping those ships, only to fall at the last hurdle- obtaining the mining command software. Turns out the only place that offers that is NMMC, which I cannot dock at because they hate me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So I just blew all the credits I have on a bunch of ships that I cannot use because the one piece of software that holds the whole thing together and I cannot get it?

You can use agents to steal the software from them. If you have a -100 hostile diplomacy modifier because of destroying their ships/stations, you'll have to wait out the timer before trying, but once you get it you'll never need NMMC again.

Well, aside from the Build Software. You'll want to steal that too.

[Sovereign01]

UPDATE: So I went to all the trouble of buying and equipping those ships, only to fall at the last hurdle- obtaining the mining command software. Turns out the only place that offers that is NMMC, which I cannot dock at because they hate me. ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So I just blew all the credits I have on a bunch of ships that I cannot use because the one piece of software that holds the whole thing together and I cannot get it?

You can use agents to steal the software from them. If you have a -100 hostile diplomacy modifier because of destroying their ships/stations, you'll have to wait out the timer before trying, but once you get it you'll never need NMMC again.

Well, aside from the Build Software. You'll want to steal that too.

Is the only way to recruit agents via the explorer's guild? I've been going from system to system checking out trading docks, at the moment agents are very thin on the ground so no stealing just yet. I'm also trying to get in good with OTAS so I can get my Sirokos and begin boarding!

[Da-V-Man]

Is the only way to recruit agents via the explorer's guild? I've been going from system to system checking out trading docks, at the moment agents are very thin on the ground so no stealing just yet. I'm also trying to get in good with OTAS so I can get my Sirokos and begin boarding!

No, you can also get agents from Taxi Missions (they need to be done with a TP), and Defend Station missions. Not all of those mission types will offer an agent, so you'll want to check for them, It will say "agent" in the rewards area if it offers one as a reward.

[Jimmy C]

As an aside, don't bother with agents using your discovery points. If they are offered by the Guild, you can find them in missions. In fact, most of the things the Guild offers for your DP can be bought, so you should just buy them from the market. Save your DP for the things you can't buy. Like blueprints of unpurchaseable ships. Even then, you might want to consider if you can just capture those ships instead.
There's one thing you absolutely have to buy from the Guild, the plans for the Boarding Pod. Being able to build them yourself really saves on capture costs.

[Sovereign01]

As an aside, don't bother with agents using your discovery points. If they are offered by the Guild, you can find them in missions. In fact, most of the things the Guild offers for your DP can be bought, so you should just buy them from the market. Save your DP for the things you can't buy. Like blueprints of unpurchaseable ships. Even then, you might want to consider if you can just capture those ships instead.
There's one thing you absolutely have to buy from the Guild, the plans for the Boarding Pod. Being able to build them yourself really saves on capture costs.

I did buy the plans for the Adv. Express. Not sure I'll ever make the ship itself since a couple of the abandoned ships I've found were TPs, but it's there if I want it. How much were the pods in AP? I'm sure they weren't a quarter of a million before. In AP what I did was have TPs docked at all the military outposts that offered marines and bought pods whenever I bought/trained.

Are the chances of stealing success greater if standing with the target is better? Somehow I managed to complete a station building mission with NMMC (one of their guys was aboard one of the other stations in the sector who offered me the mission) so they're at least letting me land at their HQ now.

[Hwitvlf]

Boarding pods were just under 81,000 in AP. I think the increase was intended to balance the ludicrous profits you can make from boarding. To get Boarding Pods, I have a TM homebased to the HQ set to Buy Ware for Best Price, so it auto buys all Pods as they become available.

I don't think relationship affects stealing success, but it makes the diplomat's actions cost less so you can try more often. Someone mentioned that taking a defend station mission for a faction lowers the mission cost significantly for a time.

If you're relationship is high enough, you can send the diplomat to buy the plans, and decide how many 'action points' to spend - the more spent the better the odds. Also, each failed attempt raises the odds for the next attempt, and the fewer agents you have, the more agent missions spawn so it's better to send them on missions right away instead of saving them.

[Sovereign01]

Boarding pods were just under 81,000 in AP. I think the increase was intended to balance the ludicrous profits you can make from boarding. To get Boarding Pods, I have a TM homebased to the HQ set to Buy Ware for Best Price, so it auto buys all Pods as they become available.

I don't think relationship affects stealing success, but it makes the diplomat's actions cost less so you can try more often. Someone mentioned that taking a defend station mission for a faction lowers the mission cost significantly for a time.

If you're relationship is high enough, you can send the diplomat to buy the plans, and decide how many 'action points' to spend - the more spent the better the odds. Also, each failed attempt raises the odds for the next attempt, and the fewer agents you have, the more agent missions spawn so it's better to send them on missions right away instead of saving them.

Question is, how high is high enough? I've been making use of the cargo bay hacker to swipe and re-sell PSGs at a Paranid equipment dock for quick cash.

[Jimmy C]

At Red 3, I failed repeatedly to steal the Cargo Bay Shielding from Duke's. After I pushed in the effort to reach Green 3, I succeeded in one try. It was the same for stealing the Jumpdrive Installation Kit from Terracorp. I only tried one time, after reaching Green 3 and succeeded. Also, only use agents on their last two tasks to steal. That way, you won't lose anything if they fail.

If you are acquiring instead of stealing, assign as many tasks as necessary to fill the success probability bar. If it's not enough, scroll back and assign more. If you fail, you have to spend tasks to gather enough influence to try again, in addition to the tasks necessary to acquire the item. All equipment and station plans that can be acquired require you to have the appropriate notoriety level (I think it's the same level to be allowed to buy the thing) before you can try to acquire it. The level will be shown on the selection window for making acquisitions.

