I Have exactly the same problem, 140,000 and i gotta get to 36,000 to get to level 19, wtf? Someone please help

Leave me alone, I'm living happily ever after

C'mon, it's not hard to make money. Really.

Just look at the other posts in this forum about making money-- Some trade routes lets you make as much as $4 million in 1 hour.

$36,000? That's chump change.

It's actually really simple. The amound of money displayed under you networth is how much MORE you need to have. So it will fall when you earn more and more. It's not as in the storyline. Where you have to have as much as i says. Now it's how much more you need. It's a count-down.

Oh. I feel like such a newb . Thanks guys.

Leave me alone, I'm living happily ever after

You're welcome

The guys at Digital Anvil should be killed for pulling a trick like that. Not to mention the whole current worth counter is screwed, at some points it falls when you buy stuff but doesn't raise when yuo sell stuff and at other points it's the opposite.

I do agree that it was a bit sneaky to change the total worth to extra worth needed. Not that i'm having a go at DA, oh no (please dont infest my ship with a plague of bounty hunter...)
The problem with net worth going up and down seemingly randomly when you buy stuff is that it calculates the value of your cargo based on the average price for that commodity.

Say there is a commodity which varies in value from 500 - 1500, say Luxury Goods. If you buy 10 unit of LG at 500 you lose 5000 creds but as the average value is 1000 you gain 10,000 net worth because that is the average value so when you buy you will see your net worth go up 5000. This is why you sometimes level up just by buying stuff. Similarly if you had scooped 10 units of LG your net worth would go up 10,000. However if you offloaded it for 500 a piece your net worth would go down 5000 (lose the 10,000 + get 5,000 creds).

Does anyone know whether the average value is the universal value or the average of the prices you have found so far?

I agree that the leveling is screwy...I jumped two levels just by buying a load of diamonds for my dromedary, and I hadn't even lifted off to go sell it. I've also had it level me up when I bought a new gun, and even just when I traded two components of equal value. Heck, the wierdest one was when it gave me a level for launching from a planet, with no cargo whatsoever(no s***...this really did happen).

Reaper: $200,000,000.
Rockets: $100,000
The look on that pilot's face when you launch a full pod of screamers up his tailpipe: priceless

Yes you are able to make up to 4 million in an hour, but I went to $400.000 and then it gets boring , kinda takes the edge of the game to make millions and being able to buy everything without a problem.
Don't know what to do now .........

Depends on the kind of player you are I guess. Some players who want to explore all the systems and find every jump hole and hidden base would probably appreciate a sizeable cash reserve so he doesn't have to worry about things like buying a survivable ship and kitting it out with all the top-notch equipment, repairs for radiation damage, expendables like batts and bots, bribes for hostile factions so you can land at some bases.

I agree though that some more immersive depth to the game would be nice. We see all the nicely rendered cityscapes when coming in for a landing, yet we don't actually get to see the planets. All we see are the bar, the mercantile exchange, and the ship/gear dealer. Shoot, I want to see Manhattan from the top of that sleeper ship. Ski Berlin. (just like those scrolling ads we see at the New Berlin landing pad). Walk through the campus at Cambridge. Hobnob with the President of Liberty like we were able to with the Admiral in his office in the original Privateer. Those old Privateer days rocked..