Any "top tips"? I read somewhere to immediately sell the discovery scanner thing to upgrade cargo capacity or weapons?
The scanner slot does not impact weapon capacity.
If you already have a good cargo route, then by all means ditch whatever you like in favour of added space, not forgetting that whatever size cargo module(s) your ship comes with, you can usually double it in the Outfitting section.
Just wondering if any consensus on current ways to make good progress after the Wings patch?
Hunt the WANTED guys at at RESes.
Hop into a Conflict Zone, pick a side that suits you and kill the opposition.
Find a decent trade route and get shipping.
There are the Rare Commodity runs to start you off, but you earn more from standard trading once you can outfit a Lakon Type-6.
If you plan on RES farming just log back in solo.
There's too much money at stake to mess around with 4 or 5 other guys stealing your kills.
Hells yeah...!
I only hit up RESes in Online when I'm in a wing (of three), as most people tend to see this and leave us to it... or it might be something to do with us comprising a Viper and Cobra dancing around, backed up by an Asp so heavily outfitted that it simply storms in to punch an Anaconda directly in the face without batting an eyelid, heh heh!!!
Just need to work out the ideal loadout as I've read bits about using smaller shield modules and what have you.
Get the best shield generator you can.
Consider the shield boosters, but remember that once they're all down your shields will take *forever* to recharge again!
Remember too that shields can recharge. Hull does not. Consider upgrading your armour (the military one is a nice starting upgrade) as well as tacking on some hull reinforcement modules.
Power is good, as is distribution.
But you'll be lugging a lot of weight and appear to be interested in combat, so consider beefing up the thrusters. More manoeuvrability means more time on-target and gaining position quicker/easier.
I tried 2 pulse lasers and 4 multi-cannons which is all kinds of fun, but I think I should go for 4 pulse and 2 multi-cannon as the power draw barely dropped with just 2 lasers.
I use 2 small beam lasers, 2 small m/c and 2 medium m/c.
I have two profiles, allowing me to either fire all (think when Mac grabs the minigun in Predator!!!), or to split the lasers off to secondary fire for a more conservative approach to ammunition management.
Generally I find enemy shields drop quickly, with the hull needing the most work (except on Eagles, which are made of cheese), so having more hull-chewing weapons should be the better option. More so if you're hunting bigger ships as the best way is targeting their power plant, which means you need something to cut through that hull to reach and lasers are laboriously crap at that... I've run out of m/c ammo and had to take down an Anaconda with just small lasers, so it can be done in a pinch but takes forever and you will take a pounding!
I'm considering playing around and trying 2 medium lasers, 4 small m/c, just to see if it makes a difference.
Kornelius Briedis on YouTube has done some excellent videos on different loadouts and includes the actual stats on damage rates.
