[TC] Automating the Hub missions

[Darkwolf_187]

If i set it up with CLS it will deplete all of my plex crystal stock - complex grinds to a halt

Unfortunately CLS1 and 2 is a bit stupid when it comes to the hub plot. The reason is that the hub is always at 0 stock, so it looks like it's desperately short on resources and CLS will prioritize it to receive crystals every time.

You can resolve this by setting up a CLS2 to move crystals. Then adjust the amount it moves per run until you aren't depleting your stockpile.

Or just establish a massive oversupply of crystals and don't worry about it, and also use a handful of CAGs to roam around the universe buying up crystals. That's what I did.

[Twest09]

If i set it up with CAG i can tell it to only take crystals from the plex when plex fills to a certain percentage - but then it will try and sell them to npc stations....

You can set the Trader settings in the CAG command menu to only buy resources, products, intermediate products.

I have 20 CAGs set to homebase at the Hub. 8 are gathering miscellaneous required goods, 10 are buying Chips, and 2 are buying E-Cells to fuel the operation. I have a MMB (Mobile Mining Base (TL)) set near the Hub as a warehouse for the Chips and I have one CLS pilot with two waypoints, #1 Hub - Load Chips, #2 MMB - Unload Chips. Those will reverse once I get to the point that I need to transfer chips back to the Hub.

That has worked pretty good so far and I am at 35000 chips of the 75000 and I gathered them rather quickly... I was insanely surprised at how effective this setup would be. I didn't really want to build a chip plex that would be useless after the plot... the last time I did this I remember that I was having a very hard time getting the chips sold.

[synik]

I set up a Silicon plex in Barren Shores with, from memory, about 25 Silicon Mine L and enough XL SPP loops to keep it running, then I had half a dozen Mistral Super Freighters running External Logistics ferrying wafers to the hub. I connected the hub to a gate in Barren Shores so that no Jump fuel was used and tried to set the CLS up so that it didn't take all of the Silicon.

I failed at the last part, but the hub didn't often go flashy, and even then only because one of the crystal fabs was out of Silicon, briefly, from time to time.

Last night I started the Microchip delivery. Having lurked here for a while, I already had a 25-Chip-Plant plex in Spring of Belief, again with SPP XL loops to keep it stocked with e-cells, and a stock of about 20,000 all ready to go in several Mistral SFs, I was thinking I was doing quite well.

Jumped four Mistrals to the hub, first one had just over 6,000 Microchips on board, arrow down to the chips, hit Home...

250 Microchips Transferred.

Home, Enter, listen to Norah's "Microchips Transferred" confirmation, count two seconds, repeat. And again. And again and again and again and again... forty-five minutes later and I've finally delivered the stockpile of Microchips.

Someone at Egosoft has a LOT to answer for...

I'll be seting those "warehouse" MSF's to home to the hub and buy ware for best price from this point forwards, but even so....

[Infekted]

In that situation CLS is your friend.

CLS2, one waypoint: Unload Microchips, max cargo.

It'll happily sit there unloading them all for you If you have a TL docked at the hub, with that waypoint programmed in. If you order all the rest of your ships to unload to the TL, it'll feed them all into the hub no worries.

[synik]

Cool, thanks. I'll give that a go.

Actually, having unloaded the stock I've pre-made, I was actually thinking that a small fleet of M4s ought to be more than enough to take 100 Microchips per 25 minutes on a one-gate trip, and I've got several Solanos lying idle since I finished the Terran plot and replaced all my docked fighters with Spitfyres...

Then again, one of those spitfyres might be an even better bet.

[jaws104]

If i set it up with CAG i can tell it to only take crystals from the plex when plex fills to a certain percentage - but then it will try and sell them to npc stations....

I've finally got round to figuring out CLS 1 (always used CLS 2) The below is now working perfectly...takes from the complex when crystals above 20% capacity. Have to put the Hubsupply condition at 0% as it never fills (until mission complete)

Home base: Crystal/Chip Plex (Tkr's Deprivation)
Home base class: Complex Hub
Home base type: Argon Complex Hub
Station account: 1,487,101 credits
Global account: 16,197,354 credits

Ship in the same sector: No
Wait for request signal: No

Home products: Crystals (0 credits)

Supplier min cargo bay: 20 %
Consumer min cargo bay free: 0 %

Supplier: Crystal/Chip Plex (Tkr's Deprivation)
Crystals (Cargo bay 35 %)

Consumer: Your Xenon Hub (Unknown Sector)
Crystals (Cargo bay 0 %)

[terrangamer]

is there a way to automate transfer of surplus crystals. I want to move them from complex to Hub.

[jlehtone]

On these Fora it is not customary to resurrect nine years old threads, like you just did. The rationale is that the games can have received updates during the intervening time, rendering the old discussion invalid.

Pedantically, possible answers to your "is it possible?" question are "yes" and "no".
Ironically, the last post (by jaws104) in this ancient thread found by you does imply that the answer is "yes".
Moreover, it describes how to achieve the "yes" ingame.

Have patches invalidated that answer? No.

[Alan Phipps]

Since the question was answered, this old thread can close again.