Coming back after a four month break; what should I work toward?

[xXEldestXx]

Topic. I started playing TC again last night, and I can't quite remember what my plans were. I'd like to get started on the plots in the near future. I suppose I'll list my assets and ask for advice:

Fully outfitted Nova Raider(my personal ship)

2 Wheat farm complex in ringo moon+freighters
Ore mine in Cloudbase SE+freighters
2 Silicon mine complex in Herron's nebula+freighters

3 Universal traders

11.4 million credits

71 sectors visited(mainly in the block around Herron's nebula, branching south down to Ministry of finance, and west to ghinn' escape, with nothing to th southwest)

Argon Federation Marshal
Boron Queen's Guard
Split Creature
Paranid Friend of priest Duke
Teladi Company trader
Terran citizen.

Thank you for reading, and any help you can offer would be appreciated

[TTD]

It all depends on your style of play.

Looks like you like trading and being kind to all.

So you could set up a number of Local traders( radius 3 sectors from ship's trade sector).
Do this in each of the Race's best trade areas,and your rep will increase with them and your trade rep will go up too.

As you explore further afield,keep an eye on your UTs,as they may get themselves one shotted by Qs.

Other options are open,depending on your game-style.

[Sinxar]

If you are an epic trader I invite you to give my hub trading guide a look over (its in my sig).

It assumes your not a noob, and you don't appear to be one . Basically you get some CAGs and put them to the Hub and make them buy/sell food and/or minerals. It works so well infact that you don't even need to build very much for the Hub plot, only the chip plants and crystal fabs. At my TC endgame the only thing I needed to build was PSP forges and I just let my CAGs go wild and buy everything I told them too.

CAGs are extremely powerful tools and really easy to use once you 'get it'. I can't imagine going back to STs/LTs/UTs once I have enough cash for some CAGs and a suitable home for them.

I tried this in Terran space with bio/food products. I used a trading dock instead of putting them to the Hub. It easily supported 10 CAGs all set as traders for the wares I added to the trading dock. This could have been because they have to slowboat across those massive sectors though.

Its fun and profitable if you want to try something different.

[Morkonan]

...Thank you for reading, and any help you can offer would be appreciated

What really helped me along was maxxing out all my reps with all the various factions. (Except Yaki. I have yet to max that out. I picked on them far too much.)

By maxxing out my reps, I was able to buy and trade in every sector and with all products. My Economic Ranking climbed very quickly and, as a result, all my mission rewards became much better.

So, I'd say that you should make it a priority to maximize your race reputation while you're building up your trade fleet.

Next up, create 15 sector traders and put them in safe sectors. Scout out for more locations while they are training. Then, when they are maxxed, change them to local traders with two jump limits. Don't worry with UTs until you get more mapped out and can create vast swaths of safe space for them to run to if they have trouble.

When you have your first 15 sector/local traders done and they are automated, start the Terran Plot. When you need a break from that, buy up another ten freighters and put them in good locations. If you tire of that, buy a TL and go on a Station Building Mission spree in order to create profitable sectors for your traders to trade in. Finish the Terran Plot, build a Chip Complex, start storing chips. Then, build a Mobile Mining Fleet and start hoarding ore and silicon. Then, start The Hub plot.

[Snafu_X3]

Maybe I can help.. finding Queen's Harbour & its northern sector would help immensely:

* you get Atreus' ability to fit a JD (+ 2 nearby MOs to fit triplex)
* There are 4 SPPs IS for fuel
* There are 2 decent abandoned ships nearby
* Split rep is always welcome
* Even if the nearby pirate stations have been destroyed, Strong Arms sells life support
* It's the other 'corner' of the map (from KE, although you don't seem to have done much exploring N from AP), so it gives you an idea of your limits WRT exploring
* The route there, while long, is pretty safe (no Xenon sectors to cross)

[Triaxx2]

Pick up some capitals. A nice M7 like the Shrike, or the Tiger will serve you well. If you want to get into the plots, I suggest a Shrike, particularly for the Terran Plot, because you'll need to fend off some heavy Xenon capitals, and you'll want your fighter along both for potential combat, and for the couple of occasions you can't dock your capital on the Terran stations, which for some idiotic reason can't dock capitals, despite being slightly larger than the death star.

You'll also need that cargo capacity for a few things, and being able to shrug most fighters off and flatten most capital ships is not something to be ignored.

[xXEldestXx]

Thank you all for the advice. I think I will continue to trade until I can afford a Tl, then trade and build stations until I have enough big guns for the Terran plot.