Good systems to rank up in Trading

[BarFly]

Hello,

i'm looking for systems to rank up to Elite (Tycoon) in trading and also to get up my Federation ranking (post Captain).
At what kind of systems are my chances best not to see just illegal or salvage or massacre or killing missions?
What state, population, economy should they have?
And how do i switch off that damned beams in the galaxy map? That makes that map almost unreadable.

 

[Ivo215]

You get rank in trading for selling cargo. An added bonus: You also get reputation with the controlling faction in the system/station you sell.
Personally, I like rares trading. Old fashioned, but that's how I roll.
You can get around 17,000 credits or more profit per ton, if you sell somewhere beyond 160 Ly from the point of purchase (varies a bit per system/station).
There's around 9,500 credits of profit per ton on militairy grade fabrics to be made. And some change for hauling gold on the return trip. That's a lot quicker profit than rares. But it's also much more monotone.

 

[NorthernDevo]

Hello,

i'm looking for systems to rank up to Elite (Tycoon) in trading and also to get up my Federation ranking (post Captain).
At what kind of systems are my chances best not to see just illegal or salvage or massacre or killing missions?
What state, population, economy should they have?
And how do i switch off that damned beams in the galaxy map? That makes that map almost unreadable.

By far, the easiest way to rank up to Elite Trader is by either Void Opal or Painite mining. I totally surprised myself with my own Elite ranking by just making a couple of runs in a Keelback (Edit: Correction - I used an Orca, THEN got the Keelback because while it carries less, it looks more like a miner). That does not however help if you want to trade your way there. There, if you're trying to rank with the Feds you might try Ochusi - Chakpa. Reading on some boards, it seems to be a good route for Fed ranks and trade runs. This is second-hand info; I did Ceos-Sothis myself - but that seems to have dried up.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

By far, the easiest way to rank up to Elite Trader is by either Void Opal or Painite mining. I totally surprised myself with my own Elite ranking by just making a couple of runs in a Keelback. That does not however help if you want to trade your way there. There, if you're trying to rank with the Feds you might try Ochusi - Chakpa. Reading on some boards, it seems to be a good route for Fed ranks and trade runs. This is second-hand info; I did Ceos-Sothis myself - but that seems to have dried up.

Lately i made around 130 millions with 2 hours of painite mining and i did the Ceaos - Sothis run for a while - but thats boring.
My Pythons which i use as Cargo runners are named Hobo and Tramp, that tells a lot about my style of playing.
The problem with the missions, there are around 80% (or even more) salvage, killing, assasinate, mining, donate or illegal missions. Then courier missions and the 'industry needs 2899 whatever' wing missions. A couple of Boom time deliveries are also available, but you can count them with one hand on a mission board with 8 fractions.
Its sad.

 

[Stealthie]

Go mining for about 6 hours.

A billion credits in your pocket and Trade Elite.

Job done.

 

[Shiro Akai]

If you want to do it old fashion way (not mining, commodity trading), just use commodity market - not the mission board.

Hard way - explore near, visit various stations, build your database and then buy low something of interest, transport to the other station and sell high. The higher profit, the higher rank progress. But it takes lots of time, dedication, comparing markets and knowing what system state produces and desires.

Easier way - just visit EDDB.io, choose "loop trade", then change these search options:

• max hop distance: 50
• max price age: 1 day (very important, you want fresh data not some ancient records)
• min profit: 9000 (you can try getting over 9000 but it rarely gives anything, 9k is border value)
• distance: 2k Ls (this indicates how far from star your station will be, the nearer the better but 2k max is not that far either)

optional: landing pad size if you're using L-sized ship.

