Module supply wackiness?

Stealthie · Mar 31, 2018

This is something that I bet everybody's fallen victim to at some point.

You want a new 7A fuel-scoop for your Anaconda, or an 8A power-plant for your Corvette, or 8A shields for your Cutter so you go to EDDB, pick the desired module, type-in your current location and head off....
.... only to find, when you arrive, that your destination is a medium-pad orbital platform.

Why?

Given that the biggest ship that can land at an orbital platform is a Python, why do so many of these places stock modules that they can't possibly sell to any ship that can land there?

Is it just there as a "booby trap" (FDev deliberately trying to annoy players - yet again) or is there some way to actually buy these modules that I haven't figured out?

It's not a rare oddity either.
Looking at EDDB, there are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of medium-pad platforms that sell things like C8 fuel scoops, C8 PPs and C7/C8 shields. [wacky]

Chris Simon · Mar 31, 2018

Dumb question but how do you know?
Doesn't the outfitting display modules only up to your compartment size?

The fact that EDDB says something is not indicative of anything.

Stealthie · Mar 31, 2018

Chris Simon said:
Dumb question but how do you know?
Doesn't the outfitting display modules only up to your compartment size?

The fact that EDDB says something is not indicative of anything.

A fair point.

I wonder how EDDB collects information about the availability of modules that can't actually be fitted to any ship that can land at the platform in question? [where is it]

Chris Simon · Mar 31, 2018

Who knows. I don't trust these sites at all.
In any case, you can filter for Large pad-only when searching on EDDB

Drelthar · Mar 31, 2018

EDDB get's the data from the game using some kinda MAGIC.

So, you don't need to check it manually in game, once you dock (or maybe open outfitting) if you have all the MAGIC EDDB stuff installed, it grabs all the info and plonks it onto their servers.

So that's how we know the stuff is in stock.

Thing is, the reason it's there, is that every station obviously uses the same method to decide what it has in stock, and just doesn't care if it can actually sell it or not, Because a player will never see it (IN GAME) so it doesn't matter.

If not for EDDB MAGIC you would never know.

Lanceor · Mar 31, 2018

I could just imagine the bored shopkeepers at those stations, occasionally dusting off the cobwebs off those 7A fuel scoops and wondering why nobody is buying them...

Anyway, unless I'm mistaken, EDDB gets its info from apps like ED Market Connector. Every time a player lands at a station, EDMC reads the player's game files (or something) and sends info to ED Data Network which is then used by EDDB, Inara etc.

CMDR EDGEL0RD · Mar 31, 2018

Dont know why you cannot order modules from stations 50 LY around.
Some fixed one-time markup, around 200k for each module, will provide enough disincentive to use it. But it will at least make search more convinient.

Eloy · Mar 31, 2018

Aaaand the engineers not selling the kind of modules they work with. No salesman talent, ey?

Stealthie · Mar 31, 2018

Novo Mundus said:
Thing is, the reason it's there, is that every station obviously uses the same method to decide what it has in stock, and just doesn't care if it can actually sell it or not, Because a player will never see it (IN GAME) so it doesn't matter.

That's a good point too.

I guess that the stock that a station has is dependent on things like the economy and tech-level of the system and, given that you can't actually see anything that you can't fit, it probably wasn't worth the faff of trying to limit stock in any other way.
I guess it's not FDev's fault that things like EDMC have found a way to brain-suck the game to reveal stuff you aren't supposed to see.

Besides, I suppose there might come a point where a medium-pad ship is added which does use those modules.

I just thought it was kind of funny, from an in-universe POV, to think of somebody like Quark with a warehouse full of 8A shields and fuel-scoops, wondering why he can't sell them.

Chris Simon · Mar 31, 2018

Eloy said:
Aaaand the engineers not selling the kind of modules they work with. No salesman talent, ey?

Yeah, that one always bugged me a little..

Stealthie · Mar 31, 2018

Chris Simon said:
Yeah, that one always bugged me a little..

Whenever I stop somewhere, on the way to an engineer, to buy the required module it always turns out that they have it in stock themselves.
Whenever I realise I've forgotten to buy the required module, and rely on the engineer to have it in stock, they never do.

It ain't easy being me. [sad]

Chris Simon · Mar 31, 2018

Stealthie said:
Whenever I stop somewhere, on the way to an engineer, to buy the required module it always turns out that they have it in stock themselves.
Whenever I realise I've forgotten to buy the required module, and rely on the engineer to have it in stock, they never do.

It ain't easy being me. [sad]

Procedural generation and BGS RNG - Never before were Murphy's laws coded into the game so precisely.