[REQUEST] Bring back the trade window

[Benzin]

Dear Devs, pleae consider bringing back the Trade window we had in XRebirth. It allowed us to see at a glance, all the wares being sold & bought galaxy wide (for stations with trade offer updates of course), each ware/trade offer showing all its relevant information like price modifier, price, ammount, wich station wanted/offered it, etc. And trading with it was an absolute blizz. You could simply select a ship at the top, look at wich ware had a good discount, select it, press to "to buy offers" button, select the one with the highest modifier, then proceed to give the buy / sell order. Viola! Next ship.
And im not even talking about the "Best deals" screen. Just the regular trades window.

In the new UI, i cant even see all the wares being sold/bought, only up to 5 of them, if i type in a number in the filters window like 10, it does show them, but then the screen becomes uber cluttered. And i cant see their price modifiers at all unless i select a specific station. I cant see wich wares are the most profitable to trade in any particular moment, etc. Whenever i order a trade, im not even sure that was the most profitable trade i could have ordered in that particular moment.
If i want to see information for some ware in particular, i have to type its name in the filter, then go thru several levels of zoom to see its prices in different sectors, etc.
This results in trading becoming cumbersome and me just setting all my traders to autotrade. Wich is a shame, because trading was one of my favorite activities before.

So please consider implementing a simple tree list like the one we had in rebirth. Trading was an absolute joy there.

Thank your for reading, and for all your hard work.

[Benzin]

They say "a picture is worth 1000 words", so i guess this would be worth 2000 words

This is the trade UI in rebirth...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1588029245

In this single panel, i can see EVERYTHING that is being bought & sold by everyone. I know what price modifiers each thing has, i can expand each ware to know who sells/buys it and where they are, i know how much is being sold or bought, i know what ammounts of each thing they want/offer.

Plus, on the top are all my traders, i can just select one, browse the wares list below, even sort them by highest price modifier or whatever i want, then click the "To offers" button to see its modifier for purchases, proceed to give the buy and sell orders, and viola! i made a great trade deal. Select the next ship at the top and do it again.
Simple, convenient, fast. All in a single, easy to read, uncluttered screen. No need to constantly zoom in and out, type wares names anywhere, and look thru dozens of panels in an ubercluttered screen.

Compare to this...
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 1588034514
I cant tell wich wares are the most profitable (with better price modifiers for selling/buying), its cumbersome to see where they are being sold/bought, i cant tell if there are better deals to be made out there as those wares listed are apparently shown by volume i think? the UI doesnt even select the most profitable ones to show. I cant tell wich ones are overpriced or underpriced. Plus its cluttered and hard to read, even though it doesnt give me nearly as much uselfull information as the previous one.

Devs, dont take this as a cirtique or a complain. But why remove the simple to read and use UI from before, in favor of the cluttered, hard to read new one that doesnt provide nearly as much usefull information the older one did?
I really hope you guys consider bringing this feature back.
Thanks again for reading!

[Requiemfang]

Gonna second this, I liked the trade menu from XR better than what we currently have in X4.

[NoelSt]

+1 I join this...

The two options living together... Mmm awesome

[Warnoise]

This. SO much this.

[TearsInRain]

I have to agree. As someone who plays the X games for the economy/trading and not the dogfights, we need better screens with better information. The map idea with the trade overlays was a good idea, but it doesn't really cut it and is very confusing when you're zooming in and out .. the trade overlays tend to .. well...overlay each other and it's just too much effort to make sense of it all.

[Benzin]

I have to agree. As someone who plays the X games for the economy/trading and not the dogfights, we need better screens with better information. The map idea with the trade overlays was a good idea, but it doesn't really cut it and is very confusing when you're zooming in and out .. the trade overlays tend to .. well...overlay each other and it's just too much effort to make sense of it all.

I must say that (to me) the overall game UI in X4 feels like a HUGE improvement from previous games. Its a LOT easier to give orders to ships, see where they are, see whats happening in the universe, etc.

Its just in this particular aspect, Trading, it feels like a step back. I agree that it was a cool idea in principle, but in practise it doesnt work as intended.

[nidaren]

I agree as well, trade menu from X:R was wonderful.

[CaptainX4]

I agree as well, trade menu from X:R was wonderful.

well, imo it was everything BUT wonderful, not like if I would like the current solution but its better

[CircuitByrd]

I think they both have their merits. The new trade display is incredibly flexible as you zoom in and out, and it's very "clean" for how much data it has to show.

[Requiemfang]

I think they both have their merits. The new trade display is incredibly flexible as you zoom in and out, and it's very "clean" for how much data it has to show.

except the part where it blots out what you're trying to view in the map like say my ships or a location on the map when you are near stations the overview of the commodities is always there and IN YOU FACE.

[Clifffitir]

More and more i am really missing rebirth. I would also like this.

[Zealoth]

Well, you can have both options. Also, current trading overlay has a separate toggle icon almost always visible in the map, to easily hide it and stop it from obscuring stuff

[Benzin]

Well, you can have both options. Also, current trading overlay has a separate toggle icon almost always visible in the map, to easily hide it and stop it from obscuring stuff

Yes its great we can hide it, otherwise we wouldnt be able to see the map haha
Still, the functionality for trading it offers, is very limited compared to the one in rebirth. To the point where it actually keeps you from making "the best trade you could make".

