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Hi,

I have a Solar Power Plant selling Energy Cells for at least 19Credits/Energy Cell.
To speed things up, I bought to Boron Dolphins only adding the MK2-Trade software for selling Energy Cells.
I noticed that at some point the following happens.

• Both Boron Dolphins sit in my Solar Power Plant.
• Another plant increases the buying price to 19Credits/Energy Cell.
• Both Boron Dolphins load up Energy Cells and start traveling to the other plant.
• By the time the first Boron Dolphin reaches the other plant, the buying price may be 20Credits/Energy Cell.
• The first Boron Dolphin then sells for that price.
• The other plant reduces the price to 16Credits/Energy Cell.
• The second Boron Dolphin then arrives shortly after and sells for only 16Credits/Energy Cell.

Manually, I can give the second transporter the sell for best price command again and then it would sell elsewhere.

Is there some more trick to it?
Is it really guaranteed that each transaction by a selling transporter respects the price limit given by the home plant? (My observation is almost surely correct..)

Best.

The Trade Mk1 and Mk2 are extremely simple. Not very "intelligent".

Do you have the X2 Bonuspack installed?

It contains Advance Trade Command Software Mk1 (aka ATC, formerly BPH -- Best Price Handler).
See viewtopic.php?t=59265

1. BPH freighters check if the station is already targeted by another BPH freighter with the same homebase. If a factory is already being targeted by another freighter, it will choose another one. Two BPH freighters with the same homebase will never target and fly to the same factory.

2. BPH freighters may transport all of the possible wares at their homebase. They do not need to have individual wares assigned. ...

Great! (I am playing the 1.5 on Steam.)

However, you have to pay per transaction basically and they only sell when they are level6.
Anyway, I read further and it seems that people first use them to buy stuff until they are level6 and then use the feature of selling goods.

However, how can I check the current level of the pilot?
I could not find it anywhere in the menu of the ship.

Is it the "Apprentice" in the name of the pilot?
If so, what corresponds to level2, level3 and so forth?

Best.

I have not played X2 since 2006 ... but I have a save.

The shipname seems to be of form "ATC: something L x", where the x is the level.
The pilot's name seems to be of form "title name (x)", where the x is the level.
Titles that I did have: There is a choice: take "normal" trader number 2 that almost never succeeds at selling anything, or take ATC pilot that finds profit on every transaction (but gets a tiny cut from it). I bet that the net profit from ATC is still better.

Player SPP does not burn huge amounts of Crystals and one can't make huge "profit" by buying them. ATC will learn slow at SPP.
Can you afford a Crystal Fab? It requires 3 resources: Energy, Wafers, and food. An ATC pilot will learn quick while filling it.

Crystals are one of the special wares. The NPC Trading Stations (TD) buy them. There was something fishy about how much ships of a TD are willing to pay for Crystals. Over the average? Can't remember, but there was some steady income with Crystals.

I have found that most of the time the NPC traders will come to you, there is no need to sell the goods yourself. If they are not doing that, then sector and universe traders can do the job quite well. Send a ship to the equipment dock in Seizewell, and equip them with trade software mk3. Then set them running as a sector trader in the sector with your stations, they will trade the goods for you. My gut feeling is that Caimans are better than dolphins for this, because they are much faster. The dolphin has double the cargo space, but it is too slow. The other TS ships are not that compelling, IMO. If you want something faster, then Mambas seem like a good bet too (although they can't handle XL freight).