I put above and pressed search - you obviously need your reference sysytem so database can give you the nearest profitable loop. I choose Cubeo and first best result is:

System: Muri (~280 LYs from Cubeo)
Station: Vasquez de Coronado Dock (Coriolis)

to

System: NLTT 52560
Station: Gresley Orbital (Coriolis)

Commodity:

• HN Shock Mounts (trash income but covers fuel expenses and you won't be flying empty)
• Polymers (main profit maker)

Whole loop gives 9,353 Cr per unit. Multiply by your cargo capacity and you'll get profit per loop in your ship.
22t Adder brings 205.7k
700t Cutter/T-9 brings 6.5M

You can make 4-6 loops per hour, 20-30M/hr. Nowhere near Void Opals method but still viable.

note: Vasquez de Coronado Dock - this was where I was pushing my final rank when I was doing my Trading Elite, I see they still offer good price for polymers.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

thanks to all for your response.
I'm Tycoon in trading, Elite in Exploring and (just) Competent
I drifted around a bit, did deliever missions, 'industry is in need' missions and liked it when i got interdicted. If the Interdictor was to strong (Elite Anaconda for example) i left, if not (Master Python for example) i took on the fight. But i'm not cruising and looking for a fight, but if some jerk thinks i'm just a victim...
I was mining, arond 200 Millions of my ~2 Billions Cash (another 500 Millins in ships) where made with mining.
Ok thats the background - the problem, ahh my problem is, i'm looking for a mix of missions, the way i did it before i stopped playing Elite for a year.
Example: Right now i'm sitting at an industrial, high security, boom system with a population of 3 billions (?).
And i wrote it before - the majority are salvage, killing, assassinate, mining, donate missions. And around half of them are illegal missions.
'Industry needs' missions are wing missions.
Sorry FD you messed up your mission system.

Thanks for reading, but i got the feel i cleared my throat
You know the way it is - it is not working like supposed, you are writing pretty angry and when you are finished anything looks less problematic
But still i think
Sorry FD you messed up your mission system.

Go mining for about 6 hours.
A billion credits in your pocket and Trade Elite.
Job done.

in my 2nd post i wrote this:
Lately i made around 130 millions with 2 hours of painite mining and i did the Ceaos - Sothis run for a while - but thats boring.
Thats not the way i want to do it.

 

[schlowi123]

Do I understand correctly, that you want to do trading MISSIONS? For example the "Deliver XXX tons of commodity YYY to location ZZZ"-missions, or the "Source XXX tons of commodity YYY"-missions?
If yes, I like to do that myself every now and then. But instead of staying at one station I have three to five stations from where I pick up such missions and than I fly "circles". No that does NOT just include missions between these stations but this handy tool helps me with not flying to unnecessary places.

Yes, at every station there are just very few of the desired missions, but usually it's at some. And then I just hop to the next station and pick up another of these missions.

Also: Every tenth minute, new missions appear. That might help, too.

 

[Jmanis]

Find a refinery economy owned by a faction in a None state, buy Military Grade Fabrics
Go to a neighbouring Military economy owned by a faction in a Boom, Civil Liberty, and optionally Expansion state.
???
Profit!

 

[Dagwit]

If you want to make very nice money running trade missions, as opposed to trading in the commodity market, go to to Bliss Base in HIP 8444: after ranking up with the factions there you will be offered very profitable missions to run metals to Firsoff Orbital in HIP 8758. You can stack missions to keep your Python or other medium ship (Bliss Base is an outpost) full on each run.

You can take missions on the way back but it's Bliss to Firsoff that makes the money - getting on for Cr 70m/hr. Not as profitable as mining but I used it for variety when building up my Fleet Carrier (sigh!) purchase fund.

Edit: sadly it'll give you Empire rather than Federation rank. Can't have everything.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,

@Dagwit @Jmanis
thx for your advise

@schlowi123

The program is written in python 3 and extensively commented.
It was tested on a Debian system and I really don't know if it will work in a proprietary OS.
If it doesn't the most likely point of failure is the default parameter for the file(s) location. I haven't tested that and I don't care. But Hoorah! the source code is published under the GPL v3 and thus you can fix that yourself

It is reading like a must have tool for somebody like me.
I do have a Linux machine, but just one computer running. I can run either Kubuntu or Win10 :-(
The other one is a single core 32 Bit IBM A31 Laptop (awesome quality!) which is running Lubuntu ;-)
And because programming is something i can't....

