Advice to new traders: learn from my mistakes

[Keep Sailing Bob]

Just yesterday I was flying a Type-9 with over 100 million credits in assets and over 6 million credits on me. Today, I'm flying a loaned sidewinder with only 996 credits on me and 5 million assets. I almost had it all... now I have almost nothing.

My troubles started about a month ago. I traded in my Type 6 for an Asp. But I did it too soon. I had just enough money to buy the ship and fill it up with Beryllium once. One mistake and I would be broke (aside from some assets in low level ships I had docked). Well that one mistake happened on my very first trade in the Asp. As I was about to dock to sell my precious Beryllium, my lively hood, I hit the "Jettison Cargo" button instead of "Deploy Landing Gear" button. The only time I had ever made that mistake, but it came at the worst possible time. All 200+ tons of Beryllium were jettisoned into the station. And I received a fine for every single canister that was jettisoned. I was broke and I had a major fine to pay (I can't remember exactly what it was now, but I think it was close to a million). I had to travel to distant stations over 150ly away to sell some ships to get back some cash so I could begin trading again. 150ly isn't too bad in an Asp with an A rated FSD, but I didn't have the money to buy that FSD when I bought the ship, so I was making 20+ jumps to get to the stations.
I should have learned my lesson then... but I didn't. But things went along smoothly for a while. I had worked my way up to a Type-9 from a Python. I thought I was doing good because I had 100 mil credits when I bought the Type-9. I bought the best FSD, had all the cargo slots I could carry, and no shields.

But I almost immediately regretted my purchase. You'll hear lots of people complain about the maneuverability of the Type-9. It's all true, but that wasn't a major issue for me. In my opinion, the Type-9 feels like it should and that's immersive. It feels like you're flying a huge cargo ship, like you are. But what I hated about that ship was the horrible jump range. The ship is so slow and the jump range so bad that you need to find a route with a very low distance between the stations in order for it to be profitable. These are hard to find. I thought I had found one. The distance was 13.9 ly between the two systems. That's pretty good, but my laden jump range was still only 12-ish. And I had the best FSD money could buy for that ship. So I was screwing around with a bunch of different outfits to see if I could push the ship to 13.9 ly. I got D rated everything... but failed to realize that my power plant's class was too low to power the ship's modules. Apparently there is no warning (or none that I noticed) for this.
So I had my Type-9 outfitted so that it could jump about 13.5 ly. I thought this might be enough so I filled it up with Palladium (about 500 tons, I had to sacrifice some cargo racks) and was going to see if I could make the jump. I existed the station and &%&!!! I didn't have enough power to maintain an atmosphere OR my FSD OR for sensors. I had 4 minutes till I ran out of oxygen. I couldn't make the jump. I couldn't request docking! I sat there panicking and flew back into the station in order to get some oxygen. &%*!! I had forgotten that I didn't request docking and now I had a 500 cr fine and they were going to kill me if I didn't leave the station! I flew back out of the station resigned to my fate. I was going to die just meters from a station. I was going to lose a ship that cost 76 million stock. I had spent about another 25-30 million outfitting it. I was going to lose over 6 million credits in cargo. I was going to be penniless again. I was going to be flying a sidewinder again.

Then I remembered that I could turn off some modules in the side panel! I turned off my FSD and laughed with joy (in real life) as my atmosphere came back on and I could request docking again. I flew into the station with a big smile on my face happy to be safe again. When all the sudden I noticed that my ship wasn't keeping rotation with the station! I was spinning to the left! I still don't know why this happened... were my thrusters not powered on after I deployed landing gear? Was it a glitch? I tried to dock anyway... like in that scene of Interstellar where the ship is spinning wildly and so is the station and they have to try and match speeds to dock. But I couldn't pull it off. The ships spin speed was making the docking process think that I was moving to fast to lock on. I started hitting the side of the station and damaging my ship and I got jammed into a parallel docking station. They were going to blow me up if I didn't unobstructed the other docking station in 30 seconds. I couldn't get control of my ship so I did the only thing I could and shut down the game immediately. I logged back in unsure of what I would find. Thankfully everything was okay. I was outside the station. I requested docking. I flew into the station and was keeping with rotation. I got into position, save for having my landing gear deployed. I powered off my thrusters module and deployed landing gear. It worked. I was docked.

