Freight Drone Help

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Tue, 3. May 11, 15:17

I've done some searching on the forums but I haven't quite found what I need yet.

My problem is that I have a TL full of silicon and a small fleet of freight drones. I'm wondering if there is a way to have them sell the exact amount to a given station without a lot of micromanagement.

As in...can I give them a single command which would make them sell the required amount of silicon without ordering them one at a time?

Dantrithor · Post by **Dantrithor** » Tue, 3. May 11, 15:52

You'd have more luck using a XL cargo fighter and CLS2. It'd allow you to do exactly what you're asking for.

StarSword · Post by **StarSword** » Tue, 3. May 11, 19:08

Or, just leave the TL somewhere safe (like Mercury), and save the silicon for the Hub plot.

pocoyo · Post by **pocoyo** » Tue, 3. May 11, 21:10

as far as i know freight drones will only dock with ships and stations you personally own.

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Tue, 3. May 11, 21:46

pocoyo wrote:as far as i know freight drones will only dock with ships and stations you personally own.

That's absolutely not true.

Freight drones dock where you tell them and buy and sell where you tell them.

I'm just looking for a way to automate that process so I don't have to select each one and tell it to trade.

pocoyo · Post by **pocoyo** » Tue, 3. May 11, 21:55

i've never thought of doing it that way, using the command console i've only got it working with player owned stations and ships.

X-Tie · Post by **X-Tie** » Tue, 3. May 11, 22:05

Used to use freight drones before, but since then I've replaced them with CLS freighters (when the patch came out) so my memory isn't tip top about it...

However, I think what I did was homebase my freight drones to my TL, and send a global command to all docked freight drones to buy x ware and x amount from a designated station.

Not entirely sure, however I know you can do what you're looking for since I was doing exactly what you want to do, except I was doing the opposite; buying the excess silicon off my station to keep its stock low and unload in the HUB when the TL would get full.

Hope it helps, I suggest you play around in the command console if it doesn't work like this

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Tue, 3. May 11, 22:23

X-Tie wrote:Used to use freight drones before, but since then I've replaced them with CLS freighters (when the patch came out) so my memory isn't tip top about it...

However, I think what I did was homebase my freight drones to my TL, and send a global command to all docked freight drones to buy x ware and x amount from a designated station.

Not entirely sure, however I know you can do what you're looking for since I was doing exactly what you want to do, except I was doing the opposite; buying the excess silicon off my station to keep its stock low and unload in the HUB when the TL would get full.

Hope it helps, I suggest you play around in the command console if it doesn't work like this

I think that just might be the solution! I'll give it a try later tonight after classes. Thanks.

I never thought of using a global broadcast...

pocoyo · Post by **pocoyo** » Tue, 3. May 11, 22:34

*edit* never mind

X-Tie · Post by **X-Tie** » Tue, 3. May 11, 22:47

I hope you understand what I mean, i.e.: doing it in the same fashion as you would for docked ships and giving all docked ships orders... What I'm not sure of is whether you have to launch all freight drones first, then do a broadcast to all drone ship types and issue the command... Just make sure that both your TL and your ship have all the softwares, you never know.

As far as I can remember, I could do it OOS too.

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Wed, 4. May 11, 04:40

X-Tie wrote:I hope you understand what I mean, i.e.: doing it in the same fashion as you would for docked ships and giving all docked ships orders... What I'm not sure of is whether you have to launch all freight drones first, then do a broadcast to all drone ship types and issue the command... Just make sure that both your TL and your ship have all the softwares, you never know.

As far as I can remember, I could do it OOS too.

Hmmm...still no luck. Apparently Frieght Drones don't dock with your TL...they just go straight to the cargo hold.

So I have no option to broadcast to docked ships with them.

I also tried launching them and then giving them orders...but I can only give trade orders one at a time this way. The transfer freight command only works for transferring cargo between your TL and your owned stations. That may explain why it worked for you...you were buying from your own stations.

I may just bite the bullet and get a TS and CLS software. I'm just stubborn and was curious to see if I could make it work. I'd kind of hoped to keep my TL self sufficient without having to have other ships following it around...

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Wed, 4. May 11, 05:14

Bummer, I was hoping for you guys to come to a solution, I'm waiting to cap my own TL and do some freight drone trading myself. Oh well, I'll probably just command them manually until I get bored.

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Wed, 4. May 11, 05:26

Progress-M wrote:Bummer, I was hoping for you guys to come to a solution, I'm waiting to cap my own TL and do some freight drone trading myself. Oh well, I'll probably just command them manually until I get bored.

Yeah...sorry. I was really hoping to get it to work myself.

Now my major problem is that I have no idea how to get CLS to sell my mined stuff for me. There's a boatload of options in there that I have no idea how to setup. This is why I wanted to just stick to Freight Drones and fly my TL around trading the stuff I mined myself.

