First off let start by introducing myself. I go by the name Method in most games but have a few different names I choose from if that is taken. I just downloaded the client and have decided to start m eight hour trial. What I want out of my character is to be able to defend myself while hauling massive loads of trade goods. From reading the forums and the wiki I think the race I should go with is Itani. As for a ship I think my short term goal should be either a wraith or centaur. If I am at all wrong in any way about my race or ship decision can anyone please tell me why and what would be a better decision for my character. What I want to know is what should I be doing in my first eight hours to build toward my character idea? From some reading I imagine I should be doing trade missions over and over and also try and discover some trade routes for myself to generate some credits. Should I stick to trade missions only or should I also complete all the other missions my nation is offering me?

I want to convince myself to buy this game by doing well with my first eight hours. If all I'm doing is learning controls and floating around aimlessly I will be unpleased and frustrated. I've longed for a space mmo for years now and just recently heard of this game, I've gotten so excited about my character Idea I think I can make it happen with this game and sincerely enjoy myself for a long time.

If anyone has any tips, for instance which channels I should keep an eye on, or anything else a beginner should probably know please share your well earned knowledge with a fresh and eager mind.

Hope to see you all in space.

Greetings and welcome to VO!
If you're not convinced to sub after your 8 hours of trial, ask one of your new found
friends if they have a friend key to share. I personally have 3 available I believe. That
gives you another 2 weeks to decide. Seriously though, I believe you'll be hooked before
the 8 hours is up. The wraith or the centaur, either are fine as short term goal for your
character idea. Not sure which nation to advise you on but, as a trader you might be
better served looking at the UIT. Whichever nation you choose, /11 is nation specific chat
channel, /1 is the general help channel, and /444 is The Guild of Free Traders [TGFT] :=)

The trade guild procurement missions will level you up in trade fast as well as dispense
healthy xp for faction standings. They are fairly lucrative as well. You probably want to aim for at least 3 or 4 in combat as well as it opens up equipment you will want to have on hand for defense.

Again, welcome to VO and I hope some of what I've said helps. See you in space.

Welcomed to VO! Don't worry if you die a few times, death is cheap and revenge is sweet. Find a guild of like minded players you can hang with, if it doesn't work out move on to the next one. Get to know a few guilds before applying. Use the buddy system and the mentor system.

Credits come and go easily in this game, so you may want some additional goals if you plan on focusing mainly on trade. Collecting rare items can be a useful bargaining chip as certain guilds are working toward building player craftable cap ships that require them. Synthetic Silksteel, in particular, is in high demand for this reason.

The Wraith is actually a phased-out design, remaining only as a special variant belonging to Axia Technology Corp. Its newer counterpart is the Revenant which you will have access to fairly quickly. The Centaur is a defensible trade ship, however the trader's tool of choice is the Behemoth with its high cargo capacity. The Marauder also is useful for special situations where maneuverability is important while carrying a sizable cargo load.

Toward the end of your 8 hour trial I suggest checking out the Deneb system on the border of Serco and Itani space, the foggy green Xithricite utopia in Verasi I-5, the dueling sector in Sedina B-8, and the race tracks in Sedina B-5 through H-5. These are sights worth seeing.

Void shelter.

There's no way to defend yourself while hauling "massive" loads of anything. Much beyond an Atlas X and your only "defense" is to hope you don't wind up within 2000m of a hostile.

Which is fine, as we'll be liberating yer cargoes.

The Void awaits.

The best defense for a cargo-hauler is an XC + scout ship. Hire someone to fly ahead and check for activity before you make jumps, doesn't even have to be a qualified PVP specialist, as no one will be able to save a moth from a coordinated pirate attack. Having a scout check ahead for trouble will save you from making that hazardous jump 99% of the time though :) This means you can haul in an XC (biggest cargo-space of any non-capship) and still be mostly safe with your cargo :)

Do not listen to Drazed - everyone knows the XC is a fearsome battle platform that should always turn and fight.

Thank you for all the info guys it has all helped me make decisions towards my characters creation. I will try to message you in game schmidt to see if you want to go thru with getting me that friend key. Phaserlight I'm going to try to get ahold of you for some mentoring I noticed your name in the mentor list on the mentor thread here in the forums and would like to see if we can set up some gaming time that would be convenient for both of us.

Again, thank you. Its good to feel like you can actually trust the players for advice when starting out.

Yeah, drazed is notorious for giving misinformation. Listen to Lecter instead, he's experienced and friendly.

Most important command for a trader:

/givemoney "Rin Ganborro" 100000

This is the command that lets you pay me to not kill you. It is also the command that lets you conduct player-to-player trade, in case you want to pay somebody for their goods or services. Don't forget to put people's names in "quotation marks" if there is a space in it.

You should definitely raise your combat level to at least 3, because a lot of missions become available at that point. One of which is the escort mission, which is a good quick way to prime your bank account if it becomes depleted for some reason (not that this happens often), so that you have enough capital to buy a new cargo ship and fill it with goodies again.

Beyond combat level 3, whether to build levels is mainly a question of what levels are required by the gear you want to use. Of course, I recommend bringing them all up into the teens in the long run so that you can use everything, but take your time about it.

As your focus seems to be trade, a better faction for you would be UIT.Though the Serco have the Prometheus MKII it only holds 40cu, but... thats really good for a combat ship,and Proms have a ton of armor as well.

As for surviving pirates attacks, you have two options...
Try to find an escort, VPR usually does them for free just ask on channel 4537.
Or, when a pirate shows up... pay. You seem big on RP so look at it as cost of doing biz in Gray. Also Paying them off usually gets you 24 hours "dues paid" with whichever guild they are with.

Welcome to VO.

Well, I'm often on Friday nights and Saturday mornings, EST. I also try to make it to the nation war on Sundays. I can also recommend Foo Fighter, Conflict Diamond, Nahin Lor, or Ninjr. They would all make good mentors as well.

Foo Fighter's my personal favorite in that bunch. He's been playing for about 5 years, and is great to work with.

You might make a serco character instead/aswell. The prometheus mk2 has a fairly large cargo bay of 40cu and can still defend itself quite well. You CAN get it if you are itani, it just takes longer w/ grinding standings up.

UIT can also purchase the prometheus mk2 with high enough serco standing, and they start neutral so it's not hard to get there... UIT is probably the best bet if you intend to be a trader, because that's what UIT do, trade :)