Lucike wrote:jlehtone wrote:... set minimum "protected" stock for Produkts ...
Hm ... I understand. Only for intermediate products?
Einkauf Zwischenprodukte
Der Händler kauft bis zu diesem Lagerbestand die Zwischenprodukten ein.
I will change this point. In the future this value is also the minimum stock for intermediate products.
Lets make a (fictional) example to check if I did understood:
First, variables (X3R defaults):
{C} (20%) Verkauf Produkte
{D} (30%) Verkauf Produkte wenn Fracterladeraum
{F} (10%) Einkauf Zwischenprodukte
{G} (80%) Verkauf Zwischenprodukte
Zwischenprodukte: Crystal
Fracterladeraum: 2500 Crystal
Komplexladeraum: 2000 Crystal
Now, whenever Komplex has under 200 (F*2000) Crystals, HVT will buy more.
IF Komplex has over 1600 Crystals (G*2000), HVT can sell.
THEN IF there is a big consumer, HVT can sell
all Crystals in one go, since it can load up to 2500.
In theory, the HVT is likely to buy Crystals on its next trade run, but it is possible for that to fail and the Komplex remain without sufficient Crystals for a while. That is a risk.
The user can already eliminate the risk by shrinking the Fracterladeraum (by smaller ship, or larger Jump Fuel reserve. With Fracterladeraum of 1000 Crystals, the Komplex would always have at least 600 Crystals.
Some users have set the F and G to, say 60%. With Fracterladeraum of 1000 the above example Komplex will always have at least 200 Crystals, and can fill all the way with one trade run (if a large producer exists). The HVT can constantly buy and sell the intermediate. Maximal trade. Safely (if you know what you are doing).
Your proposed change sets the F to serve as hard limit?
In the original example, when the Komplex has 1700 Crystals, the HVT will sell at most 1500 (and leave 200), even if it could sell all 1700 in one go?
This sounds like a good safety mechanism. But it prevents the scale of trade that is now possible with F=G=60% approach. The Komplex would always keep at least 1200 Crystals, and could sell at most 800 at once. And it would have less frequently the need to buy some more (since it could sell to below the F (buying limit).

I'm not sure if that change is
fun.
The trade of Produkt is an another matter. Lets take another example, SKW XL:
Produkte: EZ
Fracterladeraum: 3000 EZ
Komplexladeraum: 50.000 EZ
When will the HVT sell?
* IF SKW has at least 10.000 EZ (C*50.000)
* IF SKW has at least 900 EZ (D*3000)
=> Whenever the SKW has at least 900 EZ
How many EZ there will always be after HVT has loaded itself?
* At least
0
This is good and as intended: if there are enough HVTs, all the Produkt gets sold, all the time.
But, the best you can do to keep some Produkt is to set D=101%. That will leave at least 30 EZ when the 3000 unit Fracter loads. Not much.
The C is actually not used much. The D condition is much more likely to be true, unless the Komplexladeraum is very small. You could drop the C to 0% to force selling small amounts, but you get that with D=0% just as fine.
Summary: If you have Produkt, HVT will sell. This is good.
Except: The Station/Komplex is part of a
Closed Loop too. WLS1 makes sure that the Produkt is delivered to the consumer in the Loop. The Produkt is actually an intermediate within the Loop, even though it is "just a" Produkt for HVT.
Assume that the Loop "stable", ie production exceeds consumption. You want to sell the surplus too, with HVT. Therefore, HVT and WLS1 will compete for the Produkt. WLS1 has a variable (default value 5%) that it uses like HVT uses C and G. You can thus force it to leave some, if you need to. But the HVT will "clear the house".
That was my original issue.
Another example:
I have SKW XL in Argon Prime. More than one HVT (Caiman Haulers). They do sell everything. I have used that SKW to refuel Mammoths (I build big, so I have 36 Mammoths hauling Stations, and add 2000 EZ to each). Dolphin SF does the refueling, but I did run into problem of the SKW not having sufficient reserve thanks to the efficiency of the HVT.

The HVT could sell at same rate even if they would leave 15.000 into the Station for my personal use.
I have only one idea: Let the value of D to be set to a number larger than 101. For example, I could set it to 9.000%. Then, the C condition would probably become true before D (except in insane Komplexes), and I would have some more power over HVT. This change should not break anything else.
There will always be odd cases, like MikroChips plant with Produktladeraum of 40 Chips. Way less than any sane TS laderaum. But Chips are not conventional "intermediate" (except with the PHQ?) anyway, so who cares?
Do you still understand my ramblings?
