Two Newb Questions

[tylertoo]

1)  My pilot is level four and I've accumulated around $20K through contracts.  I want to do some commodity trading but every where I looked, there's little profit to be made.  How does one find profitable opportunities?  Not nitckel and dime margins that are lost when you factor in fuel costs... but bigger payoffs?

2)  I sometime get messages after buying WF or other stuff that I've violated this or that embargo.  How do you keep track of this aspect of the game?  I do know the faction screen within status that shows my current standing with each faction.  But how do you tell who hates who and who is cooperating with who so you don't accidentally piss someone off?

[slayernz]

tylertoo great questions and ones that can certainly throw novices to start with.

1. Trading between planets can definitely be a challenge, but some planets regularly pay more for stuff than other planets. If you've visited a number of planets, then when you go into your Status --> Cargo screen and select a commodity, you can see the last buy/sell rate for that commodity at that planet. You'll soon be able to pick some good runs between relatively close planets in order to make profits on commodities. In saying that, most times if you have 100 units of an item, you'll probably only make a few thousand worth of profit at most, so straight trading can make for a hard slog to generate revenue. When you are in exchanges, you can also click on the commodity graphic and see the buy/sell prices too.

The FASTER way of making lots of money through commodity trading is using the RUMORS. Look for Shortage and Surplus rumors, specifically (at the Spice Halls and Palaces). Often you'll get a rumor that goes a bit like this "There is a shortage of Clothing at Basa Prime (8AU away)". Hopefully you are able to buy up your cargo space in clothing, and get over to Basa Prime, where they'll be buying at up to 5x their normal buy price. The most revenue I've ever made from a shortage is about $1.1m credits!

Surplus rumors are also good because sell prices are about 5x lower, so you'll be able to make pretty quick cash just selling, but Shortages give MUCH more return than Surpluses. From a maths perspective:
Surplus means something that is normally $100 sells for $20. You make about $80 profit per unit
Shortages mean something that is normally $100, buys for $500. You make about $400 profit per unit.

Combining the two is even better - that's where you start using Wilderness Caches (but that's a whole different lesson young Padawan).

2. This is all about understanding factional conflicts. IF Rychart and Javat are in a Trade Embargo conflict, then buying or selling anything at either faction's exchanges will result in loss of RP at the other faction. Higher priced items reduce RP more than lower priced items, but it's definitely reputation loss either way. There are two ways you can see factional conflicts (and therefore avoid costly RP drops). The first is by regularly checking faction conflicts (Status --> Cargo --> Conflicts). In the conflicts screen, you'll see a bunch of different conflict types, and there will be a description of what sort of impact there will be for you if you do something with one or both of these factions.

The second way you can keep informed about all of this is by finding a Political Officer. Her job will be to inform you that there is a Trade Embargo or a Spy War going on. She only tells you when you've actually LANDED on the planet, so if you've just hauled 100 units of Vudka to fulfill a shortage on the planet, then it's all for naught. That means you should always be checking the Conflicts screen on a regular basis to make sure that you know who is mad (or happy) with who.

Good luck

[tylertoo]

Thanks for the quick and detailed reply! Those answers should help a lot. I hadn't paid much attention to rumors so far, but now I see how they can help. Onward to PROFIT!

[slayernz]

tylertoo don't forget that you can always review your rumors by going to Status-->Cargo-->Rumors. There you can see all the important rumors, grouped by Urban, Deep Space, and Wilderness.

The shortage/surplus rumors are always in the urban rumors.