Sector Trader/Universe Trader Guide Now Available (X3)

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 21:54

As i already stated I'm almost certain that you can uni trade with tp's and that being able to carry XL freight is a advantage not a necessary(i really wish i could spell) my TP (which is at around lvl 3/4) which i tested the tp sector trader stuff for the guide on is able to be turned into a uni trader (but it sends the message "Not Experienced enough" which leads me to believe that they are fine to be uni traders

Certainly in X2 they could be like Storm666 said and I haven't seen any evidence otherwise yet so until i get round to doing more testing and update the guide that's the best i can offer

cheers

FyreByrd

Yellowjack · Post by **Yellowjack** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 22:06

I have this Caimen at level 10, its specs have been checked against the guide requirements. However, the Universal trader button won't light up and I'm all out of clues.

It trades fine as Sector trader never giving me a problem but I cannot make it kick off as Universal Trader. Any Ideas? The cargo size was my last hope and it has been dashed.

steel chicken · Post by **steel chicken** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 22:12

im constantly getting the out of energy message when power plants are only 2 jumps away, is there some way to boost the # of sectors the UT will look?

I checked the scripts for it, but its fairly complex, and couldn't find the obvious variable called "look for energy for x # of sectors"

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 22:14

First of all a Caimen is a TS not a TP so the cargo size shouldn't be a problem at all!

if you've checked and double checked (and triple checked) the things you need and you have them all then there is no reason that i can see that you shouldn't be able to turn him into a uni-trader

I can't see any reason why a tp won't turn because my tp's uni trader light is lit - make sure that if you have a tp it's not one that has a S cargo restriction see the list above for those - but other than that I'm not sure

Hope this helps - if not get back to me with the exact ship type, what equipment you have on it and any other details and i'll run some tests and find out what's going on

cheers

FyreByrd

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 22:16

Sorry Steel Chicken that's a scripters job I'm afraid - can't do anything about that until either a scripter changes it (i think a few already have?) or ego changes it.

PLEASE EGO CHANGE IT

cheers

FyreBYrd

Arbalest · Post by **Arbalest** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 23:07

Yellowjack wrote:I have this Caimen at level 10, its specs have been checked against the guide requirements. However, the Universal trader button won't light up and I'm all out of clues.

It trades fine as Sector trader never giving me a problem but I cannot make it kick off as Universal Trader. Any Ideas? The cargo size was my last hope and it has been dashed.

I had trouble getting one ST to convert to UT. I thought I had checked everything, but had missed Fight Software. I installed Fight Software 1 and that enabled the option. I think that might be so they can use fighter drones? I installed Fight Software 2 also, just in case.

Anyway, make sure you check EVERYTHING listed in the guide.

Yellowjack · Post by **Yellowjack** » Thu, 1. Dec 05, 23:40

Sorry, my ship is an iquana (it was before breakfast and I was still dozy).

However, I have at long last managed to get the pilot to transfer to a new ship by changing the arguement order. I was selecting: giving ship, receiving ship and place which didn't work. When I tried: receiving ship, giving ship then place it worked fine. With level 10 pilot in new Mercury the Universal trader button came on and he is now trading as a Univesal trader.

I am still curious as to why the Iguana couldn't trade as universal trader it had all the quals listed in the guide.

X-it · Post by **X-it** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 00:15

Big Bad Orca wrote: To transfer a UT trader to another ship - you have to be in sector (I believe) and go to your own ship's command console - special commands - change pilot... then select the UT trader first, then the ship you wish him to move to and finally the station... The UT will take with him... 1x25MJ shield, 1xMk3 software, 1x fight command software mk 1, 1x fight command software... that's all he needs to do his job. Make sure your new ship does not have any of the software installed before you make the change... doesn't matter about shields, though he'll take them anyhow.

Thank you! I had been trying to move the pilot, but had no success. Tried your tip about selecting special commands / change pilots from my own ship menu, and it worked! It did not work when selecting it through the old ship's menu (it had all upgrades installed).

Step by step:
---------------

old ship=current trader
new ship=ship you'd like pilot from old ship to transfer to

- buy a new ship, but do not install any equipment on it, except for one 25MJ shield (and of course speed-, steering and cargobay upgrades if you like). If there are no 25MJ shields available in the area you can transfer one of the shields from the old ship to the new ship before starting the exchange, for example by using the freight transporter on your own ship while you're all in space.

- park both the old ship and the new ship in space somewhere - preferably in the same sector. Do not dock them at a station

- go to your own ships com menu, select 'special commands' and then 'change pilots' (you'll probably need one of the special commands upgrades to do this, but I'm not sure)

- select the sector with the old ship, then the ship itself

- select the sector with the new ship, then the ship itself

- select the sector with the station where you want the pilot exchange to take place, then the station

- the old ship will dock first at the station, then the new ship will start moving and dock as well after the old ship has docked, so this takes some time

- when both ships have docked, the new ship will be renamed to what the old ship was called before, and the old ship will be renamed to "---". This can be confusing, and you may think that the exchange hasn't succeeded, but it has. Just check the ship stats and pilots.

- the trading pilot will now have brought along any extra shields, trading software mk3 and fight software mk1 & 2 from the old ship to the new ship, as well as the jumpdrive and any fighter drones and compatible missiles (I think) if this was present on the old ship

- rename the new ship to what you want, and do what you want with the old ship, now called "---"

- transfer complete!

