Trapper Tim's Guide to Building the Resource Backbone

[Timsup2nothin]

Introduction and disclaimers

First disclaimer: I apologize for the massive wall of text. If this could be explained in a paragraph it would probably not be worth explaining. A whole lot of words doesn't necessarily make it worth explaining either, but I try.

Second disclaimer: Like most things I do, if your game is full of Mk3 traders set as UT this isn't going to make them happy. If you have STs in the target region they aren't going to be happy either.

Third disclaimer: If the cookies are missing, the dog must have gotten them.

Now, what is the purpose of this Resource Backbone?

One of my favorite objectives is to be able to look at sector maps and see green. Like all green. My traders roaming the trade lanes and reaping profits for me. None of those AI traders stealing my credits. The resource backbone is the next evolution in systems to make that happen.

You may be familiar with the previous generation, which used CLS 2 ships. It worked. So how is this better? It is genuinely no maintenance required, adapting automatically to stations being destroyed by GoD or pirates and also adapting when GoD replaces those stations or you take on a station build and put a new factory in the region.

As a side benefit, the massive volume of trade raises trade rank at an unparalleled rate, and the race reputation of the targeted race locks at max pretty rapidly. It took two and a half game days to set up in the Argon Prime region, I locked in at max Argon rep about two days in, and recall passing economist rank a bit ago. This puts me in the range where retrieving abandoned ships is a source of frigates and corvettes and buffers my rep against stealing them.

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What it does

The system uses the existing NPC fabs, supplies them continuously with all necessary resources at average prices so that they only stop producing if they are full of product, and takes in that minimum price product for distribution. This puts the difference between minimum and average price into the station accounts of the complexes that make up the backbone.

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How it does it

As I said, I used the Argon Prime region as my target. To explain how it works I'll start in Antigone Memorial. The complex there is typical, and I'll explain it in more depth than the rest since no one wants to read the same stuff over and over.

CheeZee's Meatsteaks

The complex is two L size Cahoona Bakeries hooked together. It produces...well...nothing. All the little bakers who live on the station hang around drinking pina coladas all day I guess, but they make me a ton of credits by providing storage for a network of five ships.

This system integrates CAG with CLS. The complex has two sides, and each side needs at least one of each.

We'll start on the product side, in this case cahoonas. We buy with a CLS and sell with a CAG. The product side requires ships with jump drives, which obviously requires jump drive capable pilots. The buyer is simple to set up, first stop unload cahoonas and then refuel jump drive at HQ, then use generate waypoints, cahoonas, price minimum, cargo maximum, and launch. The CAG seller has to have his ware list limited to cahoonas, and his 'station settings' centered on Argon Prime with range three. Price is set to average at the station and away he goes. Well, as soon as the buyer gets back with cahoonas away he goes.

On the e-cell side we use a CAG buyer and a CLS seller, and they are both apprentice positions (good sources for trained pilots as time goes on). The CAG is set as a shopper, ware list limited to cells, and range cut to zero. His only function is to buy cells from the local power plants at the station's set price of 13. Right about now it becomes clear why this is built in Antigone Memorial instead of Argon Prime. I want to get the cells with a guy who will lurk nearby. The CLS seller is just selling on. He loads max cargo, unloads up to 5000, then sells at my facility in The Hole for 14...then goes through the load sequence again and sells at my facility in Power Circle.

So a little cash flows in as the e-cells pass through, and the seller maintains a 5000 cell supply of jump fuel for the cahoona handlers. I added a second cahoona seller, just because they are cahoonas, using a CLS ship that just wanders from trading station to trading station topping them off. This was the third facility I built, somewhere early in day two. I loaded it with 600,000 credits to start and a day and a half later it is over six million in cash and has 30,000 cahoonas (over two million credits worth at average price) in inventory.

That's one 'vertebra' in the backbone.

In The Hole is a complex of two L size wheat farms that works the same way, and in Power Circle is a complex of two cattle ranches. The e-cells from Antigone Memorial are added to the local supply brought in by CAG buyers and sold on using the same process at the slightly higher price of 15 to a silicon mine complex in Herron's, which sells them on. A Rimes Fact complex in The Wall collects the e-cells and sells them on. An Ore Mine complex in Ore Belt collects the cells there and sells them on to a complex of two L size crystal fabs in Home of Light, which sells them on.

