Am new to the world of Oolite and loving every minute of it so far!!
I've just changed my ship to a Python that can carry up to 100 tons but have noticed that, so far, all the jobs I've been offered seem to pay absolute peanuts!! For example, I'm just looking at a job now that's asking me to pay 4128 credits for the contract (60 tons of Furs) and I'll get paid 250 credits upon delivery. Is it really worth it for such a tiny amount..? I'm finding there's much more money in transporting passengers..
Patience, Grasshopper. Continue doing the trade contracts you are offered, build your reputation and you will soon be rewarded. And I mean, seriously rewarded.
Hi Dust - Welcome to the Friendliest Board this side of Riedquat(tm)
You have a very poor reputation to start with, so until you're trusted you don't get the big contracts, so you've got to do the peanut-pay runs first to build that reputation up - stick with it, runs can get very lucrative (especially with some of the OXPs that help you plan your routes so that you can run contracts concurrently (i.e. Furs in one system, Computers to another close by system so that you have time to deliver both)).
Good luck.
DH
Last edited by DaddyHoggy on Fri Apr 08, 2011 2:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Reason:Ninja'd by A-C!!!
Hi Dust, and welcome to the friendliest board this side of Riedquat.
The contracts get better as you do more and build up a reputation, but with a python you can make good credits doing normal milk-run stuff. Computers and luxuries to low tech and furs and booze to high techs.
Find a few good close pairs of planets and you'll be rolling in it!
Cheers,
Smivs.
Partly Ninja'd by DH edit:- (and AC)
Commander Smivs, the friendliest Gourd this side of Riedquat.
Contracts do get better over time, as your reputation gets better. But I agree that at first it can feel like most of what you do is schlepping cargo and passengers for peanuts pay.
Hang in there and try different things. Passengers, cargo contracts, do a bit of trade on the way if time allows. Some OXPs, like "Random Hits" can even make bounty hunting a viable choice of ingame profession, once you have done enough of it to establish your reputation as a bounty hunter.
There's tons of possible things to do in the game to "earn a living". Assuming you're not one of the "money cheat" people, you'll want to try a lot of them and probably will switch what you do sometimes to fit your mood for a particular session. In fact, you'll *need* to explore the ways of making money and find a routine or set of routines that you enjoy, or you'll be broke a lot. Once you get a ship you like and get it tricked out with the options you want, you can wander around a lot without really digging into the money-making aspects in the game. For a while. But then there are new upgrade items, other ships, repairs, missile/weapon costs..
It's part of the game, and I think it's a big part of what gives some depth and life to the player in the game. The player always has some bills to pay or things he/she wants, and so can't always just walk away if an offered deal or mission is really sweet/ Sometimes if you've had a run of bad luck and the credit balance is low from ship repairs and etc, you end up taking missions you really don't like the looks of, or taking contracts that you know will be a real pain, but the money is there.
I'm coming up on having played Oolite for a year now. I still tend to be a bit tight about spending. Sure, I have about 1.6 mil, but I also know that a couple bad ship changes or a run of really nasty luck for a week or so and I could be hoping real hard I have enough in my cargo hold to cover repairs when I come limping into a station. LOL It's part of what makes the game fun, though... The times when you're rolling in the credits and the times when you're limping and hoping you have enough to get back into good times again.
Some OXPs, like "Random Hits" can even make bounty hunting a viable choice of ingame profession, once you have done enough of it to establish your reputation as a bounty hunter.
Just keep in mind that the revenge can really kill your profits if you aren't a proficient combat pilot. Quite a few times, I've (more or less) easily killed the target in the easy missions and gotten a nice little payment. Then his buddies come gunning after me with better ships and wipe out my profits. It's not so bad after the combat tips I picked up (from Ganelon and the other veterans) on the board, but I still find myself running away with my tail between my legs far too often.
I still find myself running away with my tail between my legsmaking strategic retreats far too often.
