Trading Guide - for new/young pilots

[Masterchief]

This can also be viewed here:
http://forum.pardus.at/index.php?showtopic=14466

Credits, Space-Bucks, Cold Hard Cash. Whatever you call it, you definitely don't have enough dough. What's that you say? Your Level 1 Energy Well isn't the credit creating cash cow you thought it would be? Well, read on young pilot.

This is basic information for making credits, trading like a well-seasoned Ska'ari and basic building management. I'm no multi-millionaire myself as any simple hack will tell you but, I have been around this galaxy for a while. I usually don't devote a lot of time to trading until I'm down to my last ton of soylent green and credits have been come and go during my own career. I didn't figure everything out myself. Plenty of pilots have helped me along the way.

I've seen a lot of poor pilots posting pathetic pleas on the GNN forums lately so, here is a way to help yourself out and get edjamucated and smarts!

Know your ticks:

Tick refers to how long it takes a planet, starbase, or building to produce and use up commodities. It is a standard measure of time and basic lingo used by most regular traders in the galaxy.

Planet Tick: On the planet tick, the planet will use up commodities and produce commodities. This is the best time to sell goods to the planet as their stock will decrease, and the buy prices will go up.

Building Tick: On the building tick, a building will produce commodities if it has enough upkeep stock. It will use upkeep stock and produce commodities. This is the best time to buy produced commodities and also to sell upkeep stock to buildings.

When do these ticks occur? Check out the new Pardus Clock by Spoilerhead. Be sure you adjust the time accounting for daylight savings in your sector of the galaxy. Read the instructions. It's available for download on the GNN networks here:
http://stud3.tuwien.ac.at/~e0326004/par ... eadme.html

Building your bankroll:
So, you're broke? The first thing to do is harvest some basic resources. Fuel, Energy, Nebula Gas are all easy to get. Your best bet is to fill your hull up with Energy, and sell to buildings or the planet. Planet/Building ticks are the best time to sell.

Be mindful that 'strip mining' is highly frowned upon. Areas of space have limited resources available that build up over time. However, the more these resources are stripped the longer it will take them to build back up.

Once you have a little pocket change, you can start trading in commodities with higher profit margins such as Droid Modules, Robots, Liquor, Medicine, Battleweapon Parts, and Electronics.

When trading you need to make sure you can get a product at a decent price and sell it at a profit. If you're in a sector where you can buy Nebula Gas for less than 20/t then you're probably not going to be selling it at profit in that sector.

Energy rich sectors will buy energy at low prices. The same goes for Nebula rich, Gas rich, EM rich, etc. Sectors with sparing or low amounts of a resource will pay more for it.

The most basic way to build up your money is by doing FWE runs. This stands for Food, Water, Energy. You buy Food and Water from Space Farms and Recyclotrons, Energy from Nebula Plants, Energy Wells, or collected yourself and you sell it to buildings, planets, or starbases that need it. FWE runs can also be profitable between planets and starbases. This is often dependent on the type of planet. Planets that don't produce certain commodities or large quantities will pay more for them.

Young pilots may want to avoid trading in illegals such as drugs, slaves, or body parts. While drug and slave trade is very profitable it is risky and can get you into trouble if you're not careful.

There may be debate as into the profitability of trading in body parts but, it is generally accepted as being too much hassle to be profitable as they must be shipped from one faction's space to another.

In a ship with 50-100/t of cargo space you can make 50k to 100k or more credits easy in a day of trading, as a young pilot.

Mission Stacking:
Another good way to make credits is by 'stacking' multiple missions such as package or assassination missions. Young pilots may find assassination missions to be the easiest way to earn credits fast. You can have 100 missions that all say 'kill 2 space maggots'. You don't have to kill 200, you only need to kill 2. A decent stack would be 10-30 missions for a young pilot. Plan ahead before mission runs, ensuring you have enough fuel and time to complete the mission. It's a good idea to check the maps, know your routes, and also to know where creatures common breeding grounds are.

Can't trade without a tradeship:
There are plenty of decent tradeships for young pilots. You have to find a good balance between equipment/weapons and cargo space. If you're concentrating on trading you should stick to light weapons and shielding.

Standard
The Rustclaw affords new pilots a good way to build up some initial credits. The Harrier is a fair sector up-keeper and will let you build up towards a bigger and better ship. For more experienced pilots the Hercules is a great tradeship and the Behemoth (or BBB, Big Brown Box) serves as the standard trader flagship.

