X3TC: CAG problem

[terryokc2]

Had a couple of CAG's sitting at home at a 4 station teladianium plex on standby...with no e-cells left on the station...they let it run dry. This station has run fine for weeks with these CAGs, so why would they stop now? They are both set as traders with default settings. No matter what I changed them to, they still go standby right away. I started a new one for this same plex and off he went, buying e-cells right off the bat.

I was thinking about clearing their stats when I get back in game this evening and see what that does.

So...any ideas?

[VincentTH]

Must be something that you set on them and forgot about it. To find out the reason they don't run, turn on the logging function and check the directory where your save games reside for the log.

[Ebonyfly]

Difficult to diagnose without seeing all the station and CAG settings but my guess is your CAGs have locked on to trying to sell Teladianium and are totally ignoring Energy. Changing the Trade Duties of one of your CAGs from Trader to Shopper will ensure that it concentrates on buying Energy.

Another possible explanation is that your complex is low on funds to buy Energy but I guess this is unlikely since your new CAG seems to be working fine.

[terryokc2]

Must be something that you set on them and forgot about it. To find out the reason they don't run, turn on the logging function and check the directory where your save games reside for the log.

Dang, always forget about that, it was late, was heading out of game soon...that rush sort of thing.


I'll try that before wiping....would like to know why they ignore all duties.

[terryokc2]

Difficult to diagnose without seeing all the station and CAG settings but my guess is your CAGs have locked on to trying to sell Teladianium and are totally ignoring Energy. Changing the Trade Duties of one of your CAGs from Trader to Shopper will ensure that it concentrates on buying Energy.

Another possible explanation is that your complex is low on funds to buy Energy but I guess this is unlikely since your new CAG seems to be working fine.

Tried all three duties..no go on any. Perhaps a log, as I was reminded to utilize will shed some light. We shall see.

[Vim Razz]

Another possibility, particularly if a rookie CAG works fine but experienced CAGs do nothing, is that a Kha'ak cluster spawned in some distant corner of the sector, too far away to aggro anything but still registering as "hostile, in sector" to the CAGs.

So you might scout around a bit to see if that's the case. The most common place to find them is ~20-30 km over a gate somewhere just hanging out.

[terryokc2]

Another possibility, particularly if a rookie CAG works fine but experienced CAGs do nothing, is that a Kha'ak cluster spawned in some distant corner of the sector, too far away to aggro anything but still registering as "hostile, in sector" to the CAGs.

So you might scout around a bit to see if that's the case. The most common place to find them is ~20-30 km over a gate somewhere just hanging out.

No luck there, either...no foes in sector...in fact, the new third CAG was doing his job while the other two were taking extended coffee breaks.

The log only showed the current stats of the trader as he sat there on standby so no news there. Even tried placing him as cag at one of my large plexes (50 stations) and watched as two other CAG's came home and flew off buying and selling while he sat on his thumbs again. Soooo, I flew them both back to Home of Light Trading station and fired them both to hire new pilots for CAG duties. The new CAG's are running just fine...station is full of e-cells and the Teladianium is being sold off as it should be.

Just one of those things that make you go hmmm.

[StarSword]

You know, you can get a data dump from the CAG saved to a text file. I don't really remember where it is, but it's in the CAG menu somewhere. If this happens again, get a CAG dump and post the contents.

[XanII]

Have the same problem too sometimes in TC. CAG can work for a very long time without any problems and then they just start to idle. maybe they are on strike?

Fix to the problem this far has been to put them on 'Buy best' command for awhile and then revert back to CAG.

I havent been able to spot from the settings what could possibly be the problem. Happens very rarely though.

[Sinxar]

My CAGs in TC reset themselves. Not all the time but enough to wonder what is wrong with the software.

[Ebonyfly]

Have the same problem too sometimes in TC. CAG can work for a very long time without any problems and then they just start to idle. maybe they are on strike?

Fix to the problem this far has been to put them on 'Buy best' command for awhile and then revert back to CAG.

I havent been able to spot from the settings what could possibly be the problem. Happens very rarely though.

