Newcomer / Intro Starting up with trading...but not sure if I'm doing it right!

[goemon]

ahh good to hear you went down the same route! I think it's the way to go really. I can still see it being fun to trade once you've got a big ship, but it's about getting there, for me, that is the incentive.

Then I'd probably go about exploring and what not - as I'd then have a ship that is faster as well, and can do bounty hunts also.

Monetary-wise, I know this may be the wrong way around, but gameplay-wise, I think it's the right way.

Do you think rares are worth the bother then? Sounds interesting, but I'm not sure worth bothering unless you've got a big trade route already that takes you some distance...and even then, I'm not sure the money involved sounds worth it...perhaps it is! haha but well, just seems like clogging up space for your other items that you'd be trading every system, rather than wait x systems' time to be able to sell your rares for what would, at that point, probably be a loss compared to your other trades...

well, let's do the math

profit from a ton of rares is around 15 000 per ton on 120 ly distance.

let's assume you find a very very good bulk trade route (without slave trading), which brings you 2000 profit/ton overall a-b-a.

you have an adder. in a pure trading outfit that's 24 tons of cargo. in a rare trader outfit (fuelscoop, scanner) you'll have 12.

profit of a rare tour will be 12*16 000 = 192 000. profit of a bulk tour will be 24 * 2000 = 48 000.

an adder can jump above 20 ly fully laden. to go 120 ly, you will need 7-8 jumps (you can't take a straight line).

let's assume, you take the same time to stations and for docking, whether you trade bulk or rares. than the difference will be the time you need for 6-7 jumps. that is 5 minutes +/-

you need to do 4 bulk tours for one rare tour - and a single tour (undocking, jumping, approach to station, docking - and back!) will already take as much time as those jumps in your adder.

(of course, those are "best cases" - but i think the relation is right).

so - don't combine bulktrading and rare trading, go for rares only. but even later you can use rares to buff your profits, if you don't stop more often then 10-15 times before selling the rares at a good profit.

 

[happyfunball]

Also, for rare trades, some people like to like to visit stations in a cluster, then do the long jumps/scoops to another cluster and sell/repeat. When I was doing rare trades in my Cobra, I didn't bother with scoops. Instead I plotted a circle-squarish route that lets me reach each station without scooping, and I would sell at the other end of the loop, so the distance would be the diameter/diagonal of the circle/square. Hopefully I'm explaining that right. This allowed me to have more rack space and not spend time scooping.

Anyway, there are tools out there that lets you plot your own rare trading course, such as http://eliterares.toolset.io/. For me the fun of rare trading was coming up with my own routes with alternative stops if I run into a low rare spawn availability.

 

[TickTockRob]

It is not really an exploit. Changing play mode from open to solo can result in missions being refreshed more quickly than they otherwise might, allowing you to collect multiple high paying missions at once.

ahh okay! Well I've certainly no problem with it either way.

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Key with smuggling is knowing how to avoid scans and practicing fast entries to a station. I don't use silent running and rarely use heatsinks, more about timing and avoiding security ship interdiction. However, my Asp is set-up with a long range and runs quite cold (<25% when cruising), this helps as they don't see me in the first place. Also not being too greedy as the more missions you stack the more attention you will attract.
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Oh and the bulletin board refresh is not an exploit but it is very gamey so I avoid using it. TBH if you do use this the profits will be huge once you gain reputation with the factions in question and your trade rank goes up. I don't do it too often but I picked up two missions without refreshing the board and made 16,000,000 in a single long range smuggling trip. However, I'm not beginner and not sure how many of these really high value missions are available with a lower trade rank.
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The long jump range of the Asp makes the trip quite rapid. I tend to stop to scan interesting systems on the way and complete the one way trip in <30 minutes, you could do it in a lot less than this. The key is the long distance travelled though, you only really get these big payout missions from systems on the very edge of the bubble. We are talking >200ly delivery distances.
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FYI I moved from Cobra to T6 to Asp to Clipper primarily using rare trading and missions, then used the clipper for commodity trading and trade CGs. Now these long range smuggling missions exist I may have gone for smuggling once I had the Asp.

