G'Kar's Guide to Master Trading

Preface

Guiding others seems to be my lot in life. I figured I may as well write it all down. It don't mind. At least I am very good at it. I will show you how to navigate, trade and handle your craft like an old space hound. I will however not teach you to fight.

Table of contents

1. Sectors and Wormholes
2. Things that noone told you
3. Things that everyone told you
4. Control
5. Navigation
6. Trading
7. Communication
8. Ships

1. Sectors and Wormholes

This can seem like a lot at first, but you'll get the hang of this in a few minutes. Let's start off with the very basic basics. That feels like a good place to start.
The Terminus universe is divided into nine sectors. These are arranged in a 3x3 matrix. Some say that this perfection is evidence that god exists, but I will not get started on that discussion. The universe is really a three dimensional place and for this reason sectors are referred to by three coordinates: x, y and z. The third dimension is however not used in this universe. In other words: The world is flat.
Sectors are referred to either by number or by name. It is really simple. Here, let me show you:

You may find most of the names logical. The ones in the corners could use some extra explanation, though.

• Warrior is a reference to the fact that this is the home sector for the Warrior Fleet Galaxia, also known as the WFG.
  
• Peacekeeper is a reference to the home sector for the Peace Keeper Union. This bunch of friendly characters are usually refereed to as the PKU.
  
• Trader similarly is a reference to the Traders Guild. They are usually friendly people. I should know. I am one of them myself. Oh, yes, we also have a nice three letter code, TGI.
  
• Chaos. Now this is the home sector for a pair of odd characters. The Chaos Maker Clan. I suggest you think more than twice before entering this sector. There are friendly folks in here as well, but they tend to get testy when people fly around without asking for permission.

In order to travel between sectors you should use wormholes. These are rather odd looking celestial objects that sit around in space, doing nothing much except fold space in odd ways. They are indeed useful, as they will take you somewhere else in a second. Bring barf bags.

The worm holes have rather peculiar names. These are however rather useful. They show where the wormhole leads. One example could be:

• Wormhole-12-Trader

The last part of the name shows where the wormhole leads. In this case, the wormhole would take me home to the home sector of the Traders Guild. Practical, isn't it?

All you have to do to use a wormhole is come to a full stop on top of it. This can however give the nasty effect that you may travel back in the other direction before you have time to leave. There is a trick to avoiding this. Don't come to a full stop. Leave the engines on at about 10% power. Then, use the internal dampers (by default the "b" key, I believe) to stop. Just as you go through the wormhole, release the dampers and you will move away from the wormhole on the other side at a comfortable speed. If you didn't know it before, you know it now: The dampers are the equivalent of jumping on the brakes.

2. Things that noone told you

Yes, there are probably more than a few things that noone has told you. I'll try to clarify a few of them here. For example, when you go through a wormhole, your electronic star chart will go bananas. It always does. All you have to do to correct the problem is refresh the client. In most space craft it is the F11 key, I believe.

Another thing that some people fail to know is how the ships cargo holds work. Let us use an example: A Delta Frigate. This ship has 30 tons of cargo space and also room for 50 troops and 10 colonists. This does not mean that you have to choose one or the other. In fact, you can carry 50 troops AND 10 colonists AND cargo. But it gets even better than that. The thirty tons of cargo space means that you can bring a maximum of 30 tons of EACH cargo. Yes, this means that you can carry 30 tons of gold AND 30 tons of Steel AND 30 tons... Well, you get the drift.

STAY CLOAKED. If you are cloaked, more or less noone will detect you. There are ways of hunting down cloaked vessels, but at least the raiders and stations will leave you alone unless you practically ram them by misstake. If you want a fight, turn off the cloak. If you want to remain safe, keep the cloak up.

There are a few server commands that are very useful. First of all "who". This command will show all players who are online. Second command is "ex". This is a short for examine and will show details about objects. If you give the server command "ex me" it will give a detailed description of yourself and your ship. If you replace the "me" with a name or number of an object you will recieve information about that instead. If you do not own the object you want to examine, the command ex will tell you little more than who owns it. If on the other hand you do own the object, you will get a detailed description just like you did with "ex me".

3. Things that everyone told you

"Read the terminus FAQ." Remember that one? Yes, you've been told. In this case, it is also a very good idea. The FAQ contains a lot of information that is good to know. Information on colonisation, raiders and many other features specific to Terminus and some general information about XSW. Read it, all of it. I guarantee there is something in there you don't know yet.

4. Control

Here really is not very much to say. This comes with experience, but there are a few things one should remember. Make sure you know where the key for the internal dampers is located. It is hard to stop without it. Also, make sure you know where the key is that sets the engine power to 0. In combination with each other, you will have a very short stopping distance. Also remember this: The keys for increasing/decreasing thrust will be much more effective if you press SHIFT while you use them. This can be vital to know, in case you must flee.

