Help on the Trade helper

In-short, the trade-helper uses a large database to work-out where the best prices are, depending if you wish to buy or sell. There are a number of different trade-helpers - each offer their own function.

The Mk1 version

The Trade-helper Mk1 is what I call the manual version. In this version you can select which ware, whether you wish to buy or sell, location and radius (in ly). So for example; you wanted to sell some Silver, 20ly from Sol; the Mk1 can show you where. You may also find the Mk1 useful if you're searching where buy a ware, as a mission is requiring you to return with some. The Mk1 requires you to change criteria depending on what you plan to do.

The Mk2 version

The next version of the Trade-helper I wrote was called the Mk2. In this version I looked at making the process more automatic. This works by searching through the best deals between two systems then displaying them in-order of profit. All stations and outposts are checked in both systems (so if system1 has 5 stations, and system2 has 5 outposts, then 10 places are checked). You can remove outpost from the search. Deals within systems are also checked.

The Mk3 version

Now, the next version of the Trade-helper gets a bit more complex; the Mk3. What this does is to search for the best place to buy and sell the highest profit wares at each location, within a set radius from the entry point. For example, if you were to put in Sol as your entry point with a 20ly range. Every system within 20ly of Sol is searched. This could mean 100's of stations and/or outposts are being checked (depending on your starting system and radius). To reduce the list some-what, only wares worth over 5,000cr are compared (who wants to make 10cr per unit anyway?), nor will they yield enough profit. So now each high-worth ware is checked for the best location to sell it. Once this has been done, it is then checked to see if the deal makes more than 750cr per unit (the Mk3 isnt looking for average trade-runs). If so, its added to the list and so-on. After this process has completed, then its organized by profit (highest first). The Mk3 is geared at finding the best, single, trade-run. Not for trade-loops, however with the Mk2 you can check the Mk3 run and see if there is any return runs. You will always find a little icon to the right for the Mk2.

The 'best' Trade-helper

The best trade-run helper works a little different to that of the Mk1-3. Instead of being in a fixed area, the it covers the whole galaxy! Due to the amount of systems/stations/outposts it doesn't work the same way, but kind-of piggy-backs of the Mk3. When the Mk3 finds a trade-run over 2,0000cr, it is added to the database with some extra details to allow it to be searched. However this lead to problems; when run became out-dated - and wouldnt be updated until the Mk3 re-ran (sometimes this didnt work - if the run has completely disappeared). This is no longer a problem; as the best trade-run helper now checks each run to see if still correct. If it does require updating, it can either update the run or even remove it completely.