[X3TC] Help with my factory AGAIN, please.

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travelboyuk
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[X3TC] Help with my factory AGAIN, please.

Post by travelboyuk » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 07:48

Hi,

I set up an Ion Shard Railgun Forge in Family Pride. Set the staion parameters to buy resources slightly higher than average and sell slightly lower than average.

Assigned a CAG in his Mistral and he's been busy gathering resources.

PROBLEM: The factory has 100% of resources needed, but keeps flashing amber and hasn't produced anything (or even started producing - at 0%). When I click on the info tab in property menu it shows me the resources available and stops flashing. I come out of the menu and about 10 seconds later it starts flashing amber again.

Could some kind soul tell this numpty what he's doing wrong?

Many thanks in advance.
Last edited by travelboyuk on Fri, 13. Jun 14, 16:23, edited 1 time in total.

RayF
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Post by RayF » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 08:58

kinda strange,
are you sure you have plenty of:
Energy
Ore
Rastar Oil

??

travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 09:08

Hi RayF,

E-cells 2000/2000
Rastar Oil 2000/2000
Ore 1998/3332

Not running any mods (except for Bonus Pack).

It started production about 5 mins ago, but stopped at 2% and is flashing amber again. It's been supplied with resources for about 3 game hours now.

So far I have transferred 2,500,000 creds to it and it has 1,332,068 left but hasdn't produced a single gun yet.

It bought E cells from a passing NPC trader and Rastar Oil too. The CAG has been ferrying ore to it.

I'm stumped!

travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 09:17

OK. I'm an idiot!!!! Please close this thread. It has started production again and I have just noticed the required number of resources in [brackets] underneath the resource amounts. Presumably this is the min required.

Ore was the problem as it was just shy of the [1665]. I had about 1600 ore.

SORRY for wasting thread space.

ancienthighway
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Post by ancienthighway » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 14:18

For the bigger weapons, it's not uncommon for them to use the bulk of the ore. Constant feeding is necessary for steady production.

travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 18:30

I noticed that. I also just noticed that it takes 11+ game hours to produce one gun (or maybe it will produce 5 seeing as that is the product number in the info tab).

Ooops. Time to save up for a complex I think.

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Post by Lea Flamma » Wed, 11. Jun 14, 22:20

If you want to create your own weapons, for your own fleet or selling, you will find yourself in creating complexes all around the universe. Find yourself a big sector which you do not visit that often, preferably a dead end one. Drop your complexes there and assign a CLS to shift the goodies to a TL or wherever you want them.
Wherever we want to go, we'll go. That's what a ship is, you know. It's not just a keel and a hull and a deck and sails, that's what a ship needs but what a ship is... what the Black Pearl really is... is freedom.

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Post by Playbahnosh » Thu, 12. Jun 14, 23:52

^That.

Also, once you have your own sector, you can set up a few EQ docks and get the stuff delivered there, so your HQ can automatically arm the ships you build from it.
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travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 10:39

Hi all,

Off of my original topic (Way off), but in line with the direction this thread is now taking, I think I'm going to try building a weed-booze complex. I've saved up 80 million.

Does anyone know a good guide (step by step for complete idiots) that I could refer to?

Thanks in advance.

Honved
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Post by Honved » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 14:24

travelboyuk wrote:Hi all,

Off of my original topic (Way off), but in line with the direction this thread is now taking, I think I'm going to try building a weed-booze complex. I've saved up 80 million.

Does anyone know a good guide (step by step for complete idiots) that I could refer to?

Thanks in advance.
Be careful where you place that complex. Both Spaceweed and Spacefuel are illegal in most of the galaxy, and race fleets WILL attack your stations if you build in a race sector. Building in a Pirate or Unknown sector has its drawbacks, as you will need to defend your complex from hostiles, without the help of the Commonwealth race fleets. That may either result in a boost in reputation with the Pirates as they buy your products, or a drop as you blow up their ships which are attacking your complex.

travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 14:44

Was planning on Gunne's Crusade to place it. With 2 M6 patrol ships (That's all I can afford right now).

I've found a shopping list of stations I need, but don't really know what I'm doing. I've never built a complex before.

