Oolite Bulletins

hi guys

Help please for a rookie player, now up to competant, Cobra Mark III well kitted out, wandering about galaxy 1 doing milk run trading and shooting up vessels for points and cargo.

After an enjoyable start it is getting pretty mundane, how on earth (or in the universe) do you find these 2missions" are they automaticaly offered when you get much better and secondly how do you make serious money? trading is a very slow way to build up funds, pirating at 1 ton a time also very slow, ining a complete bore and carrying passengers very laborious for little return. at my level carrying out specific deliveries also looks to be very unprofitable (premium v return, and hardly ever offered.

so where am I going wrong? Most grateful for advice on how to ramp things up, both financially and how to get better trading / mission deals. Thanks to anyone prepared to answer.

Hi thargoid

Many thanks for your helpful, kind and considered reply. I will follow your advice it all sounds sensible.

Lysander wrote:

Hi thargoid

Many thanks for your helpful, kind and considered reply. I will follow your advice it all sounds sensible.

Hi Lysander,

Also welcome in this wonderful coomunitiy

You will find everything about missions including requirements here. You my find the requirements maybe a spoiler but at least you know what to get in your current galaxy. For example I'm now competent and looking forward to do the Taranis Missions (for which you need the OXP downloaded). Also the requirements for the native missions are on this page:



http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Oolite_Missions

A must OXP (in my opninion) is Random Hits. More info here:

http://wiki.alioth.net/index.php/Random_Hits_OXP

As you've found out, passenger contracts aren't really worth it. You're losing 5 tons of cargo space every trip, and the margins never get any better. The special deliveries, however, do get better, once you build up a reputation. After you've made several deliveries on time, they get a *lot* better. You'll probably need to get a bigger ship, though, if you want to be able to work your way up to the sweet deals! And, of course, a bigger cargo bay will let you make more money on a standard trade run, too.

There are also a couple of OXP missions suitable for rookies in Galaxy 1, e.g. Asteroid Storm or Longway. Check out the wiki for more details.

Lysander wrote:

hi guys
...
so where am I going wrong? Most grateful for advice on how to ramp things up, both financially and how to get better trading / mission deals. Thanks to anyone prepared to answer.

Dear Lysander,

Welcome to the 'boards. You're not doing anything "wrong" per se. Thargoid has provided you with good information, but I'll try to add to it.

You've correctly determined that passenger runs aren't very profitable. But, they do offer the chance to get paid to see the galaxy, so later on they may provide a welcome break from your normal routines.

~Save your game often.
~Purchasing additional cargo space is mandatory for a Cobra Mk-III ship.
~If you plan to harvest fuel from a sun, be sure to equip your ship with heat shielding beforehand.
~Witchfuel Injectors enable you to decide "fight or flight". Without them, you may not be able to disengage from a situation.

Trading:
Find a profitable pair of systems near to each other (Rich Industrial with a high tech-level near a Poor Agricultural world). You want to make the most profit per tonne of cargo. So buy/sell items with large price differences between worlds.
~From Rich Industrial systems purchase Computers, Luxuries and Machinery in that order of priority. (Your ship probably won't have enough cargo space to buy all three, so computers will be what you buy most often.)
~From Poor Agricultural systems purchase Furs, Liquors/Wines, Radioactives, Food, Textiles and Minerals in that order of priority.
If the prices are right consider purchasing Gold, Platinum and Gems. But track the prices of these items for a while to get a feel for the good buy/sell margins.

As Thargoid mentioned, the missions will be offered to you later on after you've met certain game conditions.

The more credits you have available, the more expensive (and profitable) cargoes you can purchase. Some missions will expect you to be able to purchase and use a Galactic Hyperdrive (costing 5,000 cr.) on short notice. So build up your credit balance via smart trade runs.

Eventually you'll have more money than cargo capacity. This is fine. Around that time you may begin considering whether or not other ships will better satisfy your business goals. Figure out what you want and save up for the cost of it.

My first ship was a Cobra Mk-III. Later I wanted more cargo space and traded the Cobra in for a Python. (I used my Python to bounty hunt the Constrictor ship.) But the Python's slower top speed became a drawback. So, I saved up for the Boa Class Cruiser I'm flying now.

The mission I'm interested in tackling now doesn't trigger until after I've had somewhere between 1300 to 1400 kills.
I've already visited all 8 Galaxies twice over and now have a nice trade route in Galaxy 3 between two planets that are 0.0 light years from each other. (Nice find, eh?)

So, keep building upon your sucesses and honing your skills.
Good luck, Commander.

Hello there Lysander,

All of the information you've been given is good, solid advice.

I was in a similar position to yourself, kind of treading water, until I took commodities contracts seriously. After 6 or 7 deliveries where I made a lousy pittance, I was suddenly being offered big money to ship gold, platinum and gems. I recommend you give it a try.

Like I say, you'll have to haul crap like textiles and minerals for at least half-a-dozen journeys, but the better offers will turn up....

Hi Lysander - welcome to the boards.

You've had lots of good advice! I'll add only this: The point I usually buy a large cargo bay for my CMk3 is the point where you can buy a full load of 20tc of computers and still have a reasonable sum left in the bank (about 500Cr - just in case you get shot up and lose your load - you don't want to find you've got a busted empty hold and only 2Cr left in the bank - and it can happen - it did to me!)

Look at trading with Con-stores and hermits. There's usually a nice profit to be made trading within a system.

I traded up to a Strelka Cruiseliner to maximise my profit - I make ~20,000cr on my runs.

