A Matter Of Money

[Ganelon]

Ok, maybe I just play this game way different than everybody else.. But to hear some folks talk, making CR in Oolite is very easy, and I've seen statements claiming that anybody can make like 100K in ten hours of gameplay and etc.

I've been playing for about a year, and I currently have around 1.6 mil. But a lot of that came from betting on myself in challenges with the Feudal States OXP. I also make a bit doing bounty contracts with the Random Hits OXP. But I remember it being very slow going at first to kit out my Cobra MKIII. Without using the metioned OXPs, even now I have trouble keeping a positive CR flow with maintenance costs and the high price of gear and hardhead missiles.

I do better at making money with my other character, since I fly a Boa in that one, and it can haul enough cargo to make a steady positive CR flow. But with a Cobra, I find it takes a good bit of effort to just make ends meet.

Some people talk about how hard it is, and some act like "Money is no object". So out of curiosity, I'm putting this up with a poll.

[Cody]

I can’t pick either of those choices. I’ve clocked-up over two ship years in space now, and I’m worth nearly 2m. I’ve accumulated that without any OXPs that help to make money, and that shows you don’t need them to succeed. If I’m making an average of 1,000c per ship day, then I’m cool… I don’t think that is difficult to do, and that amount seems to cover nearly all repairs etc. In the ‘vanilla’ game, you can make money fast, but it is a high-risk business.

[Disembodied]

I voted for "it's easy to get rich". Specifically, though, this is via the game's built-in golden road to riches:

1. Work the Poor Agricultural – Rich Industrial routes
2. Buy a ship with a bigger cargo bay (100 tons +, ideally)
3. Start doing cargo contracts.
4. Build your reputation.
5. Get access to the best contracts out there.

It might be worth thinking about toning the top-line contracts down a touch, to be honest. You know, now that I've made my pile.

[Commander McLane]

I'd vote for a third option: I got rich in the long run. So it wasn't quick, but it also wasn't hard to keep even.

From pure milk run trading and bounty hunting (plus scooping) in a vanilla setting I could make about a 1000 cr per jump (which isn't necessarily the same as an Oolite day) in a Cobra III. It's simple maths: the average price difference of Furs/Computers in high- and low-end systems is about 30, multiply this with 35 tons, voilà.

The bigger cargo capacity of my current ship (Imperial Courier, therefore not vanilla) means an increased profit per jump, because apart from draining the market of the cheap commodity I have space left for scooping, without having to unload at the main station first and returning to the corridor for hunting.

But in the long run a big chunk of my commander's wealth comes from profitable cargo contracts, while he is still doing the trading-and-scooping routine along the way.

[Cody]

I'd vote for a third option: I got rich in the long run. So it wasn't quick, but it also wasn't hard to keep even.

Yep... that covers it nicely. I should add that I've never done a contract, of any sort.

[Staer9]

My favourate run was in a Cobra MK3 with an empty hold, I killed 3 anacondas and stole their cargo and made 5,000 Cr in 1 run, sometimes you can do it other times you can't. My current favourate way of making money is with the furball oxp, wait for one to happen then pick up the bountys on the ships. but it is possible to make a fortune as a scavenger, it made me enough money to buy my Xeikil and now I'm racking up the bountys.

[Switeck]

If you're avoiding big fights and not going to anarchy-type systems, you can at least avoid losing money due to repairs or death.

I'd say it's easy enough to make money, but not totally get-rich-quick.

It's possible to trade up to a Python from the starting Cobra in about 1 week on the game clock from start -- and maybe less than 6 hours playing time. The Python's 115 TC is often enough to wipe the main station out of the higher profit items, so money comes in much faster at that point...though getting from one station to the next takes longer.
Beyond the Python's max capacity, stations simply don't sell enough stuff to fill your holds. But if you have multiple OXP stations installed, that's not a problem. Even still, there is an upper limit to how fast you can make money by trading -- so you have to either switch over to running cargo contracts or missions/campaigns to make money faster for the same amount of your playtime.

The fastest way to make money according to the ingame clock is probably ordinary trading + a little scavenging and visiting secondary stations between 2 very close systems, 1 Rich Ind. and 1 Poor Agriculture. Finding a good pair can take awhile, but if you care to call them home you only need to do it once.

[Mauiby de Fug]

I relied on fighting skills learned in a previous life (ArcElite) and started off trading Narcotics and other dubious items... With being a better fighter than my rank would suggest, and knowing when to run and which systems to avoid, I made quite a bit of money rather quickly and iron-assed my Cobra that way. True, I was an Offender/Fugitive, but that just made things interesting and provided more profit when I pirated (there has to be a better word than that?) other ships' cargo!

I later discovered the Con-store/Narcotics "feature", but by that time I had already fully equipped my Cobby out as far as I could, so it made little difference.

I tend to stay on the right side of the law these days, but I'm not averse to a bit of pointless bloodshed and easy money. Not the way many Jamesons will start out, but a viable route nonetheless!

[manziket]

Easy. Q bombing Thargoid invasion fleets looks great and generates lots of dosh.

[Switeck]

I tried q-bombing Thargoids. Seems you only get credit for the first bunch of explosions. Freaking money-loser for me if ever there was one. I'm better off using an energy bomb and lasering the survivors to death.
(Note: I don't tend to have Thargoid Battleships or Cruisers installed, so the number of survivors tends to be few and heavily damaged.)

[Thargoid]

Install JS console and debug.oxp, then type P.credits = 100000000000 (or any number you choose)

Hey, who said computer hacking doesn't exist in the Ooniverse

[Okti]

I think I will start a pole on this topic. When I released my first OXP, LongRangeScanner which is a cheat OXP, which gives some options available by JS console to the player I received a PM from Erich Walch stating if the developers can do it, why not the players.

[maik]

I only occasionally trade, i.e. whenever furs or computers are particularly cheap and my hold is empty I buy and when my hold is full and my goods are particularly expensive I sell. Otherwise I just keep my hold empty and scoop up cargo from offenders or fugitives that got in my way. This occasional trading basically pays my expenses--fuel, the odd missile here and there, maintenance overhauls, and sometimes a hacker at an anarchy station to clean my status if I accidentally committed some crime. The latter is my biggest expense.

I level around 800k to 900k Cr, most of them come from missions: Assassins, some other very generous mission that I already forgot (something about the Navy methinks), and Random Hits.

Overall my liquidity is good enough that I don't have to worry too much about making money. But it's not like money is flying my way either. Oh, and I fly in a Cobra Mk3.

[Staer9]

I am currently worth about 1.5m Cr, most of which I earn't in the trading days and the rest on paid assassinations, If you are a good enough commander the Assassins oxp is a great way of getting huge amounts of credits once you have a good enough standing with the guild.

[Switeck]

Once I get on a roll of cargo contracts, credits almost become meaningless. I've seen some contracts that paid 140-160k in profit, though most later ones are only about 5-20k profit. I've had at least 15 unfinished contracts in progress at once and had 5 delivering to the same place. Knowing how cargo contracts "work" makes them easy enough. I am annoyed by how much I have to do ship maintenance while on long-haul contracts -- sometimes even seems like every 4th jump and I need to do it again!