How are you getting on with the mat' traders?

[Hellakitty]

Material traders.

Great in principle, really stupid in reality.

Why oh why are they not at engineer bases, or at least in the same damn system. That's where a vast amount of their business is generated. It makes sense that's where they'd be. But no. You happen to 'misjudge' the number of materials you need due to RNG butt******* you at the top of G5 and off you toddle the nearest one.

 

[ADAMtheWELSHMANz]

Given their absolutely horrid exchange rates, I've made extremely poor experiences with them.

With the worst cross-trade ratio of 7776:1 (haha *lol*) - but only a 1:87 back, we're almost looking at a completely insane 90:1 imbalance in favor of ripping the Player off at the poorest Exchange rate.
But even with closer Tier exchange rates, they remain a pure rip-off right now.

Basically they're a supermassive black hole for Player Materials. Alot goes in - very little comes out.

The numbers I'm seeing basically tell me that none of the Persons responsible for putting them in place a) cares and b) have ever actually played the Game nor remotely understand what those number relations actually do to the Game.

To make things worse, many Elements or Materials can at least be farmed in quite large numbers.
However, Data is the absolute killer for me, since the maximum possible rate of acquisition even under optimal conditions is by several orders of magnitude lower by design.

As a result of this experience, I've basically canceled almost all my limited Re-Engineering plans. It simply makes no sense, insane amounts of effort for very little benefit.
Plus, the whole process seems 100.0% Ultra-pure hardcore grind now. Fun factor zero point zero.
My current Combat Ship now carries more Active Collector Limpets than my heaviest Mining Rig back at home *lol*, that's how bad it is. And that still doesn't cut it.
Can't gather 30 Units of Data (any) with Collector Limpets after all, no matter how many I'm kitting.

Completely done 3 ships this week without too much effort. Mat gathering a bit more than usual maybe, and utilizing traders too

Best thing is now those ships are done, finito, no more outlay required ever

This all sounds to me like a you problem not a me problem, cos this is one happy Cmdr enjoying 3.0 immensely

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Pretty good.

Lots of trading up of G1 and G2 raw materials because they're so easy to get (and I'll never need 300 at once) so they may as well get upgraded even at the low rates.

A few trade downs of one G4 or G5 for a lot of G2s where I'm going to need that G2 a lot for engineering.

A bit of trading across / across and down of EFCs and Biotech Conductors, because at 5 per mission they're not in short supply, so it's almost one of whatever G5 material I want per mission ... considering that in 2.4 these missions would sometimes give just 1 G5 material in the first place, it's basically the same as before but I get to pick the material. Once I've got the blueprints pinned properly I'll probably get more use out of this for finishing off mods.

 

[damon8r351]

How am I getting on with material traders? Well, today I just found out their locations, so there's that.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I've murdered most of them, nearly done now!

 

[verminstar]

Used them a couple times now and they saved my bacon both times...got things moving again that had gotten stuck. I read something about them being hard to find...thats not my experience and I found them within 5 minutes. Of all the problems there are, imagined or otherwise...this aint one of them...long live the mat traders ^

 

[Logarius]

I like the feature but the exchange rate is not balanced.

 

[Barking_Mad]

I like the trading up of lower grade materials. It means there's a reason to pick them up and then when you trade them for something better there's a sense of progression and knowing your time wasn't wasted when you stopped to get them.

Its actually more rewarding than it was before to just play the game because you'll have a lot more of everything when you come to engineer stuff. That suits me fine as Engineering for me was just something else to do, rather than a 'I must have all the bestest ships!' type activity.

 

[Vardaugas]

I use them to normalize my inventory. After a few romps on planets, I had a huge pile of iron and nickel, which I traded in for lead. Some of the more common T4s I had found were traded in for the rarer ones or the ones I had less stock in. I think they're good for compensating a deficiency in one area with surplus from another. But they are not good for farming one material and then exchanging it all for something else you were actually wanting for.

Material traders are a convenience while farming, not a replacement for farming.

 

[GunnerBill]

Great.

I don't mind putting the hours in (never have actually) for the rare stuff but what always annoyed me about the old system was having to go and get all that boring stuff I should have been picking up (but never had the room for) on the way.

No I love the new mat's traders.

 

[seko]

I have found them quite useful. I've been unlocking Guardian tech, and some of the mats needed are quite rare to obtain, so mat trader has been invaluable, at a good exchange rate too (6/1). If used carefully, ie: collect high grade mats, to exchange for lower grade mats, can be a useful tool. ie: I needed quite a bit of Rhemium, a new addition in 3.0, didn't know where to start looking, but I had a shed load of Zirconium, which I could exchange at 6/1. Saved a lot of time and effort

 

[Muetdhiver]

I only use them downward. Using them any other way is a waste of time. Up trading and lateral trades are useless features as it stands.

