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[FlyinJ]

The trade route overlay in the map is still completely useless. I've gone to about 15 different gold exporting systems, each abit 10 - 20 light years apart, and not a single one had high supply of gold.

Worse yet, almost always the system that is supposed to be importing has zero
stations that actually have the commodity in demand. They actually pay less than what you bought the goods for.

I have no idea how you guys are finding trade routes other than blind luck.

 

[Qasiel]

Yeah, I've gotta admit, I think the KWS seems like a waste of time. I'd much rather spend it shooting up scum than scanning them hoping to squeeze a few more credits out of them (if it even works at all). I'll probably bin it off when I sign on later.

 

[Nymerio]

I don't feel like the KWS is worth the time. I've scanned all my quarry for the last 140k CR. Out of that, I got maybe 20k Federation coupons, 10k Alliance coupons and 40k Empire coupons.

Sounds great, right? The problem is I can make more money farming Extraction sites than flying across the galaxy to cash in those non-Feddy coupons. My net gain from spending 10+ seconds before every encounter scanning someone down was... 20k.

Yeah, I'm not going to bother putting one on my Viper.

I keep getting empire bounties with the scanner and I've yet to even find a station that lets me cash them in. I'm skipping the scanner as well. I hope they can improve on that.

 

[elyetis]

I don't feel like the KWS is worth the time. I've scanned all my quarry for the last 140k CR. Out of that, I got maybe 20k Federation coupons, 10k Alliance coupons and 40k Empire coupons.

Sounds great, right? The problem is I can make more money farming Extraction sites than flying across the galaxy to cash in those non-Feddy coupons. My net gain from spending 10+ seconds before every encounter scanning someone down was... 20k.

Yeah, I'm not going to bother putting one on my Viper.

Farm federation extraction site in a system 1 system away from a Empire system, equip KWS, ..., profit. ( is there such a system but close to fed+empire+alliance ? )

Thought I no longer bounty in extraction site, for me it almost always endup only being full of sidwinder, and taking aggro from the security ship because of 1 missed shot is quickly very boring.

 

[turtlesbonanza]

I keep getting empire bounties with the scanner and I've yet to even find a station that lets me cash them in. I'm skipping the scanner as well. I hope they can improve on that.

Empire space is quite far away from most of federation space. About 100LY generally.

 

[Nymerio]

Yeah, I found that out when I was trying to cash in my bounties. Figured I'd make more money collecting fed bounties than trying to cash in my empire bounties. There should be something like embassies or outposts for factions in other factions territories. As it is now the scanner is completely useless to me.

 

[Faith]

Just find a better bounty place surrounded by an empire and federation system, like Tarach Tor.

 

[Raticus79]

Running Palladium from Gliese-868 (Braun Station or MacLean Terminal) to Ho Hsi (Steiner Hub or Alexeyev) nets about 1700/ton right now one way for a 50 LY trip. I think it's about as good as it gets for routes which hit the Ho Hsi stations.

There are a few different options for the trip there. A three-point route bringing land enrichment systems to the agricultural Houssey Terminal, then making an in-system trip bringing food from there to Braun or MacLean, then bringing the metal back to Ho Hsi should be pretty sustainable.

Come for the profits, stay for the Bacon Station.

 

[thelurkinghorror]

After survived from a crawling download long 12 hours (damn server) I finally hit the space and played for 5 hours without dying. Not reached the epicness of a Luke Skywalker or a Cpt.Picard yet, but I'm a very good Lone Starr from Space Balls

 

[Tunesmith]

I keep getting empire bounties with the scanner and I've yet to even find a station that lets me cash them in. I'm skipping the scanner as well. I hope they can improve on that.

Empire space is quite far away from most of federation space. About 100LY generally.

there's an Empire system nestled among some Federation systems on the way to Sol from the Ho Hsi general area, about 50Ly I'd say, Liadelin or something along those lines (don't recall the exact spelling). If you filter for Empire space only nearby Ho Hsi and look towards Sol it's the only red dot on the way.

 

[Qasiel]

Should I be checking out Ho Hsi? Is that the system Gaf's claiming as their own?

 

[Aegus]

Empire space is quite far away from most of federation space. About 100LY generally.

Lianan/Lianin is about 20l from Ho Hsi.

 

[Sarcasm]

If and when I get to an resource site...can I just attack?

