CLS2 - Question for the more experienced players

[RayF]

Hi,

I have set up a few CLS2 routes. Most of my traders are couriers.
So far I have the ships to dock at the buying location and wait until purchase is possible.

When a sell is possible off he goes!

I was wondering how can i make this even more productive, especially when the ship has to change sectors to sell..

for example lets assume the buy location is in sector A, and all selling factories are in sector B.

How can I make the ship to change sectors(to go to sector B or to selling factory) and wait after he buys the products from sector A???
this way i will beat quite a few NBCs

Is this possible?

[Merroc]

You could tell him to fly to the first selling station after buying (before selling). That way, when he has a full cargo bay to sell, he's at least in the right sector waiting for the right opportunity. When he has room and the factory where he buys sells for the right price, he flies over.

Unfortunately, at least as far as i know, it's impossible to have him fly to a selling station when full (waiting to be able to sell), and only fly to the buying station (and wait there) when he's empty. He'd constantly fly between the two stations.

[sharkball]

You could give him orders like this: fly to station 1 in sector A, buy at station 1, then station 2, etc in sector A, then fly to station 1 in sector B, sell at station 1, the station 2, etc in sector B.

Also get them jumpdrives so when they get skilled they will use them

[Solomon Short]

Plan A:

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On the buying end, set a waypoint for 1 unit of ware at max, then a waypoint for the rest of the cargo load.

On the selling end, set 1 waypoint for 1 unit at minimum, then waypoints for the rest of the cargo at the desired minimum price.

Set collect & deliver supply conditions to 100%.

Plan B:

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Assign separate "Buyer" & "Seller" ships to each station, set to buy or sell at the desired price, Apprentices are fine, but they AIUI they won't level/train.

Assign 1 or more "Courier" vessels set to load from the buyers & unload to the sellers, you want Cargo Messengers or higher to benefit from the JD.

The Buyers & Sellers should probably set to "0%" in their supply conditions, just in case you get the quantities wrong.

If you only have one buyer, the Courier should have a "Fly to Station" waypoijnt for him as well as the "load upto", don't forget to plan eCell acquisition in their if using the JD.

If you have multiple buyers, set a "Fly to Station" for either the station that can stock the largest quantity, or that is closest to equidistant from your buyers, the set the "collect" condition to whatever rows your boat.

I believe both options will minimise downtime, but Plan B should (I think) generate higher profits per hour (once it gets going at least).

Plan C requires a few extra ships:

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rather than having a courier or 2 running between the sectors, add a "Warehouse" TS+ or TL in each sector, near the gate closest to the stations in question, then have 1 courier in each sector transferrign to/from the warehouse, & another courier running between the warehouses.

Whichever local courier can source eCells should probably be tasked with keeping a supply of them in the warehouse for that sector so the inter-sector courier can refuel without having to stooge off to an SPP or MO.

Clear as mud?

[Patholos]

I use this method

Let's use ore for this exampe:l

- 1 ship permanently docked at an ore mine, set to buy @ 50
- 1 hauler to pick up the ore and dump it at a loading area (that being a TS, TL, The HUB, complex or PHQ)
- 1 seller, loading up the ore set to sell the ore @129, 10 stations list.

You can omit the hauler part, if you want to run it locally within a 1 jumprange radius. It will then become like this:

- 1 ship permanently docked at an ore mine, set to buy @ 50
- 1 seller, loading up the ore set to sell the ore @129, 10 stations to sell at.

The difference is that the first example is centralized distribution, while the second is decentralized distribution.

Centralized: Costs more to set up infrastructure, uses somewhat less ships. Allows you to sell secondary resources not found nearby your trading area.

Decentralized: Costs less, uses somewhat more ships.

OT:

I hihly recommend Tims2 excellent walls of text if you want to go more indepth regarding using CLS2 for trading.

[RayF]

ok, thanks guys!!
i have quite a few options to select!:

[Patholos]

A tip for you:

When you are closing several hundreds CLS agents, all doing their thing, I find using TM's as homebases for their respective trading area or operation essential, or else you'll just spazz out when looking at the TS list.

For instance:

All ships that are docked and buys ore, gets homebased to a TM called Buyers Ore.

That way you can easily hide the buyers in the ships list, while just needing to open the owned ships of the TM to get an overview of what's happening.

