I played ages ago and got scared off by the learning curve, but a friend recently got me back in. The problem is that this friend has a “speedrun” mindset and wants me to get end-game ASAP. To illustrate, thus far I have outfitted my starter ship with cargo racks, did some runs, bought a type 6, did a shitload more runs, bought an anaconda, slapped cargo racks on the conda, did more runs, and recently limpet farmed resources. Next on the agenda is unlocking a bunch of engineers to engineer my ship bits (and also farm another 450 mil somewhere in there).
I’m about 50 hours deep and I barely know how to play. I recently learned how to change route settings to avoid stopping at every fuel star along the route. I’ve done 2 bounties in a fighter I threw together when I was bored of trading. The game is massive and I feel like I’ve missed out on a ton. I’m big on learning how a game ticks before trying to powergame/minmax/etc.
I guess my question is this: in my rush to the end game, have I missed anything that’s important to do or learn?
Yes and no. I can’t say he isn’t giving you useful tools, but it sounds like the thing you are missing is “learning to love the game,” which is a big deal.
I can’t tell you how to manage your friend or your relationship, but if it were me, I would tell him you have to go an hour before you really do and hop into offline mode and do stupid stuff in cheap ships.
How fast can you land on a planet and not die? Go see alien ruins. Can you boop a thargoid with an eagle and run away before it kills you? Blow yourself up trying to use the neutron highway.