Wingman Trade Dividend Working?

Shield boosts aren't that great when you're up against ships that are somehow able to remove your shields in one shot.

I was interdicted by an AI Asp while flying a T9 last night. Shields went in the first volley. It's not like I've gone for a stupidly low shield either, I have a 6A shield generator which should be more than enough to withstand a few volleys and was prior to 1.2. Heck over the weekend it even stood up to an Anaconda.

Given how quickly my shields were dropped a wingman wouldn't have made much difference either as I would likely still have recieved the same amount of damage before being able to jump away, but it certainly would have felt a little better and I may have actually stuck around long enough to ensure the Asp was killed - which in turn may have at least paid back some of the repair cost (frankly the bounty should be 2x the cost of repairing damage caused but that's another debate for another time).

As for trade dividends, they may not be worth it for a single escort, but it's certainly enough to warrant traders to group up instead. A wing of Type 9's could be gaining an additional 200,000 per round trip. That might not sound much compared to how much the T9 brings in, but it all adds up.

It's not as if 4 Type 9's would be easy targets either; even ignoring forward firing weapons, that's a potential 12 medium beam turrets. Even in the scenario above where I lost my shields in 1 shot, that Asp would be equally as toast - especially considering most AI pirates tend not to have shields.

Agree with everything except your comment regarding the ASP interdiction. You must be doing something wrong buddy, I don't consider AI a risk at all. Been playing since early Beta. If in a T9, immediately switch FA OFF, boost and apply upwards thrust (your boost speed will not bleed off) chaff & Charge FSD and jump. That even works for me against some commanders.. traded in a T9 for months always in OPEN.
 
I have not played the beta myself, but from lurking their Forums it seems like it is indeed 5% off the selling price, not the profit. I dont know oft there even is a mechanic in game that tracks your actual profit in a trade.

If it's 5% from the total sale, then it makes even more sense to trade in groups rather than bring escorts. A lot of what I trade I sell for over 14,000 per tonne, averaging a total sale of over 6,000,000. That's 300,000 profit per-Type 9, so a full wing would be netting you an additional 900,000.

Gaining nearly an additional million is certainly not to be sniffed at.
 
Trader friend wanted some hired guns. So grouped up and set wingman nav lock ect. He does a ton of trading but I have yet to see a Wingman Trade Dividend. I see the heading in the contact listing but nothing is listed. What are we missing?

Got this lastnight with me and another cmdr. I bugged it if u want to add ure name to it
 
Agree with everything except your comment regarding the ASP interdiction. You must be doing something wrong buddy, I don't consider AI a risk at all. Been playing since early Beta. If in a T9, immediately switch FA OFF, boost and apply upwards thrust (your boost speed will not bleed off) chaff & Charge FSD and jump. That even works for me against some commanders.. traded in a T9 for months always in OPEN.

I never said it was a "risk". I got away quite easily and only suffered 9% hull damage - and that was from the same shot that also removed my shields. The Asp literally only got one shot off. My point was that shield boosts aren't much help in a T9 if an Asp can drop your shields in one shot.

Whatever it shot me with, it must have been pretty substantial. Even an Anaconda's plasma accelerator can't do that much damage in one hit.

In either case, a wing of T9's would have made short work of the Asp with 12 medium beam turrets baring down on it.
 
If it's 5% from the total sale, then it makes even more sense to trade in groups rather than bring escorts. A lot of what I trade I sell for over 14,000 per tonne, averaging a total sale of over 6,000,000. That's 300,000 profit per-Type 9, so a full wing would be netting you an additional 900,000.

Gaining nearly an additional million is certainly not to be sniffed at.

From my testing last night, it's definitely 5% of profits, NOT of the total sale.
 
From my testing last night, it's definitely 5% of profits, NOT of the total sale.

In either case, it's still a reasonable amount from 4 T9's. You're looking at nearly 200,000 per round trip on the routes I've been using for the last couple weeks. Might not be much compared to what the T9 earns, but that adds up quite nicely after a few runs
 
It works for illegal goods sold on the black market. Tested last night.

It stacks when trading, my friend and I were doing a run in T9's and both getting 5%.

Sometimes it skips but that's related to being in starport services as described above.
 
So to get the paycheck your wingman needs:

1. Be in the wing
2. Be docked at the same station
3. Not be in any station service UI

Is that right?
 
i dunno....anytime I'm doing the rare route in my cobra I may as well escort someone....

