Making money fast: Any tips?

[Thundercraft]

Just thought I would ask of anyone has any tips on making money.

 

Mining or acquiring minerals like iron and titanium is pretty much a no brainer. But I'm finding it difficult to accumulate money. And I'm sure there are better ways than selling the minerals I mine or even selling my extra modules and turrets.

 

Are doing missions a good way? If so, is any particular kind easier, faster or more profitable?

 

What about buying, transporting and selling cargo from one station to another? Is that a fast way to earn cash? Though, I realize this depends on how much cargo space our ship design allows. And a lot of cargo space often means a tradeoff between speed and other factors like defensive capabilities. It's also a pretty big investment.

 

The main reason I'm asking, though, is because I want to find a way to offset the absolutely insane costs of hiring and paying enough crew to maintain a decent sized ship. I mean... $15 k to $50 k just for crew salaries, due every hour or so?  :o I'm finding it hard to believe that anyone can turn a profit in this game. (Crew costs alone is making me reconsider quitting and going back to playing the X-series of games.)

[joao9856]

i can tell you that it is possible to make enough money, i for example am paying around 800k every 3 hours and can still keep things way up, altough it was tough at the beggining once you have some money you should start buying from merchants that sell at low prices and sell to merchants who buy at high prices, luck is a major factor there.

another way is to just obliterate an entire faction and rob them of their resources wich you can sell for profit only.

i'm currently trying the second method since some weak faction made me angry by not allowing me to sell them some goods XD

the first option took me from 250k to 100M in a few hours, i was very lucky because i found a trade route in a sector that bumped me from 3M to 90M.

hope you understand what i'm saying cause i can be very confusing :)

Edit: forgot about pirate and alien hunting on yellow spots, after killing them just blast their ships and retreive the turrets and modules and sell them as you sugested its quite profitable too

[Dinosawer]

-Bounty hunting is a great way to make money - you don't even need to get paid for killing pirates (though it's a nice bonus), the money you get for selling the turrets and upgrades they drop is good enough payoff.

-Trading can make you millions once you have some cash to invest - get a good trading module that shows trade routes, get some good cargo space, and go trade, buy low and sell high (pay attention to how much goods the station you're selling to accepts, though)

 

 

At the point where I got this way, buying and paying hundreds of crew is pocket money  ;D