I would like to get your opinion on Planet Trading while blue. I am guessing that this is how Blues make all their cash.

I have beem creating a script that warps a planet around upgrading fule ore selling ports and buys all the fuel ore. What I would like to know if if I would by upgrading the equipment and buying that down and then upgrading a buying port and selling the lot (This would have to be the next day). Is this worth the cash. If this is not the correct way please can someone tell me what I should be looking at doing to make money while blue.

Thanks Mark.

Eh. In a blue game you need to have a large number of cols producing the eq
you plan to sell. Otherwise SDT or Mega is probably going to be more profitable
and you'll just get outcashed. But if you're not worried about that...

If you do planet trading you want to know what the ptrade % is. 100% is good,
if it's less than 70% I wouldn't even bother, altho that will depend on the
kind of ports you get. You'll want to target good MCICs. Linky:
http://tw-cabal.com/strategy/economy2.html

Don't upgrade all of them. Upgrade good eq sellers and good eq buyers. If you're
going to blue cash you might as well upgrade for experience, I hate doing that
as you can't colo... but it will improve your buydown price. Then all you need to
do is go down the list of target sellers, buy them down, then sell them off.

As for upgrading ore, depends on the turn base. If this is an unlim... well
then you can probably get away with a lot more. If it is an unlim then you're
definately going to get outcashed by a red, tho, and would be better just
going red. If it's not an unlim then, personally, I'd just upgrade a handful
of the sellers and buyers in ore... probably planning a route and figuring
how far I can go w/o needing to refuel.

Let me start a bit more basic than Singularity.

For low-turn stock edits, blues make money by farming... which is where you colonize organics on an Oceanic planet, and sell that to good organic buying ports. You save turns in the long run by putting enough colonists on ore production so that you don't have to spend turns buying down ore. Like Sing said, you want to test the ports though, and make sure they're good buyers. For organics, the only automated way to test MCIC that I know of is my haggle routine, available from http://www.grimytrader.com.

Sorry for the plug, but how else do y'all check MCIC for Fuel or Org ports? Or even Equipment selling ports for that matter.

+EP+

Personally, I don't test fuel mcic... usually the cost to warp to
a port w/ good fuel mcic is higher than buying it for more at the
port I'm already on. Orgs, ck planet nego writes org mcic to file.
Tho I rarely trade orgs except in stock edits (solo blue in a
stock edit? For eq, same thing usually (or equip haggle tracker
for SDT before mobiles).

The game I am in I was red and ended up going blue by killing other reds figs. This is why I need a way of making cash while blue. I have read planet trading is the main way blues make cash. How many cols need to be on the plaent to make good cash. It seems the max I can have on the planet is 50k before the the production goes down again. ElderProphet I donwnloaded your MCIC checker from grimmy but when I tried to run it I got an error that the beta had expired. Please can you advise on where I can get a later version. I may look at creating my own MCIC checker.

This is what I am planning for the script to do.

Warp to fuel selling sector.
Buydown the fuel ore regardless of MCIC.
Upgrade port if good Organics or MCIC port
Buydown Organics / Equipment if good MCIC port
Sell Organics / Equipment if good MCIC port
Warp to next sector.

Thanks for you input.

Markr

The best way to stay red, while running a script is to pay tolls. If all the red figs are defensive, and u are running WorldSSM, try the Paranoid sets from the the Navigation control...or have a corpie (or another player who is blue), set personal figs, kill those figs, and go back red.

Heh, I was hoping to have updated that before you checked... but I will as soon as time allows. Mine isn't a MCIC checker, it's a haggle routine. The MCIC is just a byproduct.

+EP+

Okay, I posted an updated version of my haggle routine on Grimy. Thanks for the motivation

Thanks Singularity for the response. The problem that I see with your model is that you have to take a planet to a port to test the MCIC, at least with Orgs. It's way more efficient to ship trade there to determine MCIC. I typically burn a few blue turns early on running around with some empty holds, as well as some orgs and equipment (if I'm interested in trading both later) and set my routine to Haggle and Hold... so it determines the MCICs without completing the trade. Just be sure to toggle that feature back off before you SDT, doh!!

+EP+

If you're just looking at the fuel cost yes, but you can buy fuel as you go to gas the planet up... giving you a ready dropper/torper (which greatly evens the odds on turn cost). In addition you can use a higher TPW ship and planet hop sector to sector, dropping limpets to camo your ports while locking the grid.

Not sure if it'd be more profitable to sell off 50k orgs or if it'd make more sense to buy and sell strictly eq, especially in an unlim where time is more important than turns. Outside of a stock edit I'd never trade orgs, and even then I'd prefer to SDT and avoid blue cashing completely in a stock.

Heck, when was the last time you've had a developed O that produces orgs and is mobile? That survives for long?

I cheat and use a script to world trade for me.

Well, let's see...
Assume we initially grid with a 2 TPW ship, later we come back with a planet to test MCIC. That's 2 turns, plus 2 turns worth of fuel (400/250), plus one to port. Minimal, that is 5 turns to check out a port. Better to do it when you gridded initially, at a total cost of 3 turns. Obviously you can't use that method once the game gets hot, but for the early gridding by hand, it makes a lot of sense. That way you know where the good ports are long before you have mobiles... and you can keep those sectors gridded.

And the key to getting a developed O to mobile status is to make all the money as a red, cap the O, then defend it since you have all the resources. Works in a solo anyway

+EP+

A couple of things to keep in mind:

Don't bother upgrading organics sellers. If you are playing an unlim it's a waste of time or if you are playing a turn game it's a waste of turns. You'll make more using your time/turns to buy down equipment. The only time you should be moving organics is if you need it to upgrade a citadel. Likewise by keeping the time/turns you use to buy/move fuel to a minimum, you can improve your cashing efficiency. Ideally you should use a planet with fuel production of 1:1 at max production so you don't need to buy so much.

If you are trying to keep your experience down so that you remain fedsafe for colonizing, upgrade the ports only a few units at a time so you don't gain any experience.

Whenever you buy product from a port, you increase the cash onhand on the port. This will be like Christmas to any red that happens upon it. If you can get by with just upgrading the fuel and equipment sellers in your base sectors, you can make it more difficult for others to access this cash buildup.

To determine to best way to cash, you need to take a close look at the edits. It is an unlim or turn game? Is it a MBBS game? What is the planetary trade percent? Are there any special planet types? What is the port regen rate? What is the colo production rate of Terra and are colos available? and so on...

quote:Originally posted by Mantis

A couple of things to keep in mind:
If you are trying to keep your experience down so that you remain fedsafe for colonizing, upgrade the ports only a few units at a time so you don't gain any experience.



All good suggestions Mantis.

For Markr: To upgrade a port for zero experience, up it 3 units at a time on eqp, 4 at a time on org, 9 at a time on ore.

On a related subject - if you wish to stay fedsafe and your exp points exceed 999 for whatever reason, it is possible to shed
5/9 of exp every day at a relatively low cost by "self podding". If you are not familiar with the mechanism please ask.