Autotrade requires a three star trader?

[Janners]

Hi,

I wanted to setup a fleet of autotraders to make some money and fill some gaps in the economy.
But then i noticed that to select 'Autotrade' as the default behavior you need a pilot with atleast three stars in trading.

I have not yet found any crew that has that level. Even on the big capital ships i have found a couple two star managers and pilots but no traders.

So my question is, how are people able to have large fleets of auto traders if three star trading skill seems to hard to find?
Any tips or hints as to where i can find them?

Thanks!

[Ranix]

Sometimes when I buy a new trading ship from a wharf my pilot has stars. I also hire a couple crewmembers for every ship, but I'm not sure if that helps.

When I want to start a new autotrader and don't have a good pilot I swap one out from a miner. My miners seem to train up the pilots really fast. They're just mining ore and ice, and I have a few gas miners mining hydrogen and methane. The small mining ships seem to train the captains up just as quick as the medium ships.

[Janners]

Hmmm, i forgot to check my miner pilots, good tip!

Since last i heard leveling up crew was bugged i didn't think to check them.

When buying a ship i also use the 'high preset' trick to get better crew, but so far best i got that way was a three star pilot...but without the trading skill

[Tomonor]

I'm pretty sure not. My autotrader works (it generates profit at least), and I hired a simple scoundrel from the streets to pilot it.

[Janners]

Really? Very strange.

In my game the option 'Autotrade' is greyed out and has three starts next to it as a requirement.
Maybe a change in the latest patch then?

Can't post a screenshot since i'm at work at the moment.

[pref]

You can select the trade ship with literally 0 skill captain, right click on empty space in map and send him to trade in sector you clicked or in the whole galaxy.

Took me some time to realise i dont need a proper captain for this..

[captainradish]

There's the active trading and behavior trading. You can simply give your 0-level pilot the command "trade galactic" and they will start auto trading.

[Zippo342]

Please be advised that both behaviors can be rather buggy. I have had 3-4 star pilots in fighters simply coast around space doing nothing for hours, never making a single trade. My 4 star pilot in a transport though works almost constantly.

Yes, there are trades that can be done for the fighter pilots.

[Paddyy]

My small ships that are exploring the sectors are also producing good pilots.
And btw, if you want a better variety of crewmembers on stations, I can recommend this mod her: https://www.nexusmods.com/x4foundations/mods/27