Here is some (advanced) newbie tips (oxymoron
) that I learned after playing the game for a while.
1. At the bottom left you will see a fuel gauge that has your MAXIMUM BURN. This is how fast you can go based on your SLOWEST SHIP. Find this ship or ships under the Fleet tab (or press F) and hover over the ? mark under your ships and look at Maximum Burn.
For example, the large freighters are usually around 7-8 burn; this is bad. Because pirates and most fast frigates are a MINIMUM of burn 8, around 9 usually. You want to get 9 minimum burn so your emergency burn is 18 and sustained burn is 18.
This lets you escape from enemies, and go further with your fuel. VERY IMPORTANT FOR MAKING MONEY.
2. When you are in hyperspace at sustained burn (this is how you will travel 90% of the time), look to the right of your burn valve. You will see x fuel spent per day. This is IMPORTANT. Fuel is, at DEFAULT PRICE, 25 credits. You can calculate how much fuel (hence credits) your wasting per runs this way by clicking on the system you want to go to and it will tell you how many days it will take.
For example, lets say it takes 10 days to get to a system from your system.
To enter hyperspace, it takes 10 fuel because your running an medium fleet.
To exit hyperspace, it also takes 10 fuel.
At sustained burn, you spend 20 fuel per day.
20 x 10 + 20 = 220 fuel spent ONE WAY.
220 x 25 = 5,500 credits.
This is if you go a STRAIGHT LINE without hitting storms (which cost you extra supplies and require equations).
You don't have to do this level of calculations, but you can roughly guess how much it costs to go places and if a trading run is actually worth it, considering supply + fuel + random factors (piracy run in, storms, possible faction war).
3. A secret to getting better contracts / missions is your reputation and the /size of your fleet/. And by fleet, I mean your /LOGISTIC FLEET/. That means if you have 3 freighters and 2 tankers, with say, 4000 open cargo space and 3000 open fuel space, you will start getting contracts and missions that require the hauling of 1000 + items.
This is very important because of the next tip.
4. GET NAVIGATION AND LOADOUT DESIGN.
This is VERY important. Navigation lowers penalties in traveling AND gives you a ability called traverse jump; this drastically speeds up your traveling, lets you jump away from patrols / pirates, and lets you jump into systems through gravity wells instead of jump points. This is important in CORE worlds because most jump points are protected by big patrols.
Loadout design gives you 10 + op; this is important because of a hull mod called EFFECIENCY OVERHAUL. This mod lowers supply costs drastically, especially in larger fleets, which cuts your costs, which ups your profits.
Mix this in with large missions and you can make MASSIVE bank without even having a colony.