 

[Danj]

Should I be checking out Ho Hsi? Is that the system Gaf's claiming as their own?

Where is Ho Hsi anyway? Is it anywhere near Sol? I'm kind of meandering in that general direction but didn't really have a destination in mind.

 

[bj00rn_]

My turreted laser got me into big trouble (why?).. It drove me crazy that it started shooting at ships at random, racking up quite a few bounties..

Then I found a setting for "Target only". It's just that it doesn't work! Anyone know why it doesn't do anything when I have a target selected, it doesn't fire at all.

Where is Ho Hsi anyway? Is it anywhere near Sol? I'm kind of meandering in that general direction but didn't really have a destination in mind.

It's about 7-10 jumps from SOL with my Cobra if I recall correctly. North-west bound..?

 

[Sothis Krieg]

Is there some systems with extraction site near Ho Hsi, cannot remember.

 

[Nymerio]

there's an Empire system nestled among some Federation systems on the way to Sol from the Ho Hsi general area, about 50Ly I'd say, Liadelin or something along those lines (don't recall the exact spelling). If you filter for Empire space only nearby Ho Hsi and look towards Sol it's the only red dot on the way.

Heh, I know exactly which system that is, because as you said it's the nearest. The last time I checked I couldn't reach it because my eagle can't jump that far. It's not even a problem at the moment though, I only have about 10k in empire bounties because an anaconda ate me for breakfast.

 

[SLV]

If and when I get to an resource site...can I just attack?

Only the ones that show up as wanted on the lower left

 

[Mengy]

Does anyone else submit to interdictions intentionally? Ran into a few psychos (or whatever we're calling them.. the ones that just open fire as soon as they see you) and a couple pirates. They've found me not quite as soft a target as they anticipated.. hehe. The one tonight (Federal Dropship) netted me a bounty of around 45K.

I almost always submit. When I was in the Type 6 I submitted because it was nigh impossible to evade the interdiction anyway in the space brick, so by submitting I was able to run and boost at full power and gain distance much easier rather than fighting the interdiction and probably losing anyway, in which case you lose control for a bit and suffer.

Now in my Asp I still submit, mainly because I want to see who it is interdicting me. If it's an easy kill pirate then I blow them to hell. If it's a real threat then I run and boost and jump back into supercruise.

 

[bj00rn_]

I almost always submit. When I was in the Type 6 I submitted because it was nigh impossible to evade the interdiction anyway in the space brick, so by submitting I was able to run and boost at full power and gain distance much easier rather than fighting the interdiction and probably losing anyway, in which case you lose control for a bit and suffer.

Now in my Asp I still submit, mainly because I want to see who it is interdicting me. If it's an easy kill pirate then I blow them to hell. If it's a real threat then I run and boost and jump back into supercruise.

Sometimes the security forces are very annoying to submit to, especially if I'm wanted and have illegal cargo, has damaged propulsion and 2 seconds from leaving supercruise arriving at the station..

 

[Raxious]

Finally found a nice little trading route which gives me 41k every 10 or so minutes. 3 stations, each station only takes 1 jump to reach

 

[Vistrix]

Thrudd's site beats Slopey's BPC hands down in my opinion. The user interface is great, it does round trip calculations, shows more detail about the stations (including LS from the beacon) and it's a lot faster. I hope they get their registration issue sorted out soon so I can start uploading my stuff there instead.

Try this method:
http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/
-> Find Trades
Current location: Ho Hsi
Range: 60 Ly
Profit per ton: 1200
Landing pad size: whatever your ship needs

Click Search. This checks for profitable pairs within a 60 light year radius of your current location, so you can get an idea of the max ballpark.

Now click the Distance header to sort. This shows you the stations which are closest to each other which still satisfy your minimum profit criteria.

Another approach is to use the search to find the stations with the lowest prices on high value commodities and using those as the centre for 60/1200 and 40/1000 searches.

The trade route planner is fun too - if you start at a known good station, you can leave the endpoint as "any" and just wander the most profitable next hops from there.

Slopeys tool is definitely clunkier but I always get more accurate results from it.

Thrudds tool is terrible for the lesser travelled systems. For example, I'm at HIP 103138 and I'm doing 50ly with 1200 profit per ton and it's saying the max profit I can make is 2.5k whereas Slopeys tool is showing 50k+.

