CAG Setup Examples

[Chiumanfu]

The CAG script is one of the more helpful to the budding industrialist. It is also one of the most confusing. I'm sure there are a lot of you out there that learn the same way that I do, by example. Here are some sample setups of CAG settings that have worked for me. I hope this helps. Please feel free to add your own examples using the same format.

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Self sufficient Space Weed and Space Fuel Complex in Avarice
Complex Calculator : http://tinyurl.com/3rmv87l
Products : Space Weed, Space Fuel
Resources : None
Intermediate Products : Energy, Delexian Wheat, Argnu Beef, Swamp Plant, Meatsteak Cahoonas, Silicon Wafers, Crystals.
CAG's Role : Since the space fuel and space weed are bought by the NPCs, the CAG only needs to sell excess energy, crystals and silicon.

Station Settings
Product Selling Price Setting
Space Fuel : 727 (one below avg so the NPCs will buy)
Space Weed : 2911 (one below avg so the NPCs will buy)
Resource Buying Price Limit
Energy Cells : 16 (avg)
Delexian Wheat : 32 (avg)
Silicon Wafers : 504 (avg)
Meatsteak Cahoonas : 72 (avg)
Argnu Beef : 104 (avg)
Crystals : 1684 (avg)
Swamp Plant : 156 (avg)
Jumps : 10
Other races can trade with this station : Yes
Intermediate Product Trading : None (the CAG will sell my excess intermediate products for a better price)

CAG Settings
Trader Settings
Take Trainings : Yes
Trader Salary : Global Account
Agreement with colleagues : Yes

Ware Lists
Ware list types : Blacklist
Ware list : 0 entries

Exceptions
Stations : 0
Sectors : 0
Sector list type : Blacklist
Only trade with satellite network sectors : Yes (I only put satellites in safe sectors)
Only trade in sectors with a jumpgate : Yes (Don't want the CAG to waste time in Terran sectors)
Only trade with non-player stations : No

Trade Duties
Trade Duty : Salesman (CAG will only sell stuff. The complex is self sufficient so CAG doesn't need to buy anything)
Purchase Resources : 80% (This setting doesn't matter because the CAG is a salesman)
Sell Products : 50% (CAG will sell Space Fuel and Space Weed if stock ever goes above 50% but it doesn't matter because NPCs buy it all before stock levels ever get close to 50%)
Sell products freighter cargo bay : 101% (Turns off this function)
Purchase Intermediate Products : 50% (CAG does not buy)
Sell Intermediate Products : 90% (CAG will sell excess energy, crystals and silicon wafers when stock rises above 90%)
Purchase Station Credit Balance : 30,000

Station Settings
Trade Range : 10 jumps
Home Sector : Unknown Sector

Jump Drive settings
Use Jump Drive : Yes
Jump Drive Energy : 500 energy cells
Minimum Jump Range : 1 jump

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Xenon Hub in Unknown Sector
Complex Calculator :
Products : Silicon Wafers
Resources : None
Intermediate Products : None
CAG's Role : Shop for Silicon Wafers and deliver to the Xenon Hub for a certain plot.

Station Settings
Product Selling Price Setting
Silicon Wafers : 550 (Substantially above average so the CAG will buy up everything available)
Jumps : 30 (Increase range so we get every available station)
Other races can trade with this station : Yes (Every little bit helps

CAG Settings
Trader Settings
Take Trainings : Yes
Trader Salary : Global Account
Agreement with colleagues : Yes

Ware Lists
Ware list types : Trade List
Ware list : Silicon Wafers (This can be changed to whatever resource you are collecting)

Exceptions
Stations : 0
Sectors : 0
Sector list type : Blacklist
Only trade with satellite network sectors : Yes (I only put satellites in safe sectors)
Only trade in sectors with a jumpgate : Yes (Don't want the CAG to waste time in Terran sectors)
Only trade with non-player stations : Yes (I have CLS to transfer silicon wafers from my other stations)

Trade Duties
Trade Duty : Shopper (CAG will only buy)
Purchase Resources : 80% (CAG will attempt to fill silicon wafer stock up to 80%. The resources are immediately used upon delivery so this will never happen)
Sell Products : 20% (Doesn't matter because CAG will not sell)
Sell products freighter cargo bay : 101% (Turns this feature off)
Purchase Intermediate Products : 10% (Doesn't matter. No intermediate products)
Sell Intermediate Products : 80% (Doesn't matter. No intermediate products)
Purchase Station Credit Balance : 30,000

Station Settings
Trade Range : 30 jumps
Home Sector : Unknown Sector

Jump Drive settings
Use Jump Drive : Yes
Jump Drive Energy : 1000 energy cells (Increased range means the CAG will need more jump fuel)
Minimum Jump Range : 1 jump

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1MJ shield Complex in Argon Prime
Complex Calculator : http://tinyurl.com/4yu4snt
Products : 1MJ Shield
Resources : Ore, Silicon Wafers
Intermediate Products : Energy, Argnu Beef, Meatsteak Cahoonas, Crystals.
CAG's Role : Supply the complex with Ore and silicon and sell excess energy and crystals. The 1MJ Shields are bought by the NPCs.

