A few questions…

[Hangar181]

I’m a bit stuck in terms of understanding what’s going on and hoping someone can help

1. Sector ownership - I read the ownership can be seen from clicking to left button them anywhere on map but I know Hatikvah choice 1 isn’t supposed to be owned by anyone, yet under sector it says Hat free league. The reason I’m confused is because I’ve been pirating at will in this sector and none of the authorities have said so much as boo to me. Attacking someone in argon prime though soon has every man and his dog firing at me. Am I looking at the right spot for sector ownership?

2. Playing Terran cadet and was asked to build a dock on the station in Grand exchange 1. I go to plan build and add a 1-dock module but then it says I have no pier? problem is I can’t find a pier unless the 3-dock T thing is supposed to be a tier. It’s bloody gigantic and the can’t seem to get it to fit anywhere. I did buy an argon pier Blueprint but can’t see it anywhere in the modules.

3. Before I noticed the no pier alert I had assigned a builder to build a dock and accepted estimates for resources etc. however a day later nothing had happened maybe because of the no pier problem but suspect something else was wrong. Do I need to supply the resources myself or is there another critical task I haven’t don’t?

[Geek]

1 - Different factions have different attitudes towards policing. HAT are pretty much anarchists, so they do not care what you trade or shoot at (except HAT obviously).
Other factions may be not as tolerant.

2 - Anytime you build a station will inform you if you have a pier or not. This is not mandatory to have a working station (only if you want L/XL docking), and not required to advance the HQ plot as well.

3 - Building storage is separate from trade storage, and comes as soon you claim the plot. Either you did not allow NPC supply, or (more likely) your prices are too low. Of course, you can assign your own trading ships to the build storage if you want to speed up the process.

[Hangar181]

1 - Different factions have different attitudes towards policing. HAT are pretty much anarchists, so they do not care what you trade or shoot at (except HAT obviously).
Other factions may be not as tolerant.

2 - Anytime you build a station will inform you if you have a pier or not. This is not mandatory to have a working station (only if you want L/XL docking), and not required to advance the HQ plot as well.

3 - Building storage is separate from trade storage, and comes as soon you claim the plot. Either you did not allow NPC supply, or (more likely) your prices are too low. Of course, you can assign your own trading ships to the build storage if you want to speed up the process.

Thx. I accepted the estimate - should I up the money allocated beyond the estimate? On the pier thing - I still have no idea what it is. There is no pier module in any of my module options?

[Geek]

You should probably increase prices yes.

As I said, piers are docking ports for L and XL ships. You only need a pier for those large ships to trade with the station. S and M ships use different (smaller, cheaper) docking.

[jlehtone]

1. Sector ownership - I read the ownership can be seen from clicking to left button them anywhere on map but I know Hatikvah choice 1 isn’t supposed to be owned by anyone, yet under sector it says Hat free league.

On the map view, somewhere top left. There is either "faction-name", "faction-name (Contested)", or "None". The color of the edges of the sector is also an indicator. Some faction can claim sectors, some (e.g. ALI and SCA) don't. HAT can claim sectors and most online X4 maps do show HAT as owner of Hatikvah's I. HAT has Trade Station there from start and that creates the claim.

The owner of a sector is not necessarily the police in the sector. For example, MIN is the police in all TEL sectors. TEL is neutral to SCA, but MIN is enemy of SCA. When I shoot at SCA ship in TEL sector, the TEL do report an attack, but MIN authorities respond: "All is ok".

Who is police on HAT sectors and who are their allies, enemies and neutral? That info is in in-game Encyclopedia.

2. Playing Terran cadet and was asked to build a dock on the station in Grand exchange 1. I go to plan build and add a 1-dock module but then it says I have no pier? problem is I can’t find a pier unless the 3-dock T thing is supposed to be a tier. It’s bloody gigantic and the can’t seem to get it to fit anywhere. I did buy an argon pier Blueprint but can’t see it anywhere in the modules.

Was the Argon blueprint for the huge T-thing or for the smaller one-pier module? If "the station" is the one the Boron discovered, it has huge plot. There is room for the T-thing, but it is a Dock that was requested. It is possible to rotate the module (the Pier modules tend to point to "wrong direction" for my designs, so I do rotate them quite often).

There are at least "1M6S", "3M6S" and "8M" Dock modules. The name describes how many docking pads they have for M-ships and S-ships, respectively.

The L- and XL-ships need a Pier to dock with station. Smaller vessels cannot dock with Pier; they need pad.

Early on I did build some Factories for NPC (Build Missions) and did not add a Pier. Now I have L Freighters and cannot trade with those Factories, because there is no Pier.

On later mission I did include Pier and 8M. Guess what? Could not trade food to them with S Freighter ...

3. Before I noticed the no pier alert I had assigned a builder to build a dock and accepted estimates for resources etc. however a day later nothing had happened maybe because of the no pier problem but suspect something else was wrong. Do I need to supply the resources myself or is there another critical task I haven’t don’t?

Build storage has one pier and two brackets for S/M ships; anybody can deliver to it. However, the NPC are very inefficient at delivering. This is mostly to give the player a chance to prosper as trader. Some build materials are pouring in, while others you might not get even with top price.

I don't give any credits to the Build Storage. I have my own ships to deliver what is required. I also tell them to get the cheapest stuff that exists, so I save in the process.

[Hangar181]

Many thanks JLehtone! My problem is I cannot even see a pier module as an option, only dock ones. I’d like to build a station that can have both XL and S/m shops land at it but it looks like either that is impossible (can only have S/M or XL/L) but not both or…the pier module is buried somewhere I cannot find In The menus. Would have thought it was in dock but maybe not.

[jlehtone]

Bit after 3:40 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VkMr1w5UOo one can see a list of docks and piers.

You can check from encyclopedia which blueprints you do have.

[Nanook]

Many thanks JLehtone! My problem is I cannot even see a pier module as an option, only dock ones...

The so-called 'pier' isn't listed as such. In your menu, it will be listed as '3-dock T' or '3-dock E' depending on which shape you have. And if you're having trouble placing it, it's because it can't be placed right next to that particular station. You need some sort of spacer, such as your S/M dock or the container module you're given, or one of the cross or base structures listed in the 'three-dot' menu near the bottom of the list of structures. It may take two or three of them to get the needed spacing to place the 'pier'.

[Hangar181]

Ah thank you!!