About hub plot deliveries automation.

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 08:39

Hi folks. Doing the Hub plot for a first time, and got a question. Since there are large quantities of everything to deliver, the logical solution would be using TLs for the job. But I am getting sick of transfering all the stuff manually to and from the TLs. Any way to automate the process? May be a Transporter Device, some software or drones? Just before I start searching a needle in the hay pile

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 08:44

Just skip the TL ships and use regular large freighters with jump drives and cls software from the bonus pack. To get your cls pilots to use jump drives you need to train them up. Put the software in m5 ships and get the pilots to fly back and forth between factories to train the in a couple hours.

http://roguey.co.uk/x3tc/help/kirlack/cls1.php

bonus pack for x3tc install in x3 Terran conflict game folder. It shouldn't modify your game.
http://www.egosoft.com/download/x3tc/bonus_en.php

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 08:50

By large freighters you mean TS SF XL? And what if I am restricted to use JD because of some DiD rules

Well, guess there's no other way

Either it is easy or it's the DiD.

Or go pirate for JD

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 08:55

Thaks anyway for elaborating this one for me.

burger1 · Post by **burger1** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 08:59

Either way it shouldn't matter because for example mistral super freighters cost about 1.5m and have a base cargo hold of 10k. A mammoth tl costs about 28.5m and holds 60k. (Ignoring speed differences) For about 9m you get the same cargo hold as the TL for much less money. I think the TL will survive more attacks though but it will require more attention. You can set cls to deliver to your TL anyways and turn it on/off as you want but its an extra step you can avoid. But everyone likes to play differently.

DiArmada · Post by **DiArmada** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 10:08

I just use five Caiman Freighters for the Hub. (X3TC)
I've placed the exit of the Hub a few jumps from Seizewell.
the limit the haulers may travel is 3 sectors.
sometimes I do fill up a TL, but most of it gets delivered.
if you set decent prices NPC's will start delivering to the Hub too.

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 10:21

Yeah, but I was dumb enough to place the first gates in the "Second Dutchy" systems, aka Cardinals Domain and such... But I'll try the NPC idea. Thanks

TTD · Post by **TTD** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 10:31

You could check my Tutorial to see how I used TLs for the Hub Plot.

Not sure if it much different though...hmmm

e1team · Post by **e1team** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 14:45

Will check! Thanks a lot

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 17:46

I gave the Hub a lot of money and set the prices to maximum.

Between NPC's and my Universe Traders, the Hub filled itself. I went and did other things, and was just patient about the Hub. NPC's did most of the work for me.

The only thing that I had to use CLS2 for was Teladianium. For some reason, the NPC's would not deliver that. But everything else (including microchips) came mostly from vanilla sources. In time, GoD increases microchip output, which helps.

There was no need to build a huge chip complex, as is so frequently recommended.

jlehtone · Post by **jlehtone** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 21:19

DrBullwinkle wrote:I went and did other things, and was just patient about the Hub.

How long was that in ingame days, approximately?

On lack of JD:
It would naturally be exploitative, if the Trade Mk3 pilots would purchase JD's on their own despite honorable company rules ...

CLS2 is rather inflexible, but you give it orders in the form of "waypoints". For example:
1. Load in A
2. Wait in B
3. Unload in C
4. Wait in B
repeat

If A-C is dangerous, but both A-B and B-C are ok, then you are out of harms way.
(The "Wait" order is usually used in the "How to train a pilot" guides.)

More expensive CLS1 method: Build a Dock in B. First CLS1 delivers from A to B, second from B to C.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 21:34

jlehtone wrote:
DrBullwinkle wrote:I went and did other things, and was just patient about the Hub.
How long was that in ingame days, approximately?

Oh yeah. I forgot to mention that part.

It took several weeks; like 4-6, maybe. I played on a "spare" computer, so I left it running 24x7. No SETA, but 1 game day = 1 calendar day.

If you do not leave the game machine running, then it could take a while. At 2 hours per day, it might take a year. So, um, yeah. There's that.

On the other hand, the game encourages the player to leave the game running 24x7. Without doing that, several things become quite extreme, such as training marines, the Hub, and fixing the Terran economy. Leaving the game running solves several common "complaints". I chalk them up to misunderstandings.

