Diziet Sma wrote:using a calculator to convert hundreds of hours on the long-range chart into days and hours can help work out your chances of pulling it off, as well
I certainly need to do
something different, for a fact! I've just had a
disastrous voyage in which I lost my rep, lost a small fortune, and totally lost confidence in my ability to 'eyeball' a route on the chart to determine if it's viable.
It's nobody's fault but my own, of course. I had a nice triple contract going, total value 70k+ (gold to Diquxe alone being worth 46k). It wasn't my first triple, either -- I'd had two prior to this, both successful. Trouble is, this time I couldn't leave it there, could I? After delivering the first load, I took on
three more, all minor detours, nothing too radical (ha ha!). A quintuple, no less! The guys would be proud of me, I thought.
I wish I could claim I made a gutsy judgement call, but truthfully it was recklessness fuelled by greed. Needless to say, I paid the price. Though I managed to meet the first two deadlines okay, I defaulted on the last three, despite sun-skimming for fuel to save time. At journey's end, I'd lost everything. My rep was gone, no one would offer me even a semi-decent contract, I had a hold full of stuff nobody wanted to buy, and my confidence was shattered.
Fortunately, I'd taken Diziet Sma's advice and saved the game at various stages, so was able to go back in time. I suppose the purists will stay I should stick with it, swallow the loss and start to build my rep back up. I did think about it, in fact, but I was curious as hell about that 46k Diquxe gold run and just how viable it really was it at 20D 7H. I accepted the contract again -- but definitely no 'detours' this time -- and sun-skimmed exclusively along the way. I made it with 2 days to spare.
I suppose the safe way with contract hauling is to stick to singles (I've just picked up a 60k platinum run to Inines) but that's not very adventurous, is it? I do need to get more scientific about routes and times, however. One thing that didn't help was the fact that there were several >6.5ly jumps to contend with on my way to Diquxe. I know that several short jumps are faster than one long one, but I've never seen it quantified. Can anyone point me at a table that shows elapsed time vs. jump distance?
Anyway, must dash, sorry. Time's a-wastin' and I've got platinum to haul.