Oolite Bulletins

My current Commander is flying the good old trusted Cobra MK III and is dreaming of and saving for something bigger and better.

The Dream Ship would be a Boa 2 Class Cruiser, but the price tag is a bit too hefty (at the moment).

Any recommendations for a ship with a bit more cargo capacity, maybe in the 200kCr range?

Yours, Christian

I went for the 'Remorse of conscience'
Not too bad in combat, nice turn of speed & much more cargo space than a Cobby.

**Blatant Plug Alert**
Try my S.T.E i designed it to be a step up from cobra3 slightly faster 0.390LS and a larger cargo bay 55T with cargo extension and just your price range with maybe some change to spare depending on the honesty of your local ship trader.
The rarer green and orange ones are available through BlackJacks Bullion.

treczoks wrote:

My current Commander is flying the good old trusted Cobra MK III and is dreaming of and saving for something bigger and better.

The Dream Ship would be a Boa 2 Class Cruiser, but the price tag is a bit too hefty (at the moment).

Any recommendations for a ship with a bit more cargo capacity, maybe in the 200kCr range?

Yours, Christian

If you haven't installed additional ships via OXP's, then the Python is a good cargo ship and able to earn a good profit on each 'milkrun'. There are other ships available from OXP's which have competitive specifications and prices. But the Python remains a viable option and a classic ship.

I flew a Python until I could save up enough credits to purchase and equip a Boa Class Cruiser (a.k.a. Boa 2).

I did the Mosquito Trader. A nice upgrade - a bit faster than the MK3 Cobra - with extended cargo 55tons capacity. Did me well till I traded it in for a Super Cobra....

The Python ET special is pretty reasonable too.

H

I'm with Captain Echo, the trusty python is a good buy if you're looking to upgrade with a view to shifting lots of cargo around.

Can't recommend the either two ships, I don't install ships that are simply +1 versions of the Cobra MkIII. If a ship can shift more cargo, it should be slower depending on the amount of additional cargo it can carry.

Sendraks wrote:

I'm with Captain Echo, the trusty python is a good buy if you're looking to upgrade with a view to shifting lots of cargo around.

Can't recommend the either two ships, I don't install ships that are simply +1 versions of the Cobra MkIII. If a ship can shift more cargo, it should be slower depending on the amount of additional cargo it can carry.

Unless of course it has newer, more efficient/powerful engines, is made from super-dooper-poly-whatsit-thingy-carbonate, has new (lighter) cargo packers/nav computer/life-support system - remember the Cobby3 is an old ship design nowadays...

I dont think he is arguing from a logic standpoint, but rather balance.

The cobra 3 is already one of the best ships, to add cargo but not take away elsewhere could be considered distorting to the balance.

D'oh! Yes of course...

The "newer" ship designs that have improved performance specifications , combat capabilities and greater cargo capacities should also have higher price tags.

To make money while trading and doing milkruns, a Commander needs to be able to buy & sell as much cargo as possible per trip.

There are only a few ships that handle large amounts of cargo (i.e. 100+ tons) in the under 200,000cr. price category.

CptnEcho wrote:

The "newer" ship designs that have improved performance specifications , combat capabilities and greater cargo capacities should also have higher price tags.

To make money while trading and doing milkruns, a Commander needs to be able to buy & sell as much cargo as possible per trip.

There are only a few ships that handle large amounts of cargo (i.e. 100+ tons) in the under 200,000cr. price category.

I still think the big ships should have to have a crew and that crew wages are subtracted from the player's credits each day/week/month - it was talked about - a long time ago - I think I even suggested myself at the time that perhaps an oxp could add specialist crew (such as a commodity trader that on certain systems could get very competitive prices for certain items way under market value - and the player took the chance that this offer may be less than legit.)

I don't think crew (as "equipment"?) could be added successfully via the old legacy system but the js-method seems much more clever - perhaps this could be revisited?

Personally, I just purchased a beat up ol' Python. Something to remember when going from a Cobra (All-around) to a Python (Trader) You can't move nearly as fast, your Witchspace Injectors won't outrun an Asp or anything else with said 'boosters' And Energy bombs will become your friend.

It becomes a very different game when contracts and that increased cargo capacity come into play. Plus, the speed, you don't notice the Cobby, but the Python is signifigantly slower, and it shows.

In short, the game becomes a bit harder. But the profit skyrockets.

Do I reccomend it? Heartily. I love my Python, and can't wait to upgrade to a Python Cruiser. Just be aware of the differences.

I only use Ship OXP's that fit the original game, so I can't comment on alot of the optional Cobra +1 OXPs.

OK, a few jumps ago I upgraded to a python.

One annoyance I was hit by was the resale value for my cobby.

After one particular run involving a lot of platinum, I was nearly there, only a few creds missing, so I thought: one or two more runs, and I can get it and have a bit of spare cash to purchase some goods. And with each and every run, the resale value of the cobby dropped and dropped, always leaving me a bit short of purchasing the python.

Finally, after some maintainence, the resale value more or less skyrocketed, leaving me with a fresh python and enough money to purchase all the bells, whistles and gongs I needed.

So far, the python is a nice boat, sometimes hard to fill to the brim with things worth moving (I'm the guy shipping the "got Pulsar" shirts from Teanrebi to Tianve out of sheer desperation that there is so little fur available), and so far some pirates learned that even a python can still be fitted with a military laser...

Still, I'm aiming for a Boa Class Cruiser, but I'll have to move a lot of t-shirts until I can afford one. Maybe my latest investment (a Rock Hermit Locator) might help me with that (although I have still to find a rock hermit with that).

Yours, Christian

The resale value only hits you harder the more you upgrade. When you start buying ships which cost in excess of 500,00credits, you take a big hit in the resale value and an even bigger hit if you don't sale the ship on almost immediately after maintainence.

Tip - when looking to upgrade upwards from an already expensive ship, flying to around to locate the "ship of your dreams" will mean your ship start's to depreciate again until the next service is due. Which can lead to a lot of frustrating flying back and forth until you get the option to perform maintainence.

My advice is that as soon as you're ready to sell your current vessel, do so and downgrade to something dirt cheap like an Adder. Then use that to track down a system which sells the ship you're after. You'll still get hit by the resale value and further loss of value on the maintainence costs, but because this a percentage of the value of the ship and the Adder costs 60k, the loss of money is very small.

Sendraks wrote:

My advice is that as soon as you're ready to sell your current vessel, do so and downgrade to something dirt cheap like an Adder. Then use that to track down a system which sells the ship you're after. You'll still get hit by the resale value and further loss of value on the maintainence costs, but because this a percentage of the value of the ship and the Adder costs 60k, the loss of money is very small.

That sounds much too complicated, really.

Better do this: Do NOT pay for maintenance when you want to switch ships until you can afford your dream ship and found it. Then, right there, before you switch ships, pay the maintenance and thus get most money for the trade-in. This method also helps to keep some additional money for instant upgrades to the newly purchased ship

Don't worry, your ship won't blow up if you fly without paying for maintenance!

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