MK3 is significantly more advanced, completely fire-and-forget. This plugin is just some extra automation for manual trading.Grimshad wrote:Isnt this script basically the exact same thing as Trade Software MK3 (universal trader) ? Except of course it seems like you have more control here and customizability. How does this differ besides that though? If it is the same, then that means you just eliminated the need to purchase MK3 to have your ship be a universal trader. now you can do it at the start for pretty cheap, right?
E.g. MK3 supposedly looks at ware buy prices, looks at ware sell prices and finds the ware that can make it the most money. This plugin simply loops through the assigned wares and will buy regardless of whether it can actually sell or not, and vice versa.
It has somewhat different modes of usage than a MK3. Examples of use from my own game:
- I have one TS for each race, trading in their 3 or 4 race-only wares (food, etc), purely to help my rep with those races.
- I have a TS buying/selling Ore, a TS buying/selling Silicon and a TS buying/selling Energy Cells, just to give the AI economy a boost (mainly to keep weapons fabs producing).
- I have a TS buying/selling practically every missile and ammo type I can find. It sells via a TL ship, so this TL always has a nice stockpile of missiles/ammo. Occasionally, though, the TL starts to fill up with missiles, so I have to set the TS to 'sell only' for a bit.
- I have a TS that buys (not sells) all the types of weapons and shields that I use, with the price restriction set depending on the rarity of the item. This TS also dumps the wares at the aforementioned TL.
- Finally, a bit off topic but related, I use my Auto prep ships plugin using the same TL as above, either to run the command or as the designated storage depot for other carriers (i.e. TMs).