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)

Sunday 15 February 2015

Start small

Well, start small. I want one or two million Credits more as a financial cushion. I can then think about either buying an Asp and go out there exploring (according to EDshipyard, the Asp has the best jump range of all ships) or equip my Type 6 for a rare-goods-tour and travel through the civilised bubble of space. So far, my best game moments happened when I was just going along, doing whatever I felt like doing.

Funny enough, the ships I like by their appearance I don´t feel comfortable to fly. The Adder looks great, but the cockpit view is abyssmally bad. I think the Lakon Type 6 is plain ugly, but it has a great sound (like a Learjet), a big cargo hold and one of the best jump ranges except for the Asp. The Asp is hands down the best privateer ship, but I hate its looks and sounds (like a Turboprop). The Python looks really great but it is super expensive and mediocre outside combat. And so on and so on. Well, we already got a peek on the Fer-de-Lance and a Corvette which is even bigger than the Anaconda. Let´s see how they are going to feel. Bottomline, I have not found my favourite ship yet.

Back in the game, I am still in front of Levi-Montalcini-City, where I dropped out of the waiting queue at the end of my last session. The pad is occupied again, this time by a fat Python. This surpises me a bit, I thought this ship type was too large to land on a small outpost. Good to know, anyways.

The Python thankfully takes off soon and I can land, dop off my auto-fabricators from last session and re-engage into my trading route. I am in the flow, have a little pause in the sun´s atmosphere after the jump in order to let my scoop refuel, using the break to ponder options and complete my blog notes.

Levi-Montalcini City is quite a busy spot; not doubt due to being one of the few places where you can acutally obtain gold from. Again, I am forced to wait while a Viper sits on "my" landing pad. For the first time, I consciously note faint bar music coming from the outpost. Funny. Not so funny is that this waiting cuts down my profit/hour ratio from this trade route!

And I am waiting, waiting, waiting...



 - can I shoot it, please? Please?










Alternative, from my notes via Slopeys Best Price Calculator: Yakabugai, Serebrov -> Eravate, Ackerman (60k, marine equipment), -> Shatalov Gateway, BD-11 4932 (tobacco, 80k) -> Yakabugai, Serebroc (150k, indite). Seems my taking notes was worth something, after all.

Ok, I am fed up, let´s try this one! My auto-fabricators sell as well at Serebrov, so I can head directly there. I might also remember to sell that advanced scanner from my Eagle in order to have more cash liberated for actually buying those trading goods.

A bit of unfocusedness lets me enter the wrong menu command and I am complimented me back out of Ackerman Market instead of entering the menu. Arrrrgh! Re-requesting docking is not possible for a while. In the navigation tab, I suddenly see a nav point named "seeking goods". I might as well try that one!


- Nav points called "seeking goods" and "checkpoint"










Arriving at the nav point some 150ls out there, near McMahon Dock, they seem to want "local goods" and they do not relieve me of my marine equipment. What a pity. As I am already 10ls close to McMahon Dock, I want to pass by there, since I skipped taking notes on the commodities there. Alas, again a waiting queue there, and I am fed up with queues. I already hate queues in real life!

Back to Ackerman Market. I hope those ships stay a bit, so I can find out about the profit range. Shortly before arriving, CMDR Teamkills contacts me, but he is not clear about what he wants, so I continue.

There are also some nav points called "Check Points"; what is this about? But, first, I want to try "local goods", namely tobacco. I buy them for ~4100 CR. Let´s see. Nope, they do not buy it. Looking it up via Google on reddit, apparently you have to scan their cargo to know what they want. But I do not have a cargo scanner. So, onward with my original plan.

It turns out that I have to do a three-jump in order to reach BD-11 4932, vial LTT 7548 and Alrai Sector DL-Y- D85 (the one with the brown dwarf); which is very uneconomic. My tobacco for once yield very nice profits of 1031 CR/unit. However, my trip back to Yakabugai, Serebrov reveals that I apparently mistyped the price for Indite; I make still a profit, but with ~500 CR/unit it is too low to be competitive. Sigh.

Since normal trading like this is a bit boring anyways, I want to try once more this "seeking goods" thing. Back in Eravate, I buy a cargo scanner (and an ECM while I am at it, cannot hurt) and launch once more for that nav point. Narcotics. All three Lakon Type 9 ships in the nav point have narcotics on board. Low-price item, I can get it from Russel Ring in this system for 77 CR/unit. I wonder if this is worth the hazzle but follow through.

As I fly close, they buy my cargo hold, 100 units, for 30,600 CR. I have payed 7.700 CR = 22,900 CR profit = 229 CR/unit. Nope, not worth the hazzle at all! Good to know, but I also feel frustrated. This is the worst kind of fetch quest you can have in a game, and it is not even rewarded properly. While it is wonderful to have that immersive galaxy to cruise around, the game wants to troll us with red herrings all along the way, it seems!

Back to my old trade route, I guess. At Levi-Montalcini City, I am greeted again by a "docking request denied". This time, a fat Lakon Type 6 sits on the pad. Behind me, an Asp moves into waiting position; I blink at him with the ship lights and then we chat a bit. We have the time, after all... CMDR Thegreatemu can also only shrug as to the reasons why we cannot dock.



- again a blocked landing pad; this gets a bit too repetitive...









In the meanwhile, I search and find on reddit some more data about those "seeking goods" nav points. Apparently, you can be lucky and  they buy off the more expensive goods like performance enhancers. Also, they do buy stolen goods, which is probably the best use for them.

After 20 minutes of waiting, I give up. If it is not a bug, it is a stupid feature. This trade route is probably not meant to be used on weekends or Sundays specifically, when a lot of CMDRs are online. I will go on am alternative route from Ackerman Market, same profit but three jumps required (tobacco / marine equipment) and hope that Shatalov Gateway, also an outpost, is not as crowded as here!



- had to drop from supercruise to apreciate this; not stars, but the night side of a planet lit with city lights






 
Well, it is not, and some trips later, I have about 2.6  million Credits cash. However, both systems are independent, so my bad reputation with the Feds does not profit from trading gains as on my old route did. Time to think about my next options. If I sell my Eagle and my Lakon Type 6, I could afford an Asp by now, probably even equip it a little bit.

Hmmm.. not yet. I will try now a rare trade route, taking the suggested list from this thread in the ED forum. Xihe is the closest system to my current position, so I am going to start there and work my way around. For maximum efficiency, I buy a class A4 frameshift drive, available at the high tech system LTT 7548, Boltzmann Gateway, for 1.6 million credits. And off we go.

STOP! Forgot something; scanners! It would be not very efficient to leave potential income from during my travels aside... So a quick stop in Yakabugai, Serebrov Station, selling the scanners from my Eagle, re-buying them for my Lakon Type 6. I now have 1.2 million Credits cash. Let´s see what this tour is going to bring in! And the sightseeing, I hope there is some.

More in my next post.

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