[answered] Trading guilds = no need for satellites?

[Browser_ice]

Hi, if I am part of a trading guild (ideally all of them) then do I really need satellites?

To do trading in the whole X4 universe, it comes down to :
- have satellites everywhere I want to do business?

OR

- be part of all faction guilds?

[Geek]

Not exactly.
Each faction sell a trade licence which give permanent subscription to trade offers of that faction.
This licence is not related to the guilds.

[Browser_ice]

It does not really answers my question or I am not understanding your answer.

"Each faction sell a trade licence which give permanent subscription to trade offers of that faction."
- are those permanent subscription active/usable by me for all stations of that faction even I have no satellites in range of those stations?

[Geek]

Yes, that is the point.

[Browser_ice]

All right, then it is a cheaper solution then spending $$,$$$,$$$ on buying/installing all those satellites.

I am glad I did not start doing this. That is usually the first thing I do in a new game session. Right now I was just concentrating on my solar station and doing missions to raise reputations and then getting rank increase offers.

Thanks.

[Buzz2005]

to buy those trade subs you need rep 10 at least, and depending on faction 10 to 13 millions

[Derp]

Which is why I've never bought a trade sub. By the time I can afford to drop ten million on the convenience of not having to set up satellites, I already have a satellite network set up. 1 million would be worth saving the hassle.

[Axeface]

As far as I understand, the trade subscription does not reveal stations (such as ones that get built after you buy it). Sats or scouts have to do that.

[tomchk]

As far as I understand, the trade subscription does not reveal stations (such as ones that get built after you buy it). Sats or scouts have to do that.

Ugh if so, that should be changed. I don’t ever want to place satellites again!

[LameFox]

A while ago someone suggested a station module to reveal the entire sector. That would be a good official addition to the game IMO, allowing you to transition away from satellite micromanagement as you gain resources.

In the mean time, I think there's at least one mod that makes satellites reveal the whole sector. Maybe a bit OP but frankly placing all those things gets so annoying it might be worth it.

[Matthew94]

to buy those trade subs you need rep 10 at least, and depending on faction 10 to 13 millions

Pretty sure you need 20 rep to unlock them, and as they cost 10M+ for the big factions (ARG, HOP, PAR, TEL) it's cheaper to deploy a satellite network while you're accumulating capital at the start.

[Waltz9]

One benefit with satelites which you don't have with a trade subscription.
You can see all trafic going around the stations.
Thats why I prefer to use sattelites instead of the trade subscriptions because I can easily hunt the plunderer ships with my sattelate network.
Also you can see how the Xenon progress in certain sectors this way.

[GCU Grey Area]

Generally end up with both. Gets to a stage where the cost of trade subscriptions is trivial, so might as well have them (if nothing else handy for getting newly built stations outside satellite range added to the map). However I still need a comprehensive satellite grid, at least in the important sectors where I'm doing a lot of Trade, so I can monitor traffic flows.

[Browser_ice]

I haven't played that long in my current game session. The first thing I did when my new game started, I discovered a data leak and it happened to be for the HQ. So I simply concentrated on this.

Once I had my HQ, I did a few other missions and was actually surprised at how fast these can raise your reputation. Then once I had enough money, I built a port and solar power panels on my HQ. I did not get any trade ships because I had spent all my money on this. Soon enough, by selling at 16 credits, NPCs were coming in from all over the place.

It did not take long before I got my first guild offer.

All that time I only dropped one single satellite at my HQ to make it visible.

Now my HQ has even more solar pannels and added docking ports.

I figured if they all comin to trade, they will increase my reputation. So less work for me.

Until I can raise enough money, I am simply doing other station missions.

So its not really that hard and that long to only concentrate on increasing your reputation to then get guild acceptance. I found it to be cheaper that way. Dropping 100 satellites (did not count it last time I did it) is time consuming and costs a lot. I would rather spend my time doing something else then dropping satellites all over the place, even if its on of my ship doing it, I would still need to babysit it a bit.