Of course I immediately docked and outfitted my ship with a power plant that could handle the load of my modules when deployed. But by this time I had had enough of this ship. Sure, maybe I could end up making that 13.9 ly jump... but there was still another issue: the supply of one my stations with the commodity I was trading was too low. It would run dry after a day or two of trading and I would be stuck searching for another viable route in this slow ship with a horrible jump range. Why spend so much time with that when I could just go back to my Python and be living on easy street again? Sure I would be hauling about 200 less cargo... but I could find viable trade routes much easier and I could dock much faster.

So that's what I made up my mind to do. Problem was, the station that sold the Python was at the OTHER station 13.9 ly away... Okay, no problem I would just head over there in two jumps instead of one and trade the ships... No big deal. And here is a great idea: why not load up my ship with Palladium while I'm at it and make an extra 847k credits while I'm on my over there? Score! So I head on out... Oops, still not enough power to boost... Oh well, screw it... I'll just cruise along at 130 until my mass is unlocked and be on my way. I can forget this ship and all the troubles I've had. Oh what's that zooming into my peripheral vision? The arm of the station?! I can't boost past it! I can't turn this whale of a ship out of the way! Wham. Bam.
And so kids, here I am in my sidewinder. Wow, this ship feels really nimble after flying around in that Type-9... now how did I make credits again in this thing? Oh right, the Bulletin Board. Oh look a job for 3,941 credits for "Copper Urgently Sought, Competitive Rates"... Ah, just yesterday I was making almost 850,000 at a single station and 250,000 credits on the return trip. Oh well... good thing I have that Vulture docked at another station. I can sell that for about 5 million credits and at least buy myself a Type-6 and begin the grind all over again. Let me just open my Galaxy Map and find that ship... Oh... it will take me 56 jumps to get to that ship and there is no viable route with my fuel tank? Looks like I'll be taking that copper trading job after all....

Elite Life Lessons:
Always have enough money to cover outfitting, insurance, and cargo. You never know what will happen. Seriously.
Unbind that jettison cargo button.
Make sure you have assets.

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

My first trade (with a Sidewinder) looked like this:
purchased 4 tonnes of Weapons, undocked
travelling at high speed - accidentally jettisonned 1 ton
next stop, I discovered a new astronomical object, a star.
started scanning it while charging FSD. NOT A GOOD THING TO DO
overheating and damaged cargo hatch. Lost remaining 3 tonnes of cargo.
on my way to nearest station I got interdicted and the pirate did 50% hull damage to my Sidewinder.


Don't scan while travelling at hyperdrive (whatever it is called) while charging FSD...

Currently Iam a happy owner of Adder, making a few thousants of fine profit per minutes through trading.

[mbpoblet]

Originally posted by Scimitar101:

travelling at high speed - accidentally jettisonned 1 ton

Keep your cargo hatch closed and powered! :D

Originally posted by Scimitar101:

overheating and damaged cargo hatch. Lost remaining 3 tonnes of cargo.

And undamaged, if possible. ;)

[Chew Ass and Kick Bubblegum]

I had no chance. The overheating damaged the cargobay :)

[Gordini]

The station arm got me one time just after i got up to a type 6. I had money to rebuy but i lost full cargo of gold and after rebuy i had hardly any money left to trade. But i took the gamble to trade what i could afford w/o the rebuy money, fortunatly it payed off.
That had me so shook up that i waited till i had enough for 2 rebuys and a full load of palladium before i moved up to a type 9. T9 scared the crap outa me, at first i was ducking irl going through the letter box, but i got used to it. I now fly it without shields and i have 13.24 laden range with a fuel scoop and 524 cargo space. I make anywhere from 1.5 - 1.8 million for each round trip and i have 140 million in the bank.
Thats a sad story bro, i hope it doesn't stop you playing and you have more luck in the future.

[Keep Sailing Bob]

Originally posted by Gordini:

The station arm got me one time just after i got up to a type 6. I had money to rebuy but i lost full cargo of gold and after rebuy i had hardly any money left to trade. But i took the gamble to trade what i could afford w/o the rebuy money, fortunatly it payed off.
That had me so shook up that i waited till i had enough for 2 rebuys and a full load of palladium before i moved up to a type 9. T9 scared the crap outa me, at first i was ducking irl going through the letter box, but i got used to it. I now fly it without shields and i have 13.24 laden range with a fuel scoop and 524 cargo space. I make anywhere from 1.5 - 1.8 million for each round trip and i have 140 million in the bank.
Thats a sad story bro, i hope it doesn't stop you playing and you have more luck in the future.

