whats a good way to get money

[Guest [email protected]]

ok i am new as you can tell but i have just started freeflight and i was wondering if there was a secret that people use to get money??

[R_wilco]

It's not a secret , but either A) Pick up and sell cargo boxes with a shuttle, then sell the contents, Trade items based on the standard trading rule: Buy low, sell high. You can also mine minerals off planets using a drone(am I correct on this one?), and if you tractor-tow an enemy ship, you can deliver it to a starstation(by docking with it) for some money as well.

But the easy way is to let the game sit for one day, as you get paid 75000 GalCreds per standard Earth day.

[Guest Lug]

Yeah, but of course waiting for your paycheck would take forever.

Also try to send mining drones out before getting repaired, that way they will have been mining the entire time you are docked, and if you fight like me, you will be docked for the better part of the day.

You will have to ask the experts about the more profitable trading routes, though, I'm pretty sure there is a thread that covers that.

[Ronvatar]

Buy deflector arrays at Earth. Sell at pluto. CHA CHING

[desolator]

And after buying deflector arrays and sold them at pluto, buy Medibays and sell at galcom.

But even better is to trade solar reactors from galcom to saturn (1 million per solar panel) or same trade from galcom to Genesis (orbiting the moon.)

But all this is covered in another topic so have a look at that topic for more tips in how to get money. (which is too easy..

[Rico Jansen]

Ok, since alot of 'free' newbies like the short-leg trade runs, peek over my shoulder here.

Buy Deflector arrays at GalcomHQ in Earth,

Sell them at Gazer1 in Pluto,

Buy support craft spare parts there after that,

Sell those spare parts at ISS station in Saturn,

Buy deflector arrays again but now here at ISS,

Go back to Gazer1(Pluto) and sell them off,

Buy those same spareparts again

Head-off to GalcomHQ Earth and dumb them.

That was the end of your trade run. Feel free to start again.

A guaranteed profit on all 4 legs! (avg 20% per leg) You'll have more than doubled your starting capital, and still get to see some of the scenery in the process.

Good way to get the hyperjump,jumppoint,hyperjump,docking routine going I'd say.

[ 08-10-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[desolator]

So could anyone suggest a trade route that isn't short-leg trade runs? (And doesn't run straight into really hostile systems...like I found out the other night.. )

I never really bothered to use the time acceleration mode if there is one in non-debug play, and I find it quite fun just to fly in realtime to distant systems.

[Epsilon 5]

Well...

You might try the GalcomHQ/Polaris-2 Deflector array run, but you have to pass by lennen, and you need a good starting capital, as it might cost you alot in radine in the first runs.

But once you are fully upgraded, you make tons of profits.

Tip: hit the afterburners as much as you can in lennen. Your shields should be enough.

[Rico Jansen]

Hmm?? Anybody ever experienced running out of fuel in a shuttle?

Besides, since you're in the neighbourhoud anyway, might as well start digging on Actis IV,Procyon

[ 08-11-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[Charles Lindsey]

If all you want to do is explore in space you can dock at Galcom, sell all your atv spare parts, half each of shuttle and IC spare parts, about 3/4 of nutripacks and have enough to upgrade reactor and engines so you get better "gas mileage". There should be enough for a better shield as well.

Or you can immediately head off to a station with a better inflation rate and do the same. Go back to galcom and buy said upgrades and then some weapons. Sell weapons at a higher inflation station and get some cash.

Once you are upgraded to where you feel comfortable and have some cash exploit your shuttles to the fullest extent. I like remote controlled shuttles. I have an ancient thread around here of the same name if it survived the purge.

To remote control a shuttle what you do is "crew" (used as a verb) two shuttles. I like to use marines with an AI above 14%. One in each shuttle will do. Unload the ATV and then send the shuttles to Earth to unload the drones. Might as well let them be mining while you do other stuff. Now you have empty shuttles. Let them dock again.

Stock 1 with other parts then launch them both. Switch to 1. Fly it to Polaris 2. Dock with Velari and sell your parts. Launch and fly one system closer to home. This would be Lennen using the Earth>Polaris 2 trade run. Remember that shuttles are neutral.

Now; switch to shuttle 2 and fly to Galcom and dock. Buy whatever you want. I like ODS systems. Sure; Rico is correct in that Deflector arrays give the best value for space but you don't have that much money yet and tons of space (if you remembered to unload ATV's and send drones to mine). Just buy an ODS and/or some missiles. No sense holding the button down that long in the trading screen. 10% profit is 10% profit no matter what you are trading. So buy your junk and launch. Fly one system closer to the other shuttle (would be Jupiter in this trade run).

