[X3TC/AP] Bug with ware transfer stepping when selling resources to NPC

[MarvinTheMartian]

I did a search and couldn't find a post that reports this so apologies if it's a known issue. I'm hoping this gets addressed should there be a patch.

Version affected:
X3AP 3.1

Issue:
If you manually trade resources with an NPC factory the stepping only works in the direction of transferring to the station (left) and not the other way.

Scenario:
e.g. You want to sell all energy cells to an NPC station that uses e-cells as a resource, except 500 for the jump to the next station. In X3TC you can press the Home button to move all e-cells to the factory and then type 500 and press the right arrow to move 500 back to your ship and press enter to confirm the transaction.

In X3AP the stepping cannot be increased from 1 in the right hand direction when selling resources even though you can enter a higher number.

Hope that makes sense

EDIT: Updating title to reflect this also affects TC

[Alan Phipps]

X3TC behaviour is exactly the same if the station does not both buy and sell the ware being transferred. Also if you keep the right transfer key pressed in that situation the transfer increment does not increase over time (eg 1 -> 5 -> 10 -> etc).

I think the issue is that pressing the home key appears to actually *sell* the hold contents of the chosen ware to the station rather than just adjust the quantity to be sold when *later* confirmed. Hence in this issue the right transfer key is not affecting your own wares but rather the station's wares - which that station does not normally sell at all.

[MarvinTheMartian]

Glad I was able to explain that! It's been bugging me for a while making manual remote trading slightly more complicated than it was previously.

It works both directions in trading stations and Eq Dock and the reverse works for adjusting amounts of products bought, e.g. you can increase the stepping to the left after pressing End when buying products (although I've never found a practical application to need this).

Cheers

[Alan Phipps]

"... making manual remote trading slightly more complicated than it was previously. "

That's the thing though, I don't think anything has changed between TC and AP in this respect. In either game it will only work as you wish it to with stations that will normally both buy and sell that particular ware. Your scenario in the OP should work in AP at say a Military Outpost which both buys and sells e-cells.

EDIT: No, on checking in-game, it does not work as you wish at an AP MO buying/selling e-cells either. Wait a moment and I'll check TC again.

EDIT2: ... and that doesn't work at that same MO in TC either. So nothing has changed between the games in that respect and there may be an inconsistency to do with the Home key ware transfer/sale function that equally affects both games. It is not a big show-stopper though you may take a bit longer to achieve what you want using single-steps.

I wonder if there was an update to TC (hence also the base gamefiles for AP) that changed behaviour in this area and it is that pre-update behaviour that you recall?

[MarvinTheMartian]

I was certain it worked that way in TC (stepping can be used to the right for resources) but I just checked and it doesn't I even thought I double checked a while ago, so... if it's not something that got changed since TC then it's perhaps not going to be a 2 minute thing to fix. Definitely nice to have it "fixed" though.

[Alan Phipps]

One for the TC/AP patch thread maybe?