So, does anyone have any tips for me as to how to deck out my tiny little scrapper, so I can fly fast, far and wide. (No, not really.)

Of course people are going to ask me "Why in the world would you want to do that?"

My obvious answer is to test its limits. Of course, I might go crazy in doing this because I don't have crew, it's super slow, etc. Also, don't tell me I should do combat either; combats don't work well on my computer at the moment and make me a very sad person.

I guess what I AM wondering is is it worth getting upgrades on this little thing? Getting upgrades, getting new guns, blah blah. (Well, in my case it's worth it, but for people who decide to stay in this plane and skip to T2)

Priorities in Skills:
1) Fuel Efficiency
2) Flight License
3) Cartography

My first goal is to head to Arcadia and get my purple smock. :3

I guess this post will also serve as a journal for my journey across Skytopia in this tiny thing.

Depending on the time you have to sit and take care of this sucker, I'd change the priorities on skills probably, and take others into consideration. I don't know the viability of this without the time to mess with some numbers, but I'm not sure how far you can get in any situation.

First off, I'd say
1) Cartography
2) Fuel Efficiency
3) Flight License

The first gets you the legs to build up for the rest, you want to try to get this to a total flight time that doesn't leave too much time on the ground before you can get back to the game. At least hit a few levels of it first, then start hitting FE until you know for sure you can reach something else. Hit one FL, then go back to the first two at least until your Cart is at a point where you know you can come back in time to re-up your queue. Once you're happy with your total legs, drop Cart completely. Unless that means maxing it, of course.

You also will need to try to look at trade/combat to bring up your money to try to upgrade the darn thing. I'd honestly say to try both, since combat alone is iffy to get the money you want. Bounce around where you can go, shake hands with the traders, and shoot the pirates. Combat missions are hit and miss if you're just trying to clear them there on patrol, but take a set anyway, you can drop any you don't clear/want before you leave.

Combat Upgrade Points: 8
Engine Upgrade Points: 2
Hull Upgrade Points: 2
Wing Upgrade Points: 2

Eesh. I... think you can level your skills to the point you can reach other clusters, which is gonna be important. Range mods aren't even a question. Whatever the best ones you can find and fit, get and put on. Avoid anything that lowers your range without, quote, "A {static}'d good reason." Namely, if you think you might stay in a cluster for a bit, and want other boosts. You can always take range mods off if you get somewhere else you plan on staying in for a bit, but they're gonna be critical for long range travel.

Use this to do range finding: http://skyrates.jusque.net/buffaloes/Getty

Get your trade license early up so you can counteract the fact that you're gonna be stuck in tight places in the beginning. If your cluster's lower end goods all go flat, you're in trouble. Missions might also not hurt, so consider at least a point or two in the two mission skills.

That's all I can think of, I'm tired, preoccupied, and probably wrong. Please, point and laugh where I screwed up.

There used to be a webtoy for experimenting with different upgrades and skills on different planes, maybe called HotMod? Is that still operational? Updated with this round's stats?

But yeah, range is what will make or break you here.

Died ages ago, as did Mechanic I think. Or was it the other way around, Mechanic then HotMod? Dunno, but both are MIA at last I checked. Or at least not working right.

Shame, my favorite Vengy build was on one of them. Not that it matters now.

Welp, after exams (which I do want to kill myself after), I decided to come back and check on this thing. Oops, month-long neglect.

After two or three days of low-end trading, I got myself enough moolah to get myself some upgrades to deck my plane. Of course, I DID say I wanted to go to Arcadia and grab my smock, so I got all the long range mods I can get on A14. Lo-and behold, I can fly to Arcadia!

So, I'm flying there now. Yay!

Flight License (FL) 3
Cartography 4
Fuel Efficiency (FE) 4
Creative Storage (CS) 3
Trade License (TL) 2

I'm not gonna bother with combat because combat is STILL broken on my laptop. Why. :<

@ Kalin and Naes: From what I understand, aren't both of those dead anyway? Both owners aren't gonna show up and update 'em anyway...

Aye. Outta date if not dead entirely.