Best Trader

Sieg06660 · Post by **Sieg06660** » Sat, 29. Jun 13, 22:22

Just Recently started again after not playing whats the best trader to fly

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Sat, 29. Jun 13, 22:30

Depends what you want it for

The OTAS mistral is the fastest but the Boron sturgeon is the biggest and packs a 200 mj shield.

Imgran · Post by **Imgran** » Sun, 30. Jun 13, 00:21

Also depends on which game you're playing. The Boron Sturgeon, for example, is not in TC.

meremale · Post by **meremale** » Sun, 30. Jun 13, 18:47

In AP my preference is the caiman hauler, a good mix of speed and cargo
99m/s 7000 cargo.

niytiy · Post by **niytiy** » Sun, 30. Jun 13, 19:06

I agree with OTAS, hey have good speed, armament, weaponry and fairly decent cargo.

Imgran · Post by **Imgran** » Sun, 30. Jun 13, 19:10

You missed the best selling point -- best shielding in its class for both the Mistral and the MSF. Your traders have much better shot to escape unscathed and your universe traders have a much better chance to jump out before they take hull damage. That's a nice combination.

SIMON POPPLEWELL · Post by **SIMON POPPLEWELL** » Sun, 30. Jun 13, 19:10

Mistral super freighter, 15K cargo bay and top speed 78 a happy compromise between speed and carrying capacity.

And is available in both TC and AP.

bizbag · Post by **bizbag** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 04:41

meremale wrote:In AP my preference is the caiman hauler, a good mix of speed and cargo
99m/s 7000 cargo.

You don't go for the Drake? 5 m/s slower for an extra 5250 cargo?

Honved · Post by **Honved** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 17:01

Sorry, but I'm not flying a ship that goes less than 100m/s. I'd be happier to turn my remote traders loose in ships that can manage 100 or 110 m/s or even faster, rather than carry twice the capacity and get there 15 seconds after some NPC trader has gotten the deal.

I use Hauler, SuperFreighter, and XL variants as CAGS, but my STs and UTs are nearly all "standard" Freighters for the higher speed.

Imgran · Post by **Imgran** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 17:05

Honved wrote:Sorry, but I'm not flying a ship that goes less than 100m/s. I'd be happier to turn my remote traders loose in ships that can manage 100 or 110 m/s or even faster, rather than carry twice the capacity and get there 15 seconds after some NPC trader has gotten the deal.

I use Hauler, SuperFreighter, and XL variants as CAGS, but my STs and UTs are nearly all "standard" Freighters for the higher speed.

Agreed. It's pretty imperative that our freighters outrun anything bigger than a fighter.

brucewarren · Post by **brucewarren** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 17:10

If you really think speed >>>capacity what about using springblossoms. Don't bother with guns, just shield them up and send them off.

They're expensive but they will take XL cargo. Only 2000 cargo units though.

Imgran · Post by **Imgran** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 17:36

brucewarren wrote:If you really think speed >>>capacity what about using springblossoms. Don't bother with guns, just shield them up and send them off.

They're expensive but they will take XL cargo. Only 2000 cargo units though.

It would take a heck of a lot longer for a Springblossom to pay for itself than, say, a Chokaro which costs about 1/12 as much.

Honved · Post by **Honved** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 17:59

brucewarren wrote:If you really think speed >>>capacity what about using springblossoms. Don't bother with guns, just shield them up and send them off.

They're expensive but they will take XL cargo. Only 2000 cargo units though.

In the VERY long run, it MIGHT pay off. Over the course of the typical game, I seriously doubt it.

A standard TS freighter, plus 2-3 25Mj shields, plus tunings, plus assorted software, is about the same price as the Trade Mk3 software package to hire the pilot. That's about 1M credits on average; more if you get a bigger (Hauler, SF, or XL) or more militarized (TM) ship, or one that takes 200Mj shields, etc.

Adding 10+ Million to the equation for a small capital ship means that it takes 10X longer to recoup your investment, and a Q can STILL kill it in OOS combat in one volley. The reduced cargo capacity will mean that it takes even longer to pay off, and the odds of it surviving long enough to do so don't exactly seem like something to be cheerful about.

I've debated the wisdom of using fast M3s as UTs. You've got 175-210m/s speed, and the small cargo bay and restriction against XL goods means that the trader won't spend time running typical Ore or Silicon that your slower and more vulnerable LTs could handle. The cargo limits also mean that E-Cells can't be carried in sufficient quantity to constitute a high total profit, so they'll probably be overlooked in favor of small quantities of high-value high-profit technical goods or weapons where 90% of a typical cargo bay is wasted, but perfect for this type of ship (think "Millenium Falcon"). Then again, the 1M+ cost of the ship means that they need 3x the earnings to pay back the investment, partially offset by the 2x speed at which they'll move.

ajm317 · Post by **ajm317** » Mon, 1. Jul 13, 18:35

The best trader to fly is of course down to personal preference. If I were flying one personally I'd probably go with the Mistral, just because it's fast.

In terms of UT's I tried to look at this quantitatively a while back. Of the ships I looked at the Drake performed the best. It performed better than the Mistral, Caiman Hauler, Mistral SF and the Springblossom in terms of credits earned. The Hayabusa is probably a little bit better but I didn't look at that one.

http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?p=3929651

Ripskar · Post by **Ripskar** » Tue, 2. Jul 13, 19:14

Trading is all about speed vs. cargo capacity.

Basicly this produces a list starting with the OTAS Mistral being the fastest TS to the Boron Sturgeon being the largest.
There are few products that can really utilise the cargo capacity of the XL SuperFreighters (these tend to see more use as fleet tenders) so most players opt for Hauler types as the mainstay of a trading fleet, the Caiman Hauler standing out as being quick with a decent cargo hold, though there are a couple of other ships that can compete well at this level.

At the smaller end the Mistral and Baldric are popular classes though if you view the ships purely from a cargo and speed perspective other ships come into play.
If you need XL cargo capacity the Angel can beat any TS out there, whilst in Terran space the Scabbard can outperform the ubiquitous Baldric if you assign other ships to Ore and Ice.
The Express Hauler can perform in an equally profitable role in the Comonwealth.
As such it depends what role you have in mind for a trader, the ships are just tools and having the right one for the job is more important than having "The Best" (or are we having a "My hammer is better than your screwdriver!" conversation?)

(You also mention "to fly", are you piloting this yourself?)
There are situations where things like the Springblossom and Spitfyre are the better options though these are rather specialist applications.