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- Supply and demand (modifies price by how much a station has/needs relative to storage capacity).
- Faction discounts (the more a faction likes you, the less their wares cost to buy).
- Discounts gained from NPC on a station (rewarded by successful smalltalk; stackable across multiple NPCs).
- Discounts gained while flying around stations occasionally.
Whatever type of trading the player may get involved in, there a couple of core mechanics that provide helpful information:
- Baseline: We have to fly near trade ports (multiple per station) to learn about trades (time-limited and lost on zone change).
- Baseline: Scanning info points on station modules unlocks info, such as storage level and production times.
- A Trade Computer unlocks all trade info for a station when we are nearby, and prevents loss of info on zone change.
- Trade Agents provide real-time info on all the offers available at their station, stopping the time limit mentioned above.
- Trade Agents unlock all storage modules at their station (new in v4.00), which helps identify supply bottlenecks.
- Economy Analytics Software (new in v4.00) provides graph-based stats for stations or an entire zone/sector/system/galaxy.
Automated Station trading (via Manager)
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