Does this work 2 way? Can 2 ships get 5% of each others profits or is there only 1 "trader" allowed per wing?

That's the way I saw it to be honest. I wasn't even thinking about escorts. To me it was always much more of a "create a trader wing, everyone trades at each station, everyone gets an extra 15% profits."
 
Just to clarify, the trader pays nothing. The station pays the escort ships for helping the goods arrive safely.

I have to say this is a disappointment to me. If the station finds it worth paying a bonus for safe delivery, then in a true simulated market it would make sense to pay that bonus to an armed lone trader, just as much as to an escort, since the benefit has accrued in either case.

Obviously it's done to encourage wing/escort gameplay, no problem with that, I just wish it was more emergent. i.e. "high profits available! Find a way to get the goods through!" instead of "trade dividends implemented! Be sure to use wings gameplay!"
 
I have to say this is a disappointment to me. If the station finds it worth paying a bonus for safe delivery, then in a true simulated market it would make sense to pay that bonus to an armed lone trader, just as much as to an escort, since the benefit has accrued in either case.

Obviously it's done to encourage wing/escort gameplay, no problem with that, I just wish it was more emergent. i.e. "high profits available! Find a way to get the goods through!" instead of "trade dividends implemented! Be sure to use wings gameplay!"

Only if you're looking at it as "station paid for safe delivery", as in "paying for an escort". You could also look at it as: "station paying a bonus for shipping as a convoy rather than as a single ship" which then makes sense. A convoy of trading ships is always going to be more profitable than a single trading ship, so it stands to reason that a Station would be prepared to pay a little extra to promote it.
 
Only if you're looking at it as "station paid for safe delivery", as in "paying for an escort". You could also look at it as: "station paying a bonus for shipping as a convoy rather than as a single ship" which then makes sense. A convoy of trading ships is always going to be more profitable than a single trading ship, so it stands to reason that a Station would be prepared to pay a little extra to promote it.

What evidence is there for that? Convoys happened historically during times of war or other challenge, in normal times cargo ships just travel to suit their commercial schedule rather than wasting time meeting up, waiting and then travelling at the slowest pace (don't they?). If anything, station/port resources such as quays, runways and stands are more efficient with traders turning up over time, rather than clumped together in convoys.

Regardless, the reward given to an escorting fighter is the same whether the traders were in a convoy or not. ISTM that it's designed to encourage protective escorts, not convoys.
 
So to get the paycheck your wingman needs:

1. Be in the wing
2. Be docked at the same station
3. Not be in any station service UI

Is that right?

You need to be in the same station instance, you don't have to be docked.

Not so. From the changelog ...

Trade dividend vouchers are now awarded to Wing members in the same starsystem, but not necessarily docked at the same station as the Commander selling commodities

However, whether it works or not is another matter, and for sure the Trade Dividend feature seems bugged. There's a couple of threads in the bug forum.
 
Not so. From the changelog ...



However, whether it works or not is another matter, and for sure the Trade Dividend feature seems bugged. There's a couple of threads in the bug forum.


Did some testing last nite trading in a wing of 3. We were able to get the vouchers (trade in like combat bonds) as long as in the same system. You don't get the message if you're in hyperspace half the time, but still got the voucher. Not 100% sure if being in the Station services screen made a difference but did not specifically test that.

-C
 
If the station is going to pay out money for services, I feel as though it should only be *certain* services. War supplies and civilian goods for systems experiencing conflict between two of the factions, or minerals for refinery stations. Things that are desperately needed by the station.

The current system does seem to encourage teamwork (a good thing), but does so at the cost of realism (a bad thing in my mind).
 
What evidence is there for that? Convoys happened historically during times of war or other challenge, in normal times cargo ships just travel to suit their commercial schedule rather than wasting time meeting up, waiting and then travelling at the slowest pace (don't they?). If anything, station/port resources such as quays, runways and stands are more efficient with traders turning up over time, rather than clumped together in convoys.

Regardless, the reward given to an escorting fighter is the same whether the traders were in a convoy or not. ISTM that it's designed to encourage protective escorts, not convoys.

You're comparing relatively safe transportation on Earth's seas against the increasingly dangerous journeys in a galaxy where piracy happens even in the most defended systems.

The big super container ships aren't concerned about pirates on Earth simply because pirates may as well be carrying bows and arrows against them. But in Elite's context the pirates can down a carrier in just a few shots.

I don't really see that there needs to be "evidence" to make an assumption that it's safer to trade in numbers; it's a pretty obvious fact.
 
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