Rare Commodity limits

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

Let me start by saying I'm finding the current limits on Rares perfectly profitable. I just made 1.6 M credits in my 100T capacity Type-6 in a single run (with a lot of pickups obviously). Probably took me 2 or 3 hours of gameplay, all good, I'm not trying to make money any quicker doing this.
_
But the main reason I want to trade in rares is to explore the inhabited galaxy and go to systems I wouldn't normally visit while making money trading, so with the current setup where you get one and only one batch of each good, I'm only seeing the systems that sell rares, the other ones I just skip through.
_
So personally, I'd prefer to have a system where you get a limited supply of rare on a visit, but once you leave, and have visited another station, when you come back you get the chance to buy some more.
_
That way I'd be able to go to a rare source, but some, then trade around that system in normal goods until I've got enough of the rare commodity to make the visit worthwhile.
_
Anyway, that's my ideal, but I thought I'd do this poll and fine out how everyone else feels about the rare limits and what you think the mechanism should be.

 

[ChaseBears]

i think its better that rares remain limited cargo wise. I think part of the point of rares is that players using non-trading vessels are still competitive trading them.

 

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

i think its better that rares remain limited cargo wise. I think part of the point of rares is that players using non-trading vessels are still competitive trading them.

Yeah, but surely that's a career choice thing? Why would you be flying a non-trading ship if you're trying to be a trader? And the rares are too rare to be just picked up on the way to somewhere unless you're really lucky.

 

[Vasious]

I think the current system is good.
I have 12 tons space for wanted runs, if near by I can pick up rares and source the wanted far a field, if not, no worries.
A new starter in a sidewinder can make a good run and be encourage to explore.


As an aside, are you sure you only get one batch, I filled up on Onion head, 9 tonnes, and got distracted, flew about and docked back up and there was more available

 

[Jagax]

It's totally stupid that you don't get to buy all of the allotted rares in one go. That could be randomized to some degree but you should be able to buy all of them at once.
Now you have to (yes you have to since it's stupid not to get as many as you can in one place) wait for refresh, often several times since you might only get 1 or 2 (since that IS random) until you fill your quota.

Before the change you could buy the ones there go do missions then come back since you knew there would be more until you had enough.
Now it's no point in leaving until you get your quota. You get alloted maybe 10 at one station and there are 5 when you get there so you wait until refresh and hope you get the last 5 but at the refresh you only get 1 or 2 so you wait for another refresh to get the remaining 3 or 4 hopefully.

 

[SgtLennin]

I would have made them appear in random quantities, and spawn at random star ports in a certain region. With internet everybody can find these 'rare' things in a minute now.

 

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

As an aside, are you sure you only get one batch, I filled up on Onion head, 9 tonnes, and got distracted, flew about and docked back up and there was more available

Yeah, I just noticed that myself as I was writing the original post, I think they're still tweaking it, I picked up most of my last run a few days ago.

But I think they're still limited to a maximum amount, some more than others. Although I will try to trade around a single rare system again, see if it works a bit better now.

 

[Jagax]

I would have made them appear in random quantities, and spawn at random star ports in a certain region. With internet everybody can find these 'rare' things in a minute now.

Then they would have to randomize the goods too since there's no sense in having Any Na coffee spawn at some other star system.
And rare ? One space port in the whole galaxy ? Yeah I would consider that rare.

 

[smsKONG]

I'd say rares are fine the way that they are now.
You can either wait around for your max allocation, or you can keep moving and filling - in some cases doing a small loop of worlds until you've got your max amounts or in a large sweep where you take what you can get.
All the while doing normal trading as you go..

It was far too easy before and needed the nerf bat.

Rares should not be a viable main income source if you have a big ship; you can still do it in bigger ships but it takes so long you can make better money elsewhere.
I can still happily fill up my Asp over a few hours, but by the time you are getting close to full you are risking a lot of profit (and time) for each new rare you go to collect. Risk of crash, interdiction, even risk of scan if you are carrying one of the illegal rares. It's still about worth filling up the asp but I've lost all my cargo (84 of 88) on at least one occasion. ..
Wouldn't want to be doing this in a type 9!

 

[5AnaHalfHatsize]

You can either wait around for your max allocation, or you can keep moving and filling - in some cases doing a small loop of worlds until you've got your max amounts or in a large sweep where you take what you can get.
All the while doing normal trading as you go..

It was far too easy before and needed the nerf bat.

