In praise of the Sidewinder

[Shelleen]

How does a new player get to a healthy bank balance without the need to trade until it becomes a 'grind'? Most players will opt to get out of the Sidewinder at the earliest opportunity and into either the Hauler for faster trading or the Eagle for better combat. I think this is a mistake and is also missing out on a vital point of ED, namely the thrill of it all.

Trading in the bigger ships, the Lakon 6 or 9 is a great way of visiting every part of the current bubble and making good money along the way (I've done it myself) but apart from the occasional pirate interdiction is not exactly the most thrilling experience. Vital for amassing credits for sure but not fear inducing.

So why do most players look to get a large amount of credits? I'm fairly certain that players want to fly one of three ships ultimately, the Viper, Cobra and Anaconda. So what can you do in those ships that you can't do in a Sidewinder? The answer is of course, nothing except jump further and carry more cargo. Everything else you can do in those ships you can do in a Sidewinder.

Want to down Fed Fighters at the FDS at Eranin 2 or Dahan 3? Then you can do that in a Sidewinder. Want to pirate NPCs at Nav Beacons? You can do that in a Sidewinder. Want to down wanted Vipers, Cobras and Anacondas? You can do that in a Sidewinder (yes, really). It is more fun to do most everything in the little Sidewinder than other ships.

You want to make some money? I made over 200,000 credits in my Sidewinder yesterday in a few hours of playing. How? Smuggling stolen goods and I don't go to Freeport to sell them on the black market either. There's no fun selling what you've picked up in an anarchy system where no one gives a fig what you're up to. No, I fly to Chango Dock and get past the Viper Security ships without them being aware of my presence. The tiny Sidewinder is the absolute best ship for smuggling goods into policed systems.

Every time I'm docked and I hear the station taking out another unfortunate ship I check to see what's floating about outside the station. If it's something worth taking like Battle Weapons or Consumer Tech or Progenitor Cells then I'll launch and collect my four tons right from under the noses of the Vipers. Battle Weapons are fetching over 22,000 credits for four tons at Chango Dock and you don't need too many full holds to rack up credits without ever leaving the system.

So if you see a ship that's not moving, that you can't get a lock on and is lined up with Chango Dock that'll be me but probably best not to say hello as everything will be powered down and I'll be preparing myself before moving, to ghost past the station security, once again.

I love my Sidewinder. If FD would make a non-reflective, stealth black paint job for it that would make it perfect.

[Wolf]

Interesting read. I will have to try stealthy smuggling once. I would prefer of course if the silent running function would be more effective. So far I have not found any advantage in it. They could have just called it "ship overheating mode"

I also had a lot of fun blowing up federal fighters with my sidy.

Very nice article!

[GlobusDiablo]

Good post Shelleen

That's some ace training you've got going.

I've tried getting past security in my Lakon 6, as cold as I dare, but some crummy Viper cop always catches up with me, and I have to boost the hell out of there. Mostly he follows, so if I return quickly, I can dock without getting scanned. But it's a bit to hairy for me...

Just got ambushed by 3 eagles by the way. Got cocky, thought I could take them. Took down 2, but was overheated and couldn't boost away. Toast.

Ran into the insurance bug. I got 1 mill in the bank, but no option to buy old loadout...

So I might have to go for the trusted Sidey anyway, and try some of your shenanigans Shelleen.

[Shelleen]

Cheers guys.

Wolf: I never use the 'Silent Running' option.

I manually power down everything from the right hand panel apart from life support . Wait until the temperature is at most 1%. Re-light the engines and line up with the slot 15 to 20 km out, do it slowly. Douse the engines when in line. You can of course opt to line up first before running cold.

Take a breath then ignite the engines and get to half speed. FA On, engines off again which will increase your speed. At 8km put Sensors online again, at 7km request docking. Provided you get clearance, Sensors off again. Ghost in as near as you can with FA On. Don't panic! At the last moment or when you can't take the pressure any more Ignite engines, throttle up and go through the slot. You'll know when you're safe as your cockpit ice melts but through the slot will do. Quickly put all systems back online once inside the station.

