What to do now? (Newbie question)

[iperich]

Hi, i started to play Oolite a couple weeks ago, I started trading between two planets, an agricultural one and an industrial one, selling and buying primarily computers and furs. Business was very well, and I made enough money to buy almost everything you can for my Cobra ship in the industrial planet, then i found more tech-leveled planets to find more stuff for my ship. I learned "the bad way" that there's some things that are illegal in some planets (i was fined, and police tried to kill me, etc) But in the end, business is good, i had some action sometimes... this game is awesome!!

But now i'm kind of bored of doing this business, I would like to earn more money and I think the deliveries are a bad business, I would like to know what other options I have... I have weapons, shields, advanced navigation, wormhole i-dont-remember, etc.... ( i think I have everything you can have for a Cobra ship) I'm open to try anything, legal or not, to earn more money.

Any suggestions?

Thanks in advice, and may I say that i'm completely hooked with the story I'm creating in this game.

[Smivs]

Hi iperich, welcome to the Friendliest Board this side of Riedquat, and congrats on what sounds like an excellent start.
You have a wide choice of options open to you now your ship is Iron-Assed (fully equiped), some of which are more profitable than others. You can continue to trade, either as an independant or by looking at the contracts/passengers markets. Lots of money to be had there. You could turn your hand to bounty-hunting, smuggling or mining, all of which can show a good profit but have risks involved. Or try a combination of some of the above. Or you could just be an explorer - travel the Eight and see what you can find out there. Combine this with a bit of trading to pay the bills.
What you will find though is that once you are Iron-Assed, money becomes far less important - what is there to spend it on? Your ship needs fuel and occassional maintenance of course, and some 'lifestyle choices' will leave you with some horrendous repair bills but that's it really.
So maybe it is time for you to 'think outside the box' and lose the focus on money a bit. The game has several in-built missions which crop up as you travel around the Eight and some of these give you extra equipment - stuff you can't buy. Also there are a number of OXP missions available which are quite varied in style, length and complexity, from one set in just one system that requires you to save the Main Station from danger, to one that sends you around all eight galaxies twice in a race against the Thargoids.
So that would be my advice. Start working around the galaxies as an explorer perhaps, doing what you must (having fun!) to pay the bills, and looking for missions to do and other ways to enjoy the game. This should keep you occupied for some years...

[Commander McLane]

Hi iperich, and first of all welcome to The Friendliest Boards This Side Of Riedquat™!

Oolite offers a variety of career options. You have already discovered and mastered the most basic one—back and forth trading between an industrial and an agricultural world. This will also remain to be important for you in the future. It's always a fall-back option whenever you just need to make some steady money.

Alternative careers tend to be less boring, but for the price of being more dangerous. Here is a short (but in no way compulsive) list. None of these need any OXPs.

• Passenger/parcel/cargo delivery: Admittedly, these don't look very profitable at first glance. However, there are bonuses to be made for early delivery before the deadline. Also, while doing delivery contracts, you begin to build up a reputation. When you have reached a certain reputation, much more lucrative contracts will become available. Reputation is built up independently for each of the delivery markets. So, in order to being offered for instance a very lucrative cargo contract (and that's where the real money is in Oolite), you have to successfully fulfill a certain number of cargo contracts. Passenger or parcel deliveries don't count towards that, and vice versa.
• Mining: For a change of pace you can install a mining laser and hunt for asteroids. Then sell the extracted ore at the station (note: don't sell it to the Rock Hermit, he's got enough minerals already, and therefore doesn't pay well for it). Mining isn't very lucrative, though. You know the average price for minerals. You can make it more lucrative by installing  Ore Processor OXP, though. This adds a piece of equipment which will allow you to extract precious metals from asteroids instead of only minerals.
• Bounty hunting: How good are you at combat? You can always help the Galactic Police to rid the Ooniverse of pirates. For each offender or fugitive that you kill you're paid a nice bounty. As an added bonus, you can scoop their cargo and sell it. Also, if you manage to scoop their escape pods, you're paid another handsome bounty upon delivering the criminal to the next station. Finally, together with fighting crime you'll automatically build up your Elite ranking.
• Last but not least, dare I say it, you can do the opposite thing: piracy. With your current trading career, your profits are limited by the price difference between buying and selling. If you buy for 60cr and sell for 70cr, that's a meagre 10cr for you. But what if you don't buy, but only sell? Then the full 70cr go into your pocket! "But how can I sell what I haven't bought?" - I hear you ask. Well, this is where free floating cargo containers in space come into the picture, you scooping these containers who obviously don't have an owner, and previously you convincing their previous owner to part with them by calculated use of your laser. Do I need to say more? I think you get the picture. Note that the bigger ships (Anacondas, Boas, and Boa Class Cruisers) tend to carry large amounts of cargo, and not all of them are protected by escorts. Note also that nobody can accuse you of a crime, as long as the police don't witness the crime.

