um finding it hard to make money

[Pinko]

How?

They give about 25 mills an hour.

A BS costs about 1.6 billion fully outfit.

1600000000/25000000= 64.

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I want to get off Mr. Igiss' wild ride.

[SMGSterlin]

You will die faster in a battleship than you will with a fighter, if you learn how to dodge a little bit, promise you.


The battleship will just be a waste of money if you think it will make you better at PvP, because it won't.

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[aerelm]

my main aim is to buy a BS so i can go and compete in fights that i have chance in winning

And you'll regret it right after your first fight.

Battleships aren't stronger, they're just easier to fly... If you want to actually be effective in fights learn how to fly a fighter.

[Blaze]

Just earn enough by trading and get a BS and you will find out only after using it that they are not as awesome cs they look like ( Personal experience : I tried 4 battleships of 4 different factions and in the end scrapped all my capitals to buy fighters and bombers ) But you will have to experience it to understand it. Anyway happy trading.

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[Lennox]

You will die faster in a battleship than you will with a fighter, if you learn how to dodge a little bit, promise you.
The battleship will just be a waste of money if you think it will make you better at PvP, because it won't.

To be honest...I am a BS whore and love them if the RP fits too. If you know how to fly them they can survive way longer than a fighter or any other vessels. You have the chance of shooting down everyone without or with some trouble.

But like mentioned before. Don't buy a battleship as the first combat vessel. It took much time for me to realize why I should fly more with fighters/bombers than with BSs. You will see much more lolwuts in BSs than in every other kind of ships, maybe except for the real lulzy powertraders, and it's only fun with a BS to shoot down enemies. Though, I had some very nice RP moments with it but you will find much more of these if you are getting into the cockpit or the bridge of a gunboat or a fighter/bomber.


But because I am very lazy in terms of long trading routes and flights that need a lot of time I am earning my money with buying Robotic Components at Newark to sell them at Huntsville where I buy Consumer goods to sell them at Pittsburgh. So I can make, if I hurry up and have no pirate contacts, about 15mil credits in one hour.

[AeternusDoleo]

Well, at least you're honest about wanting to powermine/powertrade 'till you have a battleship. With the current amount of unlawfuls expect it to take a while though...

I don't have much info on the trading side, but for the mining end, a few suggestions:
- Diamond mining with a (Daumann) hegemon. While a Hegemon looks like a hefty investment, two runs with it will fully earn the craft back, and in a pinch you can keep whatever armor you have on it, when you buy your battleship. Expect to need at least some 20 runs for an unarmored battleship. 30 for one with CAU6. That is, if you don't encounter pirates, and you'll encounter those frequently...

- The Niobium/Silver combine on an IMG hegemon is what I made my own fortune with, way back. Mine Niobium in the Taus, somehow survive the outcasts (using the top mining spot and running to Tau 39 is a nice tactic. NPCs in T39 are of a grade that they're actually helpful). Sell at new berlin, then go to Omega 7, load Silver, and go to Narita. Rinse/repeat. It's a quicker and more profitable run then the above, but the mining areas are far more risky.

- Mining Cobalt in Dresden, then selling in Munich. Slow and safeish. Basically.

- Mining Beryllium in T23 and selling in Kusari. Recommend using a Samuran mining ship so the Hogosha must leave you alone, they're the main piracy threat in Kusari.

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Wide awake in a world that sleeps, enduring thoughts, enduring scenes. The knowledge of what is yet to come.
From a time when all seems lost, from a dead man to a world, without restraint, unafraid and free.

Mostly retired Discovery member. May still visit from time to time.

[Syrus]

You could also do Scrap Mining on a Junker or ALG.

Junkers do that mining in New London as far as I know, not sure where they sell it though, I was never really interested in that kind of mining until now.

ALG mostly cleans up Texas, the big black radiation clouds have the highest drops. You will sell the scrap metal on Fuchu in Shikoku. This isn't the fastest way to make money, but I found it quite alright. Though it is quite dangerous, you are alone out in the fields, with no law enforcement etc. Also you have to go through New York and Colorado, both systems often have pirates around, even though it's less dangerous than California. Another problem are the Liberty lawfuls, when they see "ALG" and think "Uh, Rheinland! Bad!" and want to shoot you or at least kick you out of the house. Though by Liberty law ALG is allowed to be around there.
The biggest downside though is the price of the Golem, being the only vessel capable of mining in Texas, since the Behemoth is for some stupid reason banned in Liberty.
ALG also opens up a lot of trading possibilities, but staying in RP you shouldn't be transporting certain goods, like food etc. So, overall I find flying an ALG vessel a good way to make money, but it requires a bigger amount of starting money.

If you really want to make money, start with a Freelancer ID'd smaller trader.


(I know this wasn't the question but...)
Step one:
Buy a freighter, Rhino or Mule. Though this isn't really necessary, since a /restart command already gives you a CSV. Start trading on short routes in house space. Once you have ~2 mio credits you could buy a Camara, it could give a little boost until you have enough for a bigger transport. Maybe if you see a big transport you could nicely ask for a little help for a starter in the trading business. But please don't use the playerlist and randomly pm the lvl >80 guys, or when you do so, at least ask very politly... The Camara is cheap, has a good cargohold and is not very big. A fine little starter vessel for a trader. Your goal will now be a transport. Until then you can continue using the Civilian ID, even though this won't make much of a difference if you are lvl 30 or higher.

