An honest traders strategy guide?
Posted: Mon Nov 10, 2008 6:23 am
MS Discovered in an otherwise empty escape pod:
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Getting your cargo to port fastest is the secret to making a killing in commodities. However, the need for speed is tempered by some down-home realities.
Sadly, we live in a ooniverse of selfishness and greed - bandits are everywhere.
On arrival at the witchpoint, most of heavy-rig pilots just push right on down the spacelanes. Many smaller operators also do this.
We do this because we have our escorts to worry about - we are all in each others scanner range, so we each block the other's hyperdrive. Injectoring all the way is expensive and the shortest distance between two points is a line (in this non-newton/einstein euclidean ooniverse).
The smaller operators follow suit to avoid being caught by themselves. In general, we can spare an escort to help out a fellow trader in distress. We also seldom hesitate to call on their more manouverable, and usually quite well armed selves in our turn.
And such is the usual way of things... but...
but but but... what if... you wanted to get clever?
Strategies to get there quicker:
Really you want to hyperdrive all the way. This means abandoning your escorts and risking an ambush. Most Jamesons figure out how to do this in their first week - they run out pi-over-two radiens delta-theta off their R2NAV. A few minutes of this is enough to get a good way off the well trodden path. Engage their jumpers and hold their breath. This way the small carriers beat us every time - but they are all alone out there.
You don't want to lose your protectors... so, what do you do?
Take your escort ships on board? - It's what the Navy do, launch them when you hit trouble. That takes up cargo space, and most of us are not equipped to become carriers. Lets face it, if we were piloting a Behemoth, we wouldn't be worried about pirates.
Use robot escorts - Thargoid style? Well sure if you want. But the Thargoids also have tailless STL drives, targetless witchdrives, universal gunmounts, six eyes and ten penises (their trousers fit, I am told, like a glove). The eggheads are still working out each of those tricks - call me when they figure out how to control all those bots at once. Still - cargo space is money, nuff said.
No. Send escorts ahead and behind... this is more promising. Here's how it works:
Take yourself outside the spacelanes with your escorts by the simple expedient of heading away from the navibouy. Give your fleet a bit of delta-theta as well and you are soon off-line with the spacelane-crowd.
Point your compass direct to the N - make sure you are lined up on an external feature: a small deviation here will lose you your protection down the track.
Send one escort down the track - when they lose scanner contact, they hit the jump drive. You follow - no escorts. (Or you send the next escort. But, at some point, you'll have to follow - yes?) The second you lose your remaining escorts, you hit the jump drive too. When they lose you, they wait a bit (or they'll catch you too soon - they are faster than you right?) then follow suit.
The effect of this is - your lead ships will run into any would-be ambushers first. Assess the trouble, and hang about at the edge of scanner range until the rest of you catch up. (Or engage - maybe lure them out of your path - brave sods.)
If you hit any trouble, your trailing escorts will be along in a few seconds to tidy up.
It takes a gutsy commander to try this trick. Look at what it looks ike to someone else...
They are noseing around trying to look innocent when a small craft pops into scanner range. If you know the trick, you gotta take him out now, and fast. Big brother's coming soon. His tactic is to run away, back the way he came... it's a race.
In seconds, another small fighter arrives, then the main event. While you are trying to take them down, reinforcements arrive. It's a nightmare!
The downside of the technique is that it gives the bad guys notice that you are coming. They can prepare. The upside is that you spend most of the trip at hyperspeed. Sure, your trailing escorts will catch you occasionally - but this just makes sure you're all on the right path. You have just sacrificed some (but not all) security in return for shorter in-system times.
And - if you are a big outfit, you may want to use this as a sting operation - instead of a freighter, use a warship. There'll be no problem identifying the hostiles - where said miscreants may be a tad circumspect otherwise.
Cmmdr John "Cap" Doric (Elite)
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Afterward:
Cmmdr Doric was also known for deliberately hobbling his forward thrusters so, when masslocked, his ship would often coast right past trouble to the point where the jump-drive could be safely re-engaged.
Old captains tell of the terror of having an Anaconda barrel past at just-sub-hyperspeeds, barely controlled.
Captains taking over his ships, who did not read the supporting documentation, had a tendency to crash into things - like stations.
Cap's last ship was a souped up Anaconda SB with secret modifications which should "leave those pirates eating stardust - you'll see". His last communication was somewhat garbled - something about "brakes" before heading deep into a star to evade some people who wanted "just to talk, you know". Some people believe he was able to jump at the last minute and even today wanders the spacelanes helping beleagered ships in distress.