As far as I can tell, EgoSoft intends for the player to leave the computer running. Probably.

skeelime · Post by **skeelime** » Wed, 10. Oct 12, 22:52

All I did was use my PHQ to gather all the necessary goods using the CAGs. I Then loaded up my max upgraded aran with all the goods I would need and docked it with the Hub. Note you can't undock your aran while in the Sector you have to go OOS and do it or you will collide with the station because the aran is so massive. I can't remember if I was in the aran and used transportation to teleport to a nearby ship or if I just ordered it to the hub while I was in the sector.

Post by **Nanook** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 00:55

DrBullwinkle wrote:...
As far as I can tell, EgoSoft intends for the player to leave the computer running. Probably.

As far as I can tell, Egosoft intends for players to do other ingame tasks while waiting for marine training, Hub resources, and other longterm tasks. They actually penalize you by lowering your trade and combat ranks if you leave the game running unattended for more than an hour.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 01:25

At 2 hours per day (which is a *lot* for a person with a real life), it would take, what? Two months to train a marine?

I could understand your argument regarding the Hub, because the Hub is not a prerequisite for important parts of the game. Maybe even the Terran economy, although it would take so long that most players would not recognize that it was working.

But the marines...

...while it is possible that two months (or more) is intentional, it would certainly be twisted.

Post by **Nanook** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 01:40

You don't need maxed out marines to do most boarding. And Xenon boarding, requiring high level marines, is more an endgame activity anyway. Two months to start boarding?? You've got to be kidding. I start boarding within a few game days, which if I do a lot of SETA traveling early in the game, takes only a few realtime hours.

For the record, I never leave my game running for very long by itself. Those times are measured in minutes, not hours and certainly not days.

DrBullwinkle · Post by **DrBullwinkle** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 01:42

That's not what I said, Nanook.

Progress-M · Post by **Progress-M** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 02:08

It's sound sandbox game design to provide achievable new goals for both small and large time commitment gamers.

You add perceived value to virtual achievements by making them more time-consuming to reach. If you can get everything, right now, it's seen as less valuable than if you have to work/wait for it.

I think X3AP has quite a good balance with this particular thing, actually. You can take vanilla shortcuts such as the stock exchange to have a lot of funds early in the game, which enables you to do for example heavy fleet combat early. If that's not enough, there's S&M. And on the other hand if you think good things come to those who wait, well, then you can choose to do that too.

Agreed, it takes quite a long time to train marines, however as Nanook said, you *can* execute boarding ops without 5-star marines, especially in AP where spacewalk boarding does work with low skill level marines.

For the record, I'm a casual player - 2 hours of AP a day is what I've managed to clock in the last couple of weeks but it's not always so. I still manage to get my marines trained without too much trouble. I do use a fair amount of SETA when flying around, so 2 hours of gaming is probably more like 10 hours in game time.

Morkonan · Post by **Morkonan** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 12:24

The easiest way is to use CLS software, from the Bonus Pack.

Order Mistral Super Freighters to pick up the cargo and unload it at the Hub.

I forget the specific commands, but it's basically:

Add Ship (A TL if other ships, like miners, are dropping off their ores there. If you're using a station for a central collection point, then "Add Station.")
Load:Mineral or whatever else you're transferring(Full amount)
Add Station - Hub
Unload (Full Amount)
Execute

Then, let them run. Alternatively, you could set up limits so that they're not making runs until they have xx cargo space filled. That way, you conserve jump fuel.

Note: If you add a few CAGs to your Hub, which is a very smart thing to do since they'll also help you by buying Hub Plot required items, then you can add things like E-Cells to your Hub as a product. Your Mistrals will fill up their jump fuel from the Hub and the CAGs will keep it in stock for them.

Aragosnat · Post by **Aragosnat** » Thu, 11. Oct 12, 23:39

While some mentioned you don't need large factories. It does help speed that plot up. A small non self supporting plex (2+ I like doing in multiples of 10

) with supporting CAGs and a few CLS set to just load the wares can be helpful before even getting the plot started or even before the ware is needed as well as help build your rep and trade rank up.

Also make sure the Xenon Hub has just E-cells and just the product the squidie wants listed for the wares otherwise the CAGs and NPC's will spend your Credits on those wares that you might no longer need to aquire anymore as well as prevent CAGs wasting time buying/selling unneeded wares.