Trading Traderoutes

Thalstan

Space Marshal
Jun 5, 2016
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Thalstan
Hey all,

I was wondering if you all had any favorite traderoutes you might want to share.

Since I asked, I start off with a few of mine. I use a Freelancer MAX, but Connies, Freelancers, or even Cutlasses can run these as well. Just remember that your profits won't be as high.

1) Simple, but Trade Diamonds between Tram and Meyers on Cellin and Grim Hex. If you have a medium sized ship like the MAX or even a smaller large ship like the Connie, this can make decent cash. 18k for each round trip or so with a MAX.

You need at least 70k to fill your cargo hold.'

2) little more complex (3-4 jumps)
Start and end at Port O.
Agricultural supplies (12k) to Terra Mills or Gallete farms on Cellin. Profits from this pay for your entire run (repairs/Refuel/etc) About 1.8k profit give or take.
Buy Distilled Spirits (50k), First choice - run to Deakins or Hickes and sell 9-10k profit. Second choice, go to one of the Crusader stations (L1 and L4 are best) and sell (10k profit).

If you go to Deakins, buy stims and either go back to Port O to sell and repeat, or head to an Lx Station to buy Scrap.

If you went to an Lx station, buy Scrap and go back to Port O and sell there. about 3.6k profit. With repair and other costs, this gets you around 14k profit. It's less than the diamond run, but it also has a max funds needed of 50k vs 70k. Depending on how much you are willing to risk, this means you only need a total stash of 100-200k vs 140-280k. Try not to risk more than half, and a quarter of your funds is even better.

Now, you can also mix in a little medical supplies, but they are heavily over-traded. I would not carry more than 50 SCU of medical and 50 of Stims to anywhere but a major port. As a reminder, Port O does not buy medical supplies. Loreville buys them for a lot, but only 20 scu at a time and there is a 6-12 minute reset for that.

Finally, you can add in other destinations like mining outposts. Most outposts seem to buy a lot of spirits, but there seem to be more outposts with limits on stims and med supplies. If you do it that way, you can add in things like Fluorine, or even diamond to your route, which are more profitable than scrap.

If you are comfortable with landing at Area 18, there are some mineral runs that make a nice profit, but you have a lot of time getting to and from orbit, plus the whole landing issue. Note: Hydrogen fuel is the biggest fuel cost, so going up and down out of ArcCorp's or Loreville's atmosphere can really add up. In a MAX, I usually spend about 6-800 UEC to top of the last quarter of my hydrogen fuel tank.

Finally, you are in the middle of your trade run and you find yourself on a server where people are doing pad ramming at Port O, a nice secondary destination is Levski. They buy for almost as much and all their hangars are nice and big. Don't be fooled though. Even though you see NPCs in the hangar without helmets, there is no atmosphere there. Keep your helmet on at all times.

now, as with any trading, there is risk. Someone in a Caterpillar may have come by 5 minutes before you got there. That means you may not be able to buy or sell any amount of cargo for a long time. Fortunately for you, Grim Hex buys almost everything so you can always to there to unload or switch to a different ship.
Some of the stations I mentions are not armistice zones. You can be at real risk going to some of these. For those, keep alert and be ready to hide or defend yourself.

There are a lot of good trading websites out there, with some that have great tools for suggesting routes, while others let you find your own routes. Don't be afraid to take risks and go to new outposts. You might just find a hidden gem.

If you've made it this far, tell us some of your routes.
 
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Radegast74

Space Marshal
Oct 8, 2016
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Radegast74
Starting off, I like to run pretty much anything (Astatine, Chlorine, Flourine, Iodine) from ArcCorp on Yela to Deakins Research on Yela. I usually just go back to ArcCorp (is it 141? or 156?) empty, as they don't buy a lot of stuff from Deakins and I don't want to clog my hold up.

From there, running Diamonds as above is good.

Later, I run Agricium or Laranite from either Lyria or Wala to ArcCorp (the planet) Area 18, as it doesn't take too much time to exit ArcCorp, although you do have to get used to landing at the spaceport at Area 18 with hover mode. Don't try to land at Area 18 for the first time with a full hold full of valuable stuff!

Other tips...to save on fuel costs, and unexpected things blowing up, I claim my ship after 2-3 runs, so I get free fuel that way.

Don't ever risk more than half your money on a single run! If the game crashes, you are screwed....

If you are running a valuable load, having a co-pilot along can save your bacon if one or the other's game crashes. When we can share missions/UEC easily, this can be profitable for both people. Of course, if the server crashes, you may both be screwed. This patch has been very stable...so far! lol! I expect more problems when the PTU opens up, but then, I'll be playing in the PTU.
 

Thalstan

Space Marshal
Jun 5, 2016
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Thalstan
good point on the co-pilot. Another trick is to find a server with friends on it. It can act in the same way that a party member does.

Oh, and if the game does crash, see if you can wait a day before claiming it. I've read some stuff on Reddit that said that after a day or two, the "stored Yela" can go away and just says stored. That could allow you to claim the ship at any port, with the cargo intact.

I've not seen the above personally. It's just something I've seen on Reddit, so take it with a large grain of salt.

Oh, finally, if someone pushes their way onto you ship and you are in an armistice zone like Port O or Lorevile, just sit in the pilot seat. If they turn the power on, turn it back off. Eventually, the ship will despawn and you will both be pushed off the ship. If you are not in an armistice zone, Shoot them, fly to the nearest facility that accepts your good and sell off. Then head to Hurston and Land at Loreville docks. When you get shot by security, it will clear your crimestat and you can then just summon your ship and leave.
 