Yes, I'm not sure you get such high-paying ones early on. But I could be wrong on that, but I haven't seen anything like that.

So the scanning at stations doesn't affect you then? Is it really that easy to hide, just by doing that? I guess if you were in a big ship, you'd have to do it the old-fashioned way...

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well, let's do the math

profit from a ton of rares is around 15 000 per ton on 120 ly distance.

let's assume you find a very very good bulk trade route (without slave trading), which brings you 2000 profit/ton overall a-b-a.

you have an adder. in a pure trading outfit that's 24 tons of cargo. in a rare trader outfit (fuelscoop, scanner) you'll have 12.

profit of a rare tour will be 12*16 000 = 192 000. profit of a bulk tour will be 24 * 2000 = 48 000.

an adder can jump above 20 ly fully laden. to go 120 ly, you will need 7-8 jumps (you can't take a straight line).

let's assume, you take the same time to stations and for docking, whether you trade bulk or rares. than the difference will be the time you need for 6-7 jumps. that is 5 minutes +/-

you need to do 4 bulk tours for one rare tour - and a single tour (undocking, jumping, approach to station, docking - and back!) will already take as much time as those jumps in your adder.

(of course, those are "best cases" - but i think the relation is right).

so - don't combine bulktrading and rare trading, go for rares only. but even later you can use rares to buff your profits, if you don't stop more often then 10-15 times before selling the rares at a good profit.

Also, for rare trades, some people like to like to visit stations in a cluster, then do the long jumps/scoops to another cluster and sell/repeat. When I was doing rare trades in my Cobra, I didn't bother with scoops. Instead I plotted a circle-squarish route that lets me reach each station without scooping, and I would sell at the other end of the loop, so the distance would be the diameter/diagonal of the circle/square. Hopefully I'm explaining that right. This allowed me to have more rack space and not spend time scooping.

Anyway, there are tools out there that lets you plot your own rare trading course, such as http://eliterares.toolset.io/. For me the fun of rare trading was coming up with my own routes with alternative stops if I run into a low rare spawn availability.

Thanks for this info, chaps! I'll definitely have to look into it. I guess, if nothing else, it does provide for a bit of variety, but it does sound like it's worth doing in its own right!

 

[TickTockRob]

***Latest update

Well I took part in the community Challenge to get the industrial materials to Brestia. Last I checked, I was on the second tier up, which I was happy with! It took me about 40 jumps to get there, so I'd say it was worth it.

But, alas, nothing is ever simple. I had basically upgraded my Hauler, or whatever it's called, to have 18 capacity. And that's when I started to attract pirates. It was literally 2am, and I was about to go to bed "one more run", I told myself...and I lost 120k worth of stuff! So I try again, with my remaining credits, only to lose all that load too.

So I have no money at all now.

I hadn't had any issues with pirates before either.

I'm still yet to get the perfect trading route, but before I've even got there, I now have this issue - how on earth do I keep pirates from killing me? I hadn't upgraded my shields or anything like that, so that may have been the issue (almost definitely was!). But better shields means there's better weapons, so that may not be the only way to stop them killing me.

So is there a tactic to keeping the pirates at bay (har har)? I imagine they're always going to be a pain...

It was a longer travel than I usually took, as I was going from a distant system to Brestia to get the industrial materials...so perhaps the long distance was the issue...

*sigh* my friend also plays, and he's basically making a fortune just going about shooting and discovering stuff. He's even got a higher trading rank than me because he just does the missions from the jobs board. "Real" trading seems to definitely be the hardest of the tasks too do...there's so many things to overcome.

I am starting to wonder if there is much point in it from a financial point of view, because it doesn't seem to have any benefits over the other ways to make money, and seems to have the most to lose, as if you die, you lose all your inventory.