Everyone makes a little profit on e-cells passing through and has fuel supplied for their buyers and sellers of the primary product. And all the cells wind up in Argon Prime, at a complex of two cattle ranches and an M size SPP. The cattle ranches make cells a resource so the CLS ships can sell there, and the SPP makes them a product so a fleet of CAGs can distribute them at price 17.

So, every resource that is traded in bulk; energy, bio, minerals, food; is stocked in stations and distributed by CAGs, who will respond immediately to a new station with the high empty station price. Since everything is distributed at average price there are no buyers for NPC haulers, and if they pick up a load they generally leave the area, allowing my buyers to maintain stock at minimum prices (note, this isn't working for Rimes as there is not enough supply).

Crystals, being a good bulky product were my choice for filling the gap since I was one complex short. I buy them a little below average and distribute them using an express hauler at something just short of the 'secondary resource' maximum price.
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How to build it

When I first started playing this game I found that it was really easy to find advice on how to turn millions into zillions, but getting the millions in the first place was a lot harder to find out about. My systems, including this one, are always designed around a fresh started game. I started from an Anonymous Argon start, shuttled mosquitoes in Argon Prime to get some upgrades to the disco, until a big freighter emptied the factory (considered shooting him, but he was in a TM and I didn't have any guns), then collected missile scraps in Elena's fortune until I could buy some guns.

The guns got me a wrecked demeter and another disco (sorry about that Mr civilian, I thought you were a Paranid), which I set up as a CLS buyer in a distillery and a CLS runner selling space fuel at the trading station. Another wrecked demeter in the other distillery, a couple more sold for cash to buy a Disco Raider for me and add my original one to the operation, space fuel sales expanded to a couple pirate bases that also pay maximum. Cash rolls in, pilots in discos are in constant flight training, and I'm on my way.

The wheat farm was the first link built, because it helps push the distilleries. Since there was no 'selling on' of e-cells at that point I just used the CLS seller to feed Herron's Nebula at 17. Every complex was paid for out of mission earnings and space fuel sales. They all started with 600,000 credits and I've never taken any out...or had to put any more in. The wheat farm was quickly followed by the cattle ranch, and with cattle and wheat getting pushed the cahoona distributor had minimum price cahoonas by the ton when I built it a little later.

Selling cahoonas to the trading stations constantly pushed my rep so mission rewards skyrocketed and in fairly short order I had an Elephant and built the silicon mines and the power station. By that point the energy sellers, who could be replaced with apprentices, and the CAG energy buyers who never needed to be anything else, could get harvested to man the distribution fleet.

The rest of the pieces were added pretty much as fast as I could get them built with my little Elephant. The thing to get is that each piece, by itself, does work; so it can be built at whatever pace you want. Adding haulers to keep the flow of cells going is done when inventories show it is needed.

Once all the pieces are in place the pressure on NPC haulers to just move on gets very strong. There's pretty much no bio haulers to be found already, and energy haulers are getting scarce.

Conclusion

In my CLS guide I said that I wanted to provide something different. There were a lot of good guides that would tell you "how to" use CLS, in terms of setting up ships to use it. I wanted to provide a guide to "how to" use it that was closer to "why to" use it. My objective here is to do the same thing with CAG. There are plenty of guides that will tell you how to set range, or ware lists, or whatever mechanics you need to know. This was intended to show what could be done with these tools rather than just how the tools work.

Hope you like it.

Trapper Tim

[Sinxar]

I like this and glad to see I'm not the only one who does it.

I usually just wait until I get access to the Xenon Hub though. Im a CAG guy however and just use them for all aspects the buying and selling of the wares.

Its a good way to get started though and I can personally confirm this type of system produces a lot of credits quickly.

[Timsup2nothin]

I like this and glad to see I'm not the only one who does it.

I usually just wait until I get access to the Xenon Hub though. Im a CAG guy however and just use them for all aspects the buying and selling of the wares.

Its a good way to get started though and I can personally confirm this type of system produces a lot of credits quickly.

How do you deal with pricing? CAGs use the station price (AFAIK) so don't you end up with your buyers and sellers just working off the same price? That seems like it would put a severe crimp in my revenue stream.

