About last night.
About last night. So I'm relatively new to ED, but spent a huge chuck of my youth on the original Elite on C64, Amiga and later the sequels on PC. I've been playing for a few days and managed to hook a good mate (Russell) in. This is a summary of a 3-4 hour session on Boxing day.
So Russell accepts a mission to deliver 4t of Personal Weapons to the Eravate System. He has about 2 hours to do it and so he starts looking for the stuff. Meanwhile, I'm doing a trade run which is netting me about 7000cr on one trip and then returning to make about 2600cr on the return leg. I have a hauler with 16t capacity, but he has the the Sidewinder with 4t. A couple of hours of this and I plan to get a Viper and do some serious ship upgrades.
We're chatting on Steam and it becomes apparent that he can't find Personal Weapons in stock anywhere nearby. After a while, I start searching and locate a supplier about 24ly away. I give him the co-ordinates and he tries to plot a route there and back. In the meantime, I'm raking in the cash, relatively speaking. I hit about 42000cr when I guess I misread the docking bay I was assigned. I get warned for loitering in the wrong bay and while I'm taking stock, I apparently get penalised for this and my ship is assaulted by the station's defenses. I am fully laden with 16t of Metals which I spent about 32000cr in buying.
As I watch my ship destroyed and the pieces floating away, I wonder what happens next...
Turns out, you have the option to rebuy your ship with the same spec for an insurance cost of 5% of it's value. So about 3500 credits later, I'm docked in McMahon Dock (where I had departed from), with a brand new ship and no cargo. Cargo destroyed and lost during the respawn. I'm now down to 4000cr again. aaarrgh..
Meanwhile, I'm listening to Russell trying to plot a course to this place and not making much progress. I start doing my supply runs again (for less profit), but I'm lucky as I get about 3 missions which nett me 8000,10000 and 29000 for shipping additional items to and from nearby systems. Within less than an hour, I am pushing 40000cr again. In all this time, Russell has located 1t of Personal Weapons and has figured out that he can't get to the system he needs to because it is about 9LY from the nearest system and he has a jump range of 7ly. I volunteer to do the run and collect the goods for him as my jump range is about 12. I empty my cargo bay to give me range and I plot the course which is about 6 jumps away. For the next 10 minutes I do the necessary jumps from system to system until I get to the GD 219 system and I located the Personal Weapons. He needs 3t, but I buy 4, just in case. I upgrade my jump drive to 17ly and plot a course back to the planet where the mission needs to be handed in. With the increased range, I can make it in 2 jumps. Yay!
Russell is parking off somewhere looking at the markets, so I tell him to head to the same destination for a rendezvous and off we go.
2 Jumps later, we're in the same system and we try and find each other. We line up with engines off and I jettison my cargo. He opens his cargo bay and flies over the containers and scoop them in. 4t of Personal Weapons, SORTED!!!
He's very grateful and heads off to cash in the mission...
Only, the Deliver Cargo button is not enabled.
He checks cargo and it tells him that he has 1 ton of Personal Weapons and 3 tons of "Stolen" Personal Weapons...aaaaargh again.
So eventually he sells the 3 tons to the black market and I tell him to upgrade the jump drive and make the journey himself. It's about 7 jumps, but eventually he gets to the target system and is able to buy the additional 3t legally.
At this point I ask him how much time he has left on the mission clock and he realises that the mission has expired...
In Space, no-one can hear you scream, but we were laughing so hard...
To make matters worse, the 4t of Personal Weapons cost me 16000cr which was lost when I jettisoned it for him to pick up. I managed to pick up one with my cargo scoop so I recovered 4000cr. I was also fined 150cr x 4 for jettisoning cargo near the dock, so all in all, not very profitable for me...
However, I'm again well placed to resume my 7000 + 2000 trade route. Going to try and break 100 000cr this morning.
Loving the game.
Commander iStoff signing out.
