how to make ships trade

[flopsies]

I've been trying to learn how to trade and I have 10 transports, but how do I make them trade on their own?

[cj-spartacus]

You need trade command software MK3

It is available at Terracorp HQ and all good Teladi equipment docks.

[Catra]

you need mark 3 software for full automation, this is buyable at any teladi EQdock after a number of reloads of the game, they are always available at the terracorp HQ


for semi automation, you can use the best buy / best sell software, this will prompt you for the item, but they will take it upon themselves to locate the lowest seller / highest buyer within a set radius. you need to input an item / radius each time.

for specific tradeing (e.g: Ecells to a ore mine) then equip a trade system extension and a trade mk1 onto a ship and use "manual trade run", this makes the ship buy a specific product from a specific place, and sell the product at a specific place until it becomes unprofitable to do so, or until the number of repeats is achieved (-1 repeats is infinite until it doesnt make any profit)

[Coreblimey]

You will also need the best buy/sell locators. Again available at all good Teladi EQs.

EDIT:
Ninja'd twice within a couple of minutes

[cj-spartacus]

[flopsies]

now i have the trade mk3s installed on my mercurys, but there is only manual buy sell as an option

[cj-spartacus]

There should be an option in the trade commands called 'Start Sector Trader'

Use this command and choose a sector and the trader will move to that sector and begin to buy and sell wares automatically.

[ajax34i]

The Trading Extension Mk3 software has a few prerequisites, I think:

- your TS ship may need to be in a station for the initial "Start Sector Trading" command so that an NPC pilot can climb into your TS and take up the job. You can see the name of the pilot in the ship's INFO window once they do this.

- the trader NPC expects to have 25 MJ shields on the ship, and will also go ahead and buy combat drones, and I think mosquito missiles for defense.

- the trader NPC needs to train up, which happens automatically as they trade for you. However, it takes a while, and up until they reach level 6 they won't be able to trade outside the sector they're in. Which means that in order to speed up this training, you need to pick good sectors to get them started. Look for sectors that have energy and ore mines, and also factories that use said energy and ore.

- as soon as the traders reach level 6, you can re-issue the Start Sector Trader command but expand their range by 1 sector every 2 levels.

- the TS ships that the traders use are so weak that they may get destroyed before they even have a chance to jump out to safety (if you equip them with a jump drive, which you should, they can use it at level 6). So make sure you don't set them to trade in hostile territory or pirate traffic areas.

[Honved]

You don't need 25Mj shields to start a Sector Trader, but they will be needed later to convert them to a Universal Trader.

Any TS will do, with Trade Mk.3 software. Start them in any station, and they'll load up a trainee and head for the indicated sector.

As pointed out, you should find a good starting sector with a combination of Energy source and manufacturing or other stations which are interdependent ( I use Ore Belt, Antigone Memorial, Nyala's Hideout, Aladna Hill, Empire's Edge, etc.), so they can do enough trading to learn the job and promote to a "local" trader (Sector Trader with range > 0), or a UT.

I field very few UTs, since they're prone to taking "shortcuts" through Xenon and Pirate sectors far too often for my liking. Keeping them as "Local Traders" with a center point and range that limits them from reaching those areas seems to keep them alive a lot longer. Eventually, with at least one Local Trader covering each race's core areas, they handle 90% of the "necessities" of energy, food, and ore, freeing your mere handful of actual "Universal Traders" to grab the big, lucrative deals.

[Nanook]