X3TC: Will "Mine & Trade Minerals" also trigger "buy / sell" trade runs?

[CookPassBabtridge]

Hi all

I am new to the forums and relatively new to X3TC. I am really enjoying the game so far, and trying as far as possible to figure out the game on my own and do things organically, for the sense of satisfaction. Seeing all the little separate bits and pieces come together is so cool in this game but I know I've only seen the slightest, tiniest bit so far I think I will be playing this for months to come ...

I have started a new game and have a couple of Mercurys that I want to leave mining Ore. I had one set on "Mine and Trade Minerals", and for a time it did exactly what I wanted - mined minerals from Herron's Nebula, and then went next door to Argon Prime to sell them. All good!

Then I noticed something odd. My Mercury pilot had sold his previous load, and his freight bay was empty of ore. However, his destination was set to a station (I think it was Plutarch Mining Corporation in Home of Light). The Mercury had nothing to sell, and so I kind of panicked and cancelled the order because I assumed it was going to try and do a trade run by buying from the station and selling it on. However, I was under the impression that the "Mine and Trade Minerals" command only told ships to gather ore etc and then sell it, not actually trade minerals in the buy / sell 'stock market' sense?

I really want my ships to just mine minerals and then go and sell it, keeping the revenue rolling in. I don't want them playing the stock market particularly Or is there another reason why my Mercury may have decided to go to Plutarch HQ? Did he need to pee?

One extra question - in another thread someone mentioned that the pilot of your ship takes a cut of the profits when s/he does a trade. Is this in X3TC, or one of the other games? Overheads suck

Anyway thanks for reading and looking forward to many more hours in X3

[pjknibbs]

He definitely wouldn't be heading for that station to buy stuff, no--it would be a strange destination if he was, because there are plenty of ore and silicon mines closer. Did you check his cargo bay for stuff other than ore? If he'd somehow managed to find some Nividium then Plutarch HQ might well be the closest place he could sell it.

[CookPassBabtridge]

Hi pjknibbs

Thank you for your reply! I think the answer is going to remain a mystery ... I went back into the game and checked his cargo hold, and it all looked very normal in there, no sign of wayward rocks or anything. Its possible that he maybe completed a trade of nividium before I stopped him I suppose, and I did notice that I seemed to have more money than I remembered, so that looks like the most likely explanation.

Does that mean there is Nividium in Herron's nebula? I haven't looked into this commodity yet and am just enjoying seeing the cash roll in from silicon and ore

[TTD]

For roids content in various sectors, check out the utility in Xadrians Complex calculator.
It not not include broken rocks,however.

Sometimes. if a Trade ship is low on hull integrity,it will dock somewhere and send you a message that it can't trade.
Either repair it yourself or send it to a shipyard for repairs....maybe upgrade it's shields,if possible.

Traders only take a slice of profits if set to CAG or CLS,iirc.

CAGs/CLSs will also dock if in danger,send you a message and wait five minutes to check if danger has passed.

[CookPassBabtridge]

Hi TTD

Hmm thats an interesting point. I know for sure that his shields and hull were at full, because I was paranoiacally monitoring them after an earlier mystery incident that saw one of my Mercurys nearly die (I was out of sector so I am assuming it was a pirate attack rather than herp-a derp AI rock collisions).

However what you say about it avoiding danger ... will a ship without CAGs/CLSs dock if it sees trouble coming?

IIRC, CAG / CLS is only available with the bonus pack, right? Would you recommend downloading the bonus pack to a first time player? I tend to prefer playing games vanilla the first time through then add mods for later, but if the bonus stuff adds some real must-have content then I may think about adding it

[TTD]

The bonus pack is made up of scripts that have been signed by Egosoft and thus is considered by most (including Steam) as vanilla,as it does not mark your game as <<< modified >>>


So would recommend to anyone who is not a purist.

[CookPassBabtridge]

Thanks, I have added the package.