* Originally by Joel Downer

The bug that makes this trick possible is *not* the infamous holds bug,
which allows you to gain rather than lose cargo holds when you try to
steal 365 units of equipment.  You can use the holds bug to load your
ship with max + 32 holds, but if you want any more, you'll actually have
to *buy* them.

HOW TO OVERLOAD YOUR SHIP WITH HOLDS:

To load a ship with extra holds, you must be evil.  You may choose any
ship, but the best choices are the Imperial StarShip (because of
TransWarp drive and combat capabilities), the Corporate FlagShip
(because of TransWarp drive), and the Scout Marauder (because of turn
rate and combat odds).  If you're using a FlagShip or Scout Marauder,
you can get a lot done with relatively little money.  If you're using a
StarShip, or if you want to load *any* ship with more than 250 holds,
you'll need a great deal of money.

The best way to start is to get your ship to max + 32 using the holds
bug:  let's say you're now in a FlagShip, and you now have 117 holds.
Go to Terra, and pick up a full load of 117 colonists.  Now, find the
nearest port that *sells* equipment.  Try to steal 364 (*yes, THREE
HUNDRED SIXTY-*FOUR*) holds of equipment.  You will lose 32 cargo holds,
but, due to a bug in the game, you will still be carrying 117 colonists.
Next, find a port that sells organics (you don't want to use fuel ore,
because using fuel ore will make your ship incapable of TransWarp; you
might choose differently if you're overloading a Scout).  Steal one hold
of organics (what you're actually getting is -64 holds of organics, but
don't worry about this).  When you're done, you will have 53 cargo
holds, and 117 holds full of colonists, with zero empty holds.  Now you
can go to Sol and buy 32 more cargo holds:  doing so will leave you with
85 cargo holds, 117 holds full of organics, and 32 *empty* holds, for a
total of 149 cargo holds.

You can pick up more colonists and repeat as often as necessary.  I'm
not aware of any limit on the number of cargo holds, but two warnings:
(a) the price of holds increases geometrically as you buy more and more
-- buying a thousand holds would cost millions upon millions of credits,
and (b) you need to think carefully about how many holds you can
effectively *use*.

The caveats about this trick are the same as for loading your ship
with max + 32:  if you surrender to a Ferrengi, get busted, get blown
up, or try to buy or sell the commodity you used to "cement" your extra
holds (usually organics, sometimes fuel ore), you'll lose them.
Obviously, if you're using a heavily overloaded ship for the steal-sell
cycle, you're going to lose a great deal of money each time you get
busted, because you're going to have to repeat all the busts and
repurchase all of those holds.  However, (a) with the right
combinations, the risk can be *very* worthwhile, and (b) I can think
offhand of many other interesting uses for this bug.

