How do I set up a factory so my trading vessel can use it best?
namely, I have a farm and a trader and I want to automate it so that my trader buys the product from the station and then sells it elsewhere but also gets the resources (energy cells) and sells it to the station.
Or do I need two ships for that.
Can I set it up so that I pay the cheapest price to buy from the station?
(I have the station set on my trader as home station)
If anyone can point me to a beginner's guide, that would be great!
factories for beginners??
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Lea Flamma
- Posts: 410
- Joined: Sat, 1. Sep 12, 16:04
The thing you are looking for is named CAG (Comercial Agent). It's a bonus pack add-on.
Bonus pack.
Comercial agent description.
It's a script that adds a trainable pilot who buys and sells good of your station to NPC ones. But you can aways set the sell price to avg-1 and NPC ships will but goods themselves.
Bonus pack.
Comercial agent description.
It's a script that adds a trainable pilot who buys and sells good of your station to NPC ones. But you can aways set the sell price to avg-1 and NPC ships will but goods themselves.
I am fairly new to this game as well, was in your exact spot last week. Basically if you want to fully automate you need 2 ships (assuming AI don't buy from you, which from my experience is the case unless you are making weed in Teladi space)
buy trade command software II for both ships, set homebase as your factory for both ships and then let one buy best price and another sell best price. However, 2 ships is minimum for autonomy since if your station is big (or a big complex) you may need for instance 3 ships to just buy enough E-cells.
Hope this helped
buy trade command software II for both ships, set homebase as your factory for both ships and then let one buy best price and another sell best price. However, 2 ships is minimum for autonomy since if your station is big (or a big complex) you may need for instance 3 ships to just buy enough E-cells.
Hope this helped
This is the simple solution available in the game as freshly installed. Installing the official Bonus Pack grants access to the Commercial Agent script, which is a much more elegant solution, if one that is slightly longer to set up.kingsleer wrote:I am fairly new to this game as well, was in your exact spot last week. Basically if you want to fully automate you need 2 ships (assuming AI don't buy from you, which from my experience is the case unless you are making weed in Teladi space)
buy trade command software II for both ships, set homebase as your factory for both ships and then let one buy best price and another sell best price. However, 2 ships is minimum for autonomy since if your station is big (or a big complex) you may need for instance 3 ships to just buy enough E-cells.
Hope this helped
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Thelastreject
- Posts: 14
- Joined: Thu, 13. Jun 13, 05:15
Thanks guys, this is a great help!!
Is it better to have your traders using your factory or best to have them off trading autonomously and let NPCs trade at your factory?
So far, I haven't been able to entice any NPCs to any factories.
I've just started a new game with the Argon start and was thinking of skipping factories altogether.
Is it better to have your traders using your factory or best to have them off trading autonomously and let NPCs trade at your factory?
So far, I haven't been able to entice any NPCs to any factories.
I've just started a new game with the Argon start and was thinking of skipping factories altogether.
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Berserkenstein
- Posts: 230
- Joined: Sun, 30. May 10, 04:28
Best way depends on the type of factory you have.Thelastreject wrote:Thanks guys, this is a great help!!
Is it better to have your traders using your factory or best to have them off trading autonomously and let NPCs trade at your factory?
So far, I haven't been able to entice any NPCs to any factories.
I've just started a new game with the Argon start and was thinking of skipping factories altogether.
If you built a factory to provide a much needed resource, you make more credits having your own seller selling at stations that offer the max price.
If you are selling illegal goods, it's probably best to set the price to -1 and let the NPCs deal with the heat from the sector patrols.
If you are not moving product then you need to lower the price, in the screen that allows you to adjust your prices, you will see a number listed under jumps. That tells you how far away in sectors the nearest factory is that offers the same price you are selling the product for.
I'll see you on the other side!
You can either use two ships, one to buy resources and the other to sell product, or use the CAG option from the official Bonus Pack to have one ship do it all. The last resort is to dedicate a manually operated ship to move stuff when you're making those long, tedious runs across huge sectors.
Your Sector and Universal Traders will rarely (if ever) go there because your prices are roughly "average", and they're finding far better deals (from stations operating at a net loss) than your own factory can ever hope to match. If you want to make money with a factory where the product isn't in high demand, you've got to market it yourself. Setting the buying price for resources higher than average and/or setting the selling price of product below average sharply reduces your profit margins, and still might not be able to temp NPC traders if there are other factories paying more than you are for those resources and selling the same product for less. They can operate at a loss with no harm done; you obviously don't want to do that.
Simple "pick up this and sell it there" or "buy X at best price" commands can be issued using just the basic Trade Mk1 and Mk2 software on your own ship, but you'll need separate ships for each task. That's potentially a lot of ships for a single factory, with shields and software to buy for each of them.
A far more efficient CAG requires Trade Mk1 and Mk2 plus Navigational Software on each individual Trader ship (well under 100K for the works). Set their homebase to your station and select Start a Commercial Agent from the Command/Trade menu. They'll start out by buying resources that your station requires, and eventually begin to sell product as well, after they gain a few trade ranks. One ship with an experienced Trader will be able to cover a moderate sized factory, but selling product may require a few manual runs with a second ship until they gain sufficient rank to do it themselves.
I'm currently running about 10-20 factories (including a number of two-factory "mini-plexes"), each with at least one CAG. I've got two CAGs on a few of the bigger ones, one "veteran" to buy and sell, and a "trainee" (sometimes in a bailed M4 or M5) to just buy resources until they gain experience, then I reassign them to a new factory and a bigger ship.
Your Sector and Universal Traders will rarely (if ever) go there because your prices are roughly "average", and they're finding far better deals (from stations operating at a net loss) than your own factory can ever hope to match. If you want to make money with a factory where the product isn't in high demand, you've got to market it yourself. Setting the buying price for resources higher than average and/or setting the selling price of product below average sharply reduces your profit margins, and still might not be able to temp NPC traders if there are other factories paying more than you are for those resources and selling the same product for less. They can operate at a loss with no harm done; you obviously don't want to do that.
Simple "pick up this and sell it there" or "buy X at best price" commands can be issued using just the basic Trade Mk1 and Mk2 software on your own ship, but you'll need separate ships for each task. That's potentially a lot of ships for a single factory, with shields and software to buy for each of them.
A far more efficient CAG requires Trade Mk1 and Mk2 plus Navigational Software on each individual Trader ship (well under 100K for the works). Set their homebase to your station and select Start a Commercial Agent from the Command/Trade menu. They'll start out by buying resources that your station requires, and eventually begin to sell product as well, after they gain a few trade ranks. One ship with an experienced Trader will be able to cover a moderate sized factory, but selling product may require a few manual runs with a second ship until they gain sufficient rank to do it themselves.
I'm currently running about 10-20 factories (including a number of two-factory "mini-plexes"), each with at least one CAG. I've got two CAGs on a few of the bigger ones, one "veteran" to buy and sell, and a "trainee" (sometimes in a bailed M4 or M5) to just buy resources until they gain experience, then I reassign them to a new factory and a bigger ship.
