sector trader wont work: terran space

milo29k · Post by **milo29k** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 10:00

bought a terran baldric, fitted it with trade mk 2 and 3, 1 is built in, it got to level 5 in uranus.

Problem is it keeps locating the right resources, flys to them, but then docks permanently and doesnt buy anything, it just says 'buy ware: protein paste 0' for example after issuing the sector trade command, even though theres plenty of places to sell it.

Tried a diff sector with plenty of factories to be sure, pluto, exactly the same problem, it correctly identifies what needs to be bought, then doesnt do it, just docks.

money isnt an issue, there is no homebase attributed to it and i have plenty of reserves. what am i doing wrong?

milo29k · Post by **milo29k** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 10:10

mhm, really should have put this in universe, sorry, long day

{moved from TC Tech Support - Carlo}

idgar · Post by **idgar** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 13:23

I have the same problem. All my sector traders in Terran space get stuck in the Orbital Logistics (something) with an order like "Buy C-Rations". Level doesn't matter. However, when they reach lvl 6+ (after a lot of shuffling around or training in Commonwealth space) and I set them up as local traders they can interact with the Orbital Logistics (whatever) just fine.

I've occasionally seen this behavior in normal Trading Stations as well (Argon at least, with "Buy Meatsteaks") but it's much less common in Commonwealth sectors since they tend to have a wider variety of normal stations to trade with, and their Trading Stations don't "produce" wares like the Orbital Logistics stations do.

milo29k · Post by **milo29k** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 16:37

Thanks, I thought I must have been missing something. I guess I'll have to send the ship into the commonwealth, a bit disappointing.

Now this isnt a user error, can I have this moved back to tech support?

Baddieus · Post by **Baddieus** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 18:47

Sometimes they are waiting on fighter drones or other items the ST's purchase along their career's. When in the Commonwealth, these items jump through a gate and get there before you notice. When in Terran Space, the closest jump-in is the Asteroid Belt, and it takes quite a bit of time for a slow moving delivery freighter to get to Uranus. I noticed this same problem, and once decided to just let the ST sit where it was and a very, very long time later, it got to moving again. As mentioned in the above postings, it is a good idea to level up an ST to 12 or so before moving it into Terran Space. Also once there, disable the auto jump, as they will habbitually jump from Jupiter-3 to the Asteroid belt for a delivery in Jupiter-2.

Sam L.R. Griffiths · Post by **Sam L.R. Griffiths** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:29

milo29k wrote:Thanks, I thought I must have been missing something. I guess I'll have to send the ship into the commonwealth, a bit disappointing.

Now this isnt a user error, can I have this moved back to tech support?

This is not really a tech support issue (it is a feature/bug of the game - I personally have a few STs/LTs operating in Terran Space and do not have a major problem with them)... if you have L3+ you may want to look at raising it in one of those forums.

milo29k · Post by **milo29k** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:34

I know, I was only kidding.

not about the issue, my first 'major' investment was a total dud, for half a mil it is quite an annoying bug. I could move it sure, and I will do, but its still a pain.

I dont know what L3+ is

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:39

Sector traders only do well and gain experience if there is always something for them to trade. Some sectors don't have this balance -- for example, The Wall might have some Wheat Farms or something, and a Sector Trader might buy from them, but will have nowhere to sell that Delexian Wheat.
(This is just an example, I actually don't know if the wall has other stations in it you can sell wheat

)
So if your ST isn't very productive in one sector, move him to another where you think he might do better.

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:44

So if your ST isn't very productive in one sector, move him to another where you think he might do better

really wouldnt matter in terran space, orbital logistic docks / support stations carry all the stuff required to make the factories run.

idgar · Post by **idgar** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:49

That's not the same thing though. If they can't find something to trade (or when waiting for a deliverey afaik) they have the mode "Standby". With this issue that looks very much lika a bug they sit still in the station with mode "Buy XXX" even when there's stuff to buy there and a place to sell it in the same sector. It only happens when my traders are normal sector traders and usually with the Orbital Logistics stations in Terran space. As soon as I get them to level 6 and can set them as local traders (Sector trader with range 1+) they can buy stuff normally from the Orbital Logistics stations.