[Solomon Short]

& if the TM is a Chokara you could load it up with CLS2 & assign it to keeping it's suborinates fuelled up...

[Patholos]

& if the TM is a Chokara you could load it up with CLS2 & assign it to keeping it's suborinates fuelled up...

This is why I love these forums

Yes, a TM set to buy @ SPP or refuel at a loading area, going around dumping off X amount of e-cells at the buyers which the sellers can then use to refuel.

This solves the decentralized distribtion issue for me which I had in the start, which forced me to go centralized.

I'll take a note of it, to use it in a later new game.

[Timsup2nothin]

Multiple ships.

First ship, fly to source, buy. Then an unload to the selling ship. Maybe another unload to another selling ship.

Selling ships have nothing but sell waypoints in their sector, so they never go anywhere.

The first ship waits for your price, buys, then goes to fill up an empty seller and goes back to wait for another buying opportunity.

[RayF]

Another Q,

when i have the 'use jumpdrive:yes" and the ship does not have a jumpdrive,
will he go and buy one??

[Timsup2nothin]

Another Q,

when i have the 'use jumpdrive:yes" and the ship does not have a jumpdrive,
will he go and buy one??

Not that I know of.

[zazie]

That's correct. The original software was written with NO use of the JD as default setting.

It's different from the Vanilla Trade Command SW MK3: those traders will get a JD by themselves if higher than level 12. And they will buy another one if the JD is 'lost' (after an attack or after player's action to take it away from the freighter; a feature which IS very handy for an "all-pirate-game" ...)

[RayF]

hmm,
i still have some troubles with jumpdrives..
i ve manually installed on my CLS ship. No EC were supplied..Manual says that he will buy EC from external sources...I dont see that happening...he still does not use the jumpdrive and he is already high ranked ...

[Timsup2nothin]

I suggest giving him a 'feload jump fuel' waypoint. If he has a stop at one or more of your factory complexes those would be good candidates.

[RayF]

thanks for the feedback tim,

however he is way too far from my small factory... i will manually load the ship with some EC and see if he uses the JD.
otherwise i have no clue what else to do.

[Snafu_X3]

Sorry, DP

[Snafu_X3]

Ray, you /have/ enabled his use of the jumpdrive haven't you? & ensured the pilot is of rank 4+?

CAG/CLS have to have their jumpdrive use enabled in their own respective trade menus; they will /not/ inherit or otherwise use the settings from the default 'command' menu

[RayF]

Ray, you /have/ enabled his use of the jumpdrive haven't you? & ensured the pilot is of rank 4+?

CAG/CLS have to have their jumpdrive use enabled in their own respective trade menus; they will /not/ inherit or otherwise use the settings from the default 'command' menu

Yes i have enabled the jumpdrive under his commands.
Also their ranking (the documentation has different ranking system, why?) is cargo messenger and above..I think the two ships i am experementing with are cargo messanger & supplier ..He does not bother to buy EC..i still havent tried to manually load the ships with EC and see if he uses it.

thanks guys.

[dno101]

if there is a SPP nearby, you can use that to refuel. you would need to adjust the reload quantity to reflect the sum used for waypoints. it is best to load up JD fuel into a hold empty of e-cells otherwise he might overlook them.

I use a cattle ranch (M) as a refuelling station for all my CLS in one area. for example, working in AP, I place the cattle ranch close to the E gate and turn production off. i then have a CLS mercury waypointed to sit at the M SPP in the wall buying e-cells at min price. i then have another CLS mercury waypointed to collect those e-cells and deliver them to the fuel station (cattle ranch). i found that CLS will not refuel when e-cells are a resource (important to remember). so i have a mercury super freighter CLS waypointed to sit at the cattle ranch loading e-cells max cargo. the super freighter then becomes a fuel tanker and is the point from which the CLS pilots will re-fuel. however, i waypoint the fuel station (cattle ranch) first and insert a waypoint to unload e-cells before the pilot refuels from the tanker - that way I avoid the possibility of getting clogged up with e-cells and they 're-cycle' unused jump fuel. might sound complicated but straight-forward really. might have to adjust the waypoints slightly if you are shipping e-cells around though.

this is all specific to CLS II. I don't use CLS I or CAG