This might be better posted in the spoiler forum...Im not too sure, im not a moderator/admin. Good strategy though.

Edited by - JTCurry5 on 23-04-2003 18:11:25

The following assumes you've completed mission 2 of the main storyline.

Like you (& probably many others who've researched the impact of faction reps), I went with hunting the Xenos to start. However, I didn't want the negative rep associated with doing jobs. 'Course, I need to do a couple to build some starting capital, so I did a couple easy ones for the LPI (since I figured I'd be doing more stuff for them in the story missions anyway). Who you choose there isn't so important, as long as you only do a few.

After that, I went with a Rhino freighter & trading between Planet Manhattan & Rochester (the Junkers' base), starting out small with water, etc. & working up to Cardamine for Pharmaceuticals (tip: use the extremely handy Cargo Computer available for download at this site to determine the optimal yield in trading commodities). Don't bother fighting any of the pirates that try to fight you on your trade route; just haul a** to the docks. The first upgrade you should strive for (& the only one I went for in my time with the Rhino) is the best Graviton shield you can buy.

Once I built up over 200,000 credits doing very low-risk trading (which may sound dull, but had some exciting moments when making the run in & out of Rochester), I bought the Liberty Defender (heavy fighter) from the Battleship Missouri (naturally). Then off to hunt Xenos.

That is, hunt Xenos on my own time, not for missions for other factions. As I stated, I wanted to avoid the negative faction rep hits by completing jobs, & since I'd made ample money trading already, I could now focus on faction raising (something that will sound all-too-familiar to you EQ veterans out there).

Now, since I decided to hunt Xenos without any mission support, I decided to recruit my own patsies. How? Simple: just fly into the asteroid field surrounding Ouray Base in the Colorado system & keep on the lookout for one of the many Bounty Hunter patrols. Once found, simply enter into formation with them & go hunting with them. They'll make a beeline for Ouray Base, killing any & all Xenos on the way. You now have ample support for your independent forays into Xeno space. Once your Bounty Hunter patrol gets whittled down to one or two damaged ships, simply hook up with a fresh patrol. Rinse, repeat, & you could do this all the live-long day with minimal risk to yourself.

By the time you've spent awhile doing this, you should be quite well received by most factions in Liberty space (& hopefully those d*mned Hackers, which are the toughest of the Liberty lot, IMO), & can safely fly into California, Texas, the Badlands (& the Rogues' Buffalo Base), with only the occasional Xeno patrol to harass you (who everyone else hates too, so they'll be more than happy to help you kill them). You should also have at least 300,000 credits to your name by the time you're ready to leave Liberty.

"I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." - J. Robert Oppenheimer

destroy the police cargo depots near manhatten (on the right), one by one, and sell the ploymers then on baltimore shipyard for 438 each.
raises your rep with criminal factions and gets you good money.

after you are neutral with the liberty rpgues you can fly to the wreck "Flint" and loot that stuff in and sell the contrabands on manhatten for 1,500 each.

Edited by - sp00n on 24-04-2003 12:45:31

In multiplayer anyway, I normally start off with a "Sprint to the Flint" as soon as I start. Use your starting cash to stock up with bots/bats and then head for the Flint. If you see a Rogue patrol, just shift-w your way past them. On the way back, just fly the fastest route to Manhatten, and if you hear any Police/Navy unit start to scan you, just hit your cruise engines, or head for the nearest trade lane because you don't want to be caught with a cargo hold full of Cardamine

A garunteed way to get 30K to kick-start your game.

707th Silver Dragons
www.the707th.com

MP only

Take a quick slide down to Pittsburg and use your starting cash to pick up 16 units of Boron. Optional is to swap nanobots for shield bats.

With a cargo hold of Boron now comes the fun run. The destination for the cargo is the Stokes Mining Station in Leeds. This will not be easy, but well worth the effort. Once the cargo is delivered, load up on Beryllium and set destination for Newark. Don't forget more shield bats.

By the end of one run with the starting ship you will have over 27K. Pick up a Rhino and make the run from Pittsburg to Stokes again for a 60+K run.

The difficulty of the run offsets the profits. Be aware you will be lane hacked and attacked at nearly every stop in between and this is a very long cargo run.

I like to do what Selerox refered to as "Sprint to the Flint". Once i get the cash from the sale, i buy a rhino and start transporting engines from LA to freeport 4.

