Oolite Bulletins

I have seen numerous posts in which people advice beginners to immediately sell their Cobra Mk. III and buy a Cobra Mk. I (or other inferior ship) and use the extra money to better equip the ship, as well as having more cash to trade around. Well, I tried starting new games both using this advice above but also keeping the Mk. III and I have to say I personally prefer the latter tactic! Here is why:

- It's surely great to have some extra cash and a better ship which can survive attacks, but the small cargo of the Mk. I (10 tons vs 20 tons) as well as lack of cargo bay extension (Mk. III can hold up to 35 tons of cargo with extension, and Mk. I is fixed at 10 tons) means that the extra money will be sitting in your account rather then being used to buy goods and get extra reward for your trading trips
- Surely 100 credits is an awfully small amount of money, but the trading route Leesti-Diso is very short and extremely safe, and in a couple of trips that amount of money will be way higher
- as soon as you are able to buy the cargo bay extension (only 400 creadits) and have enough money to fill the 35 tons of good, profits will come much faster!
- I also enjoyed a lot to stay as a low profile trader for some time until I had enough money to really equip my ship and go bounty hunting. It made me feel as if I was slowly climbing the Oolite ladder, if you know what I mean

Well, that's my personal opinion on this subject. What you guys think?

In my experience, if you trade your Mk.III for a better eqiupped Mk.I you'll have to wait ages to have enough money to buy a better ship. Too little cargo space for legal goods trading.
However, you can have more money with illegal goods and piracy... But that's risky.

Tichy wrote:

However, you can have more money with illegal goods and piracy... But that's risky.

That's true, but that wouldn't enter in my category "advice for beginners"

[EDIT]Just to clarify what I meant: what you wrote is absolutely valid and correct, I just meant that this argument (sell the Cobra Mk. III) is usually given to beginners who wouldn't necessarily be able/want to be involved in illegal trading at that point in time[/EDIT]

gsagostinho wrote:

Just to clarify what I meant: what you wrote is absolutely valid and correct, I just meant that this argument (sell the Cobra Mk. III) is usually given to beginners who wouldn't necessarily be able/want to be involved in illegal trading at that point in time

I've tried the Cobra I starting option, and had fun - the Cobra I is quite a nifty ship, all told, and is hard for NPCs to hit. I've even tried starting in an Adder, and although I enjoyed it that really does require a lot of patience and hard graft to get anywhere.

There are beginners though who want to dive in to combat more or less straight away: for these people, I think trading down to a Cobra I is the best non-cheating option available. They may regret it, and come to wish they'd taken the less flashy career path, but (puffs on pipe) some folks just won't be told ...

Personally, for a genuine beginner, I'd recommend sticking with the Cobra III. It's the ship the game is designed around, after all. The Cobra I can get masslocked by other core ships without being able to overhaul them, making injectors a must-have for anyone who doesn't want to fly all the way from the WP without using the torus drive. It's harder for NPCs to hit you, but when they do, it doesn't take much before they're doing you serious harm. But for an experienced player, looking for something a bit different, I'd definitely recommend giving it a go.

Sell. Always sell. Is the Cobra Mk3 a well-balanced, capable ship? It very much is.

Is it uglier than a sun-dessicated wallaby carcass in your kitchen cupboard? It very much is.

So much ugly in such a thick-set lumpen package.

I place a lot of value on personal esthetics, so I'll sell that behemoth every time and get something with more style, even at the cost of cargo space, speed, or energy banks.

I may not win every fight, but, heck, I'll look great trying.

@Disembodied Yes, those are nice advices!

@Layne [irony]That totally sense[/irony], except I find the Cobra Mk. III very pretty

I wouldn't generally recommend trading down. The only case I might is for a permadeath run, because a Cobra I with injectors, ECM and beam lasers is much more likely to survive than a stock Cobra III ... but yes, getting back to the Cobra III afterwards would be slow.

Possibly losing 25% of ship value on trade-in is too harsh: this feels like it should be a more interesting decision.

Layne wrote:

Is it uglier than a sun-dessicated wallaby carcass in your kitchen cupboard? It very much is. So much ugly in such a thick-set lumpen package

Space him! Mind you, there are variants - I fly a Griff late-model Cobra Mk III, with a roughed-up chrome paintjob.

As for the question: no, I wouldn't trade-down.

Cody wrote:

Layne wrote:

Is it uglier than a sun-dessicated wallaby carcass in your kitchen cupboard? It very much is. So much ugly in such a thick-set lumpen package

Space him! Mind you, there are variants - I fly a Griff late-model Cobra Mk III, with a roughed-up chrome paintjob.

As for the question: no, I wouldn't trade-down.

Blatherskite. Fine fine, I'll append my personal opinions with disclaimers in the future.

How about trading perpendicular? Any appeal there? (No, that's not a serious question.)

Definitely keep the Mk 3 - the best way to get money initially is to trade and if possible run cargo, and it's just a LOT easier to build up your funds with more cargo space. One suggestion - don't fill the fourth missile rack as soon as you get the ship, you can spend the money on a few tons of cargo instead, and if you get into a fight bad enough that you need all four missiles on your first few flights you're probably dead anyway.

ffutures wrote:

One suggestion - don't fill the fourth missile rack as soon as you get the ship...

<nods> Instead, a virgin Jameson could sell all three missiles and the pulse laser for an early cash boost.

Cody wrote:

a virgin Jameson could sell all three missiles and the pulse laser for an early cash boost.

Absolutely. The pulse laser will hardly be enough in battle, and it will be sold soon enough anyway when the commander has enough cash to buy a better laser, so why not take this money right away in the beginning? Good advice!