Whenever a Jameson complains of unusually weak thrusters, experienced spacers nod and tell of the famous commander. It is considered "luck" to inherit one of hit boats.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Getting your cargo to port fastest is the secret to making a killing in commodities. However, the need for speed is tempered by some down-home realities.
Sadly, we live in a ooniverse of selfishness and greed - bandits are everywhere.
On arrival at the witchpoint, most of heavy-rig pilots just push right on down the spacelanes. Many smaller operators also do this.
We do this because we have our escorts to worry about - we are all in each others scanner range, so we each block the other's hyperdrive. Injectoring all the way is expensive and the shortest distance between two points is a line (in this non-newton/einstein euclidean ooniverse).
The smaller operators follow suit to avoid being caught by themselves. In general, we can spare an escort to help out a fellow trader in distress. We also seldom hesitate to call on their more manouverable, and usually quite well armed selves in our turn.
And such is the usual way of things... but...
but but but... what if... you wanted to get clever?
Strategies to get there quicker:
Really you want to hyperdrive all the way. This means abandoning your escorts and risking an ambush. Most Jamesons figure out how to do this in their first week - they run out pi-over-two radiens delta-theta off their R2NAV. A few minutes of this is enough to get a good way off the well trodden path. Engage their jumpers and hold their breath. This way the small carriers beat us every time - but they are all alone out there.
You don't want to lose your protectors... so, what do you do?
Take your escort ships on board? - It's what the Navy do, launch them when you hit trouble. That takes up cargo space, and most of us are not equipped to become carriers. Lets face it, if we were piloting a Behemoth, we wouldn't be worried about pirates.
Use robot escorts - Thargoid style? Well sure if you want. But the Thargoids also have tailless STL drives, targetless witchdrives, universal gunmounts, six eyes and ten penises (their trousers fit, I am told, like a glove). The eggheads are still working out each of those tricks - call me when they figure out how to control all those bots at once. Still - cargo space is money, nuff said.
No. Send escorts ahead and behind... this is more promising. Here's how it works:
Take yourself outside the spacelanes with your escorts by the simple expedient of heading away from the navibouy. Give your fleet a bit of delta-theta as well and you are soon off-line with the spacelane-crowd.
Point your compass direct to the N - make sure you are lined up on an external feature: a small deviation here will lose you your protection down the track.
Send one escort down the track - when they lose scanner contact, they hit the jump drive. You follow - no escorts. (Or you send the next escort. But, at some point, you'll have to follow - yes?) The second you lose your remaining escorts, you hit the jump drive too. When they lose you, they wait a bit (or they'll catch you too soon - they are faster than you right?) then follow suit.
The effect of this is - your lead ships will run into any would-be ambushers first. Assess the trouble, and hang about at the edge of scanner range until the rest of you catch up. (Or engage - maybe lure them out of your path - brave sods.)
If you hit any trouble, your trailing escorts will be along in a few seconds to tidy up.
It takes a gutsy commander to try this trick. Look at what it looks ike to someone else...
They are noseing around trying to look innocent when a small craft pops into scanner range. If you know the trick, you gotta take him out now, and fast. Big brother's coming soon. His tactic is to run away, back the way he came... it's a race.
In seconds, another small fighter arrives, then the main event. While you are trying to take them down, reinforcements arrive. It's a nightmare!
The downside of the technique is that it gives the bad guys notice that you are coming. They can prepare. The upside is that you spend most of the trip at hyperspeed. Sure, your trailing escorts will catch you occasionally - but this just makes sure you're all on the right path. You have just sacrificed some (but not all) security in return for shorter in-system times.
And - if you are a big outfit, you may want to use this as a sting operation - instead of a freighter, use a warship. There'll be no problem identifying the hostiles - where said miscreants may be a tad circumspect otherwise.
Cmmdr John "Cap" Doric (Elite)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Afterward:
Cmmdr Doric was also known for deliberately hobbling his forward thrusters so, when masslocked, his ship would often coast right past trouble to the point where the jump-drive could be safely re-engaged.
Old captains tell of the terror of having an Anaconda barrel past at just-sub-hyperspeeds, barely controlled.
Captains taking over his ships, who did not read the supporting documentation, had a tendency to crash into things - like stations.
Cap's last ship was a souped up Anaconda SB with secret modifications which should "leave those pirates eating stardust - you'll see". His last communication was somewhat garbled - something about "brakes" before heading deep into a star to evade some people who wanted "just to talk, you know". Some people believe he was able to jump at the last minute and even today wanders the spacelanes helping beleagered ships in distress.
Whenever a Jameson complains of unusually weak thrusters, experienced spacers nod and tell of the famous commander. It is considered "luck" to inherit one of hit boats.