I also find that tons of stations are missing from Thrudds (like the one I'm in now - Strekalov Dock at HIP 103138).

 

[Sarcasm]

So I have played like four hours plus of this game. I have accomplished nothing. Well I dock better now. I can't find missions that I can accept. I have found one that gives..700 CR and I can't tell how far I have to go or if I found it in the map.

Also the AI are butts lol always indicting me. Though I did end up in an anarchy system.
Just wish I made some money in during those time periods spent playing.

And yea the map sucks.

 

[Haluko]

So I've almost got 7 million creds... whats a comfortable amount to have to get the ASP upgraded with the best FSD, etc? I actually really fancy an imperial clipper but I'm fed up with the grind and want to go explore the galaxy without worrying about money for a while, so the ASP it is..

I literally just did what you wanted last night. If you were a beta backer head to founders world for a 10% discount on outfitting and ships. I saved a bit on the frameshift and scanners.

So I would recommend having at least 13-15 million if you want to upgrade. Prices without discounts:

6.6 mil for ship
5.1 mil for A frameshift

Now tack on some other upgrades and you hit 15 pretty fast. Save at least 1 mil for insurance. The ship is worth it I love it. I logged out last night at the last outpost before unexplored space Going to see how far I can go. Good luck

 

[flyinpiranha]

Slopeys tool is definitely clunkier but I always get more accurate results from it.

Thrudds tool is terrible for the lesser travelled systems. For example, I'm at HIP 103138 and I'm doing 50ly with 1200 profit per ton and it's saying the max profit I can make is 2.5k whereas Slopeys tool is showing 50k+.

I also find that tons of stations are missing from Thrudds (like the one I'm in now - Strekalov Dock at HIP 103138).

That 2.5k is per ton usually on a round trip. Which option were you using? I may have both up and running. I'm finding it harder to find a 1400+ one way with a 1000 or so return trip. Right now running a short route (timed with some overshooting about 13 minutes) that's 1481/t one way and 381/t the other. "Sort of evens out" to a little under 1000/t but the time frame it takes is a little better. Can do about 4 of those in an hour for about for about 720,000 and some time to spare so it averages about 800k/hour. Not that great and not that 1m I'm looking for! Only with 104 cargo though.

I'll probably install Slopey's tonight because it also mines your data or you have to enter it?

So I have played like four hours plus of this game. I have accomplished nothing. Well I dock better now. I can't find missions that I can accept. I have found one that gives..700 CR and I can't tell how far I have to go or if I found it in the map.

Also the AI are butts lol always indicting me. Though I did end up in an anarchy system.
Just wish I made some money in during those time periods spent playing.

And yea the map sucks.

Anarchy is a bit tough to start in. I know I got interdicted a lot more in those areas. I'm running a trade route around Gilgamesh and I rarely get interdicted ... I'm playing Solo right now. I played Open up until my Type 6 and now I fly with no weapons so don't need that added stress of a player interdiction. Probably switch back once I have a bankroll, an ASP, and am not just a space cucumber floating through sky.

Money will come slow at first. But if you concentrate on Trading (not sure if that's your thing) you can do pretty well for yourself, fairly quickly too once you get a Hauler and then a Cobra with 60t Cargo. Buy the next ship as soon as you can as the Sidwinder is shit.

My natural progression (ship/cargo) was:

Sidewinder/8 > Hauler/18 > Adder/24 > Cobra/60 > Type 6/104

You could skip either the Hauler or Adder (choose one), they are pretty comparable really I just wanted to try other ships. But it may take some time. Use the trading tools mentioned in this thread. Even with the Sidewinder at 8, you can use the tool to make a small profit for a short jump, then do another jump and put in a little money, then another, pretty soon (really soon) you'll be filling it up with Berrillyium or something that nets a 1k profit each. Do that a few times you move onto the Adder/Hauler and you see your profits double. Then a little stretch to the Cobra, you'll see them triple AND you have a good fighting ship if you want to bounty hunt or whatever (don't do it with a full cargo, lol).

I was at the same point. Died twice in my Sidewinder after selling the Beta Eagle and basically lost the cargo and the profit I made from selling that and had to start from scratch with stock Sidewinder and 400 credits.

Trading is not for everybody, but it's a sure fire bet with the tools out there and a couple days of just hammering it out could have you in a Viper with some good kits and some money in the bank so you don't worry about money at all for a while.

