1. Do not trade for relations at the beginning of a game. You have newbie turns, use them. Take your time. Try to massage the numbers so that you get experience but don't go so far as to get rejected.
2. Don't waste turns wandering around. Pick a route and pick a secondary route of lesser goods that is very close to it. Picking a primary route that also allows lesser goods helps. If you high dollar goods are traded out, trade the lesser goods and build the high goods back up and trade them as you get enough to make a full cycle. Remember, the last few hundred goods sold bring in the highest cash.
3. Use your scanner!!! This is a traders best friend. Use "Local" mode. If there are other ships on or adjacent to your route, check them out prior to starting your trade session. Also, scan sector with ships to make sure that the numbers match up and there are no cloaked ships hiding there with the offline or newbie ships. If a ship shows up during your session that wasn't there in the beginning, your session is over. Continuing to trade or going to check them out will result in many pods.
4. If you get attacked on your route, it is no longer your route. Do not go back in a few minutes. Do not go back in a few hours. Do not go back in a few days.
5. While trading, drop a mine and a scout on your route and in your port sectors. If you get a ping, run first and check second. Also if someone tries to jump you while trading, it will make them load one more screen and that could mean the difference between safe in fed and a pod in fed.
6. Do not leave mines and/or scouts on your route. This would be a big, red, flashing neon sign that says "I TRADE HERE".
7. Know the hunters and where they hunt. Keep your eye on the news and note what sectors the kills are coming in and who is getting them.
8. Don't continue to trade if you hit an online hunter's scout. If you hit an offline hunter's scout, keep checking the cpl for his name.
9. Do not wait in open sectors for anything. Don't check messages, don't talk on irc, don't wait for your port to have more goods, don't go pee. If you need to check the cpl to see if a hunter is online, do it in a random sector, preferably one with a weapons dealer or other location so someone can not drop mines on you. Speed is the key. Get in and out of sectors fast.
10. Vary the times that you trade as much as possible. Vary your routes too if you have more than one that is decent. Do not be predictable.
11. Other traders are not harmless. Even ones without guns can get you killed. Remember most traders have warbird friends.
12. Find a sort, mediocre route that runs through fed. When you come online, check the cpl. Trade the route. Check the cpl again. See if a known hunter went active. If so, he may be hunting you.
13. Do not give out information about your route to anyone. Not what goods, what sectors, nor what distance. If people criticize you for your route, don't defend it. If they give you a bad time for using a Fed Route and you really don't, don't defend yourself. Let them think whatever they want. They're probably trying to pry information out of you.
That's just a few off the top of my head, but that's enough to get you going.
Some Trading Tips
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Ahhhh, pre-SMC days. The days when only the "real" traders found the great routes. Now, everyone and his brother can find and drain most of them. Of course there are still some great ones out there that SMC can't detect. Someday maybe I'll disclose my methods of finding routes. Then again, maybe somethings should stay secret.
I'm honored when anyone even mentions my name in those threads. I knew and know many great traders, so to get mentioned ahead/with/behind them is an honor. I don't get into the final numbers as much as the numbers compared to how long the game was and what the numbers were compared to everyone else. I know Deke had a huge game after I had left and beat everyone by 100 or 200k or something like that. I also know that someone put up ungodly numbers but it was a 6 month game. During my time, Freebird and Creel were both monster traders. Creel taught me enough to get my on the right path. This thread will hopefully do the same service to the next generation of traders coming up now.
I'm honored when anyone even mentions my name in those threads. I knew and know many great traders, so to get mentioned ahead/with/behind them is an honor. I don't get into the final numbers as much as the numbers compared to how long the game was and what the numbers were compared to everyone else. I know Deke had a huge game after I had left and beat everyone by 100 or 200k or something like that. I also know that someone put up ungodly numbers but it was a 6 month game. During my time, Freebird and Creel were both monster traders. Creel taught me enough to get my on the right path. This thread will hopefully do the same service to the next generation of traders coming up now.
Re: Some Trading Tips
Just wondering Meathead, how many times did you die on the same route last game?Meathead wrote:4. If you get attacked on your route, it is no longer your route. Do not go back in a few minutes. Do not go back in a few hours. Do not go back in a few days.
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DaPlayaFA-
- Beta Tester
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More Advanced Tactics
I'd have to disagree with #1. I usually trade for relations every game and do just fine. Maybe it's just because I'm not a good guesser but I can stay up near the top while trading relation.
#2 is good, but when picking a route, use the galaxy map or SMC. Do not go to every level 9 port you see
#3- Yes, a scanner is important as SOON as you leave newbs
#6- It's only safe to drop scouts on ports you dont trade on, like I do sometimes to fake another person out
I'm a weird trader, I do many things to get people off my back, sometimes i wont get perfect exp, that could be used to throw people off, or even switch ships often.
Some other tricks to trading
If your route is far from fed, dont trade every day, trade every 2 days so you can reduce the amount of turns in and out of fed
If you have a long route, it is better to use ships with faster speed rate because they have more turns to burn, and shorter routes are better with ships with slower speed rate.
When you are near the top, you're the target of every hunter, so know how to avoid them.
If your trading in a racial, try as much as possible to park ON the HQ. I've gotten countless traders because they park on the closest fed sector. It may not seem like it's much, but hunters can and will use anything they can to their advantage.
If you can, pop on the cpl many times throughout the day. Just another thing to throw people off.
