Trading and Logistics Tips(?)/Suggestions

[MiniMe943]

It seems like trading in Avorion is and will be a large aspect of the final game. Being an intergalactic trader can actually be pretty fun and rewarding as well. But at this point, for me at least, trading isn't worth the effort.

 

Point is, this tread's just to throw out my thoughts on trading as it currently stands.

 

Also, I feel this thread can be broken up easily into two parts; Suggestions and Tips.

 

 

Suggestions

 

I'm sure this has already been suggested i one way or another, but just bear with me.

 

Galactic Average - One of the reasons I don't bother with trading is because I have no idea if I'm going to make a profit. I don't know if things being sold are cheap or expensive relative to the prices of other stations.

 

This is where the 'Galactic Average' comes into play. It shows you the average price for said commodity based upon every single price in the galaxy.

 

This would make it easier to buy goods in an area where they're sold for less than the galactic average, and sell them in an area where they're being bought for more than the galactic average.

 

You would know for sure that you're going to make a profit!

 

I'm sure an Economy system will make it's way into the game eventually, I just hope that this is a part of it when it does come.

 

 

Tips

 

So until these finer details of the game come into fruition, I'd love to hear your tips and strategies for trading of goods.

 

          -Do you manually mark down the sell/buy prices in a given sector?

 

          -Is there even a secret at all? Can you just buy, sell, and profit?

 

At any rate, thanks for reading this thread and please let me know what you think. :)

[gn_leugim]

you can already find the average, if you buy one item and look at cargo section of ship. it shows there the average value. ofc, it is not a very pratical way to see so, I agree it could be more visible. I have to disagree with you thou, trade is very profitable. I can make 1 to 3M credits in less than 1 or 2 hours and I believe other people do even more.

 

Secret? my secret is very time consuming. every time I visit a new sector, usualy do it with a trader ship, from which I can see all available goods being sold there, station after station. I note them down. for factorys I do one more thing. I figured out that, as the stock goes down and the price goes up, you will get to a Max Price when stock is 0. I found a formula (who dnt love math :) ) to calculate this price with the stock and current price for that stock so I know which one will produce the goods and sell for less credits. from here, find a consumer (habitat, biotope or something like that) and see the prices they have, and find in my escel sheet places were I can find/produce for lower prices, and bang :)

 

For a starting point, if you dnt have money, because you can only make (sometimes) great profits with a large pocket of money, try the trading stations, sometimes you can find good deals. but you have to search.

 

Also (and this is to the devs) tradind stations dont restock do they? I havent find any to restock, or consume goods. If that is realy the case, I have a lot of lines to clean in my sheet :P

[MiniMe943]

you can already find the average, if you buy one item and look at cargo section of ship. it shows there the average value. ofc, it is not a very pratical way to see so, I agree it could be more visible. I have to disagree with you thou, trade is very profitable. I can make 1 to 3M credits in less than 1 or 2 hours and I believe other people do even more.

 

Secret? my secret is very time consuming. every time I visit a new sector, usualy do it with a trader ship, from which I can see all available goods being sold there, station after station. I note them down. for factorys I do one more thing. I figured out that, as the stock goes down and the price goes up, you will get to a Max Price when stock is 0. I found a formula (who dnt love math :) ) to calculate this price with the stock and current price for that stock so I know which one will produce the goods and sell for less credits. from here, find a consumer (habitat, biotope or something like that) and see the prices they have, and find in my escel sheet places were I can find/produce for lower prices, and bang :)

 

For a starting point, if you dnt have money, because you can only make (sometimes) great profits with a large pocket of money, try the trading stations, sometimes you can find good deals. but you have to search.

 

Also (and this is to the devs) tradind stations dont restock do they? I havent find any to restock, or consume goods. If that is realy the case, I have a lot of lines to clean in my sheet :P

 

Wow, good reply, that was really informative. I think keeping some of that info in mind, I might actually get into the trade aspect of the game. :)

[koonschi]

The current average is the perfect average around which all the trading goods' prices are calculated. It is visible only if your ship has a trading system. I agree that it could be more visible though.

[MiniMe943]

It is visible only if your ship has a trading system. I agree that it could be more visible though.

 

Oh, that's good to know. Looks like a trading system will be my next investment.  :)

[Mobious]

Also about logistic and trading. It would be perfect (!) if I can order my transport ships to buy/sell items (but it only actual, if they still can get my orders in another sector. Mayber something like "Commander Upgrade" wich on give you ability to give orders on distance?).

 

I also wait for moment, when NPCs will able to dock with station and trade by themself AND station will produce items. (without that trading is usless - untill some moment). And of course when we could build stations, it would be goddest game ever.

 

I need only these 2 sweety things and this game will be such great as X3 but with multiplayer. Hangars and others is good, but this is really needed for playing.  (Btw, sorry for bad english :c)

[koonschi]

NPC trading and building/buying stations will be part of the next update.

Ordering your own ships to do trading might turn out to be difficult, as sectors are only updated for a limited time once there is no player in them.

So you may have ordered your ship to do something, but you go away and the sector gets unloaded and is no longer updated - so this feature would be useless.

Unless you always visited the sector over and over again, in which case you could do the trading by yourself, too.

[Mobious]

 

So you may have ordered your ship to do something, but you go away and the sector gets unloaded and is no longer updated - so this feature would be useless.

 

 

That's understable, but lets see how this system works in X3: game create virtual sector, where player's ships are, without 3D space physic (even ships moves with a little bit wrong speed, their AI different). I don't understand how else can NPCs trade in real time with stations, if you said what sectors unloaded when player leave them.

So, if we can't give orders to ships for trading/patrooling sector/etc, we can't increase our proffit -> the game have a real limit. Building station will be expensive, but earning money for it may take a long time if we will trade by ourself. Trading in such simulators - is building a logisitc web with stations.

If we will trade only by ourself it will be looks like: buying [6kk energy] -> solding to 1 station [1kk] -> solding to 2th station [1,5kk] and etc. There is a high risk, what someone already sold them (so we loose profit, because our ship have heavy hull and low speed - a realistic for transporters). And 5-6 ships could do this work faster and reliable. That's why it's isn't usless.

[koonschi]

I get your point. I know the system of X3, but that doesn't mean it's going to be easy to get this to work in Avorion. It's a huge amount of work. Right now my priorities are elsewhere, but at some point, in some way, this feature is planned. But not any time soon.

[NotEvenCanadian]

It is worth noting that Elite:Dangerous does not have automated ships nor does it have a terribly intuitive trading interface. Nonetheless, almost any ship can turn a profit based on knowing what types of stations produce what products and in turn what they purchase. To help boost the viability of trading for new players, there are occasional quests to either find or deliver certain goods. I know quests aren't here yet, and may focus more on action, but such a system could be beneficial.