A frustrating experience so far. A lot of hard work down the drain in the space of 20 mins.

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

How to survive pirates - don't fly a hauler! It is too slow to run and too weak to fight. Others may not agree but I never used it in the start game due to its vulnerability. I went Sidewinder to Adder. Also I would not upgrade until you have the cash to kit it out a bit better, there are on-line tools to allow you to play with load-out.
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I think you have found the downside of trading, if you loose the ship then you loose the value of your cargo as well as the ship. If you fly a freewinder to collect bounties/can planets the only thing you loose on death are the bounties/scan data you have collected on that trip, your bank balance is unchanged from when you started. Hence death doing these is annoying but will never lose you more than the time on that trip.
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I think If I were you I would sit tight until you have the cash from the CG in your pocket. Then play with ship load-out to decide what you want to do.
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I lost cash at the start trying to trade in my Adder and then went mining. Probably one of the slowest ways to make money but like exploring and bounty hunting you don't pay for the cargo so have little to loose on death. Also the risk of mining outside of RES sites is very low. If you want to mine then read some threads on the subject, it isn't for everyone. Bounty hunting in a freewinder (possibly with 1 or 2 upgrades, up to you) has the advantage of risk free earnings (I.e. your bank balance will not go down) and you will get combat practice so will learn how to defend against pirate attacks.

 

[TickTockRob]

How to survive pirates - don't fly a hauler! It is too slow to run and too weak to fight. Others may not agree but I never used it in the start game due to its vulnerability. I went Sidewinder to Adder. Also I would not upgrade until you have the cash to kit it out a bit better, there are on-line tools to allow you to play with load-out.
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I think you have found the downside of trading, if you loose the ship then you loose the value of your cargo as well as the ship. If you fly a freewinder to collect bounties/can planets the only thing you loose on death are the bounties/scan data you have collected on that trip, your bank balance is unchanged from when you started. Hence death doing these is annoying but will never lose you more than the time on that trip.
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I think If I were you I would sit tight until you have the cash from the CG in your pocket. Then play with ship load-out to decide what you want to do.
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I lost cash at the start trying to trade in my Adder and then went mining. Probably one of the slowest ways to make money but like exploring and bounty hunting you don't pay for the cargo so have little to loose on death. Also the risk of mining outside of RES sites is very low. If you want to mine then read some threads on the subject, it isn't for everyone. Bounty hunting in a freewinder (possibly with 1 or 2 upgrades, up to you) has the advantage of risk free earnings (I.e. your bank balance will not go down) and you will get combat practice so will learn how to defend against pirate attacks.

Yes, I was saving up to replace the Hauler...! That's the irony of it really. It's basically the only one that I could afford that had more space in it.

It does seem harsh the way you lose all your cargo when you die. I can kind of understand it, as the pirates need a reason to pirate etc...I guess I'll just have to get a stronger ship and get better at evading. How do the big massive transporter ships cope with this sort of issue; do they have better shields?

Or is finding a quiet system yet another requirement to trading?

I have done mining, and done a few other things...I just wanted to do trading, but the game really seems to be against me doing so. I do want to keep at it though...but yes, I may wait until I get my cash, and see what's what.

The game does seem a bit skewed against trading...and once you have a lot of money, I can't really see why you'd want to keep doing it, because you've bought all you want to then, and surely the game then becomes about the territory play etc?

I guess you can do it anyway if you enjoy it, but still...

 

[goemon]

Yes, I was saving up to replace the Hauler...! That's the irony of it really. It's basically the only one that I could afford that had more space in it.

It does seem harsh the way you lose all your cargo when you die. I can kind of understand it, as the pirates need a reason to pirate etc...I guess I'll just have to get a stronger ship and get better at evading. How do the big massive transporter ships cope with this sort of issue; do they have better shields?

Or is finding a quiet system yet another requirement to trading?

