How are you getting on with the mat' traders?

[Sylow]

Fundamentally, I seem to be finding that I just collect up all the other mat's that I need as I'm looking for G5 mat's.

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Congratulations! You just found out what many of us, me included, were telling you since the beta: when you collect G5 materials, the materials for the lower grades generally come in all by themselves. (There are a few gaps here and there, which the material trader bridges for me, but generally i get G1 to G4 "for free" while collecting for a few G5 rolls. )
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So all the "but the additional grind" postings, at least in my eyes and according to my experience, have no substance at all, and seem to be written by people who haven't touched the new system yet. (The alternate explanation is that all those people built up stockpiles of G5 materials in the old system, where they vented all G1 to G4 materials to have more storage space for G5 materials. Now they use up the G5 materials and lack the cheaper materials. )
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So in contrast what some people here scream all of the time, there's actually little to no additional effort for G1 to G4 when actually using the new system, you only experience new grind when still sitting on a stack of old materials and are still mentally locked into the old system.
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[WR3ND]

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I find I'm getting too many of the lower materials and filling up on stocks of them, so the drops are wasted, and since the trade up rates are what they are, they don't have much use for me. If I could store more, I could use them to trade up more, or if the trade up exchange rate were better, having a full stock of the lower materials wouldn't be as much of an issue and I could get more use out of them to keep my stocks lower so drops I come across aren't wasted and don't get in the way of me picking up other things.

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To be clear, I think it's a much better system overall, but it does have its strange annoyances that seem like a waste to me.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

I still find the interface a bit awkward, but I've gotten accustomed to it.
I don't use it often, unless I'm in a bind, or I don't want to spend forever looking for Lead.

 

[Garand1987]

I find them helpful. The only thing I would change is the G4-G5 exchange rates. Currently if you trade a g5 for a needed g4 they want 2/1. If you’re looking for a G5, they want something like 35+ G4 items for one G5. And sometimes trading isn’t even possible. Like they want thousands of G1 items for a single G5. Can’t hold that much of a single item.

 

[Watcher]

So far I'm with you on this, the exchange rates are pretty punishing so it doesn't seem to be worth it for the most part.
Still, see how I feel over time I guess.

I'd also like to see the option to use a higher grade material as a drop in replacement for a lower grade one of the same type if you are out for some reason but this wouldn't be useful in most cases and if you can go to a trader anyway... This is purely a convenience thing... Perhaps engineers should have mat traders with poor rates to facilitate things but be something you would generally avoid with other traders generally being a better bet?
Hmm.

 

[master_xean]

I wouldn't be playing ED at all if not for the mat trader

 

[ArchAngelofDeath]

Love having traders. I gather everything I can just in case I want to trade later.
Hate the 36-1 ration on some things though. It's too steep IMO. But if i'm too impatient to hunt down a G5 mat I generally like the trader concept a lot.

 

[Sylow]

I find I'm getting too many of the lower materials and filling up on stocks of them, so the drops are wasted, and since the trade up rates are what they are, they don't have much use for me. If I could store more, I could use them to trade up more, or if the trade up exchange rate were better, having a full stock of the lower materials wouldn't be as much of an issue and I could get more use out of them to keep my stocks lower so drops I come across aren't wasted and don't get in the way of me picking up other things.

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Might be just me, but i prefer trading up at bad rates to not trading up and thus not being able to pick up lower grade materials any more. Sure G1 materials don't instantly turn into G5 materials, but everything you collect helps a bit.
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[Sylow]

I still find the interface a bit awkward, but I've gotten accustomed to it.
I don't use it often, unless I'm in a bind, or I don't want to spend forever looking for Lead.

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I am in full agreement here, the interface really is not great.
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On using it, i also only bridge some gaps here and there with it. But as filling in gaps the hardcore way was the most annoying part previously, even that helps a lot. The other reason why i sometimes visit them is to uptrade G1/G2 materials when the storage for them is getting full. It's amazing how fast that happened for some materials, e.g. iron.
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[-VR- Max Factor]

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Might be just me, but i prefer trading up at bad rates to not trading up and thus not being able to pick up lower grade materials any more. Sure G1 materials don't instantly turn into G5 materials, but everything you collect helps a bit.
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I agree. If you have hundreds, trade some up to make space. I have no issues with the exchange rate myself. Seems reasonable.

 

[Ddraig]

I get crap doing typical activities and then trade for what I need for an specific upgrade and special effect if needed be.
The trader system makes things easier and I dont need to do all the grades at once, no idea why is that a thing. So much hurry for some people, but thing is, being in a hurry is your problem.

 

[John Xenir]

I like material trades, and I don't.

What I like:
- I'm finally able to get rid of abundant mats I don't currently need and turn them in for something useful;
- this reduced grind for me somewhat because it seems activities I'm doing provide with sufficient exchange mats to cover for activities I don't do, and that reward other mats.

What I don't like:
- some of the exchange ratios are ridiculous;
- wish mat traders were also at engineer bases, where you would think they should be in the first place, then around the bubble to exchange mats if one category's full;

Overall, I would say it's a step in the right direction and a very needed feature.
Which is interesting - Engineers first, now this - it seems like Frontier is slowly swaying in the direction of controlling RNG within contained ranges, instead of going full RNG out-of-control.

 

[Muetdhiver]

It would be nice if they got out of their station in some ships loaded with materials that one could pirate.

Asking politely with a gun and all that...