[TC] How can I more easily upgrade Mistral SF's bought in Legands home?

[EOCF!AngelEyes]

I have tried to look through old posts but the search function is a bit touchy and seems to return no posts more often then not. I did try for quite a while though, maybe i searched the wrong words. I hope this isn't the 5th post this week on this subject.

What I do now is buy Mistral Super Freighters at OTAS Shipyard. I then upgrade the speed, turning, and cargo at the Free Argon Trading Station in LH. I have a Phased Repeater Gun Forge in LH and a ship to hold and transfer the needed lasers to the freighters. I try to buy when shields are available, the money isn't an issue (I have 2 25mj factories in other sectors as well, and a small budding empire making some credits). How do I use the outfit and resupply commands to make outfitting these ships easier? Every time I try them the voice says command accepted, but the ship sits with no orders. The way I do it now is a lot of menus and clicking or using arrow keys (slightly faster but takes me out of SETA). I am able to build whatever, wherever, to make this easier. I just want to be able to replace my universal traders much more easily.

So how can I more easily set them up as sector traders (student universal traders)? As of now I make a wing of the ships after buying and send them first to the Free Argon Trading Station then after upgrading the basics I fly them on to Company Pride and the Teladi Equipment Dock there that sells trading software mk3. At that point they have everything to be sector traders, but its a huge pain clicking through menus for each ship for most of the process.

Can anyone help me streamline this?

BTW...

I alternately buy Mercury Haulers in (edit:)Cloudbase Southeast (not argon prime as I stated previously), and then upgrade them at Terracorp HQ in Home Of Light. Its less menus but less cargo space and about the same top speed (8000xl vs 15,000xl and 80m/s vs 77m/s, I would rather run the Mistral Supers then the Mercury Haulers). Also, 4 25mj for the Hauler vs 6 for the Mistral SF. I like that about the Mistral as well.

Thanks for reading, any and all advice is much appreciated. If it seems obvious and angers you that I don't already know this, please move along this post was not meant for you (and get some therapy).

[AgamemnonArgon]

How about looking at it the other way ?
Buy a cheap Mercury TS at Argon Prime.
Equip it at the Equipment Dock, then order it to go to Home of Light.
Add the rest of the equipment.
Go to the Solar Power Plant at Home of Light. Fuel the ships.
Jump them to OTAS HQ or OTAS shipyard to meet the Mistrals.
Dock the Mercury ships, use the Advanced function to transfer cargo and materials to the Mistral Super Frieghters, which are then ready to go.
Set up a nice Wheat Farm or more in Akeelas Beacon and use the Mercury Trade ships to buy and sell wares whilst using the newly kitted out Mistrals as Universal or Sector Traders ?
Maybe this will help.

[Catra]

i like setting up a SPP in LH itself so my ship dont have to make the trek across akeela's beacon for energy saves a good amount of time.

the vanilla way is tedious and youre about as streamlined as you can be lol.

theres a one click command script to outfit your ships over in the S&M forums, it actually works, unlike the stock command

[Ulan Dhor]

I usually do it the following way:

1. On each game start, I look whether L versions of the ships are on offer at the OTAS shipyard. If so, I buy 10 freighters (they will have full shields) and some extensions, like jumpdrive and triplex scanner.
2. I open the command console and broadcast to all docked TS/TP to dock at the Free Argon Trading Station, where I buy speed updates and set the jump/refuel settings in the command console of each ship.
3. I again broadcast to all ships to dock at one SPP in Akeela's Beacon.
4. Another broadcast, this time to dock at Terracorp HQ (Best Sell, Trade Mk3).
5. Another broadcast, this time at the Argon Equipment Dock in Argon Prime, where the rest of the software gets bought and my equipment "storage bin" resides.
6. Off they go...

It's more complicated than at other shipyards, but it's not too bad.

[EOCF!AngelEyes]

Good ideas, thanks.

