With 'source X commodity' missions, maybe have a visible radius to show what stations will not have your commodity to stop aimless wandering. This GUI bubble can be similar to that of Powerplay showing exploited systems. A lot of players do not know how these missions work, leading to frustration.
Have a visible radius for 'source X commodity' missions
- Thread starter Rubbernuke
- Start date
Yeah, I've been playing since the game came out of beta and I've never bothered picking up one of these missions for exactly the reasons you describe. It's just doesn't seem like an efficient use of time when there are courier missions and others that have a clear start and end point. IMO, these missions either need to be a lot more lucrative, or give a better hint of where to find the cargo, because at the moment, they're just don't seem worth the effort of flying station to station empty handed or being forced to use external tools.
I don't see them as being that difficult (I've done plenty, back since 1.1 when there were far fewer in-game hints and tools for it) and they certainly don't require the use of out-of-game tools.
1) See mission
2) Find economy type that sells the goods by one of:
a) Common sense "Fish" -> "Agricultural"
b) Experience and knowledge as a trader
c) Checking the commodity market info for the good and seeing what type of economy produces it
d) Checking the commodity market info for the good and seeing which specific systems it's normally imported from
3) Set map filters to Economy mode. Maybe check BGS states just in case.
4) Decide whether this fits with other missions, etc.
5) Take mission, fly to appropriate system, buy goods, bring them back, profit.
I mean, certainly, they require slightly more thought than the average cargo mission (and it does get slightly harder on the rare occasions the requested good isn't one the station has a standing demand for, though that still leaves plenty of options) - but all the information needed to do one is available in game. Easily so, now we have map filters, import/export descriptions on the market screen, etc.
As regards efficiency ... the trick is to blend them with other activities, and to make use of local knowledge:
- courier mission taking you to an Industrial system? See if there's some "Fetch <Industrial Cargo>" missions on the board for your return trip.
- heading to a Refinery that often has this sort of mission? Buy 20 tonnes of HE Suits (or whatever it is the missions tend to be for) before you go: if the mission shows up you'll have the cargo and can make several thousand credits per tonne on it.
- heading to a system in Famine? Buy a range of food types rather than just the single most profitable one, to increase the chances of hitting one of these missions for massive profits.
They could be made as a zero-thought variation on the "deliver cargo" missions - "fly to station X and you'll be given the mission-specific cargo to bring back here" - but having them be a little more complex is I think good
1) See mission
2) Find economy type that sells the goods by one of:
a) Common sense "Fish" -> "Agricultural"
b) Experience and knowledge as a trader
c) Checking the commodity market info for the good and seeing what type of economy produces it
d) Checking the commodity market info for the good and seeing which specific systems it's normally imported from
3) Set map filters to Economy mode. Maybe check BGS states just in case.
4) Decide whether this fits with other missions, etc.
5) Take mission, fly to appropriate system, buy goods, bring them back, profit.
I mean, certainly, they require slightly more thought than the average cargo mission (and it does get slightly harder on the rare occasions the requested good isn't one the station has a standing demand for, though that still leaves plenty of options) - but all the information needed to do one is available in game. Easily so, now we have map filters, import/export descriptions on the market screen, etc.
As regards efficiency ... the trick is to blend them with other activities, and to make use of local knowledge:
- courier mission taking you to an Industrial system? See if there's some "Fetch <Industrial Cargo>" missions on the board for your return trip.
- heading to a Refinery that often has this sort of mission? Buy 20 tonnes of HE Suits (or whatever it is the missions tend to be for) before you go: if the mission shows up you'll have the cargo and can make several thousand credits per tonne on it.
- heading to a system in Famine? Buy a range of food types rather than just the single most profitable one, to increase the chances of hitting one of these missions for massive profits.
They could be made as a zero-thought variation on the "deliver cargo" missions - "fly to station X and you'll be given the mission-specific cargo to bring back here" - but having them be a little more complex is I think good
Ian Doncaster> you missed the most basic requirement for them in that players have to go outside a certain Ly range before that commodity becomes available, its not obvious from the mission this is the case. This mission type needs a better description in that the giver should say 'we have exhausted all contacts for this in an x Ly radius, you have to go outside this range to find more'. As I stated in my idea you also need to eliminate the places x is not sold. If you did that, and with the information and techniques you describe then these missions would be much more enjoyable.
Really? It's not a very big range if so. (As in "I didn't know that at all and never had any problems just going to the closest station of the right economy" small)
Any idea what the range is?
From the mission I did last night, I had to go about 200ly away from the home system, and even using the information in station I was hopping around trying to find it. In Powerplay there are filters that highlight a radius around control systems, it would be perfect here so you can visibly see where you have to go.
200 LY?! Unless you'd picked up the mission at a really isolated system (e.g. Quince/Maia) which just doesn't have diverse economies nearby - or for a localised commodity i.e. the ex-engineer ones like Reinforced Mounting Plate [1] - I can't see how it can possibly have been that far.
Checking the current mission board here, there's:
- two available within 5 LY (nearest Industrial)
- one available within 20 LY (nearest High-Tech)
- one available within 50 LY (nearest Agricultural)
- one available within 21,000 LY (I'm out near Colonia, it's asking for tobacco, and the only local Agricultural station is corporate, so doesn't currently produce it) ... that one probably shouldn't be generated, or should at least pay considerably more, but I'm not sure if Frontier can search all the markets efficiently enough to determine that when generating missions. And you can certainly understand why the mission shows up
From that I don't see an obvious "minimum radius" being applied (other than perhaps "not in this system")
[1] As with the Colonia Tobacco mission, those are a sufficiently odd case that perhaps they should either not be generated or come with a suspiciously high payout and mission rank.
Checking the current mission board here, there's:
- two available within 5 LY (nearest Industrial)
- one available within 20 LY (nearest High-Tech)
- one available within 50 LY (nearest Agricultural)
- one available within 21,000 LY (I'm out near Colonia, it's asking for tobacco, and the only local Agricultural station is corporate, so doesn't currently produce it) ... that one probably shouldn't be generated, or should at least pay considerably more, but I'm not sure if Frontier can search all the markets efficiently enough to determine that when generating missions. And you can certainly understand why the mission shows up
From that I don't see an obvious "minimum radius" being applied (other than perhaps "not in this system")
[1] As with the Colonia Tobacco mission, those are a sufficiently odd case that perhaps they should either not be generated or come with a suspiciously high payout and mission rank.
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Unless something changed, all these mission types have always done this for me. Every time I would locate a suitable station, it would not have that commodity. I would follow 'imported from' leads as well, and these stations would be out of stock too. It would only appear outside a certain distance from the mission giving system- in my mission I got so fed up looking I went far, far away to a fringe system that I knew would have what I wanted.