What do the trade route lines in the galaxy map show?

CMDR Lukas Vance

CMDR Lukas Vance
Can anyone tell me what the trade route lines in the Galaxy map show? I was looking for some Imperial Slaves to take back to Cubeo and sell on the black market. There is a line from Karsuki Ti which slowly pulses it's way to Cubeo. However there are no Imperial Slaves to purchase at Karsuki Ti. Likewise there is a slow pulse from Cubeo to Lambda-2 Tucanae but again there are no Imperial Slaves to buy at Cubeo.

Of course I just used the ever reliable EDDB.io to find out the actual information I needed. I know the galaxy mapping is lacking, but in this case it seems to be factually wrong. Even if this is supposed to represent the movement of Imperial Slaves, rather than their purchase, there was no movement INTO Karsuki Ti, those slaves must have come in from somewhere else to move out.

0wVU6rYh.jpg
 

Sapyx

Sapyx
As far as I am aware, 3.0 (or some very shortly thereafter update) will be including updates to the galaxy map to make it much more truthful and useful.

In the meantime, yes, it does have some glitches.

Things to consider:
- Did you look at every single starbase and outpost in Karsuki Ti? iSlaves might have been available for sale at only one of them.
- I am not sure where exactly the trade computer is getting its information from. It seems to be getting it from the BGS hypothetical "NPC trading", rather than from CMDR trading. I also suspect the mission commodities are using the same commodity source, as I've often seen commodities being offered for shipping via missions that are not for sale on the regular markets.
- It is possible that the BGS is using an as-yet-invisible outpost as its "source" of slaves - such as a city on the surface of an Earth-like planet.
- I personally never trade in iSlaves, partly because of the whole roleplay Ethics thing, and partly because figuring out which planets are profitable for iSlaves (cheap sources and expensive destinations) and which ones aren't is not intuitive; it's near-impossible to make profits selling iSlaves without an external source like EDDB or Inara.
 

Deleted member 38366

D
CMDR labrunning said:
Paragraph 2.

I'm asking because if this is a bug I should report it.
Click to expand...

These things have been bug-reported *uhm* ... 2.5 years ago?

AFAIK the Trade Routes don't keep pace with Faction/Asset/System control changes.
So when certain Commodities go "out of fashion" due to a new government (presumably also due to any PowerPlay interference), the Trade Data doesn't keep up.
In fact I believe most of the things you see are still representing original V1.0.00 Trade Data (!)
It's been like that since a long... long.... looooong time.

V3.0 Trade Info "should" fix all that. Hopefully.

PS.
I think I remember I first bug reported this in V1.0 or V1.1, when I needed some Combat Stabilizers for a Naval Ranking Mission.
Needless to say, I failed the Mission despite checking a dozen Systems that supposedly sold them acc. to the in-game Trade data.
That was sometime around early 2015.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
Dav Stott said that the in-game trade data is derived from CMDR traffic.

There is no NPC Traffic.

I assume that the GalMap is just reproducing the "Imported From" info inside the Commodities Market.

Doesn't mean a profit was made. Doesn't mean that it's a sensible trade. Just means someone made this trade.
 

Roybe

Roybe
I use the trade lines to find locations that have stuff for sale. It has worked pretty well for me...but you have to remember, to check all markets for what you are looking for. Also, these lines are not related to profit..they just show exports.
 

CMDR Lukas Vance

CMDR Lukas Vance
DNA-Decay said:
Dav Stott said that the in-game trade data is derived from CMDR traffic.

There is no NPC Traffic.
Click to expand...

That's interesting to note, given that OAs video below shows a filter specifically for BGS trade. It's a sign to me at least that trade has been looked at at the BGS level and we will now get interesting peaks and troughs in trade that will allow for a more dynamic trading experience.

Lightspeed said:
Your question is really going to be overtaken by events when 3.0 emerges, because the trade lines are going to be a whole lot more informative than they have ever been.

Obsidian Ant's video explains it here https://youtu.be/dyvcBtktknU?t=232
Click to expand...

Yep I've seen OAs video and I am really hoping these improvements work. If the underlying data is fundamentally broken though all the extra features in the map won't be worth anything. But having watched it again, and noticing that there is now a filter for BGS trade and CMDR trade this does suggest that the underlying system has been looked at.

Roybe said:
you have to remember, to check all markets for what you are looking for. Also, these lines are not related to profit..they just show exports.
Click to expand...

I checked EDDB.io so that may have been wrong, but the place I did get Imperial Slaves from had no lines in or out. Also, EDDB.io is usually spot on.
 

Boff'in

Boff'in
Okay can people stop with the missinformation.