Thanks. It hasn't stopped me from playing. After a day I can look back at the story and laugh. It's still going to be annoying working my way back to my Python though...

Yes, you make awesome money per trade run in a T9. However, the drawbacks still outweigh this advantage to me. I'm one of those players who takes trading seriously. I use the stop-watch function on my HOTAS (x52 Pro) to keep track of time just so that I can know exactly how much I make per ton on a run.

From my experience, these factors make the T9 a poor choice ove the Python:

-Less docking options means harder to find profitable trade runs.
-Less speed decreases profit over Python for same trade runs.
-Less maneuverability decreases profit over Python for same trade runs.
-Larger cargo racks means you'll be depleting a station quicker, meaning you'll be searchin for viable trade runs more often... which cycles back to the first drawback I've listed.

All this vs:

+200 more cargo slots.

Just doesn't seem worth it to me.

[CharlieDelta]

Oh damn, sorry about your luck man. On the bright side, you do know what you're doing at least and have assets at different stations. You'll be back on your feet in no time. you did learn some important lessons though. Always make sure you have enough left over to afford the ship rebuy, for one. Don't cut through the inside of the ring for another. Good luck, and it's cool you can laugh about it. Not sure I'd be able to.

[BlazingMetal]

I have made so many dumb mistakes like this, but surprisingly enough I never had less money than my insurance money when it happened.

[Codius Hilol]

I'm pretty sure you can lower your rebuy cost if you remove the cargo and some upgrades from the list of items you are buying back after losing them.

[Keep Sailing Bob]

Originally posted by Procrastinator Hilol:

I'm pretty sure you can lower your rebuy cost if you remove the cargo and some upgrades from the list of items you are buying back after losing them.

That's true, but it wasn't a significant decrease in cost. Loan officer will only loan you 600k. In the end, I didn't have enough and had to go back to a Sidewinder. I spent all my on-hand credits on the Palladium I was going to trade.

[Roach]

Heh.... I traded the first 2 days, then I said screw it, found a system I could bounty hunt in. I make 500,000 credits every 10 or so minutes, no cargo trades just re-arm and repair after I have no more ammo. I have a Viper thats maxed out in all gear, 4 million credits and climbing. Bounty hunting is waay more fun.

[YodaSun]

Im new to the game. I just left the loaner sidewinder. I purchased an Adder. So I mean I am dripping wet new : )) TY for this post. It has answered so many questions I had about this game, it has been very helpfull.

[Old-gamer]

Zaph, this kind of stuff that happened to you, also plays out in some of my own stories and I've only been playing one week. To me, it is what makes ED interesting. I like the opportunity to make mistakes, have the unexpected come calling, etc. If ED were too easy or not realistic enough, I'd eventually get bored. With the game kicking my butt on a regular basis, I feel that it is keeping me on my toes and challenging. So, your story is more of an inspiration than a problem (to me). Yeah, having accidents at Stations is defintely a bite in the butt and I've been there already too. :)

[Revolucas]

Trading sounds like more trouble then it's worth in this game.

[Fnar]

Originally posted by ๖ۣۜRevolucas:

Trading sounds like more trouble then it's worth in this game.

Trading is simple and the easily the fastest way to earn credits.

As the OP says, always make sure you have credits to rebuy your ship a few times, and plenty of credits to buy cargo.

[Bubba Fett]

I found the story inspirational. (and pretty funny) The OP clearly doesn't plan ahead and still managed to make that kind of cash trading. I should do pretty well in the future.

Sorry if that sounds insensitive, but the jettison cargo key seemed like a bad idea when I was first tweaking my controls in the first tutorial mission. It was the first thing I got rid of.
The only way to run out of power that I'm aware of is to ignore the big red number in the outfitting screen that shows your power usage.
If you saw your jump range and cargo capacity, how'd you miss that?

By the way, did you realize that you can run a ship beyond it's power rating by setting priorities in the right control screen? Stuff with higher numbers will shut off first so if you couldn't run landing gear and FS drive at the same time and landing gear had a priority of 2 and the FS drive had a priority of 3, lowering the gear would shut down the FS drive and raising it would activate the FS drive.

As for getting hit by the station arm, all the stations I've seen were pretty unobstructed near the docking port. What'd you do, exit the station and turn around and fly back towards it?

At least you won't be flying your sidewinder for long. All you need is enough cash to buy a fuel scoop and you've got everything you need to cross the galaxy for free.

Anyways, thanks for the entertaing story.