It's a quick run, 1 tradeland, a jump gate, another trade lane, and land on base. round trip takes about 7 minutes. once i build up a decent cash reserve, i make a run to New London and get me a clydesdale and return to the LA/freeport4 run.

sometimes, i just suck it up and stay in rhino till i can get a humpback.

in a humpback, that run has about a 95k profit per trip. about 9-10 trips in an hour, so it falls just short of a mil in an hour.

of corse i do this till i'm bored out of my gourd,, or can afford the run to get a titan or saber.

a titan has nice armor, but the saber has a lower profile(harder to hit from the front) and more manuverable.

I take a some missions in liberty, get a rhino (with extra cash for cargo) and head off to planet houston where i get engine components and haul them to planet LA or one of the freeports in magellan. Freeport= more money but longer/ LA= quicker, less money. I take the houston-LA run mostly because in the early stages of the game, its safer, and you can take a certain commodity back to houston (forgot which one). SO, i recommend taking houston-LA run because its quick and safe.

that houston to la isn't that great, most people defend it by saying that engines are cheaper at houston. this is true, but the run takes about 20 minutes (one way).

if memory servse me correctly, buy at houston for 600, sell at la for 974, thats 374 bucks profit per unit

374/20=18.7 bucks per unit per minute traveled

la to freeport4 takes 4 minutes, 5 if tradelane is disrupted

buy in LA @ 974, sell in Freeport4 for 1350, thats 376 bucks per unit profit

376/5= 75.2 buck per unit per minute traveled

so, it's all an illusion, ya think ya getting a big payoff on the run you have, but your not really earning much per unit per minute it's in your cargo hold

now a round trip from la to free4 takes about 8-9 minutes (come back with water, low profit but better than empty)

so even if we look at it this way 376/9= 41.8 bucks per unit per minute. it still makes more in the 20 minutes it takes you to get from houston to la.

if the numbers dont convince ya, ya throwiing away money that could be earned

heres one for ya, 60minutes*41.8= $2508 profit/perunit

2508*90(rhino)=225720 profit per hour
2508*125(clydsedale)=313500 profit per hour
2508*250(humpback)=627000 per hour
2508*275(dromsdry)=689700 per hour

hey thats good. Thanks for pointing that out, ill be sure to try that one out.

I got another strategy that varies in earnings, but its real fun. Multiplayer only

Start by finding a server with around 6 or more people in it. What i suggest you do is take a few missions, then get a rhino + turrets. Get as many people as you can and group up. Then, the fun part is you all start pirating liberty! (or any place for that matter) Me and about 6 other people all grouped up and started destroying transports, storage depots, rhinos, anything that had cargo in it, and then we ran to any place that was friendly/neutral with us and sold our stuff. At first all we had to do was loot a transport, dock at a random base in the system, and then we would be friendly with everyone again. WEll, it worked for about 45 minutes but then we couldnt go anywhere without getting shot at. i ended up with a little over 83k credits before i had to leave. The best thing to shoot up first is the storage depots at baltimore shipyard and newark station. The baltimore depots have H-Fuel (sells good all over the place manhattan) and one of the newark depots has polymers (sell good at baltimore shipyard). I dont think this is the best way to start financially, but it is REALLY fun. Try it out sometime...

Here's another startup for you guys...

I don't care much for trading, too much stress <lol>.
It's a combo of sorts. Sprint to the flint, aye. gives you over 30k since the weapons are worth a few thousends credits. Get a ship either a defender or patriot or Bloodhound (if you want the dagger, kill xeno's or go on a killing rampage). Once you have a good ship, go lurk near the Colorado jump hole, hit on the Rouge Mule's or the Xeno couriers or the Junker CSV's and take your pick of the loot. The only problem is that they don't usually drop alot of cargo so it takes a while to fill the cargo hold. But since you will get high profit items, who cares? And the fighting is good too

I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the darkness at Tan Hauser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time like tears in rain. Time to die.

How to avoid lane Hijackings 101

Below are some methods to avoid being killed while trading throughout the systems. Any system with trade lanes can use the methods below to escape bandits of just about any class. Even the weakest ships can use this method to trade in a fairly safe mannor in almost any system. Here are the methods that I have found useful...

A.Know your route.

Once you have an established route it is important to go without waypoints established to use my method of avoiding bad guys trying to steal your goods. Learn your route well enough so you can not use waypoints.

