It's either a very strange future we inhabit or technology didn't advance too well on communicating with other systems. Surely it is possible to communicate with known contacts in distant stations to set up deals for commodities, get a price and fix the deal before leaving dock? I'm not talking missions, I'm talking setting deals with stations you've previously visited or have good reputation with the controlling faction and pricing the journey before you leave. Obviously these trades would have time deadlines on them at which point your sale price reduces, cutting profits or even expiring leaving you to risk general market prices at the time or worse, leave you unable to sell.
intersystem trades in ED
- Thread starter rachelcm
- Start date
This has come up many times. FD's answer to this has always been that they want players to visit stations, that simple.
It's as simple as it is .
If they really think that these arbitrary, artificial time sinks do anything but create frustration and boredom for the player, then they need to rethink how they approach the game's design.
Us being capable of FTL travel but incapable of even the simplest communication with stations is completely stupid.
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I get that, which is why I suggested that it's only with stations you have previously been to or with controlling factions that trust you. I can't buy into this, "we are blind to the economies of our trade neighbours approach." Even the world economy of Earth and stock markets were set up in the 20th century. Seriously, in the 34th century, interstellar trade markets haven't been developed? Sod the piloting, I need an office, and some business team in a corrolis station to get this working. Seriously, I love trading, the element of risk is great too but surely working a system long enough should give you some accurate knowledge of what's hot or not, even when you are light years away thanks to the contacts there you have made?
That's pretty dumb if you ask me. Are we supposed to actually buy into this galaxy they've created? Because things like this don't help.
It worked for Elite. For F:E2 and FFE. It also works for Elite Dangerous.
I have no problems with scouting out trade routes and proceeding accordingly. I'd like to see the game do more with local influence, reputation and trading, but ideally that should come in the form of more trade mission content with corresponding effects on the local supply.
If there were more trade/contract missions in game at present, then your request to secure a deal safe in the knowledge of what profit you'll get at the end of it, would probably be dealt with. If I get a 100k+ offer to haul something from a to b, I'm a happy man. Heck, I'm happy if I get a 50K offer to do some hauling, especially when I'm required to offer zero in the way of cash up front. I'm also happy with the "station needs X commodities" missions, because again the profit is easy to calculate. My problem is that once you get above 50tons in cargo space, there don't seem to be many missions for a hauling above that size.
flaw in the lore?
I think it is a bit crap that there isn't more trade information easily accessible. it doesn't even fit into the lore. You have the galactic average so that must be "communicated" to somewhere in the universe to be calculated, right?
However I do kind of like the idea that traders gather local knowledge and have to find the best trade routes through experience.
I've requested a feature which would kind of fit in the middle of what people are saying here. (its under Gameplay and features named Trade data and hacking)
It would still require you to visit stations and work up reputation with the various factions but eventually allow you to gather trade prices from a system with out having to go to all the stations (still have to go to the system and keep your data up to date).
I think it is a bit crap that there isn't more trade information easily accessible. it doesn't even fit into the lore. You have the galactic average so that must be "communicated" to somewhere in the universe to be calculated, right?
However I do kind of like the idea that traders gather local knowledge and have to find the best trade routes through experience.
I've requested a feature which would kind of fit in the middle of what people are saying here. (its under Gameplay and features named Trade data and hacking)
It would still require you to visit stations and work up reputation with the various factions but eventually allow you to gather trade prices from a system with out having to go to all the stations (still have to go to the system and keep your data up to date).
Everything is like that when it comes to missions. The highest level combat missions can be done in a Cobra. Missions suck right now.
When players have resorted to using OCR and third party databases to find trades I would have to say it really isn't working.
Or more accurately it isn't working for everyone and some people are happy to play a metagame...
InMemoriamSirocco
Banned
Actually, in Elite 2 and 3 you could contact any station from anywhere inside the system you were currently in and buy information about current stockmarket prices for a small fee. Saved you the trouble of flying there, only to find out that the profit margin you had anticipated was not there.
- but then again: This did never really occur. Because in Elite 2 and 3, exports were always sold significantly below galactic average, and imports were always well paid for. There were no such things as "broken trade routes". Particularly not ones that a single player could destroy by hauling a couple hundred tons from market to market more than once.
All in all, those mid-90s games were much more believable than what we have now.