Q1: Do I need several TLs to bring everything in at the same time, or can I build it bit by bit?

I'd prefer bit by bit....

...but Q2: What do I start with?

I was going to put SSP in first, then crystal fab, then a mine then Cahoona bakery and add on from there.

Q3: Does each factory need to be connected to every factory it needs resources from?

Q4: Will I need a tractor beam?

Q5: Should I place the complex near asteroids, or tractor them to where I want the complex.

So many questions! Apologies for my ignorance.

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Post by Cpt.Jericho » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 14:49

The attack rate in most unkown sectors can pretty much be neglected. The worst thing I ever get is a small pirate wing - nothing an M7 can't handle OOS if you can't be bothered to clear the situation yourself.

As for setting the complex up: For booze and weed you will want a place with plenty powerplants around, as it's the only needed resource. When build it, start with wheat and swamp plant farms. As soon as you have connected the first two farms, start pumping E-Cells into them. After you added the booze and weed plants, set the selling price to -1 credit of the average price. Make sure that the complex isn't selling intermediate products (station menu).
Finally assign a freighter to your complex to buy E-cells.
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travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 16:21

Thanks. Back onto topic...

I'm having problems with my Ion Shard Railgun Forge again. It finally (after 11 hours) produced 5 rail guns.

And they are just sitting there. It hasn't started producing any more despite the fact that it DEFINITELY has all the resources it needs. No NPCs are buying (although I read somewhere that NPCs won't buy guns/missiles).

My CAG (Trader rank) sits in the station on standby (Presumably admiring the railguns he isn't selling). This is what I did for CAG settings:

1. Changed him from Shopper to Trader
2. Added Ion shard Railgun to his wares list
3. Station settings changed to trade jump range of 8
4. Set Use jump drive to 'Yes', minimum jump of 1 and 400 e-cells
5. Changed sell products to 100%
5. Changed to sell products 50% of cargo hold

What am I missing?

Thanks in advance

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DiArmada
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Post by DiArmada » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 16:29

if you want to build a selfsustaining complex it's handy to have a tractorbeam.
I don't know how most people do it, but I always drag the mines first.
when they're all nicely clustered together I build the rest of the stations.

there was very recently a similar thread:
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=367906

in the beginning TL's are quite a purchase, so one TL will suffice.
later on in the game I like to have another one.
the longest wait, when your TL has a jumpdrive, is when he moves from the gate to the shipyard.
so when your first TL does that you can place the stations from the second TL.

a station just has to be connected with the complex in general.
it doesn't need to be precisely next to the station it gets it's resources from.

I would dock the M6's at the complex and only use them when needed.
otherwise there's the risk they'll be destroyed at some point.
personally I haven't got ships patrolling or even docked at complexes.
if you receive a message you can jump the necessary force to take care of business.

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DiArmada
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Post by DiArmada » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 16:37

the maximum amount of railguns one factory can hold is eight, one cycle produces five.
the factory will not start until it has space to drop another five, and now it only has space for three.
you can dock a TS there and keep it there to collect wares from the factories.

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Post by Honved » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 17:00

Gunne's Crusade is good enough, except that it's a regular Pirate alley. Your complex itself should be semi-safe (unless a Carrack or something shows up), but any traders going to or from it are likely to be attacked, somewhere down the line. I lost 3 CAGs there, after placing a Spacefuel mini-plex in the sector. It had a Wheat Farm and a Spacefuel Distillery, and relied on E-cells brought in from Third Redemption.

The cost of replacing CAGs over and over eventually led me to building the whole E-cell/Crystal Fab/Argnu Ranch/Cahoona Bakery/Silicon Mine energy loop, to make it self-sufficient. Unfortunately, while it made money, and I didn't lose CAGs, it didn't bring in anywhere near as much as my cheap and basic Ore Mine in Aladna Hill, or an Argnu/Cahoona mini-plex in Akeela's Beacon, etc.

