What's the point of trading when free gold is floating arround?

Zillion

Zillion
Hi!

I started playing the beta a couple days ago and started out trading and all.

Than I read you can pick up gold cannisters floating arround arround the LP 98-132 planets (just look for unidentified signal sources) , and indeed I found a couple of times gold or other valuable stuf. Last time it was like 10 cannisters gold which was an easy 48000 or so. Takes a while sometimes but its profitable.

Now I have 2 questions:
- why would this float arround in deep space?
- why would I even consider trading again, until I have maybe a very large ship?

Thanks

p.s. I played Elite very much on the BBC Micro in 1984+ :cool:
 
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forger

forger
gold is found only in anarchy systems and not too often, but it's a good start ;)

why? some merchant was not so lucky and was killed by pirates, pirates can drop gold and make ambush ;)

there are many things that can be found just floating in space :)
 

Fedhman Kassad

Banned
F
Its like this on purpose. Its easier for us to earn money for expensive ships otherwise can You imagine a beta test where first player to get (and start to test) Anaconda would have to grind for 3 months? That would be a loooooong beta ;)
 

forger

forger
Rog said:
There is a *LOT* less gold floating about now. It's definitely been nerfed somewhat.
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or there is same amount but more commanders are hunting gold and so we will encounter it not so often as at the beginning, when only handful of pilots knew that ;)
 

Celeste

Celeste
Zillion said:
Hi!

I started playing the beta a couple days ago and started out trading and all.

Than I read you can pick up gold cannisters floating arround arround the LP 98-132 planets (just look for unidentified signal sources) , and indeed I found a couple of times gold or other valuable stuf. Last time it was like 10 cannisters gold which was an easy 48000 or so. Takes a while sometimes but its profitable.

Now I have 2 questions:
- why would this float arround in deep space?
- why would I even consider trading again, until I have maybe a very large ship?

Thanks

p.s. I played Elite very much on the BBC Micro in 1984+ :cool:
Click to expand...

Sigh... you just broke the first rule of gold club.

:p
 

Iskariot

Iskariot
I don't believe in the final game there will be a fixed system with respawning gold.
In this beta it offers an easy way to get some extra cash to fool around with and it serves as an example of an event type that will be in the final game.
 

kb_Nomad

kb_Nomad
If it does NOT belong to you - why do you 'steal' it?
In game it is marked as 'stolen'

If the guy next door left his car running in his driveway - would you take it?
 

Zillion

Zillion
kb_Nomad said:
If it does NOT belong to you - why do you 'steal' it?
In game it is marked as 'stolen'

If the guy next door left his car running in his driveway - would you take it?
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lol apparently you cannot distinguish between real life and a game?
And by the way, if it's floating in deep space, everybody should just leave it there?

Fedhman Kassad said:
Its like this on purpose. Its easier for us to earn money for expensive ships otherwise can You imagine a beta test where first player to get (and start to test) Anaconda would have to grind for 3 months? That would be a loooooong beta ;)
Click to expand...

That makes sense. Or... trade should become more profitable.
 
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Wiry

Wiry
As others have said, it's a good way to get started and get into another ship. Finding and scooping cargo is a time consuming process where determining a trade route and buying a hold full of cargo is quick. Your rate of return for scooping vs trading may be equal in the hauler, but once you have the 36 ton capacity of the cobra I imagine that good trade routes would win for efficiency.
 

Wiry

Wiry
Horrgakx said:
I've picked up gold, but how do I know where to sell them to? The stations I've visited won't have them.
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Any station that has a black market will buy stolen goods. Freeport in LP 38-192 (sorry, forgot the full designation, the last three digits may be incorrect) is a good choice because they don't have security patrols looking for stolen goods. The black market can be found in the station services menu under contacts. Be careful if you go to stations such as Chango with stolen cargo, if the vipers scan you, the station will bring the pain.
 
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JamesBondage

J
maybe they just wanted to test leaving canisters of goods floating in space. they chose gold, because what player is gonna be like "free gold floating in space? naw im set" and because of what someone else said about funding the beta testers with credits without actually direct depositing them into their space accounts
 

Googol

Googol
Zillion said:
Hi!

I read you can pick up gold cannisters floating arround arround the LP 98-132 planets

....

why would I even consider trading again, until I have maybe a very large ship?
Click to expand...

Although this seems like easy money for a new player it's not an entirely risk-free strategy.

As some posts have pointed out earlier, the salvaged goods are marked as stolen so they can only be sold onto the black market. Transporting stolen goods any distance outside an anarchy system runs the risk that you will become wanted if you are scanned by any system authority vessel.

Most of the good stuff is found in anarchy systems, with all the inherent risks of interdiction while you are trawling for the USSs.

Some dumped cargo (not just Gold) is booby-trapped - as soon as you pick up one or two containers pirates arrive and will try and kill you.

PC pirates and PKers will lurk around the system's station (particularly at Freeport) because they know that's where most people will go to offload their salvaged goods.

It's one way to make a living, but it needs a mixture of luck and skills to make a career of it :smilie:
 
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