These are the most common of the career options offered in Oolite. Some OXPs will offer you even more choice, and I'm certain that the bunch will be around in just a second in order to advertise their favourite OXPs to you. But I always like to begin with what the basic game offers. You can of course mix all of the above at any time. There's no need to stick to only one career. Take your opportunities! And:

Right On, Commander!

[Disembodied]

There are also OXPs which enhance various aspects of the game (trading, parcel deliveries, etc.) and add complexity and depth, as well as a few missions of their own here and there. In no specific order, a few that come to mind are:

• [wiki]BlOomberg Markets[/wiki] - creates random events that affect the commodity prices in specific systems.
• [wiki]New Cargoes[/wiki] - adds over 100 new, much more specific, trade goods, and a variety of new trading opportunities.
• [wiki]Random Hits OXP[/wiki] - creates contracts, and specific targets, for bounty hunting.
• [wiki]UPS Courier[/wiki] - ferry packets and parcels around the galaxy, with some missions mixed in.

Other options are of course available!

[Norby]

Check the [wiki]OXP_List[/wiki], currently 535 extensions available and growing.

[Claudio de Bris]

Hi there, iperich,
As others have said, there are lots of options. In addition to adopting various alternative strategies for making a living, you could consider saving up some money for a different ship to suit your new lifestyle.
You can see what's on the market by pressing F3 twice whilst docked.

For a balance of trading and combat, the Cobra MkIII is a pretty good ship, but if you want to focus more on shifting goods around (trading, asteroid mining), a Python or one of its derivatives is a good step up. I actually did the thargoid plans mission in one, so you can survive a fight in one. They're quite a tough ship to kill, as you may have found out when you've had to do it. They're very slow though, so you'll need to budget for fuel injectors to get you out of traffic.

If you want to bias your lifestyle more towards combat, but still make enough money to pay for the inevitable repairs and replacement escape pods, you might want to try a one of the additional ships available by installing OXPs. My personal favourite is the Accipiter - compared to your Cobra it carries a bit less cargo but is a bit faster, a bit tougher and a bit more manoeuvrable, all handy in a fight. Oh, and it's one of the less expensive alternatives - costs about as much as a Python. Be careful about installing very tough ships before you're ready to buy or fight them - your adversaries will always get them first.

If you want to try smuggling and/or bounty hunting, you really should install Random Hits. Besides offering a multitude of contract hits, graded for difficulty, it provides a mechanism to make smuggling very lucrative indeed without attracting too much police attention unless you get careless. I'll let you try figuring that one out for yourself before dropping too many hints

[Claudio de Bris]

Passenger/parcel/cargo delivery: Admittedly, these don't look very profitable at first glance. However, there are bonuses to be made for early delivery before the deadline. Also, while doing delivery contracts, you begin to build up a reputation. When you have reached a certain reputation, much more lucrative contracts will become available. Reputation is built up independently for each of the delivery markets. So, in order to being offered for instance a very lucrative cargo contract (and that's where the real money is in Oolite), you have to successfully fulfill a certain number of cargo contracts.

Ah, that's something I hadn't realised. I've never really bothered with cargo contracts on the grounds that they didn't seem terribly profitable compared to a series of carefully selected short hauls. Maybe I should buy that Anaconda and keep my nose clean for a while.