BGS Trade data show volume being shipped.

it does not indicate, where to buy or where to sell, only movement of goods.
The stations could be a stop between.
It could be sold with a loss in mind.
it could indicate Iron is being shipped between two stations, even though the NPC pilot has bought iron at a extraction station from another system, that would sell for a loss in the current system, but because it's a stop off to buy tea, to sell both commodities at the refinery / industrial station in the next system, it looks like (from the trade volume lines) that it's a one jump trip.

It's not a safe bet, but it's an indicator.

in 3.0 there is a toggle to show NPC trade data, Player trade data & both.

But again, it will show the volume moved between stations, NOT sales and purchases. So there might be a "leg" or two before hand and AFTER the trade-data route visualization.

Hence the per-station drill down stating what the commodity sells for in galaxy map 3.0 (and if you have that commodity in your hold) based on your private trade-data from just docking once in that system.
So you can double check before following the trade data movement of goods indicator blindly.
 
Last edited:

Ian Doncaster

Ian Doncaster
DNA-Decay said:
Dav Stott said that the in-game trade data is derived from CMDR traffic.

There is no NPC Traffic.

I assume that the GalMap is just reproducing the "Imported From" info inside the Commodities Market.
Click to expand...
The "Imported From" data is generally very accurate even in low-traffic systems, even for commodities that are so low-value that surely hardly anyone picks them up, and even for difficult-to-predict trades (e.g. which metals can be profitably moved from a Refinery to a Refinery/Industrial).

I've seen it be pretty accurate for new stations where I was literally the second person to dock there, for that matter.

It does also show up long-range player trades, but it seems to check the nearest system markets independently of actual player movement.

...so I'd suspect that the trade lines on the map are not showing the same thing as the market info.
 

EISENHORN01

EISENHORN01
If you want a decent islaves route then

LT9810 kirimov station buy islaves (it’s the first station)
cemiess sell slaves at the first station and buy indium for the return leg
 

Lucius-Darcia

Lucius-Darcia
CMDR labrunning said:
Can anyone tell me what the trade route lines in the Galaxy map show? I was looking for some Imperial Slaves to take back to Cubeo and sell on the black market. There is a line from Karsuki Ti which slowly pulses it's way to Cubeo. However there are no Imperial Slaves to purchase at Karsuki Ti. Likewise there is a slow pulse from Cubeo to Lambda-2 Tucanae but again there are no Imperial Slaves to buy at Cubeo.

Of course I just used the ever reliable EDDB.io to find out the actual information I needed. I know the galaxy mapping is lacking, but in this case it seems to be factually wrong. Even if this is supposed to represent the movement of Imperial Slaves, rather than their purchase, there was no movement INTO Karsuki Ti, those slaves must have come in from somewhere else to move out.

https://i.imgur.com/0wVU6rYh.jpg
Click to expand...

These trade routes are very accurate but you need to dock to get up to date data or buy from nearby systems the data in the galaxy map.
The Problem here is, they show just the system, but not the station which is the source of the commodity and data are old as soon as the tick happened.

For example you see imperial slaves going from A to B, but after checking A you don't find imperial slaves there. This is because it is not only the main starport, but also an outpost or planetary installations can be source of those slaves. Once you have bought the trade data for that system or have docked at every(!) port in that system, you get more actual data which can also change the route again (for example iSlaves were only available during "boom" state but it expired some hours ago).

Also remember, now that i have seen the imperial slaves in Aisling space. The imperial slaves are for example prohibited by system authority, but some installations have an other juristriction than the system has and illegal commodities (system) can be legal there (for example outpost/station not in control of system controlfaction).
Also possible Blackmarket trades are indicated here!

If you wanna use those trade data, dock at a station and buy via the galaxy map the trade data from as much systems nearby as possible. only than you will get accurate data.


Boff'in said:
Okay can people stop with the missinformation.
Click to expand...
Boff'in said:
BGS Trade data show volume being shipped.

it does not indicate, where to buy or where to sell, only movement of goods.
The stations could be a stop between.
It could be sold with a loss in mind.
it could indicate Iron is being shipped between two stations, even though the NPC pilot has bought iron at a extraction station from another system, that would sell for a loss in the current system, but because it's a stop off to buy tea, to sell both commodities at the refinery / industrial station in the next system, it looks like (from the trade volume lines) that it's a one jump trip.

It's not a safe bet, but it's an indicator.

in 3.0 there is a toggle to show NPC trade data, Player trade data & both.

But again, it will show the volume moved between stations, NOT sales and purchases. So there might be a "leg" or two before hand and AFTER the trade-data route visualization.

Hence the per-station drill down stating what the commodity sells for in galaxy map 3.0 (and if you have that commodity in your hold) based on your private trade-data from just docking once in that system.
So you can double check before following the trade data movement of goods indicator blindly.
Click to expand...


Also not right. There exists no NPC trade. even that they carry goods, there happen no actual transactions which would influence BGS or market data ingame. Every action showen is based on economy (hard stats) or based on player actions (soft stats)
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom