Seller wasting time at trading station

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Wed, 3. Mar 10, 08:59

I have a TS assigned to sell the output of my BoFu factory, and it just keeps going to the nearest trading station, selling the few it will buy (as it's always near full), returning home to top up its supply, and then repeating over and over. Stock is filling up at the factory while credits are steadily going down. There are trading stations and factories well within its jump range that have no stock or are offering more, yet it seems to be ignoring them. I've issued it the standard "Sell ware at best price" command repeatedly, and it just keeps doing the same thing. I'd set the price higher than the trading station will buy but that's not economically feasible, and it just idles when the station is full and won't buy anyway.

NUKLEAR-SLUG · Post by **NUKLEAR-SLUG** » Wed, 3. Mar 10, 10:39

Try using a different freighter and see if that makes a difference as occasionally ships can spaz out for no apparent reason.

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Wed, 3. Mar 10, 11:11

NUKLEAR-SLUG wrote:Try using a different freighter and see if that makes a difference as occasionally ships can spaz out for no apparent reason.

I tried swapping its role with the station's energy buyer, but now the former energy buyer is doing the same thing: bee-lining for that accursed Royal Boron Trading Station like it was the only other thing in existence.

I tried bumping the selling price up to 1 cred above the station's price (which says it still has a buyer within 1 jump, and the station is set to 2 jumps), and the ship just headed back to the complex with a full load of BoFu like there was nowhere to sell it. I never had any problems selling the BioGas before I converted it into a BoFu production complex...

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Wed, 3. Mar 10, 11:28

Try checking your ships' Friend/Foe setting in case you are showing the race with the best deals as hostile for some reason. Also, are you sure you have the race rep to trade at those other stations?

I take it you have no 3rd Party trading scripts or other mods on the go?

Set the Bofu selling price to average (as per the Trading Station) +1. Try emptying the ship of all Bofu and other sales wares. Remove the homebase. Give command 'none'. Now homebase it to your complex and give the command to sell Bofu for best price. Does that work?

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Wed, 3. Mar 10, 11:32

Actually I just tried clearing and resetting the homebase setting and this seems to have worked. Should have thought of that sooner. Thanks to the both of you for the suggestions.

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 02:32

Okay, I spoke too soon. I tried everything you suggested, Alan Phipps, and nothing seemed to work. So I swapped the ship with a different one from another part of the galaxy, and it's doing the same thing: only going to that one trading station while my complex's selling price is equal to or under the trading station's buying price, regardless of how full it is. Once I set the buying price 1 higher, it'll start selling elsewhere. Is this the way it's actually supposed to behave?? Because it's awfully dumb, and it's forcing me not to sell to trading stations, which are a substantial portion of my market.

Edit: Just to clarify, I'm selling BoFu in Boron space; all the stations are Boron so I have the same rep with all of them.

phoenix-it · Post by **phoenix-it** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 03:50

Are there Khaak in the neighboring sectors? Possibly just beyond the elliptic?

Lord Dakier · Post by **Lord Dakier** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 03:53

phoenix-it wrote:Are there Khaak in the neighboring sectors? Possibly just beyond the elliptic?

Surely you dont think the highly educated freighter pilots would go into a Khaak assualted sector would you.

phoenix-it · Post by **phoenix-it** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 04:00

Lord_Dakier wrote:
phoenix-it wrote:Are there Khaak in the neighboring sectors? Possibly just beyond the elliptic?
Surely you dont think the highly educated freighter pilots would go into a Khaak assualted sector would you.

I've had freighters absolutely refuse to go into a sector to sell and discovered the issue was some lonely cluster way the hell up in a corner. As soon as I destroyed it they started trading.

But... suggestions are bad thing I guess.

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 06:13

phoenix-it wrote:Are there Khaak in the neighboring sectors? Possibly just beyond the elliptic?

Well, the ship will go to other sectors to sell as soon as I raise the selling price, so I don't think this is it. Glad to know this can spook traders, though.

jlehtone · Post by **jlehtone** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 07:52

phoenix-it wrote:I've had freighters absolutely refuse to go into a sector to sell and discovered the issue was some lonely cluster way the hell up in a corner. As soon as I destroyed it they started trading.

Which trade command? Stock X3TC, or third-party?

Post by **Alan Phipps** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 09:49

@ BustAMove: Well if it always does that then I suppose it must be by design. At least it means you have a choice whether to do riskier and slower longer trips for higher profit or safe but slower income close by. What you could do is have your sell price set to above average and so sell to further away stations at high profit (use auto-jump settings) while having a smaller ship on indefinite repeat manual trade run to the local Trading Station so doing the small but steady trading as well. It is just at the cost of another small trader.

