Thanks for another excellent guide Grim. If people start out trading with their Sidey, they should upgrade to the Hauler asap. Then Cobra Mk III like you said, next is Type 6 or, also a decent trader, cooler to jump and more fun to fly, the Dolphin. Next step up is the, drumroll please . . . The Type 7. I know, it flies like a brick and requires a large landing pad, but is dirt cheap and handles more cargo than a Python. Then the Python obviously and now the road is wide open for your Type 9. Some ships have dual use. The Hauler is an excellent cheap explorer. The Dolphin is nice for passenger missions, with an good jump range and it accepts luxury cabins. The Type 7 is a good ship for evac missions as it can _handle_ a lot of passengers so it doubles as a Robigo runner. The Python is just _glorious_ like everybody will tell you. o7 cmdr and fly safely.
All true... my goal was to point out the best space truck in there class... but all 37 ships could do the job to... except for the ASP scout... that ship has no function at all 😊
Personally I'd always upgrade every core internal to at least a D rated. Squeeze as much jump range out of s ship as possible. Plus less mass equals a lighter and more maneuverable ship. Have never used chaff or PD on a ship. The A.I. interdiction is easy to break. If anything i'd take a heatsink launcher so you can use your fsd while still in the corona of a star to save a few seconds per jump. And why use the commodities tab for trading? Just use the trade route finder. You can set it at whatever station you are at and select round trips so it gives you 2 stations and what to buy and sell at each for maximum profit. I can earn 20m+ per round trip doing that and depending on distance to station it only take 6-8 minutes each way.
You have to be "Duke" to get the Cutter, not "Rear Admiral". And it is worth every bit of the effort. With 728 tons on board, my jump range, with a bit of engineering, is just over 20ly. Compare that to the 12ly I see on-screen for the T-9. That is a huge difference. Then we have the speed and maneuverability difference between the two ships. The Cutter is so much nicer to fly. It makes it easier to do multiple trips, less grindy. It makes more per hour than the T-9 can. It just may not be the ship for everyone if they're here for the roleplay.
Space Trucking and Space Trading are two different things. Space Trading is moving commodities without a pre-order from one station to the other. Space Trucking on the other hand is about fulfilling the need of a distant station by accepting a transport mission from the station you are on. I have no interest in being a Trader. I want to be a Trucker and a Trucker *only.* Make a guide about that. The rule is quite simple. If you have to use any third party software to do the mission, it's *not* a worthwhile job. Hell, if you have to use any third party software to do *anything* in the game, then the game isn't worth playing.
