Somebody want to take a stab at explaining this (mat traders)?

Stealthie

Stealthie
So, I've been hanging around Leesti, modding shield boosters (76 of them to be exact) and I needed to use a mat' trader to get some of the stuff I needed.

A look at the galmap (which is still causing CTDs half the time but that's nothing to worry about, right?) reveals that the closest manufactured trader is in Anotchadiae.

INARA, by contrast, tells me that there's also a mat' trader in CD-34 9020 - much closer than the one in Anotchadiae.
This one, however, isn't displayed on my galmap for some reason.

But, let's investigate this a little bit more.

I jump from Leesti to Anotchadiae and I can see all the planets, which would suggest I've been here before.
I dock at Malerba station (where the trader is located), check the mission board and see that I'm "neutral" with all the factions.
If I've been here before, I didn't do much but it was, apparently, enough that the newly resident mat' trader appears on my galmap.
I've definitely never accessed the mat' trader here before.

I jump from Anotchadiae to CD-34 9020 and, once again, I can see all the planets which suggests I've been here before.
Now I'm in-system I check the galmap again. Still no indication of a mat' trader anywhere in the system.
I head for Back Enterprise (where the trader is located) and it's the same as with Malerba Station - if I've been here before it must've been a flying visit.

I now check the galmap again and it's still not showing the presence of the mat' trader in CD-34 9020 - even though I'm actually AT the station where they're located.

I now know, for certain, that I've visited both systems before, that I've visited both stations before and I haven't actually accessed the mat' trader at either station.

And yet, the galmap shows the trader in Anotchadiae but not the trader in CD-34 9020.

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I challenge anybody to try and tell me this is "working as intended" :p

Assuming, of course that it's not intended to be a halfassed, unreliable, incomplete resource.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Factabulous said:
Probably one for the bug forum - or do you really want an argument to discuss it?
Click to expand...

I'll just carry on using INARA.
I feel as though I'm just wasting my time reporting bugs.

Whenever this comes up, people seem to report all sorts of different responses.
Some people report that the galmap shows traders regardless of distance.
Some people report that it shows traders at stations they've previously visited.
Some people report that it shows traders within a ~40Ly radius.

This seemed like a good opportunity to test the display criteria against a "control" to ensure that exactly the same criteria was met for both locations and confirm that different results were observed.
 

Krash

Krash
I didn't know we were supposed to use the galmap to find mat traders. I use the galmap to plot a course from A to B that's about it.
 

Deep Thought 42

D
Are these material/data trades some kind of supper black market ?

Cos If there legal business they would advertise just like the black markets & other station services do
 

Darty

Darty
Deep Thought 42 said:
Are these material/data trades some kind of supper black market ?

Cos If there legal business they would advertise just like the black markets & other station services do
Click to expand...

They do advertise, in fact you can often find material traders simple by finding a system where one could be at, viewing the system map, and then looking through the stations to see if any has a "Material Trader" listed under services. I've used this to find material traders who aren't revealed by the services filter (this was before they were listed on Inara).

For some reason though, my ships computer is unable to search for material traders as thoroughly as I can manually. Classic fdev.
 

Limoncello Lizard

Limoncello Lizard
Deep Thought 42 said:
Are these material/data trades some kind of supper black market ?

Cos If there legal business they would advertise just like the black markets & other station services do
Click to expand...
Material traders are far shadier places than the blackest of black markets. Even the most vile pirate syndicates in chaotic anarchy systems in the heart of Archon space wouldn't dare charge the exorbitant rates that the material traders inflict on us.
 
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Sapyx

Sapyx
The threshold for being an "Unexplored" system is 1 million population. Both of these systems have populations over that threshold, so they are "pre-Explored" for you right from the start of the game; you don't need to visit these systems to view the system map remotely. So you can't tell on that basis whether you've ever been there or not.

As for the mats traders, it's my understanding that they only show up if they're within 20 LYs, and you've been there before. You might need to have opened up the Contacts tab in that system, I'm not sure. So I suspect you have been to Anotchadiae but not CD-34 9020.
 

Stealthie

Stealthie
Sapyx said:
As for the mats traders, it's my understanding that they only show up if they're within 20 LYs, and you've been there before. You might need to have opened up the Contacts tab in that system, I'm not sure. So I suspect you have been to Anotchadiae but not CD-34 9020.
Click to expand...

That's the point, though.

When the map showed me Anotchadiae but not CD-34 9020, I deliberately visited both systems, deliberately landed at both stations and deliberately didn't access the mat trader at both places.
After doing that in both systems, the galmap was still showing one but not the other.

Incidentally, after accessing the mat' trader in CD-34 9020, the galmap did start displaying the trader.

It's as if the galmap is set up to just randomly show some of the traders but hide others until you actually stumble across them and use them.... which seems kind of bonkers to me.
 

Drelthar

Drelthar
The gal map is supposed to show you a mat trader if you have either, scanned a nav beacon, or, landed at any station in a system that has a mat trader.

Looks like the gal map didn't update straight away, which isn't uncommon with.... Many things in the game.

Accessing a mat trader should have no bearing on if you have "discovered" them or not.

So the bug here is the gal map being slow to update.

The design is questionable. Weather this "discovery" element should even exist is the first question, the second, is if they should have put some actual feedback in when you discover a mat trader, so you know it's happened.
 

Vedmo

Vedmo
If it's supposed to be a discovery mechanic, I'd like to do my Pilots Federation duty and sell the knowledge to Galnet so they can improve their database.
 

Mengy

Mengy
It's been reported in the bug forums, there is no rhyme or reason to why some mat traders show and some dont.

The solution is to just use INARA and be much less fruatrated for it. I wouldn't count on Frontier ever fixing it nor making the search filter infinite in range like every other filter is. Frontier just loves to gimp their own features for some odd reason.
 

Guyperson

Guyperson
I don't think I've used the in-game filter once. Even attempting to hide or restrict this information immediately relegates it to third party tools.
It's not like these traders would be hiding anyway when they must be making bank with those exchange rates. I'd expect them to be widely advertised.
 

Andovar

Andovar
Guyperson said:
I don't think I've used the in-game filter once. Even attempting to hide or restrict this information immediately relegates it to third party tools.
It's not like these traders would be hiding anyway when they must be making bank with those exchange rates. I'd expect them to be widely advertised.
Click to expand...
There seems to be this mentality at FD that you have to "earn" everything. They can't just give this information away. :rolleyes:
 

Pendergast

Pendergast
Andovar said:
holy moley! :eek:

I'm just glad you didn't whine about what a grind it is to mod 76 boosters. :p
Click to expand...

Redoing my fleet of 7 ships was probably 120+ grade 5 rolls each (I average 9 rolls to make a gr5). Still not done and gave up on some ships. Beluga don't think will ever get modded boosters for example.
 
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