I found the quests somewhat cumbersome and with little direction. I hated just going from USS to USS hoping it was the one I looked for. Sometimes the jumps/time for a mission would be waaaay more than just the time it would have taken to buy something at that station and sell it somewhere else. You still get rep trading also.

EDIT: Regarding the Map, it's really not that bad, just don't pay attention to trade stuff and always buy your cargo THEN plan your route. But my first advice is to reassign all the map buttons to your liking. Not sure what you're using but the X55 base layout was ridiculous. I have a 4-way hat that moves it all around the "horizontal" plane, a dial that zooms in/out and a two way button that moves up/down. Made it 100 times more easier to use. Also switching any 'invert' they had set to make it more 'logical'. Once you set the controls for how YOU want to, it's pretty easy to use. I don't type the systems for some of my routes because I "know" where they are and can navigate there faster.

So I've almost got 7 million creds... whats a comfortable amount to have to get the ASP upgraded with the best FSD, etc? I actually really fancy an imperial clipper but I'm fed up with the grind and want to go explore the galaxy without worrying about money for a while, so the ASP it is..

I don't know how well you handle your ships or money, but the ASP is spendy to upgrade (whole 'nother level from the Type6) and to maintain. I think I saw a SS where a full tank is 250k I think? Plus a ding can set you back 35k or more depending. I'd say save double of that. I did exactly what you did. about 6.5m, not including my Type 6 which got me about 3m, figured I'd be good. Granted I wasn't paying attention and bought some spendy upgrades but insurance is 300k or something like that. I flew it for a couple missions with 35k in the bank ... not even enough for insurance. Yes, I was sweatin' it LOL, was more scary than running with no shields in a Type 6 with a full cargo of Berr. Probably the scariest thing I've done in the game! But returned it, took the couple mil loss and started trading again. Went from 1.5m to just under 5m yesterday and I will just grind it out a little more.

GREAT ship, it's my goal. But I'm going to get to 18m + the Type6 trade before I make the jump so I know I can really get it upgraded from the get go and not worry about a couple catastrophes. Just an FYI, like I said, not sure how you handle money or will just slowly upgrade, but you do need a pretty big bankroll to jump in and have it be worth more than the Type 6 from the get go.

 

[Haluko]

So I have played like four hours plus of this game. I have accomplished nothing. Well I dock better now. I can't find missions that I can accept. I have found one that gives..700 CR and I can't tell how far I have to go or if I found it in the map.

Also the AI are butts lol always indicting me. Though I did end up in an anarchy system.
Just wish I made some money in during those time periods spent playing.

And yea the map sucks.

Its hard in the beginning. I can tell you what I did if it helps. I avoided the large stations and traveled to outposts. If they have jobs do the ones that ask you to get black box, rebels transmissions etc. Try to find a Black Market and make that home base for a bit. The illegal stuff, like black boxes gets you money faster.

Also a little trick about USS (Unidentified signal sources) you dont need to travel fast to find them. Just go into supercruise and throttle to the lowest speed. They randomly spawn all around you over time. Since you are going so slow you can drop out instantly and enter them. Make it easy to do quests that involve finding black boxes etc.

If you do this you should be able to make a decent amount in a few hours. Good luck

 

[naeS]

So last night I was hunting for Liz Tan. It was a mission I picked up in Everate, the payout was 160k. So I thought why not. Found him, he was in an Anaconda.

Good thing my insurance claim is only 5k.

 

[Dougald]

Hmm, seems I really want to double my money first then. Makes sense as I spent about 2 million upgrading my type 6 to get a decent cargo/jump range.. I'm just bored running a ship that literally does nothing but trade

Pity the initial jump range on the ASP is so poor or I'd swap out my type 6 and trade in that

 

[WGMBY]

And yea the map sucks.

It's definitely an improvement over the beta map, at least.

Once you save up about 55k you can buy a hauler and start trading decent amounts of cargo. I made 200k yesterday in a few hours, just wandering, taking odd jobs, and sticking to major trade routes. Things are pretty safe near Sol in the warm, gooey, jack-booted heart of the federation.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Hmm, seems I really want to double my money first then. Makes sense as I spent about 2 million upgrading my type 6 to get a decent cargo/jump range.. I'm just bored running a ship that literally does nothing but trade

Pity the initial jump range on the ASP is so poor or I'd swap out my type 6 and trade in that

Exactly! That was my intention. Trading route running in a gatdamn 70's muscle car instead of the wood paneled station wagon. But man, when you're running 3/4 mil in cargo and your bank can 'barely' cover your insurance, let alone the tripled fuel costs, quadrupled repair cost, and increased kitting cost ... the risk just isn't worth it. Two mishaps and you're back to a Sidewinder trading Food for 90/t profit.

