Full respect, but I wouldn't recommend rare trading as a way of making good money. It was once a very good earner indeed but over time it seems to have fallen down the rankings of profitable activities. I tried the big rares' circuit, the one with about 30 stops, twice last summer. Once in a Cobra, the limited cargo capacity of which meant I had to choose which commodities to buy, and once in a T6, where I was able to buy every rare on offer. Yes, I made a few million on each occasion but for the time invested I would have made more with normal trading and much more running medicines into an outbreak system or food into a system suffering famine.
However, I suspect that for Cmdr Trigun539, trading of any sort would be too slow and, perhaps, require too much thought. Independent trading does require research, reconnaissance, planning and effort to identify the profitable routes and more work to make the actual dosh, as well as knowing when to give up on a route (usually because it has been discovered on EDDB) and start again elsewhere. It is not an activity to everyone's taste. For some us though, sad muppets that we may be, trading/trucking is what the game is about and has been since its first incarnation back in 1984. Each to their own.
I probably sounded a bit harsher than I intended. I actually do like games that require good strategy and deep thought like Starcraft. That’s a game that you are fully involved/challenging/fun. I think people are very lenient with gameplay for this game. I had a mission where for around 15-20 mins did “nothing”. I actually got up and did other stuff while the game was just going. Also, a good portion of the game is docking/undocking. This game really needs a fast travel option for people that don’t like to explore or repeat a lot of same actions. If This game is a true space sim, all navigation stuff would clearly be automated, unless you wanted manual control.
I still like the game and think it has great potential! Probably just needs some easier but interesting things to do that don’t require a big ship or a lot of ranking.