You know that dream where, years after leaving school, you find yourself back in, and you have an exam you didn't prepare for? Or worse, have to give a presentation on a subject you know nothing about, and as the entire auditorium full of students and parents and teachers and work-colleagues stares at you, and you're stammering out an apology, you also discover that you forgot to put on clothes in the morning?

Well, I've been having that dream a lot, lately! Except I keep finding myself in my trusty Sabre, completely blanking out on how to do the most basic things, like docking at a space station, operating auto-pilot, firing missiles (or knowing enough not to waste a 3,000+ credit missile on a wimpy Xenon N which will get me a measely 300 credit "thanks but no thanks" reward), evading asteroids, not accepting missions for a type of good which wouldn't ever fit into my cargo hold (this is always the clearest giveaway that I'm dreaming; any serious trader in the real world would take a single look at my ship and tell me to get lost), etc. Worst was my latest dream, where the military gave me a brand new Rapier, and instead of sensibly leaving it behind in dock until I had a use for it, dream logic told me it would be a good idea to have it fly along and "protect me", and so of course the Xenon shredded it into tiny little pieces while I was helplessly watching on.

I always wake up in a cold sweat back at whatever space station I last docked at, but it's seriously bugging me. I think I have a serious case of performance anxiety, yet no time to go see a shrink about it, as I constantly have to be on the move. I don't know what the military sees in me either, putting so much trust in me by giving me all these absolutely vital missions. Surely there's better qualified pilots available? I've been a lousy shot at best all through flight school, and have definitely gotten rusty with age; In all honesty, I'd barely classify myself as more than a novice, so I suspect politics at play as usual, just because I've got the ear of a senator (my aunt).

And sure, I have ambitions as a master trader (who doesn't, hearing about all those rags-to-riches success stories on the outernet?) - but since I'm being brutally honest with myself here anyway, I pretty much suck at it, and am still a complete opportunist. Even when I accepted the easiest milk run for a lousy 33 energy cells to deliver to the asteroid belt, I overlooked the fact that I still had my hold full with protein packs, so first had to detour all the way to Uranus to drop those off (luckily that actually made me some profit), to then hurtle back to Jupiter to buy up some energy cells and return to the asteroid belt with bare minutes to spare. And then, what do I do with my newly acquired wealth? I squander it all into expanding my cargo space so I can carry more goods; forgetting that I now have no credits left to buy any goods.

Yup, I'm doing almost as badly out here in the void as in my dreams. But oh well, I soldier on, living in hope to strike it rich some day. At least I get to see the sights, and they sure are pretty!




Note: I'm completely new to this type of game, and am purposefully not reading strategy guides or anything. I'd prefer not to get any gameplay tips at this stage, so I can really just discover it all for myself as I go along. Still busy digesting some of the information from the in game help and the manual.

Congrats on starting! The fact that you are learning to fly, dock, explore, and navigate around is great, some ppl get put off right away, as it does take some time, and trial and error to get the basics down, I know you don't want any help, so I'll not go offer any, lol. However, I just want to point out, your Terran start while nice with the ship and a few credits to start with is ok, traversing Terran space can be rough...especially early on. The sectors are HUGE compared to Commonwealth space (basically all the other races sectors), and time consuming to explore early on, even with the SETA engaged. *IF* you find yourself getting frustrated with all that time consuming travelling (trading to make money this way can seem excruciating, for small payoffs in early game, unless of course you start working your way into Commonwealth space), I would almost always recommend the Humble Merchant start. It's really only considered easier because you at least get a small trading ship, scout ship, and a few credits in your pocket, and starting in Argon space where there are decent trading opportunities. Overall, the whole of the game isn't any easier, just the ability to get your feet on the ground, and started.

Just wanted to point that out.... carry on, good luck, and have fun. Welcome to the loss of your free time ;-)

There are several means to most ends, like three different ways to dock. Here is one spoiler free hot tip: Look through all settings!

