Station trading in 3.0

[Lord Crc]

Is station trading improved in 3.0? Was having a good time until I got a few stations running, but now it's a full-time job just keeping them running due to station subordinates not trading.

For example, I've got a food/med factory that's completely filled to the brim (L storage) with food and meds, factories in same sector that are almost empty, yet neither of the subordinates for either stations are doing anything about it. And yes, vanilla game, all stations have managers and money.

Similar with other stations and other products. Any hope of 3.0 fixing this? Or do I need to take another year off, again?

[Panos]

Is station trading improved in 3.0? Was having a good time until I got a few stations running, but now it's a full-time job just keeping them running due to station subordinates not trading.

For example, I've got a food/med factory that's completely filled to the brim (L storage) with food and meds, factories in same sector that are almost empty, yet neither of the subordinates for either stations are doing anything about it. And yes, vanilla game, all stations have managers and money.

Similar with other stations and other products. Any hope of 3.0 fixing this? Or do I need to take another year off, again?

You forget this is 3.0 beta and not final release yes? Is destined to have bugs. Saying that, have you looked as the subordinates if they are operating after Beta 4?
Some times after a patch, they might need to be re-assigned. Also do you have any restrictions to your stations? Because NPC freighters should be landing and buying your goods also, not only your own ships.

In addition how many M size slots you have? Have you considered to use S size ships as subordinates also? I found them really helpful, because you can have a dozen working around without bottlenecking at the station if you do not have 3M6S docks.

[Imperial Good]

Most likely the station is lacking 1 or more wares which are in short supply and hence all station subordinates are idling trying to buy that critical ware that is not available.

The most common culprit for non-warf/shipyard stations is Drone Components or Smart Chips. These are used to build station drones and are almost always considered a critical ware.

Start by manually fulfilling all Drone Component or Smart Chips buy orders at the station. Once those are fulfilled then reassign all trade subordinates as trade subordinates. The trade subordinates should soon start to function normally and sell station products.

[Lord Crc]

You forget this is 3.0 beta and not final release yes?

Sorry for being unclear, I'm running 2.60.

Also do you have any restrictions to your stations? Because NPC freighters should be landing and buying your goods also, not only your own ships.

I've got restricted trade on both stations, but they're in the same sector and the sell price on the food station is well below the buy price of the other stations.

In addition how many M size slots you have? Have you considered to use S size ships as subordinates also? I found them really helpful, because you can have a dozen working around without bottlenecking at the station if you do not have 3M6S docks.

This is a good point, I just recently thought about this. Sadly my S courier ships are also just idling.

[Lord Crc]

Most likely the station is lacking 1 or more wares which are in short supply and hence all station subordinates are idling trying to buy that critical ware that is not available.

The most common culprit for non-warf/shipyard stations is Drone Components or Smart Chips. These are used to build station drones and are almost always considered a critical ware.

Good to know, though in my case the only thing lacking (ie <80% storage) is the food stuffs

[Panos]

You forget this is 3.0 beta and not final release yes?

Sorry for being unclear, I'm running 2.60.

Also do you have any restrictions to your stations? Because NPC freighters should be landing and buying your goods also, not only your own ships.

I've got restricted trade on both stations, but they're in the same sector and the sell price on the food station is well below the buy price of the other stations.

In addition how many M size slots you have? Have you considered to use S size ships as subordinates also? I found them really helpful, because you can have a dozen working around without bottlenecking at the station if you do not have 3M6S docks.

This is a good point, I just recently thought about this. Sadly my S courier ships are also just idling.

OK then, upload your save here please. Put it on google drive etc and share it to identify the issue which is nothing to do with the game engine but your setup.

[Lord Crc]

So I guess my general frustration is that it's such a black box. When ships don't do what you expect them to, there's no way to discover why. Why is this ship not fast travelling across this sector? Why is this subordinate not trading/mining?

I just opened a new station, it has no wares in storage, but it has a manager, plenty of cash (way more than suggested), several S and M trading ships assigned. Yet only one of the S ships is buying anything, and only sometimes. Rest just sit there. Why? I have no idea, and no way of discovering why. The stations in range sell what it needs. Since the storage is empty, buy prices are maxed out so all the sale prices look good. Yet nothing.



Anyway I'll upload a save tonight when I get home.

[darkstar12]

Turn off trade restriction. As is you have set the entire station to only trade with your own stations.

[Lord Crc]

Turn off trade restriction. As is you have set the entire station to only trade with your own stations.

Right. But my food station sells for the lowest price possible since it's all filled to the brim, and is in the same sector as the other stations. So why isn't my stations buying foodstuff from it? Why must I buy from other factions?

[Lord Crc]

Think I figured it out, a bit by random. My stations are entirely self-sufficient, and the foodstuffs was the last part of that. While my managers had plenty of money, it was less than the recommended budget. After all they don't need money when they get the goods for free. But apparently the subordinates still think about money when trading with own faction. I bit the bullet and made sure each manager had more than the operating budget, and now all the subordinates are busy trading left and right.

The weird part is that they had no trouble buying foodstuffs with lower budget from third parties.

So while this makes sense, it would have been nice for the manager to tell me this, so I don't have to stab around in the dark. Also, scaling the budget based on how many are set to "restrict trade" would be nice, there's zero need for a fully player-supplied station to require a 40 mill budget.

So back to topic, has any of this been improved in 3.0?

[Nort The Fragrent]

When station traders don’t do what you are expecting them to do ! There is no help as to why! And what the probable reason is why they are floundering, or trundling of to buy what you do not want.
The original post is asking if this foggy behaviour has been addressed in 3.

Me ! I am so confused as to why they do what they do, despite countless days, months, and now one year on.. I am still non the wiser !

Can someone in ES please do a tutorial on station overview, and station traders.
Explaining in detail how to set things up.
Or is this too hard for you as well !

[mr.WHO]

Food trading station is not profitable at all.

I have 10 huge stations with 100+ modules and total population of 50'000+ and I can support it with only one small farm station.

Give that AI controlled sectors rarely have station population above 1'000 means that several food stations can saturate galaxy easily.