[X2] Player trading station

[NavaCorp]

Hi, I'm playing again with X2 and I'd like to buy a trading station which I never bothered to buy before (I always preferred the equipment docks) because I like the Teladi model.

In the bonus pack 1.04 readme it say that if my factories in the sector run the Station Manager, then I can use the Trading Station to have reports about my factories and centralize on it the money income: it is written that it works also like a bank, transfering money to factories in financial trouble.

These features are great but almost 30 millions to have them seem too much to me and a Trading Station can dock only small ships unlike an Equipment Dock.

What else can I do with a trading station in X2? How can I use it to make a profit?

[Samuel Creshal]

What else can I do with a trading station in X2?

...Nothing.

[NavaCorp]

...Nothing.

Can't I buy wares at low price and sell them at slighty below average price at my trading stations in order to attract NPC buyers?

[palenaka]

You can put them on the station and mark them more than what you bought them for. The price you assign on items in the station is both a buy and sell price, so it won't automagically make money. But anything you buy cheap you can put on the station and sell for profit as long as it is below average price

[pjknibbs]

The buying and selling price being the same does give an opportunity for profit if you use buying and selling ships--the buying ships will pick up goods for less than the station price if possible, and the sellers will try to sell higher. It's possible they might both buy and sell at the same price and thus make no profit, but it's unlikely.

However, buying and selling was never really what owning a trade station in X2 was about--those, and EQ docks, are more equivalent to the PHQ in later games; status symbols that are not especially useful in themselves but which make you feel like you're running a big corporation. (CEO hanging out on the factory floor of a Wheat Farm just doesn't feel the same ).

[NavaCorp]

The buying and selling price being the same does give an opportunity for profit if you use buying and selling ships--the buying ships will pick up goods for less than the station price if possible, and the sellers will try to sell higher.

Can I use advanced trade software like BPH for the buying of a trading station?

It's possible they might both buy and sell at the same price and thus make no profit, but it's unlikely.

Has someone never calculated the average profit/hour of a trading station like it was done for factories?

However, buying and selling was never really what owning a trade station in X2 was about--those, and EQ docks, are more equivalent to the PHQ in later games; status symbols that are not especially useful in themselves but which make you feel like you're running a big corporation. (CEO hanging out on the factory floor of a Wheat Farm just doesn't feel the same ).

Yes, indeed in my previous games I used my EQD as a PHQ and refitting base for my M6 without using it for trading but the trading station doesn't have the same PHQ feeling since it docks only small ships and therefore I wondered what I could do with it.

[Samuel Creshal]

Has someone never calculated the average profit/hour of a trading station like it was done for factories?

Probably not. Mk3 trader ships cost less and are way more flexible.

therefore I wondered what I could do with it.

For X³, some propagated a trading station network – use trading stations to collect excess production and route it through the universe by carefully setting right buy/sell prices (can't find an English thread about it, sorry). While possible, this has disadvantages – since you need several trading stations and additional freighters for each, the costs are ludicrously high. This was made before the bonus pack was published and was probably rendered useless by it.

['Airstrike' Ivanov]

Trading Stations are for if you have a ton of money to waste and want to blow up a station.

[Allan F]

At the end of my X2-game, I had trading stations everywhere, with traders going back and forth, distributing silicon. I had more than 4000 stations iirc - 5 Titans with AEGIS in every sector, providing security.

[NavaCorp]

At the end of my X2-game, I had trading stations everywhere, with traders going back and forth, distributing silicon. I had more than 4000 stations iirc - 5 Titans with AEGIS in every sector, providing security.

Were your trading stations profitable?:?

BTW I'm impressed by your former empire.

[Samuel Creshal]

...if you have such an empire you don't care whether it's profitable.

[Allan F]

No, they weren't - but they were a key part in providing energy where no silicon was available.

Edit: There was a trading command, which allowed you to transfer goods between stations without exchanging credits.

I had a central assembly area in a pírate sector where my Titans came to acquire shields and PPC's. With 40-50 titans and some transporters running around it was quite a laggy sector.

My sector protection layout was 5 Titans, one in each of the quadrants on the map, and one in the center, set on patrol area. It was basically a hole in the ground to throw credits into. AEGIS cost what? ...50+ millions?

[NavaCorp]

No, they weren't

Did you try to buy from the NPCs at low price and sell to them at high price and failed to make a profit with the trading stations or you voluntarily used your trading stations only to collect wares from your factories and deliver them to your factories too?

[Allan F]

They were just a routemap for my silicon flow. No outside trade.