[UPDATE 21/Jan/2004] Trade Command Extension MK3

[cuco]

I'm running MK3 trade at The Wall and at Thuruk's Pride, for the last two days. While the trader at The Wall stops once a while (and reports how well it did), the one at Thuruk's Pride has been runnig non-stop.

I see the ship status (sellware/buyware), I see it moving around the sector, so it's not simply stopped. I'm afraid to stop it and loose a good thing., besides, if I stop it ... will it give me a summary of how well it did ?
Does the profits get transfered continuously or when it stops (either by me or it can't find a good trade )

I'm constantly buying/selling equipment/ships/wares and don't want to track it by looking at my account.

Thanks for your help.

[BurnIt!]

Ship uses the account continously.
There is no "final" log message if you stop the command (at least not yet, has to do with the way the command system works)

[Wumpus23]

Great idea and execution! There's one small point I have a question about...

I was under the impression that your ships were computer controled completely. I never thought they were actually inhabited. What I'm trying to get at is the "pilot fee." Whereas this is a great concept, I'm not sure we, the hard working commanders, should be paying for it.

Ok ok, I'm greedy... I say intercourse the pilots and intercourse their fees! Who's with me?

[BurnIt!]

I updated the readme - the fee is for maintenance and docking permissions now
Yes the ships are computer controlled but the way used to store the level is kinda unique and very special (will change in 1.3 might drop the fee there or re-route it to my bank account )

All you need to know is this:
Level remains with a ship as long as you don't jump into it yourself this means the level will be lost.
(that's why I came up with the "you fire the pilot when you enter it" idea)

oh before I forget - there's a new version of the Trade Command Extension Mk3 available for download, patch instructions as before.
This new version fixes a rare game-freeze in "unprofitable" sectors with a trading station and a sectortrader of level4+

[helmann]

How do u find out what lvl your ship is at?
Also what are the benifits of each level?
Could we get a list please?

[Wumpus23]

Alas, upon reading the manual (something new for me) I found that you were indeed correct and that each ship does have an individual crew, excluding of course the times that you take over the ship yourself.

But in any case, well done! This is a nifty little script. You are adding well to the simulation aspect of the game by "charging" fees. That's awesome!

Thanks again!

[ged]

Apart from the Mk 3 trade software, what else is needed (does it need Mk1 and 2, and others?

[gradou]

I don't know if I have a problem or my trader is just level 1. I have a Toucan in the Wall and after the first complete trade he will give me a message saying His cargo bay is full and cannot buy more wares he needs my help. So I tell it to dock at a station a sell off his wares manualy. This happened everytime after the 1st trade run. Does this go away with higher level and everytime I stop him to sell off the wares and startup the tradeExt MK3 does that wipe out the money he has been earning to level up?

[BurnIt!]

@gradou are you sure you have the latest version?
Please read the "patch" instructions on page 1 of this thread and re-download the software extension.

@ged a ship
No other requirements for the time being.

[n0tsane]

since i didn't see an answer to helmann's question, i'll ask it again. how do you find out what level your ship is at? and what are the benifits of each level?

[BurnIt!]

At the moment you can't find out what level a ship has.
I'm still thinking whether to add a "Check level of trader" command to the command console or writing a "abc has reached level x" message to the logbook.

For the basic sectortrader there is only one level that makes a difference: level 4
from level 4 onwards the ship will check the product of the station it is docked at to avoid empty runs.

Once the software capable of inter-sector-trading is released the level will have influence on the maximum range for the ware finder and ultimately the jumpdrive usage.

[abaddon]

I can't seem to get the mk 3 trader script working right. I have it in a maxed mercury, and no matter what sector I start it off in, it always seems to stop after one run, telling me it has no more room for wares.

It always seems to be full of energy cells, which I can manually sell for a tidy profit at a nearby station in the sector. Why didn't the captain see this himself ? Maybe it's time to fire him, and re-interview for the position - I'm starting to suspect he inflated his resume somewhat...

[n0tsane]

ok, so how long or how much money would it take to reach level 4 so i can try to guess if my ship is at that level or not?