I have done mining, and done a few other things...I just wanted to do trading, but the game really seems to be against me doing so. I do want to keep at it though...but yes, I may wait until I get my cash, and see what's what.

The game does seem a bit skewed against trading...and once you have a lot of money, I can't really see why you'd want to keep doing it, because you've bought all you want to then, and surely the game then becomes about the territory play etc?

I guess you can do it anyway if you enjoy it, but still...

a) first of all, people enjoy different ways of playing this game. there are not that few players who enjoy "space trucking" ("eurotruckers in space")
b) yes, you can do "territory play" via trading, too -> influencing the back ground simulation. but mission gameplay and combat is more effective in tha way for most cases.
c) well, my trading cutter costs around 300 mio, and is not finished upgraded. so you have quite a way to go before "you've bought all you want".
d) hauler is simply the most cheapest trading ship, obviously better ships perform better in most ways. for exampel a t6 is one of the faster ships in game, so you can outrun pirates.
e) finding a quiet system helps, if it is what you are after
f) calculating potential loss is part of the game
g) as mentioned above:

bulktrading as a beginners activity doesn't make much "sense": your profit scales with cargo space, and till you have 100 t of cargo/ a t6, mission trading or rare trading will always pay better.

other activites like bounty hunting or smuggling missions even better.

when i started a fresh commander back in december, i took short range smuggling missions, till i could afford an eagle, and went bounty hunting then, till i could outfit a cobra, which i took for longrange smuggling missions. i think, that's more or less the most profitabel way, if you know the game (e.g. if you know how to do combat/ bounty hunt, if you know how to smuggle...).

the learning courve is steep in elite dangerous

if you want to stick with trading at the moment, do mission trading via bulleting board. if interdicted, submit, chaff and boost. if a smuggling mission to an outpost comes up, take it too (but maybe not a shadow delivery mission). if you can afford 240 k for a rare trading hauler like this http://coriolis.io/outfit/hauler/02...3u2h.Iw19A===.Aw19A===?bn=rare trading hauler, go to eleu, and trade Eleu Thermals with Tiolce Waste 2 Paste in tiolce - you should make back the money in no time

or wing up with your friend, to have fun together. or, if you want to, pm me, and we can do a trading wing (depends on time zone )

 

[TickTockRob]

a) first of all, people enjoy different ways of playing this game. there are not that few players who enjoy "space trucking" ("eurotruckers in space")

Yes, and this is how I am really...I want to do something that's a bit against the grain, and isn't something done in most games.

b) yes, you can do "territory play" via trading, too -> influencing the back ground simulation. but mission gameplay and combat is more effective in tha way for most cases.

ahh I see! I hadn't read much about it...my friend was just telling me about it last night. So it's not the be all and end all then?

c) well, my trading cutter costs around 300 mio, and is not finished upgraded. so you have quite a way to go before "you've bought all you want".

haha yes, perhaps I exagerrated a bit too much about that. I guess it's not as bad as I said...I was just meaning that, to me, a major goal is getting one of the million credit ships. It may only be the start, but it's a long way off now, and I don't particilarly want to rush it

d) hauler is simply the most cheapest trading ship, obviously better ships perform better in most ways. for exampel a t6 is one of the faster ships in game, so you can outrun pirates.

That's good to hear about the T6...!

e) finding a quiet system helps, if it is what you are after
f) calculating potential loss is part of the game

Yes, this is true, and what I enjoy. As I implied, I am going to keep going with it. It just seems like you really do have a lot against you!

g) as mentioned above:


bulktrading as a beginners activity doesn't make much "sense": your profit scales with cargo space, and till you have 100 t of cargo/ a t6, mission trading or rare trading will always pay better.


other activites like bounty hunting or smuggling missions even better.


when i started a fresh commander back in december, i took short range smuggling missions, till i could afford an eagle, and went bounty hunting then, till i could outfit a cobra, which i took for longrange smuggling missions. i think, that's more or less the most profitabel way, if you know the game (e.g. if you know how to do combat/ bounty hunt, if you know how to smuggle...).


