Current game: Mbbs/Gold, evil 1 tpw ship with 250 holds, 32k ports.
Game Play: worked my way into the evil ship as an early red (ck sst/jet), found 2 nice adjacent ports
(xxs-xxb) in a quiet local, upgraded the xxb port, continued with sst, next day i gtorp'd a
planet over the xxs port and maxed out the equip., bought down the equip at worst, mega
robbed the xxs port, sold all equip to adjacent xxb port at 4 turns per cycle.

Benefits: acually was a good earner, made my align and exp. bounce hard red, did not rely on class 0 or
furbs.
Problems: well if your ports are found too early it sure set's a guy back, the constant planet acts like a
beacon for enemy, the xxb port becomes an inefficient buyer when cycled many times.

I know of one other player that plays this, and it was his off hand hint a couple yrs ago that lead me to give it a try. In all my yrs. of playing I have not seen this used. Certainly, the mod'd evil ship makes this red cashing possible. (would not like to try it in a 3 or 4 tpw ship).
Any comments?

Sure, you can do that. If I've got a red and it's MBBS, I prefer building bases at SxS for exactly this reason. Buydown, mega, use the experience for SDT or SST later.

Now let's look at some things...

A 32k prod bought, cash stolen back, will net approx 4m to a decent buyer (buyer ports don't actually wear out over time, but ship negos vary based on a lot of conditions). You can do better with a better port, so a lot will depend on how selective you are about buyer MCICs. A really good MCIC might net 5m.

But first, let's tweak the situation a little.

If you buydown to a port, then move, then sell, you're wasting a lot of turns. Buydown takes 1 turn, dumping takes none, but later you're picking that back up again. This actually means it takes 5 turns (buy, pickup, move, sell, return) per cycle.

Instead, buy, move, dump, to a planet under the xxB, return, repeat. That takes 3 turns per cycle. Now you can nego the entire planet in one lump, taking 1 turn for the entire 32k. That means you can planet haggle, assuming the planet nego rate is good enough (MBBS tends to be 100%), and get more cash for the entire block (as you sell off to an xxB it will offer less per load, reducing your net cash per block).

32,760 / 250 = 131. So 131 rounds. 131 * 3 = 393. There will be a few extra unuts at the end, plus the nego and mega turns, so let's round up to 400 turns. 4,000,000 / 400 = 10,000 credits per turn (12.5k on a really good port).

Now a fully setup team SST maxxes at 14k per turn on the best MCIC ports. SDT is 17k. On the lower end, SST is about 10k and SDT is about 14k. If you don't have a furb, partner or enough experience then that can vary, too. So you're looking at about the low SST area, obviously better than PPT or SSM.

Unfortunately this also costs more per port, too, since you have to upgrade the buyers first. Overall, it means it's less turn efficient and more costly to setup. However, you do get experience out of it and an upgraded port pair. That could be useful if you have the cash to bust-up, but would rather use it to get ports started instead. But in that case it might be more effective to build your base under the xxS and just go for it that way.

If you read my post under the colonizer thread you can actually use all of this together. Have someone colonize-buydown a port, have the red mega the port for exp, then have that red start cashing with SDT.

Little trick:
Because seller ports charge more when their % is low, upgrading as you buy out (buy all first, then upgrade 26, buy 250 from there) puts more cash on the port, making it easier to pull of a mega later. That trick works well during early mega games too, before your sellers are upgraded.

Doctor Who had a different method for pre L4 megarob using non adjacent ports. Simplest an SXS and an SXB, but a BXS and an SXB would also work.

Pop a fastest-to-L1 planet over each and use the beamer to transfer equip (and ore if only one selling ore). Fewer turns than warping between adjacent ports and less likely to lose both ports to discovery.

Yeh, using tpad to put the planet and the other port further apart. Safer. Less turn efficient tho, since you have to fuel things. It's actually not less turns than a 1 tpw ship and an adjacent port tho, as the OP talked about. Buy, tpad there, dump, tpad back. Still 3 turns either way. But would work in a situation where you've got worse ships.

Still, SST kind of owns it, and no need to upgrade ports. SDT blows it out completely.

I guess you could combine the 2, steal, dump, tpad. lol. Same turns as sdt, slightly more ore costs, but might have better range and only 1 colt.

That's actually not a horrible way to change up an unlim world planet SST. Instead of 2 ships, 2 planets, you'd only need 1 ship. Not sure it's worth it in the long run tho.

that was a good massage, sing.
i am playing solo red (Silverwings A) and most of the time i am looking for less profile... often i will sacrifice the max cashing available... ie: will solo sst over sdt to achieve less footprint.
Placing the planet over the buyer... "doh!" ... should of caught that one, and the idea with the T-pad, Kav. puts it all together.
Sometimes i think we get "caught up" in the struggle to develope the strongest asset position. it polarizes the approach to game play. We really only need the assets to implement a "cool" strategy. There is a ton of fun to be had in TW, cruis'in at an easy pace... surviving by your wits, experience and a willingness to explore new ideas.
Anyone else having a brain storm?
cc bee.... out.

Nod, yes that's certainly an issue as a solo in a competitive universe. There's a way around that tho, one that'd probably worth the credits. A lot of people in your position use SDT and blow the planet when they're done. Depending on what haz clear is, and how close you are to extern, it might be a good way to clean up your tracks while still getting good cash per turn. The same could be used with your megarob strategy.



Oh sure, but arguing that a turns game isn't about turn efficiency seems heretical. In a lesser competitive game it can be true, tho. Still, all it takes is one person/corp to play aggressively and everyone else has to in order to survive.

I dont particularily agree with commiting yourself to mega's before you're lvl 4.. it's just too much out there to be snatched away with little chance for profit.

But in that particular game, you should have gone blue a long time ago, as those L's make figs at 1:1.
If sourdiesel would come back and move that lvl 4 L he has before it gets collided you could be in a seriously bad place here pretty quick. You can't have more than 25% of the figs in game and falling fast.

lol... sorry to dissappoint you silence... i don't always play to win. In Silver A, i wanted to try something new, and had moderate success. As far as figs go.. well there were 2 mill figs in game last i looked and i have 600k figs and a lv6 giant 10mill planet (as of tonight). How much does a guy need. After all your ship holds only 80k figs.