Top 10 Tips for Traders

[Prysin]

Best tip i can give is; get a Junker ID'd and tagged Salvager, and slap a CAU 8 on it...

Most of the time, some nice words and a polite tone will leave you with a "Damn, thats a sturdy ship. I hope you dont crash anything with that thing" and then your off..

Also Cam has some valid points, but NEVER EVER say anything that may even remotely sound like "just kill me"... It will mark you as a prime target for all pirates, and you will be subject to alot of oorp prejudice due to that.

---

DHC Discord

[Ipuvaepe]

1. If a pirate asks too much, say "My ship insurance is payed up, and it'd actually be cheaper for you to kill me!"

Seriously. It works. And if not, die. Most 5ks fill for cheaper than $2m, with many goods.

Or counteroffer. It's a very real possibility that he simply doesn't know what the cargo is worth.

And even if the demand is more credits than you will profit, sometimes it's worth paying. If you can't use a system for 4 hours, that's a rather large loss of potential credits.

---

<span style="color:#ffbf00">*** Click to join Sigma Space General Chat on Skype! ***
Click to join the Discovery Teamspeak 3 Server!</span>

Old Avatars: 1 2 3 4 5 6 - Old Signatures: 1 2 3 4 5
THIS IS THE CORRECT TECH CHART

Also ignore Snak3. Forever.

[Gemini893]

Or counteroffer. It's a very real possibility that he simply doesn't know what the cargo is worth.

And even if the demand is more credits than you will profit, sometimes it's worth paying. If you can't use a system for 4 hours, that's a rather large loss of potential credits.

There is always another way around or a different commodity to run in another direction. Personally, I wouldn't worry about not being able to use ONE system when there are so many others to choose from. You can always switch to another kind of trader too that uses a different area.

YOU WILL NOT GO BROKE not having access to ONE system for 4 hours. I also feel that if a pirate in one system is going to be an unreasonable jerk then you'll have more fun in other areas of the map anyway.

Someone should write up a tips for pirates guide, one that explains that traders can't afford to pay 10 mil each to 20 pirates along a route. Something outlining how to be better role players and how not to chase newer traders off the GC server. Something that also says that piracy isn't supposed to be a $100 mil plus per day money maker. Get on a transport, be a target for your pirate buddies if you want to make that kind of credits.

---

[joojoo1975]

LOL, just had that happen to me last night.

2 galliac bombers stopped me and demand 2 mill. I RP bout how my hold doesn't have anything like that and offer em some Gold. The idiots blew up the gold(after tractorin what they could hold) and then proceeded to blow me up because i didn't pay em 500K as well.

well looks like i won't be going through cortez for 4 hours.

---

To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

[Karst]

I'd like to add some more tips.

-When encountering a pirate, unless you're 100% sure you can safely escape and have no intention of cooperating, stop immediately.
As a pirate, how I treat traders depends a lot on their initial reaction. I can guarantee I'll be nicer to those that stop at once without being prompted, and say hello.

Some navigation tips, particularly for large transports and trains:

-Use vertical strafe. Very often, you'll need to enter a trade lane that's considerably higher or lower than your position over a short distance. This leads to a less than ideal angle of approach, which can be remedied to an extent by using strafe.

Actually this is true for horizontal strafe as well, but I guess vertical strafing is less obvious.

-When approaching a lane or gate at a very poor angle (close to 90°), target the point at which you're planning to press dock, and engage engine kill a couple k before you reach it. (When cruising, when on thrusters a couple hundred meters).
Then, when in engine kill mode, turn your ship to face the target while you glide towards it.
Remember that you won't decelerate instantly upon exiting engine kill mode, so do it early enough to avoid overshooting your target.

-When you're reaching the end of a tradelane and your next target is to your right, engage free flight slightly before you leave the lane completely; that way, you're aligned better with your next target and gain a little time because you skip the relatively slow final deceleration process upon exiting the lane.

---

[Jack_Henderson]

I have just come across these old guides after they were bumped and I only saw three missing aspects of successful trading:

• CAU6-8
  
• Turret steering
  
• Type 4 guns (if you fly solo), Type 3 when in convoys
  

Set a direct waypoint to the next safe base.
Turn your nose there
Enter Turretview
Zoom out quite a bit
Thrust towards the base while gunning
Evade snacs/Novas with turretsteering (you know when he is firing if you zoomed out correctly)

If he Novas you, gun his shields off, regen your small civi transport shield and reverse (he blows up in the Nova detonation)

If in a Btrans, you might want to attack Nova bombers aggressively as you cannot run&dodge.

