Trade ships assigned to stations make no $$

[Morleond]

I have my main player HQ station setup, it creates hull parts, spices, meat and coolant. I see notifications that the Mercuries I have assigned to it are completing trades but my credits aren't going up and it doesn't show credits being added in the log. And my station account is dwindling. Is this a bug?

[CorporalX]

The hq has a station account which is separate from the player account. In the manage funds menu you can transfer between both accounts.

When a factory/complex is built in space it has a station account created for it. When trades are made credits are either added or subtracted from this account.

Cheers

[Morleond]

The hq has a station account which is separate from the player account. In the manage funds menu you can transfer between both accounts.

When a factory/complex is built in space it has a station account created for it. When trades are made credits are either added or subtracted from this account.

Cheers

Yeah I know that. The issue is that I have assigned 2 traders to the station and they pick up goods from my station and "sell" those goods to other factions. But I don't receive credits to either my player account or my station account and I consistently have to put money into the station account because it isn't earning anything back.

[TheInspector]

The hq has a station account which is separate from the player account. In the manage funds menu you can transfer between both accounts.

When a factory/complex is built in space it has a station account created for it. When trades are made credits are either added or subtracted from this account.

Cheers

Yeah I know that. The issue is that I have assigned 2 traders to the station and they pick up goods from my station and "sell" those goods to other factions. But I don't receive credits to either my player account or my station account and I consistently have to put money into the station account because it isn't earning anything back.

Do you produce all of the raw resources? its possible that your station is buying resources to produce the ones you are selling and the Cost of Goods Sold is higher than your net revenue. I am thinking this is the case since you have a lot of higher tier products.

EDIT: when I mean high tier production i meant the Hull part manufacturing.

[Morleond]

These are the moduels I have
Solar power
Ice refinery
Graphene
Refined metal
Liquid coolant plant
Silicon refinery
Meat farm
Spice farm
Hull part factory


Subordinates
I have 4 medium and 1 large solid miners
2 medium 1 large gas miners
2 Mercury traders.

[Morleond]

My station was making money before I added the traders.

[TheInspector]

My station was making money before I added the traders.

So what I do is restrict trade from all the raw resources and only allow trade on finished goods.
e.g.

I have a station with
graphene
refined metals
antimatter cells
hull plating
engine parts

I restrict trade for refined metals, ore and gas. I sell graphene but i make sure that I set the station buy price to the lowest value to prevent AI selling me and my traders from buying those resources.(this can be found in the logistical overview menu.

If the problem continue to persist what I'd suggest is to remove the traders until they have full crews and/or are higher level (since the station makes money on it's own) and for future stations keep things specialized. (ie don't build a spice famr with a refined metals hub.) keeping things specialized limits traders on what they can sell and speeds up any given trade run.

One last thing to keep in mind, if you allow your station to sell E-cells and your trader attempts to sell them, the trade run will take an incredible amount of time which cuts into your profits. E-cells in x4 is an over saturated market so by restricting trade with e-cells the traders can focus on more lucrative runs.

[TheInspector]

I also just read a post about how trade distance was nerfed. So before 2.0 traders could trade their good as far as 25 sectors away but now they scaled that back to 3 sectors, it may be your station is just in a bad location and there are very few places for your traders to trade at profit.

[reanor]

I also just read a post about how trade distance was nerfed. So before 2.0 traders could trade their good as far as 25 sectors away but now they scaled that back to 3 sectors, it may be your station is just in a bad location and there are very few places for your traders to trade at profit.

Wasn't that dependent on the trader captain skill? So at 5 stars they can trade to 25 sectors again, but to get to 5 stars will take forever...

[TheInspector]

I also just read a post about how trade distance was nerfed. So before 2.0 traders could trade their good as far as 25 sectors away but now they scaled that back to 3 sectors, it may be your station is just in a bad location and there are very few places for your traders to trade at profit.

