How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

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MarvinTheMartian
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How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by MarvinTheMartian » Wed, 14. Oct 20, 10:14

So, I've built a wharf and the infrastructure to supply most if its resource needs (the rest is bought-in and fully stocked)

This will eventually be used for building my own fleet, however, I've seen it mentioned in a few places that Wharves and Shipyards are credit printing machines but without much detail on how. Specifically, which blueprints are best.

I've just dropped a whole lot of credits on building the wharf and I'm getting a return by building 8 Cerberus at a time and manually selling them at the local shipyard for ~650K each (plus a couple of claytronics modules doing nicely between my own builds) - how do I set things up so the NPCs buy directly from me?

I have blueprints for Cerberus, Nova and Discoverer:
- Are there better ship blueprints to have?
- Does it matter what equipment blueprints I have? (I have the basic S type for engines, thrusters etc.)
- What do I set the construction price to, 100%? more or less?
There is a Manager, Ship Trader and trade rule is set to "no restriction"

I'd rather not waste credits on blueprints I'll never need if they're never going to be bought either.

Thanks in advance.
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Sixters
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Sixters » Wed, 14. Oct 20, 10:37

Factions do buy only ships from THEIR conception. That does mean ARG will not buy TEL ships to your facilities. And that works not only for the ship blueprint itself, but also his loadout : Meaning ARG will only buy ships with ARG engine, ARG shields and ARG turrets, etc

I dont think there are "more profitable blueprints". Maybe there is, but that would need a lot of theorycraft for a meaningless profit diff IMO.
What i try to do is quite simple : Just look trough the map wich ships are the most built/used by the faction you want to sell ships too. Buy this blueprint and enough equipment blueprint to fully equip thoses ships.

I have no idea if the AI has prerequisites on loadouts, it does not seems like it's the case (exept the arg = arg ship = arg loadout only), so i tend to buy 2/3 differents of each to increase variety in production. No idea either how they manage MK1/2/3 variation. Maybe they always build the highest available ? Dunno.
If you want to optimize, you could scan few of thoses existing ship to identify the most common loadout and buy only related equipments modules.


Also: You can safely set sell price to the max % available. They will buy no matter what as they have infinite money

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by jlehtone » Wed, 14. Oct 20, 11:15

Sixters wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 10:37
No idea either how they manage MK1/2/3 variation. Maybe they always build the highest available ? Dunno.
Saw Mk3 ZYA Dragons. ZYA has Mk4 engines. Not always the best?

Look/scan NPC ships. You will see wide variety. The "easy" solution is to have all blueprints.


When you sell a ship at NPC Wharf, it vanishes without a trace. The only thing that happens is that you convert the ship into credits.
When NPC buys a ship from your Wharf, the NPC will have and use that ship.

If you just want the credits, then either way works. If you want that the NPC has ships to fight other NPC, then you let them buy.
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Sixters » Wed, 14. Oct 20, 11:26

jlehtone wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 11:15
Sixters wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 10:37
No idea either how they manage MK1/2/3 variation. Maybe they always build the highest available ? Dunno.
Saw Mk3 ZYA Dragons. ZYA has Mk4 engines. Not always the best?

Look/scan NPC ships. You will see wide variety. The "easy" solution is to have all blueprints.


When you sell a ship at NPC Wharf, it vanishes without a trace. The only thing that happens is that you convert the ship into credits.
When NPC buys a ship from your Wharf, the NPC will have and use that ship.

If you just want the credits, then either way works. If you want that the NPC has ships to fight other NPC, then you let them buy.

MK4 might be a specific one considering the gap price and the fact it's the only MK4 module in the game. But it's possible that they "randomize" loadouts or have a shortlist where they pick randomly instead of building the highest tier possible. Would make sense to increase variety in universe, and lore-wise could be justified by the fact you sell ship not only to ARG as a state/corporation, but only to citizens on their own, as people, even if they affiliate to ARG.

Considering you can sell ships at your wharf up to 200% (300 ? not sure, might have changed between patchs), it's probably better to have them be bought by the AI at your wharf rather than sell them manually where i guess it's max 100% sell price (maybe even lower ? )

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by MarvinTheMartian » Wed, 14. Oct 20, 12:18

Thanks for the responses so far.

I bought all the S size Argon equipment blueprints and I've sold 1 Nova already for 256k - haven't checked the relative build cost of that against a Cerberus yet but I have a feeling that's a better return than the 650k I'm getting for a minimum loadout Cerberus.

It's a shame there's no sales report for ships constructed (althout I have its serial number so might find and scan it), I just noticed it in my logbook, which also shows I've been doing a pretty good trade in repairing NPC ships for a long while apparently!
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by EGO_Aut » Wed, 14. Oct 20, 13:36

Do not forget the other stuff like satelites, mines, rockets etc.
You do not need to sell any build ship manualy, when you have the "right" blueprints.
And do not forget to push the sell slider to 150%

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Raevyan » Fri, 16. Oct 20, 22:10

All you need is to buy blueprint for an s fighter and s sized equipment for it. Money will flood in faster than you can spend it and is only limited by how well you can supply your wharf.