the learning courve is steep in elite dangerous


if you want to stick with trading at the moment, do mission trading via bulleting board. if interdicted, submit, chaff and boost. if a smuggling mission to an outpost comes up, take it too (but maybe not a shadow delivery mission). if you can afford 240 k for a rare trading hauler like this http://coriolis.io/outfit/hauler/02...3u2h.Iw19A===.Aw19A===?bn=rare trading hauler, go to eleu, and trade Eleu Thermals with Tiolce Waste 2 Paste in tiolce - you should make back the money in no time


or wing up with your friend, to have fun together. or, if you want to, pm me, and we can do a trading wing (depends on time zone )

Yes, I did consider it wasn't really a "beginners" game, trading. But what I like about games that are not typical is the untypical things you can do in them...I don't really want to do what you can do in every other game.


I'll keep at it though!


And thank you for the offer...I'm actually on the Xbox version of it, and I think, for reasons which I hope one day go away, we can't meet in game if we're cross platform. A shame!

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

FYI, as said above the T6 is fast. The T9 can defend itself against smaller pirates (many beam laser turrets) and can jump out as it doesn't (generally) get mass locked. The T7, I'm not sure about this one. I never used it as the Clipper seemed so much better. I'm not sure how you are meant to survive interdictions in this. The Hauler I use as a space taxi as it has a fantastic jump range and you don't get many interdictions if you fly empty.
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Good luck. I've been playing 12 months and still feel poor when I look at the upgrade costs of my fairly poorly equipped Conda. I've love a Cutter but both rank and cost are somewhat out of reach for now.

 

[TickTockRob]

FYI, as said above the T6 is fast. The T9 can defend itself against smaller pirates (many beam laser turrets) and can jump out as it doesn't (generally) get mass locked. The T7, I'm not sure about this one. I never used it as the Clipper seemed so much better. I'm not sure how you are meant to survive interdictions in this. The Hauler I use as a space taxi as it has a fantastic jump range and you don't get many interdictions if you fly empty.
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Good luck. I've been playing 12 months and still feel poor when I look at the upgrade costs of my fairly poorly equipped Conda. I've love a Cutter but both rank and cost are somewhat out of reach for now.

I had a few interdictions with the Hauler with 10t in my cargo, but they were easy to get out of. But as soon as I went to 18t, I just got battered. I should have stuck to 10!

But I'll look into the ships and what to get....should have at least 500k from that CG tonight...hopefully more if I stayed in the top 90% (I didn't make that much effort, as I was killed before I could!)

I'll just have to ensure I'm careful with my cargo this time, and how much I take...and also not to spend all my money! We shall see. I still want to keep trading...I may also get a smaller ship for jumping about the place.

As mentioned previously, no real detriment to dying if you're not carrying anything....well, ship replacement cost aside anyway.

I'm surprised things are still wait out of reach after a year of playing! I didn't think it would be like that....crikey!

 

[goemon]

....should have at least 500k from that CG tonight...

if you are top 90%, wich is very impressive in a hauler, you'll have 1,8 mio, and can go for a trading cobra: http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_...03B3010101.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==?bn=Trading Cobra ...fastest ship ingame, boost away from any pirates

 

[happyfunball]

I consider myself mostly a trader, and I went from Sidewinder -> Adder -> Cobra -> T6 -> Cobra -> Clipper -> Python -> Anaconda for trading. As you can see, I used mostly multipurpose ships for trading. You can usually get into a dedicated trading ship sooner since they're cheaper for comparable cargo, but I find that they are more risky and less fun to fly. This is still a game, after all, so fun is somewhat important.