 

[Kzak]

Material traders are extremely handy when trading down. One tier 5 material turns into 81 tier 1 materials in the same category, which saves me a lot of collecting.

 

[Old Duck]

I've already maxed out some of the common materials, and when I do, I zip over to a trader and "spend" 200 of the 300 irons, nickels, shield doodads, etc. on more of the top-tier mats. A penny saved is a penny earned as they say (I do my best not to 'ignore' mats).

Every since 3.0 dropped, I keep two collector limpets on standby whenever I'm farming bounties in a RES (unless I'm in a small ship like my Viper). Before 3.0, I didn't bother due to storage limit & lack of material bins. I've actually enjoyed this new mechanic / gameplay. Now if only my NPC was smart enough to open the cargo door when a limpet knocks, then I wouldn't have to toggle back and forth when I'm in mood to fly SLF!

My biggest gripe is FINDING these mat traders. It took me over an hour one night to find the right trader close to the system I was working. It would be so much better if the type of trader was listed in the system map, rather than having to dock at each station to see what (raw, manufactured, data) they trade in. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just how it is?

 

[MadDogMurdock]

I've already maxed out some of the common materials, and when I do, I zip over to a trader and "spend" 200 of the 300 irons, nickels, shield doodads, etc. on more of the top-tier mats. A penny saved is a penny earned as they say (I do my best not to 'ignore' mats).

Every since 3.0 dropped, I keep two collector limpets on standby whenever I'm farming bounties in a RES (unless I'm in a small ship like my Viper). Before 3.0, I didn't bother due to storage limit & lack of material bins. I've actually enjoyed this new mechanic / gameplay. Now if only my NPC was smart enough to open the cargo door when a limpet knocks, then I wouldn't have to toggle back and forth when I'm in mood to fly SLF!

My biggest gripe is FINDING these mat traders. It took me over an hour one night to find the right trader close to the system I was working. It would be so much better if the type of trader was listed in the system map, rather than having to dock at each station to see what (raw, manufactured, data) they trade in. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just how it is?

Services filter in Galmap.
It shows Broker types in systems you've been to within 40ly

 

[Kzak]

My biggest gripe is FINDING these mat traders. It took me over an hour one night to find the right trader close to the system I was working. It would be so much better if the type of trader was listed in the system map, rather than having to dock at each station to see what (raw, manufactured, data) they trade in. Am I doing something wrong, or is this just how it is?

See https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ures-of-3-0?p=6447488&viewfull=1#post6447488:

• Each trader type only trades in their type of materials and can be found in different economy types. Locations material traders can be found are:

- Raw Materials Trader: found at extraction and refinery economies, only trades in raw material found on planet surfaces and planetary rings.
- Manufactured Materials Trader: Found at industrial economies, only trades in manufactured materials.
- Encoded Materials Trader: Found at High Tech and Military economies, only trades in encoded materials.
- Systems also need to be mid to high security systems and have populations between 1,000,000 and 22,000,000.​

• Materials Traders will not show up in anarchy systems.
• Materials Traders will not show up at stations that are currently controlled by a criminal faction.
• Materials Traders will be unavailable when a station is damaged, under repair or put on lockdown.
• Horizons is required to use Material traders.
• Material traders can be found using the new map view configuration ‘By Service’ option. This has a 40ly range and only shows traders that you have discovered.
• Material traders will also be shown on the system map in the station services list.
• Material traders will appear in the Human Bubble, Colonia and Pleiades regions at economies types listed above.

 

[Stigbob]

Material traders.

Great in principle, really stupid in reality.

Why oh why are they not at engineer bases, or at least in the same damn system. That's where a vast amount of their business is generated. It makes sense that's where they'd be. But no. You happen to 'misjudge' the number of materials you need due to RNG butt******* you at the top of G5 and off you toddle the nearest one.

Pin the blueprint then finish it later, no need for them to be in the same system. Or take enough stuff with you in the first place.

Any butt-pain you experience is entirely your own fault and problem.

 

[Old Duck]

Services filter in Galmap.
It shows Broker types in systems you've been to within 40ly

So if I jump into systems I haven't been to yet (as was the case the other day), will the map update as soon as I pop out of hyperspace? It's not the jumping from system to system that takes so long, it was the docking at each system's station and accessing the broker that quickly became tedious.

And Kzak, thanks! That'll save me a ton of time as well

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Brilliant. It's a big reason my ship is now as fast as it is.

 

[Hellakitty]

Pin the blueprint then finish it later, no need for them to be in the same system. Or take enough stuff with you in the first place.

Any butt-pain you experience is entirely your own fault and problem.

Thanks for that.

Yeh no. The butt-pain is the G5 material gathering. Broken RNG that is weighted so far against the player on only works occasionally ain't my fault.