[6.0 HF1] Station manager won't trade

[bucho]

Here is the situation

I've got a trading station in Second Contact II Flashpoint with a 5 star manager and a bunch of container traders

Issue 1:

Got a graphene refinery in Eighteen Billion (3 jumps away) that is selling 8568 of graphene at 101 to any friendly faction

Station has a buy offer at 150 from any friendly faction and about 3000 of free storage

No trading is happening

Issue 2:

Friendly faction wants to sell 3685 microchips in Argon Prime (1 jump away) at 794

Station has a buy offer at 853 from any friendly faction and about 3000 of free storage

Again, no trades. Plenty of traders waiting for orders and the station is trading other resources

What am I doing wrong ?

Save game file

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11cCVSw ... sp=sharing

[bucho]

Sorry for bumping this up, but I'm just trying to understand if someone is looking into this. Understand that it might take much longer to figure out what might be causing this...

As a test I've tried building up another trading station and setting it up for graphene trade only in hope it would start trading, but have had no luck with it whatsoever. Similar trade station setup used to be working in 5.0

Thanks for helping

[j.harshaw]

Thanks for the report and the save.

Forcing one of that station's subordinates to trade only graphene, it finds a trade in an ANT Refined Goods Complex in Second Contact VII, preferring that factory since it's able to get a full load for under the trading station's asking price.
If I set a trade rule for Graphene using your "My Faction" filter, it is able to find your Eighteen Billion Graphene Refinery I.

Got a similar result when looking for microchips.

Subordinates of that station are trading. What exactly is the problem? That some of them stand idle for a time while looking for trades? Or are none of them going for trades?

[bucho]

Thanks for looking ! I guess I'll just double check everything on my end

[bucho]

OK, here is the problem

ARG Microchip factory [RVE-761] in Argon Prime is selling microchips at a price lower than what the trading station is willing to buy at. At the same time we have ANT Claytronics Factory [JJS-977] in Second Contact VII completely out of microchips and willing to buy at a max price.

The idea is to use trading station subordinates for ware distribution between these two stations (well, along with the others within the operating range) and that is not happening. Station subordinates just sit there idling looking for trades. Bumped them up to 100 just to see if it makes it any better, but no, 60-70 are still looking for trades.

Obviously I'm missing something very important by the look of it. Could you please explain subordinates mechanics ?

UPD

As you said, IF I restrict it to trade microchips only, everything just works. BUT when I have multiple wares (perhaps too many ?), subordinates just get into looking for trades mode

Have a feeling it might have something to do with the number of trade offers per station. Is there a limit or a recommended number ?

[j.harshaw]

The number of wares being traded by the station can certainly affect things, can increase the amount of time spent searching for trades as well as decreasing the chance that they'll find any particular pair of trades that you're interested in (simply because they'd be interested in so many more trades).

Also relevant is the number of subordinates a station has. While increasing the number of subordinates can increase the chance of one of them finding what you're interested in due to someone almost assuredly looking for trades at any given time, it also increases the amount of time each individual subordinate spends looking for trades.

[bucho]

Thank you kindly !

Just tried splitting the wares into 5 categories (Tier 1, Tier 2, Tier 3, Raw and Food) and it just works ! So if anyone is interested ended up having 5 trading stations to cover the entire economy and it just works

[Gungnr]

I set up a trade station last night and noticed some of the issues you were having, but caused by different things:

1. When adding wares to the list of things to trade, if you select too many from the list, it will only apply some of them. I selected 15 wares, and it populated the logical screen with maybe 10 of them. I had to add more one by one.

2. Adding drones to the station order messed up all subordinate traders! I requested 5 cargo drones be built, but did not have the materials for them. The station manager prioritized those materials for ALL of the subordinate traders, and because the materials did not exist within trading distance, all traders just sat there with their orders failing. Only when I cancelled the drones, they went back to work and traded normally.