Mining ships refusing to carry out orders.

[Uncle Ruckus 42]

I have just gotten to the point on my second campaign where I can start station building. I set up 3 ore mines in Savage Spor, have a Demeter Miner assigned to each one. The ships don't have best buy/sell locaters yet, but I don't think that matters, all I need is energy cells anyway and those are close by, plus I'm going to be using the ore I mine for other stuff, probably a PAC forge by tonight at some point. Anyway, for some reason, the Demeters fail at any order I give them, they just don't pick anything up. I tell them to do a manual buy of 4340 energy cells at a solar plant 2 sectors away.......it goes there and picks up nothing and just sits in dock saying its buying 0 energy cells. Manual Trade runs seem to result in the ship going and picking up 1 lousy energy cell I can still trade if I tell the ship to navigate to the dock of the place I want to buy from, use the trade extension on the ship through the main ship menu to transfer resources from the station to the ship, and then repeat that process on the return trip to the home station. I have to go to "adjust station parameters" to unload the goods. I'm pretty sure trading isn't supposed to go this way, even with only Trade Command Software Mk 1.

I should mention I've modded the heck out of my game. I'm using the bonus pack, the Apricot Merge Mod, Universal Banking/Stock Exchange, Capturable stations script, marine repair, player workshops, MARS script, The Marauder Shipyard, Station repacker, Passenger to Marine, Dynamic Product Pricing, Pirate Fence, and equipment R and D scripts.

I also want to ask how this commercial agent thing works. I just don't get it. I go through and set everything up the way I "think" I want it and every time I hit "start commercial agent" it just says "CAG on standby" under current orders for whatever ship. How is this supposed to work?

[Snafu_X3]

I wrote

i64man wrote:

:
I read the documentation, but is either the wrong one I got because the one I got just explain each setting under the CAG. It does not give you an "example" or how to activate those settings.

Homebase a freighter to the 'plex hub. Ensure the freighter has Trade Mk1&2, some shields & Trade System Extension (for training your pilot). Start Commercial Representation from the Trade menu of your freighter. Sit back & watch while he does everything for you, buying stuff, & eventually selling stuff.

You can make things go quicker if you give him a faster freighter (Caimans or Mistrals are good, Dolphins & Vultures are bad), & once he's gone up a couple of levels you can let him use the jumpdrive if he's got one (it's switched off by default & a CAG pilot won't buy his own, unlike a UT).

You can restrict his trade range in the station settings (for 'jumps' read 'gates'), and/or give him specific sectors to trade in or avoid in the CAG 'Exceptions' menu. You can also tell him only to buy (shopper), only sell (salesman) or both (trader) in the CAG 'Trade settings' menu. You can restrict which wares he deals in using the CAG 'Wares' menu by adding item(s) to the blacklist or whitelist

for someone else, now 3 people Substitute 'station' for 'plex hub' & you should be fine in vanilla, but I've no idea how all those mods may or may not interfere.

Also check your prices on the stations - are they set too low for the stations within trading range? Don't forget your CAG won't use a JD until he's gone up a couple of notches, so you may like to investigate the stations' automated pricing routine

Hope this helps

[Uncle Ruckus 42]

See yea, I only have one ware on my wares list, energy cells. I don't have Trade Command Mark 2 but I have everything else for my ships. I have my resource buying price at my mines set to 18 for energy cells, cause I'm sick of them giving me a message saying "Sorry boss, but the price of the energy crystals I bought has gone down past the X credits I paid for them". The commercial agent just sits around on standby every time I tell it to start. Eh, guess I'll just go back to scavenging abandoned ships and collecting missiles after firefights.

[TTD]

Why skimp on software?
I pack everything in. Trade 1,2&3
navigation
trading system extension
all scanners etc.

Yes it's expensive but when you start to earn millions per hour instead of hundreds,then it won't matter.

My ships usually do what I ask unless I have forgotten a setting here or there.

And as stated above, mods and scripts can have conflicting interests with each other and the game itself,so can you replicate the problem in vanilla?
If not then you have found the source of your problem.

[Donziboy2]

From what I understand of it, Trade Command mk2 is for stations.......
They dont work well without it.

[Infekted]

Why skimp on software?
I pack everything in. Trade 1,2&3
navigation
trading system extension
all scanners etc.

