agents

[Klemitch]

How do you find agents? Supposedly you use 'small talk' but I don't find anybody who offers that.

[A5PECT]

Trade agents? Yes, they're acquired via smalltalk. The thing is, only certain NPC types can become agents, and the smalltalk minigame itself appears randomly.

Smalltalk opportunities appear randomly, but aren't a rare by any stretch. Find an area where multiple NPCs congregate inside station - the ubiquitous bunkroom with lockers and showers is my go-to spot - and wait a minute or two. Eventually, one of them will mutter some thought or idea out loud and a speech bubble icon will appear above their head: this indicates the smalltalk minigame is available for that NPC. Interact with said NPC and "Engage smalltalk" should be one of the first options available; number 4 on the interaction wheel, IIRC.

Successfully complete the minigame (it's an extremely simple "timed button press"-style QTE), and the next time you talk to that NPC there will be new options in their interaction menu, one of which will be trade offer updates.

Trade agents are restricted to NPC types that aren't hireable by the player: anyone that isn't a pilot, captain, engineer, manager, or architect. You can still smalltalk those hireable NPCs to unlock trade deals and employee referrals, but the trade agent option will be greyed out in their interaction menus.

[Klemitch]

Done!
tyvm

Was wondering why I was hearing what I though was useless dialog.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Great summary, A5PEFT. The only addition to make is that hirable NPCs that are working on the station in question will offer the Trade Update option. Whilst that's only 1 Engineer, DO and Manager per station, on smaller stations they often turn up.

The easy way to test if a small-talking, hirable NPC will offer Trade Updates is to quickly try to hire them. If they say "No", there's enough time to quickly exit the convo and re-convo and start the small talk mini game. Saves waiting for the next chatterbox to appear

[Gligli]

anyone that isn't a pilot, captain, engineer, manager, or architect.

In other word, sellers/buyers

[Santi]

The free trading port dock is quite a good place to recruit agents as you normally have bunch of them near the entrance, otherwise try the dormitories in any station as you have a good concentration of NPC's there.

[GCU Grey Area]

I normally head to the barracks in Station Admin when recruiting trade agents. That's where 2 of the station employees (engineer & defence officer) are generally found, meaning there's often a higher proportion of NPCs who can potentially be recruited as trade agents in that room, compared to elsewhere on the station.

[ezra-r]

traders who remain in stations (because they trade there) can all be trade agents.

people (crew) you can hire won't be able to be used as trade agents, just keep that in mind

people (crew) who work for a station, so you can't hire them for your ship/s, can be trade agents too afaik

[XenonSurf]

Other than repairing your Skunk or winning Discounts with the Smalltalk, the Trade Agents are the only 'good' reason to dock on a station, almost anything else can be traded or done from space using the menu paying an additional trade and transport fee. After 5 monthes, my fees amount to 360k (Statistics). That's well worth it for the time you win.

XenonS

[Snafu_X3]

Trade agents are also available as mission rewards (lightbulb missions usually), but they're pretty rare. Perhaps a code-diver could find what the parameters are for these missions?

[Klemitch]

I have yet to find any 'discounts'. The trade window doesn't show me any favorable trades. Everything loses money.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Trade offers for wares (discounts for buying and commissions for selling) come in several forms. They work as percentage modifiers so if the differences between buy and sell prices are too unfavourable, a deal can still be unfavorable after the modifiers and lead to a loss of money. Basically, if the percentage in the Adj. column of the Trade Window for 'Wares bought by stations' is more favourable than that the percentage in the Adj. column for 'Wares sold by stations', a profit will be made (assuming used jump fuel costs less).

Faction-based
Factions that you have good standings with provide offers on ware trades at their stations. The higher the standing, the better the offer.

Scanning-based
If you fly around outside a station close to it, such as while scanning info points or hunting for missions, temporary offers for the station will occasionally pop-up on the Skunk's main monitor.

Smalltalk-based
If an NPC on a station starts talking while you are walking around, you can convo them and initiate the smalltalk mini-game. Successfully completing one gives an option to ask for a discount. If they are Trader NPCs, I think their offers only apply to their goods. If they are non, such as Engineers, I think their offers apply to the station's production lines. A variation on this involves completing a second minigame that is offered if the first was done very well. It is then possible to ask for long-term discounts.

I'm not entirely sure whether each type of offer could be a discount and a commission or not but hopefully that helps explain how offers may become available.

[spankahontis]

Hardest Virtual Seminar to get is the Science Seminar which are random chance rewards from certain Merchants. Mining Supplier, Drone Dealers, Weapons Dealers.

Best chance to get Science Seminars is from Specialists that have Science as one of their Top 2 of 3 Bolded 5 Star Abilities, Agricultural Engineers, Food Technicians, Chemical Engineers, Metallurgical Engineers all require Science.
So hang around Stations that use these Specialists to get into a small talk with them.

I think if out of the 3 abilities Science is lowest of the 3 then you wont get Science Seminar as a reward but the higher 2 instead, so you will have to win a Smalltalk to unlock their profile to see how many stars their Science is?

[Alan Phipps]

Logically (yes, I know, what has logic to do with it?) the NPCs should only offer a course that they either already have 5 stars in or lies *outside* their own main skillsets (and so they do not need it themselves).

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

Cross-posting from the other thread.

Well, economy still feels broken to me. I can't find any worthwhile trades. Everything I find loses money or at best makes minimal profits. The combat missions are unbalanced. I'm trying to like this game, but having a hard time doing so.

Some questions to help better understand your situation:

Are any factions/corporations hostile (red) towards you? If yes, which?

How extensive is your network of Trade Agents amongst non-hostile stations?

As far as you can tell, have you visited every zone in Albion, Omicron Lyrae and DV?

How many game days old is your save?

If using mods/extensions, which are you using?

When looking at the Trade Window, just to check, do you expand wares you are interested in to ensure you see all the offers from all the station's that trade it?

[Klemitch]

I still cannot find any discounts in my Trade window. I started a new game, bought a Trading Computer MkI, and am watching Trade closely. No new trades appear. Modifiers only change by a point at a time. What am I missing?

[Earth Ultimatum IV.]

To get discounts, increase your reputation, scan info nodes or smalltalk with people. It doesn't happen automatically.

Trade computer will just add all trade offers of the nearby station to your SHIFT+T menu, that's all. They're also temporary and become invalid after some time.

Smalltalk with some vendor aboard a station and select "TRADE OFFER UPDATES" as reward, that will make trade updates in your SHIFT+T menu forever, for that certain station.

[A5PECT]

Trading computer upgrades only scan for basic stock and pricing information. Discounts and commissions require you to scan station elements individually or smalltalk npcs.

As others have said, faction reputation has a much larger influence on prices than previous games. Small profit margins are at the start of the game is intentional; profit margins increase as you trade more and build reputation with different factions.

[Klemitch]

I'm doing smalltalk. They say they've given me a 'deal'. Window in top-right says I got a discount. But nothing new in the Trade window.

[strude]

I'm doing smalltalk. They say they've given me a 'deal'. Window in top-right says I got a discount. But nothing new in the Trade window.

When looking at a trade in the trade list, highlight one you have obtained a discount with and click the details button (option 3 I think). That will show you the details of the trade offer, including any discounts, with each individual discount shown explicitly. That way you should be able to see the effects of each discount you have obtained to make sure they are being applied correctly.