Also pick a route that is as safe as can be. If you know a system has two types of bad guys...one is neutral and one is not. This is a better choice to go through rather then a system that has 3 bad guys that all hate you.

B.Fix up your ship.

This is fairly obvious but for basic running in any system you really need two things. Advanced Countermeasures and Advanced Thruster. Those two can give you enough space and time to get to a trade lane to make your escape.

C.Use the trade lanes to your advantage.

An easy way to see if the lane will be interrupted ahead of you is to target each trade ring as you pass it. If you do this fast enough you will see if the lane has been interrupted by the power indicator. Quickly hit ESC to cancel your flight. Then hit "Shift+w" and turn around for the ring you just left behind. If done correctly you should be back at the ring...the baddies might or might not come after you but by the time they do, you can jump again and go right past them.
(note* this is the main reason to not use waypoints...as the waypoint indicator gets in the way of checking the trade rings directly in front of you.)

D.Know the weak points

There are really only two areas that are really dangerous for the trader. One is open space away from the trade lanes. If caught out here you must use your thrusters (preferably advanced) and advanced countermeasures so you can jump to cruise and get away. The thruster will also get you to a jump gate in a fairly safe manner if you are close enough. Another tactic that is dangerous but sometimes works is to hit X when they get close to you. They'll hit you a few times then be in front of you. Hit your cruise engines and get ready to use the countermeasures when you fly past them.

The 2nd dangerous place is at Jump gates. If a jump gate is crowed it is very likely that you will have to get in line to use the gate. This can kill you badly if there is a large que and the bad guys are attacking you. There are several ways to minimize your chances of being caught there.

Keep an eye on the gate as you approach it. If it is spinning ahead of you people are probably waiting. At the same time look at the last docking ring as you approach. If it looks like it has been hit a couple of times there may be baddies waiting for you on the other end. Turn around...go back to the last jump ring and go though when it looks like the jump gate has stopped spinning. This will at least give you a better chance of them not being there or of getting to the jump gate asap.

E.Use the dock to line yourself up.

When entering a jump gate or trade lane ring, target the ring and use the dock to line yourself up. Right after you are lined up click on the normal flight icon so you can get as close to the ring as possible before you actually jump. Then either afterburn your way to the ring or cruise if possible. Right as you see the distance indicator hit 0...click dock again and you will almost instantaniously dock with the trade ring or the jump gate. (note* if someone else is ahead of you in que for the jump gate watch out...you could get stuck and hit hard)

Using these methods above you should be able to trade almost anywhere with relative safety. if you want to fight...these methods are not for you. Good luck out there people.

great post Smak,

In Multiplayer I use the "sprint to the Flint" to get 30k for my Rhino. If it is already "used" , try for the Balboa in California.

THEN I have found that if I can get to Kusari space I have it made. Nobody hates you there and the trade run from Planet Tokyo or Rippongi Station to GC base Ainu will NET you 630 a unit of Luxery goods ( 630x80= 50,400 profit a run). Hfuel back is 0nly 210 (16.8K net) a run but helpful. I usually buy a Drone (175 caro hold) at New Tokyo but if your lucky and have enough for a Humpback at Planet Harris in Tau 31 on the way out.. that 250 cargo hold will NET you 157,500 in one full run to Aniu. (Try a couple of Dimond/Optronic runs from Cambridge/Leeds to get the cash)Six runs in the Kusari system and your golden... plus all the fun of getting there

If your Lane hacked, do what Smak says above.. I also 'escape' from the trade lanes about 2.. TWO rings before the jump gate and Cruise in watching it and the ship indicator so I know if I should Mouse Flight back from a bad situation. I alos found it reduces chances of a reception committee.... if your jumped coming out of a gate, try flying back up under the gate and INSIDE for protection while the police clear the Crosairs or what ever.

Good Trading !



Patrick and Moon
Refugee's from DAOC

One of the most important tricks I have learned is to “flash” dock with the trade route rings. Head for the ring as fast as you can go, either with the thrusters or with cruise engines. Just as you pass through the ring hit the dock key. If you do it right you won’t slow down before you dock. You instantaneously start accelerating up to trade lane speed. You might see a flash of light as you dock. Being able to run away well is an important skill for a freighter captain. I have used this on line against other players intent on killing me for my cargo.




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