What to do now? (Newbie question)

[Cody]

Not sure about the furs though.

Depending on the orbit, some of those asteroids can get pretty chilly.

Ain't that the truth! I've sold furs to shivering rock hermits for 90-100Cr/TC many times!

[iperich]

Thanks a lot, guys! Now I'm delivering passengers, blasting bad guys for the bounty and trading furs & computers along the way, I'm not making so much money because of the ship repairs (shield booster is expensive!) but there's a lot of action, I'm on my way now.... I'm not "Harmless" but "Mostly Harmless", beware!!!

How can I find those rock hermits? I always try to trade narcotics but the prizes are too random and they're illegal in most places...

[Smivs]

You can get a Rock-hermit Locator, or just look for asteroid fields where thay are most commonly found - look for an oversized asteroid. These could be between the witchpoint and planet but are more likely to be near the sun. Rock hermits also like a drink or fifty-two by the way

[Cody]

How can I find those rock hermits?

The RHL is too expensive for newish commanders, so investigate any asteroid swarms, as Smivs suggested. There are often off-lane rock hermits too, so look for tiny explosions way off in the distance - a sure sign of a rock hermit mining. It takes a little patience, but you soon get the knack for finding them.

I always try to trade narcotics but the prizes are too random and they're illegal in most places...

A contrabandista's life is somewhat unpredictable, but nearly always interesting - another thing you can develop the knack for (if you're good enough).

[Commander McLane]

How can I find those rock hermits?

Like the other guys said, they're always located in some asteroid field. Look out for the asteroid that's bigger than the surrounding ones. That's the hermit. But not every asteroid field contains a hermit.

Asteroid fields are located along two straight lines. The first one is the line from the witchpoint to the planet, so you naturally come across any hermit there. The second one is the line from the planet to the sun. In most systems you'll find at least one asteroid field along this line, often it's two or three fields, and often there's a hermit in at least one of them.

Another tip that makes it easier to locate asteroid fields: install  Asteroid Storm OXP. This adds more different asteroids to the mix, some of them much bigger than the ones in vanilla Oolite, which makes them visible from a long distance.

[Smivs]

<Shameless plug>
My Star-Jelly OXP adds huge, very colourful cosmic jellyfish into asteroid fields. These can be seen from a very long way away and will help you to find the asteroid fields
</shameless plug>

[cim]

How can I find those rock hermits? I always try to trade narcotics but the prizes are too random and they're illegal in most places...

In addition to the other ways to find hermits, if you bribe a pirate they might take you to one, or at least point you in its direction - even one that's more out of the way than usual.

[Malacandra]

<Shameless plug>
My Star-Jelly OXP adds huge, very colourful cosmic jellyfish into asteroid fields. These can be seen from a very long way away and will help you to find the asteroid fields
</shameless plug>

What's more, if you're short of something to do you can shoot them up and watch the pretty fireworks!

[iperich]

The RHL is too expensive for newish commanders

Excuse me sir, but 15.000 Cr is not too expensive for myself at this time. I already got one, in fact. so I'm trading with the hermits.

I installed Random Hits and went to the bar, but nobody accepts me as an assassin, I have not enough reputation. I have killed 11 bad guys at this point, I guess is still not enough for anybody. My reputation will grow just killing a lot, am I right?

[iperich]

Another question: In two ocassions, when i made the witchspace jump, suddenly it failed, and I appeared somewhere where there is a kind of big bad light and i'm surrounded by several "flying saucers" that killed me in about 1-1.5 seconds. What's that?

[Diziet Sma]

I installed Random Hits and went to the bar, but nobody accepts me as an assassin, I have not enough reputation. I have killed 11 bad guys at this point, I guess is still not enough for anybody. My reputation will grow just killing a lot, am I right?

Correct.. they want to see a bit more proof of ability before offering you any work. After all, they have a reputation to maintain..

Another question: In two ocassions, when i made the witchspace jump, suddenly it failed, and I appeared somewhere where there is a kind of big bad light and i'm surrounded by several "flying saucers" that killed me in about 1-1.5 seconds. What's that?

Ahh.. congratulations.. you've just met the Thargoids.. exciting, wasn't it?

Here's what happened.. you suffered a witchdrive failure, and ended up in interstellar space, about halfway to your intended destination. Interstellar space happens to be where the Thargs like to hang out when not making raids on Galcop systems. Until your ship (and fighting skills) are a bit more up to par, the best thing to do in this situation is run like hell, and program another jump to get out of there ASAP. Always assuming you have enough fuel remaining to reach another star system, of course.. if not, well, it was nice knowing you.. with luck, your frozen carcass will, in a few decades/centuries, drift into some star system and be found.. if you're less lucky, you may end up like our good friend Disembodied..

Once you have an 'Iron Ass' and some skillz, you can engage the Thargs in combat, if you choose.. some Commanders even like to deliberately trigger mis-jumps and go Thargoid hunting.. the bountys and salvage involved can be a pretty good source of cash.

So just why did you have a witchdrive failure? Well, there is a very small chance it can happen on any jump (the Thargs are suspected of having technology that can disrupt a witchspace tunnel, allowing them to ambush ships), but as your ship deteriorates through wear and tear (especially all those battles you've been in) things can get knocked out of alignment, and your drive becomes less reliable. The solution is to ensure that you keep up the maintenance on your ship. If you see a maintenance repair being offered on the equipment buying screen, that's a hint that your ship is getting somewhat battered.. you can let it go for a while if you're short on cash, but the longer you wait, the more drive failures you're going to have.

Higher TL systems have better mechanics and engineers, so they tend to do a better (and longer lasting) job of repairs. It's also a good idea to have a high TL maintenance job done before buying a new ship, to ensure you get the highest possible trade-in value for your old ship.

[iperich]

I see... I read about the Thargons in the wiki, and yes, those are the ships... dangerous and mysterious...

another question (new things keep coming all the time!) What is a "space lane"? there was one and now there's another in my map...

[cim]

another question (new things keep coming all the time!) What is a "space lane"? there was one and now there's another in my map...

There are two meanings of that word.

The ones on your map are inter-system routes of historic or economic significance - [wiki]Oolite_planet_list[/wiki] has links to vector maps of the eight charts with all of them drawn on. The core game doesn't know about them, and most OXPs don't do anything with them either.

It's also used within a system to describe the mostly-linear corridor of denser traffic between two hubs: the lines between witchpoint, planet, and sun where you'll meet most ships. The term "the space lane" without context generally means the busiest of those, between the witchpoint and the planet.

[Diziet Sma]

The ones on your map are inter-system routes of historic or economic significance - [wiki]Oolite_planet_list[/wiki] has links to vector maps of the eight charts with all of them drawn on. The core game doesn't know about them, and most OXPs don't do anything with them either.

Further to which, the Liners OXP (and, I believe, Executive Spaceways OXP) uses the routes.. with those installed, you'll sometimes see the liners at systems along the charted routes.

The liners are spectacularly large ships, some of which you can dock with if you wish.. don't be surprised though, if when leaving, you discover yourself to be in a different system than when you docked.. it's possible to hitch rides on them.

[Cody]

Always assuming you have enough fuel remaining to reach another star system, of course.. if not, well, it was nice knowing you..

For this, and other reasons, it is usually best to make short hyperspace jumps wherever possible.
There is a neat  OXP solution to being stranded in interstellar space though (it adds to the fun/challenge of it too).