You are never safe once you leave fed. Remember that always
Evil goods are not recommended when being close to fed
That's all for now. Maybe later i'll make a post on advanced cloaking.
#2 is good, but when picking a route, use the galaxy map or SMC. Do not go to every level 9 port you see
#3- Yes, a scanner is important as SOON as you leave newbs
#6- It's only safe to drop scouts on ports you dont trade on, like I do sometimes to fake another person out
I'm a weird trader, I do many things to get people off my back, sometimes i wont get perfect exp, that could be used to throw people off, or even switch ships often.
Some other tricks to trading
If your route is far from fed, dont trade every day, trade every 2 days so you can reduce the amount of turns in and out of fed
If you have a long route, it is better to use ships with faster speed rate because they have more turns to burn, and shorter routes are better with ships with slower speed rate.
When you are near the top, you're the target of every hunter, so know how to avoid them.
If your trading in a racial, try as much as possible to park ON the HQ. I've gotten countless traders because they park on the closest fed sector. It may not seem like it's much, but hunters can and will use anything they can to their advantage.
If you can, pop on the cpl many times throughout the day. Just another thing to throw people off.
You are never safe once you leave fed. Remember that always
Evil goods are not recommended when being close to fed
That's all for now. Maybe later i'll make a post on advanced cloaking.
Dont flatter yourself...you aren't that important
1. before you leave fed to start your trading session, read news. start by looking for any new kills that have happened in the galaxy you trade in since you last checked(use galaxy map to compare sectors). Note who got those kills. Compare those kill sectors to the general area around your trade route(3 or 4 sector radius around each port on your route is usally good, and the sectors in between..the sectors to and from your start out port and fed...and the banks.) Also check for any force kills in the area as well. Check the cpl and see if any of those killers/victims are on. Also check for any of their alliance mates that may be on at the time as well(remember, most everyone has friends in warbirds).
2.) Learn all the sectors on your route, to fed and your route(and back), to the bank from your route/fed, nearest UNO near your route and banks, and commit it to memory, and travel via local map(as meathead said)
3.) find, and set up multipul routes to/from your route and fed space(again using LM).
4.) Keep track of the ships parked in fed space, and who gets kills where/when.
5.) make sure you know the exact distance from each port on your route back to fed space, the distance from port to port on your route, from each port to your bank, and from bank back to fed, so that you can be sure to save the minimum amount of turns to get back. Remember, dont over trade, or you just might end up stuck in open space with no turns...which is BAD ;P
6.) Everything else meathead and DaPlaya Said.
There are more advanced methods to employ while trading, but its better if you learn those on your own, as it would just lessen the effect vs. hunters when you use them(and besides, i dont want to give ALL my tactics away
). Remember to use your head, trust your gut, be informed, and be as quick as you can. Also, dont forget to learn from your mistakes. Each pod is a learning experience...when you get podded(and you will), while trading, figure out what you did wrong, and grow from it. If you are having problems figureing out what you did wrong, dont be shy about messaging your killer, and congratulating him/her on the pod...and if you ask/are nice enough(and the person is an @55hole), they just might give you a clue or two about what you did wrong
2.) Learn all the sectors on your route, to fed and your route(and back), to the bank from your route/fed, nearest UNO near your route and banks, and commit it to memory, and travel via local map(as meathead said)
3.) find, and set up multipul routes to/from your route and fed space(again using LM).
4.) Keep track of the ships parked in fed space, and who gets kills where/when.
5.) make sure you know the exact distance from each port on your route back to fed space, the distance from port to port on your route, from each port to your bank, and from bank back to fed, so that you can be sure to save the minimum amount of turns to get back. Remember, dont over trade, or you just might end up stuck in open space with no turns...which is BAD ;P
6.) Everything else meathead and DaPlaya Said.
There are more advanced methods to employ while trading, but its better if you learn those on your own, as it would just lessen the effect vs. hunters when you use them(and besides, i dont want to give ALL my tactics away
). Remember to use your head, trust your gut, be informed, and be as quick as you can. Also, dont forget to learn from your mistakes. Each pod is a learning experience...when you get podded(and you will), while trading, figure out what you did wrong, and grow from it. If you are having problems figureing out what you did wrong, dont be shy about messaging your killer, and congratulating him/her on the pod...and if you ask/are nice enough(and the person is an @55hole), they just might give you a clue or two about what you did wrongJust two comments:
1. Don't leave just enough to get home - leave enough to get home allowing for a couple of singles on the way. Personally I like an additional 15 in an IST to ensure that I can jump if I need to, but then that is quite cautious.
2. Think like a hunter. Not only will it allow you to avoid their techniques but almost as importantly you should work out who and when other people trade your route. Unless your routes are very close to fed you need to be able to predict (well to an accuracy) the amount of goods and be able to trade them all (as Meathead said most profit in the last few trades) rather than waste turns going out or not have enough to completely trade.
That said if you do most of the stuff the others have said then you will not get killed very often!
1. Don't leave just enough to get home - leave enough to get home allowing for a couple of singles on the way. Personally I like an additional 15 in an IST to ensure that I can jump if I need to, but then that is quite cautious.
2. Think like a hunter. Not only will it allow you to avoid their techniques but almost as importantly you should work out who and when other people trade your route. Unless your routes are very close to fed you need to be able to predict (well to an accuracy) the amount of goods and be able to trade them all (as Meathead said most profit in the last few trades) rather than waste turns going out or not have enough to completely trade.
That said if you do most of the stuff the others have said then you will not get killed very often!