Gavrushka · Post by **Gavrushka** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 10:00

It is one of my pet hates about the game (TC) - I have a couple of large freighters touring (under my control) who fly to a sector and I check 'best selling price' - IF I have a good onboard that is sold at the Trading station it will always select it even when it is full unless there is a station wanted to buy at above average price- And when you're operating remotely you then have to go to your property screen (R) scroll to your ship trading remotely (.) then check EVERY factory individually to see who will buy your goods- It is worst for me with Cahoonas - Say you've bought them at 40 credits, you would love to sell them at 60 - but the trading station kills that off, or at least automatically.

Station based traders can only avoid this if they sell at 1 above average price yes?

phoenix-it · Post by **phoenix-it** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 16:22

jlehtone wrote:
phoenix-it wrote:I've had freighters absolutely refuse to go into a sector to sell and discovered the issue was some lonely cluster way the hell up in a corner. As soon as I destroyed it they started trading.
Which trade command? Stock X3TC, or third-party?

Stock... I haven't noticed it recently though. Could be back as far as release or perhaps Reunion. I know I've experienced it though.

Post by **Nanook** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 21:35

phoenix-it wrote:
jlehtone wrote:
phoenix-it wrote:I've had freighters absolutely refuse to go into a sector to sell and discovered the issue was some lonely cluster way the hell up in a corner. As soon as I destroyed it they started trading.
Which trade command? Stock X3TC, or third-party?
Stock... I haven't noticed it recently though. Could be back as far as release or perhaps Reunion. I know I've experienced it though.

This, I believe, was a feature of the CAG and CLS traders of Reunion, and maybe even in X2. Standard Trade Command I/II 'Buy for Best/Sell for Best' traders aren't smart enough to stay out of infested sectors.

em3e3 · Post by **em3e3** » Fri, 5. Mar 10, 21:51

Also, what distance do you have for the Factory? For the most part, the Best Buy/Sell commands work well, but they don't always function as smart as a player-controlled ship. I've seen Best Buy traders travel to distant NPC factories, when there is a closer factory offering the same good for the same price.

And then there's the issue of the Best Sell traders only taking sell price into account, and selling to Trading Stations instead of factories, when the prices are the same. Except, they've already topped off the Trading Station, so there isn't much profit to be made from it again.

So, one solution is to limit your selling price to 1 credit below average, and the TS will never visit a Trading Station.

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Sat, 6. Mar 10, 07:50

em3e3 wrote:Also, what distance do you have for the Factory?

Jump range is set to 2, and I'm based in Queen's Space. That actually covers pretty much all the Boron sectors up there. I don't want to set it any higher anyway, lest my ships stray into pirate-addled Teladi space for energy buys.

I set the selling price to 1 credit higher than the trading stations, but unfortunately this limits the options severely; there's a lot of competition up there (not sure why I never noticed this before I set up the complex). If only trading station buying prices would scale with their stock levels, this wouldn't even be a problem... Maybe I should just start taking more station building missions in those sectors to expand the market for BoFu. Or I could max the ships' shields, configure their auto-jump settings, and open them up to trading with a wider expanse of the universe like you suggested. (Sounds like a good way to lose some TS's, though.)

BustAMove · Post by **BustAMove** » Sat, 6. Mar 10, 14:27

If anyone else has this problem in the future, I solved it by dropping the price to about halfway between rock bottom and average (the market was pretty saturated anyway), and swapping my 7.5k cargo Mercury Hauler for four 208 cargo Makos. The Makos run at over twice the speed and while they still don't shift as much cargo as the TS theoretically could, they can go to different stations and make the runs faster, filling in whatever gaps the market allows. I'm not sure why this strategy finally got my complex to give up on selling to the local trading station indefinitely, but it did.

TheJakal · Post by **TheJakal** » Sun, 7. Mar 10, 02:44

Its because in vannilla they are doing exactly what you've told them. You see annoying as it is you've told them to sell for best price and therefor they are and seeing as the trading stations have non moving prices it will fly there seeing as its the nearest station buying at the highest price.

Yes its fustrating as I have found out with a Silicon Mine in Ore Belt and my freighter trying to sell continually to Plutarch HQ despite it not actually needing any.

I did find however that increasing the jump range so that the ship will travel to a distant secotr to sell the product at a high price will mean that by the time they come to sell at the trading station again chances are the npc traders will have bought some of the stock.

An example I have is going back to the Silicon Mine. Originally I had it set to sell in a 1 jumpgate range thinking that both the Cloud Bases would eat all the Silicon. Wrong. It seems that I flooded the market and he kept making pointless rusn to the afore mentioned HQ.

Annoyed with this I upped the jump distance to 2 gates and now it intrestingly seems the long freight journey to sell to the factoires in Argon Prime mean that they are nwo its favoured buyers and not many of the stations in range (espicially the now useful Plutarch HQ) are ever full.

Of course if using this method make sure they wont traverse Pirate or Xenon sectors to get there as this will eman even less profits lol.

Hope this helps.

Cheers

TheJakal

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Seller wasting time at trading station

Seller wasting time at trading station