Version: 3.3.02 (2010-06-02)
Scripter: Lucike
Abbreviation: the CAG
Thread for development version
Bonuspack index
Overview
- The Commercial Agent is responsible for the sale or purchase of the assigned wares at his homebase, or the management of a client's factory.
- The Commercial Agent buys the cheapest resources and sells products at the best price in his territory. He works with factories, trade stations, and equipment docks.
- The Commercial Agent buys intermediate products for complexes not producing enough and sells overproduced intermediate products.
- The Commercial Agent trades in all the products and resources at his homebase. Individual wares can be blocked, however.
- The Commercial Agent sticks to the purchase and sale rules set by the player. A log of all purchases and sales can be generated.
- The Commercial Agent will coordinate with his counterparts from his homebase and the other factories in sector.
- The Commercial Agent keeps an eye on the financial situation of his homebase and will sell off products if the station runs low on cash.
- The Commercial Agent will change his route if he finds a good deal, but it will prefer good customers.
- The Commercial Agent can use the Jumpdrive and will repair his ship.
- The Commercial Agent keeps in contact with customers and other traders and can find prices and news in other sectors. The Commercial Agent is not a fighter and avoids sectors where enemies have been reported.
- The Commercial Agent's skills depend on his training rank. The Commercial Agent is trained over time, and can be given more tasks after completing training courses. If training is not desired, it can be disabled.
Quick Start
- Equip a TS Transporter with Navigation Software MK1 and Trade Command Software MK1 and MK2
- Assign Homebase
- In the Trade command menu, select ``Start Commercial Representation.''
Pilot qualifications
Apprentice
The apprentice will take care of purchasing resources. During this probationary period the pilot does not receive salary.
Courier
The Courier handles not only resources, but also sells products. In addition, he can deal at Equipment Docks and Trade Stations; he can also be assigned to them. The Courier gets 20 credits per Mizura flown, paid after each flight.
Supplier
The Supplier coordinates with his homebase and in-sector colleagues. He also buys fighter drones from local stations and buys more speed and manoeuvrability upgrades. The Supplier gets 25 credits per Mizura flown, paid after each flight.
Trader
The Trader can deal with not only products and resources, but can buy or sell a complex's intermediate products. He can also use the Jumpdrive. The Trader gets 30 credits per Mizura flown, paid after each flight.
Dealer
The Dealer gets information about the homebase's financial situation, and can clear out his factory's products if there are not enough credits available. Also, he pays more attention to the trader radio chatter and avoids sectors where hostiles are reported. The Dealer gets 35 credits per Mizura flown, paid after each trip.
Major Dealer
The Major Dealer stays informed of prices during flight and will change course for a better deal. He will also repair his ship at a shipyard if required. The Major Dealer gets 40 credits per Mizura flown, paid after each flight.
Instructions
The Commercial Agent command will appear in the Trade menu. The ship requires Navigation Command Software MK1, Trade Command MK1 and MK2, and a homebase set. Then the command ``Start Commercial Representation'' will appear. This command will open the configuration menu.
Important: The command is visible only when there is a pilot on the vessel or the ship is docked, in order for a pilot to enter the vessel.
Ship Equipment
- A fighter, bomber, corvette or transport ship (M3, M4, M5, M8, M6, TM, TS, TP or TL), with homebase set
- Navigation Command Software MK1
- Trade Command Software MK1
- Trade Command Software MK2
- Fight Command Software MK1 (optional: changes CAG behaviour when encountering enemies)
- Fight Command Software MK2 (optional: changes CAG behaviour when encountering enemies, in addition to Fight Command Software MK1)
- Jumpdrive (optional: can be used after special training course)
All the settings are divided into groups on the main menu.
The Agent settings
The Agent settings option includes not only settings but information about the agent. This menu displays current destination, homebase, service time, total flight time, as well as salary and profit information.
Delete accounting information
This will tell the pilot to delete his records. This cannot be undone, so confirmation is required.
Take Trainings
Pilots participate in training over time. Should the player wish to exclude the pilot from training courses, this command will do it.
Trader salary
If the pilot is to be paid out of an account other than the player's wallet, set that here.
Fire Trader
An unneeded pilot can be dismissed. The ship must be docked at a station and idle. This cannot be undone, so confirmation is required.
Reassign Trader
Bought a bigger ship for your pilot? Use this command to transfer him into it. Both old and new ships must be docked at the same station. After choosing this command, a list of other ships with CAG pilots will appear. Choose the ship you wish to transfer to, the pilots will exchange ships, and bring along their profit record to the new ship.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Ware lists
This list contains the wares that require special attention. The list can be a list of barred goods or a list of goods to trade.
