Is my station manger just stupid?

[KAtari]

SITUATION:
My station is right next to a Shipyard and a Warf. 15km away. I have a 2 star station manager. He's leveling slowly.

My station manufactures Hull Parts, but I guess I've killed that market because, well, Hull Parts are not in demand - however, I have noticed that my Warfs And Shipyards in the same sector sometimes are on hold waiting for Hull Parts, yet when they're in that frozen state, the station shows no demand for Hull Parts. Weird but ok..................... maybe I just killed that market nearby.

However, Smart chips are always in constant demand. So I built a smart chip factory and am now building smart chips on this station. I have a 1M6S dock. I have an E-pier. Everything can dock to my station.

In the Station Logistics, I have "Restrict trade with other factions" DISABLED for every ware I produce. All prices are auto-set.

QUESTION: My station traders are ONLY trading energy cells, and Graphene.
- Traders aren't touching my large stockpile of Hull Parts, which are in demand about 8 sectors away.
- Traders aren't touching my large stockpile of Smart Chips, which are in high demand by 3 stations within 20km away.

Do I really have to micromanage all the station traders? Doesn't that defeat the point? What am I doing wrong?

[SpaceTycoon]

I encountered similiar (using Version 1.5).
I built two Smart-Chip stations with 20 Smart-Chip factories on each in two different sectors.
In same sectors are docks and piers with a high demand of Smart-Chips.
Assigned a freighter to each factory for selling/buying. After the station is filled with medicine and food, the freighter is idle. Does nothing.
Faction ships visit the stations only to buy energy cells. But no smart-chips got sold.

I decided to go a different way then - what works:
I took a transporter and set it to sell Smart-Chips via Auto Trade (not assigned to a factory), set to zero gates.
It started immediate to sell my Smart-Chips from my station to the docks and piers, etc.
Only thing is, the money now go to my player account, not the account of the factory. So from time to time I need to refill
the factory with money for buying medicines and food.

I guess there can be an programming issue or bug in the script for auto trade, when a ship is assigned to a factory.
Or - i did not test this yet - one need to assign more than one trader to a factory, may be three or four... Idk

Edit:
Meanwhile I checked the info of the faction stations via the map. I did not find any station with assigned ships.
It looks like the AI only work with auto traders. So if the docks or piers do not own transporters, they could not send out any to buy.
If this is the case that the faction stations do not own transport ships, they depend complete on the auto trader KI ships.
Not sure if the game is programmed this way, but it looks like...
no wonder that they do not send ships to buy at my factory.

[Général Grievous]

I've got 4 stations producing smart-chips.
Each station has at least a miner and a freighter.

As i never saw assigned freighters selling any smart-chips, but my stations earn money.
So, i guess IA freighters do that for me.
I have some freighters on autotrade too, so maybe they make a part of the work too.

[Ebron]

Have you tried reassigning your traders?
Sometimes a trader will only sell or buy the wares that the station would use or sell at the time of assignment.

[SpaceTycoon]

I reassigned the Traders. Changed assigned ship types (from Shyuaku to Mercury). They sell only the intermediate Products, but not the end product. And buy medicine and food.
I observed several hours the stations and wares in the station overview and info. They earn most money from selling energy to AI traders (for 16 Cr) which visit the stations often.
But the end product is never sold by the station trader.
And none AI ship visit the station to buy the end product - but this can rely on my sell price. Because there are a lot of Docks, Piers which buy Smart-Chips for the max of 215, I don't accept to sell my hard worked smart-chips for less than 212 Cr....

[Général Grievous]

I can confirm you that my assigned trader sell Smart-chips to NPC stations. BUT, i don't have energy cells as an intermediary product. I'm still buying it.
My intermediary products are only reffined metal only.

[Captain Chris sTc]

I have got my traders to sell smart chips, by setting the energy cell sell price to an average or a couple above price. and my smart chips price to a similar price to what the ai is selling them at. ive seen a atrader attached to the stsation bimble off with a hold full of them, a couple of times. Also the Ai bys from me too.

[TMCrimeZ]

I got the same issue, but i do notice my smart chips are Being sold in antigone mem. But my other station in Bright promise had 40 k chips on stock while threre is a demand of 100k one sector away. I think its due paranid cant see in teladi sector? I Just move Them manually since the assigned traders are not doing it. The money goes into my account instead of factory if i do that. Id prefer it wouldnt. Trade or transfer doesn't seem to matter.

[Dirk-Jan]

All ai is stupid in this game so yes, station managers are too

[caltrop]

Right now, autotraders, not station traders are the best way to sell the final product as you have more control over them. E.g. a single L autotrader can keep up with and sell the output of a 20x smart chip fab all by itself

I do use station traders as well but more to sell off surplus in other areas (eg e-cells), buy food and medicine etc.

[lordmuck]

All ai is stupid in this game so yes, station managers are too

Was totally going to post these exact same words

However mine is somewhat selling the smart chips, I produce smart chips, hull, engine and scanner arrays in 1 complex. I dont buy anything I mine everything.

Everything is set not for trade except the end products. I also lowered the price to min for any materials the idiot traders would buy that are assigned to the station and set the max sell to high. My idiot subordinates of the station do sell hull stuff mostly, engine parts im full but sell , scanners im full which also sell, smart chips tho iv never seen it at 50% and I have 3 sets of L storage of each type!

Also set up in ANT near shipyard and wharf.

I think I am getting 3m an hour not sure, its a guesstimate