Before landing wait above the pad until your shields are fully back (three blue rings), put pips to System to speed it up.

Wait until your heartbeat slows down Land and sell your ill-gotten gains.

Congrats. You've just made it into the Smugglers Guild!

Ps GlobusDiablo: I'm not sure that a Lakon 6 should be able to stealth past the security, it's a bit big for that. Which is probably why you get scanned, hard to miss! I'd limit a smuggling ship to a Sidewinder/Hauler myself in anything other than Anarchy systems.

[Shelleen]

Hmm, that should be FA OFF in the above post. No edit function?

Edit: Oh yes there is, you stupid drunken idjit Shelleen.

Sorry guys.

[Flip]

Thanks for the detailed step-by-step, Shelleen! I like that you even tell us when to breath.

I read that the Hauler is perfect for smuggling because it can stay at 0% with all the systems off except the engines. Didn’t try that myself yet, though.

Edit: there’s a barely visible Edit button at the top right of your message.

[Shelleen]

A few other things GlobiusDiablo:

With the Sidewinder use the following loadout; 2 x Class 2 Canons (not multis), Point Defence Turret in the front slot, Heat Sink Launcher in the Aft slot.

The above will allow you to take out pretty much anything given the patience (at least until the Canons are nerfed). If you prefer you can forget the HSL and load two PDT, one fore and one aft. If you're looking to scavenge gold at the USS in LP 98-132 this will allow you to pick up 4 tons of gold with two PDTs enabled in the event it's a trap as the Cobras love to fire missiles.

I can't remember the last time I used a HSL, probably in a Lakon 9.

I should look into recording my game play as it shows it better than words ever could.

[GlobusDiablo]

Ps GlobusDiablo: I'm not sure that a Lakon 6 should be able to stealth past the security, it's a bit big for that. Which is probably why you get scanned, hard to miss! I'd limit a smuggling ship to a Sidewinder/Hauler myself in anything other than Anarchy systems.

Cheers Shelleen.

Yeah, it's too big to sneak past, cold or not...

[Shelleen]

Thanks for the detailed step-by-step, Shelleen! I like that you even tell us when to breath.

I read that the Hauler is perfect for smuggling because it can stay at 0% with all the systems off except the engines. Didn’t try that myself yet, though.

Edit: there’s a barely visible Edit button at the top right of your message.

My pleasure! Breathing is an optional extra but probably better if you do it imo.

I've not tried the Hauler for smuggling as I quite like bounty hunting wanted NPCs and the Hauler is not much use for that. I watched Isinonas vids and I thought, "I can do that" and indeed I can. I just prefer the Sidey to do it in. To be fair Isinona does most of his stuff in a Sidewinder as well. It's just a brilliant ship for unorthodox playing. I've got this vision that 1 month after the full game launches I'll be the only pilot flying a Sidewinder out of choice.

I'm really not playing... err... testing for the credits as I have 20 million plus but more for ways of making money when the next wipe comes.

Yeah the Edit function was there but as I'm not seeing anything clearly I didn't see it. I blame the drinking myself.

Fly safe Commander, I'll see you in game at some point.

[Shelleen]

Right so I just logged into the game.

I destroyed two wanted Anacondas and one wanted Lakon 6 at the Nav Beacon in I Bootis.

That netted me 6,000 credits. The Lakon 6 dropped loads of cargo including 6 tons of battle weapons.

Avoiding the Vipers and Eagle security I picked up 4 tons of BWs, stealthed into Chango Dock and then
made 20,000 credits from the BW. So that's a total of 26,000 credits for approx 15 minutes gameplay and
I'm drunk as a skunk

Unfortunately the game just crashed so I've lost the lot but it shows that you don't need anything other
than a Sidewinder to make good money.

I didn't get below 2 rings on the shield gen in the fight with the Annies.

Anacondas? I eat them

Going back in now.