Oolite Bulletins

I am sort of wondering what others main stay income is from.

I'm mostly an honestish trader. Though due to a glitchy cargo manifest computer, I'm never totally sure what's in they pods.
I used to be a pro-assassin. They still call me "Deaths Master" for some reason?
I usually have a kill contract on the go. Well you need something to help give you a trade route and I don't really enjoy the time restrictions of courieing docs or cargo.
And of course being a good Ooniverse citizen, I do my part in cleaning up fugitives and the like.
Also I'm litter consious and collect all they abandoned pods, some traders are just so negligent about where they leave stuff floating about!
I'm sure it has nothing to do with my routine laser testing.

Package courier and general good-two shoes, mostly. I usually have Rescue Stations installed and take a lot of escort and rescue missions, I nab Escape Pods, rescue slaves, and fling myself at pirates attacking convoys. I'm pretty much the Don Quixote sort; I'll tilt at any windmill in the name of gallantry! (And the bounty money doesn't hurt.) Not above a bit of trading in gold and gemstones and platinum, the stuff that doesn't clog up your cargo hold and is ever-so-shiny to the eyes.

Bounty hunting is where it's at, for me.. I wouldn't be without Random Hits. And I wouldn't be without my Pitviper SE.. the bounty-hunter's ship, par excellence.

I'll usually take Escort Contracts, if they're going in the general direction of my next hit.

I'll always come to the assistance of others in trouble, but don't generally bother with pirates unless they annoy me first.

Interestingly enough, I'm not really getting any richer. The repair bills and the income seem to balance out, over time. But that's ok.. so long as I can maintain around 100K in the bank, and keep getting by, I'm happy.


I have pirate and smuggler personas in other game-saves, but tend not to play them very often, generally just for an occasional change of pace.

Bulk haulage, multiple cargo and passenger contracts across a long route.
And occasionally lopping off the odd fugitive on principle. I toy with the idea of applying for a Random Hit just to see whether the Assassin's Guild rep falls over laughing when a 'Conda jockey applies for a contract .

Ranthe wrote:

applying for a Random Hit just to see whether the Assassin's Guild rep

You're kind of getting two separate OXPs mixed up there, old friend..

My main line of work is as a trader and small package courier.

precious metal contracts for money, parcel contracts for fun and more fights.
Also RH and feudal missions.
Used to run Escort Contracts missions also, but RH revenge strikes and Assassin attacks made it much harder to do them.

I see myself as a bounty hunter / courier , but repairs and maintenance are expensive.
I got repairbots installed, but tweaked it to be six times faster, making recharge for it 10 times more expensive then normal.

I'd like to earn enough money to switch to another ship at some point.
After buying / kitting out my FDL_3G+(t) i had approx 700k left, am now around 900k .
That may sound like a lot, but i got expensive oxp equipment like shield cycler, shield capicators and naval grid .
Basically i need to add approx 500k to the price of a new ship to get it fully kitted out.

Interstellar courier - often in Ironman mode!

Two main Commanders (seldom played these days ).
No 1 is really just a trader who helps out the good-guys in a fight.
No 2 is relatively new and is mostly an explorer getting to know the Ooniverse as he equips his ship.

Real gameplay: Trader... Contracts as possible, but normal milkruns are ok too. Always responding to help fellow traders in distress.
But mostly I'm testing ships atm, so not really playing.

My usual career arc goes usually begins with trading, plus parcels when I'm going their way - but I tend to work up to preying on pirates: plundering the plunderers, in other words. All the fun of piracy with none of the concomitant legal entanglements!

My older pilots got rich through trading then went over to cargo, mail, and passenger hauling quite late, when I realised just how much money there was in it, and that it was more challenging than just trading back and forth.

I've recently started a newbie commander (11 kills so far) who is already flying a Planet Express ship with one passenger berth and flying small cargoes and parcels as he can get them - mostly they want a more qualified pilot for these contracts, but I'm already reasonably well equipped and currently have about 20K cash - saving up for military shields etc. I'll need a lot more dosh before I can afford to carry high-value cargoes, but I'm getting there, meanwhile parcels are the real big earner.

ffutures wrote:

My older pilots got rich through trading then went over to cargo, mail, and passenger hauling quite late, when I realised just how much money there was in it, and that it was more challenging than just trading back and forth.

n00b commander here: I've tried to get into cargo contracts, mail, and passenger hauling several times. But the money/time ratio involved always seemed to pale in comparison to plain vanilla trading (with the cargo upgrade for Cobra Mk III, a single roundtrip between Rich Industrial and Poor Agricultural worlds can nab ~2K credits profit). Do the payouts for those missions ramp up quickly after you have done them for a while?

bitsai wrote:

Do the payouts for those missions ramp up quickly after you have done them for a while?

<nods> Yes, as your contract rep increases, so do the rewards - and the risks.

Alright, I'll give those another go, once I earn some decent upgrades. Thanks!