Wanton use of nukes and the path to galactic conquest!

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Mon, 8. Jun 09, 19:34

Should be arriving tomorrow in theory.

Probably works out that way because early on I've little in the way of assets to worry about and give anything troublesome a wide berth. Later on I've a lot more assets to keep an eye on distributed over a much wider area and am aggressively fielding them and putting them in harms way. Casualties are a consequence.

Tenlar Scarflame · Post by **Tenlar Scarflame** » Mon, 8. Jun 09, 23:04

Just make sure you're using a stolen motherboard, as buying equipment is against the rules

mattjenko · Post by **mattjenko** » Tue, 9. Jun 09, 12:23

Tenlar Scarflame wrote:Just make sure you're using a stolen motherboard, as buying equipment is against the rules

Am at work, and just had to explain what I was laughing at

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Tue, 9. Jun 09, 21:54

mattjenko wrote:Am at work, and just had to explain what I was laughing at

How did you get out of that one?

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 01:04

New motherboard, yay!

Still doesn't work, boo!

Musicker · Post by **Musicker** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 01:09

That really bites!

What are the symptoms?

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 01:26

NUKLEAR-SLUG wrote:New motherboard, yay!

Still doesn't work, boo!

You need to be thinking therefore about what killed it. The psu is usually a problem in these situations.

Fendalis · Post by **Fendalis** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 02:28

Hm, why not just use your repair laser?

Hope you get fixed up soon!

HalcyonSpirit · Post by **HalcyonSpirit** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 02:39

Where the computer is screwing up still is a big indicator of where the problem is. What is the computer doing, exactly, from the point you turn it on?

zombat · Post by **zombat** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 03:08

Fendalis wrote:Hm, why not just use your repair laser?

Hope you get fixed up soon!

He's decided to not allow himself to use the repair laser, even on his own asset this time around

paulhamm · Post by **paulhamm** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 03:51

N-S

Problem may just be a bad PSU. Very common part to die on a previously working machine. Just had one croak on me, really annoying.

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 18:10

paulhamm wrote:Problem may just be a bad PSU. Very common part to die on a previously working machine. Just had one croak on me, really annoying.

I'ld pretty much decided that last night and turns out it was indeed the PSU.

It had only slightly died tho, powers up everything else quite happily when it's not plugged into the motherboard and I short the green/black, but plugged in it doesn't want to know so seems like some part of the ATX 20/24 or 4 pin feed is b0rked.

Anyways...

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
07 - Salvage

I've gained myself some breathing space but the Octopus itself is a bit of a downgrade over the Pegasus in almost all respects and particularly in the one that's important to me at the moment, cargo space. 4 units isn't really going to get me anywhere fast in terms of trading, especially in Argon areas where most goods have a high per unit volume. I think I'll take the risk of heading back to Scale Plate Green, there was a couple Flower Farms and Sun Oil Refineries there, and Sunrise Flowers are only a 1 unit S-class commodity so at least I'll be able to maximise my cargo space. Well, such as it is.

Dropping thru the east gate tho I'm in for a nasty suprise..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/07-1.jpg

.. Yipe!

I wasn't expecting to see a Q loitering the other side but it fairly emphasises my original concern about the pervasive Xenon threat to this sector. I almost turned tail and ran back thru the gate to relative safety, but then I spotted a Shrike off to the left closing in on the marauding Q and that made me pause. I'm not sure how well the Shrike will fair against a Q as I've heard many horror stories of the lethality of the new generation of Xenon ships, but I'm hovering on the event horizon of the jumpgate and can slide over it easily enough if the need arises so I think I'll stick around and see how this plays out. There could be some valuable salvage opportunities here!

The approaching Shrike scrambles it's fighters and gets the first volley in while the Q is momentarily distracted by a passing trader ..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/07-2.jpg

.. and then they're at knife range and mixing it up. The Shrike seems to be packing flak which makes short work of the smaller Xenon fighters and frees up the Shrikes fighters to enagage the Q..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/07-3.jpg

.. With its escorts destroyed, and being peppered with fire from every direction, even the Q is vulnerable and it's not long before the Teladi win the day..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/07-4.jpg

I'm quite impressed with the effectiveness of the Shrike there, I was expecting that fight to go the other way. Perhaps the Q isn't all it's reputation makes it out to be? More importantly it's left some salvageable goods in the area..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/07-5.gif

.. While I'ld dearly love to be able to retrieve that Firestorm, which would go a long way to injecting some much needed startup capital, I'm afraid my little Octopus is limited only to S-class freight and the Firestorm is M-class. Pity. That said I don't have enough cargo space now to collect all the goods there so a quick trip to the Trading Port and some cargo upgrades doubles my freight capacity to a stonking 8 units. Still rubbish, but sufficient for my needs here. Retrieving what I can cram in there then I head north to PTNI Headquarters and the equipment dock located there to offload what I can.

Assets
1x Octopus Vanguard 'Goldfish'

Time: 02:37:13
Credits: 32,478

BeidAmmikon · Post by **BeidAmmikon** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 18:11

First!!!

