Broken economy?

[Garik_Loran]

Hey guys,

I've been at it for quize some time now with a lot of universal traders, about 25-30. In X3AP I was friends with everyone and there I made more than 200 M in a night with 10x Seta

Now in X3FL they made about 100 Million a night as I was friends with Argons, Boros and slightly Split. The latter hate my guts now but at least 4 major Companies are friends as well (OTAS, Terracorp, NNMC and Atreus)

Missing the split sectors seemed to drop the income quite a bit, but it can't be as it is now....

Had some miners working for the hq as well and accidentally stacked ore, nividium and silicon at my hq in the starting region until it was full. I used the ore to build lasertowers but silicon usage of about 1 Million space was hard to reduse. At that point I basically had all stuff on storage only and only stuff I really need as ressource (such as chips, certain rockets.. )

Since I wanted to move my HQ, I needed to empty it first, so I set the 1 M silicon to product at a low price and let the traders do their thing. After one 8h night of 10x seta the stock was actually completely gone.

But then I saw that I only generated about 5 M credits with basically 80h ingame. My 2 laser tower factories which where on buy at max price didnt produce a singe lasertower in 80h whereas they did massively before.

I don't know if I just made a mistake with the hq config, but it doesnt make sense to me. the LT factories were stocked with money and did nothing even with the config to pay the max price for everything.

The UT should work fine but didnt seem to work. I didn't see them stuck either (this happened befire but not now).

So I really wonder how they generate basically bo income at all (only 5M in 8x10h against 100M in 8x10h before).

Do you guys gave any clue whats going on? To me it seems tjat the economy is broken, but I'm almost certain I made a mistake at some point and now am not able to find it

[beast_regards]

The economy is broken as there are almost universal shortages of all goods, and that shortages become more severe as the time go on. For example, I run into Crystal, or shortages of Nostrop, or Rastar.

Your sector traders would cease to operate soon after you set them up and your universal trades with jump drives would run out things to trade in a few hours, assuming you are friendly with most. You are behind the curve of profitability, as in X3FL the UT aren't something you set and forget for passive income anymore, but temporary investment you repurpose afterwards. If you aren't friendly with the most, your UT may be blown up very quickly, as friendly races don't hold homogenous continuous territory and UT don't actually jump everywhere.

Your HQ and Hub are actually best things to sell Nvidium, Silicon and so on, as occasionally, traders buying in bulk show up. However, keep in mind, due to dynamic relations, factions blow each other's transports and such shipments are literal black hole, and you rarely run into trades which have necessary quantity of goods to sell. Running Laser Tower factory is notoriously difficult, by the way, to the point I looked for a way to duplicate them, but I needed them as the combat method. Keep in mind, the Large sized laser tower is 3 lasertowers per hour, which is 450k credits at max.

I had to actually transfer everything from HQ to Hub when I was leaving the Void, and the inventory sold pretty quickly, and that was the end of it as many NPC actually have ore or silicion, but not food.

[Garik_Loran]

Thanks for the Hub Tipp, I will try that one

I am enemy to Pirates, Yaki, Split, Paranids, Dukes and Strongarms and friendly to the rest.

I mostly use Dukes Athenas as UT and in most times they survive, but in income is really bad by now, the only advantage of 10x Seta over night is the fight rank loss so that Xenon won't go berserk too early.

With the factories I have my problems. In X3AP the was the CLS which you could use for selling runs as well as buying stuff right off the shelf. I thought X3FL would be easier but somehow I don't get it right. To me it seems you can only supply well when you own all factories but just setting e.g. an Athena to supply the laser tower factory didn't work, or maybe I just haven't found the correct menu

[L1thorex]

I mostly use Dukes Athenas as UT and in most times they survive, but in income is really bad by now, the only advantage of 10x Seta over night is the fight rank loss so that Xenon won't go berserk too early

Imo the TS-ATs are traps for UTs since they rarely make use of their cargo space and their huge upfront cost (remember that any capped Athena you use as an UT is also an Athena you could have sold for a couple million credits) means they take a long time to amortize themselves. I generally stick with Caimans of the Hauler/Tanker XL/Super Freighter variants for my UTs.

