Timbur's Log 22 Nov 2949

A year ago we set out to be the most profitable traders in the verse. Our vision was to work together as a coordinated crew. We wanted to see if maybe working together we might be able to turn a better profit. Today sets a milestone, as we've demonstrated a fleet of ships working together can turn an enormous profit while keeping every player in an active, immersive role.

Today we made over 1.7 million in profit in just two hours. For the record that's 1,778,564 in 2 hours and 10 minutes. All the while players were actively attacking our routes, various bugs caused setbacks, and crashes and disconnections occurred. Yet we still managed to earn over 13,681 credits every minute. Take a look at the numbers.

You'll have to excuse the run numbers aren't correct as I was too involved to keep active track of the profits per run, but this nice curve shows an almost exponential growth pattern. That might not be the cause in reality, but as we continue to add caterpillars to the fleet we'll push the limits of what's possible.

So how did it all go down today?

Link to the Stream: https://youtu.be/D_eGpflVitY Broadcasted live on Twitch -- Watch live at https://www.twitch.tv/timburgm

We started at out Port Olisar and had a great turn out from every crew member, we SQ, Heraldus, Selwyn, Time_Lord, Rich Banks. It was the first time for Heraldus flying for us so of course we put him right in the Hot seat, with Rich Banks as co-pilot. Selwyn was bringing up Caterpillar 2 and I was in the M50. SQ had to fly in from Hurston, so we did a few runs. We took our cats down and right away ran into competition, but I was able to run in, get the cargo and get out. From here the routes were going so fast that I didn't keep track of the profit per run, but checking the first few, we averaged anywhere between  122,000 a run to 151,000. I'll post my notes for reference.

We quickly learned that we needed another escort, so I swapped the M50 for the Sabre and Rich Pulled out his Vanguard. With this method I could run from the buy and sell terminal and still cover the haulers if needed. Rich on the other hand, could focus purely on blocking other ships from buying or selling. This went down with out a hitch, after warning the first player Rich gave him a few warning shots, he didn't take the hint to leave, and after calling out Rich for being able to take out his connie, Rich made short work of him. Chat lit up with comments, and despite advising the global community that I owned Tram & Myers, and Rich was working for me, Rich became the target of a PVP battle. So we did the next best thing and recruited a few privateers on our side. Next rolls in Zaah. 

All this time, myself, Selwyn, Heraldus, and SQ now in the Starfarer are just cranking out credits by the minute. The sure enough disaster hits as Heraldus dies in a loaded caterpillar.

But how did he die? Loss of oxygen! You see, the caterpillar seat doesn't replish oxygen to the pilot, so after sitting in the seat for an hour you're avatar will just die, what appears to be randomly, due to your oxygen status not showing up. Moments later Selwyn also crashed to desktop. Now we have two caterpillar full of over 600,000 credits worth of commodities completely unattended at Tram & Myers in what's an active PVP zone. I monitor the cats, flying to Selwyn's which is the closest. He's able to hop back online and rejoin the instance, then jumping out to Port Olisar. SQ also had successfully delievered the Starfarer so I jump in and sell from both ships. Now to track down the thrid ship, somewhere between Port Olisar and Tram and Myers. SQ hops in his Cutlass and Heraldus also fly's out in his Aurora, he finds the ship, and SQ and I meet up on his beacon. 

 At this point, Rich Banks and the other privateers have done a great job securing the location. SQ maneuvers Heraldus on top of his ship and slowly moves him under the caterpillar, who promptly lowers the elevator and hops on board. Mission success! Taking that back to Port Olisar, another 300,000 credit loss was avoided. We go back to hauling until about 6:30 AM we decide to call it. In what felt like just a short time we had earned over 1.7 million profits. 

The last bid for the day was to pay out the crew. We run into a problem though, we can't pay out the crew when they have a crime state. Zaah is our main concern as he was a fresh hire. So we head to Grim Hex, thinking it might just work there, no lock again. Then we've got to head to SPK to clear those crime stats. Leaving Hex we take heavy fire from a random player, we jump to SPK yet the attacker pursues us then goes straight for SQ's cutlass shooting it down with multiple players onboard. Myself and Selwyn attempt to pursue the attacker, we're hit by an emp, but attempt to jump to Port Olsiar just in time. 

The advantage here was that Zaah's crime stat was cleared so I meet up with him, who has now switched to orange armor and he earns a nice 45,000 credits for his work, 25k for escorting, 5k per kill, and another 5k for wearing our Commerce Orange Armor.   

Now we've got to clear Heraldus' crime stat, and this is were we run into problems. A few Vanguards have got the space around the station covered and a few players are on foot in the station. After several unsuccessful attempts we were unable to get his crime stat cleared. 

For the record, let's record everyone's wages:

Myself and Rich Banks are putting in all our credits to the fleet for a 3rd Caterpillar. I believe SQ and Selwyn will also do the same, but you'll have to let me know if you want your cut of the profits. 

We earned 1.778 million, first subtracting out our operation expenses which only included escorts fees, (refueling, repairing, rearming, and reclaiming not present) we end up with 1.733. Divided equally between all parities gives 346,712 aUEC each. I've set aside the core teams credits for reinvestment, but otherwise I'll make a note of your accounts, so please let me know if you want any of those credits in the future. 

In the future, we'll have to find a better way to clear our crime stats so that we can always pay our crew. See you in the verse!