As we say in the PTN, a fleet carrier is a money printing machine. If you're just out for max credits, exobiology on your own FC out in the black is the way. I have also enjoyed arbitrage trading... it makes some money - not a lot, but still a reasonable profit after upkeep and maintenance costs. The main benefit is that it doesn't require a whole lot of interaction. Pay the haulers on both ends and all you really have to do is jump and watch the marketplace. Good to cover your FC costs while away doing something else.
I don't bother with tariffs... it's not enough to matter. I do keep Astrometrics open because most explorers will sell a bit of data as a thank you for being open for RRR business, but even that isn't really needed... between my initial trading, a couple of booze cruises, and my last couple of months of exobiology, my FC is funded well beyond the expected lifespan of this game. (As an aside, I got a really nice note on Inara last month from a CMDR who had taken some damage and found my carrier. While there, they took the opportunity to cash in 37 million in astrometric and 1.1 billion (!) in exobiology data).
Regarding the tritium, as long as you don't have a sell order for tritium active in your marketplace, nobody can touch it.
You didn't ask about this, so feel free to ignore the rest, but here are my real-world numbers for exploration and exobiology. It's a bit over-detailed, but might remove some mystery and angst for new carrier owners reading this. I was really worried about keeping things alive when I first got my carrier, but having the numbers helped me relax. I'm using the average price of tritium when I left on my trip for the calculations (52,680 / ton).
I have RRR, Astrometrics, and Vista Genomics enabled. Weekly upkeep is 12.85 million. I typically make between 1 and 5 jumps per week. My average cost per jump for the last 10 jumps (cost of the tritium + 100k maintenance fee) has been 6.2 million, so in a typical week, I'm spending between 19 and 44 million on the carrier.
When I'm in "Impatient Mode," I use fastest routes, which takes me between 4 and 8 jumps to travel the 500 LY from where the carrier was to where it is. On these routes, I normally find... eh... call it 3-4 planets with bio signatures. Sometimes it's none and sometimes it's a lot more (recently, a single system had 3 planets with 5+ bio signatures each). Assume first discovery on all of these because it's rare I enter a pre-discovered system in my current location.
The least lucrative find is going to be a single-signature planet with a common bacterium. This pays 5 million (1 million for the scan and 4 million bonus for first discovery). I just need 4 of those to cover the carrier for a week + one jump. Fairly often, though, I get multiple signatures or luck into something like a Stratum Tectonicus (nearly 100 million after the bonus). In addition to this, I'll make a couple million on the astrometric data as well, though it's nowhere near as good as the exobiology money.
When I'm using economical routing, it's now 40-60 jumps to get to the carrier, so my profit-per-500 LY leg is way, way higher. I've mostly been playing an alt lately, but still managed to add a billion over the last month. I'm not really trying to max out my credits / hour any more... just doing the things I enjoy.
I don't bother with tariffs... it's not enough to matter. I do keep Astrometrics open because most explorers will sell a bit of data as a thank you for being open for RRR business, but even that isn't really needed... between my initial trading, a couple of booze cruises, and my last couple of months of exobiology, my FC is funded well beyond the expected lifespan of this game. (As an aside, I got a really nice note on Inara last month from a CMDR who had taken some damage and found my carrier. While there, they took the opportunity to cash in 37 million in astrometric and 1.1 billion (!) in exobiology data).
Regarding the tritium, as long as you don't have a sell order for tritium active in your marketplace, nobody can touch it.
You didn't ask about this, so feel free to ignore the rest, but here are my real-world numbers for exploration and exobiology. It's a bit over-detailed, but might remove some mystery and angst for new carrier owners reading this. I was really worried about keeping things alive when I first got my carrier, but having the numbers helped me relax. I'm using the average price of tritium when I left on my trip for the calculations (52,680 / ton).
I have RRR, Astrometrics, and Vista Genomics enabled. Weekly upkeep is 12.85 million. I typically make between 1 and 5 jumps per week. My average cost per jump for the last 10 jumps (cost of the tritium + 100k maintenance fee) has been 6.2 million, so in a typical week, I'm spending between 19 and 44 million on the carrier.
When I'm in "Impatient Mode," I use fastest routes, which takes me between 4 and 8 jumps to travel the 500 LY from where the carrier was to where it is. On these routes, I normally find... eh... call it 3-4 planets with bio signatures. Sometimes it's none and sometimes it's a lot more (recently, a single system had 3 planets with 5+ bio signatures each). Assume first discovery on all of these because it's rare I enter a pre-discovered system in my current location.
The least lucrative find is going to be a single-signature planet with a common bacterium. This pays 5 million (1 million for the scan and 4 million bonus for first discovery). I just need 4 of those to cover the carrier for a week + one jump. Fairly often, though, I get multiple signatures or luck into something like a Stratum Tectonicus (nearly 100 million after the bonus). In addition to this, I'll make a couple million on the astrometric data as well, though it's nowhere near as good as the exobiology money.
When I'm using economical routing, it's now 40-60 jumps to get to the carrier, so my profit-per-500 LY leg is way, way higher. I've mostly been playing an alt lately, but still managed to add a billion over the last month. I'm not really trying to max out my credits / hour any more... just doing the things I enjoy.