If you win, be nice to the pirate player and say something friendly in green.

If you lose, be nice to the pirate player and say something friendly in green.

---

+ IMG| DISCORD: https://discord.gg/TWrGWjp
+ IMG| IS RECRUITING: Click to find out more!

[Karst]

Just a couple more things I felt like adding.

About pirates:

- Know where you are and how dangerous it is for the pirate, because this will directly affect how patient they are with you.
Pirates like transport captains that roleplay with them. Say hello, ask them a question, tell them something about your day (but not "I've been pirated 5 times on this route already!" Liars.)
This will make the pirate like you more and will make them more patient and probably lower their demand if they haven't made one yet.

And if you meet a pirate that doesn't seem like a total lolwut, you can try to negotiate the price.
Say something like "I've just paid off this ship, would you be willing to accept [75% of the original price]?"
Obviously, stand still while doing this or you will definitely be blasted.

But all of the above depends on the first thing I mentioned. I like to pirate in Shikoku, and it's a very safe place. There are no powerful NPC spawns and lawful (and unlawful) patrols are highly uncommon.
That means that I can take my time to chat or negotiate with traders.

But if you meet a pirate in a place like the Colorado jump gate, they'll probably be far less patient because lawful patrols or hostile unlawfuls are far more likely to pop up.

- Always have "/autobuy all on" set. I'm constantly amazed by the fact that the majority of transports simply don't have full bots/bats.
You have no chance of surviving without them.

- I HIGHLY recommend mounting at least a UAUVIII. It will greatly increase your survivability and the cargo space used is negligible on a transport.
If you're really that worried about space (or cost), at least get a UAUVII or UAUVI, which are nearly as good.

- I disagree with Jack on the use of Type 4 transport turrets, particularly on heavier transports with lots of turrets.
They lack the power and range to deal with heavier bombers, not to mention Gunboats, and if you're in a heavier transport, chances are fighters won't pose a real danger anyway.
Chainfiring Type 3s in two or three weapon groups is accurate enough against snubcraft.

In a smaller transport though, Type 4s might be a good idea since the (extremely rare) fighter pirate poses a real danger, and you cannot combat anything heavier anyway.

- In a transport with lots of turrets, I recommend using at least one pulse (Type 1) turret. This will make a huge difference when fighting Gunboats.

- Do not say "just kill me" and then just sit there. Not only will the pirate kill you, but they'll remember you negatively.
If you really don't care that you'll be blown up, at least put up a fight or attempt to escape, much more interesting for the pirate and thus they won't hate you as much.

---

[deepak]

Well. Some Junker ID lolwut blew my ship that was empty, few days back, in Sigma 13. I was on my way to Theta on a freelancer ID to get a new Borderworld transport.

Going by the above point the Junker Pirate Train has time at his disposal to do roleplay. Even if he would not want to bring the price down. I strongly encourage those who persue the pirate RP to pleaes exercise more Roleplay if you are in places like Sigma 13 where the pirates have strong hold thanks to the poor visibility and lack of lawful patrols.

I look forward to get pirated more. :-)

---

[Drakarska]

LOL, just had that happen to me last night.

2 galliac bombers stopped me and demand 2 mill. I RP bout how my hold doesn't have anything like that and offer em some Gold. The idiots blew up the gold(after tractorin what they could hold) and then proceeded to blow me up because i didn't pay em 500K as well.

well looks like i won't be going through cortez for 4 hours.

This aspect is especially frustrating for a new player such as myself and my son. I take the time and trouble to explain how RP works in order to maximize the fun element for immersion to him, only to have some individual ruin it because of the "grey areas" of the rules.

I don't mind losing a load or paying a fee, that's part of RP. But to not only demand credits and cargo, and then atomize my kid and I just because he could is nothing more than being a phallus.

I've spent the past few days looking over the server rules, etiquette's, etc in order to maximize the immersion factor for a game I haven't played in a few years. But apparently the pirates are free to interpret the grey areas of the rules as they see fit, and then laugh at you if you say anything to them.

No offense intended to any of the vets on this server, as I'm sure you've earned your place here. But deliberately seeking out and tanking a noobie just because you have the power to do so isn't a conducive way to elicit fresh blood onto your server, especially if the noob (myself) takes the time and trouble to RP with you.

[SnakThree]

Firstly, veterans ( except for jerks ), don't pirate for money, because they have already accumulated enough wealth.

Secondly, there is a vicious circle of trader-pirate-lawful, when each of them is bad to the other and so the circle continues out of spite back to the other.
Thus, to break it, no matter how bad one behaves with you, you must not give in and continue to be genuine and kind player here.

---