I got about 5000 experience in one game and -3000 alignment. Steal ratio is 100% in that game.

I haven't stolen or robbed anything yet. Is this enough exp to start stealing and robbing, or should I wait more?

If I steal and then steal again is that an automatic bust? Does it keep track by player or ship, because I heard about the SST where you transport out of your ship after stealing and selling it back. Exactly how does this work? Two Evil Ports, park one ship at Port A, and the other at Port B, then steal from port A, sell it back, transport, steal from port B sell it back, transport, and then repeat until busted.

Does the MegaRob ever work? Use a ship with low cargo holds like a Merf, and then try to Rob the whole credits. If you get busted you lose all your holds, but if you don't you get the MegaCredits the port had.

SDT needs a planet, right? Steal the cargo, dump it on a planet, and then trade it back.

Rob = (3/RobFactor%)*Exp

Steal = Exp/(30*StealFactor%)

If both are at 100% then I should be able to safely steal less than 166 cargo holds, and rob about 15000 credits a turn.

Did I get these things right, or did I miss something?

Go to http://www.tw-cabal.com, and look at the strategy section. Read the Economics of Tradewars. Those essays explain red play pretty well. Then read everything else on the site, and that should get you up to speed on 80% of everything you need to know about TW. And, yes, you have plenty of alignment (you only need -100 to start stealing stuff) and plenty of exp.
-Traitor

When you first start playing red and playing by hand it will be very frustrating for you. You will bust a lot and not understand why and get discouraged. And obviously the more you bust the more exp you will lose... which will give you worse and worse results.

I would suggest start with the very basics like SSM (Steal Sell Move). You need a port pair which are both buying equipment. Also make sure the game allows stealing from buy ports. The basic idea is start at the 1st port, steal equipment, sell it back to the port, then move to the second port and repeat until you bust. After you bust you will need to refurb your ship by buying holds from a class 0, then find a new pair.

I would also suggest getting a helper or script which will automate the process for you. Watching the script do it for you is a good way to learn, plus it will do all the math for you.

I got ATTAC, which has Evil scripts in it.

If I go back to a port I stole from, is that an automatic bust, or does it clear after I move and steal from another port?

I read TW-CABAL's page, but I guess I need more details than that. I'll try reading it again until it starts to make sense.

Ok I re-read the SSM I'll give it a try tomorrow when my turns refresh. Wish me luck.

You can't steal from the same port 2x in a row, once you steal from a second port you can go back to the 1st. 2x in a row from the same port will be a bust.

Once you get SSM working, then you can move onto SST (Steal Sell Transport) if you are in a turns game. Same idea, except instead of moving between the 2 ports you will need 2 ships. Once you steal and then sell, you xport into the 2nd ship and repeat. Only more complicated in the setup since you need two ships and the towing since there is the possibility to burn a lot of turns if you aren't careful.

If you are in a turns game, remember to always drop figs on top of the pairs you are working because the best way to return to a pair is with twarp. Take notes of when busts clear in the game and when you busted at each pair. Otherwise if you try to just move and look you will never get anything accomplished. You basically want to build up a list of pairs that you can burn all your turns with each day and each bust cycle.

Last note is being red is much easier when you have a corp mate working with you. Your blue teammate basically will do everything possible to save you turns.

Actually a couple things to note...its actually in this order Sell...Steal...Move or Sell...Steal...Transport. You must have full holds of equipment before you start your evil script in most cases. Very few scripts will recognize you dont have any and upgrade the port and steal the equipment for you. You first Sell your equipment, this makes you money, then you Steal it back from the port to refill your holds, then you Move, Transport, Flee, whatever to another port and repeat the same. If you rob or steal at a port then you must rob or steal from another port before you can use the first port again or you will bust. Also, after extern, provided busts dont clear daily, you will be able to trade at your busted ports again but wont be able to rob or steal there until the bust is cleared. The easiest way to work being evil is if you have at least 2 evils and at least 1 blue, its nice to have 1 blue for each evil but 1 blue can easily support 2 evils. The blues bring you furbs to blow up to replenish holds you loose when you bust. They also tow you around so you dont waste turns. If you have at least 2 evils you can clear each others busts, once you bust at several ports then your partner runs the same ports until he busts, he has to bust on the same ports you did, this will clear your bust and allow you to run them again even in the same day regardless of when bust clears are set to run. In a perfect world, a corp of 2 reds and 1 blue could SST in their own bubble, or home base, all day long as long as the blue can supply them with enough furbs. Some scripts have been written that actually talk to the other players scripts, this will tell the other players script what ports are ok to SST at and it automatically clears busts for them. If you can get a setup like that then you should never have to leave home to make tons of cash, your blue can manage and upgrade planets while the reds make money for him. The blue can hunt and call the reds in case of an invasion opportunity where the blue doesnt want to loose alignment. Hope that helps.

Actually it's Steal sell move.

I forgot about the upgrading of the ports. All my evil scripts you start with empty holds and then the script upgrades the port for you based on your current exp.

Guess it just depends on who's scripts you use.

Guess it depends on how your scripts are written, every one I have ever ran will sell full holds to a port, then steal them back, then go to the next port. Even one I have that upgrades where you can start empty, it will upgrade and steal full holds then goes to the next port and does the same, then when it goes back to the first port it sells, then steals it back again. I beleive if you steal from the port first then try to trade at it to sell your holds you will automatically bust.

I have ATTAC for now. How does ATTAC handle the SSM scripts?

quote:Originally posted by Shorty

Guess it depends on how your scripts are written, every one I have ever ran will sell full holds to a port, then steal them back, then go to the next port. Even one I have that upgrades where you can start empty, it will upgrade and steal full holds then goes to the next port and does the same, then when it goes back to the first port it sells, then steals it back again. I beleive if you steal from the port first then try to trade at it to sell your holds you will automatically bust.

You're fine to port regularly at a port you just stole from. So long as you haven't busted there, you won't bust. Most people do sell steal move so that when they move to the new port, they don't have to upgrade it as well, since they already have equipment in their holds.

For SSM, it works between 2 adjacent ports and goes back and forth so it doesn't steal from the same one twice. Click Evil->Show evil pair ports and it will show you all the SSM ports you can use. Start off in one sector with equipment fill out the SSM form and click OK.
In an unlimited game, you can use WorldSSM, it will buy your equipment for you and keep moving between SSM ports making lots of cash.
If you have questions about how the ATTAC SSM works, you can email me or also post to the ATTAC forum to make sure that i see it.
earth.

I tried it and it works. I got busted five times and made about 2MCr in a short amount of time, and then went back to Pair Porting so I don't lose more experience. How many times do you get busted before you give up on a SSM?

On a game like Alien Base Game A, there are too many people in the game to do anything for too long. I had one player try to attack me while I was SSMing, and I warped to a safe sector after he destroyed my shields. I am noting the evil ports and will get back to them some day. ATTAC keeps track of the busts, but I wrote them down in a notebook just to be safe.

Thans.

Actually once you manage to get your exp up to about 4-5k it should stabilize and run up and down between about 4500 and 10k exp. If you get exp higher than that you will bust more and will end up in that range, if you have exp lower than that it will just take a little longer to get it up there thats all. All the evil scripts seem to average about the same range. If you start fake busting or double busting because of getting your busts screwed up you will lose more but you just have to bust some planets to get it back up again.

Its not actually steal sell move.