[3.20] Distribute Wares and Blacklists - Fix and improvement in a future build.

[Raevyan]

I encountered some problems using Distribute Wares and Blacklists. I want to setup some traders in a specific area (FRF/CAB sectors in the north east).

First Try:
First i created a Travel Blacklist and added every sector except those in top right corner (FRF/CAB Space). After a while they got some trade orders to buy stuff in Hewa Twins... They clearly ignore the fact, that they should not be able to travel to that sector, since there is no direct connection...

Second Try:
I then also created an Activities Blacklist, with the same set of sectors and added the list the ship. Well now they tried to buy in Profit Center Alpha... Okay i thought this might be a bug because when i added the Blacklist they were already outside the allowed zone. So i sent them back and waited for the next trade to appear....
Well looks like now they are trying to buy stuff in HOP Space... Their sectors are on both Blacklists. When i select the ship on the map i can see that the order lines appear/disappear and it looks like the ship is stuck trying to buy in HOP space but because there is a Blacklist he has no way to the station.

Am i missing something or are Blacklists still not working? The only thing i want is to setup some Distribute Wares Traders and limit them to specific sectors. That's exactly what i assume Blacklists are for. The Distribute Ware Trader should ignore trades in Blacklisted sectors.

PS: no i don't want to use Auto Traders. Why? Because the leveling system is still bugged and it takes ages to get a 3 Star pilot.

Save file if required:
Look at: 111 | M DW | Energy and 110 | M DW | Energy
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ltMMSj ... sp=sharing

[CBJ]

Without seeing your actual blacklist setup it's hard to be completely sure, I'm pretty sure what you've described is working as intended. Travel blacklists tell ships where they should avoid flying if at all possible, but they won't prevent ships from travelling to a location beyond them if there is no other way to get there. If you don't want them going to a particular location to trade, for example, then you need to set that location (not the ones on the way) as part of an Activity blacklist.

[Raevyan]

Without seeing your actual blacklist setup it's hard to be completely sure, I'm pretty sure what you've described is working as intended. Travel blacklists tell ships where they should avoid flying if at all possible, but they won't prevent ships from travelling to a location beyond them if there is no other way to get there. If you don't want them going to a particular location to trade, for example, then you need to set that location (not the ones on the way) as part of an Activity blacklist.

I’ve attached a save to my post so that one could see. But what you said is basically what I did. I blacklisted every sector for travel except the named sectors AND every sector for activities except named sectors and they are still trying to trade there.
The only sectors that are not on the blacklist are those split sectors in top right hand corner.

[Alan Phipps]

Back in May of this year, a dev said that due to an error the 'Distribute Wares' behaviour was ignoring blacklists and that it would be fixed in a future build. I can see nothing in the 3.20 changelog that says that this specific behaviour fix made it into the current release build.

EDIT: The devs confirm that the automated trading black listing fix, including for 'Distribute Wares', made it fully into 3.20.

[j.harshaw]

While you do have travel and activity blacklists defined that prohibits action in most sectors in the game, neither is set on the two ships you have doing Distribute Wares.

[Raevyan]

While you do have travel and activity blacklists defined that prohibits action in most sectors in the game, neither is set on the two ships you have doing Distribute Wares.

Just loaded up the save to check. To me The UI says it is applied to those ships (SPL Only):
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2139371760

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2139373976
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2139374053
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... 2139374165

Distribute wares currently also ignores blacklists when searching for trades.

No, it doesn't. That was fixed in 3.20. As was explained to you, they weren't working in your case because you hadn't actually assigned the blacklists to those ships.

Don't want to discuss that in the other thread. But if they are not applied as to the above screenshots, please tell me how to apply them to the individual ships.

[j.harshaw]

Hi,

The screenshots you posted do indeed show that these blacklists are applied to these ships, but the save doesn't match the data in the screenshots. Could you please post a link to a save matching these screenshots you posted?

[j.harshaw]

While waiting for your save, have setup blacklists to only allow travel and activity in Antigone Memorial where one of your ware distributors, DW | AC/HP/AE/WC | 002 (UXE-603), is at the moment and applied them to that ship. It's staying in the sector for now. Will keep an eye on it.

[Raevyan]

Hi,

The screenshots you posted do indeed show that these blacklists are applied to these ships, but the save doesn't match the data in the screenshots. Could you please post a link to a save matching these screenshots you posted?

Strange, i did loaded that exact save a few minutes ago. Maybe a problem with the right hand Info Tab, that it displays it but not actually saving it correctly in the savefile? I noticed that when trying to set default behaviors (defend position) from the right tab, it is not possible to click on the map to actually select it. It has to be done from the left panel.

I reuploaded another save (same savegame a few hours later, haven't touched those ships). This is the save i loaded and created the screenshots from:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GhvzXu ... sp=sharing

While waiting for your save, have setup blacklists to only allow travel and activity in Antigone Memorial where one of your ware distributors, DW | AC/HP/AE/WC | 002 (UXE-603), is at the moment and applied them to that ship. It's staying in the sector for now. Will keep an eye on it.

You have to look at 110 | M DW | Energy or 111| M DW | Energy. Whats happening is, they find trade outside their allowed space, generate an order but get stuck in their position because they don't have a way to get there.

[j.harshaw]

Thank you very much for that last save and for your clarification. This should be fixed in a future update, and the fix should also result in the script performing better in cases such as this where its operating range is drastically reduced due to blacklists; always a nice bonus.

[Raevyan]

Always glad to help and thanks for improving the script to be more efficient!

Now comes the hardest part...the waiting game for the update that contains this fix -.-