phq station manager being stupid.

[Turmfalke2]

hi,
I wanted to use the station manager to stock some common resources for manufacturing new ships. However instead of doing that the station manager decides to upgrade my ship (get fight drones), then puts them into storage and repeat.

All my transport ships are now busy buying fight drones 10 at a time and I have a giant stockpile of them in my phq. Is there are document describing how to use the station manager on the phq?

[Hwitvlf]

One of the problems with FL across the board is that no one has made a cohesive instruction manual describing all the details.

The manager controls are fairly simple, but I don't use it much. I think you could stop them from buying drones by setting station manager restrictions in the station's control panel. Specifically Fighter Drone = "block". Or, try setting the "maximum storage" for fighter drones at the HQ to something reasonable.

[Turmfalke2]

I think the issue is that they aren't buying them for the phq, but they buy them as part of their upgrade routine. I want my traders to have some drones to dump in case they get attacked. However the phq strips the ship the moment it docks. I think it also removes their energy cells, but the auto jump/resupply command immediately restocks them again.


The in game encyclopedia just tells me the station manager is a command that can be enabled on stations, complexes or the phq. Thanks.


I wish I could just have the litcube dockerware manager instead ( http://litcube.xtimelines.net/wiki/inde ... ockWareMgr ).


Ok, apparently the station manager is based on mod from cycrow from 2018, or at least that is what it says in the copyright header says.

The scripting language is rather alien, but I suspect this is the code that strips the fight drones. Presumably fight drones aren't equipment and somehow end up in the products/primary/secondary table. I am not exactly sure what that means in the context of the phq. I have marked fight drones as storage.

Code: Select all

 
* check all docked ships and empty their cargo holds
  sub.EmptyCargo:
  $docked.ships = [THIS] -> get owned ships: class/type=Moveable Ship
  if $docked.ships
    $i = size of array $docked.ships
    while $i
      dec $i =
      $ship = $docked.ships[$i]
      $docked.at = $ship -> is docked
      skip if $docked.at
        continue
      skip if $docked.at == [THIS]
        continue

      $ware.table = [THIS] ->get products table: include equipment=[FALSE]
      gosub sub.EmptyWare
      $ware.table = [THIS] ->get primary resources table
      gosub sub.EmptyWare
      $ware.table = [THIS] ->get secondary resources table
      gosub sub.EmptyWare
      $ship ->remove secondary signal: signal=SIGNAL_KILLED, name='station.manager'
      $ship ->remove secondary signal: signal=SIGNAL_ATTACKED, name='station.manager'
    end
  end
  endsub

[Hwitvlf]

Yes, Litcube's Universe is a piece of art and still the most intelligent, bug free version of X3 in my opinion.

It would be an educated guess that the "Resource" tag would add drones to the primary resource table and 'Tradeable' to the secondary. If the Manager is buying drones as an upgrade, and they're being dumped at the HQ by the generic cargo handling routine, does it ignore the 'Maximum Storage' and "Blocked" settings?

Did setting drones to 'Storage' stop them from buying more?

[Turmfalke2]

It is completely stupid. I removed all the fighter drones from the hq, but that doesn't remove them from the list. I can't unregister them. I have them set to storage, thinking this is the "don't touch them" setting. I even used the station manager restrictions to block fighter drones, that also gets ignored.

At the very least the phq strip function needs to ignore items added by the upgrade routine.

Maybe Farnham's Legacy is an improvement over vanilla, but compared to litcube or mayhem is feels like a step back. The only clear FL feature I can see is the dynamic relations, which feel really volatile at low reputation levels and largely irrelevant at high. I am still waiting for the argons to really do anything against me.


E:
I might have tricked it. I turned fight drones to product and set them to the lowest possible price. I think they still get stripped, but then the upgrade routing 'buys' them locally again.

[Hwitvlf]

It is completely stupid. I removed all the fighter drones from the hq, but that doesn't remove them from the list.

If drones are removed from the HQ's ware list through the station's control panel, do the agents still drop them at the HQ?

[Turmfalke2]

Do you mean through station commands -> Station manager restrictions? I think that just prevents traders from dealing in them. It certainly doesn't affect the upgrade/drop them at the hq routine.

[Hwitvlf]

No, I meant through the HQ's console as in: Advanced > Command Console > Remove Available Ware.

[Turmfalke2]

Oh I didn't see that one. In the meantime I removed fighter drones from the upgrade section. I have yet to see the AI actually attacking me. I got my transports to buy some energy cells, but now they are just sitting in the hq twiddling their thumbs with no indication what is wrong. I also just saw how many millions I have payed them in wages for doing nothing.