[Diziet Sma]

Ah, that's something I hadn't realised. I've never really bothered with cargo contracts on the grounds that they didn't seem terribly profitable compared to a series of carefully selected short hauls. Maybe I should buy that Anaconda and keep my nose clean for a while.

Once you get to the point where the contracts are lucrative, you won't need that Anaconda..

It is quite possible to get to max-rep with a Cobra MkIII with cargo extension.. you just need to hunt a little harder to find the <=35TC contracts.. I've done it several times. And once you get to max-rep, cargo capacity is no longer a problem..so long as you maintain it..

[iperich]

Wow, thanks for the responses guys... I would like to try some of your sugestions, I have some questions about them...

Bounty Hunter: How can I get a mission? Can I talk with a police ship or what? I will try Random Hits OXP.

Bloomberg markets OXP: I've installed it, I think a week ago, I found it interesting (adding "noise" to the market can make it more interesting) but all I have is a very few "news" when I arrive to a planet, and I don't understand them very well to use them as info for trading... (I'm too newbie I guess)

Passenger Deliveries... if you say that I will have a reputation growing and I will get more interesting missions... I think I will give it a try.... sounds good... I haven't installed the "passenger" stuff because of the 5 ton reduction for my cargo...

Piracy: Well... I must confess there was, in one occasion, well... there was this ship... I think it was lost, far from the planet... and well, I had new lasers.... one thing led to another and, well... I had an extra cargo to sell... nobody saw me and, well... I think is not that hard to give it a try too...

Well, I guess that I have a lot of stuff to try, so I will. Thanks and I guess I will have more questions so... see you soon!

[Cody]

Welcome aboard - seek out rock hermits, as they often have very low prices on metals and gems (and occasionly they'll pay top-dollar for narcotics and/or furs).

[Diziet Sma]

Passenger Deliveries... if you say that I will have a reputation growing and I will get more interesting missions... I think I will give it a try....

To take some of the guesswork out of it, if you wish to keep track of your reputation, you can install the Display Reputation OXP.

[Claudio de Bris]

Welcome aboard - seek out rock hermits, as they often have very low prices on metals and gems (and occasionly they'll pay top-dollar for narcotics and/or furs).

And Liquor/Wines. Hard drinking folks, those rock hermits. I like to think they have a big blowout when they find a rich seam of something, and that's when they pay good money for narcotics. Not sure about the furs though. Then again, they've never invited me to one of their parties.

[Disembodied]

Not sure about the furs though.

Depending on the orbit, some of those asteroids can get pretty chilly.

[Commander McLane]

Bounty Hunter: How can I get a mission? Can I talk with a police ship or what? I will try Random Hits OXP.

In the core game there are no missions around bounty hunting. Every ship with an "offender" or "fugitive" tag on it carries a bounty and is up for grabs. You (and everybody else) can attack and kill it at any time, and will be awarded the bounty upon destroying the ship. That's all. You don't even need to dock somewhere. As soon as you deal the fatal blow, you instantly get a message that you have been paid a certain amount.

 Bounty scanner OXP translates the "offender" or "fugitive" tag into the precise bounty and displays the precise amount on your HUD next to the ship name.

This is totally independent of Random Hits OXP, which adds another layer to bounty hunting, with more dangerous missions. Those can pay much better than the standard bounties, but at the same time they are more dangerous, and you can only do one at a time. But you (and every other pilot) have a license to kill any "offender" or "fugitive" you stumble across at any time, and cash in their bounty, even while mainly doing something else, like for instance ferrying a cargo or passenger.

[Claudio de Bris]

Wow, thanks for the responses guys... I would like to try some of your sugestions, I have some questions about them...

Bounty Hunter: How can I get a mission? Can I talk with a police ship or what? I will try Random Hits OXP.

Install Random Hits - this will add another type of space station you can dock with, namely Seedy Space Bars. There's one in every Anarchy, they are always near the main space lane and they show up on the advanced space compass as "B". You will be offered a choice of missions (you don't have to accept any of them) when you dock. They won't let you out without buying dinner & drinks, but that won't break the bank. You can also buy, sell and equip your ship there.