[Sinxar]

That is correct. But CAGs will find the best deal over the entire universe. What ends up happening is they will buy for minimum price and sell at max price in most cases.

There is an upper limit though. Took around 40 CAGs buying/selling for profits to suffer a bit. I don't think it was because of the stations not having the deals but rather not enough docking ports on the Hub. So what ends up happening is some wait around for a long time to dock to do their thing.

I like CAGs because they are for the most part automatic. I guess CLS is too depending on how you set them up. For example I set all the settings on two guys (one buyer and one seller) then just load the profiles on any new ones. Only thing that needs to be changed is the ware.

[Timsup2nothin]

Yeah. Docking is why I use complexes. Really a single station would probably offer enough storage in most cases, but twenty ports instead of five is a big difference.

[MarvinTheMartian]

Nice tutorial Tim, I wish I had the patience to write something detailed like this.

Like Sinxar, I use the hub and also use a trading station or Eq Dock on a much smaller scale though.

While I use the Hub CAGs to go out shopping I then use CLS1 ships to move product to the Eq Dock (and feed the HQ with resources) and use CAG to sell from there.

It's probably no where near as efficient or available early game but I use it to collect things like boarding pods that I don't want to find myself and use the sellers to feed IBL/PBG forges that don't sell to anyone else so I get to buy them at rock bottom prices

Something to know about traders at Eq/Trading Docks is that they buy at the set price and sell for the set price +1

[Ormac]

So are you on-selling everything for a nice kickback Tim?

-- Ormac

[Timsup2nothin]

The only thing selling on is the e-cells. I could have had freighters with jump drives just moving them directly to the point of sale in one trip, but by moving them one sector at a time the mining facility in Herron's gets to skim off jump fuel for the silicon haulers.

Every station is turning a good profit, though some are doing better than others. I went on a station building spree today, which pepped things up considerably. When I got two missions in a row for HEPT fabs I started thinking that I should get busy working out how to move the guns and such that are going to start glutting the market.

[sithneverdiealone]

my question is can you get this to work in Terran space before you complete the aldrin plot? ive followed the water and power guides and expanded them to minerals, food, and weapons/shields but this looks a lot simpler, IF it can be build early.

[Timsup2nothin]

Terran space I think you almost have to use traps. It just takes too long for any automated freighter to get to target if it sets out on a condition flag. A ship trying to buy e-cells at 14 sets out for the SPP and it might arrive when the e-cells have been bought out, come back down below average, been bought out again, and be back at 14 for the third time.

[sithneverdiealone]

ill just use operation loki then. my new problem is that my nice trade backbone is not selling any beef. none on 10 gamedays. i've lowered the price to ~25 % and there still not selling.

[Timsup2nothin]

ill just use operation loki then. my new problem is that my nice trade backbone is not selling any beef. none on 10 gamedays. i've lowered the price to ~25 % and there still not selling.

I've got beef selling at 65, and it sells okay. Not a lot, by any means, and the inventory is always full, but since I buy at minimum (42?) it's profitable. It got a lot more profitable when I went on a mission spree building fabs that boosted cahoona consumption high enough to such the inventory out of my cahoona operation so the bakeries stayed in production. It's also helpful to build bakeries, because the ones you build don't have the wheat option so they can be counted on to use beef at a fixed rate.

Another option is to run the Paranid bakery in pirate space out of beef and then blow up everyone who tries to deliver beef for a while. That will keep the NPC haulers from delivering to the local bakeries and driving the price down. Cost some race rep though.

[sithneverdiealone]

ill just use operation loki then. my new problem is that my nice trade backbone is not selling any beef. none on 10 gamedays. i've lowered the price to ~25 % and there still not selling.

... It got a lot more profitable when I went on a mission spree building fabs that boosted cahoona consumption ...because the ones you build don't have the wheat ...

cahoonas can be wheat? so much for 'meatsteak'. thats probly my problem. i got 12(!) seperate missions to build Wheat Farm L and it massively flooded the market

Another option is to run the Paranid bakery in pirate space out of beef and then blow up everyone who tries to deliver beef for a while. That will keep the NPC haulers from delivering to the local bakeries and driving the price down. Cost some race rep though.

im steal feeling my way in to the 'compleate the plots whale at shoot on sight with at least one race' part of the game. would you recomend war with the parinid?

