The whole purpose of the game is is not to build. Nor is to pilot, trade, roleplay, or fight. Admittedly, the building aspect of the game is currently the most fleshed-out, and perhaps the foremost shared interest among the current playerbase, but for the n'th time- this is alpha. Last I checked, this game was supposed to invite a wide variety of playstyles. It is, after all, a sandbox. If one is content with operating in pre-builts, focusing instad on trade, piracy or running a taxi service, that option should certianly be available. Naturally, a skilled builder who can adapt their ships with precision will still have an advantage, all things being equal, as with any other skill.
Nothing really prevents one from adapting in my opinion.
blalblagoo
You want to work for money? Ask around on server (s) you play on which big factions need help. Here are some options I can think off atm off how you can make a living in starmade. Each off these is very profitable
Taxi/Delivery Services. (Regular Low Reward).
E.g. I am not always up for going to collect something from point a to come back to my homebase, or if I want something delivered etc. Same goes for taking people from one place in another, just get yourself a small ship with a chaindrive and you can get anyone anywhere quickly. Charge extra for confidentiality off not revealing location or who you were transporting. Approach factions far from spawn area via pm [In case you don't know how, just right click on a player's name in chat and click private message], ask if they need a delivery, or taxi services etc. Set a fixed percentage extra e.g. If you are transporting 100k volume of material, you might want to set
extra fee at 10mill. Let's not forget guarantee in case cargo is lost, for an extra cost of 1/10th of cargo value. For this you need a ship with chaindrive, high storage capacity and good shielding.
Bounty Hunter. (Rare Very High Reward).
There already are many servers with server script commands for bounty lists. Just go around, find these people and kill them. Then leave as quick as you can. After all, it's all business. You will get some necessary credits that way. You can also check forums on the respective server (s) where you play, often these have 'bounty boards'. So that's some more credits there. Ask around using a pm [In case you don't know how, just right click on a player's name in chat and click private message]. Check factions' diplomatic relationships through the faction diplomacy tab (h->rightmost tab). Find factions that have more than 5 players and are at war with more than 2 factions. Those are good potential candidates for bounty hunter work. Approach people in pm, ask around if they have anyone they hate on server, or who they wish eliminated. That will no doubt earn you some more interesting jobs as a bounty hunter, with some factions maybe making specific requests such as capturing ship and bringing it back, or taking a pic. (Charge extra for these services so you end up with very decent amount of money). For this you will need a ship which can cloak, jam and fire at same time. All 3 are necessary if you wish to be able to perform the high-end deals, such as taking down leaders of factions who might be dangerous or careful in how they move about.
Mercenary. (Fixed Salary).
There are very many factions off all sizes, shapes, types, genres etc., who want to cause damage to another but do not want to do it themselves. They want to avoid a war, or have another faction do the dirty work for them. They don't want the finger to be pointed at them and this is where you come in. Offer your services for a contracted period of time, asking for pre-payment and payment after each battle/kill etc. Some factions would be happy to hire you for a week/month etc. Charge significant amount of money (doesn't matter if you only come on every second day, charge for 24/7 hour service). This option leaves a lot of possibilities, such as creating a mercenary group, a freelance group etc, however it is important not to move too much towards piracy otherwise you will not be trusted to perform delicate or specific tasks. Much better to balance out jobs, not only taking raiding jobs. Don't have a ship? Find one on starmadedock. Ideally something fast, capable of jamming and/or cloaking while firing weapons and has a jump drive+scanner. Don't worry there are lots of available options. If you don't want to go through trouble of filling the bp in, just upload it, purchase from a shop for free and give to the faction you are working for. You can set that as your pre-fee. They fill it in and you work. Once you are done, they pay you 'x' amount of credits.