So Russell accepts a mission to deliver 4t of Personal Weapons to the Eravate System. He has about 2 hours to do it and so he starts looking for the stuff. Meanwhile, I'm doing a trade run which is netting me about 7000cr on one trip and then returning to make about 2600cr on the return leg. I have a hauler with 16t capacity, but he has the the Sidewinder with 4t. A couple of hours of this and I plan to get a Viper and do some serious ship upgrades.
We're chatting on Steam and it becomes apparent that he can't find Personal Weapons in stock anywhere nearby. After a while, I start searching and locate a supplier about 24ly away. I give him the co-ordinates and he tries to plot a route there and back. In the meantime, I'm raking in the cash, relatively speaking. I hit about 42000cr when I guess I misread the docking bay I was assigned. I get warned for loitering in the wrong bay and while I'm taking stock, I apparently get penalised for this and my ship is assaulted by the station's defenses. I am fully laden with 16t of Metals which I spent about 32000cr in buying.
As I watch my ship destroyed and the pieces floating away, I wonder what happens next...
Turns out, you have the option to rebuy your ship with the same spec for an insurance cost of 5% of it's value. So about 3500 credits later, I'm docked in McMahon Dock (where I had departed from), with a brand new ship and no cargo. Cargo destroyed and lost during the respawn. I'm now down to 4000cr again. aaarrgh..
Meanwhile, I'm listening to Russell trying to plot a course to this place and not making much progress. I start doing my supply runs again (for less profit), but I'm lucky as I get about 3 missions which nett me 8000,10000 and 29000 for shipping additional items to and from nearby systems. Within less than an hour, I am pushing 40000cr again. In all this time, Russell has located 1t of Personal Weapons and has figured out that he can't get to the system he needs to because it is about 9LY from the nearest system and he has a jump range of 7ly. I volunteer to do the run and collect the goods for him as my jump range is about 12. I empty my cargo bay to give me range and I plot the course which is about 6 jumps away. For the next 10 minutes I do the necessary jumps from system to system until I get to the GD 219 system and I located the Personal Weapons. He needs 3t, but I buy 4, just in case. I upgrade my jump drive to 17ly and plot a course back to the planet where the mission needs to be handed in. With the increased range, I can make it in 2 jumps. Yay!
Russell is parking off somewhere looking at the markets, so I tell him to head to the same destination for a rendezvous and off we go.
2 Jumps later, we're in the same system and we try and find each other. We line up with engines off and I jettison my cargo. He opens his cargo bay and flies over the containers and scoop them in. 4t of Personal Weapons, SORTED!!!
He's very grateful and heads off to cash in the mission...
Only, the Deliver Cargo button is not enabled.
He checks cargo and it tells him that he has 1 ton of Personal Weapons and 3 tons of "Stolen" Personal Weapons...aaaaargh again.
So eventually he sells the 3 tons to the black market and I tell him to upgrade the jump drive and make the journey himself. It's about 7 jumps, but eventually he gets to the target system and is able to buy the additional 3t legally.
At this point I ask him how much time he has left on the mission clock and he realises that the mission has expired...
In Space, no-one can hear you scream, but we were laughing so hard...
To make matters worse, the 4t of Personal Weapons cost me 16000cr which was lost when I jettisoned it for him to pick up. I managed to pick up one with my cargo scoop so I recovered 4000cr. I was also fined 150cr x 4 for jettisoning cargo near the dock, so all in all, not very profitable for me...
However, I'm again well placed to resume my 7000 + 2000 trade route. Going to try and break 100 000cr this morning.
Loving the game.
Commander iStoff signing out.
Comments
My suggestion for the missions is to find a system selling slaves (not IMPERIAL slaves). Most stations have a mission for slaves on their board with almost a week to complete them. Go fill your cargo hold with an even amount of slaves and head back to your regular places. You need to get inside the letterbox FAST if you want to avoid being fined for contraband. The payday is worth it though. Around 20k-30k to buy 2t, sell in the mission for 40k-55k. Stack the missions up and get profit quickly.