Ware List Type
The pilot can be banned from trading the goods on the list or limited to trading only the goods on the list. Change the list mode here.
Ware list
Add or remove wares from the list here.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Exceptions
The pilot will look in all stations and sectors in range for the needed wares. However you can mark individual sectors and stations as off-limits.
Stations
This is the list of off-limit stations. You can add or delete entries in this menu.
Sectors
This is the list of off-limit sectors. You can add or delete entries in this menu.
Sector list type
The ``Sectors'' list is a ``blacklist'' by default. This option changes it into a ``whitelist''. Whitelist defines allowed sectors, unlike blacklist that lists off-limit sectors.
Only trade with satellite network sectors
Here you can tell your pilots to only trade in sectors with a satellite in them.
Only trade in sectors with a jumpgate
With this option the pilot will trade only in sectors that do have jumpgates.
Only trade with non-player stations
CAG pilots will trade with NPC stations and your own stations. Here you can tell your pilot to trade only with NPC stations.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Trade Duties
A pilot must adhere to these conditions.
Trade Duty
The pilot takes care of both buying and selling of wares. If the trader is to only buy or sell, then the command can be issued here. This is useful if the pilot is assigned to a Trade or Equipment dock.
Purchase Resources
The Agent will buy resources to fill up the homebase to this level.
Sell Products
The Agent will sell stock down to this level.
Sell Products Freighter cargo bay
The Agent will sell products, if it can fill its cargo hold at least to this level. In this case, the Agent will sell product even if the "Sell Products" requirement is not met. The rationale here is that it is more important to sell ``sufficient'' amounts than to wait for the product stock to fill up.
Purchasing Intermediates
The Agent will buy intermediate wares if their stock at the complex is below this value. This value is also when selling intermediate wares; the Agent will always leave at least this much in the complex in order to safeguard production.
Selling Intermediate Products
The Agent can sell intermediate wares if the stock level exceeds this value.
Purchase stations credit balance
The agent draws from the station's account to buy resources and intermediates. The agent will not purchase anything if the station has fewer credits than this limit.
Quit working in homebase
With this option, a controlled termination of CAG is possible. The pilot will stop CAG in his homebase once his job is done.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Station settings
These settings are copied from the station settings. However, the pilot can be given different orders.
Trade Range
The range from the home sector that the agent will look for deals.
Home sector
The home sector is the centre of the agent's territory. It is usually the sector the agent's homebase is in, but not always.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Jumpdrive Settings
The Agent can use the Jumpdrive after a special course available to experienced Agents. This menu can be used to set rules for its use.
Use Jumpdrive
Here the Agent can be allowed or disallowed to use the Jumpdrive.
Jumpdrive Energy
The Agent keeps 10% of his cargo hold filled with energy cells for the Jumpdrive. Another limit can be set here to deal with longer or shorter jumps.
Minimum Jump Range
The minimum distance that the Agent will jump.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Automatic Naming
Renaming many ships is tedious. CAG pilots can be asked to name their own ships and add information to the ship name.
Configure automatic naming
There are many schemes for ship naming available.
Renaming settings (selection)
This menu lists the renaming schemes, along with descriptions.
Ship number
A ship number should appear in the ship's name. Enter the number here.
Factory number
A factory number should appear in the ship's name. Enter the number here. All the ships assigned to this station will use this number.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Configure Reports
The CAG pilot will report many incidents. Some of these messages can be disabled.
Promotion
The CAG pilot will report successful completion of a training course. This message can be disabled here.
Enemy sightings
The CAG pilot will report enemy ships. This message can be disabled here.
Acoustic signal at message
The Agent will send silent messages by default. If an audible message is preferred, select that here.
Trade Log
The CAG pilot can record every transaction into a logfile. This can be toggled here.
Analysis to Log
The CAG pilot can write his profit record into a logfile. This includes his current task.
Restore defaults
This command resets these settings to their default values.
Data Storage
If several pilots have the same orders and conditions to follow, they can be transmitted to each other.
Load data
Here you can choose stored data/assign stored data to a pilot.
Save data
Here you can save the actual pilot's data. Also giving the data a name is possible.
Delete data
You can delete specified data.
Global administration
The global administration menu is a complete overview of your stations and associated Agents. From here, you can change various settings for the stations and the individual stations.
There are two ways the global administration menu can be opened. The first is with a hotkey that can be set, and the second is a command in the general menu on the player's command console when docked.
