Noob question about stations

[gapper4]

Hi guys,

This is a bit embarassing but... how do you know if your stations are making money or not ? In X3, I let the money pile up and withdrew as needed, so I had a good sense of which stations were profitable and which weren't. But I can't seem to find an equivalent trick in XR. Any hints ?

[PowerPC603]

Look at the manager's funds from time to time to see if it increases or not.

Also, when a manager runs out of money (he's running the station at a loss), he'll ask for more money.
If he makes a big surplus, he automatically transfers money to your account.

For both, you'll get a message in your HUD.
Unfortunately, it doesn't say the name of the station, only the name of the manager.

[RAVEN.myst]

For both, you'll get a message in your HUD.
Unfortunately, it doesn't say the name of the station, only the name of the manager.

...and if you leave the game running and step away, thus missing such a message, you can always check your log.

[RainerPrem]

Look at the manager's funds from time to time to see if it increases or not.

Also, when a manager runs out of money (he's running the station at a loss), he'll ask for more money.
If he makes a big surplus, he automatically transfers money to your account.

For both, you'll get a message in your HUD.
Unfortunately, it doesn't say the name of the station, only the name of the manager.

Hi,

All video messages don't identify the origin at all - a constant annoyance for me, since all architects look the same. They are also totally unintelligible, when I'm just in a smalltalk or a fight. So they are pointless.

cu
Rainer

[gapper4]

Look at the manager's funds from time to time to see if it increases or not.

Also, when a manager runs out of money (he's running the station at a loss), he'll ask for more money.
If he makes a big surplus, he automatically transfers money to your account.

For both, you'll get a message in your HUD.
Unfortunately, it doesn't say the name of the station, only the name of the manager.

Hi,

All video messages don't identify the origin at all - a constant annoyance for me, since all architects look the same. They are also totally unintelligible, when I'm just in a smalltalk or a fight. So they are pointless.

cu
Rainer

Yes, that's been my experience too. Occasionally I'll get some money with no indication where it came from. Frankly, having to keep tabs on the Manager's account as a proxy for profitability is a very clumsy way to figure out if stations are profitable. A simple ledger would do the trick, no ?

While on the topic of stations, I'm finding that the transports I have assigned to it don't seem to be fully doing their jobs. I have a couple of Lyreneas assigned to the Manager, she has plenty of money, and, while they go get some resources, others they won't touch even though I know there are some on the market (I have to manually send a trader from my general fleet to fill the need). Any reason why this happens ? The two goods are Nvidium cubes and Spacefuel. For some reasons, the Manager never sends the transports to buy those.

[RAVEN.myst]

While on the topic of stations, I'm finding that the transports I have assigned to it don't seem to be fully doing their jobs. I have a couple of Lyreneas assigned to the Manager, she has plenty of money, and, while they go get some resources, others they won't touch even though I know there are some on the market (I have to manually send a trader from my general fleet to fill the need). Any reason why this happens ? The two goods are Nvidium cubes and Spacefuel. For some reasons, the Manager never sends the transports to buy those.

This is a disadvantage of freighters with versatile cargobays - the manager works down some list of wares in some way, or follows some algorithm, but either way, some wares end up with lower priority even when they oughtn't. Word of advice: lean more heavily on M-sized freighters - they have several advantages:

- They have simpler crew requirements: just a pilot (one of the cheapest to hire), instead of three different crew.
- Being small and cheap, they are more efficient in terms of cargo space usage, which in turn means they spend less time idle (idle ships are more vulnerable to pirate attacks.)
- They are quicker to load and offload (though relying on highways their travel is somewhat slower, most of the time, especially inter-sector)
- Because they are cheaper individually, you can support multiples of each cargo type. If you do this, then your manager will try to diversify their assignments; for example, if you need two wares of the same cargo type (let's say, bulk) and two or more bulk M-freighters, they will usually be sent to fetch both kinds of wares at the same time (unless one is stocked up while the other is understocked.)
- This is the important one in this context: because they have specialised cargo holds, as long as you have covered all the types with matching freighters, they have no option but to go for the stuff they can carry. So your bulk Nyanae won't be getting distracted by fetching 5 units of BoFu instead of going for Nividium cubes, for example.

The smaller freighters have one major disadvantage: if they take damage (actual physical damage, that is, not shield damage which regenerates), you have to manually unassign them and order them to get repairs, which is a bit of a ball-ache, but in a recentish patch (4.0, if I recall correctly), M-sized freighters were overhauled somewhat to improve their survivability - I find that I suffer surprisingly low attrition even though I play on the hardest difficulty.

