The Maths on Cargo / passenger Transporting

Lysander · Post by **Lysander** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:41 pm

I am interested in developers' views on the maths on Cargo / passenger contract returns.

They continue to make no sense. I have exchanged, temporarily to a 150 ton L crate Transporter (yes, I know, no teeth, but am now making 30,000 credits / hour to allow me to get a bigger ship as a beginner and I will revert to something big with some bite agan as soon as I can!!) , but the maths seem to be wrong in Oolite - even with this bigger cargo capacity, a cargo contract requiring 5-10 jumps usualy returns a profit of less than 1000 credits and a passenger contract even less)

Given the ability with this cargo capacity to make 2,000 credits + on a single round trip (see my post dated 9 March on the Hitchikers Guide debate), why ever bother with either of these? It would be really nice for the game if the returns could be raised exponentilly in any future Oolite upgrade, say to 4 or 5 times there present profit levels. this would give beginners a better way of making money and addd to the interest.
Is this something that has ever been considered, or doesn't it work this way? I assume it must have been raised before.

Lysander

Post by **Disembodied** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 1:45 pm

Hi Lysander. Another_Commander has been playing around with sums and has come up with a greatly improved set of numbers – see this thread for details.

Lysander · Post by **Lysander** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:10 pm

Thanks for the link Disembodied, and I see the passenger cargo debate is well underway. Good for Another Commander I look forward to seeing which options are chosen. Howver, I still think there is a lot of scope to do something about cargo contracts too, the incentive simply isn't there at current rates

Lysander

Post by **Disembodied** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:28 pm

Ah, but the cargo deals get sweeter ... once you've made your rep as a reliable carrier, cargo contracts become really, really good!

Lysander · Post by **Lysander** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:32 pm

Really? I must have been impatient and by passed them, I will plod after a few more and wait for the cookies to emerge!

Lysander

Post by **another_commander** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 2:44 pm

Just make 7 cargo deliveries in a row and then feel free to share your experiences regarding profits with us

Post by **Eric Walch** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 3:15 pm

Lysander wrote:
Really? I must have been impatient and by passed them, I will plod after a few more and wait for the cookies to emerge!

Currently cargo contract give the same profit as when you would have bought the goods yourself and sold them on the other market. The main benefit from cargo contract comes with the quantities. At normal markets you can only buy or sell up to 127 items of one kind.

On cargo contracts you can buy, transport and deliver much more in one run. Probably you need an anaconda for these large runs. But as A_C wrote: do 7 successful deliveries on a row and things start to become interesting, even for smaller ships.

You can also install UPS-courier. That one will write your contract reputation in readable text on the F5 screen as a mission briefing. There you will see that this reputation has a random element in it but will rise with every successful delivery. UPS-Courier 1.5.3

Lysander · Post by **Lysander** » Mon Mar 09, 2009 5:05 pm

Another Commander and Eric Walch

Thanks for the tips. Have always stopped short of 7 in a row, will follow your advice and see what happens thanks

PS (edited) Wow, luvly jubbly - now I see at last how you guys afford good ships!! thanks for that.

Lysander

BTBC · Post by **BTBC** » Mon Mar 16, 2009 11:38 pm

This is why I am flying a rusty Adder at the moment hardly any deprecation, cheap so loads of cash for contracts and the tiny cargo bay means nothing.

Captain Fullstrength · Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:41 pm

I too was mystified as to why anybody would bother with contracts, which at first don't seem to pay enough.

After seeing this thread I went ahead with a few contracts to see how it went.

I soon discovered how lucrative it can be, and I've been zooming all over G2 making Cr100k plus per run.

I'm running a Python Black Dog, with military shields and lasers and an enlarged cargo bay, which means I can haul 115t at a time.

If you plan well you can get three or four drops on the same run and still make your last delivery on time. I always check whenever I stop on a run to see if there are any contracts to pick up along my route. My last run started with three drops and I picked up 2 more contracts on the way.

And if you are delivering Gold, Platinum and Gems you can still load up your cargo bay and do your trading on the way.

After a week or so of this I'm nearly a Credit millionaire. I'm saving up for a Falcon, to retire from trade and go hunting Thargoids.

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:50 pm

Captain Fullstrength wrote:
After a week or so of this I'm nearly a Credit millionaire. I'm saving up for a Falcon, to retire from trade and go hunting Thargoids.

Have you seen the Caduceus? There's a thread about it with screenshots...I really can recommend it! It's great for bughunts as it has more turretpower than the Falcon!

Screet

Captain Fullstrength · Tue Mar 17, 2009 5:52 pm

Yep, I've seen the Caduceus. Very cool. I may have to have that one too. I could have a sticker saying 'My other ship is a Falcon'.