Keeping a certain amount of energy cells in the freight of MK3 traders

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Cheker32
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Keeping a certain amount of energy cells in the freight of MK3 traders

Post by Cheker32 » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 04:10

What's up folks, I'm new to the game and specially to the forum. I'm relieved that there's recent activity because I have no idea where I'd ask this if not here.

While searching about ways to keep MK3 traders alive, I read someone saying that it's possible to order them to keep a x amount of energy cells so they can jump if they're attacked. But they didn't elaborate on how and I couldn't find anything in-game or anywhere else about it. Is that true? How do you go about doing it?


Cheers


EDIT: I play X3 Terran Conflict specifically

Hemmingfish
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Post by Hemmingfish » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 10:15

I'm pretty sure they do that by default once they have enough level to use the jumpdrive.

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Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 12:09

As Hemmingfish advised, the Mk3s look after their own fuel states and ignore the player ship fuel settings while on Mk3 Trader duty. Loading energy manually just ties up some of their trade cargo capacity.

Other player ships can be set to refuel automatically to a minimum jumpfuel limit as opportunities arise in their ship command console, advanced jumpdrive configuration settings.
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Cheker32
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Post by Cheker32 » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 16:42

Oh okay, thanks

Bill Huntington
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Post by Bill Huntington » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 17:17

To answer your question, there is command to do what you want. Get to the Command Console, scroll down to Fuel Resupply. Enter the number you want. I usually use 30, which puts energy of 300 in the ship. Thirty refers to the number of sectors you can jump for a ship that uses ten per sector.

Using the command helps but there are some quirks. Like the Traders will sell ALL of a delivery of E before it takes care of this command. Then you don't have any. But overall it seems to help. I usually use Mk. 3 Traders.

Good luck, Cheker32.
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Post by jlehtone » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 17:49

Thread of X2 Bonuspack Trade Mk3 writes:
Refuelling:

The jumping Trader will get the necessary energy cells from the surrounding stations. This includes player-owned SPPs. If there are no energy cells available anywhere near these will be ordered from the delivery service - causing extra costs of course.

A Trader will always reserve at least 20 per cent of his cargo space for fuel. The exact amount depends on the distance between start and target system and includes an additional 110 energy cells as reserve. A Trader will ALWAYS restock his reserve to be able to do emergency jumps in case of attacks. If there is enough energy available and the target system is close by the Trader won't refuel.
Much spacedust has gathered between X2 and X3TC, but you can peek into any of your higher level Mk3 vessels to see whether they really have 20%.


The Pilot Union (e.g. CAG, CLS, etc) is more configurable. You can adjust their reserve setting (method depends on game version), and they (TS) seem to keep 40 ECells for "emergency" from start (Apprentice), if they have Jumpdrive. Mk3 pilots are rogues that do not belong to the Pilot Union.


X3TC did introduce "Autojump" and "Refuel" for all ships. Their gerbils would use jumping to navigate, if possible. A problem with "advanced" scripts is that they had written their own travel logic that might jump, and thus do not know about the Autojump, unless updated.


For the record:
X3R: 0 Mk3 lost of 0 started. X3TC: 0 Mk3 lost of 0 started.
X3AP: 0 UT lost (of 0 started). 1 LT lost of about dozen. I had a generic combat mission and red ones spawned around the trader. C'est la vie.
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Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 18:06

@ Bill: As I said above, that fuel setting does not apply usefully for Mk3 traders going about their business. The Mk3 traders use their own bespoke automatic refuel scripts.
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Post by jacex3tc » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 21:51

I don't know this for sure so I hope that somebody else will follow up or else you'll have to do your own searches/experimentation.

Download the bonus pack if you haven't already. Apparently, the bonus pack takes over the MK3 trading scripts and CAG sector exceptions can be applied to auto traders. So, if that's true, install the bonus pack, get your MK3 guy on an Argon station somewhere and install the "Commodity Logistics Software". Start him up as an auto-trader via the "Start Universe Trader" command and then go into "Start Commercial Representation" and choose your exceptions.

You might need to assign him a homebase first before you can choose "Start Commercial Representation" just to get at the CAG blacklist options. You might need to hit "Start Commercial Representation" in the CAG menu at least once, I don't know. Either way, once all that is done, just make him a Universe trader again and the blacklist should apply. However, it is possible that that might not work. You might need to make him a MK3 trader and then select the blacklist stuff in CAG without hitting "Start Commercial Representation" in the CAG menu.

Again, you'll have to get someone else to follow up but I've read somewhere that there is some sharing and CAG stuff can apply to MK3 traders.

This is the best option because it doesn't matter that your guy has jumpfuel or not. If he encounters anything out of system and he is in a freighter, it will probably kill him because the OoS combat system is a farce that likes to emphasise trades and seems to be based around some hidden number weighting system that is set by ship and race. Point is, in a freighter he's probably gonna get blowed up, especially if he encounters a Q or a cluster. I don't think the math works like you think it does. I think it's all just a bunch of basic rolls.

Do max-level sector traders and anchor them in start sectors far enough away from Xenon space. Or use Chokaros which is the only freighter in the game with any survivability (I know it's not actually a freighter but it's clearly their freighter).

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Post by Alan Phipps » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 21:59

@ jacex3tc: Err … that's not advised.

If you shift your experienced jump-capable ships between Mk3 and CLS/CAGs duties, all you will do is keep resetting your pilots to rookies. Changing from CAG to CLS and back is OK though.

All the Bonus Pack added in respect of trading was CLS/CAG while Mk3 was already in the core files. There may well be later versions of the Mk3 and CLS/CAG scripts available in the Scripts and Modding forum that might react differently/better than the vanilla and Bonus Pack ones, but that is not a vanilla issue.
Last edited by Alan Phipps on Mon, 6. Aug 18, 22:10, edited 1 time in total.
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jacex3tc
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Post by jacex3tc » Mon, 6. Aug 18, 22:09

Alan Phipps wrote:@ jacex3tc: Err … no.

If you shift your ships between Mk3 and CLS/CAGs duties, all you will do is keep resetting your pilots to rookies. Changing from CAG to CLS and back is OK though.

All the Bonus Pack added in respect of trading was CLS/CAG while Mk3 was already in the core files. There may well be later versions of the Mk3 and CLS/CAG scripts available in the Scripts and Modding forum that might react differently/better than the vanilla and Bonus Pack ones, but that is not a vanilla issue.
Ah OK this is what I was worried about. I never tested it myself I just read it somewhere. Best thing to do is use Chokaros but you'll still probably lose one most times jumpdrive or no. They do have some survivability however unlike every other freighter which is pretty much screwed.

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Post by Snafu_X3 » Tue, 7. Aug 18, 00:37

I have found that it's possible to switch suitable pilots from MK3 trade to CAG/CLS & back in vanilla TC+BP with no loss of rank either way, but it /is/ risky WRT their rank. I've not tested where the breakpoint is (perhaps level-ups?), but it will certainly reset rank if they switch ships. Train them in Aldrin with SBs as cargo ships! :)

It's also possible to control a ship via <player> temporarily in vanilla, then reinstate the previous pilot with no loss of rank in whichever, but again this may be risky; I recommend you keep the (temp. player-controlled) ship you switch /from/ within an area controlled by the previous pilot's race to minimise the potential loss of a trained pilot, as new NPC pilots will be autohired from the sector's controlling race (no idea WRT Xenon sectors)
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