As mentioned before, to avoid pirates, the current recommendation is to submit (throttle to zero), then when you're out of supercruise, put pips into system and engine, then run like heck. Use chaff if it appears the pirate is using gimballed weapons, otherwise dodge and weave while you're running. By submitting, your SC drive will cool down faster. If you jump to another system (high waking), say the next one on your route or just a nearby system, then you won't be mass disrupted and your SC will charge a normal rate. Also, by jumping to a nearby system, the pirate, if NPC, will likely not spawn when you return unless it's a mission specific spawn.

With running in mind, you should at least have a decent shield, some shield boosters (not shield cell banks, they're different), upgraded power distributor, and thrusters. I would not recommend trading in a stock ship. Don't rush to upgrade to the next ship, the risk is not worth it. Get some upgrade first before you start hauling cargo in a new ship. Also, when I upgraded I usually made sure I have 2x insurance and 2x cash on hand to buy the commodities I usually trade in. Finally, I resisted the urge to sell my previous ship when upgrading. I had some serious lossage with the T6 when 1.4 was released, and luckily I kept my Cobra and can go back to that when I basically got wiped in one evening by losing my T6 3 times with full cargo.

 

[ocflyer]

Low demand isn't meaning too much at all.
Lately I traded at a station with Demand 0; Profit per tonne was above 1500.
So I check prices only. Simply buy low, sell high.
If you are serving the route on a regular base, get alternatives in goods if possible
or a variant of your traderoute as Plan B. Prices might change when exploiting the
route too much.

Regards,
Miklos

Supply and Demand levels will matter as your trade volume increases. If you're trading in a Hauler with 14T cargo hold, you won't affect Supply or Demand levels. If you're trading in a T9 with 500T or Cutter with 700T, you'll quickly exhaust low Supply and Demand levels and start to influence the medium Supply and Demand levels.

 

[mistohise]

I found that the brestla system did have more NPC pirates than average. The system for the new CG has been less active with pirates for me so far.
Getting interdicted so much may have just been bad luck.
If I had more free credits I'd help you out with some seed cargo, but I'm not quite rich enough for that yet.

 

[TickTockRob]

a)

when i started a fresh commander back in december, i took short range smuggling missions, till i could afford an eagle, and went bounty hunting then, till i could outfit a cobra, which i took for longrange smuggling missions. i think, that's more or less the most profitabel way, if you know the game (e.g. if you know how to do combat/ bounty hunt, if you know how to smuggle...).

the learning courve is steep in elite dangerous

if you want to stick with trading at the moment, do mission trading via bulleting board. if interdicted, submit, chaff and boost. if a smuggling mission to an outpost comes up, take it too (but maybe not a shadow delivery mission). if you can afford 240 k for a rare trading hauler like this http://coriolis.io/outfit/hauler/02...3u2h.Iw19A===.Aw19A===?bn=rare trading hauler, go to eleu, and trade Eleu Thermals with Tiolce Waste 2 Paste in tiolce - you should make back the money in no time

or wing up with your friend, to have fun together. or, if you want to, pm me, and we can do a trading wing (depends on time zone )

Well I managed the community goal the other day, and got 1.8 million credits! Since then, I've done a few bounty missions, which has really helped (with my new ship - Viper MKIV). It's been very productive, and the extra money I get from that I have spent on being able to mine as well (multiple bins in my refinery makes it so much more a pleasant experience!).

So I had to concede in the end, and trading from scratch just is so tough. But I have learnt a lot, and I'm going to get back into it soon!

But not with a Hauler

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if you are top 90%, wich is very impressive in a hauler, you'll have 1,8 mio, and can go for a trading cobra: http://coriolis.io/outfit/cobra_mk_...03B3010101.Iw1-kA==.Aw1-kA==?bn=Trading Cobra ...fastest ship ingame, boost away from any pirates

Thanks! I did manage to get in the top 90% somehow! Just before being blown up twice! I did get a Viper MKIV, and have done some mining and bounty hunts in that.

But yes, Happyfunball also recommended the Cobra.