I've briefly checked the scripts and sector/local traders use different ones so I'll take a closer look if I get some time to see if I can spot something obvious. I'm a programmer but have never done any scripting for the X-games so if someone more familiar could do it it'd go much faster.

JoeVN09 · Post by **JoeVN09** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:56

The point I wanted to make (but managed to forget over the course of writing) is that Terran space has very few factories in any one sector, so somewhere in the Commonwealth might be a better place to train your ST. If it's Terran rep you're after, come back when he's at a higher level and you can extend his sector range without making him a full-on UT, thus giving him more places to trade within Terran space.

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 19:57

That's not the same thing though.

how is it not?

idgar · Post by **idgar** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 20:08

Catra wrote:
That's not the same thing though.
how is it not?

Sorry, my post was a reply to JoeVN09. Looks like you posted while I was typing.

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 20:19

Terran space has very few factories in any one sector

the thing is though, those few terran factories(weapons and food atleast) can have up to 6 (!) wares that can be traded in.

@idgar,

atleast its not as bad as some of the posting akwardness ive been in

idgar · Post by **idgar** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 21:16

idgar wrote:I've briefly checked the scripts and sector/local traders use different ones so I'll take a closer look if I get some time to see if I can spot something obvious. I'm a programmer but have never done any scripting for the X-games so if someone more familiar could do it it'd go much faster.

Got some time right away and found the bug rather quickly!

plugin.autotrade.sector (v36)
147 if $productprice >= $avgprice ...

plugin.autotrade.local (v24)
242 if $productprice > $avgprice ...

So the Sector trader will never buy for average price which all trade station and Terran equivalents sell all their wares for.

How would I go about changing it nicely? Can I just remove the "=" from the sector trader script and save it without issues?

mrbadger · Post by **mrbadger** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 21:19

I never train sector traders in terran space, but I have quite a few operating with a range of four sectors, and they never get stuck.

I'd imagine that with just one sector to trade in terran space they'd fail right away.

milo29k · Post by **milo29k** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 21:29

Why would you imagine that?

Ive been looking at the products and theres theoretically so much an untrained sector trader could do. Some transparency as to why I was denied what was a strategic choice would be a good thing.

Im guessing this is a matter of not experiencing the bug yourself so you think of it as a 'feature,' thats fine if you want to see it that way, but it doesnt help, mr badger.

idgar · Post by **idgar** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 21:30

mrbadger wrote:I'd imagine that with just one sector to trade in terran space they'd fail right away.

Actually the Terran sectors are pretty nice for trading. The Orbital Logistics stations get a constant stream of goods from the Orbital Lifters who uses cargo drones to unload them I think. Or they simply spawn.

Those goods are used by the normal Terran factories and aren't produced by any NPC factories. Unlike the basic food factories in Commonwealth space these goods aren't dependent on energy cells to be produced so the economy flows rather nicely if there's someone there who can trade properly. ...Which the normal sector traders can't unless you fix the bug I found. (see my last post on page 1)

Edit:
By Orbital Lifters (first paragraph) I ofc meant Atmospheric Lifters, and by cargo drones I meant freight drones...

Catra · Post by **Catra** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 21:41

they just cant use the logistic docks at low levels, they can buy at average price. theres no bug at all.

milo29k · Post by **milo29k** » Sun, 17. Jan 10, 21:48

Catra wrote:they just cant use the logistic docks at low levels, they can buy at average price. theres no bug at all.

this is what I would have hoped for at the start of the thread, a source of this would be good, if not thanks anyway.

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sector trader wont work: terran space

sector trader wont work: terran space