 

[Kenneth McGrew]

in my 2nd post i wrote this:
Lately i made around 130 millions with 2 hours of painite mining and i did the Ceaos - Sothis run for a while - but thats boring.
Thats not the way i want to do it.

unfortunately the way you want to do it "blaze your own trail" and all that jazz is a miss sold promise, i imagine there will be a PPI scandal in the future where we can hear how Janice from Portishead claimed 2,346Arx for being miss-sold elite dangerous.

so if you dont want the join the masses in the get rich quick scheme and plow rank in an afternoon you're left with the abysmal unbalanced alternative of trading repetitively for a year, and that's great if you enjoy it!

But much like FDev not releasing small seismic charges, you will have to compromise in everything you want to do in the game in order to achieve it, its disappointing but unfortunately that's elite dangerous, and yes you can blaze our own trail* as long as you read the small print

*in specific ships at given times in set systems and with a set quota of weapons available only to ships we decided to include at a 4pm meeting on a Friday, doing activities approved by FDev or be subject to torture and exuberantly long game play times

 

[Stealthie]

in my 2nd post i wrote this:
Lately i made around 130 millions with 2 hours of painite mining and i did the Ceaos - Sothis run for a while - but thats boring.
Thats not the way i want to do it.

The main thing I took away from your OP was the desire to reach trade Elite, and my response was intended to suggest the quickest way to achieve that.

If you're determined to do it via cargo-hauling then Shiro Akai's post, above, provides some excellent advice.

Beyond that, you might not find people being especially helpful because if people who like cargo-hauling have found especially useful systems they tend to keep quiet about it to avoid having a bunch of other folks show-up and mess up a system's state.
You'll find advice about what to look for, and what to do but you're probably not going to get told "go to X system and do Y missions".

Also, I gotta say, if you're okay with cargo-hauling, you should give mining a chance.
It's a great way to earn credits and there's some enjoyment to be had from building an optimised mining ship and perfecting your mining techniques.
Personally, I do find VO mining a bit dull but Painite mining, at least, keeps you busy so it's not quite as dull.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,
@Stealthie

The main thing I took away from your OP was the desire to reach trade Elite, and my response was intended to suggest the quickest way to achieve that.

It was not meant like: 'Don't tell me, i know my way around'.
You are writing to help me, what i appreciate very much.
I'm German and sometimes my English is not polished enough.

@Stealthie and @Kenneth Mcgrew
Looks like i have to face the way it is.
thanks anyways

 

[schlowi123]

I do have a Linux machine […]
And because programming is something i can't....

Since you already use linux, I could guide you through it how to use it. And you don't need to know how to program. you just need to know how to write information into a txt-file and with the rest I offered already help … and since I speak german, too, that may reduce the risk of errors due to the language barrier.
And yes, I like helping people getting deeper into the rabbit hole that is called free software

BUT … you don't need a tool. I had a problem that wasn't very much different from yours. I wanted to earn high grade engineering materials from missions without killing anybody. And I realized that "sampling" missions over several stations greatly increased my yield. Now exchange "engineering materials" with "Federation reputation" and you see how the problems are related.
I just wanted to run the missions somewhat efficiently. Thus I sat down and thought about it and the result is said program.

 

[BarFly]

Hello,
1st - i haven't had the time to test your program.

Ok, i'm operating out of V1688 Aquilae and doing pretty well meanwhile
Allied with more than half of the minor factions, there are a good amount of 'deliver' and 'Industry is in need of...' missions.
A lot of the deliver missions are in system, so i pick them up haul it to the station/outpost and pick there another out of system missions.
And because of the 'Industry is in need of...' missions, i also have the cargo filled with at least 90% when heading back.
At Calor/Julian Hub (11Ly) and at GD 219/McKee (~22Ly) i get almost anything which is needed.
Because there are a lot of delivering for the 'Pirate Gang', there are also interdictions, sometimes two or three of them within one system.
My Trade rank increases steadily, so are my Fed & Combat rankings.
It looks like they are increasing to the next rank almost at the same time.
Initially i forgot a rule - get allied, & friendly with the local factions and the lucrative missions are rolling in.
Thats Elite - work.