I kept thinking "what if I got killed right now, the entire time I've spent in this game would be for nothing, all those hours, all that 'research' and planning routes ... "

Seriously, people complain on the forums about 'risk' and such. Running an ASP with not enough money for insurance is more 'risk' to me than dying in a Viper!

 

[Dougald]

That's a very good point, the longer you play, the more risk dying is

Getting blown up in the free sidewinder is basically nothing, losing my adder was a mild annoyance, losing my first Lakon 6 (thank you NPCs) cost me 300k in cargo

 

[flyinpiranha]

Yeah, I can't even imagine the people in the larger ships that cost upwards of 30+ mil. But I assume they're "power traders". If you can afford a Bugatti, you can afford to wreck one.

 

[Haly]

Farm federation extraction site in a system 1 system away from a Empire system, equip KWS, ..., profit. ( is there such a system but close to fed+empire+alliance ? )

Ideally. But I'm making Ho Hsi my "home" like many other players so that's out of the question for the time being.

 

[elyetis]

Ideally. But I'm making Ho Hsi my "home" like many other players so that's out of the question for the time being.

I moved to an anarchy system a couple days ago so I no longer do what I just advised, so yeah I know the feeling of having most of your bounty for empire/alliance which are far too far from me to be a really good trade.
I'm still trying to find the "gem", an anarchy system, with an extraction site, very close to at least 2 government ( 3 would be god like, if it is even possible ) most likely fed + empire.

 

[Haluko]

Hmm, seems I really want to double my money first then. Makes sense as I spent about 2 million upgrading my type 6 to get a decent cargo/jump range.. I'm just bored running a ship that literally does nothing but trade

Pity the initial jump range on the ASP is so poor or I'd swap out my type 6 and trade in that

I know trading is so damn dull, but I found it to be the most consistent credits per hour. I upgraded my Lakon 6 first as well. I traded it in when I had enough for the asp. Once I had enough for the Asp I traded it in and grabbed a B drive and loaded to 120 cargo capacity. Then I did trade runs in the asp till I had another 10 mil. Then I used that 10 mil to buy the A drive and other upgrades. So grindy, but now I'm done and off to explore.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Seems some people may be a bit confused about some of the trading tools that are 3rd party. Here's a quick description of Thrudds:

http://elitetradingtool.co.uk/

I used the Find Trades option as I found mapping a good back and forth to be a grind, but way more efficient because you get faster at landing, quicker at docking, knowing where and what you need, etc ... shaving 4 minutes here and 8 minutes there can mean 150k in profit!

I'm by no means a pro trader, and some of this may even be wrong, lol, but it's what's worked for me and I know I had to ask what the hell all these things were when I first started:

Galaxy and station I didn't denote as some of the stuff is self explanatory, plus I ran out of room the limited tools I got at work.

If you have any questions, I'll try an answer. #NotAPro

Some things to consider, your PC and setup may be different. From spooling up the FSD to jumping into the next galaxy is about 35 seconds. Docking can differ greatly depending on the orbital/station and traffic. So when looking at your route, or how far from the jump in point, you may have a route that has 3 'jumps' but short distance from the jump in point. While another route may only have one jump, but a further distance. I find the 45-60 seconds spent on a jump (with a fairly low fuel cost in the Type 6) is well worth the extra jump instead of a long distance that may take upwards of 4-5 minutes with a chance (great chance for me) of overshooting it and spending another minute looping around and lining up.

Station -------> Jump in Point ------- 5 minutes -------> Station

Is still longer than

Station ----> Jump in Point Galaxy 1 ----- 35 seconds -----> Jump in Point Galaxy 2 ------ 3 minutes ----- > Station

 

[Skyzard]

1 jump from Ho Hsi

-Arigens star system

Dummer Orbital - empire. claim your bounties

 

[Raticus79]

Slopeys tool is definitely clunkier but I always get more accurate results from it.