What is, and how do i use, the advanced ship exchange function? I have a wing of Discoverer Haulers to transfer ship upgrades from company pride to legends home, menu hell the way I do things now.

I sometimes transfer all the upgrades to the Mistral Sf's at the FATS in LH using this wing of haulers, but as i have around 20 universal traders and 10 students (sector) traders now I just tell the new ones to truck over to company pride to get upgraded and use the wing to outfit m6's and m2's when needed. And Springblossoms, which I unfortunately have no EEMPC's for until I make it to Aldrin 2 (crosses fingers).

I have a few food/food processor complexes scattered throughout the universe. using Akeelas for the 400% solar energy right now with a few XL's.

Edit: woha, 2 more posts as I typed.

More great ideas thanks again.

I am going to buy a solar plant for LH right now, can't believe I didn't do that yet. DOH!!! gonna put its docking markers lined up with the FATS...

maybe just a complex with PRGF and 25mj shields in LH, I hate waiting for the L ships to appear. and I need the docking space... guess I will throw a Dock in there as well. Can I connect an equipment dock to a complex?

And is there a 10 station limit to a complex or am I doing something wrong? I seem to remember having more stations connected before, but last time I played a game was last holidays (only time of year I have the time to burn on this addiction).

[Ulan Dhor]

Can I connect an equipment dock to a complex?

And is there a 10 station limit to a complex or am I doing something wrong?

Unfortunately, you cannot connect an EQ dock to a complex, but there's no limit to how many normal stations you can connect within (except when your computer goes on strike ).

[Catra]

you are probably too far away to connect the station to the complex hub, it has to be within 25(or maybe 15, >_<)KM of eachother.

LH usually has its own 25 mj production facility, (medium production complex), keep it stocked and you can have it working for you(both as a shield source and credit source)

[EOCF!AngelEyes]

Thanks for the info.

On Equipment Docks, is there any way I can get mine to do the upgrades? I put one next to a shipyard as a test early on and it does nothing for upgrades or for what I can buy when I purchase a new ship. Again, am I doing something wrong there?

[Ulan Dhor]

No, you don't do anything wrong. There's unfortunately no way for the player to provide the ship upgrades and software himself. You have to use NPC sources.

[Catra]

Thanks for the info.

On Equipment Docks, is there any way I can get mine to do the upgrades? I put one next to a shipyard as a test early on and it does nothing for upgrades or for what I can buy when I purchase a new ship. Again, am I doing something wrong there?

to get equipment to actually show up on the EQ dock, you have to sell an item to it first, then itll show up as a ware that you can adjust the price for

player EQ docks cannot do upgrades(rudder / engine / cargo) or software(trade / fight commands). neither can player trade stations

[wizrd755]

Here's how I cure the "OTAS Upgrade Flu"...

(1) Pre-stage a TS SF at the OTAS Shipyard with e-Cells, PRG, Shields, if needed. I generally don't buy from OTAS *UNLESS* the HQ has the needed shields, if the SY isn't selling the "L" class;

(2) Buy the L class Mistral or SF, get all upgrades from HQ, (which is linked to the OTAS SY); xfer 500 eCells to them, shields if needed, and guns. Then, using the "Follow" command, jump them all to Company Pride or Ianamus(sp) Zura EQ Dock for all the other upgrades. Should be fully loaded and ready to trade...

I think the only upgrade not available, in this process, that I use anyway, is the Supply Command Software from the Argon.

I usually keep 2 or 3 SF's at the HQ to buy what they sell and keep a "stock" of stuff there for when I need a TS quick.. I have the same process at TerraCorp and Artreus HQ's.. Works for me..

[EOCF!AngelEyes]

Thanks again for all the info.

Just set up 15 more sector traders as I was posting. Its not that bad but could be better, I sure wish I could do software and performance upgrades at my docks.
If only there were jump drives and mk3 in the same sector, with argon or split shipyard, but then that would make me focus on the fun parts of the game like income stream adjustment and space battles, instead of playing the role of disgruntled space mechanic...

