Oolite Bulletins

I'm having trouble finding good prices for narcotics, the prices seem to fluxtuate wildly. Are there some planets that you can get better buy/sell prices for them? Also is there any way to avoid paying fines if caught selling these wares?

S-P wrote:

I'm having trouble finding good prices for narcotics, the prices seem to fluxtuate wildly.

<grins> Yep, that's the way of it - the life of a contrabandista is certainly unpredictable!

S-P wrote:

I'm having trouble finding good prices for narcotics, the prices seem to fluxtuate wildly. Are there some planets that you can get better buy/sell prices for them? Also is there any way to avoid paying fines if caught selling these wares?

You don't get fined for selling them. Leaving the station with them on board will give you an offender status.

Can I avoid getting the fines? Do lower rank govs turn a blind eye to illegal traders? I got a fine last time I docked at a rich corperate planet. Kind of defeats the purpose of smuggling...

S-P wrote:

Can I avoid getting the fines? Do lower rank govs turn a blind eye to illegal traders? I got a fine last time I docked at a rich corperate planet. Kind of defeats the purpose of smuggling...

Your best approach is probably:
1) Find a system with lots of cheap Narcotics. Buy them and launch. This will get you instant Offender or maybe Fugitive status, so leave quickly.
2) Jump around, sun-skimming until you find a system with high prices for Narcotics. This will have two effects:
- you're unlikely to run into police on the witchpoint-sun route
- the jumps will eventually clear your legal status
3) When you find a system with a good price, if you're not back to Clean yet, then Vipers that see you may stick a fine on you. This is more likely in the more stable systems. You can't avoid this entirely, but if you watch your comms log you will be notified of fines. If you then leave the system without docking at the main station (more sun-skimming) the fines get cleared. (If you are back to Clean, you can import the Narcotics safely)

the jumps will eventually clear your legal status

Killing any offenders, fugitives or thargoids along the way also helps clear your legal status.

Thanks for the advice guys.

cim wrote:

2) Jump around, sun-skimming until you find a system with high prices for Narcotics. This will have two effects:
- you're unlikely to run into police on the witchpoint-sun route
- the jumps will eventually clear your legal status

If you want to keep some thrill in it, then installing the Total Patrol OXP is a nice way to spoil the first effect.

The Total Patrol OXP in combination with Deep Space Pirates OXP and Sunskimmers OXP (download) makes life out of the main spacelane a lot more interesting.

cim wrote:

Your best approach is probably:
1) Find a system with lots of cheap Narcotics. Buy them and launch. This will get you instant Offender or maybe Fugitive status, so leave quickly.

You can buy them from non-main station OXP stations and launch without getting tagged Offender or Fugitive (OXPs can change that for some stations though - eg New Cargoes.). But then smuggling gets a bit too easy (once you've worked out which OXPs add stations with bargain basement price contraband - I'll leave that bit to you... ). If it all gets too easy then another OXP (Illegal Goods Tweak) makes it illegal to import contraband to main stations - but you get some other options (like bribing customs) to avoid penalties, and the OXP can be set to make detection chance variable depending on system tech and government.

cim wrote:

... Jump around, sun-skimming until you find a system with high prices for Narcotics.

In some ways, it's a shame that you can access commodity prices before docking... smuggling would be more 'interesting' if you couldn't!

El Viejo wrote:

cim wrote:

... Jump around, sun-skimming until you find a system with high prices for Narcotics.

In some ways, it's a shame that you can access commodity prices before docking... smuggling would be more 'interesting' if you couldn't!

A few lines of javascript could blank out the market screen until you reached the main station aegis, or were close enough to another station to target it.

Wildeblood wrote:

A few lines of javascript could blank out the market screen until you reached the main station aegis

Yeah... but it's having to actually dock, then either sell or launch still 'carrying' (which replenishes your bounty), that provides the extra 'interest'.

El Viejo wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

A few lines of javascript could blank out the market screen until you reached the main station aegis

Yeah... but it's having to actually dock, then either sell or launch still 'carrying' (which replenishes your bounty), that provides the extra 'interest'.

Even easier to do.

Could that selectively blank out some commodities? I'm thinking that commodities with highly volatile prices (usually contraband) may be POA.

The only way I know to find out the cost of illegal drugs is to ask the Police. Apparently:

Cocaine is about £50 per gramme.

Amphetamines are £12 per gramme.

Heroin is about 150 Euros per gramme.

Cannabis plants are worth about 900 Euros each.

Methylethcathinone, a hallucinogen, ("wild cat") is about £35 per gramme.

And I never knew they actually provide "How to take drugs safely" advice, FFS.

What marvellous market research and training information our Police provide.

Why should I need to dock at a station to find out the price of narcotics on the streets spacelanes? Not only do the police provide updates on prices, they also issue press releases on market shortages and popular markets. All in all, the Police are probably doing millions of pounds worth of work on behalf of organised crime and the demanding consumer. Would GalCop be any different?