Any tips for setting up a trade station?

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grapedog
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Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by grapedog » Fri, 26. Feb 21, 01:31

I was gone for a while, and just got back, and getting back into the game. Trade stations had just become a working thing when I left and I never played with em. I am now trying to set up a few of them, and see how they work.

I've built essentially a pier, a couple s/m docks, along with two L storage mods. Assigned some trade ships to the station. In the logistical overview I gave it about 10-15 level 2 and 3 items to trade in, set the "Buy" orders for all of those items at about 1/3 of full price, and i've set the "Sell" orders to up to 2/3'rds of their full price.

Does the station need habitats? I don't plan on having it produce anything itself, just a way-station for trading goods away from my main production sectors.

Am I missing anything else? Any other setup tips so I can make it more efficient?

aurelcourt
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by aurelcourt » Fri, 26. Feb 21, 19:28

Looking good for you indeed!

Now the more intel you have around you with satellites and the more ships you have, the more money it will make !

I'd also recommend creating a -Sector Activities- blacklist to restrict the area you want to operate. This will increase a lot the speed at which your manager finds and assigns a trade to your ships. Otherwise it will scan the whole possible area for quite a while before giving instructions. You can find good trade routes and set the blacklist and ware list accordingly.

What I'd done once was have several high-tier wares factories, a Trading station in a very central location, and satellites at all the Yards/Wharfs/EQ in the surrounding sectors. My factories would send all their stuff to the trading station (trade rule = only my property + high buying price), and from there it would be sold at very high price to the different places (fixed minimum selling price)

And the blacklist for this was to simply operate in my factories sector + the other 3-4 sectors where stuff is sold. Easy and efficient !

Good luck with your trading station !!

Rastuasi
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by Rastuasi » Mon, 1. Mar 21, 03:02

The only concern I would have, are those L storages. When a trade station is starting out they will not sell goods until they have a majority of the space filled up. This means that you will get far more turnover for far less stock requirements using a S storage. Basically, they will very rarely sell past the 50% mark, so you'd have to realize that 50% of that is money doing nothing but sitting there.

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grapedog
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by grapedog » Mon, 1. Mar 21, 04:53

Rastuasi wrote:
Mon, 1. Mar 21, 03:02
The only concern I would have, are those L storages. When a trade station is starting out they will not sell goods until they have a majority of the space filled up. This means that you will get far more turnover for far less stock requirements using a S storage. Basically, they will very rarely sell past the 50% mark, so you'd have to realize that 50% of that is money doing nothing but sitting there.
I didn't realize they would hold off on selling even if my sell price is met because of not having enough of a product. Are you sure it works that way? That is disappointing. I'll have to essentially halt all buying, dump sell at the lowest price, empty it out, and rebuild it with smaller storage.

aurelcourt
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by aurelcourt » Mon, 1. Mar 21, 14:06

Rastuasi wrote:
Mon, 1. Mar 21, 03:02
The only concern I would have, are those L storages. When a trade station is starting out they will not sell goods until they have a majority of the space filled up. This means that you will get far more turnover for far less stock requirements using a S storage. Basically, they will very rarely sell past the 50% mark, so you'd have to realize that 50% of that is money doing nothing but sitting there.
I'm surprised by this ! I never noticed that

For me it seemed to work fine without taking that into account. I'm even pretty sure about it because one of my last Trade Station was built straight away with 3 L storages, and it started trading without filling up :-)

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Ehli
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by Ehli » Mon, 1. Mar 21, 16:52

grapedog wrote:
Mon, 1. Mar 21, 04:53
Rastuasi wrote:
Mon, 1. Mar 21, 03:02
The only concern I would have, are those L storages. When a trade station is starting out they will not sell goods until they have a majority of the space filled up. This means that you will get far more turnover for far less stock requirements using a S storage. Basically, they will very rarely sell past the 50% mark, so you'd have to realize that 50% of that is money doing nothing but sitting there.
I didn't realize they would hold off on selling even if my sell price is met because of not having enough of a product. Are you sure it works that way? That is disappointing. I'll have to essentially halt all buying, dump sell at the lowest price, empty it out, and rebuild it with smaller storage.
No need, keep your L. Just make sure to assign an absolute amount of storage to your ware, instead of auto. Later, when/if you expand you can just change these: saves you from having to upgrade to bigger storage!

(I personally never like how storage space is distributed cross wares anyway, especially with the light and heavy outliers e.g. microchips)

Rastuasi
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by Rastuasi » Mon, 1. Mar 21, 18:45

Yes limiting the total space manually in logical overview is a way to keep the L storages, but I had issues getting them to sell when not enough in stock as hard assets.

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grapedog
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Re: Any tips for setting up a trade station?

Post by grapedog » Tue, 2. Mar 21, 00:17

Rastuasi wrote:
Mon, 1. Mar 21, 18:45
Yes limiting the total space manually in logical overview is a way to keep the L storages, but I had issues getting them to sell when not enough in stock as hard assets.
Good info regardless, thanks.

I'll have to play around with it. Im at fhe point where i could just destroy the station and not even notice, so i can play around with it without worrying. Once i get to rhis point in each playthrough is when I start to experiment with new things so my next playthrough, when money is important, im not throwing it away.

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