What's your 2 favourite planets to trade between?

[Ethan-J]

Hi, I am currently still in Galaxy 1.

Q : What's your 2 favourite planets to trade between? ... any Galaxy, thought G1 info would be handy because I'm still there.

A Rich Industrial planet close to a Poor Agricultural planet is ideal for trading... but some pairs are boring, others may not be.

Please feel free to share your favourite places in Oolite.

Thanks

[Cholmondely]

My favourites are Ensoreus & Ararus.

I play with Weapon Laws and SW Economy. Weapon Laws makes it more difficult to kit out your ship - and turns it into a nail-biting adventure in its own right.

I daren't go to Ararus until I've got Shield Boosters and other defences for when I get scragged by the pirates, so I spend some time on the Isinor-Tionisla runs first, kitting out my ship (with trips to Qutiri to buy beam lasers: Tionisla is safer than Qutiri, pirate-wise). The Corporates like Ensoreus sell virtually nothing which might help in combat.

Ararus is large enough size-wise to support an agricultural economy producing furs (SW Economy turns the smaller-sized agriculturals into mining planets instead, so they produce no food/liquors/furs at all, mucking up the Xexedi-Laenin milk run), so there are good profits to be made, if one avoids the Boogums. The rest of the Strangers World suite adds several extra stations to Ensoreus, with more trade opportunities. The two rock hermits by the witchpoint also help (although the position of Ensoreus, surrounded by pirate-ridden anarchies & feudals, means that there are always pirates visiting and making mischief in their vicinity).

[Killer Wolf]

i do a six-point run usually;
zaonce -> isinor
isinor -> qutiri
qutiri -> isinor
isinor -> tionisla
tionisla -> isinor
Isinor -> zaonce

rinse, repeat. ALWAYS check the Hermits, the extra amount you can get trading precious metals is ridiculous.

[Nite Owl]

Trading between just two systems is NOT the most profitable way to go. As you jump back and forth between the two the prices for the commodities that you trade the most will begin to fall off. The answer is to find a nice cluster of systems that you can jump between. The Zaonce and Qutiri cluster (a long hop from Lave) is ideal for this if you are just starting out. Figure out a profitable and safe pattern for the systems within range, going from one to the other before looping back around to your point of origin. Not all of the systems in this cluster fall into the Rich Industrial <--> Poor Agricultural ideal so you may want to make adjustments to the Computers <--> Furs standard. Still, there is more profit to be made in a multi system loop then in the back and forth approach of just two systems. Once you have upgraded your ship to the point that you can somewhat survive in the more dangerous places of Sector 1 head to the Xexedi cluster for even better trading opportunities using the same looping, multiple system, methods.

Well... Killer Wolf beat me to it but the above still stands as good advice. Was not going to post my loop to allow you to discover one for yourself but since the Wolf is out of the bag here goes.

Qutiri --> Ontiat --> Ensoreous --> Isinor --> Tionisla --> Bemaera --> Zaonce --> Lave --> Leesti --> Diso --> Leesti --> Lave --> Zaonce --> Isinor --> Qutiri

This loop allows most of the systems enough time to forget about the commodity prices and quantities from your last visit in order to give you the full profit you need to outfit your ship in short order.

P.S.
Please read down several posts from this one to my next post and the post that precedes it for corrected information.

[Cody]

Good advice there - even if it's only a triangular route, it'll work better. And as KW says, always check rock hermits.

[Ethan-J]

Thank you for posting guys.

I was shuttling between Isinor and Quitiri for a long time. This enabled me to save up for better hardware. I must have read about it in a guide on this site.

One of the first things I bought was Witchdrive fuel injectors, so I could burn past pirates. Then when I got my next 6k credits I bought military lasers for the back, so I could shoot the buggers chasing me (I still had pulse laser on the front for ages). ECM was one of the lasts things I bought.

I left Isinor to spread my wings, trying out a passenger contract to Diora. The ending was a bit of an anti-climax.

The best part of the journey was crossing the bottle neck "Atrabiin to Anarlaqu". I got stuck in Witch Space in a massive fight between the Navy and the Thargoids.

I was about to dock in one of those larger navy ships, but the battle heated up and it started moving around so i couldn't dock. Fortunately I had just enough fuel to jump to Xeeranre... but when I got there I was attacked by pirates and my ship's hardware had already been beaten up by the Thargoids, so to avoid the pirates I found myself pulling an endless barrell roll all the way to the Space Station... took ages.

There is also the matter of the mission to find the Rich space ship collector. I never paid the guy his 1k cr because I thought it might just be a con.

Anyway, thanks for the tip on the Rock Hermits. I don't think I've attacked one yet, because I thought doing so would screw up my clean rating.

[Cody]

There are three types of rock hermit: normal, chaotic, and pirate - and there is at least one RH in every system. As KW said, you can buy cheap metals (and gemstones) at hermits - and often you can sell them liquor and/or furs at a profit (and they've been known to pay high prices for narcotics).

[Ethan-J]

... you can buy cheap metals (and gemstones) at hermits ...

I didn't know you can trade with them. They look too small to enter. I have observed ships flying out of them and shooting at me.

How do you trade with them, do you enter them like a space station or approach them slowly like when using a Tow bar?

[Cody]

Dock with them as per a normal station, but you don't need docking clearance (or shouldn't).
They also sell fuel (at a premium), which can be very handy - and you can save at them.

[Switeck]

Trading between just two systems is NOT the most profitable way to go. As you jump back and forth between the two the prices for the commodities that you trade the most will begin to fall off. The answer is to find a nice cluster of systems that you can jump between.

I believe this is only true if you have OXPs/OXZs installed which cause that behavior.

But even if it is sort-of true, prices aren't mainly what should fall off...instead it is quantity for sale that would decrease.

In-universe, it would take Anacondas dedicated to 1 commodity to really depress the profits for commodities, due to the scale of system economies.

And as for the systems I trade between...
Xexedi (TL 14 Confederacy) and Laenin (TL 4 Communist) in Galaxy Chart 1.

[Nite Owl]

Originally started off my earlier post with a line stating that this might be OXZ/OXP behavior but then thought better of it. It has been years since those early days of Sector 1 ship outfitting so my memory of having done so is not what it once was. Also never played the Vanilla version of Oolite having begun with hundreds of OXZs/OXPs right from the start. Correction accepted but it still stands as decent advice for those with a similar bent for starting out by searching through, downloading, and testing out an Anaconda load of OXZs and OXPs. Will amend the aforementioned post to point towards this one.

[Cody]

Strange - back when I first started on Oolite, I seem to recall what Nite Owl described, except I thought it was the quantities available not the prices which wore out a trade pair. With me, it would not have been OXP behaviour. I think BBC Elite did it too (though that might be a false memory).

[Killer Wolf]

not sure how trading affects prices, i've just seen normal fluctuations. the stations seem to max out at 127t per item so even if you filled an Anaconda w/ one item you couldn't offload it in one go.

[Ethan-J]

I believe this is only true if you have OXPs/OXZs installed which cause that behavior...

Does an add-on determine our ability to dock in a Rock Hermit... or does the add-on affect changing commodity prices in each system?

[Cholmondely]

I believe this is only true if you have OXPs/OXZs installed which cause that behavior...

Does an add-on determine our ability to dock in a Rock Hermit... or does the add-on affect changing commodity prices in each system?

OXP's affecting Rock Hermits will be found here: Rock Hermit (Oolite)