Rares should not be a viable main income source if you have a big ship; you can still do it in bigger ships but it takes so long you can make better money elsewhere.
I can still happily fill up my Asp over a few hours, but by the time you are getting close to full you are risking a lot of profit (and time) for each new rare you go to collect. Risk of crash, interdiction, even risk of scan if you are carrying one of the illegal rares. It's still about worth filling up the asp but I've lost all my cargo (84 of 88) on at least one occasion. ..
Wouldn't want to be doing this in a type 9!

As I said in the OP, it's not about the profit, its about the ability to explore different systems with trade, and "waiting around" shouldn't be a game mechanic at all.

And then getting a big, satisfying payment at the end.

 

[Pilot Mark]

I stumbled across rares when visiting Lave during gamma and back then it was easy to make $$$$ by upgrading to a bigger ship as soon as you could to carry the cargo. It's a good system for making some credits early on so you can at least get a decent ship, but now I'm in a type 9 it is more profitable running normal cargo shorter distances. It took me 4 hours do do a Lave cluster to Eranin/Ethgreze round trip which net me 1.6m, but I can make that in less than half an hour now.

Therefore, I have changed my mind somewhat now having looked at this from a different perspective. But I think the quota system is wrong, you should be able to sit in a station waiting for the drip feed of rares.

Now that the maps and route planner is working, that takes some of the fun out of it. I was plotting courses manually back then, including fuel stops (before I discovered fuel scoops). Made it much more interesting.

I think the poll is a good idea. Good call.

 

[beelbeebub]

It would be nice, as a future expansion/tweak, if the availability of certain rare or unique goods was tied to getting standing with a certain faction.
.
For example in the SF series "night's dawn" a certain rare drink "norfolk tears" is only produced in limited quantities by a cartel on a certain planet. Only starship captains in good standing with the growers cartel could hope to secure a quota of a few cases.
.

In ED this may manifest itself as doing missions (provide X tons of Y, transport A to B etc). This may then translate as an allocation of the rare good at harvest time, which would happen at a defined time (say every month, or even once a year). This scarce cargo would only then be available at one location at a specific time to selected players. Of course, as everyone knows when and where the goods will be available, there's sure to be opportunities for those who didn't get an official allocation to get their hands on some.....accidents do happen in space......

 

[kurush]

So personally, I'd prefer to have a system where you get a limited supply of rare on a visit, but once you leave, and have visited another station, when you come back you get the chance to buy some more.

This is almost how it works. The stock does respawn until you get a certain number of those, so it is worth visiting the same system at least twice, especially when you are in the Lave area.

 

[LaznAzn]

System is fine, good for small courier and explorer ships but once you're in a T7 or higher it becomes sub-optimal. Did some rare trading to get started, got my T7 and never looked back.

 

[ciVic]

I think it's too easy to jump that distances! Jumping should be dangerous, so that you can buy how much you want but you will likely not be able to fly over 100 ly.

 

[akr]

It would be nice, as a future expansion/tweak, if the availability of certain rare or unique goods was tied to getting standing with a certain faction. […] In ED this may manifest itself as doing missions (provide X tons of Y, transport A to B etc). This may then translate as an allocation of the rare good at harvest time, which would happen at a defined time (say every month, or even once a year). This scarce cargo would only then be available at one location at a specific time to selected players. Of course, as everyone knows when and where the goods will be available, there's sure to be opportunities for those who didn't get an official allocation to get their hands on some.....accidents do happen in space......

This is an interesting idea. It may be worth exploring for later on!

 

[Tuzmaal]

Make them spawn randomly every 24 hours in a different station, the way it was and is now opens an easy way for bot to farm them.

 

[kurush]

Make them spawn randomly every 24 hours in a different station, the way it was and is now opens an easy way for bot to farm them.

How is it easy to bot farm them now? You only get like 10-20 of them and usually in one sale, two sales maximum... Then you have to fly elsewhere for a new ware and this is where we don't yet have bots available. I sure hope they will appear just because I miss the auto pilot badly, but that's besides the point.

 

[korsobar]

I don't really understand the options in your poll, but I want to say this: the stupid 10 minute timer should go. It is pointless. If it was to slow purchasing, then why not simply adjust the profit? All that having a timer does is reward waiting. I already spend 50% + of my game time alt-tabbed to read something else. Just give me the load of rares from a station so I can move on. No more timers.

 

[TheLastCall]

I don't have a problem with the way rates work, although I always thought they should be linked to your rating with the faction that produces them.

So if your normal you can get very few, but if you have worked for the faction and done missions for them you would get offered more. Allied with them you can get a decent quota.

That way you would need to do missions to get a decent rare trade run going.