Empire
The Empire affords new pilots a quick start with the Tryant, Spectre, and Venom. The Constrictor serves as the faction's standard trader flagship available at Baron. The Empire offers a high class tradeship the Boa Ultimate Carrier to Marquis. The Boa is the highest capacity tradeship available in the galaxy.

Federation
The Federation while offering a variety of excellent fighters boasts only a couple decent tradeships. The Babel is a decent trader and available at Major, making it a quickly attainable ship. The Federation's premiere tradeship the Extender is only available to Captains, making Babels a more common sight.

Union
For young Unionites the Rustfire is a great starter ship. The Junker is an excellent choice for young pilots as well. The Union's further compliment of ships are hybrids of fighters and light traders. The Union's standard trader flagship is the El Padre available to Cleaners. "Oh No! It's the Cleaners!"

Basic Building Management:
If you want to make continual income you're going to want to build some buildings.
Of course, some buildings make small profits and others make higher profits.
Many of the high level buildings make a lot more profit than the low and mid level buildings.

It's often a good idea to build in a 'managed' sector, a sector where buy and sell prices are set and enforced. Alliance sectors are often managed as well.

Alliances will often help young pilots with grants or loans to assist them in creating their buildings.

As a rule most buildings are not profitable at odd production levels. A building at level 4 production with at least 300/t of capacity is the most standard. The best production-profit levels may vary from building to building. It's best to consult with a sector manager or more experienced pilots if you're not sure.

PardusDV offers an excellent tool for calculating building upgrade expenses as well as costs and profits. You can find it under 'Building Tools' link. It also has a great deal of other collected information valuable to pilots.

http://www.pardusdv.com

Buildings serve a purpose. They supply a planet or starbase. They can serve as a supply chain for higher level buildings. Droid Assembly Complexes require food, water, energy, robots, and rad cells. A DAC will produce most efficiently if there are buildings producing those commodities in the sector. This is what is commonly referred to as a chain.

When you open a building for trade you need to carefully set up your automated buy/sell prices and min/max stock.

Unless (and even if) you're in a protected sector it's wise to install in the least some basic defenses. You should in the least have a basic Defensive Drone installed on your building. That will at least deter young pirates and stave off attacks for a short time.

Magscoops:
For the most part you want to avoid using magscoops for hauls more than 4-5 parsecs (what some pilots refer to as tiles) at a time, from pickup to destination. And if you're going to do so at least fill it up to maximize profit. Magscoops are generally used for creating buildings or upgrading them. Think about this, for the most part hauling a full magscoop can take about 4 times the time it would take to just make an extra run or two. Do some calculations on your own and you'll see what I'm talking about. Use them sparingly and/or wisely.

Grants, Loans:

Alliances will often help out young pilots with loans or grants for buildings, ships, and what not but, it is best not to walk through the front door with your hands held out. Also, don't take the money and run. It will get you into big trouble. If you take a loan make sure you have the means to pay it back in a timely fashion.

Buyer Beware

Don't exploit buyers. It is common to set building upkeep commodities to 9999/t but, some unscrupulous traders will also set their products to sell for 9999/t as well, preying on pilots not paying close attention during the automated trade process.

Don't monopolize natural resources. If you set up a Trading Outpost to buy EM next to an EM Field thereby monopolizing that resource is highly frowned upon.

Don't build in 'owned' or 'managed' sectors without permission. In some sectors you can build anywhere you want. In some sectors you can't. You can but, encroaching on an alliance owned sector without permission will get you into trouble.

Again, don't stripmine. It hurts everyone.

All of the above actions are likely to get you and your buildings bountied and/or destroyed, maybe not in that order but, maybe in repeated order.

**********************************

Well, that's the basic rundown. If I missed anything let me know but, remember stick to the basics. Feel free to leave comments, at least constructive ones. tongue.gif
Hopefully, this well help some of you out with your wily wampum woes.

Cheers,
Masterchief

keywords: trade, trading, credit, guide

[Sithewok]

Um...


Thanks.

EDIT: Can I have a ranking guide for the skari emp core?

[Sidsnake]

Very nice masterchief, very nice!
I actually read it! Thumbs up!

I do think most of us already knew all these basics, but still thanks, highly appreciated as we didn't have on like this yet, atleast I think.

No further comment ..

[Slam Ruler]

[Pooreboy]

...

Next time you delete th trolls thread, delete this too.

[Starman]

[Gerakken]

[Starman]