Question on trading missions

[VRMan]

I see a mission to pick up, say some Bio Reducing Lichen. So I scoot out to the galaxy map and start searching for high tech star systems. I can't find any that show they export the item. Is the local system list only a list of what the stations/port export? Or do I have to just cross my fingers that one of the ports I stop at has the item I'm looking for?
I've been reading through what I can find. There are a bunch of spreadsheets etc that show buy it from these types of systems, sell to those types of systems. Is that what I should go by?

Very aggravating...freaking year 3000+ and no computerized trading system add-on for our ships. Seriously?! Heck, just something that you could pull up from the local system screen if you have visited the port in the last 24 hours would be awesome.

Thanks for your suggestions/help!

 

[Tiamat]

A trade computer is something that gets discussed a lot but the problem is that if FD implemented it then it would take all of the "skill" elements out of trading. You would just have to look up the buy prices of where you have been recently, compare against the sell prices and off you go. Many people want their ship to pretty much do it for them by telling them "go here and buy this, sell here". FD (and many traders) want to retain an element of skill and luck to trading and if Commanders want more automated information they can explore other avenues themselves. I think you can buy trade data for systems but I have never bothered as I have my own methods that don't involve spending credits.

http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk is something I use. It isn't automated as the prices are entered by Commanders when they visit stations so we are really just sharing our notes. It is useful for finding out where certain commodities are sold or where black markets are for example. You can also see if a station is a long way from the star so you can avoid things like trips to Hutton Orbital.

If you don't want something essentially telling you where to go you could use EliteOCR. You take screenshots of the commodities screen and feed them into the OCR tool which "reads" the data and produces Excel spreadsheets with the prices and supply/demand values. After you can collected a few it is fairly easy to find profitable trading routes.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=68771

 

[VRMan]

Thanks! I understand what you are saying. I'm not really looking for an "easy" way to trade. I honestly don't know what the difference is if I have to write down everything in a station on a piece of paper, or if my onboard computer stored that information for me when I visit the station. (Other than I'd have more time to play the game, instead of manually writing down the information) I'm not saying I want updates sent to me from every system within 100ly and for it to tell me the most profitable routes. I wouldn't even want it to tell me the most profitable trading from the stations I visit. But just some basic data on the station we visit that would only last a certain amount of time. (4, 6, 12, 24 hours?) I can pay for trade data on a system and it lasts 24 hours. (or is that for the past 24 hours? again, not specified anywhere)

My main question is on the missions though. If I get a mission to get "x", is "x" going to show up as an export on the system chart? If not, am I to assume that if a system shows itself as "high tech" on the map, then it should be a reasonable expectation that I should be able to get "x" from that system if that is one of the things a high tech system makes?

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I really appreciate it!

 

[Spar]

My main question is on the missions though. If I get a mission to get "x", is "x" going to show up as an export on the system chart? If not, am I to assume that if a system shows itself as "high tech" on the map, then it should be a reasonable expectation that I should be able to get "x" from that system if that is one of the things a high tech system makes?

Thanks for taking the time to respond! I really appreciate it!

At this point in time i would not rely on the galaxy chart for import/export to much, though it is getting much better and in time should be quite accurate. Once you get a feel for what each type of economy produces then yes, it is safe to assume that you will find what you need though the amounts may vary. It is also sometimes good practice to check another station in the same system should the first one not have what you are looking for as it's been my experience to find what's in demand at one station may well be in supply at another in-system station.

 

[fw190a8]

There are a few considerations here. First, you will need to buy trade data for systems that you haven't been to recently, in order to show the correct trade lines on the galaxy map. It's 100 cr per system, which is a problem very early in the game, but once you have a bit of cash it's next to nothing.

Then, if you show trade lines on the galaxy map, you will need to turn off all the commodity groups except food (I think the lichen is a food?). Then you can open up the food group, and turn off all foods except the one you're interested in. Essentially just because X exports food to Y, doesn't mean it will export the food you want, which is why you need to filter it to just that one item. Then your map should show you (assuming you've bought the trade data for each system) which ones will export the lichen you need.

This is just one way of doing it of course; there's plenty of other valid ways too.

 

[Spar]

Bioreducing Lichen is something produced by Hi-Tech economies, unfortunately not a food

 

[VRMan]

There are a few considerations here. First, you will need to buy trade data for systems that you haven't been to recently, in order to show the correct trade lines on the galaxy map. It's 100 cr per system, which is a problem very early in the game, but once you have a bit of cash it's next to nothing.

Then, if you show trade lines on the galaxy map, you will need to turn off all the commodity groups except food (I think the lichen is a food?). Then you can open up the food group, and turn off all foods except the one you're interested in. Essentially just because X exports food to Y, doesn't mean it will export the food you want, which is why you need to filter it to just that one item. Then your map should show you (assuming you've bought the trade data for each system) which ones will export the lichen you need.

This is just one way of doing it of course; there's plenty of other valid ways too.

Whoa whoa!! Open up the food group?!! I thought all you could do was turn on/off the checkbox for the group, not drill down into them. How do I do that?!!

 

[VRMan]

Whoa whoa!! Open up the food group?!! I thought all you could do was turn on/off the checkbox for the group, not drill down into them. How do I do that?!!

Good grief! Game changer! I never even thought of clicking on the arrows. Duh.

This is what I mean by lack of documentation on how to just play the basic game. I'd RTFM, if there was one. And I checked through the game manual that just showed up on the login screen. Nothing about the above in it.


Well, thanks to everyone that took the time to respond! Back to work!