Guide for newer players

[zaroba]

My sorry attempt at a galaxy guide for people new to the galaxy stuff.

Start out by trading water in Cirrus Minor.
Buy 10 Water in Aramathea for 0.3cr per, fly to and sell it at BiplaneWorld for 0.8cr per. Its a small profit, I know, but you should be able to make 5cr per trip off 10 water.

Once you have 31cr saved up, you can move on to Foodstuffs.
Open the galaxy map, select Tau Ceti (its right below the system your in) and hit the Stardrive button to head over to it.

Buy 10 Foodstuffs for 3.1cr per at Unknown (831) and sell them to Unknown (832) for 4.3cr per. You will make 12cr per trip off 10 foodstuffs. Keep doing this until you save up 150cr. Buy the L8 Stardrive from Unknown (831), then resume trading until you save up at least 250cr.

Using the L8 Stardrive, jump to M-25 (to the left of Cirrus Minor).
Here you will actually have to buy a Trade Report to find the best prices.

IF Unknown (73) has enough computers, buy as many computers as you can afford, then buy food stuffs. Take the stuff to Unknown (72) and sell. Then buy Water from Unknown (72) and sell it at Unknown (73). As you make more money, buy more Computers and less Food Stuffs
IF Unknown (73) does not have enough computers for you to buy, then go to Unknown (74). Buy as many computers as you can then buy a plastic if you can afford 1 and sell the stuff at Unknown (72), then head back for more.

Keep trading computers until you have saved up 1400cr (once you hit 5 computers at a time money starts growing fast until you get 10 at a time). Then stardrive back to Cirrus Minor and buy a Cargo Ship then stardrive back to M-25 and continue moving computers until you have enough money to buy the L24 stardrive AND buy 15 Computers (around 2203cr).

Buy the L24 Stardrive from Unknown (74)

After that, your on your own. You've learned the basics of interstellar trading so go out and explore for new/better routes. But always remember, if buying an upgrade, make sure you save up enough money to buy the upgrade AND a full stock of tradables. You would really hurt your income if you end up having to go back to trading water due to spending all your money..

If you wish to do so, you could also buy an Inf Imp drive for 25cr. This lets you teleport instantly to any NAMED planet for free, but you can only use it if you have no cargo. It can be useful for getting back to the starting systems and will be useful in the future when more planets are in the galaxy.

Please Note that prices do fluctuate as players buy and sell things. For the most accurate prices in any system, buy a Trade Report. It only costs 0.1cr and once bought can be used for free for as long as you are online and in the system.

Chat system commands
!find name - this will tell you if a player is on a planet, in a space station, in space, or offline
Example: !find zaroba "zaroba - In space station, system 25"
?setchat channel 1,channel 2,channel 3,channel 4,channel 5 - Use the ?setchat command to join up to 5 channels to chat on.
-channel 1 - To chat to channel 1, type a ; or ;1; before your text
-channel 2 - To chat to channel 2, type ;2; before your text
-channel 3 - To chat to channel 3, type ;3; before your text
-channel 4 - To chat to channel 4, type ;4; before your text
-channel 5 - To chat to channel 5, type ;5; before your text
To leave a channel, use the ?setchat command but don't list the channel you want to leave
?chat - Type this to see who else is on the same channel(s) that you are on.

currently the most popular chat channel (that I know of) is tractor.
To join it, type ?setchat tractor
then type a ; before your text to chat to it, if it is channel #1 for you.

[Baladin]

Pretty good guide, all I can pretty much add to this is, often with TU its further out you go the more profit you are likely to make selling goods. I'd say as soon as you hit your L40 stardrive go explore, find new planets, take notes on all the cheapest selling goods and highest buying goods for whatever it is you can afford at the time. Don't be afraid to make 3-4 star jumps to sell your items if the profit is good enough.