[Timsup2nothin]

If I play as an Argon I almost always go to war with the Paranids.

Yeah...flooding the wheat market will cut into the beef market.

[ancienthighway]

ill just use operation loki then. my new problem is that my nice trade backbone is not selling any beef. none on 10 gamedays. i've lowered the price to ~25 % and there still not selling.

Do you want NPC traders to visit, and if so do you have the flag set for them to dock?

Check out your meatsteak consumers. Are they full on meatsteaks but lack ore, silicon or energy to function?

cahoonas can be wheat?

Yeah...flooding the wheat market will cut into the beef market.

I don't agree with this statement. Wheat is a secondary resource for NPC bakeries, and while it may slightly modify consumption of Argnu Beef, it has no impact on the making or usage of meatsteaks. Without Argnu Beef I don't believe Meatsteaks can be made. Flooding the market with Wheat Farms is more beneficial to Rimes Factories and Space Fuel Distilleriers as Bakeries can only hold a limited amount of wheat that is consumed slowly.

[sithneverdiealone]

Do you want NPC traders to visit, and if so do you have the flag set for them to dock?

yep. selling at average

Check out your meatsteak consumers. Are they full on meatsteaks but lack ore, silicon or energy to function?

they are full of every thing. even secondary is full and i have 'traps' on them buying products at - 1 and selling at equipment docks from Kingdom End to Parinid Prime. the only thing in the Argon Prime cluster that isn't selling is beef.

I don't agree with this statement. Wheat is a secondary resource for NPC bakeries, and while it may slightly modify consumption of Argnu Beef, it has no impact on the making or usage of meatsteaks. Without Argnu Beef I don't believe Meatsteaks can be made. Flooding the market with Wheat Farms is more beneficial to Rimes Factories and Space Fuel Distilleriers as Bakeries can only hold a limited amount of wheat that is consumed slowly.

my bakers (upon review) list wheat, beef, and ecells as primary

[Timsup2nothin]

Yeah...flooding the wheat market will cut into the beef market.

I don't agree with this statement. Wheat is a secondary resource for NPC bakeries, and while it may slightly modify consumption of Argnu Beef, it has no impact on the making or usage of meatsteaks. Without Argnu Beef I don't believe Meatsteaks can be made. Flooding the market with Wheat Farms is more beneficial to Rimes Factories and Space Fuel Distilleriers as Bakeries can only hold a limited amount of wheat that is consumed slowly.

You are incorrect. NPC bakeries have a secondary resource...Stott spices. They list two primary resources, beef and wheat. If you watch their inventories you will see that each production cycle they choose one or the other for their consumption. I have tried to figure out if that choosing follows some sort of pattern, but as far as I can tell it is totally random.

This is the same situation as you find at NPC weapon/missile fabs that list ore and silicon as primary. Each production cycle consumes one or the other.

[ancienthighway]

My bad. It's been a while since I've actually looked at it and went by assumption. I know about the ore/silicon stations, but wasn't aware of this one.

With that the case, flooding the market with wheat will have a significant impact on Argnu Beef in the area. Meatsteaks will not be effected no matter how it is made.

[Timsup2nothin]

Meatsteaks will not be effected no matter how it is made.

Easy for us to say, since we aren't eating the meatsteaks!




I ordered a MEAT steak, and you bring me a %$@#^% vegi burger! What the $#@^%$!!!!

[sithneverdiealone]

Meatsteaks will not be effected no matter how it is made.

Easy for us to say, since we aren't eating the meatsteaks!




I ordered a MEAT steak, and you bring me a %$@#^% vegi burger! What the $#@^%$!!!!

lol
i'm wandering.. i've looked at your argon patriot story ( the one in your sig) and part one sounds alot like this... but you don't elaborate on how to set this up in a xenon migration route like omicron lyre are there any notes you have on that? i've tried and as far as i can tell unless every CLS pilot has a jumpdrive and emergency jump enabled the network gets chewed up regularly until i can lock the scale plate green and black hole sun xenon gates with some M2s