Thanks again for the tip, you Big Bad Orca!

And feel free to use this guide in your guide, Fyrebyrd...

Cheers,

Yellowjack · Post by **Yellowjack** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 01:14

Interesting when I just said that I couldn't do it that way but worked fine giving:

1) Receiving ship

2) Trader

3) the place of the trade

When I tried way suggested in previous post both ships didn't move after the orderwas completed. However when I tried the way that worked for me then both ships moved to place of exchange and the exchange took place. I have also seen the tip elsewhere in forum to try this way instead of the more usual way. And no it wasn't finger problem I have been trying the suggested way several times.

It would be interesting to find out why this is so.

Edit:
Aha, I had been using the UT ship menum, probably why things were weird. It is interesting that I wasn't the first to get it to work with reversed arguements.

Egosoft should have included this info in manual and they wonder why the forum is busy!

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 10:14

Thanks X-it will test it out sometime soon then plug it in to the guide. @yellowjack still have no idea why your iguana wouldn't turn uni trader - is it the normal igg or is it a varient - because the normal iggy has only a S cargo restriction which means he couldn't use a j-drive??

Cheers

FyreByrd

dukesatan · Post by **dukesatan** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 17:05

If any X3 documents need a small amount of space to be accessed, i'm sure i can give a little of our company web space to hosting them, just let me know in a PM if its ok and i'll add a link here as to where to find them.

Duke.

Yellowjack · Post by **Yellowjack** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 21:31

In response to Fyrebyrd's query regarding my Iguana. its specs say that freight class is "L". But its name is just Iguana, according to the ship tables I have the plain Iggy has only "S" class capacity and the Iguana Vanguard has "L" class but its top speed indicates that mine is in fact a "Vanguard".

So I guess the specs don't list the sub class. This is somewhat perplexing. I currently have my Iguana training a new pilot in a good sector for sector training. I will continue to use it this way until I need it for other things when I am more advanced in the game. You can understand why I thought UT had to have an XL capability.

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 22:01

@Yellowjack - yeah I'm not surprised at all why you'd think that (you even had me thinking it for a while!) really not sure why your iggy vanguard pilot wouldn't turn uni-trader. Unfortunaly I have an essay to write for monday so i haven't been able to do much testing on my iggy van to find out what's going on.

I'd noticed the ship details don't list varients which is very annoying specially when doing testing for things!!

Cheers

FyreByrd

Yellowjack · Post by **Yellowjack** » Fri, 2. Dec 05, 22:40

@Fyrebyrd Thanks for your guide and your interest. Good luck with the essay. I'm at the other end of the spectrum and pension day is not for another week.

Kamenjar · Post by **Kamenjar** » Sat, 3. Dec 05, 04:33

Might want to supplement with my "Freighters Chart - The good, the bad, and the ugly"
http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=108107
Makes caiman superfreighter (the 90m/s one) the recommendation.

Geggo · Post by **Geggo** » Sat, 3. Dec 05, 10:05

Just to add another good "training" sector, my Sector trader went from lvl4 to lvl 9 in about 1 hour in Menelaus Paradise. This sector is pretty damn good mainly cause it has 2 bo gas factory=>2 bofu factory=>2 end product fabs(cant remember what) and ofcourse trading station that takes bofu too.

Naturally it debends what state the sector is in, if theres no energy your screwed there, (2 adjacent sectors ALWAYS have energy at 12 Cr though)

Deleted User · Post by **Deleted User** » Sat, 3. Dec 05, 12:35

Ok... so anyone reached a critical mass of UTs yet?? I do remember someone said they had 50... I've got 34 now and 5 or 6 stay on standby most of the time - I also don't seem to make more money from them than I did at 24/25 ish... about 10 million per hour...

Someone also said that if you assign a homebase then they will try to fly home if they get stuck for ecells - anyone confirm this as having a homebase is essential to keep track of 34 UTs!!! I'm using the mine from the plot so no ecells there... but still nice to confirm or deny this...

Apocholypse · Post by **Apocholypse** » Sat, 3. Dec 05, 13:04

blackfire83 wrote:Yes, this DEFINITELY needs to be included in the Sticky "Guides" thread... And until it does, I suggest we keep it on the first page... This will go a LONG way to keeping the forums a little cleaner... I mean, no offense to the newbies (cause the manual is rather lacking) but it seems there's always half a dozen topics on the first page asking about UT's...

-blackfire83

I shall set up a thread right away!!

FyreByrd · Post by **FyreByrd** » Sat, 3. Dec 05, 13:42

@BBO I've had around 35 UT(at lvl 25) running fine with no problems - but then my game seems to be one of the only ones where the economy isn't broken - I still have loads of free-traders running round re-distributing things so the economy is fairly stable - although a couple of them tend to be "standby Junkies" They are all assigned to the plot station as a homebase but i've never seen them come back to their for ecells either maybe if i set up a spp as a home base - something to try next week i feel!

@Geggo - i only wanted to add a few sectors to assist newbies for sector trader levelling - i seem to be in a minority when i agree with Ego's seeming mission statement of..."Half the fun in the game is finding out about the game"

Cheers

FyreByrd

stubbs69 · Post by **stubbs69** » Sat, 3. Dec 05, 15:25

superb,well thats me sorted