Now this is where it gets tricky. You should be in Jupiter in shuttle 2 and shuttle 1 should be in Lennen.

While in shuttle 2 switch to tacops. Order shuttle 1 to "Jump at" Juptiter TO Earth. Get out of tacops and switch to shuttle 1. From shuttle 1 go back to tacops and order shuttle 2 to "Jump At" Lennen TO Polaris 2. Ya gotta do it quick though because shuttle 1 is already heading towrads Earth. You have to order shuttle 2 while the tacops screen is valid. If shuttle 1 makes it to Lyrius you will no longer have the "Jump At" Lennen to Polaris 2 option.

If you did it correctly both shuttles will have orders to jump into the "base" systems you wish to use. They will automatically fly to the system assigned and criss cross paths on the way. This saves you the time of flying to each system yourself once you do it the first time.

Once shuttle 2 gets to Polaris 2 system begin the process all over again. Sell your parts at Velari (usually 40% inflation) and fly one system closer to Earth. Switch to shuttle 1 and buy parts at Galcom. Rinse and repeat.

Meanwhile your BC is sitting there saving fuel.

After a while check your drones and collect them. Unload drones (and ATV's if you want) from shuttle 3 and 4 and use those to collect drones 1 and 2. Transfer minerals to the BC and sell them where you will.

Once you have enough money you may have to start buying Deflector arrays to fill up the cubbyholes in the shuttles. But for the first part I like ODS systems.

It takes a few runs like this to have enough money to fill a shuttle.

You can even use this tip in ACM scenarios if you pay attention.

[ 08-12-2001: Message edited by: Charles Lindsey ]

[Rico Jansen]

Originally posted by Charles Lindsey:

quote:

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No sense holding the button down that long in the trading screen. 10% profit is 10% profit no matter what you are trading.

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Ohkay, ohkay, I give in, your way is more efficient RSI-wise. (but just for the record, 10% profit is only 10% profit if you trade items of the same class. But you knew that, didn't ya? ... Chavik?? )

quote:

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Now this is where it gets tricky. You should be in Jupiter in shuttle 2 and shuttle 1 should be in Lennen.

While in shuttle 2 switch to tacops. Order shuttle 1 to "Jump at" Juptiter TO Earth. Get out of tacops and switch to shuttle 1. From shuttle 1 go back to tacops and order shuttle 2 to "Jump At" Lennen TO Polaris 2. Ya gotta do it quick though because shuttle 1 is already heading towrads Earth. You have to order shuttle 2 while the tacops screen is valid. If shuttle 1 makes it to Lyrius you will no longer have the "Jump At" Lennen to Polaris 2 option.

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Couldn't you just solve this more easily if you had a priority list entry of Velerai and GalcomHQ? Indeed tricky, I'm completely double-ball-tennismatched here. And I allready had strained neck muscles.

[ 08-12-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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Remember that shuttles are neutral.

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Huh? My shuttles always get attacked! This is not true.

[Charles Lindsey]

quote:

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but just for the record, 10% profit is only 10% profit if you trade items of the same class. But you knew that, didn't ya? ... Chavik??

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Yeah I know but with the 40% inflation at Velari I usually don't sweat the other small profit margins. Don't forget your Station "specialty" variable as well.

quote:

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Couldn't you just solve this more easily if you had a priority list entry of Velerai and GalcomHQ?

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You still have to fly there first. I don't like the "Fly TO" command. I much prefer the "Jump AT" command because the shuttle stops once it gets to the system you sent it. Personal preference I suppose.

quote:

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My shuttles always get attacked!

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Now you're gonna make me go look. If you fly to Polaris 2 manually you hear the enemy present klaxon twice. Once in Lyrius where there is only an ods and once in Lennen where there is an enemy station (raider I think). You either a) don't get attacked in Lennen or b)you are fast enough to avoid attack.

Don't let the AP fly the route for you. Only let it hyperjump you. Once out of jump kick the AP off and afterburn towards the gate. Once on "remote control" they do fine.

Been a long time. Let me check. It will be a while. I'm off to the movies.

[Pugwash]

All the information you could ever need about the game is supplied in the manuals you just have to read them.

The trouble is, it's information overload.