[beast_regards]

Thanks for the Hub Tipp, I will try that one

I am enemy to Pirates, Yaki, Split, Paranids, Dukes and Strongarms and friendly to the rest.

I mostly use Dukes Athenas as UT and in most times they survive, but in income is really bad by now, the only advantage of 10x Seta over night is the fight rank loss so that Xenon won't go berserk too early.

With the factories I have my problems. In X3AP the was the CLS which you could use for selling runs as well as buying stuff right off the shelf. I thought X3FL would be easier but somehow I don't get it right. To me it seems you can only supply well when you own all factories but just setting e.g. an Athena to supply the laser tower factory didn't work, or maybe I just haven't found the correct menu

CLS (equivalent) doesn't work quite right.

I set up a TS which is supposed to buy out all microchips (which are, by the way, most precious commodity in X3FL) and it is constantly stuck as it is impossible to get enough goods to trigger the departure.

Supplying NPC stations with goods is equally difficult, in my case feeding their chip plants with nostrop or cahoonas, it has to be done manually, even if there are all factories in the sector for the Sector Traders to work.

I also set up a TS which sells weed from my own complex and it is constantly busy, only occasionally getting shot at ... which is normal, due to illegal goods.

If you own lasertower factory, you need to assign the station manager to handle the supplies. It requires salary atop of whatever expenses it has for the goods. It is kinda moody, but it works. It is distinctively different from selling at / buying at command of CLS in AP. Station manager works with any TS with homebase in the said station, and required software. It's generally better with faster transports as it doesn't buy in bulk.

I personally use three Athenas and one Moa originally intended as sector / universe trader, but these days I micromanage them to deliver goods to black market in large quantities.

[Garik_Loran]

Thanks guys

I haven't noticed the station manager so far, so I will certainly try. I supplied the Laser Tower Factories manually but that was really a pain, however I got about 250 Towers which is hopefully enough to block at least 3 Gates. In X3AP I was able to send a Trader on a route, pick up Space fuel at my factories and sell at all pirate bases, that made some great credits, but this will no longer work.

For UT I have some pirate ships as well as cheap option but I thought due to the X3AP experience, that the Athenas will survive and be a good asset, but the economy is really dead at the moment. I guess I have to move my HQ and then start conplex building. haven't activatet any TOAs so far with the exception of the first from the mission.

[Garik_Loran]

CLS (equivalent) doesn't work quite right.

I set up a TS which is supposed to buy out all microchips (which are, by the way, most precious commodity in X3FL) and it is constantly stuck as it is impossible to get enough goods to trigger the departure.

Supplying NPC stations with goods is equally difficult, in my case feeding their chip plants with nostrop or cahoonas, it has to be done manually, even if there are all factories in the sector for the Sector Traders to work.

I also set up a TS which sells weed from my own complex and it is constantly busy, only occasionally getting shot at ... which is normal, due to illegal goods.

If you own lasertower factory, you need to assign the station manager to handle the supplies. It requires salary atop of whatever expenses it has for the goods. It is kinda moody, but it works. It is distinctively different from selling at / buying at command of CLS in AP. Station manager works with any TS with homebase in the said station, and required software. It's generally better with faster transports as it doesn't buy in bulk.

I personally use three Athenas and one Moa originally intended as sector / universe trader, but these days I micromanage them to deliver goods to black market in large quantities.

Thanks for the tipp with the station manager. I assigned 2 Athenas to each laser tower factory. And it worked instantly and soon there were fully stocked.

But then something odd happened. Now the ships just sit in the home base and the factories didn't produce a single tower in the last 6 ingame days, even though I set buy range to 50 sectors, max price and even with fully stocked ore mines or solar plants in the neighbor sector. I don't get it, normally it should be easy for them to buy, but they just don't move. Is there amything more to it?

Is there a way to program a trader just to buy everything a station produces? In X3AP I could use the CLS and set min amount to 1, price high and then for example the trader would buy (or load with own factories) every flail produced .