As it happens, I can afford the T6 now...is it worth getting? It's apparently fast, and while the Cobra is a jack of all trades, perhaps I no longer need that anymore now I have my Viper MKIV (a tank, I know)

 

[TickTockRob]

I consider myself mostly a trader, and I went from Sidewinder -> Adder -> Cobra -> T6 -> Cobra -> Clipper -> Python -> Anaconda for trading. As you can see, I used mostly multipurpose ships for trading. You can usually get into a dedicated trading ship sooner since they're cheaper for comparable cargo, but I find that they are more risky and less fun to fly. This is still a game, after all, so fun is somewhat important.

As mentioned before, to avoid pirates, the current recommendation is to submit (throttle to zero), then when you're out of supercruise, put pips into system and engine, then run like heck. Use chaff if it appears the pirate is using gimballed weapons, otherwise dodge and weave while you're running. By submitting, your SC drive will cool down faster. If you jump to another system (high waking), say the next one on your route or just a nearby system, then you won't be mass disrupted and your SC will charge a normal rate. Also, by jumping to a nearby system, the pirate, if NPC, will likely not spawn when you return unless it's a mission specific spawn.

With running in mind, you should at least have a decent shield, some shield boosters (not shield cell banks, they're different), upgraded power distributor, and thrusters. I would not recommend trading in a stock ship. Don't rush to upgrade to the next ship, the risk is not worth it. Get some upgrade first before you start hauling cargo in a new ship. Also, when I upgraded I usually made sure I have 2x insurance and 2x cash on hand to buy the commodities I usually trade in. Finally, I resisted the urge to sell my previous ship when upgrading. I had some serious lossage with the T6 when 1.4 was released, and luckily I kept my Cobra and can go back to that when I basically got wiped in one evening by losing my T6 3 times with full cargo.

I read this last week, but wasn't able to reply - sorry for that. Great advice though!

Well, basically I got 1.8 million from the community goal, which really helped. I researched a bit online, regarding the Cobra MKIII but went for the Viper MKIV and did a bit of mining and bounty hunting, which has paid off. So I have a good amount to spend now.

I was tempted to go for the T6 next, but yourself and others have suggested the Cobra is better. Is it just more fun and less messing about, or is it actually better at trading?

I did manage to do your tactic for evading pirates during my mining missions...so that was very useful! My Viper is upgraded so it is fast, and I did put extra into shields...I'll check out shield boosters though, as I'm not sure I did that.

So you say to avoid the T6 altogether then? As you say, it is still a game, and I imagine you can boost the cargo hold of many other ships.

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I found that the brestla system did have more NPC pirates than average. The system for the new CG has been less active with pirates for me so far.
Getting interdicted so much may have just been bad luck.
If I had more free credits I'd help you out with some seed cargo, but I'm not quite rich enough for that yet.

Aw, thank you very much for the thought!

It was a bit of a pain, but I perhaps didn't help myself by having such a weak ship. Thankfully, it happened after I'd delivered a lot of goods, so I finished in the top 90% and got a good payout!

 

[TickTockRob]

It's been mentioned that the Cobra MKIII and also the T6 are fast ships, but how do the huge freighters manage to avoid pirates? Surely they can't outrun them?

They'll be carrying hundreds of tonnes of stuff, so this must be a common issue.

 

[goemon]

- cobra vs t6: the thing is, a trading ready t6 will be more expensive in upgrades, then a cobra. you'll need around 3 mio for a t6 or more, and 2 mio for a cobra, with the cobra being more safe. btw.: there ships and outfitting on discount in lft 37 (30%). if you have money for a t6, it is the better trader

- concerning the "huge freighters": a) many cmdrs don't fly them. they use multipurpose ships in trading builds. those are more safe as armed traders, and have the same or more cargo. so after a t6 that way would go Asp, clipper, python, anaconda, cutter. my trading cutter can simply shoot any npc pirate, and can run from any player interdictions. those multipurpose ships are more expensive, though.

