X3 Reunion, Station manager help+NPC transport economy issues

[Huggins777]

I'm having an issue trying to get station manager to function. I have googled and find maybe 2-4 threads 1-2 years old and anything new is about TC or AP. I am still playing Reunion. I had ~90 hrs in a previous game where all but maybe 5 npc transports(searched sectors)in the whole universe existed and there were no longer police scanning me. So i restarted with this current game.

X3 Reunion 2.5 w/bonus pack 3.1.0.7
XTM 7.4
STO by Trickmov here

Here's my problem. I have a 1mj complex set up in Argon prime that was selling 1mj shields like crazy and then for some reason stopped.

Complex setup:
4x 1mj shield factory
1x XL SPP
4x Cattle L
3x Cahoona L
1x Ore L
2x Silicon L
5x Crystal M

It was making me millions and then stopped selling. I've checked the equipment dock and its empty. I tried lowering the selling price to(avg is 5192) till i had it set to minimum, still few would buy it. So I bought a Mercury and set it to sell 1mj at best price, was doing okay but not near the profits when NPC transports were buying.

Here comes my second issue. I then decided, since all my intermediate products and 1mj were at full stock(-crystals) to sell everything at the lowest price on everything. That helped out a little bit more, yet still only netting me maybe half mil every hour tops. I looked around all the surrounding sectors and many stations are in need of argnu beef, e-cells, ore, cahoona meatsteaks. Basically everything should be being bought from my complex as its 24/7 cheapest.

This led me to check NPC TS population; there's probably 1/4 traders now than when i started the game. They're still there and there's still police doing the "we scanned your ship" thing so i don't think its the "job files failed to load" bug i had last time. I don't know if many were destroyed by pirates/xenon/kha'ak and the game didn't replace them or what but NPC transports have definitely dwindled.

I then decided more transports via station manager. i bought 3 more mercury's

Software on 4 mercury's:
Fight mk1
Fight mk2
navigation mk1
special cmds mk1
Commodity Log mk1
Commodity Log mk2

I believe i have all the required software for those 4 mercury's to function under station manager. I set their homebase to the complex, installed station manager, went to the option to add ships(had to make them undock) and then selected them. Then thought "Sweet here we go".....nope just sitting in the station with the Manager report saying. The only effort made was by my previous mercury i had selling shields then ore with trade mk 2, the other 3 say "Waiting for trade opportunities". I have nav sats in all the surrounding argon sectors and there are many credits to be made but no effort on my traders part. Could someone please please help me with this.

[Huggins777]

no replies oh well it is an old game. Anyways i figured it out. for some reason, whether this is the real answer or not, what worked was i had to set each other those 3 new mercury's on a "sell X for best price" runs, like the working one was doing before i went to station manager options. Then "continue station manager" option and walla they're now selling my various wares.

Still odd that i had to do that to get them off their docking asses and make the script realize "hey these guys do have profits to make!" lol. now that its working it beautiful, making 2 mil in the last seta hr and production is keeping up. Though i didn't get any answers maybe someone else will stumble onto my thread when googling if they have a similar issue.