Flieger, grüß' mir die Sonne, grüß' mir die Sterne und grüß' mir den Mond. Dein Leben, das ist ein Schweben, durch die Ferne, die keiner bewohnt! - Hans Albers, F.P.1 antwortet nicht (Adaptation in the 80s: Extrabreit)

Thursday 19 February 2015

A bit more of trading

Apparently, the BD+03 2338 conflict is done. It also appears the discount-rewards of the community events are bugged and do not work at all at the moment.

Re-reading my cash levels, they do not show much without knowing about all my assets. E.g. I did a lot of shopping in the outfitter in between. I discovered that the rightmenu gives you an overall view of your wealth.

Also some information I gather from forum discussions; considering the cooldown of the frameshift drive after an interdiction, the mechanics seem to differ depending whether you are interdicted by a CMDR or a NPC ship. The cooldown is removed when interdicted by a CMDR, apparently to make up for the increased difficulty to get away from the unchained human intelligence and skill.

Before the Elite: Dangerous, I launch Slopey´s Best Price Calculator. But suddenly, it self-updates automatically and I curse as I see that it re-applies the default settings, which is set to "auto-update". I cannot interrupt the process, so I am now saddled again with the full galaxy wide database as it is gathered by all participants. If I delete it, again, then my hand typed data will be also lost. With this, my attempt to play with only my own notes is destroyed; there is no way that I am going to start to re-take notes from scratch, again. However, this is a coincidence of a sort, because I was planning to check for alternative route gathered by the swarm, anyways, in order to gauge and verify which profit ranges are in general possible. For example, Thrudds website shows this:

Gliese 868, Reilly Enterprise (Palladium)- Tsim Binba, Kopal Orbital (Prog.Cells) 3023  (40 ly)
Timbarichs (Fischer Orbital) 112ls Gold → Atfero (Patry Dock) 187ls Imperial Slaves 3011 (20 ly)

When I ask Slopey´s database, these routes do not appear. Instead, I can find e.g. this
Atfero (Patry Dock) (Impereal Slaves) - Graudika (Kidd Plant) Beryllium, total 348k CR (17 ly). However, this one is in Emire space.

Sigh. Ok let´s play the game and skip the part which causes work and frustration.

Naddoddur Terminal, Yembo. The bulletin board has a surprisingly well payed fetch mission: 76,000 CR for 3 ton of palladium. Take this, as I know exactly from where I can buy it cheap.




 - good source of palladium there











After resolving the mission, I am headed back to Yakabugai, looking out for "wanted" ships on my way. Instead, I am intercepted myself by a Cobra classified as "dangerous", shortly before Serebrov Station. This enemy does not only fly better, it for sure has more fancy maneuvers in its repertoire, amongst them the dreaded "I-go-into-instant-reverse-thrust", where it is practically bound to get me into its firing arc. While this moment is only brief, if you realize this in time and boost quickly ahead, even a brief moment is dangrous for the Eagle with its paper-thin shield (even class A3 shields are ripped like said tissue). Thus, the Cobra gets me into its firing arc one time, dealing high damage, but thanks to a fast initiating of boost, the shields hold, barely. After that, I manage to stick to its tail, target the power subsystem with my three gimballed multicannons, and some moments later (really thick armor it has, too), the Cobra explodes at 18% hull and I have a 30k bounty voucher (kill scanned).



 - boom











Back in Serebrov Station, Yakabugai, I realize that my Asp already values 8.5 million Credits with the installed upgrades. As a warm up, I do a few trade runs. According to Slopey´s database, it is 276k CR per roundtrip.

The news have a new community goal, where we are asked to transport basic medicines to Furbaide, Effinger Port. But first, I want to work for a better frameshift drive, i.e. I need to accumulate 6 million Credits.

Since I have now the full database from Slopey´s, I should test it. GAT 2, Thomson Vision (performance enhancers) and Amahu, Cliffort Station (palladium) should bring 348k CR profit for a round trip. Let´s see, they are only about 27 ly out. But first, I want to sell my Eagle. No use to uselessly tie up my wealth when I start to go out into the galaxy! Entering Serebrov Station, a hasty CMDR collides with me. Since I have no shields, I am down to 88% hull and receive a hefty repair bill of 38k Credits. That´s the price for flying risky with a no-shield setup, I guess.

Arriving first at GAT 2, I have to laugh. Thompson Vision is 19.000 ls out there, almost 10 minutes flight times in supercruise. It seems I have to adjust the seach paramenters in Slopey´s Best Price Calculator! So... how about: Una, Godwin Port (progenitor cells) - Amahu (Clifford/Burbank/Kondratyev). So be it. I take performance enhancers with me to fly not empty, and they bring in nice 930 Cr/unit at Clifford Station, Amahu.

But my real choice starts with palladium from Amahu, Clifford Station, which bring 1587 CR in Una, Hoard Orbital (which, though, requires a travel of 2145 ls); the retour is only 970 Cr/unit, though.



- a fellow trader











CMDR Kytar is on my route, at least he docks or is blocked docking at Clifford Station. He docks before me, and, well, he takes his time. He is from Russia, if this explains anything (jesting). After a while, I explain to him that there is only room for one ship on those small outposts; he then wishes me good luck and apparently logs out; I can finally land. In hindsight, it comes to me that he lives in a country which is not exactly in line with our ideals in the western world. Suddenly, I feels kind of creepy; here in the internet, in the game, we are all equals in an equal world, a kind of comrades and friends; while outside there is so much problems and difference. It is easy to forget this; maybe even good to forget? Maybe the internet, and games like this, slowly teaches humanity that their squabbles over resources does not really matter, but the advancement of civilisation as a whole? That would be my wish, at least. Strange thoughts, this is probably what I deserve when I set myself willingly on repeated 2100 ls trips...

Actually, concerning the distance of Hoard Orbital in Una, I do not mind the longer travel time of 2100 ls. It is the perfect distance for a short switch to the desktop, to analyse data, write notes or read some news in between.

An alternative route would be from Clifford Station (which has high supply in both gold and palldium) to LTT 15278 (Zholobov Enterprise). It requires 3 jumps with my current frameshift drive, but once I upgrade it, it should be also a mere 2-jump route. I check this already because the supply in Una is only medium, and that alternative route should still have high supply (if the data from Slopey´s tool is current).

After some round trips, my cash is about 5 million Credits and another game session has to end. A pity that time doesn´t allow to both trade for a while and then check out some events. Yes, real life can sometimes be annoying! My current cash is 6.4 million Credits, my wealth overall is 15.8 million Credits.


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