- t7/t9: it's more about defense, than running - learning to survive so long that you can jump to another system, shields, chaff, turretts. npc pirates in bigger ships are rare, and a maxed out t9 can ignore a pirate or two for its shields.... but if you meet the wrong pirate (player, highranked npc in an anaconda), you are toast most of the times.

 

[TickTockRob]

- cobra vs t6: the thing is, a trading ready t6 will be more expensive in upgrades, then a cobra. you'll need around 3 mio for a t6 or more, and 2 mio for a cobra, with the cobra being more safe. btw.: there ships and outfitting on discount in lft 37 (30%). if you have money for a t6, it is the better trader

- concerning the "huge freighters": a) many cmdrs don't fly them. they use multipurpose ships in trading builds. those are more safe as armed traders, and have the same or more cargo. so after a t6 that way would go Asp, clipper, python, anaconda, cutter. my trading cutter can simply shoot any npc pirate, and can run from any player interdictions. those multipurpose ships are more expensive, though.

- t7/t9: it's more about defense, than running - learning to survive so long that you can jump to another system, shields, chaff, turretts. npc pirates in bigger ships are rare, and a maxed out t9 can ignore a pirate or two for its shields.... but if you meet the wrong pirate (player, highranked npc in an anaconda), you are toast most of the times.

It's a shame that the trader ships do not seem to be that practical really. I guess it makes sense, but even so. As for the T6, perhaps I'll give it a miss then, and either get a Cobra MKIII or wait for when I can afford an ASP or a Clipper. I imagine it's more exciting to fly and just play in with non-specific ships that can be used for trading.

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- cobra vs t6: the thing is, a trading ready t6 will be more expensive in upgrades, then a cobra. you'll need around 3 mio for a t6 or more, and 2 mio for a cobra, with the cobra being more safe. btw.: there ships and outfitting on discount in lft 37 (30%). if you have money for a t6, it is the better trader

- concerning the "huge freighters": a) many cmdrs don't fly them. they use multipurpose ships in trading builds. those are more safe as armed traders, and have the same or more cargo. so after a t6 that way would go Asp, clipper, python, anaconda, cutter. my trading cutter can simply shoot any npc pirate, and can run from any player interdictions. those multipurpose ships are more expensive, though.

- t7/t9: it's more about defense, than running - learning to survive so long that you can jump to another system, shields, chaff, turretts. npc pirates in bigger ships are rare, and a maxed out t9 can ignore a pirate or two for its shields.... but if you meet the wrong pirate (player, highranked npc in an anaconda), you are toast most of the times.

And thanks for the info on the 30% discount! I shall look into that!

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

Flying a T9 is an experience I think we should all try. They turn rate and speed are comical (I failed to exceed the speed limit in the station in mine with 2 pips and full throttle). It is pretty robust against NPCs though but, as with most (all?) trade ships you wouldn't fight a competent player pirate.
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I think you should make your own way now you have a bit of cash. Make sure you always have insurance, use ship building site to judge a decent build cost for new ships. By all means ask about ships but from this point onwards different ships have different capabilities and suit different players. Also some players take a linear route, owning one ship at a time and seeing a progress route, others own multiple ships for various roles and have bought and sold some just to try them out. A good friend flies a T7 a lot but that idea does not suit me so I side stepped it..
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T6 - lots of cargo, pea shooter for a weapon. Using this you avoid combat as you will loose so lots of evading and running skills needed. I used one for rare trading in parallel to my first Cobra III as I could make more profit as the Cobra could not carry enough cargo.
Cobra III - can run and fight but got to be aware that against a larger ship it can die fast. I remember in the early game getting a bit brave and taking on an NPC Anaconda. In one shot he took out my shield and took the shield generator to 0% health! Safer than the T6 but not a pure combat ship and relatively limited cargo capacity. I have one in the fleet but TBH I've not flown it for a while as I now use my Asp for smuggling.