Have fun! :-)

Ah, a fellow Terran! I see you're also running into silly merchants who can't be bothered to check who they're talking to or what ship they're in. And don't worry I can't manually dock to save my life either. We'll get there eventually.

Manually docking quickly became the only way for me, now that I've learned to recognize what to pay attention to. Auto-pilot is just way too slow, maneuvering all the way to the end of the runway, when you could just take a sharp turn and decelerate only when it's necessary. But yeah, it did involve blowing up my ship a couple of times before I learned, not helped at all by my first few docking attempts having the actual docking clamps on the exact opposite side of whatever space station I found myself at.

The stations DO tell you about the green light.... but there is a tonne to learn and absorb.

The Paranid sell a very useful (and time-saving) ship extension called "Docking Computer". Using it takes away the need to do manual landings, however I still do one or two occasionally during tight deadline personnel transport missions.

DAY 1
Ah, I still fondly remember the innocent days of my youth.

Wait, were those only 18 hours ago??! Wow, all that cosmic radiation (not to mention the near misses from various warheads and debris clouds of exploding Xenon Ns which I flew straight through) must really have been aging me a lot, as it feels way more than that.

So, when last I wrote, I had just arrived at Heretic's End in my trusty Sabre, accompanied by a completely useless Rapier, which I ditched there (they didn't even install any weapon systems in it, can you believe it? - were they really expecting me to outfit it myself on my meagre salary?!). The military then had me chase a pirate vessel to a hidden pirate base near PTNI Headquarters. Scanning that base took some doing; I had to lure the pirates far away from the base and then use my superior speed to fly back there and scan it before they could catch up with me. Stupid pirates that they fell for such an easy trick! Since I was out in deep space by myself, and command hadn't given me any deadline for my mision, I decided to try my hand at trading some more, helped out by some helpful tips and tricks the friendly woman from Information Services. I picked up some Cahoona Meatsteaks, deviated from my course at Omicron Lyrae (I had the perfect excuse: "I just got turned around in the nebula, and thought that gate was the way home, honest!"), and discovered the totally groovy sector of Treasure Chest. Sadly they were quite well supplied with meatsteaks, so it wasn't until Nathan's Voyage that I could sell them on for a decent profit. I kept my eyes peeled for goods in short supply, though, and discovered a distinct lack of Delexian Wheat, which I had remembered seeing back at Scale Plate Green. A couple of runs back and forth later (which left the Argons feeling really friendly to me), I grew bored, and figured I'd better go tell command about the pirate base. On my way, there, I took one final small detour, and met up with some friendly - but pretty daft - people called the Goners, constructing a big temple, and agreed to help them with some Ore. (They never questioned my lack of cargo space for any ore, and are probably waiting patiently on me even now...)

Command didn't seem terribly interested in my data, though; or at least, they sent me straight out again on a boring patrol mission, this time accompanied by three Rapiers which were actually equipped somewhat usefully - and again they forgot to give me a deadline! Well, I guess having so much firepower under my control got to me, so this time I thought I'd go see what profit opportunities awaited me in the auspiciously named Profit Center Alpha...

That was a bit of a disappointment, but with all that firepower at my command, I did agree to take care of a local pirate boss problem. That pirate boss was hiding out all the way over in Patriarch's Keep, where they needed help patrolling some sectors, and before I knew it I found myself in Cho's Defeat with over 100,000 credits to my name (and, admittedly, down one Rapier; they have some nasty enemies over there!) Being stinking rich, I fully upgraded my ship, and the Rapiers enough to be able to keep up with me, and started hunting down some local lowlife, turning into a veritable Marksman in the process. I also invested in some scanners for both asteroids and freight, as I'd seen how much in demand that sort of information was, and that has turned out to be an investment which has earned itself back ten times over already.