I was going to keep it to myself but with YAH installed - trading with Constores can be profitable even with just a CMk3 - although an advanced space compass is worth having to make the store easy to find!

When I started again I started trading between Diso and Leesti with the following pattern:

Buy food @ Diso main station @ about 3Cr/TC. Fly to Diso Constore - they often (but not always buy food at +100Cr/TC - I guess because everybody is leaving the main station and jumping straight out - thus leaving them short of food to feed the slaves). If they're not buying at such high prices you can always make the jump to Leesti as planned. If they are buying food at a good price they are also sometimes selling Computers for around 70Cr/TC (cheaper than Leesti!) so you can buy here and then fly back to Diso main station and sell at about 95Cr/TC - this also gives you a chance to save the game! If you bought all the food last time then you won't be able to buy any more so you will have to leave the system - so I often by Liquor/Wines and finally make that jump to Leesti for a 10Cr/TC profit...

Repeat until bored or you have a reasonably equipped ship!

It's also worth noting that Con Stores often sell Narcotics extremely cheap, and there's nothing illegal about buying them from Con Stores and shipping them into the main station (just don't leave the main station with Narcotics in your hold – sell them all there). If you get lucky you can arrive in a system with a Convenience Store, sell your cargo there, and – having checked the main system prices beforehand – take on as much Medicinal Megaweed as you can buy to carry in to the main station. There isn't always a great deal to buy, but the profit margin can often shade upwards of 70-80 Cr per ton...

I've often looked at the Megaweed and resisted fearing a legal status change - I didn't realise the launching with drugs in your hold only applied at a main station...

My first milk runs as a Harmless plebe started with loading up on wines and food at Lave and selling at Zaonce. Then shuttling spare parts and computers from Zaonce to Isinor, and back to Zaonce with a load of furs, and/or wines. And back to Isinor with computers (those frogs really love computers.) Lather rinse repeat.
I kept that up, upgrading the Cobby along the way as I could afford it, until I got a call from a certain Navy officer.

Another way to make a few quick creds is to pay a visit to your local friendly hOopy casino (assuming you're using the hOopyCasino OXP ). Don't be tempted by the hOops - the house, of course, has the advantage. But if you steer clear of the casino and head instead for the trade factor, you'll find that the loveable little fuzzball often has good deals on gold, platinum and gemstones. They'll either be selling for considerably less than market (sometimes a LOT less) or considerably more. Either way can work to your advantage. I tend to sink a fair amount of my capital into these sorts of goods, and wait for the right moment. Who says that lasers and hardheads are the only way to make a killing?

BTW, while stations (of any type) appear to be limited to holding no more than 127 of any item in stock, this limit does not apply to the player. I'm not sure if there is any limit on the amount of non-TC (e.g. Kg/g-sized) cargo you can hold, but I know that I've held at times in excess of 250 Kg gold.

Another hint: If you've got an Iron Ass (or, at least, a solid layer of fiberglass), consider getting the RandomHits OXP and make a few contract kills. Pay attention to the locations given in the BBS messages - they usually note the galactic quadrant of the target, so even if you don't have the galactic map memorized, you can avoid taking a contract that is on the other side of the galaxy from where you are. And if you don't see a contract that's at your skill level or near where you are, just keep on browsing the messages - eventually, a suitable contract will turn up.

Having said all this, and also having made use of most of the other hints others have presented here, I would agree with you that building up a credit balance sufficient to buy a decent new ship can be quite tedious. I (re-)started a few weeks ago as a shiny new Jameson, playing on average a few hours a day, and have just broken the 100K Cr mark earlier today. Of course, I've spent just about that on various upgrades. At this rate, it's going to be another month or two before I can afford a stronger/faster/bigger/better ship than the one I have now <sigh>.

I know it's not always super-lucrative, but I frequently do the passenger runs anyway. I pick up the best paying one I can find and head off towards that planet. Along the way, I pick up 20 tons of cargo at a time and just jump along the route to the passenger's destination world - sunskimming to cut fuel costs. I only dock when I either need to have some work done on the ship, need to pick up some more missiles, or when I can make a good profit on the cargo.

I take the shortest distance hyperspace jumps along the general path to the destination so that I don't run short on time on the contract.

I know the passenger contracts are not worth much and never become worth more, but it keeps me from getting into that milk-run grind, keeps me exploring the galaxy, and the pay-off is sometimes enough to pay for the maintenance overhaul on the ship when you finally do dock.

I only buy 20 tons of cargo at a time, because I like to keep some room open in the hold for picking up cargo from the pirates I encounter along the way. Cargo you buy and sell, you are lucky to get 30cr/ton profit on, cargo you pick up for free is 100% profit. Two tons of computers or luxuries picked up can be more profit than a whole bay full of Liquors on a traditional trade run.

Also some fugitive pirates can be worth a decent sum if you capture them after they punch out.

I have Deep Space Pirates OXP installed, so I almost always encounter one or two groups of pirates on the way from the WS buoy to the sun.


If you are getting bored with milk runs and random encounters, you really should try the Random Hits or Galactic Navy OXP.

Random Hits can be lucrative once you've gotten your rep built up. You can do the same sunskimming, trading, pirate eradication strategy on the way to a Random Hit just as effectively.

Galactic Naxy doesn't pay much, but it's some guaranteed action and will hone your combat skills and strategy. It's also fun to jump into a system and patrol it with other craft on your team - even if they are a bit daft sometimes.