Normally, I look for perpetual shortages, holes in the economy, and places where the addition of one resource could kick the whole region into high gear. That opens up trade opportunities for my other traders, and they make a lot more credits for me, despite a relatively modest income from the factory. First, I deploy a Sector Trader, trained up to a "Local Trader" (ST with a Range > 0), and see what goods end up constantly in short supply, after the economy settles back into pseudo-equilibrium. That's what I build. A full self-sustaining complex is great for churning out weapons for your fleet, or high tech goodies for a plot mission (Crystals, Microchips, etc.), but a series of individual stations or mini-plexes can work WITH the local economy to generate additional profits at every stage along the way. I take the "Think" part of the game seriously, when it comes to economics.

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Post by RayF » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 17:14

ok, first things first,

my advice forget the spacweed-fuel complex for now.

In order to make money build spaceweed(complex if you can-meaning a couple of dreamfarms+bliss) in teladi space. Go for seizewell or nearby sectors if you can. Its legal. This is a good money maker..
Do not build spacefuel there though. illegal if am not mistaken.

Another very good alternative is to build as many as 1mj shield factories as you can (complex) in a good protected core sector. Also a good money maker.
As you make more and more money you can add factories to these complexes. They are good steady money makers.

The Ion forge, first glance, is not a good choice. If i am not mistaken, the only place to sell these are the E.docks(maybe military posts also..).

about cag there are some mistakes.
1) jump range use 15+ if you can.
2) Sell products freighter cargo bay: 1%

These should get your cag ready to sell.

travelboyuk
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Post by travelboyuk » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 17:33

@DiArmada:

Thanks for all that info. Very helpful.

RE the railguns, I figured that was why it hadn't started producing again, it's just frustrating as I know I have 11 hours production time so surely I can get the ones in stock shifted by then. It would be great if it would at least start the production and then pause at 60% if I still have 5 in stock.

@ Honved:

Sounds sensible. Thanks for the trading insight. I think I need to isolate a couple of sectors and try to fill any holes instead of jumping around all over the place. That was one reason I bought the railgun Forge. I couldn't find any in stock for love nor money. Finally got some from a couple of military outposts in Ghinn's Escape and somewhere else. Of course, now I have the forge and it finally completed it's marathon production, every EQ dock and military outpost for miles around has a full stock of the bloody guns.

@ RayF

Thanks. Will try a weed complex first then. Changed CAG jump setting to 20 (and station trade jump range to 20 also). Why set sell products freighter cargo bay to 1% though?

Thank you all for taking the time to share your knowledge with me.

RayF
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Post by RayF » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 20:34

travelboyuk wrote:@DiArmada:

@ RayF

Thanks. Will try a weed complex first then. Changed CAG jump setting to 20 (and station trade jump range to 20 also). Why set sell products freighter cargo bay to 1% though?

Thank you all for taking the time to share your knowledge with me.
Your previous setting was to 50% which means you told your cag to wait until he fills at least half his cargo bay and only then to try to sell your product.
expect to sell at each dock/outpost 2-10 guns each run (dont remember the max number for ISRs)

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Post by ancienthighway » Fri, 13. Jun 14, 21:26

Check your CLS settings again. Under supply conditions you can change percentages for two conditions. Change them to 0% and your CLS ship will pick up the wares immediately when produced. I don't have my CLS that does the pick up selling or moving anything but instead will send another ship to handle that when needed.

On the "Pirate Pleasure Dome" don't bother making it self sufficient. It adds to the overall cost and potential loss if attacked and not defended in time. I stick with the basic wheat-space fuel and swamp plant-space weed set up, then ship in E-cells that are overproduced elsewhere. Alternately, you could add an SPP just large enough for supplying the complex with energy and ship in crystals produced elsewhere.

There's a nice spot in Hatikvah's Faith in the NE corner of the sector higher than the trade routes between gates that avoids all pirate traffic other than that coming to attack it. It's great if you are trying to minimize damage to pirate rep. Defend position and those that attack don't get much of a chance.

I've also used the Unknown sector east of Montalaar close to the west gate, although the east gate would work just as well.

Space weed alone can be put up in any Teladi sector.

Overproduce swamp plant. I've received many missions from pirates wanting large quantities that you can't pick up at Teladi stations because they are always sold out. Feeding Teladi Bliss Plants is profitable too.

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