If you would prefer not to use sub-capital freighters, but want to specialise your cargobays in order to sort out the core problem here, then you have a few options: Rahanas (not my favourite), Styrvok (these are quite nice - cheaper, faster, and a little tougher than Rahanas), or Vultures (my favourite - cheaper and slightly faster even than Styrvoks, and some models are quite well armed.)

Now, I'm not saying you should get rid of the Lyraneas - you have them already, so may as well keep them. Just add some Nyanaes/Mercancias (or the smaller, single-type capital freighters - but I would *really* advise trying out the small ones first, just to see how good they can really be )

Happy hunting!

[gapper4]

While on the topic of stations, I'm finding that the transports I have assigned to it don't seem to be fully doing their jobs. I have a couple of Lyreneas assigned to the Manager, she has plenty of money, and, while they go get some resources, others they won't touch even though I know there are some on the market (I have to manually send a trader from my general fleet to fill the need). Any reason why this happens ? The two goods are Nvidium cubes and Spacefuel. For some reasons, the Manager never sends the transports to buy those.

This is a disadvantage of freighters with versatile cargobays - the manager works down some list of wares in some way, or follows some algorithm, but either way, some wares end up with lower priority even when they oughtn't. Word of advice: lean more heavily on M-sized freighters - they have several advantages:

- They have simpler crew requirements: just a pilot (one of the cheapest to hire), instead of three different crew.
- Being small and cheap, they are more efficient in terms of cargo space usage, which in turn means they spend less time idle (idle ships are more vulnerable to pirate attacks.)
- They are quicker to load and offload (though relying on highways their travel is somewhat slower, most of the time, especially inter-sector)
- Because they are cheaper individually, you can support multiples of each cargo type. If you do this, then your manager will try to diversify their assignments; for example, if you need two wares of the same cargo type (let's say, bulk) and two or more bulk M-freighters, they will usually be sent to fetch both kinds of wares at the same time (unless one is stocked up while the other is understocked.)
- This is the important one in this context: because they have specialised cargo holds, as long as you have covered all the types with matching freighters, they have no option but to go for the stuff they can carry. So your bulk Nyanae won't be getting distracted by fetching 5 units of BoFu instead of going for Nividium cubes, for example.

The smaller freighters have one major disadvantage: if they take damage (actual physical damage, that is, not shield damage which regenerates), you have to manually unassign them and order them to get repairs, which is a bit of a ball-ache, but in a recentish patch (4.0, if I recall correctly), M-sized freighters were overhauled somewhat to improve their survivability - I find that I suffer surprisingly low attrition even though I play on the hardest difficulty.

If you would prefer not to use sub-capital freighters, but want to specialise your cargobays in order to sort out the core problem here, then you have a few options: Rahanas (not my favourite), Styrvok (these are quite nice - cheaper, faster, and a little tougher than Rahanas), or Vultures (my favourite - cheaper and slightly faster even than Styrvoks, and some models are quite well armed.)

Now, I'm not saying you should get rid of the Lyraneas - you have them already, so may as well keep them. Just add some Nyanaes/Mercancias (or the smaller, single-type capital freighters - but I would *really* advise trying out the small ones first, just to see how good they can really be )

Happy hunting!

Thanks for the comprehensive answer ! I'll try all your suggestions. I'm playing the VR version and having a blast but I found managing station so far to be quite frustration. I'm sure your advice will help

[RAVEN.myst]

I hope it does - good luck! (Just a word of warning: I don't know the VR version at all, so I don't know in what ways it might differ from the standard one - I hope what I wrote still applies)

[RainerPrem]

While on the topic of stations, I'm finding that the transports I have assigned to it don't seem to be fully doing their jobs. I have a couple of Lyreneas assigned to the Manager, she has plenty of money, and, while they go get some resources, others they won't touch even though I know there are some on the market (I have to manually send a trader from my general fleet to fill the need). Any reason why this happens ? The two goods are Nvidium cubes and Spacefuel. For some reasons, the Manager never sends the transports to buy those.

Hi,

in addition to Raven's statements I want to present another possible reason. The manager can also buy from NPC ships. He might have taken cheaper offers for those goods from such ships and is now waiting for them to arrive.

cu
Rainer