[TC] Bone 'Idle' station traders

[Crustyfur]

I have a problem, hoping someone can suggest something I haven't thought of yet.

I have a 2 x Cahoona Bakery L Complex in Antigone Memorial, it has 8 traders assigned to it, buying and selling wares etc. While I as AFK a Pirate Nova did a job on one of the stations. So hub was destroyed along with a few docked ships. No bother I thought, I bought a new Cahoona L and CCK and set the thing back up, ordered some new freighters and jobs a goodun (My previous save was too old, hence the rebuild). Or so I thought...

Now everything homebased to this station just goes Idle. I have re-homebased, restored CLS & CAG settings and reprogrammed everyone etc. Still they just go to Idle.

I have one CLS who loads EC and then sells them on to one of my other Complexes. I added his waypoints back in, one at a time and he 'worked', as soon as I add the waypoint to interact with another station, he goes Idle again. The CAG Sellers - Idle, despite have 30k Cahoonas to sell at AVG, I checked all the buying prices in the local area and they are buying way above average, so that's not the problem. My CAG buyer for EC wont budge, despite all the local SPP offering 12cr EC's, he is set to buy at 13cr.

So if anyone can think of something I haven't checked yet, I'd appreciate it. Unless the repairing of the station has caused it, then I am screwed and I'll have to shut it down completely.

Cheers

[Grape]

Couple things spring to mind, firstly cash at the station so they can buy stuff or Friend/Foe settings for the ships. I have also had Idle ships for what appeared to be no reason as well and found the Friend/Foe thing to be the reason.

[Crustyfur]

Station has 49m cr in it so its not that. I did double check the Friend/Foe settings, which are fine but thanks for reminding me to check those! Its a mystery!

[Timsup2nothin]

Idle, as opposed to standby, has two sources.

One. The pilots aren't getting paid. You said the station has funds, but are they set to draw pilot pay from homebase? The default has them paid from your ship account. One time I was at that 'scrimp and save for my own TL' stage early in a game and got just enough to buy my Elephant. I was mostly just flying around and loading it up with my stray small craft when I realized my entire trade network had stopped.

Two. Hostiles. CLS and CAG pilots have that union thing going. If they know there are hostiles they just won't go. And their information is better than yours. In this case I would give twenty to one odds that somewhere in the distant reaches of Antigone Memorial there is a Khaak cluster drifting around.

[RayF]

Continuing from Tim,

the third reason is:

+ Your pilots aren't trained. An apprentice CAG for example cant sell anything:)

[Timsup2nothin]

Continuing from Tim,

the third reason is:

+ Your pilots aren't trained. An apprentice CAG for example cant sell anything:)

I'm not as familiar with CAG as with CLS, but I think that CAG would go on standby, not idle. A CLS with any situation that could be described as 'nothing to do' will always go to standby rather than idle.

[ancienthighway]

Are pirates still in the area? Perhaps a pirate base was built in sector and you need to discover it, then destroy it because hostile craft are based there. If you have CAGs and CLS traders based in other sectors operating normally, hostiles are the most likely reason.

And just to confirm the routes, have you redefined the routes of the surviving transports to work with the new complex?

[RayF]

Continuing from Tim,

the third reason is:

+ Your pilots aren't trained. An apprentice CAG for example cant sell anything:)

I'm not as familiar with CAG as with CLS, but I think that CAG would go on standby, not idle. A CLS with any situation that could be described as 'nothing to do' will always go to standby rather than idle.

That may be totally true Tim..Truth is i never distinguished the difference of the two

[Grape]

Both CAG and CLS act the same for Hostiles either in the docked at system or the delivering to system in that they will both go "Idle". For Standby in the case of the CAG its due to it waiting for the right price either to sell or buy and for the CLS its due to whatever supply/resupply conditions you have set be it waiting for the correct amount of cargo to be picked up or space made available at the delivery end.

[Sinxar]

Have you checked your message log yet? If there are hostiles they will tell you but it doesn't cause the icon to flash.

If they are reporting hostiles go do a manual sweep around the edges of the sector looking for Khaak clusters.

[Timsup2nothin]

Have you checked your message log yet? If there are hostiles they will tell you but it doesn't cause the icon to flash.

If they are reporting hostiles go do a manual sweep around the edges of the sector looking for Khaak clusters.

Learn a new thing every day. I've never noticed the hostiles being reported. I usually have enough crisscrossing CLS routes that I can figure out what sector is being avoided and just go there...and there is always some cluster out in the weeds or a lame and lonely red pirate M5 pot shotting at some off the trail station.

[Crustyfur]

Thanks guys, I worked through the suggestions and a proper sector sweep revealed a Khaak cluster hidden in the corner. Once taken care of, work resumed. As I didn't see any hostiles on the sector map I wrongly assumed there were any.

[Timsup2nothin]

Thanks guys, I worked through the suggestions and a proper sector sweep revealed a Khaak cluster hidden in the corner. Once taken care of, work resumed. As I didn't see any hostiles on the sector map I wrongly assumed there were any.

Yeah. CLS and CAG pilots know stuff is there long before you do. Bit of a pain sometimes, since that Khaak cluster way out there in the weeds can drift around for hours disrupting your traders without having any real necessary impact on anything.