It is actually possible to satisfy demand for ships in the game. So you might want to encourage some kind of power balance in order to keep the factions ordering ships. (By the time you would reach that point, you won’t need more credits)

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by MarvinTheMartian » Fri, 16. Oct 20, 23:37

EGO_Aut wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 13:36
Do not forget the other stuff like satelites, mines, rockets etc.
Thanks, I had the basics but have added a few more mines
EGO_Aut wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 13:36
You do not need to sell any build ship manualy, when you have the "right" blueprints.
This was really my original question, what are the "right" blueprints? I wanted to avoid a scatter-gun approach so as not no waste credits on blueprints that'll never be needed.

However, I have bought blueprints for all S/M engines, thrusters, shields etc.

And... now I'm constructing fighters and frigates for the Argon and for a lot more credits too :)

The Wharf isn't exactly grinding them out though, this is not terrible right now as I'm going to have to start making turret/shield components as I can't buy them in fast enough any more.
rene6740 wrote:
Fri, 16. Oct 20, 22:10
All you need is to buy blueprint for an s fighter and s sized equipment for it. Money will flood in faster than you can spend it and is only limited by how well you can supply your wharf.
This is probably the answer I was after, the lowest cost of entry to this market. I wanted to build my own Cerberus so that wasn't wasted
rene6740 wrote:
Fri, 16. Oct 20, 22:10
It is actually possible to satisfy demand for ships in the game. So you might want to encourage some kind of power balance in order to keep the factions ordering ships. (By the time you would reach that point, you won’t need more credits)
This is a whole other topic now I think about it. It seems too easy to build your own ships (compared to previous X games) to the point where you can't spend the billions you make. In X3, you could build your own ships but it was slow and also cost credits and was faster to buy capital ships from NPC shipyards (while having fun stealing others). A discussion for the main X4 forum perhaps.
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Raevyan » Sat, 17. Oct 20, 00:49

Yeah the entry to unlimited money is 150m. With that you’re able to buy blueprints for s/m module, 3m dock module, a blueprint for s fighter, blueprints for s equipment (not everything), build a station that has a dock, a storage and the s/m module. The rest of credits are used for buying resources.
To get 150m is not hard and doesn’t take that long probably 2-5hours depending on how much you exploit the game.

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by jlehtone » Sun, 18. Oct 20, 00:23

Sixters wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 10:37
Factions do buy only ships from THEIR conception. That does mean ARG will not buy TEL ships to your facilities. ...
I saw "PAR Delivery Balaur" and "HOP Delivery Balaur" in ZYA sector.

I wonder how those came to be? Far from HOP and far from FRF that is the only builder of Balaurs?
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 18. Oct 20, 08:58

jlehtone wrote:
Sun, 18. Oct 20, 00:23
I saw "PAR Delivery Balaur" and "HOP Delivery Balaur" in ZYA sector.

I wonder how those came to be? Far from HOP and far from FRF that is the only builder of Balaurs?
Likely SCA pirates in disguise. Scan them to confirm.

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by jlehtone » Sun, 18. Oct 20, 15:26

Imperial Good wrote:
Sun, 18. Oct 20, 08:58
Likely SCA pirates in disguise. Scan them to confirm.
Ok. "HOP Delivery Ship Balaur". Spotted in Wretched Skies V (ZYA sector).
I had to chase it and got a scan only after it had just landed on factory in Tharka's Ravine VIII (FRF sector).

Scan reveals: "FRF Delivery Ship Balaur". Cargobay full of Spacefuel.

Not SCA. FRF and Balaur is exactly what to expect. FRF in disguise is not. Smugglers?
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Imperial Good » Sun, 18. Oct 20, 22:41

jlehtone wrote:
Sun, 18. Oct 20, 15:26
Not SCA. FRF and Balaur is exactly what to expect. FRF in disguise is not. Smugglers?
FRF is kind of lawless so possibly FRF smugglers I guess. Kind of confusing if they are meant to be FAF or FRF though since FAF are split pirates but FRF seem to have some pirate like jobs as well.

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Rabble Rabble » Wed, 18. Nov 20, 19:09

jlehtone wrote:
Wed, 14. Oct 20, 11:15


When you sell a ship at NPC Wharf, it vanishes without a trace. The only thing that happens is that you convert the ship into credits.
When NPC buys a ship from your Wharf, the NPC will have and use that ship.
Yeah... about that.

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Not sure what they will do with it, but I'm pretty sure I just sold them this hunkajunk.

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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Alan Phipps » Wed, 18. Nov 20, 19:14

Going by the 4.00 Public beta changelog and prior dev comments, in the 3.30 release version any existing ship you sell to a faction (ie not an ordered build for them) just flies away and eventually disappears with no impact on or advantage to the faction. From 4.00 onwards, the receiving faction will get some shipbuilding resources credited to the dock that you sold it to. I don't know if it has to reach that dock intact or it happens at the point of sale. The mechanics and details for this may change over the beta process up to release.
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Re: How do I make credits with a Wharf/Shipyard?

Post by Rabble Rabble » Wed, 18. Nov 20, 19:20

Oh I see, thank you for clarifying.

There goes my simple plan of enabling the Split to stop the toasters by way of blocking all jumpgates with giant pinatas :(

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