Do satellite networks in any way help Local/Universe Traders?

[rabcor]

In X3 TC/AP that is. Do they have any effect for your traders? It's certainly useful for manual trading...

[X2-Illuminatus]

No, they have no effect on Mk3 traders.

[CTHM]

Sorry, but you can configure CAGs, UTs and maybe others to trade only with systems that sport an advanced satelite.
That way you can individualise the sectors they fly to within their jump range.
Another command can blacklist sectors too, but an AS-network can be used as an early warning system within their scanner range with the bonus pack further.
This can save money and stress later, when say M7s spawn and instakill your TSs.

[X2-Illuminatus]

No, you cannot configure Mk3 Traders to trade only in sectors with satellites in the Vanilla game. If you can do that in your game, then you have a script or mod installed, which adds such an option. You can do that with Commercial Agents (CAG) or the Commodity Logistics Software (CLS), but the settings of these two scripts have no effect on the Mk3 traders (Universe / Local / Sector Traders).

[Diche Bach]

So then, my noob question becomes: other than allowing you to trade with a stock exchange, and/or to peak at prices in a sector for yourself, do these things really serve any purpose?

Given a CLS ship (and I assume an Mk3 ship) can see all the prices in his neighborhood anyway, the sats seem to be of considerably less utility than one might think.

[CTHM]

Sorry, my mistake. That´s how UTs get destroyed then.

Satellites identify ships, can warn you from enemies, tell you which resources are where(in which stations and quantity) and enable you to buy OOS (with the trade thingy).
Also, the "sectors with AS" command really helps me to sell my wares with CAG over a wider area. At least I think it does.
When I configured my new mines around Argon Prime (X3TC) there was a huge price difference when playing with the jump range settings. But west of Argon Prime the risk of interception was rising. So i first bought AS, later produced them myself and even sold some.
This (AS-Production) may be problematic in AP as long as the Paranids are hostile.

[CTHM]

I see my mistake now, the "local" in the head doesn`t mean CAGs and CLSs but a MK3 setting.
This is unknown to me, I only know Sector- / Universal-Options.
Sorry again.

[firestorm79]

So then, my noob question becomes: other than allowing you to trade with a stock exchange, and/or to peak at prices in a sector for yourself, do these things really serve any purpose?

Given a CLS ship (and I assume an Mk3 ship) can see all the prices in his neighborhood anyway, the sats seem to be of considerably less utility than one might think.

trading isnt advanced sats only use. here's a list of reasons off the top of my head:

1. will warn u if a capital enemy ship has entered a sat sector (i have my settings to only warn me if there's a capital as i'm not worried about fighters). This is useful because:
a. you can kill them if u want a race rep boost
b. you can check whether you have one of your trading ships in the same sector, and if they are either tell them to jump out or jump in and kill the enemy ship

2. it will allow you to keep tabs on how your marine training is going (press U on the military outpost and you'll see a progress bar)

3. If you're looking at ships to board you can check the relevant race sectors for ship traffic and jump in when you see a lone target ship with little/no escorts.

4. if you're in need of something quite particular(e.g. tractor beam), instead of jumping into the sector that sells the relevant good and then check the station only to find that it has none, do it remotely.

5. when you're doing assassination missions with short time frames you can check the target sector for ship traffic. The mission target ship should be at the top of the ship list, so you can jump to the nearest gate, instead of jumping in at a random gate and finding that you have to cover 50million miles to get to it, by which time either RR ships have taken care of it or your time is up.

i could go on. but those are just ones off the top of my head.

tldr; advanced sats are awesome. be sure to deposit at least one in every sector (apart from war and xenon sectors of course).

[Diche Bach]

Thanks!

[thelebk]

I heard a rumor that LT/UT will not fly into zones with none of your ships or sats as the cannot check prices. For that reason I never put sats in sectors full of enemies like pirate alley.

[CTHM]

BeitragVerfasst am: Mi, 25. Sep 13, 18:47 Titel:
I heard a rumor that LT/UT will not fly into zones with none of your ships or sats as the cannot check prices. For that reason I never put sats in sectors full of enemies like pirate alley.

This is probably a myth, since I distinctly remember UTs pulverised in far of sectors by a Q or such. Then again I can`t remeber loosing an UT in pirate sector, but there, the M5s would arrive first, set of the drones and the UT would most likely escape.

Thing is, in a pirate sector and the pirates were red, they would attack the satelite and solve the problem.
I lost many satelites, not switching on the early warning system.

[pjknibbs]

I heard a rumor that LT/UT will not fly into zones with none of your ships or sats as the cannot check prices.

And like most rumours, this one is cobblers. The Trade Mk 3 software does not require satellites to track prices and a ship equipped with it will quite happily fly to sectors where you have no property--they *may* even fly into sectors you haven't personally discovered yet, but I'm not sure about that one.

[Nanook]

MK 3 traders won't fly into sectors that haven't been revealed on the universe map.

[pjknibbs]

MK 3 traders won't fly into sectors that haven't been revealed on the universe map.

Ah, OK...wasn't sure about that one, thanks for clarifying.

[thelebk]

Good to know, thanks all.

[Timsup2nothin]

MK 3 traders won't fly into sectors that haven't been revealed on the universe map.

Ah, OK...wasn't sure about that one, thanks for clarifying.

Long ago there was a UT management theory that operated on this principle. Never enter a pirate sector or a Xenon sector so they don't show on the map and your UTs won't either. Kind of put a damper on the game IMO, but it probably cut down Mk3 losses pretty well.