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

[LV]

it's a tad dodgy at the moment, click the xml chat link at the top of the page and someone will be there to help you

[Plastique]

From what I can tell (I haven't gotten around to any X2 scripting yet, although I have a fair amount of programming knowledge and have done extensive scripting in other games) the biggest problem I have with the MK3 software is that it requires a player trigger to re-initiate the script when it results in a 'failure'.

First off I want to say that I might see the reasoning behind this type of programming decision, (periodic checking may force the game to chug) but from a players standpoint I would like to put a ship into a system and forget about it... not have to check in on it regularly to restart the script. I don't want to place too much blame on whoever wrote the script and I realize that there may well be other considerations (periodic script checks may put a significant load on the system, especially if there are numerous ships running this script) but if its not fire and forget I see (and have experienced) that the current trade MK3 script requires far too much maintenance to be useful, at this point I've sold off the only ship I had running the script and don't plan to purchase another unless a repair is made.

[Dhore]

The MkIII Sector Trader doesnt stop trading if you put it in a Sector with lots of factories - especially ones with oposing needs. Atreus Clouds is a good example if your trader is well shielded (you can take out the pirate base and throw an M6 in there and your trader wont be bothered.

I had a trader in there for 3 real time days - I had completely forgot about it ! tho my trade rank was slowly going up and up - until a damn cluster dropped right on its head. It must have made me at least 3 or 4 Mil (easy) in those 3 days - well worth the 700k I spent on it (all in all).

Since then I have one going from Emperors mins to Paranid Prime to Priest pity (tho he does run out of work in those sectors and I have to manually send him to the next sector every few hours) - the + of this is that I get a good increase in my Paranid relations too. So far that trader has made 1.2 Mil. How can that not be worth it?

[lost darkness]

home of light works good

[Geiger]

What I'd like to see is some kind of extension in this script that allows for say.. A method of maintaining multiple factories without relying on NPC stations for initial resources.. I mean if you own one of EVERY type of factory in the shipyards, and a bunch of solars.. You should conceivably be able to set up freight routes for those ships, so Ship A takes energy from SPP A and takes it to Mine A, then returns empty....

This could be the script you are looking for. I have a couple of nrg-loops setup with all ships using this script. It extends "buyware" to allow your ship to pick up wares from one of your factories for 0cr; you can also set how often the ship goes back ( -1 for forever).

Hope this helps.

Fantastic lil script BurnIt! Looking forward to next version

[mwirth]

It works great for me!

I use it in ore belt where I have 3 factories. One of them is an SPP, the others are mines which consume energy cells. If the sector trader runs out of trading opportunities, it can still supply my mines with energy cells from my SPP.

[uglycow]

I installed the trade mk3 update but I can't find it anywhere. I've been playing the game for a week since the update and I didn't buy any transports before I updated it. I thought it was supposed to be availalbe in Teladi space and on the TerraCorps HQ. Can anyone help me?

[Musubi]

Nice...

Installed this today and have lost all saved games. Trying to load any result in the game freezing on the "loading" page which it never recovers from. Deleting the scripts from the script and T folder does not recover.

*sigh*

[Musubi]

Update to this, once I'd deleted the script and restarted after deleting all saved games, everything works fine. No script and no old games, but at least I can play again.

I can't for the life of me understand if this script is/was the cause, but certainly I'd had no problems this game until then. I run no other scripts and have the UK 1.2 version of the game.

Just a caution to any who might be looking to try the autotrader 'add-on'.

Oh well, off I go to get my first SPP...again. 3 days and 18 hours of RT gameplay lost.

[Andypocalypse]

A question please Will it be a long wait for the universe trader ?

[RussellHoward]

I've had 15 or so sector traders running in sectors all over the place for a long, long time. Consistent profits. OK, every now and then you have to reset one of them (often in the same sector - no problem - a couple of keystrokes).

I have well over $100 million credits, three m2's, one m1, all the corvettes, and a ton of factories (mostly in Ore Belt, which I made my home - after completing THAT particular mission, I felt I'd earned it!!!!)

Sector trader, running 10x SETA most nights, while I park safely a sector away (usually at the Goner Temple - so I can grab a spare transporter or jump drive should I need one).

No weird crashes. No MKIII losing money. I've never written a script of my own, I am running "pure" 1.2. I have my traders all assigned to an otherwise abandoned crystal fab. I keep a boatload (10 million) credits there as a minimum. My Ore Belt collection of bases also makes me 10-15 million credits every night. And when I sometimes want to go "joysticking," I grab my Nemesis (PSG are such fun against Khaack clusters - you should try it) and go hunting.

