Traders setting question (sell to only one faction, but disallow trading with my own other stations)

[WoodyAut]

Hi,

I have a small logical problem - i set up a trading station in Windfall III - buying order set to everyone, sell order per rule to STU only (food, medicaments, water)
I am trying to grind rep with STU by trading, STU has lots of offers to buy the stuff at my set price, but i had to set up the rule to disallow trading with my own stations, otherwise my stations nearby would buy up all the stuff.
Sideeffect here is - looks like the traders assigned to my station are now also not allowed to buy something - and sell it to STU in Avarice, and STU does not send any traders by itself to Windfall.

Any ideas ? (without disabling all buy offers/changing prices on my other stations)
In case someone wants to try it - save at https://gofile.io/d/qg4udJ

Best regards
WoodyAut

[Imperial Good]

STU is? Since that is not a faction code in the English version of X4. Maybe you mean VIG? Or RIP?

Sideeffect here is - looks like the traders assigned to my station are now also not allowed to buy something - and sell it to STU in Avarice, and STU does not send any traders by itself to Windfall.

Blacklisting selling to yourself will prevent subordinate traders from buying the ware from the station to sell to a NPC or another station. For this reason it is generally recommended to avoid blacklisting selling to yourself.

My only suggestion would be to increase production of the wares to such an extent that your other nearby stations are as good as full so do not buy much from the trade station.

If you just want to grind reputation and do not care about "cheese" you can use scout ships with repeat orders to sell the NPC faction individual Energy Cells to a station with frequent demand. Number of trades contributes far more to reputation than the value of trades.

[WoodyAut]

Hi Imperial Good,

It's the (only) fraction in Avarice...no idea right now how it is called in the english version.
Anyway found a workaround....assign enough (50) traders - a few of them are still going then to Avarice and sell the stuff...
But i think traders assigned to a station should be allowed to buy at all times - regardless of other active rules - otherwise i could not exclude my own station from buying stuff thougt for someone else...
Even manual transfer wares and selling using the assigned traders does not work....
Btw...the hint using scout ships is even better...ok...the frogs will be sold

[edit] small addition - i didn't use blacklisting, just created a trade rule with "STU only" - and removed myself from it - and assigned this rule to the sold wares, so i would expect station assigned ships should sell only to STU

Best regards
WoodyAut

[Metran]

[VIG] Vigor Syndicate controls all 3 Windfall sectors, while [RIP] Riptide Breakers control all 3 of Avarice sectors.

[Metran]

If I understand you correctly, you have a station in either Windfall or Avarice sectors (doesn't really matter which) and want it to only sell to that sector/faction. If I recall correctly you do not get reputation from factions buying from your stations. But rather only if your ships buy from or sell to NPC stations.

My suggestion would be, rather than having a station for buying/selling goods in the sector, just have Freighters on the "Repeat orders" behaviour buying the resource cheap somewhere and sell it to the chosen sector. The Freighter (ship) used depends on what resource is traded and how much is expected to be sold each trip (time). That's how I usually do it.

[Caedes91]

No need for repeat orders. These ships only clog up the unassigned ship list. Setting them up individually is too much of a hassle too. My method once set up, can be easily applied to station traders.

Here is how I do it:

Make sure your station manager is at the star level, where he can "reach" the sectors you want to operate in. You need the station, a few traders and finally two blacklists (trade-rule-category and blacklist category):

• In logical overview go to the wares you want to sell and set trade rule where you sell to anyone (no restrictions), usually enabled by default in global orders. If your default is different, then uncheck "use global setting" and click the "pen-icon" to create a new one.

• Now create a blacklist for applying to ships. !Keep in mind that there are two categories! Trade-rules apply to logical overview of the station and can be set for each ware individually. Ships however, use BLACKLISTS with the sub-category "Trade restrictions". Make sure you are at the category: Blacklists->Trade-restrictions.
  Create, name and save a new blacklist, where you only allow trade with all factions but not you. Uncheck your self in the selection window. I usually call it something like "Trade Restriction - Only AI"

• Assign one or more traders to said station. By default, they use the commanders settings. In this case, the commander is the station and not a fleet leader. Now go into the tab "individual instructions" of your trader (whistle symbol next to behaviour tab). Stations also have this tab, where you can change the exact same thing and have your traders use these settings by default. But not in this case, so back to the ships

• Scroll down and set trade-restriction blacklist: Uncheck "Use commander's setting (station blacklists)". Then select your AI-only blacklist. Now your trader will take the wares from the station it is assigned to, but will only sell to other factions and to none of your other own stations.

• Repeat for each station trader you want to have selling only to AI.

It may sound complicated, but once you understood the principle, these blacklists give you great control over your station and ships' behaviour. The opposite can also be achieved: Just set a blacklist, that only allows ships to trade internally with your own stations. Great for prioriting supply for your own stations and must-have setting for wharves and shipyards.

This works well for me. This is how my trade stations/distribution-centers are set up. My station traders are a mix of ships that distribute and fill shortages between my own stations (blacklist to restrict trading to myself) and traders whose purpose is to make money by selling to AI. You can narrow it down even further having other sector-activities-blacklists active too, for example set specific sectors to operate in.

One use-case: Restricting your station-miners to certain sectors, so they don't wander too far off once your manager levels up and having the risk getting destroyed. Only downside is, that you have to change for each individual ship. Currently, you can't set behaviour or blacklist to multiple ships at once.