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Wed, 4. May 11, 05:36

How about homebasing 14 Falcon Haulers in an Elephant and just allocate a bit of the (very limited, true) cargo space for ecells, then have them jump around a number of stations selling? Would be slow as anything I guess with the tiny cargo space...but at least you would be 'independent' in the sense that you wouldn't have any ship followers as such.

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Wed, 4. May 11, 05:43

Progress-M wrote:How about homebasing 14 Falcon Haulers in an Elephant and just allocate a bit of the (very limited, true) cargo space for ecells, then have them jump around a number of stations selling? Would be slow as anything I guess with the tiny cargo space...but at least you would be 'independent' in the sense that you wouldn't have any ship followers as such.

It's a thought. I guess at this point anything is slow. I tried a CLS setup but I can't get it to do anything past collecting the silicon. I wonder if I have to integrate Trader software as well to make it just sell whatever is the most sensible way to sell.

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Wed, 4. May 11, 06:34

Apparently CAG's can't be used to sell wares from a TL, that leaves you with a CLS plan.

Could try to play around with the CLS...the other thing I came up with a brief lookaround the forums was to sell the TL along with the cargo, I think you'd fetch average price for the whole lot. Not as much fun though and some would consider it a cheat.

edit: I kinda totally missed out that the first replies was about XL cargo CLS2 M3's, sorry about that!

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Wed, 4. May 11, 18:22

Progress-M wrote:Apparently CAG's can't be used to sell wares from a TL, that leaves you with a CLS plan.

Could try to play around with the CLS...the other thing I came up with a brief lookaround the forums was to sell the TL along with the cargo, I think you'd fetch average price for the whole lot. Not as much fun though and some would consider it a cheat.

edit: I kinda totally missed out that the first replies was about XL cargo CLS2 M3's, sorry about that!

I did try to play around with CLS but to make it sell after grabbing a load from the TL means that I have to meticulously setup waypoints and specify not only how much of the cargo to sell...but an exact price. I just want the CLS to take the cargo and sell it anywhere with a decent offer.

On the other hand...I'm getting pretty fast doing it with freight drones through practice. Most places short on a particular commodity only take a certain amount of it...so I can work out in my head how many drones to dispatch and the keystrokes are becoming automatic. Its not the ideal solution(and really there should be a better way), but I did manage to fill the quotas of a couple of chip plants and a computer plant in relatively short order. I may just stock up on a few more drones.

It would be nice if they had slightly larger cargo bays...but 800 isn't bad when I can carry around as many as I can carry.

StarSword · Post by **StarSword** » Wed, 4. May 11, 22:39

I typically keep 20 freight drones aboard all my capital ships, from M7 to TL. Whenever I send one to a sector where I have a complex or factory, I just use the "Transfer Freight with Drones" command to refuel them. I use 1000 energy cells for warships (limited mainly by cargo space), and 2500 for TLs.

BUT! Why are you trying to transfer sales wares around with freight drones?

If you're using the TL as a silicon warehouse for a mobile mining operation, there's a much better solution. It requires a small fleet of CLS ships, however. (Jumpdrive-equipped Super Freighter XLs should do it, but whatever you pick needs to be faster than the TL.)

Build a trading station (Teladi seems the best option, with infinite fighter docking) and equip it with several CAGs of Courier level or above. Set the wares list so they only trade silicon, and the supply parameters so they will keep the stock of silicon at 0%. Another couple of CAGs will trade only energy cells (standard supply level), so they will stock the dock with energy cells for jump fuel.
Set the CLS ships' waypoints to load silicon at the TL, unload at the trading dock, and refuel at the trading dock.
Count your profitsss.

But I still think you should just park the TL somewhere and save the silicon for the Hub plot.

Slashman · Post by **Slashman** » Wed, 4. May 11, 23:53

See this is the problem. I don't want to build stations or any of that stuff.

I just wanted to have my TL as a mining base and have a way to sell off the ore once its full.

I don't mind jumping around in it and selling system by system. I just want a simple way to sell stuff WHERE I want to sell it without a whole mess of commands and waypoints and levelling up pilots.

If I could have a few CLS ships that simply went to the TL, filled their cargo holds with ore and then sold it at wherever was the most profitable station, I'd be happy too I suppose.

I don't want to build a station just so I can execute a command that shouldn't have anything to do with a station anyway.

That's why I was toying with the idea of drones in the first place. I just want to jump into a system...get relatively close to a station that needs my product and tel tell the drones to sell and have them go at it.

StarSword · Post by **StarSword** » Wed, 4. May 11, 23:57

Slashman wrote:If I could have a few CLS ships that simply went to the TL, filled their cargo holds with ore and then sold it at wherever was the most profitable station, I'd be happy too I suppose.

Then here's your solution. Get some Major Dealer CAGs or Logistician CLSs. Go to External Commodity Logistics and set up two waypoints: the TL (for loading) and a nearby SPP (for jump fuel). Then use Generate Waypoints to make a list of sales locations (max rank CLS pilots get around fifteen locations, give or take).

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Freight Drone Help

Freight Drone Help