When building out this Harvester http://sei.weblulz.net/calcs/ship_calc.php?ss=|Universal%20Harvester|2|0|3|0|500|500|0|1300|500|500|0|500000|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|30|32|0|Keldoran|7|3|2|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|15|-20|-5|0|0|0|-10|-10|15|0|0| it says that I should be able to get the entire fleet for 2 bil. When building in game 1 ship's duplicate value is 572,274,877. I don't know if it's a bug with the calc or a bug with the game.

[Edit]Gonna say I'm an idiot... Didn't count the numbers.

yes you are right.

one ship costs only 574824877. if you buy your entire fleet (50 ships) its 50*574824877= about 28bil

however, may i point out that scanners are nearly useless while trading/gathering? also, are you only goint to gather fuel? while fuel gives more exp, metal also gives nice profit. I prefere to gather metal above fuel. but trading doesn't have this restriction. You can trade whatever you like (it takes a bit more time, but gives more xp/proifit i think)

Ahahaha I miss read that :-P

Lack of commas in costs doesn't help my cause :-P So yea not a bug.

Don't forget that your ships gather rates effect other resources too.

Fuel Rate also increases gathering for crystal.

Metal Rate also increases gathering for electronics.

So if your gathering fuel it wouldn't hurt to pick up a Crystal Extraction Module too!

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In Hell, the only punishable crime is failing to torture the nearest person weaker than you.

Yea I gave up resourcing... Burns waaaay too many turns. I'm trying to figure out the fastest way to level so that I can start hunting down some NPC's.

Yes, It will use a larger amount of turns. However it does seem generate the highest amount of Exp. You have to sort of balance your amount of cargo holds along with your gather rate to keep the amount of turns spent to a minimum. The higher the gather rate the less turns it takes to fill your holds.

A quick example would be...

I'll reccomend say a Syndicate Smuggler III. Purchase 50 of them. Upgrade your cargo holds to a capacity of 10000 per ship and your fuel gathering to 3000 per ship. With all the required equipment it takes 25 turns (still a wee high) to gather 500,000 resources and that will earn you around 600,000 Exp. You could use the Trade Union Reaper instead. However it's bonus is towards metal gathering so you should upgrade our ships metal rate as opposed to fuel like the Syndicate Smuggler.

I'm pretty sure Katana started gathering and that would explain the huge gap in levels between us now. That will all change however. Soon!!! Katana will soon no longer be the Moses to my Red Sea of Exp!

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In Hell, the only punishable crime is failing to torture the nearest person weaker than you.

Sadly though I believe a fleet of that size is well out of my league for the time being.

Well if you fix your reputation it's not impossible by an means. Purchase the ships first and as you progress gradually upgrade the fleet as a whole.

Tell you what... If you fix your rep to purchase a tier 3 trade ship of your choice ill donate the funds for the base fleet and a few upgrades. No hidden fees and no strings attached.

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In Hell, the only punishable crime is failing to torture the nearest person weaker than you.

haha yeah, i've started to trade to burn exess turns. it's faster than trading. Less profit tough but well.. as nobody really knows how long this round is gonna last i go for exp above profit.

As spooky said: depending on the type of ship you use, you need to upgrade different things. go have a look at viewtopic.php?f=15&t=184. As you see the sumgglers (red) have a high fuel rate, while the union reapers (green) have a thing for metal. if you wanna trade go for the league's (blue). They are useless for gathering but do have the largest cargo holds.

and same for when you descide on your hunter: every ship has it's advantages and disadvantages. Remember: once you start hunting you'll gain less exp (still reasonable tough) and way less profit. So never sell all you trade/gathering ships, a few. I usually buy 10 hunters and leave 40 ships for some minor gathering.