Wasn't that dependent on the trader captain skill? So at 5 stars they can trade to 25 sectors again, but to get to 5 stars will take forever...

more or less, i remember having 3 star traders having a range of 16. From what it looks like now the range for 1-3 star is 3 sectors, 4 stars is 4 sectors and I think 5 stars is a little more but no one seemed to know for sure.

[Morleond]

My main question is this. When I look at my log I see that the trade order is completed(by the ships I have assigned to the station) but there isn't any indication of credits transfer. Like when your miners go and sell their nividium somewhere and you get a notification that has in green lettering "+240,000" or an auto trader has the same thing. But my subordinate ships to my station don't have that indication. Just that they completed a trade.

[TheInspector]

My main question is this. When I look at my log I see that the trade order is completed(by the ships I have assigned to the station) but there isn't any indication of credits transfer. Like when your miners go and sell their nividium somewhere and you get a notification that has in green lettering "+240,000" or an auto trader has the same thing. But my subordinate ships to my station don't have that indication. Just that they completed a trade.

That is because the money is going straight into the stations account. From there the station manager will transfer a portion of proceeds after it reaches a certain point. ( I am still trying to figure out what the threshold is for a auto transfer.) Unlike auto miners and traders, the log will not show a green "+1000 Cr." it will be a very small bar that says "[station manager] has transferred 1000 credits form station to your account." and the notification you get on the messages tab on the bottom left screen will will say "Fund surplus transferred" (or something to that nature) and the amount transferred and your new current balance.

So if you do not notice these small notifications it will appear your station is not making money, when in reality it is but the station manager keeps transferring you small amounts of money to your personal account keeping station funds low. If the amount they transfer is low you may not notice a change in personal account balance.

Does this answer your question?

[pref]

That is because the money is going straight into the stations account. From there the station manager will transfer a portion of proceeds after it reaches a certain point. ( I am still trying to figure out what the threshold is for a auto transfer.)

OP also said his station account is decreasing since traders have been assigned.

The threshold is set by you: if you go in station info screen and transfer some cash to/from the station then the amount you set will be the threshold.
Whenever the account will go above the value set by you by some amount (about 50% i think) it will transfer cash to your account.

[TheInspector]

That is because the money is going straight into the stations account. From there the station manager will transfer a portion of proceeds after it reaches a certain point. ( I am still trying to figure out what the threshold is for a auto transfer.)

OP also said his station account is decreasing since traders have been assigned.

The threshold is set by you: if you go in station info screen and transfer some cash to/from the station then the amount you set will be the threshold.
Whenever the account will go above the value set by you by some amount (about 50% i think) it will transfer cash to your account.

ah yeah I forgot about that. It's still worth a look though just in case.

[Morleond]

My main question is this. When I look at my log I see that the trade order is completed(by the ships I have assigned to the station) but there isn't any indication of credits transfer. Like when your miners go and sell their nividium somewhere and you get a notification that has in green lettering "+240,000" or an auto trader has the same thing. But my subordinate ships to my station don't have that indication. Just that they completed a trade.

That is because the money is going straight into the stations account. From there the station manager will transfer a portion of proceeds after it reaches a certain point. ( I am still trying to figure out what the threshold is for a auto transfer.) Unlike auto miners and traders, the log will not show a green "+1000 Cr." it will be a very small bar that says "[station manager] has transferred 1000 credits form station to your account." and the notification you get on the messages tab on the bottom left screen will will say "Fund surplus transferred" (or something to that nature) and the amount transferred and your new current balance.

So if you do not notice these small notifications it will appear your station is not making money, when in reality it is but the station manager keeps transferring you small amounts of money to your personal account keeping station funds low. If the amount they transfer is low you may not notice a change in personal account balance.

Does this answer your question?

Yes this helps. I turned off faction trading with my secondary goods and noticed that I started making money again. I just wasn't sure where the assigned traders money goes. So this answers it quite well.