Help: Sol energy cell distribution station not working

[A5PECT]

I built a station in Asteroid Belt to purchase energy cells from Mercury and distribute them to the rest of the Sol system. The station, Mining Depot 01, consists entirely of dock and storage modules, with mining and container transports assigned to it, and a 4 star manager running things. Mercury is 3 jumps away from the station, well within the manager's operating range. Mercury has 4 solar power plants consistently at full stock on energy cells, selling them at 8 credits each.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.png

These are the settings I have for energy cell trading on the station.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.png

But all the transporters I assign to it fail to find any trade orders.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.png

I've tried adjusting prices and unassigning and reassigning the traders, but I haven't been able to get it to work. Here's the save if anyone wants to poke around in it.

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... share_link

[JasonX2000]

Why would your mining depot that only has storage and docks buy energy cells?
If this is just a ore storage its not gonna buy the cells.

/edit: my bad. Your naming "mining depot" confused me

Do you have trade updates for the stations? maybe they are no longer valid and they dont sell.

[A5PECT]

Why would your mining depot that only has storage and docks buy energy cells?
If this is just a ore storage its not gonna buy the cells.

/edit: my bad. Your naming "mining depot" confused me

Ah, yes. Mining was the first and primary function of this station design, and energy cell distribution was added later. Mining Depot 01 does have container storage.

Do you have trade updates for the stations? maybe they are no longer valid and they dont sell.

I have the trade subscription for Terran stations, and I assume that information is shared with my property.

[SirConnery]

Does the station on Mercury have at least 3 star manager? Also try adding some of the the traders to your mining station. The traders are much more likely to purchase missing intermediate wares like energy cells for production.

[A5PECT]

Does the station on Mercury have at least 3 star manager?

The power plants in Mercury are owned by the Terran Protectorate, not me.

Also try adding some of the the traders to your mining station. The traders are much more likely to purchase missing intermediate wares like energy cells for production.

Mining Depot 01 already has traders assigned to it; they're the ones exhibiting the issues. The station has no production modules, it's only designed to move energy cells that are produced elsewhere.

[SirConnery]

I see, that is strange. Only thing I can think of is that you have some weird blacklist issue and the traders can’t either travel or trade in those Terran sectors.

Otherwise it is a bug.

[GCU Grey Area]

Noticed in your second screenshot the station's configured to use automatic storage allocation. Find it best to be explicit about allocated storage for wares on stations without production modules. Think the absence of production has the potential to confuse the manager - i.e. no production means ideal amount of automatic storage is zero, therefore no need to post any trade offers.

[Imperial Good]

Think the absence of production has the potential to confuse the manager - i.e. no production means ideal amount of automatic storage is zero, therefore no need to post any trade offers.

They usually allocate the storage evenly between trade wares in such a case.

But all the transporters I assign to it fail to find any trade orders.

And what do the automatic orders for the traders look like?

Usually in cases like this it turns out the station is ordering some drones and so the station traders fixate on only buying drone related wares, ignoring the trade/production wares. Building all the drones and then re-assigning the traders would fix this.

Station traders look at the non-discount buy/sell price. Make sure the non-discount sell price of the Terran solar power plants is 10 credits or lower. You might want to set the buy price to 11 credits to help with this.

[A5PECT]

Usually in cases like this it turns out the station is ordering some drones and so the station traders fixate on only buying drone related wares, ignoring the trade/production wares. Building all the drones and then re-assigning the traders would fix this.

This was it. Manually filling the station's drone order got everything running properly.

I did check the individual subordinates' orders, and their default behavior was set to autotrade: energy cells.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/ ... /image.png

This is a screenshot after one of my attempts to reassign the traders to the station, but before I did the drone thing.

[SirConnery]

This was it. Manually filling the station's drone order got everything running properly.

I've actually encountered a similar problem in my current game with a station producing Hull Parts, it's traders not getting any intermediary wares for production because it's empty on Medical Supplies. After I filled the medical supplies it started working normally again.

Some kind of prioritizing AI system for stations should perhaps be looked into by the devs.

[Imperial Good]

This was it. Manually filling the station's drone order got everything running properly.

I've actually encountered a similar problem in my current game with a station producing Hull Parts, it's traders not getting any intermediary wares for production because it's empty on Medical Supplies. After I filled the medical supplies it started working normally again.

Some kind of prioritizing AI system for stations should perhaps be looked into by the devs.

Yes that is because the traders were fixated on low input wares. They follow an order of priority...

Code: Select all

Wares to build Drones > Low inputs > Regular trading.

Wares to build Drones might include wares to build missiles, I have not tested this. Low inputs are any ware consumed by the station that is below ~20-25%. Regular trading will be both buying and selling, although there seems to be a bias towards selling.

This logic breaks down when one of the higher priority stages cannot be fulfilled due to a lack of available supply. The result is that a huge trader fleet sits around idle, even if there are a lot of lower priority trades available to potentially keep them busy. I would really like to see traders falling back to lower priorities should they fail to find a higher priority trade.

[SirConnery]

This logic breaks down when one of the higher priority stages cannot be fulfilled due to a lack of available supply. The result is that a huge trader fleet sits around idle, even if there are a lot of lower priority trades available to potentially keep them busy. I would really like to see traders falling back to lower priorities should they fail to find a higher priority trade.

Perfectly put, and I agree.