Setting hub commodity prices to build up stock through attracting sellers

[mjwraw]

I'm slowly struggling through the hub plot and have got to the Crystals stage, and whilst I know I'll probably have to do some factory/complex building, in the meantime I have multiple trained CAGs home based to my hub, so I thought I'd set them up to bring in as many crystals as they can.

So I've set them all to 'Shopper', have enabled their jump drives and fuelled them up, (with a 400 e-cell limit), changed the Ware list from 'Blacklist' to 'Trade list', given them just the one ware (crystals), and then clicked 'Start Commercial Representation'. But they all just sit there on 'Standby'.
I set the hub price of crystals at maximum, then minimum, but it doesn't seem to make any difference. I know there are crystals well within range, (my Unknown Sector is between Ore Belt and Home Of Light), so why aren't my CAGs doing anything ?

I have to admit I don't really understand how the pricing works on the Hub, as you can only set a Selling price, which I don't really care about for plot commodities - after all I don't want to sell them at all, just collect them. I had hoped to work out a way of attracting all my UTs (and I've got loads of them) to sell crystals to my hub in addition to having my CAGs buy them for the hub, but again no matter what price I set my UTs aren't interested in selling crystals to my hub at all.

Since money is absolutely no object and I've got so many trained up traders (CAGs and UTs) I really had expected to be able to set things up so I could unleash a fleet of 'buy at any price' crystal collectors, but it appears not. Very frustrating..........

[Snafu_X3]

Set HUB price to max on xtals (do the same for uChips to preempt that next stage, & pass all uChips to a suitable store) & ban all exports of xtals

Check blacklist & whitelist sectors (& enemy settings) for your UTs & CAGs; there may be something out there that your pilots have spotted but you haven't, disrupting their routes

Homebase your UTs to the HUB. Although HUB storage is huge, it's not unlimited; make sure there's enough space!

400 ecells may not be enough for a return journey plus any emergency; consider upping this. Make sure your CAGs are /not/ using the vanilla CC fuel option too; this can interfere with the CAG script's refuel option

Build xtal 'plex nearby(ish), with appropriate CLS (retasked CAG) ships? If nothing else it'll keep your SPPs going for a long time in the future, & may help kickstart a forthcoming uChip 'plex.. You can assign some of those CAGs to that 'plex too to avoid overcrowding at your HUB docks; just make sure the 'plex doesn't sell anything!

[Nanook]

Also, you need to have 'crystals' already listed in the hub inventory. If you don't, buy one manually and deposit it at the hub and you should be good to go.

[Snafu_X3]

Good point Nanook; I should have thought of that!

[jlehtone]

just make sure the 'plex doesn't sell anything!

There are two steps to that.

Complex setting: Trade with other races should be changed to No. That keeps NPC and UTs away.

Complex, Advanced, Station Commands: start CAG Trade Barrier command in one of the command slots. This will keep the CAG of other stations away.

[RAVEN.myst]

For high-tech wares you often need to reduce the minimum cargo-space allowed for collection, otherwise the order is deemed too small to be carried out (this, however, should NOT really be the case with crystals, as they are quite bulky compared to other high-tech, high-value wares.)

Also, check your CAGs' friend-or-foe settings, and make sure that anything they are non-friendly with is not present at your Hub sector, as that will prevent them from undocking (although they will then show as "Idle", rather than on Standby.)

Ensure ample supply of jump fuel, as jump-capable CAGs will hesitate to set off "on foot" for a brief time before they accept the situation (the latter outcome being, if anything, even worse.)

CAGs will often go through periods of such inactivity, especially if you have lots of CAGs operating from a base. Sometimes, if the situation doesn't resolve itself, you can force more diligence from them by disabling the "agreement between colleagues" toggle - however, they will then start setting off for the same suppliers at the same time, until they "go out of sync" (which they may or may not do), so once the ball is rolling, it may be best to re-enable colleague coordination.

You say there are definitely crystals available within your Hub's trading range, so the following may not be applicable at this point, but: at some point, if you are pouring enough credits into your Hub (or it's generating enough by trading other wares), you will find that your Hub restoration project has pretty much drained the universe of its supply of crystals. Because the NPC economy (artificially) doesn't depend on crystals the way the player economy does, this won't crash it (though if you have your own SPPs you will certainly feel it!), but at the very least the rate at which you can procure the crystals will drop to match that of the universe's total production minus whatever NPC traders manage to move out to their clients. (See the "PS" addendum)

That's all that comes to mind - if I think of anything else, I'll add it in if and when. Happy hunting...

PS: The crystals phase of the Hub plot is quite intensive and can be rather time-consuming, especially if you rely exclusively on purchased crystals. Here is where you may want to consider building a modest complex, producing crystals to also feed into your renovation project. Once it is completed, you can simply turn those crystals into an export commodity, and a pretty damn lucrative one, at that. All SPPs and most weapons factories buy them (as a secondary resource), and there is usually some "demand" - especially for a while after you complete that phase of the Hub renovation, given how you've decrystallized the market Later on, you can also

Spoiler

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add Chip Plants to your complex, which is really painless to do as they use the same resources as Crystal Fabs - and after you are done with that phase, you can then start flogging off the microchips you produce as well, again for good profit$e$.

[ubuntufreakdragon]

Better start the complex building, next step are

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75000 MircoChips

[mjwraw]

Great stuff, thanks guys, and I guess the prime commodity for the Hub plot is actually bucket loads of patience...........

[RAVEN.myst]

... I guess the prime commodity for the Hub plot is actually bucket loads of patience...........

Indeed! heheheh. As it happens, though, there are no in-game sources of that, that I have been able to find... AND you have to bring your own bucket!

My usual approach is to start the Hub Plot (in X3TC, at any rate) as early as possible (before any others, on at least one or two occasions), set up the Hub's automation such that it turns enough of a profit to finance both its own renovations and my own growth requirements, and then go about playing the rest of the plots while Hub Plot takes care of itself (barring the occasional necessary intervention, as well as constant incremental upgrades to its CAG fleet.)

Best of luck!

[Snafu_X3]

^ What Raven just said!

[Snafu_X3]

Complex, Advanced, Station Commands: start CAG Trade Barrier command in one of the command slots. This will keep the CAG of other stations away.

Is this available in TC + standard BP, or is it a later addition (to script or AP)?

[jlehtone]

Is this available in TC + standard BP

Yes. The X3R BP CAG had it too (at least the latest X3R BP had).


Ships have two "Auxiliary command slots". You can run some commands on them. Either "oneshots" like Missile barrage, or "background services" like Missile Defense Mosquito.

Stations, in their Advanced submenu do have Station Commands, Graphs, etc.
Station Commands have ten slots (while ships have only two). Just like ships, there are both oneshots (AP has "Report incoming ships") and services, like the Automatic Money Transfer and the CAG Barrier.


The CAG Barrier is convenient with the PHQ. PHQ does not have "ware stocks", it has "cargobay". PHQ needs certain ratio of ship building materials.

If you do have a Complex that produces materials and has a CAG to sell to PHQ, that CAG cannot in any way prevented (aka configured) from filling the PHQ with just one ware type. You can stop those "foreign CAG" from selling to your station with adjusting prices, but that couples the prices of two stations (e.g. Complex and PHQ). With the Barrier you are free to set prices independently.

[Snafu_X3]

Tks jtone; while I was aware of most of those options that specific one you mentioned above had escaped me; I'll have to check it out