All in all, for a guy that goes back twenty years to Elite on a Commodore 64, life is very, very good in the X Universe.

[CanadianBrit]

Any news on Mk4 universe?

Superb mod BTW!

[djssuk]

I can't seem to find many good long term sectors why I don't have to reet every few minutes. Any clues?

Also, as above, I remember Elite on the Acorn and Spectrum and then the Atari ST, so I am a happy bunny too.

Look forward to the next script.

As an idea, why can't we have the script wait a few minues and then start all over again in the same sector automatically. Probably after ten minutes or so. What do you think?


Ace Rimmer.

[Obiwan007]

Code: Select all

The next version will include the "universetrader" which is capable 
of doing intersector trading and eventually will even use the 
jumpdrive (this is currently not supported by the script engine 
but it will soon be)

Please stick to this topic! If you have problems with the script or specific questions post here - if you have general scripting questions please post them in a different thread.
Note that the ScriptEditor is still not officially supported!

ive just found this post, so plz forgive my posts elsewhere

Could u PLZ PLZ PLZ !!! add a function to allow a trade route setup usin the Mk3 software,

Silicon is cheap as chips in Presidents End and can be sold for 3x that in red Light it would be nice to be able to setup trade routes for yer TS/TP ships...

ie. buy Silicon from Sector Presidents End, sell in sector Red Light and have it loop the command as Buy/Sell Best does, this means

1. You still had to earn the cash to have such an option ie BUY Mk3 software

2. You got a chain TS/TP ships with specific trade routes makin u cash

3. Its all Legit, YOU found the sectors and YOU found the trade routes PLUS u still get the parkin fee so its not all money for nothin!

I hope sum1 reads this and gives it sum thought!

Obi

[clivew05]

Hi All,

I have tried to download the extension but all i get is Page Not Found! Has it been removed? where can I get it:? Its not in the game as standard as Argon Prime does not have it - MK2 is the highest which I believe is for when you have your own station as its greyed out all the time - but it would be nice to have the autotrade so I can leave a ship trading whilst going on some of the missions .... if anyone knows where I can download the extensions I would be gratefdul thanks

C

[BurnIt!]

It is included with 1.3 and therefore has been removed from the download page.

The software is available in the TerraCorp HQ in Home of Light and some Teladi Equipment Docks.

If you can't find something in Argon Prime it doesn't mean it's not in the game.

[Dungeoncrawler]

Does it still confide you to just one sector, or is it the new one that allows multiple sector trading?

DC/Gary

[clivew05]

When are you going to have time to finish it it stops at page 13 in the middle of the explanation would love to see more inly I want to get into this as a hobby programmer ( C++ )

Thanks

[SilverK]

when mkIII was a stand alone patch it would charge near 10k credits for every 50k it made you by the looks of it, 20% isn't a small amount, no idea what thet version with the 1.3 patch does
btw before ya decide where to have ya auto traders running run though the story missions, you'll see why when it happens then if ya want ya could always restart a new game and use ya knowleage of what happens then
thought those command software patches coulda been considered like paying those on board 'crews' on ya ships

mkIII pretty much is a oddball if ya have to pay 500k then have a on going fee, i'd say have a high buying fee then no ongoing fees or a low buying fee and ongoing fees later on, just havn't tested the one in v1.3 yet thou, had to uninstall the whole game then reinstall, my ships that were running mkIII software before the install didn't seem to be detected anymore till i reinstalled the stand alone mkIII patch thou i had a mod that added player hqs and 75mw shields to the game. i'd love if there were offical mods that added 75mw shields and ablity to build your own personal hq that functions like trading stations where ya can stock it with goods.

I had 1 mercury working in paranid prime which is their hw sector and 1 carman working in split's hw sector. these i put there to raise my relations with that race but in the process they made me great money and never stopped running, they were of course assigned to my one factory thou and they were pulling in much more money compared to the SPP they were home to before when i switched them to work for a factory i placed somewhere to had made non opertional
thing is ya will have to put shields on ya freighters, i had my mercury once die by hitting a factory and it only had 3k shields on it, reloaded the game and noticed it had some hull damage on it, prob from crashing into stuff, not sure why it happens, i have watched them without seta on and notice they show when they are avoiding stuff if ya look at them from the factory screen via owned ships

[ikramus]

where are you all downloading the trade extension from i am a registered user and i cant find it anywhere . obviosly i am not looking in the right place can someone please let me in on where it is ????