Thrudds tool is terrible for the lesser travelled systems. For example, I'm at HIP 103138 and I'm doing 50ly with 1200 profit per ton and it's saying the max profit I can make is 2.5k whereas Slopeys tool is showing 50k+.

I also find that tons of stations are missing from Thrudds (like the one I'm in now - Strekalov Dock at HIP 103138).

Yeah, that's true - I'm just talking about the functionality, not the data quality. Slopey's definitely has more coverage. Thrudd's round-trip search only counts results updated within the last 24 hours, so that reduces the result set quite a bit on its own, and it also has a smaller user base since it requires registration. Best to get familiar with both for now I guess.

TradeDangerous is interesting - it's powerful and does quite a few things the others don't, but it's so difficult to set up and use that it's pretty much inaccessible to regular users. Maybe someone will help out with a more user friendly approach to that tool set later.

Some things to consider, your PC and setup may be different. From spooling up the FSD to jumping into the next galaxy is about 35 seconds. Docking can differ greatly depending on the orbital/station and traffic. So when looking at your route, or how far from the jump in point, you may have a route that has 3 'jumps' but short distance from the jump in point. While another route may only have one jump, but a further distance. I find the 45-60 seconds spent on a jump (with a fairly low fuel cost in the Type 6) is well worth the extra jump instead of a long distance that may take upwards of 4-5 minutes with a chance (great chance for me) of overshooting it and spending another minute looping around and lining up.

Station -------> Jump in Point ------- 5 minutes -------> Station

Is still longer than

Station ----> Jump in Point Galaxy 1 ----- 35 seconds -----> Jump in Point Galaxy 2 ------ 3 minutes ----- > Station

TradeDangerous actually started trying to account for that in some of its calculations - it can be set to apply a penalty of a certain % to the profitability of a station per 1000 LS from the beacon. That's a bit of a hack though.

Instead of an indirect method like having distance apply a penalty to profit, it would be better to just start using profit/time as the model. Something like:

TotalTradeProfit / (Jumps x TimePerJump + TimeToDock(LS))

or (TotalTradeProfit - FuelCost) / (Jumps x TimePerJump + ScoopTime + TimeToDock(LS))

Trade profit
Fuel costs (if buying fuel)

Time per jump (~35s)
Time from beacon to dock (30s + some function of LS from beacon)
Time spent fuel scooping (if scooping), probably including some free scoop time during the FSD recharge.

The fuel cost or scoop time doesn't matter much for smaller ships and could just be left out, but apparently it's a big deal for the biggest ships. Those 10000+ LS stations are actually quite fuel efficient to get to since in-system travel doesn't consume as much fuel as jumps.

---

Here's a cheesy shortcut to shave some time off your routes: right after clicking Launch, while your ship is moving to surface, save and exit to menu, then restart. You'll be outside the station and able to jump right away when you resume.

 

[naeS]

Is there a GAF group? I did a search but did not find anything.

 

[Tunesmith]

Is there a GAF group? I did a search but did not find anything.

Groups are temporary as it stands now (the Friends & Groups part) and are used for the Group Play option. You would only ever see/meet people in your group in that mode.

Wingmen update etc. is coming early 2015.

 

[naeS]

Groups are temporary as it stands now (the Friends & Groups part) and are used for the Group Play option. You would only ever see/meet people in your group in that mode.

Wingmen update etc. is coming early 2015.

Thanks for the info.

Did a search for info on that. That is exactly what I am looking for.

 

[Skyzard]

NeoGAF Player List

There's a playerlist though.

 

[indigo-cyclops]

I don't feel like the KWS is worth the time. I've scanned all my quarry for the last 140k CR. Out of that, I got maybe 20k Federation coupons, 10k Alliance coupons and 40k Empire coupons.

Sounds great, right? The problem is I can make more money farming Extraction sites than flying across the galaxy to cash in those non-Feddy coupons. My net gain from spending 10+ seconds before every encounter scanning someone down was... 20k.

Yeah, I'm not going to bother putting one on my Viper.

I also stopped using it after a few attempts. It becomes a huge hassle to scan within range and the results aren't always ideal. I'd rather just patrol extraction sites for bounties. The longer you stay the more you can earn. I made a nice amount last night. I really want to try mining tho, I need to make some hard cash so I can start trading heavily.