Yes it's expensive but when you start to earn millions per hour instead of hundreds,then it won't matter.

My ships usually do what I ask unless I have forgotten a setting here or there.

And as stated above, mods and scripts can have conflicting interests with each other and the game itself,so can you replicate the problem in vanilla?
If not then you have found the source of your problem.

I'd second that all, except mark three. 500k is a lot to spend on something unless you specifically intend to use it. And I dont know about you, but my Mk3s usually stay pretty distinct from my regular traders.
Everything else tho, its best to get all at once so you never need to worry about it.

[TTD]

Most of it is available at the Terracorp HQ and EQ Dock in CBSE.

If you want to go the CLS/CAG route,get you Commoditity software from Argon Trading Station in Herron's Nebula.It will give you a chance of recieving a trained pilot.

[G Morgan]

Why skimp on software?
I pack everything in. Trade 1,2&3
navigation
trading system extension
all scanners etc.

Yes it's expensive but when you start to earn millions per hour instead of hundreds,then it won't matter.

My ships usually do what I ask unless I have forgotten a setting here or there.

And as stated above, mods and scripts can have conflicting interests with each other and the game itself,so can you replicate the problem in vanilla?
If not then you have found the source of your problem.

Don't forget a jump drive on every ship. It's become normal for me to load up a freighter with everything available from the Otas and Terracorp HQs and an Argon ED.

[Snafu_X3]

If you want to go the CLS/CAG route,get you Commoditity software from Argon Trading Station in Herron's Nebula.It will give you a chance of recieving a trained pilot.

To clarify: if you /hire the pilot/ (ie start the software) at that station in Herron's Nebula there is a chance of getting a pre-trained pilot

[JAFA_NZ]

& to further clarify, every time you fire a CLS2 pilot whilst docked at that station, you have a chance of getting a more skilled one, though I don't know if you get anything past Cargo Messenger, 'cos I didn't bother memorising the ranks, I just know that CM is the minimum for what I want.

[Infekted]

You will get courier, supplier, or cargo messenger. Its random which one, unless its CM fire them an try again

[Uncle Ruckus 42]

Thanks for the replies, I forgot I needed CLS. The only reason I don't have jump drives and higher level Trade software is because I just can't find it for some reason. I'm a yaki pirate with a grudge against the Argon, I've decided I'm gonna go on a campaign against all humanoid meatbags, so I stay out of Argon space. I'm at high ranks with the Split and Teladi, and am at the highest rank with the Paranid, yet they still don't offer jump drives and high level trade command software.

Somehow, I got the CAG to work for exactly one run all by itself for one of my five Demeter Miners. It perfectly went and found some cheap energy cells, brought them home, and then decided to go jerk off or whatever. Since my trade fleet is small I can still micromanage and not tear my hair out. I've got the money to pay for stuff, I'm sitting on a tiny pile of about 12 million right now, but like other posters said I also kinda balk at paying 500k for a peice of software, plus another 400-500k to max out the cargo space on a ship thats originally 500k.

[JAFA_NZ]

Jump Drives are only available from the Argon, the Boron, & the Terrans.

Trade Command Mk.3 is available from the Teladi, the Argon, & I don't know who else.

Commodity Logistics Software is available from the Argon, & a single Paranid Trading Station.

[Jonzac]

I notice my CAG on standby alot and I think its tied to the resourse percentage you set it for.

you have resources set at 80% (Default). If the resources are over 80% the CAG doesn't doing anything to go buy them because your resources haven't dropped low enough yet...plus a new CAG can only buy stuff...so that maybe why its just sitting there.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

If you just need to buy one resource for your factor/complex then Trade MK2 isn't too bad at getting the job done. Just tell him to Best Buy Energy Cells and he'll do a reasonable job at it.

[Snafu_X3]

Jump Drives are only available from the Argon, the Boron, & the Terrans.

Plus the Goners, once you've done their plot. Not that that's going to make much difference in this case: I've never seen a non-human Goner..

Trade Command Mk.3 is available from the Teladi, the Argon, & I don't know who else.

None others in my list

Commodity Logistics Software is available from the Argon, & a single Paranid Trading Station.

Again, my list shows none other than Argon. Could you PM me the Paranid location please?

Cheers