Newcomer / Intro easier way to find prices

[retslag1]

So I'm still sturggling to make money. After 3 or 4 days (2 hrs each time maybe) playing this game, I've got just over 30k. I find it very cumbersome to fly to each station to check their prices. Currently I take screen shots of a station and then go to a station its trading with and take screen shots...then compare to see if anything worth trading. Thats very cumbersome and time consuming. Just wondering if there is a better way to make more money to get a better ship.

Also, I find combat very difficult, as the AI always seems to get behind me and I can't ever shake him after that. Was hoping this would no longer be the case once I get a more agile ship. FYI for those who say "just go kill some ppl"

 

[Loomis]

Check this post on Reddit for trading tips overall,
http://www.reddit.com/r/EliteTrader...for_newer_players_how_to_evaluate_your_route/
but in terms of prices, Thrudd's Trading Tool is my personal preference.
http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/
remember to earn your rank there, and then pay it forward by updating prices yourself.

- some may say this is "cheating", but I can pull out a smartphone now and get stock exchange prices from around the world, and personally I think it'd be easier in the future, not harder.

Of course, you still make your choices on how far you want to go, how illegal you want to be, and so on, so it's not just idiot-level farming.

 

[Cmdr BrinBrown]

It is quite simple really
Find a Industrial Station and a Agricultural Station, in the same system or different systems.
Ind's make machinery and Agri need Agri type machines, Crop harvesters or Marine Equipment.
Sell machinery, then buy Food, say Animal Meat, sell to Ind's.
Next Extraction, buy metals (Palladium), sell to Ind's, buy Machinery (Mineral Extractors) sell at Extraction
BB

 

[the100thmonkey]

CMDR BrinBrown pretty much nailed it.

Once you get your head around the basic concepts of supply and demand and can identify potentially lucrative routes by looking at the galaxy and system maps, trading gets a lot easier. The really good routes tend to be away from heavily trafficked systems, and you get great prices on metals out towards the frontier. Thrudd's, for example, isn't really necessary. It also tends to lead to a herd effect that kills routes.

Rule number 1 for trading is: Competition kills profits.

As for whether or not it's cheating, FD haven't banned it (they can't), so in that regard it's at least tolerated by the developers. Slopey, the admin of another popular tool, seems to be a moderator on these forums, so this suggests that they aren't viewed negatively by FD.

However, imagine the stink people would kick up if you used a 3rd party tool to make you more effective in combat. There is an ethical question in the use of 3rd party trade tools at the moment, as they do confer an unfair advantage on newer traders who use them. Finding the route and working out the quickest way to exploit it is much more fun than running the route itself.

Comparisons to the real world are spurious because A) it's a game, and the devs can set the rules how they like. If that includes no interstellar broadcasts, it includes no interstellar broadcasts; and B) appeals to reality are silly in a game that doesn't try to aim for verisimilitude; it aims for immersion.

 

[andyraptor]

You also have the trade filters in galaxy map to show trade commodity routes

In the commodity market - when you select a commodity - in the right side - it shows exported to & imported from info. Although you may have to pay a small fee, in galaxy map, for trade info if you have not visited that system.

you will find that most traders have piles of notes + trade routes scribbled on bits of paper scattered everywhere