Step two:
Trade. As a first transport you can either buy a Bumblebee (8 mio, 1.8k Cargo), a Mammoth (11 mio, 2.2k Cargo), an Albatross (12 mio 2.0k Cargo) or a Percheron (13 mio, 2.6k Cargo). I suggest going for the Percheron, even though they aren't "liked" around Kusari. The much bigger cargohold is a good reason to trade a little longer before buying this transport. Now you will have to switch to either a Freelancer, Mercenary, Independent Trader or Smuggler ID. Or go for a corporation's ID, though I suggest you to first fly around with an unaffiliated ID so you can look around, find trade routes and get a feeling of Sirius and your possibilities. First thing to buy once you start making money with the transport is an armor upgrade (AU 8 and CAUs). Even though it doesn't help often when you have a heavy transport because quite frankly pirates are still pretty overpowered or rather "transports are totally underpowered", it can help you survive sometimes. Next goal: BWT.

Step three:
Buy a BWT. Just do it. Trade with it. Trade with it until you know the routes and know about trading, about how to outrun pirates, how to quickdock etc etc etc. Being a medium transport that thing is between the slow big ones (far more agile than those) and the fast small ones, it still has a CM and "alright'ish" weapons and armor. It's also the biggest transport available to the Freelancer ID. You must now set your goal. What do you want to do? If you want a bigger transport, you have to think about which corporation to "join", every corporation comes with a downside, each has its own trade routes, each a bit different RP. By now you should know the routes through the colonies. You could try making the money on the BWT, but it takes quite some time doing so. Good things are, you can trade everywhere, even smuggle to Malta or Crete with a Freelancer ID (locals may be hostile, you should be carefull all the time!)

Step four:
You want to make more money? Want a bigger transport? Don't care about the downsides of those things? Buy a corporate ID. Main trading factions are Bowex, Gateway, Kishiro, Republican, Samura, Universal and Ile-de-France Shipping, but other IDs like Ageira, ALG, Cryer, (DSE,) IC, (OSC,) Planetform, Synth Foods and EFL Oil and Machinery are mostly trading based as well. Mining factions like BMM, DHC, Krüger and GMS also have the big transports available. There are also the GMG and IMG IDs. Keep in mind the different RP of most factions!
A big transport is not cheap. It will pay off though, even if you are pirated every now and then. If you prefer heavy armor and weaponry but a high risk of being CD'd by everyone and their moms, buy an Akegata (101 mio, 4.2k Cargo, Kusari) or Shire (101 mio, 4.2k Cargo, Bretonia), otherwise if you prefer being a bit more agile, not paying almost 1.5 to 2 times the money for just 500 units more space and flying an unaffiliated vessel (might come in hand sometimes), buy a Crane (94 mio, 4.5k Cargo). Next best would be the Titanic (116 mio, 4.8k Cargo), also being unaffiliated. It's armor is quite good and it still has 6 weapons with "alright'ish" arcs, but don't expect to much. It's as slow and as fat as a big transport should be, also you see this vessel around very often. If that is too cheap for you or you want something bigger in regards to both cargohold and size, only the 5k's are your last choice. With barely any defenses they stand no chance against a pirate except if they are well armored enough to run to the next base. They are extremly huge, extremly slow etc. If you want one of those, either go for your corporation's house's one, or just buy a Stork (189 mio, 5k Cargo). The Stork is rather thin and not as big as some of the other 5k's, but it's 10-20% higher price makes you think twice about if it's really the right choice.

Step five:
Trade.
???
Profit!


To sum it up:
Buy small freighter. Trade.
Buy big freighter. Trade.
Get a Freelancer, Mercenary, Independent Trader or Smuggler ID...
Buy small transport (1.8 - 2.6k). Trade.
Buy medium transport (3.0 - 3.6k). Trade.
Chose which corporation (primarly Bowex, Gateway, Republican, Kishiro, Samura or Universal) to fly for and get their ID...
Buy big transport (4.2k - 5.0k). TRADE!!!


How to find good routes?
Download Freelancer Companion, connect to the server and update it with the current prices (has to be done every time you restart FL companion). Set your transport size, etc. Instead of just looking at the profit you must keep an eye on the "profit per (flight-)second" and on what you can transport from your destination. Chose which routes to take before you fly them, but keep open your options. There are a lot of possibilities and you don't need to be able to go to all four houses to make the big money, trust me. Planing ahead and not just taking the same route all the time makes a difference in "being pirated" and "outrunning the pirate" almost all the time when flying a big transport, since once you're caught there might not be much you can do. If you were caught and are pirated for just 2 million or less, pay, at least if you aren't empty or doing a very short run between two bases. Always try to speculate how much your freight and time is worth and then decide whether to try running or not.



PS: Yup. I was bored. PPS: I made alot of money with my trader even while being pirated and paying etc. As long as they don't demand outrageous "5to10orevenmoremiordai!" it's ok anyway.

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