I appear to have forgotten how to play!

[Sendraks]

Seriously. It has been a while since I dabbled in Oolite and it is great to see the progress that is being made, both with the core game and OXPs. 1.77 is all kinds of amazing and 1.79 looks to be even more so!

But dear me, I have forgotten how to play this game. Seriously. Last night I got destroyed three times leaving a station, once by a pirate because I wasn't paying attention to my shields and on two other occasions by the police for firing too close to the station.

I picked up where I left off in my Caudecus Omega "Meaning of Regret" in Galaxy 2 and immediately ran into a few issues. Firstly I'm not far from broke (when you consider the maintainence costs on shulth's bio-engineered vessels) and am at a loss as to how to make money quickly. I'm having to start over on haulage contracts, so odds are I'll be flying a ship I can't afford to pay the overhaul costs on for a while (and all the hilarity that will cause with mis-jumps etcs) before I can get decent paying contracts.

Do parcel contracts pay well in the end? What about passenger contracts? For the lack of cargo space in the Caudecus they seem like a more reasonable prospect, but the high haulage contracts on Gold and Platinum make cargo space a moot point.

I can still get some nice paying bounties, around the 7k mark, so am wondering if it is best sticking with those for now?

All advice welcome.

[Cody]

Do parcel contracts pay well in the end?

I have seen five-figure parcel contracts (in 1.79) - and some runs can be interesting, to say the least.

[Sendraks]

I have seen five-figure parcel contracts (in 1.79) - and some runs can be interesting, to say the least.

Colour me intrigued.
In what way, being as non-specific as possible, were things "interesting"?

Also. 1.79 - is the release stable enough to use instead of 1.77 and most existing OXPs?

[Cody]

I tend to pick diplomatic papers or weapon designs contracts mainly - they often attract unwanted attention.

Oolite 1.79 is pretty stable (the usual caveats apply), and runs most OXPs - but it's possible that parcel contracts in 1.77 are equally lucrative (cim would know).

[Sendraks]

Only way to find out is to get stuck in and you've more than sold them to me.

[cim]

1.77 parcel contracts are much less lucrative - though also safer - than the ones available in 1.79. On the other hand, if you're going that way anyway, they're basically free money.

Passenger contracts in 1.77 you can get quite a bit of money once you've built your rep, though, if you take several passengers on a cross-chart trip: the payout rises quite a bit faster than linearly by distance, so the really big money is in one corner to the opposite corner.

[Sendraks]

I ran quite a few parcel contracts over the weekend and although the payout for them wasn't great, as Cim said, they take no space and if you're going that way anyway it is a few hundred extra credits.

I am looking forward to seeing the more interesting versions of parcel contracts come 1.79.

[Cody]

Don't forget to visit rock hermits - good prices on 'stones and metal, and occasionly they'll pay top-dollar for furs and/or narcotics.

[Sendraks]

Yup - I've already started popping into Hermits that are en-route and harvesting their cheap minerals. As a rule I tend to buy any gold/plat/gems that are cheap at stations to resell at a later date when I find a decent price. As they take up almost no space, it's a good way to generate revenue whilst poddling around space.

It's all coming back to me now.