[Zealoth]

Well, you can have both options. Also, current trading overlay has a separate toggle icon almost always visible in the map, to easily hide it and stop it from obscuring stuff

Yes its great we can hide it, otherwise we wouldnt be able to see the map haha
Still, the functionality for trading it offers, is very limited compared to the one in rebirth. To the point where it actually keeps you from making "the best trade you could make".

Yeah, but because it splits on zoom its kinda easy to judge demand or supply by sector or even by station, that's why I'd think it's nice to have both options available

[Alci]

-1 it's a mod job

it felt like cheating in Rebirth. Throwing all the "trading" gameplay straight out of window. It was kinda justified in Rebirth because without reasonable map or any kind of overview if terribly hard to get the info.

But map in X4 is very good and pretty sufficient. It could be better with less overlapping windows and slightly better filters but as for trader gameplay it's good.

The need for presorted overview with just "confirm" button... combined with trade order queue (so you don't need to consider distance, or price change, or anything)... is basically just, "I want this money, and this money, and this money..." you could just add "+money" button to the game. No problem with that, but let it be a mod if you really need one and are hating doing a trader occupation. But let's not ruin the gameplay in the default game.

[Benzin]

-1 it's a mod job

it felt like cheating in Rebirth. Throwing all the "trading" gameplay straight out of window. It was kinda justified in Rebirth because without reasonable map or any kind of overview if terribly hard to get the info.

But map in X4 is very good and pretty sufficient. It could be better with less overlapping windows and slightly better filters but as for trader gameplay it's good.

The need for presorted overview with just "confirm" button... combined with trade order queue (so you don't need to consider distance, or price change, or anything)... is basically just, "I want this money, and this money, and this money..." you could just add "+money" button to the game. No problem with that, but let it be a mod if you really need one and are hating doing a trader occupation. But let's not ruin the gameplay in the default game.

By that logic, i guess the "Autotrade" feature is a plain cheat button i guess?

The game presenting the available information in the most efficient way possible is not a cheat or a "make money button". Its just good UI design. The challenge and complexity should come from understanding and taking advantage of the game mechanics, NOT from wrestling the UI.

EDIT: Just to be clear, my request is for a trade UI like the Wares panel in Rebirth. The one i posted a picture of earlier. Not the "Best deals" one that presented the best trades possible.

[Zarjazz]

More and more i am really missing rebirth. I would also like this.

There were lots of good things in XR, especially after all the years of patches. It seems odd to me they removed so much of that to make X4. Hell they even managed to reproduce the same bugs all over again that XR had on release - broken missions, broken trading, pathing and auto-pilot errors and so on.

[Benzin]

More and more i am really missing rebirth. I would also like this.

There were lots of good things in XR, especially after all the years of patches. It seems odd to me they removed so much of that to make X4. Hell they even managed to reproduce the same bugs all over again that XR had on release - broken missions, broken trading, pathing and auto-pilot errors and so on.

Yes, i fully agree. I think the main reason XR gets so much "hate" even today, is because a lot of people had great expectations for it, then the game was released in a terrible state, people played it for a little while, became frustrated with its bugs and problems, and never touched it again. So even though the game is very good now, those people still kept the negative impression. And of course, there are those that just like to ride "hate trains".
Lets just hope the same thing doesnt happen again.

Some annoying things still remain in XR. But overall, yes, i too think XR is a great game. Hence i would like some of its neat features (like this one) being brought into X4.

[shahman76]

More and more i am really missing rebirth. I would also like this.

There were lots of good things in XR, especially after all the years of patches. It seems odd to me they removed so much of that to make X4. Hell they even managed to reproduce the same bugs all over again that XR had on release - broken missions, broken trading, pathing and auto-pilot errors and so on.

Yes, i fully agree. I think the main reason XR gets so much "hate" even today, is because a lot of people had great expectations for it, then the game was released in a terrible state, people played it for a little while, became frustrated with its bugs and problems, and never touched it again. So even though the game is very good now, those people still kept the negative impression. And of course, there are those that just like to ride "hate trains".
Lets just hope the same thing doesnt happen again.

Some annoying things still remain in XR. But overall, yes, i too think XR is a great game. Hence i would like some of its neat features (like this one) being brought into X4.

THIS exactly. In its current state XRebirth a great game and Egosoft was really able to polish it into a fun experience. TBH sometimes playing X4, I get Rebirth nostalgia and think about reinstalling and playing that instead.

And seconded for a Trade Screen. Its a QoL that would make interacting with the economy as a whole much easier. I see the map overlay as more of a 'macro view' of whats going on sector by sector and for mapping out my next empire building move, cornering the market here, dumping a station there to plug a supply hole and make profitsss etc. A trade window like the one we had in XRebirth would make lining up ships and giving orders that much faster and more detailed. The combination of the Trade Screen and the Map Overlay would, imho, make for a powerful set of tools and really enrich the way we interact with the ingame economy.

I'd even settle for saving time when I'm trying to rush goods from my stations to a shipyard so I can get my destroyer built. Zoom in, zoom out, scroll, select, right click here, right click there, then click and drag for quantity and thats just for one ware. The damn shipyard needs another 5-6 more wares before it can crank out 1 destroyer Now if I had a Trade Screen handy... *prances all the way to profitsss and a destroyer*