Again thanks everyone I got some great ideas and feel less behind the curve on this.

[Reaper Jack]

You know that the closeset EQ dock to LH is the one in light of Heart, not Ianamus Zura or Company Pride, it's Argon too so this is the one you want for upgrading station supply mistrals but the Teladi ones for UTs/Sts

[Catra]

You know that the closeset EQ dock to LH is the one in light of Heart, not Ianamus Zura or Company Pride, it's Argon too so this is the one you want for upgrading station supply mistrals but the Teladi ones for UTs/Sts

lol

/smartassfail

he says he goes to IZ / CP for the mk3

[Bill Huntington]

I really like the Super Mistral, with the biggest cargo hold of any TS. When I buy them, I put a JD immediately, and make sure that the OTAS HQ has the number of 25 MJ shields in stock that I want on the Mistral. I have my own freighter with E and PAC parked in the OTAS shipyard.

I order 10 Mistrals. I name them (with 1, 2, 3...) to keep them straight, give each one E and a PAC, jump them to an ED at Home of Light, Ianamus, or Company Pride. They can get software and engine tuning at the same time. Then they are ready to go. Less steps.

Some Mistrals I will get the cargo hold expansion, but it is not cost effective for most of them.

I hope this helps.

[TTD]

FAST-TRACK to STs.

Terracorp HQ ,CBSW,Ore Belt

I start most of my STs this way
Usually there is a medium shield production Facility in CBSW for your 25 mj shields.If not,put one there.
Train STs in Ore Belt.
Check my tutorial in my link and you will see what I mean.

[EmperorJon]

Mistrals are not reall efficient anyway as UTs or LTs... maybe as STs. But really, loads of cargo isn't useful for two reasons:

1. They're slower than some other ships, and could get beaten to their destination.

2. Mk3 traders hardly ever buy 15,000 units of something.

They just haul a Meatsteak and half a crate of BoFu, and possibly some sort of Crystal. For several days.

[EOCF!AngelEyes]

thanks much for the input!

I see my Mistral SF's with 10k plus energy cells, Ore, Silicon, etc all the time. I have around 30 universal traders at lvl 25 now and about 20 working their way up as well as a few students still trying to get to lvl 8.

I start them all with full upgrades shields and PRG's. I run some Mercury Haulers bought in Cloudbase South East, but about %80 of the trading fleet is Mistral SF's from Legends home. I set emergency jump threshold to %80, and auto jump on at 0 jumps and resupply at 40 jumps. This keeps them alive. They dump 8-10 fighter drones and jump away from any trouble at a gate or station and don't hang about in space in between.

They make me about 500 million credits a night if I run the game on SETA as I sleep. Plus my limited amount of stations I pull in about 700 million in 5-6 hours on SETA. Its not a huge amount I know, I am still a bit of a noob at some things and just unmotivated to build huge complexes for the most part.

But that is changing because I have 8 M2's and outfitting is becoming a PITA without those complexes pumping out PPC's IC's and missiles. So today I am building a Boron complex for outfitting my M2's. PPC, IC, missiles and 2gj shields.

For station transports that don't need MK3 software I use Light of Heart or Cloudbase South East. I would be willing to use a Cayman type freighter as they are fast. Anyone know of a split shipyard with upgrades that has MK3 software nearby? I usually buy the station transports near the station, so they vary by sector.

[Catra]

a map for you =] either family pride or family rhy would be the closest split SYs to a mk3 station.

[Mr. Reeves]

you know all this fluffy talk about establishing as a trader is making my trigger finger itchy. You better watch out. Somebody might be keeping tabs on you to "extendedly lease" one of your ships.

Yes I am advocating piracy and why not? Remember carebares are not people they are giant floating pinyatas full of creditsssss