Long live your new mobo! (and anything else you've pumped into the machine)

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 18:27

Good to see you up and running again.

I reckon it's the number of Boreas and Brigantines people lose to Qs OOS that gives them their nightmarish reputation. Wonder what kind of marine power it would take to capture one of those?

BTW how much time have you got left on that Octopus?

Cantankerous · Post by **Cantankerous** » Wed, 10. Jun 09, 22:05

Ahh, a tiny, tiny 'Pus. You know, a Harrier isn't that expensive and if you sell the 'Pus off before the timer goes...but, of course you knew that. Why else would you have taken this start?

Isshia

Al · Post by Al » Thu, 11. Jun 09, 10:25

Always good to see a battle from which you can profit. I'd be making multiple runs until you either collect everything or the Xenon get too close for comfort

Megamolanius · Post by **Megamolanius** » Thu, 11. Jun 09, 13:39

Nuclear-Slug wrote:I'm quite impressed with the effectiveness of the Shrike there, I was expecting that fight to go the other way.

Never underestimate the Teladi. I also noted the Shrike had at least one Falcon Sentinel, those things have 2x200MJ shielding, that's Corvette class shielding on a fighter !

As always your relationship with the RNG gods is amazing, enough cash to patch up your Octy and still about 2h30 before timer runs out. But then I do note you tend to go where the action is.

Trigger1112 · Post by **Trigger1112** » Thu, 11. Jun 09, 19:24

Yay! He lives![ external image ]
Sorry for lurking but i've only just caught up.
Always too much cargo, never enough space.

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Thu, 11. Jun 09, 19:48

Prev chapter<->Next chapter
08 - Interflora

32,478 credits, not too shoddy for a few minutes salvage work.

The question of course is how to put that cash to best effect. Being an S-class M5 I don't have the cargo capacity to fit passenger modules so no point buying a cargo life-support. A shame really as I've seen some lucrative taxi missions on offer. An alternative would be to fit the ship up as an explorer vessel and make a living prospecting. Unfortunately to do that would require a Mineral scanner and they retail for just under 38,000 credits, so currently I'm running a little short. The Mineral scanner seems the better long-term option tho so I'm going to need to trade my way up to the 38,000 I require. That will go a lot better if I've actually got some cargo space so I decide to invest about 4000cr or so of my current funds to max out the cargo on the Octopus. It's still not much, but it should make cargo runs a little less painful.

With that done I'm heading back down to Scale Plate Green. On the way up I'ld noticed that one of the Flower Farms in the sector was registering full cargo bays so should be selling at rock-bottom prices. Standard price deviation on Sunrise Flowers is 5 to 35 credits so if I can pick up a full load at the Flower Farm, for say 5 or 6 credits per unit, then I should have little trouble doubling that at the very least in one of the Sun Oil Refineries.

Arriving in Scale Plate Green my luck is for the time being holding and the Flower Farm turns out to be still suffering from a lack of customers, it's knocking out product at absolute rock-bottom price. With 14 units of cargo space available to me that means each shipment at 5cr/unit is costing me 70 credits, trivial. Best part tho is the nearest Sun Oil refinery is paying 30cr/unit so every sale is netting me 420cr for a net profit of 350cr per trade run. Small potatoes (and it's at times like this when you wish you had access to a superfreighter..) but, given what I've got to work with, a 700% profit margin is bloody good going. This can't last for long tho and I can see a free-trader showing up any moment and buying everything out from under me but for the moment at least this is as good an opportunity as I'm likely to get so I'm going to take it.

A good while spent shuttling Sunrise Flowers between the Farm and Refinery sees my credits slowly creep up and I've accumulated a few thousand from trade runs when I suddenly notice a computer components cargo crate on the periphery of my gravidar range..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/08-1.gif

.. This is somewhat of a concern to me as my gravidar range is fairly pitiful and will remain that way until I can afford a Duplex scanner. Is there something bad out there just out of my sight shooting up traders? Like a wing of 20 N's? I'm not particularly keen to find out but at 1300cr or so apiece a crate of computer components would be a welcome bit of salvage so creeping in carefully I head in to retrieve it.

It turns out my caution is unjustified, this time around, as there's nothing dangerous visible and from what I can tell the cause of my good fortune is not so much enemy action as careless flying. I'm pretty sure the previous owner of this crate managed to bury themselves in one of the many rocks floating about the sector and this is all that survived. Stopping off at the Trading Station to sell it I'm set to return to the Flower Farm when I notice a station peeking around one of the larger asteroids way off to the west. I hadn't noticed that one before and I'm slightly intrigued as to what it might be. Getting closer it turns out to be..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/08-2.gif

.. a Bliss Place, one of the Teladi narcotic production facilities. It's empty so of no interest to me for trading purposes but it does have an interesting mission on offer..

http://dbbr17626.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/steve/08-3.gif

.. Hmm, now that would sort my cash-flow out and it's doable too I think..

Assets
1x Octopus Vanguard 'Goldfish'

Time: 02:37:13
Credits: 33,584

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Thu, 11. Jun 09, 20:04

You could almost buy your own ship after that

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

Wanton use of nukes and the path to galactic conquest!