Station Drones, how can I get 'em

[Snippels]

Hi Everyone,

I've a player HQ with a couple of production modules and it has already generated a couple of millions of creds.

But still, I've not managed to get my station to buy trade-, repair- or defence-drones. Whatever combination of checkmarks and amounts I pick in the logisitical overview for drones, nothing happens.

I even manually bought drone componentes for my station, but still, no drones get "appear".

Manually transferring cargo drones from my mining ship fails as well. But it's interesting that manually transferring defence- and repair-drones from my mining ships works, for whatever reason.
However, on the long run, I don't want to manually transfer drones from my ships to my station anyway.

So please enlighten me, my fellow companions. What can I do to get those fancy trade drones on my station?

Any help is appreciated,
many regards and thx,
Roland

[strask412]

You need drone components and some other things (Advanced Electronics? Smart Chips? Not sure.) in stock on the station for it to build drones. The station manager will place buy orders automatically.... eventually.... if you give them enough budget. It's a slow process.

[CBJ]

I've moved this out of Tech Support for you. Gameplay "how to" questions belong in the main forum.

[caltrop]

You select the drones you want in the logical overview & make sure the manager has the funding they need to buy the materials

The manager will then place buy orders for drone components & smart chips. In my game I had to deliver the smart chips myself for some stations as the NPCs did not seem to be interested. As soon as I delivered them, the drones appeared in the logical overview

[Sandalpocalypse]

i believe you need adv electronics and dronecomponents for all drones, and smart chips for defence drones specifically.

[cole2839]

There is a bug where sometimes a station won't buy drones. It happens to me on some stations. Normally, the station manager will just buy drones for you without you having to do much. You usually just have to set the desired amount of drones with the slider on the logical overview tab.

[TearsInRain]

You need drone components and some other things (Advanced Electronics? Smart Chips? Not sure.) in stock on the station for it to build drones. The station manager will place buy orders automatically.... eventually.... if you give them enough budget. It's a slow process.

none of my managers have ever put any orders in for any drone or missile components.. even though I have missile turrets up on defence modules.

[cole2839]

You need drone components and some other things (Advanced Electronics? Smart Chips? Not sure.) in stock on the station for it to build drones. The station manager will place buy orders automatically.... eventually.... if you give them enough budget. It's a slow process.

none of my managers have ever put any orders in for any drone or missile components.. even though I have missile turrets up on defence modules.

You have to tell them how many of each type you want. There are sliders on the logical overview page for the station near the bottom.

[TearsInRain]

You have to tell them how many of each type you want. There are sliders on the logical overview page for the station near the bottom.

yeh.. I think I must have hit the bug as I never get any built, and the manager never buts in any buy orders for the components.

[Silvrav]

Same...of the 30 stations I have managed to built ONLY my main grand exchange station every manufactorerd drones.

All the rest dont have drones has the managers dont place any orders, even with auto refill ticked for 10 of each drone

[Sandalpocalypse]

Manually supply the station and they should make drones.

[Tristavius]

My large 100M+ factory didn't buy drones for a long, long time but has now stocked up.

The factory usually had below the 'suggested' operating budget and below the separately defined mission to transfer funds. This is due to the fact it didn't actually need to buy anything so I didn't see the point. It recently crossed these thresholds when I didn't empty it for ages and now has drones - perhaps it'll only spend money on them when there's an excess of cash?

[Invasion]

Simple. You don't. Put all faith in the station manager.
Truth is, its bugged and more often than not the station never puts up the buy order for drones.
But since you asked in such a nice way, we'll just give you a textbook response to refer to the manual.
And then move your thread out of tech support like there is nothing wrong with station drones at all.
Egosoft thanks you for buying their product

[Zaemar2017]

I found that dropping off some smart chips as well as drone components usually kickstarts production.
If you open up the trade window for the station you should see 'smart chips' in the list.

[pref]

Not sure its so bugged, for me when i gave the budget the manager requested the buy orders got posted.
Probably better to leave more cash on the station then needed as the required amount can change - maybe the orders get cancelled once the station runs below budget again.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

There is a bug where sometimes a station won't buy drones. It happens to me on some stations. Normally, the station manager will just buy drones for you without you having to do much. You usually just have to set the desired amount of drones with the slider on the logical overview tab.

It seems to me that if you do not add any factories to a station then the manager will not buy drones/missiles - this means even pure weapons/administration platforms (even if they have storage) need some form of production facility along which is a bit counter intuitive. Just adding a habbitation module may suffice but not tried that yet.