Original ST Version Strategy Thread

Excellent post McBern, I remember that when I finished the game back in the day, I did have points deducted for time. I also had a lot of lower grade goods, but I really didn't pay much attention, I was just trying to get the bloody thing completed. Good tips and explaination of the points system.

With the ST version I played, the tactic I used to make money was an expanded variant of your scattergun strategy. Fly repeated runs between Woromed and Jondd; on the outbound trips carry control nodes to sell in a bar on Woromed, then on the way back carry scatterguns to sell in a bar on Jondd. Carry NO CARGO unless it's something you're turning in at Banville; in that version pirates would only attack your ship if you had cargo in your hold. They didn't know or care about the much more lucrative things in your lockers.

I never really cared about the score, so time spent walking to bars and chatting with drunks didn't bother me.

Hello Brian!

The Autoslew auto-aims at pirateships (that's what I heard) and does not exist in the AtariST-Version.

In fact, the best price for Control Nodes is found on Glory, which also has much less crime!

I'm attempting to do something that I always thought of doing but never actually got around to, a spreadsheet of prices of almost everything in the game everywhere.  What I thought were absolutes before, through repeated testing, seem to be more variable than I thought.  So far I have a whopping 2 cities for datapoints, Drahew and Sheshco, but will work on other starports and then outlying cities (I believe all cities on a planet or system have the same prices) later.

For example, I thought that the prices for ships parts, weapons/armor, and food were the same at every type of store in a city.  Turns out that there are 2 or 3 price schedules per (planet/system, don't know yet) and while one may be much more common, they can vary within a city.  Burgers are 14cr almost everywhere on Jondd, but there are a few bars that charge 16cr.  Control nodes are usually 1785cr, but some shops sell them at 2295.

Based on the system, the inventory is all the same, you won't find some part shops in Sheshco selling Control Nodes (or even Photon Bridges).  But anything that isn't available over the counter can be found with enough time and money in a random meeting in a bar booth.

Speaking of buying in the bar, Charmer's are worth their cost easily, especially when you are buying your expensive Ground Scanner, Cloaker, or Concentrator (and probably Decloaker later).  in Woromed/Sheshco, average price (over 10 buys, with my default 70 charisma) for a Ground Scanner was 11500, with prices seen from 9000 up to 14000.  Buying a Charmer (avg price 480) and then saving (memory save or in-game save) so you can retry for best price is definitely worth the cost if you can charm your way down to a 9000cr GS.

   Garrick
   www.synthe.net/sundog/sundog.htm

Most of my money was made running Concentrators and Control Nodes from Lafser to Glory. I was looking for the item with the most margin for profit, so a DeCloaker you can buy for an avg of 17k selling 19k is only 2k profit isn't really worth it at all.
Control Nodes aren't the more profitable, but you save major time by not having to haggle at all. NPCs always offer 5,100cr for them on Glory and to my knowledge always cost around 1'800cr on Jondd.
Concentrators you can get from 9'800-16'000cr and sell between 17'600-24'000cr (Average buy: 12k / sale:19k) so more of a profit, but you lose too much time if you haggle to get the best price...
It gets boring after a while too.

As for doing cargo runs, I love doing it for fun, but extremely rarely is it worth it. I mean a 5-10k profit run? 20-30k with both loads(and no fuel reserve for fighting pirates) ? Might as well carry 10x concentrators in the pod for twice the profit at no risk... well muggers but I always have a shield in the 4th body slot.
I can't wait to experiment in this version of the game !

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[ EDIT ]

As for other strategies? 
 - Always carry a shield in one of your 4 slots. Yeah it's going to slow the trading, but staying alive is more important.  Also sell the shield (say, on Glory for best price) when it has 2 charges left and buy a new one.
 - I've seen a very high amount of complaining about "Burgers" and food over the years.  Nobody ever mentions using Nutrapacks... Not only one of these pretty much refill the food bar from near empty to full, but it increases vigor, which is important on long pod trips in the wilderness.
 - Ground combat/encounter are total waste of time.  I once tried fighting with 2 shields and 2 scatterguns, and after a few hours (when I got tired of it) and having found nothing much of value, I came to the conclusion it's just not worth it.
 - As you're exploring the regional cluster of stars and their planets, always pick-up the Cryogens and store them in different towns on Jondd.  That way you have them handy for the colony upgrades where you need them.  Saves a ton of time that way.
 - Obviously getting a Cloaker and a Ground Scanner asap is extremely helpful and makes the game easier all around.  The former can be bought in Lafser, the latter in Woremed (I think).
 - If you're not playing with save states, make sure you dump most of your money in the bank on a high-law system, only keeping what you need.  Just in case you hit "Sleep" by mistake or get mugged.  You can also transfer your hard-earned cash to other bank for free.
 - Having High Dexterity helps tons with space combat.  So if you're planning to do cargo runs or hunting pirates, that's the stat to have.  Strength is good for HPs, and Intelligence seems to help with some trading aspect.  I've never used luck that much, but it could be useful in a pinch, but I prefer tangible stats.
 - Setting your next warp destination as soon as you land, then refilling your fuel before leaving makes sure that your tanks are topped in case you have to fight/cloak while moving around in space.  It also makes sure you don't run out of fuel, generally speaking.
 - Speaking of fuel, buying an extra double load on planets where the fuel is super cheap early in game where money is scarce will save you lots of credits. I don't remember where the accessible best prices are... Was it Lafser?  I think so.
 - When parking your pod, always park with an angle  either 45 or 90 degrees if compared with other pods in the parking lot.  It helps finding yours right away and minimizes the chance of getting mugged while trying to find the correct one.
 - When looking for some proper cargo for either profit or for Banville, the stock exchange changes it's stocks every hour in-game time.  So enter the exchange, see what's there, get out, sleep until the next hour, re-enter.  Rince and Repeat until you find what you are looking for.  Not all towns have all cargo tho.
 - Apparently, Jadul seems to slightly beat Glory for selling Cloakers and Concentrators... About +10% maximum price.  Tho that might just be my current game character which has 75 charisma... But since Control Nodes and Scatterguns sells LOWER than on Glory, I think I am right in assuming in Jadul's favor.
 - You can buy DeCloakers on Banville early enough for 16-24k, and they sell (easily) for 28-31k on Jadul.  When offered less, just barter and dont be afraid to say no (Had a few 22-25k offer from NPCs that won't haggle). Major money made quick. Also most goods sell well on Jadul, like Comgear and Sunsuns, if you can handle pirates.

(Maybe more edits to come as I think of stuff)