Staying Alive while trading

[Ravenger]

This is in Addition to Dekes post on trading.

Most people know how to trade but the problem is staying alive while doing so. some easy steps to staying alive while trading.

1. Do not trade a route with scouts on it while the owner of the scoutes is online.
2. do not think that destroying a scout on your route will make it safe to trade because the owner will know this is your route and will make a point of trying to pod you because you destroyed his scout.
3. vary your trading times. trade at 12:00 AM one day and 3 AM the next. it will make hunting you MUCH harder because hunters do not know what times to be online to catch you trading.
4. have scouts on and around your route. the hunting tactic most hunters use is sitting one outside of your route and wait for you to come in. if you have a scout outside it you will know the hunter is coming.
5. 1 mine on your route could mean life or death to you. it means the hunter has to load 2 extra screens before he can pull a attack button on you.
6. don't ;) people off. that just makes people want to hunt you

[Guest]

4. have scouts on and around your route. the hunting tactic most hunters use is sitting one outside of your route and wait for you to come in. if you have a scout outside it you will know the hunter is coming.

4a. Remove scouts when done trading.


Scout drones left on a route are just like a big "Hey! This is my route! Come kill me the next time I trade!" sign.

[Hootervillin]

Yeah always drop a scout and mine off on each port.

I personally move from port to port using local map so I can see if there is any hunters sitting outsector waiting.

Try to trade in out of the way areas.

If you really want to survive to high exp then get a low cash good exp route that no one uses ect.

[Blum]

You people are overcomplicating this. Just trade with a bodyguard or 10:)

[Bonker]

screw that just lay scouts around ure port as soon as u get a ping run like a m0f0

[Blum]

screw that just lay scouts around ure port as soon as u get a ping run like a m0f0

Just to find out that the ping was a newbie in a pod.........

[McHale]

If you trade on a scouted route checking the current player list may not help. Lurking hunters may be only a short distance away and due to no activity they wont appear on the cpl. Dryrun the route and ping their scouts, Then Check the cpl to see if any lurkers have shown themselves. It wont always work cause some hunters wont move with just 1 ping.

The safest way is to find a route that is not scouted. Hunters can not scout them all. You may not make the most exp or $$ but, buying new ships and loosing exp every time you get podded adds up.

Don't depend on just 1 route to trade. You need a few. If you are are Alskant and you always park in Alskant you are telling hunters here is where I trade! Hunters watch the cpl for trader exp. and how much you are getting each trade. Then they have a pretty good idea where you are.

Trading with an ist will be useful to trade in different galaxys and to jump around to a different places to park. They hold mines and scouts but are easily podded! I think I heard someone call them a flying coffin!

When trading dont mess around, even an accidental encounter with a hunter will get you podded. If you have to stop and figure out where your at and where your going next you become an easy target. Dont stop and read game messages and keep your mirc window open for messages or if you need help. The exception to this is a quick cpl check every little while. But only do it at a good non travled sector, not at a port.

Hope this helps

[Hootervillin]

IST = flying coffin

I don't really use scouts when hunting.

[Freon22]

Trading and staying alive is part skill and part luck. Some players will tell you don't destroy any scouts that you come across while you are trading. A lot of time these players are HUNTERS so they don't want you to destroy any of their scouts. And they say that I will hunt you down if you destroy my scouts. Well if you leave them there they will hunt you down anyway. Keep in mine that if an alliance has a few scout in a sector any time they want to they can bring in a miner and add 50 mines to each stack. So here is how I play, when I login the first thing I do is check the current players list and I read the news. What I am doing is seeing what sector players are being poded in and seeing what hunters are online. Just because you don't see a players in the current players list does not mean he is not on line. It could mean that he has not moved to another sector in over 10 min,. So when I am trading and I run across a scout I destroy it. The ideal here is it cost me 3 turns and a few shields to take out a scout and it cost the hunter turns and a few credit to replace them. It is much better to have the hunter burning turns going to buy scouts then it is for him to have more turns to hunt me with. So after I take out a scout I move away from that sector and then check the current players list to see if he is now there or not. If I know that he is already online I destroy his scout and go and trade another route or I park and trade another day. Sometimes it is better to trade another day because it takes a lot of turns and money to replace a ship and to rebuild your exper, points. The luck part come in here sometimes you are out trading and a hunter just happens by and you get a pod ride. It happens but most of the times players are poded by planed hunting, so don't make it ease for them.
Freon22

[crector]

Good advice, Freon22.