To plan your own trading routes all you need is the second half of Appendix E - Astrological Charts (navchart.pdf) and a copy of the map.

Might as well plug my own map which has the Flux Fields plotted on it for those who want to use them and is available from this link

Read the pdf carefully, especially the explanation notes.

It gives all the info you need, race/ caste, %minerals, class level, inflation rate etc of all the Starbases and Starstations.

Now armed with this you can plot your own trade routes and make them as long or as short as you want.

[ 10-18-2002, 12:52 PM: Message edited by: Pugwash ]

[desolator]

Um, if that last message about reading manuals was for me then I can tell you I've read them all. Everythings explained in them as you said, I know. I was just curious about what routes the pro's of this game take.

getting money in BC3K is way too easy in my opinion. I took a few (5 or 6 tops I think..) trips to pluto and back and after that I had all the upgrades, an almost full gastank, some nifty missiles and lots of money left. So I usually just travel around now, saving some attacked ships here and there, exploring... (feels like StarTrek Voyager this..

[R_wilco]

Heh, it does feel like ST:V, since some exploration of flux fields left me stranded in Gammulan space

[Guest jhnphm]

Sell OTS bugnor missiles from earth to pluto, but load them on shuttles, since the weapons bay on the BC is very small. They give 1.5 million in profit apiece, but only take up 25 space.

[Epsilon 5]

quote:

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Originally posted by Borg12:

Sell OTS bugnor missiles from earth to pluto, but load them on shuttles, since the weapons bay on the BC is very small. They give 1.5 million in profit apiece, but only take up 25 space.

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That makes 60k profit per space...

Use the deflector arrays... makes 90k profit per space, and take 2 space.

A shuttle full of Bugnors makes 120millions

A shuttle full of deflector arrays makes 180millions.

But a shuttle full of deflectors need an investment of 540million creds. If you can fill a shuttle with deflectors.. you don't really need to afterall...

[Charles Lindsey]

Ok Epsilon. I went and check my version. Pixan the raider station does not launch fighters at my shuttles. The station will attack if you get too close. And I don't hear the klaxon in the shuttle.

2.09 tester version

[Epsilon 5]

Cool.

[Storm]

Thx for the info. I need to reinstall the game.

[Guest Billy Bob]

The following site gives ya some very good walk throughs for trading and mining. There are many additional good tips for combat and playing the game in general. I don't remember exactly where I got this link but it was somewhere on this site.

www.cowzilla.com/bcweb/

Hope this helps ya some.

[Rico Jansen]

Chavik:

quote:

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You still have to fly there first. I don't like the "Fly TO" command. I much prefer the "Jump AT" command because the shuttle stops once it gets to the system you sent it. Personal preference I suppose.

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Only once. I always go into navitron (indirectly through Roster, Alt-R) to set a far-off destination. Ok, shuttles are not supposed to have a Navitron so this could be considered cheating. This also stops the shuttle dead in it's tracks on arrival. And then you can fire up tacops to make a prioritylist entry of Velari.

And that station specialty thing is what I meant. Maybe not so clear.

Desolator:

quote:

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I was just curious about what routes the pro's of this game take.

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If I'm allowed to coinsider myself one... I take the long trip with my shuttles from GalcomHQ to Velari (Polaris2) selling AD items, and returning with empty bays. Using IC/SC/ATV spareparts and weapons and some other cargostuffing as starting capital. And on the first few trips I try to take my drones with me to Actis-IV (quickest mining in the quadrant), as it is not far from Velari.

This Velari run can get me to a wealth of 2^31 credits in a few hours time. (Bill Gates, EAT THAT!! ) Possibly even under one. Not sure, been a while since. Be carefull not to cross that number, as I've seen funny game-behaviour after I did. Besides, don't want to get a negative cash balance after all that work, do we?

[ 08-21-2001: Message edited by: Rico Jansen ]

[Guest Billy Bob]

WOW! There are so many different ways to make money it'll take me at least a year to try them all!

Wonder if anyone has ever tried to map all the different trade route combinations, items to sell/buy and profit margin combinations there are in BC3000AD.

[Rico Jansen]

There are so many combinations it's not even funny. I'm sure one could code some search algorithm that figures out the best possible profit enroute, but it's of little use. It only works in the beginning of the game. Inflation will change after a few days or so. By then you'll be as rich as I was, if you want ofcourse. And then money is not an issue. Getting spares and weapons in time IS.