Need help for factories in X3 AP

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virus22
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Need help for factories in X3 AP

Post by virus22 » Wed, 1. Feb 12, 16:37

Heya I have been playing since X2 The threat. It used to be I setup my SPP at locations around the map and I just need to keep my SPP supplied with crystals and the NPC/AI will buy the energy cells from me.

Fast forward to now, just decided to pick up the newest X game (X3 AP) and just got my first SPP XL setup in Red Light, I got like 10k plus energy cells sitting in the SPP with the selling price set to 18 per piece and no NPC/AI is buying from me. Even after 30 mins real time of SETA still no sale.. What gives? :cry:

Can anyone help out an old veteran?

Tormbo
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Post by Tormbo » Wed, 1. Feb 12, 16:40

As far as I know from my personal experience, NPC traders are very unlikely to buy anything that is not set at or just below the average price for that trade good. I suggest setting the e-cell price to 1 below average and wait for a bit.

Another issue might be that the stations in the vincinity are just too well supplied with e-cells.
Arrr!

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Macrixen
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Post by Macrixen » Wed, 1. Feb 12, 16:41

first off npcs will buy for best price meaning don't expect many to buy from you unless price is 1 less than average meaning 15cr

second spaceweed and spacefuel are better money earners and are cheaper than spp xl

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kylania
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Post by kylania » Wed, 1. Feb 12, 16:41

16 cr is generally the average price for Energy Cells, so selling for 18 isn't going to get you much NPC traffic. Try selling it for -1 average, so 15cr and I think you'll find more traffic. However if there are full NPC SPPs near you selling for 12cr... well you might need to wait for them to empty first.

Usually though selling for -1 average works wonders.

virus22
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Post by virus22 » Wed, 1. Feb 12, 17:36

Ar ok thanks guys.. I'll try it out now!

Vim Razz
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Post by Vim Razz » Wed, 1. Feb 12, 18:14

Welcome to X3:AP! :)

If you want to sell at 18 you can do it, but you need to buy a ship to go out and deliver it at that price because NPC stations are offering the NPC traders much better deals.

And just so you know, energy cells are no where near as profitable in X3 as they were in X2 or earlier games, for several reasons:

- The whole economy was restructured by having all NPC trading done by NPC free traders who specialize in particular ware types.

- Unlike the factory-based traders from X2 or before, X3 NPC free-traders rarely buy anything at higher than average price (though there are exceptions), and tend to shop more aggressively for low prices.

- Standard-sized SPPs and bulk resource factories from X2 have been combined into M-sized (2x capacity/production), L-sized (5x capacity/production), and XL-sized (10x capacity/production) -- which reduces the frequency at which NPC SPPs run out of stock, so you're almost never competing with NPC SPPs charging higher than average prices.

- TS class cargo capacities have been greatly expanded, requiring NPC stations to buy energy far less often to operate, rather then constantly running out the way they used to.

- The profitability of energy cells themselves (the difference between min and max prices) was cut by more than half, making other wares more profitable to manufacture and trade in comparison.

- SPP now cost 10x what they did in in X2, making start-up costs much steeper: one X3 SPP M (~4,000k credits) = two X2 SPP (2x ~200k credits).


So there's basically three things to know in order to adjust to the changes since X2:
1) If you really wanna sell stuff, you really gotta get out there and sell it!
2) The entire NPC economy is less broken/dysfunctional than X2, so you can't exploit it the way you could in that game. (for example: e-cell and wheat demand)
3) SPPs are only really worth setting up when you've hit the limit of NPC energy availability. Many diverse factory options are now more profitable in X3.

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Nividium
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Post by Nividium » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 01:31

Setting your selling price to be -1 below average will only net you about 2 credits per unit. It will take you over 43 years to make your original investment back before starting to make a profit.

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Ripskar
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Post by Ripskar » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 01:38

And if you aren't selling any it will take till hell freezes over to make the money back.
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Try leading the target a little more...

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WeriTis
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Post by WeriTis » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 01:47

Did no one mention the cheating AI factories yet? They make energy from thin air! (no need for crystals) and almost always sell the energy cells for 12cr.
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StarTroll
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Post by StarTroll » Thu, 2. Feb 12, 04:28

WeriTis wrote:Did no one mention the cheating AI factories yet? They make energy from thin air! (no need for crystals) and almost always sell the energy cells for 12cr.
Due to recent aggressive stocking of E-cells for my Hollow Infinity complex, there is no E-cell under 17 in the area, and there's a lot of SPPs there.
In TC/AP it is often more profitable to simply import E-Cells in bulks of 10K round trips with TSs than having to add a Siliocon Mine to A crystal fab + its 2 food production fabs just for the cells.
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