As the day grew to an end, I figured I shouldn't keep command waiting too much longer anymore, and started taking missions back in the direction of home. When I had nearly arrived there, I had a sweet 700,000 credits to my name, and - being offered a Mercury Class Super Freighter for an absolute steal of 36,000 credits - decided to maybe start getting into trade for real, as that ship is capable of the kind of volume where real profit can be made. 'course, half my net worth evaporated giving the ship some teeth, and I still have to wait for it to make its way to someplace capable of fitting it with decent shields, but soon, soon I shall outgrow my role of "Apprentice" Trader! (And hell, once I have built up my net worth again, I might actually gather some Ore for those Goners. Wouldn't that be a hoot?!)

Anyway, for the moment I'm back in the clutches of Command, which has sent me off to Venus, only to give me yet another fighter for free (an Argon one this time, for unexplained reasons). I can only figure that my aunt is doing well for herself back on Earth, and someone in Command is trying to curry her favour. That would also explain this honorary "Marshall" title they bestowed upon me... But whatever, I figure I'll just equip it to an equivalent standard to my Rapiers, and use the three of them as a defense force for my freighter. Spending a lot of time on logistics and ordering my ships around, though. Not nearly as exciting, that, as hunting down pirate lords. I itch to head back out there again, and see who else will need killing!

Niiiiice first day. You've been a very busy little Terran, haven't you? Good spot on that Mercury. In early game, I would always check out used ship offers out there (even stations sometimes have used ships for sale). If the price was sufficiently low enough, I would always buy them if I hand enough funds on hand. Even if I didn't have any intention to keep them, they are worth repairing with your laser and selling at a local ship yard for Profffffitssssss. Since the previous owners usually strip everything out of them though, they can be very vulnerable to attack without shielding, and will generally need babysitting, or at the least, monitoring till they arrive at their destination. Nice way to make some credits in the game though.

Nice - 700.000 credits on your first day. I don't remember exactly how rich I was, but certainly not this rich (I may have had a couple of hundred thousands, but not more).

I'm sure that Freddy will turn out to be a decent Mercury pilot and earn a decent profit under your supervision :).

Yeah, I've been tempted to do that, too, but not really happy about it; feels a bit too much like using a loophole to get rich swiftly. (And sure, there's the opportunity cost for all the other things I could've done with my time repairing, but still.) Similarly, I've resisted the temptation to sell all these fighters which I keep receiving from the Terran military.

I've been specifically picking up "Hard" missions to "kill X", plus asteroid scanning ones, as I found both of those to pay very well (100,000+ credits each for the former, currently).

I'm now a couple of hours into day 2, and seriously frustrated at the autopilot. I sent Freddy (finally fully equipped) to an Ore Mine in the Asteroid Belt where Ore prices had dropped to something like 70 credits; and it took so long lining up for docking (constantly flying way outward again) that not one, but two other transporters beat it to it. :( I flew over, transferred into it, and have manually hauled some very profitable loads back and forth to Jupiter (amused that just buying a cargo-hold full of Ore is enough to make my rank jump up to the next level - I'm now an Entrepreneur), but even at SETA 1000%, that's not going to keep me entertained for long.

I'm guessing I should look into this whole "Sector Trader" thing? Just sent Freddy off in the Teladi's direction to go and get that Mk. 3 software.

Ah, that's useful to know! So if I stop hovering around Freddy like a concerned mother duck, it can just grow up and discover that it's quite competent after all??! Nice! Time to shoo it out of the nest, then!

Nice to see you are off to a great start.

Yeah, as WS pointed out, your ships AI pilots seem to contract some form of temporary brain damage when you are in the same sector with them. Oddly, I have found this really only generally happens with ships you have directly (and remotely) given orders to, for docking,trading, "following" (sometimes), ect. But ships of yours that are for instance, Sector/Universal Traders that are going about their own business, without direct input from you, seem to have little trouble, or more often than not, no problem at all going about reaching their proper destinations and docking when you are present. Just mentioning this, because once you have traders working on their own with the MK3 trade software, you don't have to worry about entering a sector they may be in, or them arriving in a sector you are presently in; and chances are very good once you get a trader fleet up and running, you'll be crossing their paths often...no worries though.