Boring. Only for later reference.

This session was, well, boring.

tl;dr
I bought a Cobra and looked for a good trade route and did not find any.


Exectuing my plan from the end of my last session, I sell my hauler at Ackerman Market in Eravate. Then I realize all that mapping of equipment was basically only for my hauler, which needs class 2 outfits. The Eagle, however, needs class 3 shields, frameshift drive and thrusters. This just incentivizes me further to sell it and go on a trade/data collection rampage with a Cobra. A little bit of regret, as I wanted to know how a perfectly outfitted Eagle flies like; but I can still do this later.

 - last landing for my hauler; the Lakon Type 9 there is stuck in the entrance cage








As a nice discovery, Russel Ring has Class A3 (500k CR) and B3 (160k CR) frameshift drives. But, a Cobra it is now. I get it one of the free paint jobs from last black friday and choose the "orange rattler". Somehow, orange is a leading colour theme in Elite: Dangerous, anyways. Then I check outfitting. Of course, the cargo racks need upgrade to maximum capacity; I leave the shield generator on board, I still want some combat capacity, so the maximum cargo capacity is not 44 tons, a bit more than double that of the hauler. The rest of my remaining cash I need for actually being able to trade commodities.
But I note that here are also class A4 (1.610.080 CR) and B4 (536.693 CR) frameshift drives ("FSD") here. Current jump range is 10,55 (8,99) ly. B4 would propel me 18,51 (15,84) ly, A4 22,71 (19,37) ly. Also available: A4 and B4 power plants (same prices as FSD) and an A3 sensor with 6 km optimal range for 158.331 CR. Now, off I go for some double as fast as before commodity trading!

Noting the prices here, they have shifted quite a bit again; for the worse. Power generators are the same high supply still, though. I should have taken the time to note the prices in Ackerman Market, too. Now my profit is a bit dependend on speculation. Well, 10.000 CR for the full batch is not bad.

I do not like routes under at least 1000 CR per unit, so I have to do my research. Checking Serebrov Station, Yakabugai again, bringing some Coffee, and one tobacco. I know they are illegal there, let´s see what the black market yields for this.
Outifts: B3 thrusters and FSD (169.304 CR),  A3 power plant (507.912 CR) , A3 power distributor and scanner (each 158.331 CR), B3+A3 life support.
I then leave for the next station without having checked for a black market, damn. Montalcini City, next stop in system, has none. Superconductors sell >1000 CR per unit, and copper can be brought back for around 400 CR per unit. An ok trade route, but I want to look for better options still.

Next stop Aristotle Gateway. I can bring power couplings back to Serebrov Station for a good profit. And the black market yields only 4735 CR for the tobacco, which would translate in only 300 CR profit. Not worth the risk! The bulletin board gives two fetch missions for 60k+30k CR. For this money, I do travel 110.000 ls to Yaping Enterprise, LHS 3447, where both coltan and betrantide are listed according to my notes.

 - feels really far out there









Finally arriving at Yaping Enterprise, I check outfits and find A3 thrusters (507.912 CR), C4 thrusters ad shield generators (each 178.898 CR), buy 12 coltan and 12 betrantide for the contracts and leave again. Back at Serebrov Station in Yakabugai, I realize that the contracts were in fact not really worth it. Better is trade route between here and the 800ls away Levi-Montalcini City (superconductors for 955 CR / unit, retour cobalt for 355 CR / unit). But, where is my dream >1000 CR route? I guess I will have to move on in order to find it!

Next stop: Giztenko Ring, Chamunda system. 2500 ls out. Shipyard has a Python for 59 million CR and a Dropship for 38 million CR. Cobra, Type 6. Outfits show some FSD of various classes. Only a few commodities on low/med supply. Not suited for trade routes.

LHS 3479 looks at first untinteresting, but the only commodity trade outpost there allegidly exports gold. Worth to check out, I guess. Uh, maybe not... it is 9,94 ly away. I cannot cross this distance yet with cargo in my hold. However, same result; not suited for trade routes. Then I realize I forgot about my earlier efforts on beta3 to analyse the galaxy map: poor=low population is not good for trade. So I guess it is time for studying the galaxy map once more, to find systems which have high population, a good mix of all economies and are close to each other.


After some musing but no real breakthrough, the evening runs late. This was a not very satisfying evening, as I had a larger cargo capacity but did not put it really to use as I was, unsuccessfully, looking forbetter trade routes.