It has become apparent that there are too few PC owned Tridents loose in the wild. Fortunately, Neon Black, of [TRI] has graciously agreed to assist me in the construction and release into the wild of my own Trident, which for now I'm calling "Artful Dodger".

The plan is to buy as much as possible from [TRI] (cos we should always support local business), and log the progress here to showcase the assistance [TRI] can provide. I will also log my own efforts here for the sake of completeness.

The Artful Dodger is slated to be an all-round utility vessel, with a focus on anti-hive activities.

Progress so for:
Faille:
8x FFSA built, and materials gathered for another 15 or so.

[TRI]:
Order for 40 x FFSA placed, but timezones have prevented collection of parts.

Faille.

Good luck on your marathon, maybe would-be cap ship owners can glean some insights here.

edit: for the uninitiated, FFSA stands for "Fluid Formable Silksteel Alloy"

Todays addition:

Collected the 40 FFSA from Neon.
Built 5 FCP (Fused Composite Plating).

Mined a bunch of random ore.

Approx 3% completed.

Also: Lost an XC load of Silksteel to piracy. Note: Do not haul in XC's during peak times...

Faille.

ORE can supply you with minerals at each production facility. See myself or Dan Gjor to arrange transactions. The Compass Rose and many of the other player-owned tridents are available to haul those large FCP, FFSS, RBH (Reinforced Bulkheads), etc.. Assemble a good supply of FCP and FFSS, and gather 4 moth pilots (yourself included) to ride aboard the trident.

I wish you luck with such a public build. I fear your operational security will be ever compromised, but hopefully this thread will garner more supporters than saboteurs...

Flying XCs is safe nearly any time. Just pay the pirates ;)

(Seriously though, considering that time is money, it's actually cheaper to pay pirates and then use the XC than it is to use a normal moth. This may not apply for light trading, but it definitely does for capship building.)

Until The Artful Dodger is finished this pilot is at your service Ms. Corvelle.

Thanks for the support people :D

CD: I will likely take you up on your offer to hire Compass Rose at some stage, those FCP are big :)

I did consider bending my "never pay" rule for the duration of constructing the Artful Dodger (or at least while moving parts for AD), especially after losing a load of SS to a rather persistent pirate, but my "never pay" rule was initially meant to ensure VO is always fun and exciting, and going back on it now would feel like a cop-out. I'll just have to deal with the odd lost cargo...

Faille.

Have fun flying the crappiest ship in the game for days and days on end until your eyes bleed, scab over, then get torn open to bleed some more!

Day 3: Construction continues:

8x FFSA
6x FCP
Bunch of minerals mined, mostly at random...

Also tried "group SSS farming" with Bikiko and Subsonica of [TRI]. I don't know that it's any more efficient than farming solo, but it's more entertaining :)

Faille.

Day 4: Farming Continues:

Mostly farming and mining today, but copped a minor setback entering Latos I-8 with an XC loaded with Pentric. Seems there was some dispute over who had paid rent last. Things were said, fists were shaken, then things got heated and someone hit the big red button and launched the missiles...

... some of those missiles hit me...

... I was homed over in Bractus...

...

So I went and farmed SSS.

Faille.

Foul Itani had thought they would be manufacturing today. Hah, we cleansed their presence. You may now manufacture free of tani tyrrany.

Day 5: More Construction.

Built today:
8x FFSA
10x FCP

Carted a metric crap-ton of various maguffins to assorted destinations. Need more maguffins still...

And more SSS.

Approx 5% complete.

Had an unfortunate incident today while making FCP... had all the components aboard, and "assisted" one of the local guards who seemed to be having trouble docking... He attacked, and I was boomed, loosing the FCP components in the process. Expensive lesson.

Faille.

P.S. Trident shields please :)

Well, imagine if you saw a cop who seemed drunk and was having trouble getting through a doorway in a violent neighborhood (so violent people actively murder cops just to collect their guns). Then imagine if somebody comes running up out of nowhere and shoves the cop...

WTF is a drunk cop doing is such a bad neighbourhood?
Who hired that guy anyway? Maybe he was an ex-Corvus guard and got sick of folks booming him for his lawguns...

Faille.

Day 6: XC loads continue.

Built today:
13x FCP

Farmed about 200 SSS. Scored about 12 Avalons in the process.
Hitched a ride on Lisa201's Trident up to Verasi and back, and hauled a heap of maguffins.

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Day 7:

Built today:
16 FCP.

Artful Dodger approx 7% complete.

Faille.