[Sovereign01]

I was able to acquire & spend enough influence to get my notoriety to the level I needed for the mining software, I also installed copies on the 10 mistrals that I'd bought (Split currently hate me so they were the fastest TS I could buy, bought my Elephant while I could) and on the Ozias itself so I'm trying out mining the 1-Nividium asteroids in Holy Vision Epsilon.

No luck stealing the build plans, I'm going to need to get some more agents for both that and the JD installation kit that Terracorp offer. What other stuff do the corporations have that I should acquire?

[Agimar]

Just go on. I'm allways hated by TerraCorp. I just go for as many attempts as needed, to get what I want. Patience.

[Hwitvlf]

What other stuff do the corporations have that I should acquire?

Some exclusives, but you don't necessarily need them all:

Spoiler

Show

NMMC:
Build Command 3
Nividium Mine

Dukes:
Cargo Bay Hacker (also one Paranid station)
Cargo Bay Shielding
Software Signature Scrambler
System Override Software

Strong Arms:
PBC forge
TBC forge
PALC forge
Marine Barracks
Spacefly Farm

Atreus:
Drone Command

Corporations:
Missile Defense

[Sovereign01]

Thanks, now my question is, how do I get more discovery points? I've already visited every sector I have access to, I haven't been able to start the Terran plot yet, I assume I have to build a TOA for that to happen which I've heard is one of the few ways to get points?

EDIT: Seems I did get the plans for the boarding pod ages ago and not realizing the importance at the time just forgot about it. I just need a supply of warheads now while I wait for my nividium miners to do their thing, even with 11 of them (had to order the mistrals to mine instead of collect rocks since with that command they did nothing) it's taking forever just to collect a single 1-yield roid.

[Hwitvlf]

Thanks, now my question is, how do I get more discovery points? I've already visited every sector I have access to (haven't been able to start the Terran plot yet, I assume I have to build a TOA for that to happen which I've heard is one of the few ways to get points?

Some asteroids give points when scanned. Clicking on one such asteroid will tell you how many points, but the player-ship has to be the one doing the scanning or you don't get any. Most asteroids in discovered sectors give points.

[Solomon Short]

Thanks, now my question is, how do I get more discovery points? I've already visited every sector I have access to (haven't been able to start the Terran plot yet, I assume I have to build a TOA for that to happen which I've heard is one of the few ways to get points?

According to the DP wiki page, most sources of DP appear to be limited & one-time (such as the "first visit to a sector" or "build a (specific) TOA" awards), but AIUI certain options should be continuous:

1. Crates created by Explorers Guild: These keep spawning, up to a cap of 5 unclaimed ones at a time (I have no idea where I got that number from).
2. Claiming ships created by Explorers Guild: Same deal for random non-quest "Abandoned" ships (like the Demeter & Dolphin you find in the plot starts), but I don't know what the cap is.
3. A random sector every few hours gets points when player visits them (maximum of 5 at a time): Self explanatory.

[Cycrow]

the claimable ships and crates basically come under the same logic. So its limited to the same 5 at a time, but the spawn can either be a crate or a ship.
there are actually 2 separate sets though, so 2 groups of 5 that will spawn, so technically, a maximum of 10 will be available.
1 group being close, and 1 group being far (requiring more searching in a sector)

the biggest source of points come from Special Discoveries though, these give you additional points on top of the points you gain from the crate itself, but you have to turn these in manually

[Falynn]

Can you still use an explorer ship to find these OOS, or do you have to find them personally? And will they show up with the SEWN?

[Hwitvlf]

there are actually 2 separate sets though, so 2 groups of 5 that will spawn, so technically, a maximum of 10 will be available.
1 group being close, and 1 group being far (requiring more searching in a sector)

Glad to know this - good system to assure some discoveries are easy to find while still rewarding deeper exploration. I've noticed that even 'far' discoveries don't seem to be extremely offset on the Y axis so you can spot them with a simple map sector command starting a 0,0,0 after you purchase the clue. Not like AP where you had to repeatedly search a 300km plane up and down the Y axis in hopes to find a hidden crate.

[Cycrow]

there is only a 2km variance in the Y Axis, so everything should be fairly close to ecliptic

[Sovereign01]

Thanks, now my question is, how do I get more discovery points? I've already visited every sector I have access to (haven't been able to start the Terran plot yet, I assume I have to build a TOA for that to happen which I've heard is one of the few ways to get points?

Some asteroids give points when scanned. Clicking on one such asteroid will tell you how many points, but the player-ship has to be the one doing the scanning or you don't get any. Most asteroids in discovered sectors give points.

What about the player ship doing it on autopilot? With sectors with many asteroids, I set the autopilot to scan asteroids and turn on SETA. Using my Arrow for the task, it doesn't take long

[Sovereign01]

Can you still use an explorer ship to find these OOS, or do you have to find them personally? And will they show up with the SEWN?

I too would like to know the answer to this. The lack of a guidance arrow for such discoveries is most annoying. I do wonder if the item only spawns after you purchase the discovery information or if it already exists and this clue just hints which sector it's in.

UPDATE: Flying my Arrow I was able to find a discovery that I had the misfortune of turning up in Xenon 596 by using the "map sector" command set to a range of 50 km which did trigger the HUD indicator when I got close enough. The discovery? Some engine tuning. Normally I save those for when I have a ship I want to apply them to, but because of how suicidally dangerous it would be to bring a slower ship to pick it up I reasoned the only solution was to pick it up there and then. So now the fastest ship in the game is even faster!