So I got the game and started as trader with the combat freighter but didn't know what to do next as trading here was different than usual. After watching videos on youtube and digging through the wiki to get started, I learned about taxes and black market and such. I looked for trade disruptions on the map but when I got there they were long obsolete most of the time. So I started save/loading and "probing" before actually doing the trade. This resulted in some minor profit and quite some frustration. So I though I'd try my luck with combat. I got second combat freighter meanwhile and was planning to save up to get a destroyer soon. But even with that super small fleet supply costs started to reduce any profit to nearly zero, not to mention the many save/loading just for the cases where you just got into hyper space only to be bashed by a much stronger fleet. With even more save/load I was able to aquire a broadsword wing and a light carrier. But still the supply costs were so ridiculously high that there was no profit to be made.
Then I found the missions. And WOW! Right with the first mission I made proably more profit than in the entire game before. It was a simple "buy this here and take it to other planet right over there". No hyperspace entering required, patrols everywhere watching for pirates. I think it was like 80k profit in the end. Ok, I thought so I'll get freighters and low supply-cost-wings for protection and do missions trade for a while, maybe there is just a certain threshold for making combat profitable. After saving up like 250k and already owning 3 fighter wings, I got the fast carrier another 2 wings and a light cruiser followed by spending quite some hours in the simulator to learn how to use and equip this new gear. Already had a good standing with the Sindra Diktat so I flew back there and got a commission to assist against Hegemony (which had become hostile anyway due to my smuggling all the time) and to shoot down some pirates to get an ever bigger fleet.
As there were not much going on, I tried a named bounty for 20k. Well, long story short, the result was like 40k less money on my account. The target was a burn 10 fleet of 5 frigates. It escaped I think 3 times until I finally got the last one to get the reward and just to catch it with my speed 9 fleet was also quite a task. So in the end there were ridiculous supply and some fuel costs to pay.
Ok, the bounty hunting was out of question. Also Sindra finally annouced a new generic bounty and so I thought I'd just go to there hyper space entry and take what I can get. But again, hundreds of supplies melting like butter in the sun. (Fun fact: supplies indeed melt in the sun, it drove me nuts until I finally figured out what was happing!)
Right the first battle I joined was like this:
- 64 additional supplies payed for getting fleet combat ready afterwards again
- 16 marines lost when boarding
Excluding usual fuel and supply costs for just going there these are total costs of about 20k costs - black market costs! Add another 30% for regular.
On the gain side there was about 7400 from bounty including the money from the commission. Also effing 314(!) credits from the boarding which alone costed about 14k for the 16 lost marines. Furthermore a degraded Sunder from boarding and a total loot about maybe another 1000 credits, including the metal and weapons. Well the boarded ship was woth exactly 77 credits without repairs. After repairing it, it was about worth the price that the repairs had costed, on black market. Great.
So after all the most loss came from boarding and the bounty + loot may have been barely enough to just cover all supply and fuel costs when flying perfect and not searching or exploring. Sindera was meanwhile hostile to about everybody else in the galaxy so trade missions are also out of question, I guess I have to go back to an older save, especially as there is no way to get out of comission as it seems and even if just fly arround without transponder until they kick me out. Which by the way is also ridiculous when you get -3 standing from 3 patrols because you had your transponder offline for 10s when coming out of hyperspace! Either way, my relations to the other factions are still ruined. I guess I'll have to go back to an older save to do a lot more trade missions.
So did I miss something? How are you supposed to earn money with these ridiculous supply costs?