Cargo to get you up to AI cores?

[darilon]

So I started the Serenity to Atlantis runs to start off with - to get enough cash so I could go out and find a Commerce center and get Industrial Mining goods for Serenity or other mining bases and Construction goods for Arid planets. Thing is, it takes a lot of runs to get up to the next level from this point and you buy out the Commerce center every two runs at best. Are there any intermediate shipments that can be made that make more money than Construction/Mining equipment but don't cost quite as much as AI cores? Not that it matters that much right now to me, as I've got over 9 million credits and another couple runs should get me to AI Cores, but perhaps if i ever start again without cash hacking....

Another interesting thing I noticed was that the number of Commerce centers in the system I was going to for them changed quite regularly. When I first went there they had one commerce center. Later I noticed they had two of them, however if you bought all the mining equipment in one there wouldn't be any more mining equipment in the other one. Another time I jumped in to Stirling and found 4 Commerce centers. Last time there were none so I cruised around the sector looking for more and only found a factory (which was fine for a few runs) and upon returning to Stirling still no commerce centers.

Ah well, soon I will be in the land of free money with AI Cores to make me rich enough to build a fleet so I can track down all those nasty pirates that killed me off in some of my other save games.

[kraehe]

Moin Darilon,

there is constant war between the factions. So its normal that disappear, if they are not in the hinterland. Sterling is a typical example, who has a commerce center often at the start of the game, and losing it sooner or later.

I mainly traded in low weight items, using a Franklin. My main income had been PAI Wetware, Robotic Servants, Medical and Entertainment and of course pilots from bounty missions. Now my Franklin full of AI Cores is a beast of burden, but its worth the flight

ciao,Kraehe

[darilon]

Thank you for the explanation of the appearing/disappearing centers. I eventually jumped off a few systems away and found a real nice set up - two commerce centers, an arid planet, mining base and an ice planet all in the same system. I did a few more runs of mining equipment and construction materials here (as well as the PAI Wetware when available) and got into AI cores and now I'm into the easy money. Before long I had 120 million and there were no more ai cores so I could now start building up some fun ships to play around with.

[Turbo]

When you are running wetware or AI cores from the commerce center to the arid planet, don't forget Liquor/Confed/Specialty_wines for the return trip. They cost around 9000 on a bio, ocean, or arid planet and sell for 15000 at a mining base or refinery. Liquor is also a high-profit item for the Atlantis-Serenity run when you first start in Cephid 17.

[peter]

So I started the Serenity to Atlantis runs to start off with - to get enough cash so I could go out and find a Commerce center and get Industrial Mining goods for Serenity or other mining bases and Construction goods for Arid planets. Thing is, it takes a lot of runs to get up to the next level from this point and you buy out the Commerce center every two runs at best. Are there any intermediate shipments that can be made that make more money than Construction/Mining equipment but don't cost quite as much as AI cores? Not that it matters that much right now to me, as I've got over 9 million credits and another couple runs should get me to AI Cores, but perhaps if i ever start again without cash hacking....

The best shortcut is to tractor in an automated factory from a dead capship. See
http://vegastrike.sourceforge.net/forum ... 70#p107970
I did this in my current game to get up to my first AI core. I got a plowshare and accepted a bounty mission on a pirate Gleaner, then let some friendly capships take it out for me. If you want to make the kill yourself, you'll probably need a pair of Razors on your plowshare. Note that autofacs are 10k m^3, so your plowshare has to be _empty_, or mostly empty if you have some cargo-space upgrades. I had most of my money invested in my cargo, and took the bounty mission just to get paid for watching some pirates die at the hands of some friendly capships. Plus the chance of getting an autofac, which is why I was in my plowshare. When the autofac dropped, I pause the game and dumped all of my cargo, then carefully reeled in the autofac. I would have reloaded the game if the autofac disappeared before I could get it, since I had just dumped most of my net worth. I've since noticed that Gleaners are a pretty good bet for autofacs, unlike some other pirate capships. And Thales ships get called capships, but they're combat yachts, not cargo ships. They only have light cargo, and will kick your ass, not give you an autofac, if you're not ready for them.

Another interesting thing I noticed was that the number of Commerce centers in the system I was going to for them changed quite regularly. When I first went there they had one commerce center. Later I noticed they had two of them, however if you bought all the mining equipment in one there wouldn't be any more mining equipment in the other one. Another time I jumped in to Stirling and found 4 Commerce centers. Last time there were none so I cruised around the sector looking for more and only found a factory (which was fine for a few runs) and upon returning to Stirling still no commerce centers.

If you die and reload, stations will be cloned. http://sourceforge.net/tracker/index.ph ... tid=119507

Ah well, soon I will be in the land of free money with AI Cores to make me rich enough to build a fleet so I can track down all those nasty pirates that killed me off in some of my other save games.

Yeah, it's pretty fun to have a big fleet of ships for different roles. e.g. a milspec Schroedinger with its cloak for sneaking around those pesky Uln, some milspec Rlaan ships, a Goddard, a Franklin, a stock Pacifier with good long-range weaponry, and some fighters (e.g. a Nicander) for fun.