Here in X3FL I haven't figured out how to do this. To me it seems the commands are all focused on supply runs within own factories but at the moment I don't have the ones necessary.

[beast_regards]

But then something odd happened. Now the ships just sit in the home base and the factories didn't produce a single tower in the last 6 ingame days, even though I set buy range to 50 sectors, max price and even with fully stocked ore mines or solar plants in the neighbor sector. I don't get it, normally it should be easy for them to buy, but they just don't move. Is there amything more to it?

Resources run out.

Usually it means there aren't enough Cahoonas or Soya Beans in the area, and station stops working because of the food shortage. Food is often the issue, not cells, though I found situation where the energy cells run out. Running out of food is guaranteed. Running out of energy cells is unlikely, but it could happen if you are hostile with too many factions. I for example couldn't even enter Paranid, Argon and Boron sectors at all.

If you build a complex that contains powerplant, food factory and lasertower factory, you would eventually exhaust the supply of crystals instead.

But then something odd happened. Now the ships just sit in the home base and the factories didn't produce a single tower in the last 6 ingame days, even though I set buy range to 50 sectors, max price and even with fully stocked ore mines or solar plants in the neighbor sector. I don't get it, normally it should be easy for them to buy, but they just don't move. Is there amything more to it?

Nope. I tried this with microchips and it doesn't work. Only reliable way to buy out all goods is to have TS docked at the station, check it regularly, and buy everything immediately it is produced, otherwise the other traders would buy everything out and your CLS merchant wouldn't even trigger. Micromanagement is often only way.

Valuable goods are emptied very quickly, even in sectors which aren't normally accessed by the NPC. I operate out of pirate sectors, and even though no one trades with them and only I supply them, they are still losing wares very quickly because there is universal shortage.

Btw if you set range to 50 you will include hostile sectors, and your traders will go to that hostile sector, get attacked and die. If you have TS-AT they will escape before getting destroyed, but their progress will reset to zero and the goods will never get brought or sold. (if they run into Xenon Q or bigger, they will die)

[Garik_Loran]

Will the Station Manager ships ignore the global blacklist? With universal traders it works, but in some pirate sectors sometimes ships show up even when they shouldn't, but only when I'm in sector

I worked with the docked TS as well to buy stuff such as chips manually but it really is a pain. As far as I understood the station manager correct, you can command each TS to buy one certain item, but not for example food and ore. But honestly I didn't teat it too much until now

[beast_regards]

Will the Station Manager ships ignore the global blacklist? With universal traders it works, but in some pirate sectors sometimes ships show up even when they shouldn't, but only when I'm in sector

I worked with the docked TS as well to buy stuff such as chips manually but it really is a pain. As far as I understood the station manager correct, you can command each TS to buy one certain item, but not for example food and ore. But honestly I didn't teat it too much until now

There is an option to ignore the global blacklist separate in the station manager and ship menu.

There is also an option to set faction as friend or foe.

I am not sure if it is intended behaviour, but it seems the friend/foe setting supersedes the global blacklist, i.e. if the faction is considered "friendly" the traders will go through their sectors. This setting is also set manually for each ship and each trader, and doesn't reflect how your standing changes.

Interestingly enough, the ship AI does know the faction is hostile and will return "command rejected" if you order the ship to fly through enemy territory.

However, when the station manager is at the helm, everything seems to change, and ships will wander into hostile sectors.

Also, there are ships in other factions in their sector, and they could attack you.

My transports were for example attacked by OTAS fighters after they wandered into the Argon territory, and it happened even after I blacklisted some Argon sectors and set Argons as "foe" in ship setting.

For example, I tried to prohibit ships from entering Argon sectors bordering with the pirate ones around Hatikva's Faith.

There are only two ways to leave the chain of pirate sectors surrounding Hatikva: Aladna Hill and Elena's Fortune, but the ships will try to get past them even if blacklisted.

Also, they absolutely tend to wander off. The trader from Seizewell will try to enter Akeela's Beacon because there is Teladi station there because I am friendly with Teladi, even if I blacklist the sector to not mess with OTAS.