well, I had expected a +1 skill to the trading skills for selling goods at a station, if not so to simply even it out as you get a bonus (small) for killing a ship, figuers you'd ge a small bonus for selling stuffs too.

I suppose you're supposed to choose the trading missions to get the skill points

well, true , but since when you're not in a mission you still get skillpoints for killing stuffs, why not for trading when you're not in a mission?

Well, I'd guess that you really do deserve skill points for killing things, but you really shouldn't get skill points for trading unless a government or some other entity hired you.

why not? Am I suddenly less skilled if I trade for my own profit than for a goverment?

Its a series of arguments I don't really buy there ;)

I agree with Spider 100%, with one modification: you should get a small skill increase only when you sell something for a *profit*

Seeing as this probably isn't a "bug", shouldn't it be in Suggestions?

I guess people would assume that you get a small skill increase if you trade for your own profit, so maybe he thought it was a bug.

/me agrees with Spider, even though he hasn't touched 3.4 yet :P

I agree. Each profitable sale of cargo should give some skill. Perhaps the skill would be determined by the % profit? For example, 1%-15% profit might give 1 skill point, 15%-30% might give 2, 30%-45% might give 3, etc.

[moved to suggestions]

bump

I still consider this as a bug rather than a suggestion.

*wry smile* (am I too demanding?)

I agree with the caveat that as your skill increases, the ammount of profit you have to make on the trade in order to earn some XP increases as well. If you're a level 8 trader, then making only 1% profit on a run is probably sign that you aren't really trying that hard.

The system should definately discourage doing the same thing over and over again.

Of course, the problem with this is that the system has to keep track of how much anything was paid for, and I can think of ways to break the code by working together. For instance, two traders buy something, jettison there cargo, pick up each others cargo (price paid, 0), and then each sells the cargo for 'pure profit' and gets the maximum XP bonus. So maybe its only a good idea in theory.

Of course, the code could probably catch that cheat by insisting that you get no points in commerse if you paid zero for the item (as in piracy, salvage, and the above sorts of cheats).