X3: remote sell and buy

[Heemskerk]

Hello,

I can't find the specific answer for my beginners question anywhere, so here it is.

I bought two Mercury haulers to do traderuns for generating an income. I both equiped them with Best buy and sell software and the Trading Mk 2 software, so they can do best buy and sell tasks.

I was wondering how this works? If I set a best buy task, I have to choose a sector and a station. Then I can select goods to buy.
When I set the task, it flies to another sector, where the ore (fi) is the cheapest. So my question is: why did I have to select a specific station in a sector to set the task?

Also: I assume that it only sees already mapped stations. So will the trade routs better if I map more sectors? I have a Dicovery to do this.
Is there also a way to map sectors better than flying around and doing fly by's on all stations? I have the feeling I am missing a lot in a sector.

Thank you!

[Honved]

Here are several points to consider:

Your ships only see whatever's in your own sector, or whatever's in the sector they're in at the moment. If you don't have any assets in the sector, your ships don't know the current prices, even if the sector's already mapped. Placing either a Navigational Satellite in the sector (preferebly 5-10km outside of the normal traffic lanes), or else having a ship in any sector you want to trade in, is a big help, but a major expense early in the game.

I've been known to park bailed M5s at the Trade Station or Equipment Dock, until I've managed to come up with enough satellites. You don't get any info on ships in the sector from a parked ship, but you do get sector-wide trade prices (I'm assuming that you have Trade Extension software on your own ship). For the chicken feed they pay for an empty Harrier or Disco hull, it's hardly worth selling one and buying a NavSat in its place.

[jlehtone]

Hello, merchant!

First, "X3" is ambiguous. There are X3R, X3TC and X3AP. Slight differences.

The Remote Best Buy needs two pieces of information: what and where.

• The where is "within jumpradius R from current sector", i.e. the command should ask for the R, jumpdrange, a number.
• The what is a ware. Alas, there is no list of wares readily available. Even if there were, the list of all wares is long. Therefore, you do choose a sector. That yields a list of stations/ships, of which you choose one. The station/ship has a short list of wares to choose from. There you are, with a ware.

The Remote Best Sell needs what and where too. I'd guess that there is a shortcircuit to the list of wares in the ship.


Disclaimer: I have not used those commands in years. If you have menu of a ship open and press '5' or '6', you will see "best within same sector" table and can from a listed ware instruct the ship to Dock at, or trade.


There is a little variation on various trade commands. On what they see. Yes, overall, you need explored sectors.

If you have any asset (station, ship or satellite) in a sector, then you can check the prices at every station of that sector. Remotely.

[Heemskerk]

Thanks all,

I was talking avout TC sorry

Right now the ships are buying and selling throughout all the sectors I visited before. And bring in a lot of credits.

So what is the use of having satellites in every sector? Because right now they travel to the best buy, even if I do not have a ship in it. They all have the best buy / sell and TSE installed.
Or will they only base their price info on stored information?

And can I use the Sector Trade option from the Mk III without satellites?

THNX!

[Heemskerk]

Here are several points to consider:



I've been known to park bailed M5s at the Trade Station or Equipment Dock, until I've managed to come up with enough satellites. .

Do you have tips where to get them? Aren't they much more expansive than the 7500 for a satellite?

[jlehtone]

Everything has a cost of some sort. Satellites tend to rare at the start. Relatively hard to find. (Or I simply don't bother to search carefully.)

There are occasionally "Ship for sale" generic missions. Damaged ships can be cheap (but not really really cheap).


Capturing ships. When you shoot at a (small) ship so that its shield is down and hull takes some damage, there is small chance that the pilot "bails out", abandons ship. You can claim the ship.

You have a Disco. Fast and sufficiently armed, when properly equipped, to chase other M5 and M4 ships. Can kill some M3 too, with practice and patience. Capturing is thus an option and for some the primary method for "purchasing" ships.

Big ships will not surrender to shooting, but trained Marines can board them.

Note that if you shoot at every passing M5, you will enemies.

[Heemskerk]

Thanks, but I still don't get why you need assets in the sectors, since they are making profit now without the assets

[RAVEN.myst]

Actually, for the Best Sell and Best Buy commands you DON'T need assets to "scout" for you - you merely need to have the sectors mapped and (as far as I know) the stations therein - however, the freighter equipped with that equipment will find the best prices *even if you can't see them* (by the way, the same applies to Trade Command Software Mk.3 ie. sector/local/universe traders, Commercial Agents [CAG], and Commodity Logistics Software [CLS] ships - they all get the pricing info on their own.)

However, if YOU want to be able to see what's going on in sectors (especially pricing info) then you have to have something of yours in that sector, in order to relay that info to you. Satellites also give limited vision of ships in flight, but if all you want is pricing info and access to trade commands (say, for example, to remotely buy ships in that sector's shipyard, if one is present), then you can simply park a small cheap ship such as a M5 at any station.

[Heemskerk]

Thanks, i understand now.

So if you equip a ts with a satellite, they also see unmapped stations?

[RAVEN.myst]

So if you equip a ts with a satellite, they also see unmapped stations?

No, satellites don't get equipped onto ships, they get deployed in space. I like to drop advanced satellites at or near the sector centre, for good visibility - but that means that they are in the path of most traffic, so if hostiles go past there they may shoot it down (and sometimes do - which means I have to replace the satellite). Some other people like to place them behind gates, or above and/or below the sector centre - the advantages there are usually reduced need for replacement, but the disadvantage being usually worse visibility coverage unless you use twice as many, or more.

Dropping ("deploying") a satellite, whether personally or by a remote commanded ship carrying it in cargo, can certainly reveal territory (especially if it's an advanced satellite, they have more visual range) if it wasn't revealed before.

[ajime]

personally i deploy satellites around 20km above the trade lanes monitoring one of the gates. if it get blown up, i replace it with 1 sat and 4 lasertowers, and 8 LT if it gets blown up again.

[Honved]

Most enemies have about a 10km engagement range. If you place the satellites about 11-12Km above the normal path through the sector, they will rarely ever get attacked. 20Km is safer yet, but far enough away that you don't see as much of the trade lanes. A basic Nav Sat will do for most sectors, but if you intend to place stations later, an Advanced Nav Sat is preferable for the camera view, and will also provide a significantly larger area of coverage to monitor through traffic and hostile incursions.

In the early stages of the game, Navigational Satellites are often hard to come by. I usually bail a few pirate M5s in early missions, leaving me with a couple of hulls that I can either repair and sell for a few thousand credits, or else drop off at a Trade Station to provide pricing info for the sector until I can place a proper satellite for only slightly less credits (and then sell the fighter hull). In a couple of TC campaigns, I jumped into the Terran plotline early, and ended up with 3-4 "N" hulls, which are worth less than the Nav Sat that replaces them. Why not put them to good use?

[Timsup2nothin]

A fighter hull can do things a satellite can't, ie store some stuff. I usually park a discoverer at every shipyard with fifty e-cells and a jump drive. Sectors that don't have shipyards are usually of low interest to me.