Well, I finally got a rusty python and with 115 tons of cargo space can actually take on some of the contracts being offered. BUT, I'm looking at the numbers and I'm not convinced it's worthwhile.
In a quick run back and forth between Onlema (Rich Industrial) and Xexeti (Poor Agricultural) I'm making purchases/sales like this:
Which leaves me with a profit of 4312.6 over 2 jumps, or an average of 2156.3 credits per jump. The contracts I'm seeing don't come anywhere CLOSE to that. I'll probably take a few just to be doing something more interesting than hopping back and forth between two planets, but I don't think I'll be doing it for the money. Someone mentioned a while back that after you've taken several contracts, some really "nice" contracts would be offered to you? I assume that means some more lucrative and different types of contracts become available?
Someone mentioned a while back that after you've taken several contracts, some really "nice" contracts would be offered to you? I assume that means some more lucrative and different types of contracts become available?
Yup... just keep building up your reputation for reliability!
Blaze is bang on target. I'm doing contract runs at the moment and, yeah, the first four or five are pretty much long-haul, low profit. But I just scored a 4-jump delivery for 60TC of Furs with a profit of 3k!
In these jobs, the Advanced Navigation Array is your friend.
I was about to say to Hesperus that 3k for 4 jumps isn't that great, you should be making 1k a jump with normal trading, and that transporting stuff is a poor way to make a living.
Then jf gearing dangled the 75,000 Cr (6000 per jump) carrot in front of me. I've got to get transporting!
sorry, i wasn't very clear, i meant for a cobra 3 loaded up with computers one way (35t x 40Cr profit = 1400Cr) and furs back (35t x 20Cr profit = 700Cr profit).
With a bigger ship you can make a lot more. My best normal trade would be something like this (in a Boa cruiser):
60t of luxuries 80->100 = 1200
60t of computers 60->100 = 2400
45t of machinary 55->70 = 675
total 175t, 4275 profit
with some patience buying/selling precious metals/gems you can make upto 20Cr profit per g/kg on a hundred g/kg every now and then.
Don't mess about
Run narcotics, 90cr+ per ton profit if you get it right
Don't worry about the old bill, they give you a small fine and make you pick up litter from the flight deck
Someone mentioned a while back that after you've taken several contracts, some really "nice" contracts would be offered to you? I assume that means some more lucrative and different types of contracts become available?
The contract board offers no better prises than you would get by choosing the cargo yourself. Only the quantities are often much higher than normally available. (But you need an anaconda size bay to profit from this).
Intensive traders get also offers of gold/platinum/gems. With these things cargo size is rarely a problem and the profit is big. But you have to keep your reputation high. By the way: Transports of UPS.OXP version 1.2.3 or newer also raise your transport reputation.
I have not tried this, but I have this feeling that in a transport mission, the only important thing is that you arrive on the target location with the correct quantity of the correct cargo on board. Which could mean that you could to some extend keep trading during the mission and get double the profit.
Oh yes, definitely -- if you've a contract to deliver X tons of Luxuries or whatever, you don't have to deliver those exact specific X tons you're given at the start. Good thing too, since sometimes you can lose parts of the cargo on the way and have to replace it.
I don't know... it would be tricky, unless you were given a "special cargo", e.g. X tons of Arazaesian Wolf Meat... but then as I understand it, special cargos of any size automatically fill up the cargo bay. Plus I don't know what would happen if you get into a firefight and you lose a ton of whatever you're carrying.
It might work if the cargo wóuld take up the whole bay, the reward would be proportional to the size of the bay, the mission would fail if a new ship were bought before arrival, and, maybe, if something like a "damage counter" would exist to keep track the state of the cargo.
But then there would need to be the possibility to introduce a new variable in an osx that could be stored in a saved game as well. And if that ís the case, it would also be possible to create a "special" slot in the general cargo list. And in that case, you could be given a set amount of "special" cargo to be delivered, plús a "spoilage amount".
(But again, I am belching out random thoughts here without knowing how osx'es actually work, so I might very well be talking nonsense )
so should they be revised to offer more money but insist on you shipping the actual goods you were given?
Actually, this small built-in inconsistency may precisely be what can make doing trade missions fun- profit may still be less then when doing the same number of ri-pa-jumps since some of the jumps along the way will be unprofitable, but it is nice to have a destination to work towards.
Have been doing this a couple of times now, and it was fun. The first mission failed though, because I was unable to re-aquire enough computers in time (no rich industrials near Diquer, should have checked on that... oh well)
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