Fixed that for you!
"Actually this is a common misconception... I do *not* in fact have a lot of time on my hands at all! I just have a very very very very bad sense of priorities."
--Dean C Engelhardt
Watch where Cargo contracts are going...sometimes you can get a short-range one to <7 LY away. Those can be done fast enough to build your reputation...but the problem with cargo contracts is once you start it's hard to quit.
...Because when you quit, your reputation decays away.
The Python can get a large cargo bay extension and have 115 tons cargo capacity. That can help increase your profits, since you can even buy lower-profit items to fill the last remaining cargo OR leave it empty to snag free cargo canisters and escape pods using a fuel scoop (a standard feature on Pythons.)
Playing scavenger is another seldom-mentioned option in the game. Wait over 20 minutes around the witchspace beacon or main station, then travel along the witchspace beacon to planet route and scoop up all the leftovers. The risk as time goes on generally gets lower, as each trader ship that goes through there has at least a chance of taking out 1 pirate before it dies.
...Because when you quit, your reputation decays away.
If I understand correctly, this only happens when you jump through witchspace. For those who want to do lots of trading within a system, they can try installing these OXPs: Your Ads Here, Commies, Hoopy Casinos and Rock Hermit Locator. Besides adding to the atmosphere, these OXPs also add stations/ships that buy/sell certain commodities at a different price than the main station.
Switeck wrote:
Playing scavenger is another seldom-mentioned option in the game. Wait over 20 minutes around the witchspace beacon or main station, then travel along the witchspace beacon to planet route and scoop up all the leftovers. The risk as time goes on generally gets lower, as each trader ship that goes through there has at least a chance of taking out 1 pirate before it dies.
Ah! I didn't know this. So I can jump into a new system, have a slow cup of coffee and catch up on my reading before I make my run to the main station.
You may be right about jumping being the only thing to decay reputation, but considerable amounts of gametime (and realtime!) can be "eaten up" by a couple activities. Each docking/launching from stations takes at least 10 minutes and enough of those might erode your cargo/passenger reputation as well through the slow passage of time. Refueling even a trivial amount may take ~10 game minutes. Buying equipment can take hours to days -- time used up equipping expensive missiles/bombs/mines is so bad that it's pretty much a game bug. (These may not in fact decay the reputation as I haven't tested it...only that enough of them *should*!)
Sitting around the witchspace beacon is not nearly as safe as sitting around right next to the main station (where Vipers WILL come to your defense) -- traders can actually "pull" pirate groups towards the beacon and you could come back just in time to die. How that "pulling" works because a barely in-range trade would have pirates charge towards it at full speed, where they may kill it before it goes very far. Then the NEXT trader gets spotted at max range and they charge towards it. Add to this that the player's ship is given priority status as a target by pirates and Thargoids, so once pirates get in range they tend to make your ship their NEXT target after dealing with their current one.
From what I can tell, the system is put partially "on hold" while you're actually docked -- at least that seemed the case for wormholes.
From what I can tell, the system is put partially "on hold" while you're actually docked -- at least that seemed the case for wormholes.
No, it isn't. I've often insta-docked when a wormhole was close to the station, and upon immediate re-launch it wasn't there anymore. That could be different with manual docking, though. Re-launching 'only' takes 10 minutes, and bigger wormholes could survive that. Insta-docking takes 20 minutes, add to that another 10 minutes for launching, and any trader's wormhole has collapsed.
The rest of the system isn't 'on hold' either, although there sometimes seem to be glitches.
It may be that the 10 minutes added during launch have no effect on NPCs, at least sometimes. During this period you aren't docked anymore.
I'm pretty sure that I've docked in the middle of a firefight to re-arm, refuel and have rejoined the battle with lots of debris from both sides and fewer ships to fight - I think I've even heard the odd laser fire strike the hull of the station - definitely not on hold!
edit:- (and AC) 