[abaddon]

I can't seem to get the mk 3 trader script working right. I have it in a maxed mercury, and no matter what sector I start it off in, it always seems to stop after one run, telling me it has no more room for wares.

It always seems to be full of energy cells, which I can manually sell for a tidy profit at a nearby station in the sector. Why didn't the captain see this himself ? Maybe it's time to fire him, and re-interview for the position - I'm starting to suspect he inflated his resume somewhat...

OK, he just did it again stopped after one run - messaged me that he was full, and didn't know what to do, and he had a hold full of energy cells while docked at a power plant, and there was a mine in the sector offering 22Cr for them. What am I doing wrong ?

[gradou]

I am having the very same problem. I don't know if this is a bug or just a low level of the trader program. Abaddon, do you have any other scripts running or ever had any trading scripts. I use to have a few trading scripts but I thought I deleted them but in my trade command a see Rich Text written where the commands use to be. Maybe that is causing a problem.

[Reven]

To check to see what level the trader is at, you need to use a script. The trader uses a special commodity - Salvage Insurance - to store its level. That is, the number of Salvage Insurance units on the ship is the level of the trader.

Myself, I am having a lot of trouble getting the trader to level up. It buys once, then buys again, then buys again, and then messages me that his hold is full. I immediately check the best selling price locator, and there are lots of places it could have sold the commodities it had on hand. I have tried upwards of 20 times in 5 different sectors. I have never been able to get the ship to exceed 50,000 in profit so that it could level up.

I would suggest that it is too "stupid" at the beginning. Being that "buy low, sell high" just isn't rocket science, and that if it's simple enough to actually handle in a script, it's simple enough to teach to the theoretical "pilot", I think that the learning curve is a little too much attempt at realism.

What I would like to see is a new set of script commands. What I envisioned when I first heard about scripts was that they would be completely in-character. I like that you can do more with them, but that makes it troublesome to judge what is "cheating" and what is simply using scripts intelligently. I would like to see a set of "in-character" scrpting commands. Some of the ones that are there already would be considered in-character (fly to a location, etc). A difinitive list of ones that are considerd in-character would be great, in addition to some new ones that allow a script to obtain information from a best-buys locator (if installed) instead of having to use out-of-character mechanisms to obtain price information. This way, if a script utilizes only commands that are in the official "in-character-approved" list, then it would be considered an in-character script.

[n0tsane]

thats a good idea Reven about the Best Buy/Sell locator. if this script used that it would be more in character than just having the ship look around for the best buy and sell of a product on its own. it would actually be using part of the game that was intended to be used.

[abaddon]

OK, some progress - I directed him to yet another sector (the one east of Paranid Prime), and he finally managed to string together 24 or so runs (a little over 100K profit) before calling it quits - so maybe I was just unlucky with all the previous attempts, though I do suspect a bug there.

[abaddon]

I am having the very same problem. I don't know if this is a bug or just a low level of the trader program. Abaddon, do you have any other scripts running or ever had any trading scripts. I use to have a few trading scripts but I thought I deleted them but in my trade command a see Rich Text written where the commands use to be. Maybe that is causing a problem.

Nope, only scripts I have run was the one that gave me the Khaak destroyer, and that was only in a non-saved game (it was fun running riot in it, but the galaxy was a little empty afterwards...) and one to de-tune the rudder on my nova (created another nova, and shot the old one).

[Reven]

though I do suspect a bug there.

I don't think there are any bugs in the code, though I don't pretend to fully understand scripting. It is just coded in such a way that it doesn't necesarily search out the best runs. It doesn't make sure there is someone it can sell to before it buys something, and it has a fondness for trade stations. It goes through an iterative process where it randomly picks a commodity from the global list of commodities and then sees if it can buy some of it. After a certain number of tries, it gives up.

All in all, I personally think that it is too restricted in its scope. Because scripting can do anything, I see a reluctance to release really smart scripts, as it would seem to unbalance the game. That's the major reason why I think we could really use a set of in-character interface libraries so that we can have a good distinction as to what would constitute an in-character vs. an out-of-character (or cheat) script.