 

[flyinpiranha]

TradeDangerous actually started trying to account for that in some of its calculations - it can be set to apply a penalty of a certain % to the profitability of a station per 1000 LS from the beacon. That's a bit of a hack though.

Instead of an indirect method like having distance apply a penalty to profit, it would be better to just start using profit/time as the model. Something like:

TotalTradeProfit / (Jumps x TimePerJump + TimeToDock(LS))

or (TotalTradeProfit - FuelCost) / (Jumps x TimePerJump + ScoopTime + TimeToDock(LS))

Trade profit
Fuel costs (if buying fuel)

Time per jump (~35s)
Time from beacon to dock (30s + some function of LS from beacon)
Time spent fuel scooping (if scooping), probably including some free scoop time during the FSD recharge.

The fuel cost or scoop time doesn't matter much for smaller ships and could just be left out, but apparently it's a big deal for the biggest ships. Those 10000+ LS stations are actually quite fuel efficient to get to since in-system travel doesn't consume as much fuel as jumps.

---

Here's a cheesy shortcut to shave some time off your routes: right after clicking Launch, while your ship is moving to surface, save and exit to menu, then restart. You'll be outside the station and able to jump right away when you resume.

Interesting. I started looking into that but I don't have Python on my machine plus I play from a 'comfy couch' perspective.

I may have to look into it though if I start taking the trading really serious. I do agree with the "Profit/Time" mentality though. Each player has a different flight style and docking practice. What takes me 14 minutes may take another 9 minutes. It's how I roughly do it. I just use my phone and setup a stop watch and write down the profit from the roundtrip. I think my last was 13:45 and 186k profit. Not bad, not great, but then you start thinking "shit, if I spend an hour looking for another route, I just lost 750k" ... and "well, I could make that back running a more ... " ... and on and on. I have to slow down and stop! LOL, it's a fun part of the game for me though, I love the planning and examining part. Eventually I'll probably just run around and shoot shit but I'm enjoying this part a lot.

Never in a game has the "Time is Money" mantra seem so apt.

And I have used that 'quick menu' option to leave sometimes, in fact I'm trying to figure out a good VA command to make a macro to do it, and then go back in.

Also, TradeDangerous is looking more and more interesting. May have to install that and just use alt-tab on the big screen.

 

[Shifty76]

I also stopped using it after a few attempts. It becomes a huge hassle to scan within range and the results aren't always ideal. I'd rather just patrol extraction sites for bounties. The longer you stay the more you can earn. I made a nice amount last night. I really want to try mining tho, I need to make some hard cash so I can start trading heavily.

I've done a LOT of bounty hunting and have just started using those funds for trading. Trading absolutely destroys bounty hunting in terms of profitability.

Got a nice new trade loop that gives me 1200cr/t profit each way between two systems that I can reach in one jump. Total round trip time is just under 10 mins and it earns me over 200k profit each loop.

Only thing I don't like about Thruggs tool is that the distances from star to station are very inaccurate. The "18 ls" hop I ran first was actually over 3k.

 

[Skyzard]

Found a resource extraction site in a system near Ho Hsi.

Quite easy with filtering for extraction economy in the galaxy map.

Then checking to make sure there is a ring planet.

Then when you get there even if it's not on your navigation list, keep going to the ringed planet and it turns up.

Spoiler

Balatu

 

[Mengy]

Hmm, seems I really want to double my money first then. Makes sense as I spent about 2 million upgrading my type 6 to get a decent cargo/jump range.. I'm just bored running a ship that literally does nothing but trade

Pity the initial jump range on the ASP is so poor or I'd swap out my type 6 and trade in that

Well personally I bought the Asp with only 7.5 million credits. I flew it stock for a bit, filled it with racks as the first upgrades to give it 80T of space, and I've now just been running trade routes and slowly upgrading her one bit at a time. I had to get out of that Lakon 6, my precious (the Asp) was calling me.

 

[Raticus79]

Also, TradeDangerous is looking more and more interesting. May have to install that and just use alt-tab on the big screen.

The big problem for TradeDangerous is getting the data. It can pull from Maddavo, but the method for updating it is really clunky. You have to do your scan from EliteOCR, do the trade dangerous export (yields an import.prices file), upload that file with the Maddavo web interface, wait a few minutes for it to update, and then run
trade.py import --maddavo --option=stncsv --option=syscsv
to bring in the new station and prices to your local copy.

