I posted a little while back about places that had really old data, a recap of the 20 oldest station data samples:
Code:
$ trade.py old --limit 20 -vvv
Station Age/days StnLs Pad
---------------------------------------------------------
V401 HYDRAE/Swanwick Terminal 122.79 3.84K Med
COSI/Marshall Hub 121.13 13K Med
G 180-18/Bamford Terminal 120.60 1.82K Med
MAGEC/Arrhenius Colony 120.60 16 Med
MOMBALUMA/Hughes-Fulford Terminal 120.08 539 Lrg
UOLUSKAS/Moisuc Dock 119.88 429 Lrg
BELALANS/Shoemaker City 119.88 78 Lrg
OVIMBAIA/Morris City 119.40 106 Lrg
HIP 84255/Land Port 119.24 1.93K Lrg
PARAUDIKA/Mouhot Port 118.89 31 Med
SHAKAPA/Gibson Dock 118.86 1.86K Med
TIMOCANI/Pennington Terminal 118.83 ? ?
11 CEPHEI/Cook Gateway 118.82 844 Lrg
AKNANGO/Pinto Hub 118.81 325 Lrg
AKNANGO/Skolem Landing 118.80 464 Med
SHOTEP/Walters Refinery 118.67 ? Med
HIP 85010/Volynov Platform 118.46 ? ?
CHACOBOG/Trinh Enterprise 118.32 ? ?
JARILDEKALD/Elvstrom Platform 118.31 ? ?
JARILDEKALD/Reed Stop 118.30 ? ?
So we now have some 4-month old data in there
But you'll also see the list is different. In some of the few occasions I've had chance to get in-game, I've gone visiting.
What I found was interesting.
Firstly, at many of the stations, the prices - even the quantities - appeared to be "fosilized" - they were exactly as they had been 90-100 days ago. At none of them was I ever able to acquire a mission, and I couldn't help but wonder if that was a faction, because the mission system does affect the economy of a system. If nobody has been able to do missions at these stations ...
But secondly, there was great money to be made, which people are missing because of --age.
Because of the number of players anticipating A<->B routes to be profitable, our highest concentration of maintained data is between systems that have mediocre quasi-stable turnovers; it looks like players think 1000-1200kcr/ton is "good" is good. Some of the most trafficed areas have one hop that's 1500-1600cr/ton and the other is 900cr/ton. While I hate to introduce math, one hop of 900 and one hop of 1600 means an average of 1250cr/ton. If you sold 1 ton each way, you'd gain 2500 cr, if both hops made you 1250 cr you'd be making the same profit...
Next door there's a route which makes 1190, 1310 and 1430cr a hop? That's got to make you less money right? I mean, you were making 1600cr/ton a minute ago with only two stops? Except this route is making 1310cr per ton.
Lets say you carry 100 tons along both routes:
A -> B + 900,000 -> A + 1,600,000 -> B + 900,000 => just under 3.4mil cr
C -> D + 1,190,000 -> E + 1,310,000 -> F + 1,430,000 => 3.93 mil cr.
What appears to happen is that players occasionally see a really good single-hop profit, something going for 1750cr/ton gain, and immediately set about finding an A<->B loop and find something that's 1750/1100. When they get there, it turns out the 1750 is now 1700 and the 1100 turns out to be 10x0. They do a couple of runs and they only seem to be making like 1300cr/ton which is barely better than what they had, and naturally you feel disinclined to waste time skipping between pools.
ED has an
economy so focusing on A<->B loops like this is generally a lose-lose situation for you unless you're willing to also participate in the mission/combat portion of the game to drive the demand for the commodities you want to trade.
My intent here isn't to scald anyone for "doing it wrong", but to explain some of the mechanics as I see them, because I'm sure some of you are tiring of the grind, and I thought it worth weighing in; TD has options that will let you back yourself into a grindy corner because of limitations of the data we have. Whether it's checking for nearby stations we don't have data for or old station data and using the "trade" command.
Another useful thing to do - occasionally - "--limit". If you've got 500 cargo capacity, try using "--limit 450" sometimes and let TD suggest some extra stuff to help you stir up sales a bit.
