Newcomer / Intro Couple non-related questions lumped into one convenient thread!

[Fonsworth]

1. Chat seems to be broken, yes?

2. I added a RL friend to my friend's list, he logged in for the first time and was luckily only a few jumps from me (seems everyone is tarting in LHS 3447? I see a lot of people mention it here and myself and my friend started there). He flew to where I was and docked at the same station, Wohler Terminal in Kermainn. He never showed on my contacts list and the chat said it couldn't connect (However I see in the GD section of the forums this is an on-going game bug in the chat). Were we not on the same instance or does the contact list just not always show everyone? Wohler terminal is usually pretty busy with both NPC traffic and players when I'm there. I was watching ships dock and launch from my landing pad while I was waiting for him to get there but I still never had more than 3 or 4 contacts? (Shouldn't I have multiple, multiple contacts when dokcing?) He had to log shortly after so I never got a chance to try and launch and get out in space with him to see if we were in the same instance. If we are not, is there a way to get in the same instance? Would it help if we left the station area and then came back? Even though we are friends, do we need to be in a group? If so, can we group from in-game? I could only find group options in the Main Menu.

3. What do the globe-looking-icons mean next to the system name in the Galaxy map? I noticed a few system near me had a yellow/orange-ish colored globe next to the names and I wasn't sure why.

4. How does trade data work? I purchased some trade data from systems around the Kremainn area and then went to the market and switched from galaxy average to the system I purchased data from but I get no prices, only "imported from" and "exported to". Should I be focusing on those? Buying the "exported to" items from Kremainn and taking them to the desto? and visa-versa for the "imported from" items and bring them back to Kremainn? I thought the data was supposed to show prices..?

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

1. It's complicated... Apparently works well in groups, so I've read.

2. The whole co-op thing had not been implemented though you can brute-force things by logging out/back in. There should be an update next year that allows this sort of play to work better.

3. You have accepted missions to those locations. Check your contacts tab in the left-hand screen.

4. No the data only shows the flow, not the price. You can roughly get the same info from the Galaxy Map by showing the commodity/trade routes. But yes, the idea is that you can make money by buying in exporters and selling in importers. It's not all that simple and prices can fluctuate meaning you get not a lot of profit. Once you find a definite low price and a high buyer, milk it for what it's worth...

 

[Fonsworth]

1. It's complicated... Apparently works well in groups, so I've read.

2. The whole co-op thing had not been implemented though you can brute-force things by logging out/back in. There should be an update next year that allows this sort of play to work better.

3. You have accepted missions to those locations. Check your contacts tab in the left-hand screen.

4. No the data only shows the flow, not the price. You can roughly get the same info from the Galaxy Map by showing the commodity/trade routes. But yes, the idea is that you can make money by buying in exporters and selling in importers. It's not all that simple and prices can fluctuate meaning you get not a lot of profit. Once you find a definite low price and a high buyer, milk it for what it's worth...

Thanks for the reply, about the trade routes though.. when I opened that section of the map, everything was greyed-out and I was not able to select or deselect anything. Is tehre something I have to do first before I can have trade routes show on the map or before I can adjust the filters?

 

[InfiniteGremlins]

1. Text chat has been working for me, if I'm close enough to the other player. If they're in another system and I haven't been in contact it sometimes fails, but if it works once it seems to keep working.

2. Being docked basically removes you from the outside instance. Plus it's easier to spot players when you're not in the station; try meeting up outside the station. His ship will be an outlined box on the radar, NPCs are solid boxes.

3. Patch 1.02 tweaked the player instancing rules, so you might have better luck today.

If you start a private group and both join it, you're basically guaranteed to be in the same instance if you're close enough (unless there's dozens of people in the group and they're all in the same system). Hit ESC while in game, you should see the option for friends and groups.

As long as the system isn't busy, I have been able to find my friends without too much trouble.

4. Yellow/Amber globe means you have a mission objective there. Blue wireframe of a ship means you have a ship parked in the shipyard there.

5. Trade data is a bit confusing right now; personally I wouldn't trust the galaxy map to be acccurate. My rule of thumb is to only buy stuff that's significantly below galactic average, that way it's easy to at least make a small profit.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

Thanks for the reply, about the trade routes though.. when I opened that section of the map, everything was greyed-out and I was not able to select or deselect anything. Is tehre something I have to do first before I can have trade routes show on the map or before I can adjust the filters?

yes, there are two buttons at the top. Can I think what their names are right now. Anyway, its the right hand one you need. Click on that and all the systems will turn the colour of their faction and you get to work the filters.