Staying Alive while trading

[Blum]

To kill the scouts or not to kill the scouts - that is the question.....
Different players have different opinions about that. Here is mine.
There is a number of different situations.
1) The owner is offline and you know it's a trader. Don't touch the scout. Traders rarely lurk so if a trader is offline he is usually really offline. So by killing the scout you waste 3 turns, which can be translated into some xp, some shields, anger the owner but get no benefit. What you should do is notify a friend that the trader in question has scouts there and therefore might be trading there.
2) The owner is online. Here, it doesn't matter what the owner does since an online trader can easily notify an online hunter. Don't kill the scout. Killing the scout reveals that you are not under any kind of protection. Most hunters will ignore a single ping by a nobody unless you are on their kill list. If the scout is on your trade route then your action should depend on your ship. If you are in a PSF or some other trader with huge defense then the best thing you can do is to have an alliance mate in a warship ready to jump in in case you get attacked. Remember to be very careful:)
If you are in a ship with low defense, just leave. Killing the scout will anger people (for some reason most hunters consider killing of their scouts a worse offense than being podded)
3) The owner is offline and is either hunter or you don't have a clue. Here, the question is: Do you feel lucky? If you do not do as in 2). If you do, just ignore the scout and trade.

Just a reminder: if you kill too many scouts you may waste so many turns that it will equal getting podded and get in trouble in the process:)

[Trigek]

To kill the scouts or not to kill the scouts - that is the question.....
1) The owner is offline and you know it's a trader. Don't touch the scout. Traders rarely lurk so if a trader is offline he is usually really offline. So by killing the scout you waste 3 turns, which can be translated into some xp, some shields, anger the owner but get no benefit. What you should do is notify a friend that the trader in question has scouts there and therefore might be trading there.

Depends on who it is and what alliance, if its a top alliance you never know who is lurking.

In the old days when the games were smaller hunters would take it personally if you killed one of their scouts, and would specificly hunt you down for it. Not so much anymore, but maybe that is why some people say don't.

[Ravenger]

EVIL SCOUT KILLERS BEWARE! one time when you attack a scout the owner will be right next door waiting

[Guest]

Most of the advice have been to do with trading on routes with scouts and weather the owner of the scout is online at all. Just to point out one more thing about hunters ! There are very experienced traders who can hunt without using scouts at all. They will base it off your experience gains via trading and even having gone through fed to check what ships you are flying !

Another little tip I could offer is that when you have entered the port sector, DON'T hit the trade button straight away. Reload the current sector once before hitting the trade button. This will allow you to make sure that no hunter has come in for the kill after you entered. If you use local map to travel then you are already doing this, because you have to hit "CS" anyway to bring up the trade button.

Hope this tip is handy.

Flyboy.

[Freon22]

EVIL SCOUT KILLERS BEWARE! one time when you attack a scout the owner will be right next door waiting

I know it works out for me when I hunt the hunter.

[Mar]

u dont only find out what route they are using from xp gains, most times u see what ship they fly too.
waiting before u trade isnt the best thing to do, scan all surrounding sectors instead, because most good hunters dont enter as soon as they get a enemy scan at the port.

Im gonna drop some scouts for you freon =)

[Hootervillin]

ACtually flyboy you don't have to hit cs to trade just click on the goods on the map and you'll go inside the port...

What I do is I drop a mine/scout off at both ports. I have all my routes memorized so I can move port to port using local map. While I'm moving I keep an eye out for forces in my path or ships off to the sides of me. Since the only scouts I have out are on my route when I get a ping I instantly move several sectors out before checking them. Sometimes it's a newbie and you'll hate yourself for wasting turns running to fed.

It's also a good idea to have a galaxy map up and a general idea of how to get to fed w/o plot course. Whenever I'm attacked while trading ect I never plot course I just move using the galaxy map or my memory.

When I hunt I sit and watch CPL for exp gains. After I figure out what type of route they are on I use SMC or galaxy maps to find routes that are the same that they can trade on. I almost never use scouts because it gives away the fact that I could be hunting you.

[blackdeath40]

I thought the FED sections of space are safe for people to be in but i've have been blown up twice now while being ina FEd sector the first tiem i thgouth it was my race had bad relation witht eh other so their government would protect me but teh last tiem was in my own galaxy and i have great relations with my government coudl soemone please tell me why

[Guest]

Conditions for fed protection:

A) Not carrying illegal goods

B) An attack rating of less than 3+(Alignment/150)

C) A fed beacon being in the same sector as you

Easiest way to check is to hit the trader link on the left hand menu. If it doesn't say you're under federal protection then you can be blown up.

[yamo]

Kill Every Scout!! Every Time!! Then Move away! Scouts=pods.