Sector production overview
The Sector production overview provides a summary of a sector's production and consumption of wares. The player has a choice between ``Sector production overview'' which summarizes the complexes, and ``Sector production overview including standalone factories'' which includes standalone stations along with the complexes.
The station settings
The station settings are divided into four areas.
The first section is operations. The station's production can be turned on or off. The production status is displayed after the station's name. Equipment or Trading Docks have no production to toggle, if the station is a Dock the station's production indicator will say "Dock".
The second section provides the opportunity of an enhanced money transfer to the station's account. The transfer option includes the usual transfer method to the player's account, to an account of another station or to a separate account which can hold much more than just the known 2 billion credits.
With the menu item ``Transfer'' the regularly money transfer gets activated. The status of this option can be seen right behind that option.
To transfer money from the separate account to the player account the menu item ``Transfer from separate account'' will be used. The value of this transfer can be chosen from a list or manually.
The destination of the money transfer from the station's account is chosen from the ``Transfer destination'' menu item. This provides the opportunity to transfer money to the player's account, another station account or to the separate account.
When the money should remain on the station's account a minimum value needs to be chosen in the transfer conditions. Same as before it can be chosen from a list or by entering the value manually.
The third section is pricing. Here automatic goods pricing can be enabled, and the status of the automatic price setting is displayed. The prices at the station can also be reset to the average price here.
The fourth section displays all of the station's resources and products. Choosing one of the wares on the list allows you to set a range for the automatic pricing system. The first is minimum and the second is maximum. Automatic price setting will not affect wares with only one set price.
Complex settings
All products, including intermediates and resources, along with all the stations within a complex are listed in this menu. Production and consumption amounts are listed beside each ware -- these are in units per minute. Each station reports its production status and distance from the hub.
If you choose a product, the product moves from the product list to the intermediate product list. Conversely, selecting a intermediate product moves it to the product list. Selecting a resource does nothing, as no station in the complex produces the ware.
As with station settings, the output of each station in a complex can be switched on and off. Each station's operating status is listed beside the station name.
Global configuration
To send one or more settings to the commercial agent the global configuration can be used.
Therefore a data slot needs to be chosen from the data storage in order to be sent. This means, of course, that such a data slot needs to have been saved from a Commercial Agent before. After that this data slot can be sent with the option ``Send to all colleagues''. With the option ``Send to sector colleagues'' it's possible to limit the transmission to commercial agents in one homesector and with the option ``Send to homebase colleagues'' the transmission will be limited to a specific station.
There's the possibility to limit the range of receivers a bit more in the send-filter. It can be filtered by shiptype, shipclass or a part of the ship's name. It is also possible to select and deselect a single piece of the data slot that should or should not be transmitted. With the send-filter it is possible to choose exactly who should receive what kind of data.
Also a small rearrangement of the data storage is possible. Single data packages can be moved to new locations. This can be done by choosing the data package that needs to be moved and then the new location where it should get moved to. Possible free locations will be high-lighted in yellow.
Removing single data packages is also possible with the global configuration. Therefore, the data package that should get removed needs to be chosen. There's no confirmation message, so it will be removed immediately. With the item ``Delete all data'' the whole data storage will be removed.
Special Notes
Jumpdrive:
If a Jumpdrive is used, the Agent is provided with energy cells from the homebase. He will also buy jump energy from NPC stations if required.
Enemy Contact:
If equipped with Fight Command Software MK1, the pilot will purchase Fighter drones in the current sector and upgrade his speed and manoeuvrability. If the ship is equipped with a Jumpdrive, and the pilot is experienced enough to use it, the pilot may enter unsafe sectors. If equipped with Fight Command Software MK2 and has Missile Defense Mosquito available, the pilot will also purchase Mosquito missiles.
Friend/Foe:
Commercial Agents do not trade in sectors belonging to a race set to ``Foe''. ``Show as enemy if enemy to me'' should be set to ``No''. A pilot without Jumpdrive will not fly through hostile sectors.
Satellite Network:
The Commercial Agent can be told to trade only in sectors that contain an Advanced Satellite belonging to the player.
Headquarters:
If the Commercial Agent is working for the Player HQ, space is reserved in the HQ for a cargo hold full of each ware. The Agent may be configured to use a differently sized space in the HQ.
Station Lock:
Any station can be set as off-limits to the Commercial Agents. Player stations also have ``Trader barrier (Commercial Agent)'' in the command console.
Important:
If the Commercial Agent is working for a complex and changes are made to his homebase, he will quit and wait for new instructions.
