Hi, I'm new to the universe and I'm trying to get started. I flew around Liberty and the surrounding systems for a few hours yesterday to try and start building my ship's computer's trade route log.
I read some of the guides, and I know the beginner's guide suggests that new players should get started by mining. However, the idea of spending hours shooting computer generated rocks sounds awful. So, I decided I wanted to be a drug dealer.
Are there any bases near New York that sell cardamine or some other contraband? I figure the Rogue base does, but your new character starts out hostile to Rogues. I flew to Mactan in Magellan, but even though it's neutral, it wouldn't let me land. I found Artifacts on Beaumont, but Beaumont only sells 5.
I know if I was able I could fly to Malta and buy cardamine super cheap, but I'm not looking for that. Manhattan is the primary market for cardamine demand, so I figure there would be a supply chain between Malta and Manhattan. I wanna RP the low level mule that runs the coke from Arizona to Las Vegas and when I get bigger and better than I'll RP the guy who brings the coke from Columbia to Arizona, you know?
Thanks!
Well, your options are going to be fairly limited, in all honesty. Contraband routes are balanced to only really be profitable over long distances, so short haul doesn't make much money (and doesn't even exist in some instances).
One option would be Artifacts from Beaumont Base in Texas to Planet Manhattan, which makes a respectable 330c/s. Similarly, you could run Artifacts from Barrier Gate in Coronado to Planet Manhattan for the slightly rounder figure of 348c/s.
Cardamine... really just doesn't have good local resale routes to Manhattan. Mactan in Magellan (236c/s), Fort McMurray in Alberta (237c/s), Cape Wrath in Newcastle (318c/s), Cochrane Depot in Ontario (337c/s). For short run Cardamine hops, Cochrane (Lane Hackers) are going to be your best bet. The Rogue Destroyer hidden out by Pittsburgh does technically sell Cardamine, but at so similar a price to Manhattan that it's not worth bothering with - we're talking a $50 price difference per unit.
Seeing as sooner or later you're going to need to be able to dock on Rogue, Hacker and Outcast bases, you've got two options. Firstly you could take the easy route and use a restart for Junkers in order to set yourself up with appropriately neutral rep. You can then either RP a Junker smuggler, or droprep the IFF and change it for Freelancer and get the Freelancer IFF to go with it.
Alternately, there's the more difficult and fiddly route for getting bribes for the relevant factions. You could probably find all the ones you're looking for on Junker bases like Rochester/Beaumont, or Freeports like Ames or FP4. This is the route to go if your character is already somewhat established, seeing as using a restart will literally restart your ship back to its basic startpoint, wiping any progress you've made.
OH, would also strongly recommend grabbing Freelancer Companion. It's a mapping tool that lists tons of useful commodity information so you can put routes together without having to fly around in-game. Very useful and convenient for planning your smuggling empire.
Hope that helps!
Black Market Munitions from Detroit to Kabukicho in New Tokyo, Artifacts back to Manhattan, if you're willing to cross the border.
There is counterfeit software at Ames (Kepler), although I don't know how well it sells if your bring it to Liberty.
Welcome to Discovery.
The guides suggest mining as it's the quickest way of getting credits, smuggling on the otherhand offers a lot of upfront cash but you may find it far more tedious than mining in its current state.
Since you're brand new I would advise holding off on the drug running until you get a feel for how Disco operates, it may sound a bit of a downer but getting to know the in's and out's of Disco will really help.
Smuggling requires a balanced repsheet to access all the bases that sell illegal goods, I'd recommend a freelancer restart which you can find
here, this should allow you to go pretty much anywhere and gives you a section of the map pre-discovered.
At this point I'd suggest doing a little trading around the Houses, get to know the world, the factions and the players it'll give you a solid understanding of the mod before you dive into the murky underworld. Grab yourself a Sunburst if you haven't already, it's a superb little freighter that you can find on Planet Erie in Pennsylvania for 30k credits, the thing has a decent cargohold and is cheap as chips.
Have a read of the faction pages too, both official and unofficial, it's a good way to see how the various ID's and factions are divided whilst getting you up to speed on the story.
If you need help along the way feel free to shoot me a PM or for folks who actually know more about helping, one of the
Angels.
You say that you start out Hostile to Rogues. That causes me to wonder if you are aware of the various Restarts. If you wish to start out as an Unlawful, you can do so with a Restart.
Try this
thread to get a feel for how you can start out.
(05-26-2015, 02:02 PM)Chance Wrote: [ -> ]You say that you start out Hostile to Rogues. That causes me to wonder if you are aware of the various Restarts. If you wish to start out as an Unlawful, you can do so with a Restart.
Try this thread to get a feel for how you can start out.
Following up on this, you'll want to restart as a FreelancerLi so that you'll have friendly-neutral rep with most Liberty factions.
Thanks for all the advise!
I did realize there were restarts (mainly from the beginner guide and the /restart miner function), but I had no idea there were so many. /restart FreelancerLi would allow me to dock at all bases, right? Like Mactan?
I understand that drug running at my level probably won't be very lucrative. I'm not looking to powergame my way to fame and fortune, just have fun along the way. If I can dock at Mactan, the Mactan>Manhattan run sounds like it could be fun.
Make sure you won't come across scumbag players, who, even if you paid every fine, will FR5 you - so make military and police rephacked from house these players belong to, so you can't repair it even with bribes on stations.
It's a very OP move, which is harmful for roleplay and activity. One faction was indirectly threatened with that (even though they paid every fine they were given), so they moved from that place.
If your looking for some fun contraband routes I've run the following
The Grand Circle
| With 3k Units
|
|
|
|
Commodity
| Buy Price
| Buy Location
| Sell Price
| Sell Location
|
Black Market Munitions
| 2,694,000
| Kreuzberg Depot, New Berlin
| 13,326,000
| Allentown Base, Penn
|
Slaves
| 3,699,000
| Allentown Base, Penn
| 15,831,000
| Planet Malta, Omicron Alpha
|
Cardamine
| 1,647,000
| Planet Malta, Omicron Alpha
| 12,075,000
| Kreuzberg Depot, New Berlin
|
There's also the current server special
Server Special
| With 3k Units
|
|
|
|
Commodity
| Buy Price
| Buy Location
| Sell Price
| Sell Location
|
Black Market Munitions
| 2,694,000
| Kreuzberg Depot, New Berlin
| 30,894,000
| Reims Station, Champagne
|
Fromage
| 9,000,000
| Reims Station, Champagne
| 38,400,000
| The Ring, New Berlin
|
If you ever see a ship around called the Roach.Coach that's me running contraband, feel free to hit me up and i'll bring you along a run or two
Wow! Those look like some tough routes for me to keep in mind when I'm a little higher level! Good stuff, though. Thanks!
What's a rephracked FR5?