The 'idle' status almost always indicates that the CAG has detected enemies and is waiting for them to pass. This can be very annoying in the case of Khaak Clusters as they hardly move and can be very hard to find. In such cases, the 'Analysis to Log' text file that others have mentioned is very useful as it gives the exact coordinates of the hostile.

'Standby' status usually indicates that a CAG is looking for it's next deal so it should be very temporary. Sadly, we havn't got to the bottom of why the OP's CAGs are locked on 'Standby' but at least he has worked around the problem with new CAGs.

[Triaxx2]

Check credits. If there are none in the station they won't work. If you don't have enough to pay them, they won't work.

[Thrasher91604]

When I had this problem, it was sometimes solved by saving the game, quitting, and restarting, and loading the save. None of the suggestions above helped me in my situation. However, there are a hell of a lot of CAG / Station / Complex parameters. It's very easy to mess one of them up enough that your CAGS stop trading. I'm not ruling that out as a possibility (for me, at least).

Suggest using save data and load data to minimize errors when setting CAGs up and keeping them consistent.

[Triaxx2]

Which is why, in his infinite wisdom, Lucike included a reset to default option.

[VincentTH]

Which is why, in his infinite wisdom, Lucike included a reset to default option.

Exactly. When in doubt, Reset-2-Default would solve any CAG problems (except when you are short of money, or hostilities are around).

We missed Lucike!!!

[terryokc2]

Have the same problem too sometimes in TC. CAG can work for a very long time without any problems and then they just start to idle. maybe they are on strike?

Fix to the problem this far has been to put them on 'Buy best' command for awhile and then revert back to CAG.

I havent been able to spot from the settings what could possibly be the problem. Happens very rarely though.

The 'idle' status almost always indicates that the CAG has detected enemies and is waiting for them to pass. This can be very annoying in the case of Khaak Clusters as they hardly move and can be very hard to find. In such cases, the 'Analysis to Log' text file that others have mentioned is very useful as it gives the exact coordinates of the hostile.

'Standby' status usually indicates that a CAG is looking for it's next deal so it should be very temporary. Sadly, we havn't got to the bottom of why the OP's CAGs are locked on 'Standby' but at least he has worked around the problem with new CAGs.

Yes, it was a puzzler....yes it was frustrating, changing things over and over to see what I might find to "fix" the problem. Which was multiplied when I home based one to another complex, set him as "trader" with default setting, and he just sat there as other CAG's passed him by. Which is why, after all the effort that first night, I posted to this forum to see if this situation might have come up for others...and to see if someone found something I may have missed.

VincentTH--Default was definitely one of the choices.

Triaxx2--the Station still had it's 2 million limit (rest being sent to player automatically for this particular complex)

XanII--Thank you, that is one avenue I hadn't even considered, but it will be if this should crop up again.

Thank you to all...as always. I tend to sit back and do alot of reading which sometimes helps in current or future situations. This particular round in the sandbox has been sooo much more involved and fun than the last time. I lost a hard drive to a really nasty virus and was just getting to complex building in Antigone Memorial at that point.....AND...yes, I will admit this, had NEVER taken or started any plots. Whole different story now!

[Thrasher91604]

Well, reset to default didn't fix my problems. I had to quit and restart. Don't forget that station/complex parameters are as important or even more impotant than tweaking the CAG parameters.

[terryokc2]

Well, reset to default didn't fix my problems. I had to quit and restart. Don't forget that station/complex parameters are as important or even more impotant than tweaking the CAG parameters.

Very true....but I had not touched this complex in weeks...along with perhaps all of my comlex/stations, so this was something where the CAG's just stopped working after doing their job from the start.

[XanII]

Complex parameters are not the problem in my case atleast. I have checked and checked them again.

For some reason i havent noticed the set to default setting at all. Thats why i use an entirely different command to make it do something else for awhile and then try again if it works. and it has worked for me.

I'll try set to default and see what happens.

I think i have a CAG stalling again so it's time to check what's up with it.

Also a CLS2 ship has fallen asleep and that one is doing a graveyard shift shuttling fixed price heavy payload missiles between my heavy payload complex and hq. shouldnt be too hard for it to keep going. no enemies there either as i have very heavy patrols in the area.