One thing that's tricky is getting it to do a repeatable loop. I built a little excel sheet to build the batch commands for me. In this example, I set the "--jumps" parameter to 7 which allows it to take up to 7 hops between stops, demonstrating that it tends to use the max because it doesn't account for time, just prices. Running an open-ended search from a start station, then running the inverse from the endpoint to get a return trip:

C:\Elite\TD>trade.py run -vvv --fr "QA''WAKANA/Tall Dock" --cr 625000 --cap 96 --ly 12.4 --max-days-old 7 --jumps 7 --avoid slaves

QA'WAKANA/Tall Dock -> ABUKUNIN/Reilly Hub:
Start CR:    625,000
Hops    :          2
Jumps   :         11
Gain CR :    221,472
Gain/Hop:    110,736
Final CR:    846,472

  Load from QA'WAKANA/Tall Dock:
       96 x Silver                       4,335cr each,    416,160cr total (2days)
  Jump QA'WAKANA -> PANOI -> LHS 3384 -> RISH -> BELU -> G 139-50
  Unload at G 139-50/Filipchenko City (7ls) => Gain 108,096cr (1,126cr/ton) => 733,096cr
  Load from G 139-50/Filipchenko City:
       96 x Land Enrichment Systems      4,325cr each,    415,200cr total (3days)
  Jump G 139-50 -> NLTT 45576 -> SUCHAGGA -> TRELLA -> MALLOC -> APHRA -> ABUKUNIN
  Unload at ABUKUNIN/Reilly Hub (171ls) => Gain 113,376cr (1,181cr/ton) => 846,472cr
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Finish at ABUKUNIN/Reilly Hub gaining 221,472cr => est 846,472cr total


C:\Elite\TD>trade.py run -vvv --fr "ABUKUNIN/Reilly Hub" --to "QA''WAKANA/Tall Dock" --cr 625000 --cap 96 --ly 12.4 --max-days-old
 7 --jumps 7 --avoid slaves
ABUKUNIN/Reilly Hub -> QA'WAKANA/Tall Dock:
Start CR:    625,000
Hops    :          2
Jumps   :         12
Gain CR :    131,424
Gain/Hop:     65,712
Final CR:    756,424

  Load from ABUKUNIN/Reilly Hub:
       96 x Tea                        1,400cr each,    134,400cr total (4days)
  Jump ABUKUNIN -> NAVAJOAR -> TAUNETES -> KORAZOTZ -> KORMT -> BD-11 4932 -> IMENHIT -> ZARAGAS
  Unload at ZARAGAS/Jenner Hub (1,660ls) => Gain 40,512cr (422cr/ton) => 665,512cr
  Load from ZARAGAS/Jenner Hub:
       96 x Performance Enhancers      6,571cr each,    630,816cr total (4days)
  Jump ZARAGAS -> OHO BAJO -> MOPANYANE -> LP 811-17 -> UALAPALOR -> QA'WAKANA
  Unload at QA'WAKANA/Tall Dock => Gain 90,912cr (947cr/ton) => 756,424cr
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Finish at QA'WAKANA/Tall Dock gaining 131,424cr => est 756,424cr total

Maddavo is really short on data, so the results aren't as good as what could be retrieved from the other apps with much less time and effort. It's a useful tool set, it just needs a better data source. Ideally TradeDangerous would be able to pull from the BPC database.

It's interesting seeing all this play out. I support a bunch of data integrations for my job and the similarities are pretty funny. People are going to wind up writing usable market data feed systems and supply chain optimization programs just as a side effect of wanting a better tool for their hobby, lol.

 

[Ronnie]

Could I get some advice from DK2 users please? I've just installed mine and eventually got it working by messing around with extended desktops, primary monitors etc - my question is does anyone have any tips on getting Elite running best with Oculus?

My resolution is set 1024x768, is this the ideal res? Text is almost impossible to read. Any suggestions on tweaks to various settings would be hugely appreciated, thanks.

 

[Skyzard]

Love my weapon setup atm:

Firegroup A
-Fixed strong beam laser
-Gimballed weaker beam laser

Firegroup B
-Fixed strong fragment canon
-Gimballed auto-canon (multi-canon I think it's called)

Sorted for basically everything.


Bit odd, I have a 30K bounty to collect from federation but can't do it from this federation station...says no local bounty.