CosmicTrader

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@Thalstan --> I just completed run #2 with a Freelancer MAX
PO to Terra Mills --> Deakins Reasearch --> back to PO
Total profit = 30032 aUEC

Good tip - especially for beginners as they do not have to make long jumps...or go to Lorville & A18
🍺 :like:
 
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Vavrik

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Sep 19, 2017
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Yes let's make sure we post our favorite trade routes online so that all the spi's can lay and wait for our beer convoys to roll by.
Well, none of what's been said so far is really news to anyone though. The spai's and youtube be damned... er except I couldn't have landed a ship at ArtCorp without youtube.

I tried an experiment yesterday, and I had limited time because of work and weather. Over the weekend, everything I had collected dissolved in a series of crashes. Yesterday, I decided to time what I could recover... due to the tropical storm landfall about 5 miles away...

Constraints: 12 trade runs. As close as I could get it to 1/3 of my aUEC on each trade. Could trade any commodity combination from anywhere to anywhere.
What I found was there wasn't a significant drop in the % profit, for any trade no matter the commodity if it either filled my cargo, or reached the 1/3 threshold. Just a fluctuation of a few hundred aUEC.

Then, on trade run 11, which was Lyrica to Area 18, my internet connection failed due to the storm. Then something funny happened. The internet connection was out for 5 minutes, the game eventually crashed. When the internet connection came back, I logged in expecting to wake up in a HAB and didn't... I was standing on Lyrica about 400 meters away from my ship. It still had it's cargo.

Question is: has anyone else experienced this or is all my luck now completely exhausted?
 

Bambooza

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Then, on trade run 11, which was Lyrica to Area 18, my internet connection failed due to the storm. Then something funny happened. The internet connection was out for 5 minutes, the game eventually crashed. When the internet connection came back, I logged in expecting to wake up in a HAB and didn't... I was standing on Lyrica about 400 meters away from my ship. It still had it's cargo.

Question is: has anyone else experienced this or is all my luck now completely exhausted?
Nope, and let's hope your luck holds out.
 
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Radegast74

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Oct 8, 2016
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Radegast74
Well, none of what's been said so far is really news to anyone though. The spai's and youtube be damned... er except I couldn't have landed a ship at ArtCorp without youtube.

I tried an experiment yesterday, and I had limited time because of work and weather. Over the weekend, everything I had collected dissolved in a series of crashes. Yesterday, I decided to time what I could recover... due to the tropical storm landfall about 5 miles away...

Constraints: 12 trade runs. As close as I could get it to 1/3 of my aUEC on each trade. Could trade any commodity combination from anywhere to anywhere.
What I found was there wasn't a significant drop in the % profit, for any trade no matter the commodity if it either filled my cargo, or reached the 1/3 threshold. Just a fluctuation of a few hundred aUEC.

Then, on trade run 11, which was Lyrica to Area 18, my internet connection failed due to the storm. Then something funny happened. The internet connection was out for 5 minutes, the game eventually crashed. When the internet connection came back, I logged in expecting to wake up in a HAB and didn't... I was standing on Lyrica about 400 meters away from my ship. It still had it's cargo.

Question is: has anyone else experienced this or is all my luck now completely exhausted?
I've had good crash recovery before like this. I haven't had a crash like that recently...

When you crash, you should get a message like "Press [ to rejoin last instance" or something like that. Even if you don't get the message, spam that "[" button, and DO NOT actually join the server, keep hitting "Go Back" and then spam the "[" .... one time it took almost 20 tries, but I did get back to my last instance and recovered.

I have had 0% success with bed log out in 3.6.2, maybe it is just me?
 

Michael

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Sep 27, 2016
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Pewbaca
I don't have a prefered trade route either.

I did the math once the optimal risk vs reward is imho at 65-70% commitment.

(usally it will require 9-15 runs after a loss, to recover from the loss, assumed loss from 100k Uec with the mentioned commitment)
Example investing 75% and loosing everything will take longer to recover, increasing the risk of loosing more, with 50% you're loosing money on the long run if everything works

Overall i like to have an eye on those skimmer / PDC missions when flying in my freelancer max. In 3.6 they are probably the easiest way to create cash.
When they are not available i usally traded metals and minerals. With that method up to 70k Uec/h have been made. (more is possible depending on your luck with those missions)
 
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Radegast74

Space Marshal
Oct 8, 2016
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Radegast74
I don't have a prefered trade route either.

I did the math once the optimal risk vs reward is imho at 65-70% commitment.

(usally it will require 9-15 runs after a loss, to recover from the loss, assumed loss from 100k Uec with the mentioned commitment)
Example investing 75% and loosing everything will take longer to recover, increasing the risk of loosing more, with 50% you're loosing money on the long run if everything works

Overall i like to have an eye on those skimmer / PDC missions when flying in my freelancer max. In 3.6 they are probably the easiest way to create cash.
When they are not available i usally traded metals and minerals. With that method up to 70k Uec/h have been made. (more is possible depending on your luck with those missions)
Nice! I'll raise your graph with another graph...just a quickie ;)
There are a lot of interesting ideas in trading, like, "How to make the best trades?" It actually is something of a linear optimization problem (depending on your defiinition of "best"). In any case, most people are likely to try to find and trade the highest value item, figuring the profits will be higher. In actuality, you may make more money by filling your hold full with lower value items that have an equivalent (or better) profit margin.

Here is a quick graph of a regular Freelancer, starting with 4000 aUEC, and trading exclusively in Diamonds or Laranite, putting all your profits back into trading. As you can see, filling your hold with Diamonds is more lucrative for the first 20 or so trips (the big issue is, the Freelancer maxes out at 6600 SCU, so the last couple of trades you can't grow your profits...which is why I'll be moving up to a MAX soon!).

Screen Shot 2019-09-26 at 10.52.37 AM.png
 
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