Station Settings
Product Selling Price Setting
1MJ Shields : 5191 (one below avg so the NPCs will buy)
Resource Buying Price Limit
Energy Cells : 16 (avg)
Meatsteak Cahoonas : 72 (avg)
Argnu Beef : 104 (avg)
Crystals : 1684 (avg)
Resource Buying Price Limit
Ore : 90 (Substantially below avg as there are many mines close by. The CAG will not purchase ore that is more expensive than 90)
Silicon Wafers : 504 (avg)
Jumps : 10
Other races can trade with this station : Yes
Intermediate Product Trading : None (the CAG will buy resources and sell my excess intermediate products for a better price than NPCs)

CAG Settings
Trader Settings
Take Trainings : Yes
Trader Salary : Global Account
Agreement with colleagues : Yes

Ware Lists
Ware list types : Blacklist
Ware list : 0 entries

Exceptions
Stations : 0
Sectors : 0
Sector list type : Blacklist
Only trade with satellite network sectors : Yes (I only put satellites in safe sectors)
Only trade in sectors with a jumpgate : Yes (Don't want the CAG to waste time in Terran sectors)
Only trade with non-player stations : No

Trade Duties
Trade Duty : Trader (CAG will buy and sell)
Purchase Resources : 50% (CAG will fill ore and silicon wafers up to 50%)
Sell Products : 50% (CAG will sell 1MJ shields if stock ever goes above 50% but it doesn't matter because NPCs buy it all before stock levels ever get close to 50%)
Sell products freighter cargo bay : 101% (Turns off this function)
Purchase Intermediate Products : 50% (CAG buy energy, meatsteak cahoonas, argnu beef and crystals up to 50% when the complex is first put online.)
Sell Intermediate Products : 90% (CAG will sell excess energy and crystals when stock rises above 90%)
Purchase Station Credit Balance : 30,000

Station Settings
Trade Range : 10 jumps
Home Sector : Argon Prime

Jump Drive settings
Use Jump Drive : Yes
Jump Drive Energy : 500 energy cells
Minimum Jump Range : 1 jump

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Teladianium Complex in Duke's Domain
Complex Calculator : http://tinyurl.com/3gebq9g
Products : Teladianium
Resources : Energy Cells
Intermediate Products : None
CAG's Role : Supply the complex with energy cells and sell the teladianium.

Station Settings
Product Selling Price Setting
Teladianium : 170 (Substantially above average so the CAG will wait to sell if the prices are not high enough)
Resource Buying Price Limit
Energy Cells : 14 (below avg so the CAG will only buy energy if it finds a spp selling below 14)
Jumps : 10
Other races can trade with this station : Yes (NPCs can trade but they generally don't touch the station due to the high teladianium price and low energy cell price)
Intermediate Product Trading : None (there are no intermediate products)

CAG Settings
Trader Settings
Take Trainings : Yes
Trader Salary : Global Account
Agreement with colleagues : Yes

Ware Lists
Ware list types : Blacklist
Ware list : 0 entries

Exceptions
Stations : 0
Sectors : 0
Sector list type : Blacklist
Only trade with satellite network sectors : Yes (I only put satellites in safe sectors)
Only trade in sectors with a jumpgate : Yes (Don't want the CAG to waste time in Terran sectors)
Only trade with non-player stations : No

Trade Duties
Trade Duty : Trader (CAG will buy and sell)
Purchase Resources : 80% (CAG will fill energy cells up to 80%)
Sell Products : 0% (CAG will sell Teladianium if there is any stock but is limited by the next rule.)
Sell products freighter cargo bay : 50% (CAG will only sell products if it can fill 50% of it's cargo bay)
Purchase Intermediate Products : 10% (No intermediate products)
Sell Intermediate Products : 80% (No intermediate products)
Purchase Station Credit Balance : 30,000

Station Settings
Trade Range : 10 jumps
Home Sector : Duke's Domain

Jump Drive settings
Use Jump Drive : Yes
Jump Drive Energy : 500 energy cells
Minimum Jump Range : 1 jump

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[tbowen]

Very useful, even for an experienced CAG user. Thanks Chiumanfu.

[deca.death]

.

Smart thing to do, list all this up. I wander how I didn't thought of this ... oh that's right, because I'm lazy bastard ; )

Maybe you could simplify things by leaving out default values and list only important things /or things you've actually changed but this is better.

[Automatic Jack]

This is awesome, I didn't even think to put a CAG as a shopper in the Hub.
Thanks!

[Chiumanfu]

This is awesome, I didn't even think to put a CAG as a shopper in the Hub.
Thanks!

That's the beauty of the CAG. The script is very versatile. There is a small oddity when using it a bunch of shoppers all home based to the hub... only three or four will operate at one time, the rest will sit in standby. Not sure why, maybe it has something to do with the xenon hub.

[Elleron]

I'd guess that three or four cags is enough to "fill" the hub. You know it's going to eat the wares, but the CAG just sees that it's got 0/2000 whatever. If four of his coworkers are out bringing back 500 each he'll just have a donut in the break room.