5. Navigation

I believe an ancient Human emperor once said Navigare necesse est, meaning Navigation is essential. He was of course quite right. Your first navigational aid is the scanner. It will show all objects within a certain distance. Objects that are hard to see will not show up until you come even closer. One example of hard to see objects are asteroids. Your second tool is the Star Chart. This will show the entire sector and all objects in it that are either independant or belonging to your empire. The third and very useful tool is plotting an intercept course. You can do this manually by pressing "i" I believe, and enter the object name or the object number manually. It is however much easier to:

• Middle click on the object on the scanner (short range).
• Right click on the object and select "Intercept" on the starchart (long range).

Once the intercept course has been plotted, simply blast away with the engines, and the navigational computer will steer you to the right place. Do not forget to brake when you reach the target, though.

6. Trading

Yes, this is what it is all about. Trading. Making money and keeping it once you got it. Let's start with how to keep it. Can't have you run off and make money just to loose it all, now can we?

If your ship blows up, it is gone. So is your cargo and your credits. There is only one exception. Raw Materials is a goods that is available at most large bases. It is also rather odd compared to the other goods. First of all, it is very, very expensive. Buying one single ton will cost you anywhere from 100.000 to 150.000 credits. However: If you die you can never loose more than 33% of your Raw Material. Raw Material is usually refereed to as RMU and it is wise to invest in it. If your ship blows up, it is nice to be able to sell some RMU and buy a big warship without having to trade for hours in a small ship. All ships can carry 100 units of Raw Materials. Just like money in the bank.

Making money is easy. Making lots of money fast is almost as easy. The only trick there is to it, is to select a good trade route. There are essentially three places to find cheap goods to buy.

• In StarPorts some goods are cheap and some expensive. The cheap ones are: Medics, Electronics, Luxeries, Chemicals and Atomics. The expensive ones are: Gold, Steel, Food, Textiles and Organics.
• Planets like StarPorts sell some goods cheap and some expensive. The difference is that the goods that were cheap at the port are expensive on the planet and vice versa.
• Asteroids sell all goods at an extremely low price.

StarDocks And StarBases too trade in goods, but I find that the above are much more reliable. However, it never hurts too look!

One way to trade is to buy goods cheap at asteroids and sell it at planets and starbases. This means that if you buy all goods from an asteroid, you must visit both a planet and a starbase to sell it all. Another way is to simply trade between a planet and starport, as they both buy each others goods. This is the way I usually choose. Naturally there are more ways than this, but these are the most simple and often the most profitable ones.

I have simplified things a bit when I say "this kind of base buys and sells these goods". What I really mean is that IF a base trades in a certain kind of goods, it will be cheap or expensive according to the above statements. As almost no base will trade in all kinds of goods, the trick of a good trade route is to find bases close to each other that buy and sell each others goods. On a good trade route, you should on average carry at least three kinds of goods all the time.

Lets make a quick calculation on the profit: Say we trade gold, steel and food in one direction and electronics, medics and atomics in the other. Lets also say that we buy all goods for 50 credits/unit and sell for 500 credits/unit. This example is neither the best nor the worst I've seen. This means that we will make a profit of 450 credits per unit. We have a cargo hold of, say, 30 tons. As we carry three kinds of goods at the same time we are in fact carrying 90 tons total. The profit per one way trip will then be: 90 tons * 450 credits = 40500 credits.

Now if we make a one way trip in 3 minutes, we will make 20 trips in one hour. This means a profit of 810.000 credits in one hour! For this kind of money you can buy the biggest ship in the game and have enough spare cash to clean out the local pub. If you buy a ship with 100 tons cargo hold, you will on the same trade route make 2.7 million in one hour. Voila! You are rich as a troll!

When you have traded for a while, the bases where you sell goods will run out of money. You can prevent this somewhat by investing in RMU at the bases that are low on money. Planets do not sell RMU, so these can quite quickly go bankrupt and be useless for all eternity. When this happens, find a new trade route and leave the planet to suffer in poverty.

The way I recommend all pilots to start is this. Buy a small ship, like a Delta Frigate. That has 30 tons of cargo holds. Trade until you can buy a Dolphin Cruiser or Rothkar Warship. When you have that ship, keep trading until you have a nice pile of RMU. When that is all done, do what you want. Invade, murder, loot and pillage. Whatever turns you on.

7. Communication

While not directly related to trading, I figured I'd mention a few things.

• Channel 1.00 is the global channel. Anything sent on channel one will be heard by everyone in the game, regardless of their location.
• Channel 2.00 is the empire channel. It works like the global channel, but will send the message only to the members of your empire.
• You can send a global message without setting the channel to 1.00 by writing /// in front of the message.
• Similarly you can send an empire message by writing // in front of the message.
• Finally, you can send private messages to players by writing /player name:message.
• Naturally all other channels work as normal. Send a hail.

8. Ships

I will end this guide by giving you a few tips on good trading vessels. The first I recommend is the Dolphin Cruiser. This ship has 100 ton cargo holds. There is no ship with a larger hold. The second ship I recommend for trading is the Rothkar Warship. It also has 100 ton cargo holds, but also has the largest capacity for troops and colonists. Furthermore, the Rothkar is a formidable Warship with powerful weapons and a good cloaking system.

Good Luck, Pilot
Ambassador G'Kar