2 questions: equipment, cargo containers

[XenonSurf]

It's a while now that I'm playing EL, I have used the deploy constructor and was able to retrieve some interesting containers.
Also my Science Officer is helpful in this regard. But I wonder:

Sometimes he tells me containers are on planets. I never spot one except when doing a mission to find some, what are they looking like, like in space as a white mark and a 'cargo' designation?
And if the Science OPS tells you nothing about containers on planets when entering the sector, can you be sure there are none to find?
Impossible to deploy a sensor station on planets, exact?

Equipment:
I noticed that equipment prices differ from system to system, but my guess was that high tech places would give you less credits than low tech places when you sell, lets say, a Fulcrum C4 drive.
But it's quite the opposite, low tech systems pay less for valuable devices.
Are these prices random within a range, or is it worth to look more closely?


Thanks,
XenonS



[Edited on 4-13-2016 by XenonSurf]

[DaveK]

As far as whether your sci officer tells you everything (positive or negative) there is a saying in the world of science ...

'the lack of proof is not the same as the proof of lack'

Low tech systems don't necessarily value (nor can they necessarily afford) high tech items. I've always taken it that high tech systems are the source of high tech equipment and that low tech systems might pay a premium but it isn't necessarily a big premium - unless they are weapons. High tech weapons tend to get a premium in most places except those that produce their own. Such is the nature of humanity, possibly explaining half a millennium of self destructive civil wars.

[XenonSurf]

Yeah DaveK, thanks for your entertaining answers, i appreciate
So, OPS not saying anything is not a negative, I asked caus' it takes a lot of time to explore a planet carefully...

I^m currently in a out-of-system exploration. Will have to self-destruct soon because I forgot the refuel device, how could I... I figured out jumping didn't cost fuel, but it costs 5 unit for a maximum jump (C5 drive, not Mantiss...).

See you and thanks,
XenonS

[DaveK]

[Marvin]

Also, low-tech systems usually have low-paid labor. Ergo, the less it costs to produce a high-tech item (stolen from high-tech systems ... industrial espionage is alive and well in the far-distant future ... or so it would seem in A. Bester's The Demolished Man), the cheaper you can buy it.