[Infekted]

I currently have 8 CAGs all buying the same ware out of the hub, and 10 buying energy for a massive mine plex...
All working fine.

[David Howland]

Thank you for this great reference work, you are truly one of the marvels of this forum!
As I have already built my empire without it, CAG is something I am struggling to learn for my next game! This guide is something I will have to refer to a lot in the near future, which means many hours of searching the depths of this forum listings to find it!
On perusing your examples I had to smile at a few items where you priced a resource high to buy out all the available resource. I am a big user of the Self Sustaining Closed Loop Complex and take flak from open loop fans, that my SSCL complexes do not benefit local economies. Of course this is bull, as my complexes have intermedite resources set to sell as well as finished products and some of my plexes sell more intermediates than final items! Anyway I have it in black and white proof, in your guides, that open loop systems do deprive regions economies completely of certain resources.
Again THANK YOU!

[Gregorovitch]

Excellent format. Indespensible demystification of some CAG parameters. Any chance of something similar for CLS 1 & 2?

[Infekted]

If you have completely drained an area of a particular resource, then you are not buying from a wide enough area...

There's also the fact that creating a massive demand for a ware will induce GoD to start building factories for that ware. Aside from Ore/Silicon this is usually a good thing! To speed up the process, fly around looking for build missions for those factories. If you have created a high enough demand, they should be there.

This thread proves nothing about this issue.

[Chiumanfu]

I currently have 8 CAGs all buying the same ware out of the hub, and 10 buying energy for a massive mine plex...
All working fine.

Do they all constantly work without standby? I've got 10 shopper CAGs buying energy for a mine-plex with lots of storage to fill and still only 4 or 5 are out of standby at one time. Can you post the settings so I can see what the difference is? Thanks.

Excellent format. Indespensible demystification of some CAG parameters. Any chance of something similar for CLS 1 & 2?

CLS is on the to-do list.

[Infekted]

I wont be able to get the exact settings for a while. Away from home PC atm.
But it was nothing special, Iirc it was broadly:

Wareslist: Energy
Duty: Shopper
Buy resources: 10% - Since the complex is so massive this is still several hundred thousand energy.
Cargo bay: 30% - Using maxed Mistral SFs so this is 4.5k energy.
Jump fuel: 1.2k
Use jumpdrive: Yes
Min jump range: 0

Complex settings:
Jumprange: 50
Energy buy price: 17

Can ignore all other settings.

When they come back to the plex, it takes them a little while to find a new deal. Say about 30s or so of standby before they head off again. There's quite often one or so sat in the plex, but it will fly off before too long.

[Vayde]

Thank you for this great reference work, you are truly one of the marvels of this forum!
As I have already built my empire without it, CAG is something I am struggling to learn for my next game! This guide is something I will have to refer to a lot in the near future, which means many hours of searching the depths of this forum listings to find it!

Again THANK YOU!

Or you could just save it in your favs's folder Dave

[StarSword]

My Generic CAG setup.

Basically, they send reports (with audible signal) whenever anything reportable happens, they stay out of Xenon sectors, and have a thirty-jump range with 0 minimum jumps.

[kylania]

Just wanted to say thanks for this great thread. I was able to setup my first complex and get some nice speedy CAGs running on it. I went with two fast ships since the large slow one I had was taking way too long.

Thanks again for all the assistance in understanding this subject.

[Morkonan]

Thanks for the resurrection of the thread! I've copied it into a doc I can reference offline. Some nice tips, here.

[Virtualaughing]

Extraordinary work

I begging for Egosoft to have a training facility where CAGs can be educated in a "Virutal Enviroment"

The money isn't really an issue in X universe but the time you spend on annoying things such as to have a Training factory/complex where your beginner CAGs learn the way.... Self sustaining complexes or EQ docks can't train CAGs is horrible ;p

[kylania]

I've got that setup from a suggestion in the CdrDave walkthrough videos. I have a wing of 10 Discoverers with 4 waypoints in a square shape. Just let them fly that pattern till they are trained up to CLS Logisticsion then park 'em in the Stock Market station. Then as I need pilots I swing by, swap a pilot over to my new CLS hauler and send that used Discoverer pilot off on his pre-set training missions again. That way I always have 10 spare max level CLS pilots at the ready. You can do the same for CAG as well I guess.

[deca.death]

Well, yes, it's described in detail long time ago:

Kor'ah CAG/CLS pilots training guide

[Lorric]

Very nice post, but I wonder why you set the refuel energy so high. With a jump range of 10, a TS would need 100 energy to jump there and 100 to jump back. That's 200 EC. Ok, add a little more for safety. You set 10 jump range to 500 EC and 30 range to 1000 EC. I my games this has never been necessary. Have you had problems with this?

Also it might be worth noting that with untrained CAGs, before they use the jump drive, you may want to set range low and refuel to zero. More cargo space = less waste

But I generally use the trick to start the pilots with better training.

Spoiler

Show

If you start CLS2 while the ship is docked at the Free Argon Trade station in Herrons Nebula, you will hire a pilot with experience. If you're lucky, you get a Cargo Messenger (which can use the Jump Drive). If not, the fire the pilot and restart CLS2.