Starting
Q. After installing I don't have new menu options. What's wrong?
A.
You'll have to buy a BPH extension from the Boron Equipment docks.
Q. So now I bought it. I see 2 new options. What's the difference?
A.
BPH-upgrade will start the BPH in the "fire-and-forget-mode". BPH-prohibited Will give you the option to exclude wares from your buying- or selling list.
Q. I can't use the new options. What am I doing wrong?
A.
You first need to choose a homebase for your freighter.
Q. So what's with the input I have to give for BPH-Prohibited?
A.
-First the script needs to know how many wares you need to delete from the buy/sell list.
-Then you will be asked to choose which wares to delete from the buy/sell list.
-If you make a mistake you can always cancel by pressing [ESC].
This will be written down in the pilot's notebook so he won't forget.
After that you'll have to issue the regular BPH-upgrade command.
Q. What if I prohibit all the wares?
A.
The pilot will start complaining. He wants to earn some money, you know!
Q. How do I cancel the BPH-prohibited?
A.
Choose BPH-prohibited and enter 0 as the first entry.
Then choose any ware. The BPH-prohibited is then cancelled.
Q. How will the BPH be influenced by factory settings?
A.
The settings-dependent behaviour is the same as for all regular traders except for the "trade to other races" setting. The trader will sell even if this toggle is set to "no". To prevent this, use the BPH-prohibited command.
Q. How about Trading Stations and Equipment Docks?
A.
-BPH will not sell.
-BPH will buy at the price set -1. This to prevent selling at the same price as you buy.
-The level has to be at least 4 to assign the BPH to the Trading Dock.
-When adding or removing a ware you need to stop BPH by issuing the "none" command and then restart BPH again.
Q: What upgrades or equipment does BPH need?
A.
None.
Q. Not even the trade command software?
A.
As I said: none.
Q. Can I use more than 1 BPH for my factories? Will they interfere each other?
A.
BPH has been designed especially with this problem in mind. They will not target the same factories when going out for buying and selling.
Q. So what if the price changes on the way towards a factory?
A.
There are several moments when the pilot checks the price. The pilot will not buy when the price rises 20% or when the price rises beyond the price set at the homebase. In those cases he will try to find another station.
Buying
Q. Why does BPH from an equipment dock or trading station buy at a price which is 1 credit lower than the price I set?
A.
This is to prevent selling at the same price as you bought.
Also when 2 of your trading stations are within each other's jumprange, you certainly wouldn't want them to buy from each other at the same price
Q. Any threshold?
A.
-BPH starts buying, when stock is lower than 82%.
-At lower than 20% stock there is an emergency. It will then use jumpdrive at level 7 if installed and will fly to the closest opportunity within jumprange, according to the price sets.
-At higher than 20% there is no emergency and it will then look for the best bargain.
Q. You keep saying that they are so efficient. What is their efficiency?
One of the most important features is, that they are able to buy multiple resources in one trip on higher levels. They do that on the way home. So they start out to buy one resource and before returning home, when thresholds are met, they try to find another factory on their way home to buy resources from.
Selling
Q. Why does my factory lose money when I using Level 8 BPH Freighters with Jump Drives ?
A.
Your factory is not making enough money to cover the cost of the jumps it's freighters are making. Remove the Jump Drives for freighters assigned to that factory.
Q. Any threshold?
A.
-BPH starts selling when stock is over 80%, in which case it is an emergency and will use it's jumpdrive at level 7 when present.
-Also when stock is over 20% and is more than what the cargohold can load.
-Unless the total amount to sell exceeds 200,000Cr. Then it will sell anyway. Though buying will take preference in this case.
Q. How do I sell my wares, until the pilot's levels is high enough?
A.
With regular freighter pilots.
Level system
Q. What levels are there and what do they represent?
A.
See the readme at http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59265.
Q. How will the pilot gain experience?
A.
The levels are determined by calculating the total fee. The more assignments the pilot had, the bigger that amount, the higher the level.
Fees: see readme at http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=59265
ATM there are 8 levels:
Level increase at:1300, 2400, 5000, 10000, 16000, 23000, 33000, 55000.
Q. When will the jumpdrive be used?
A.
From level 7 and on the pilot is experienced enough to use the jumpdrive.
In case of an emergency the jump distance will be at least 1. The pilot will then both buy and sell. See thresholds.
At lvl 7 he will only jump in case of an emergency.
At level 8 he will always jump when buying, but at least 2 jumps away, unless there is an emergency.
Q. I have heard of gateless jumps. What about the BPH pilot?
A.
BPH will do gateless jumps, when the experience of the player is enough. This has to do with playing time, but also with the plot.
It is considered a spoiler to tell more.
Loops
Q. Can I use BPH with loops?
A.
Yes, you can.
Though It is certainly true, that BPH is more efficient at getting wares than the freighters of any other signed script or standard freighter at this time it doesn't necessarily make it more suitable for loops. Especially in tight loops, when prices are set just high enough, BPH may turn out an expensive feature, especially at higher levels. When resources are scarce, BPH may be the answer to your problems.
So it's your choice.
Miscellaneous
Q. My Factory keeps running out of money now I have added BPH Freighters to it.
A.
The BPH Freighters are very good at finding and buying stock. They keep on buying until the factory Stock is full. During this time they spend a lot of credits. Once the Stock is at maximum the factories credit ballance will return to normal. It may be wise to increase the available funds to a BPH equiped factory during this "build up stock" period.
Q. Looks more like a bug than a feature to me!
A.
When using more BPH-pilots, given the efficiency of operation, one pilot can spend the entire budget and get his fee paid, while the other was on his way and will still charge you for his fee. You're more likely to get complaints using more BPH-pilots for 1 factory.
Q. So if they are that efficient, then why do I need more pilots?
A.
At higher levels you often don't. At lower levels you often do. This of course depends on the availability of resources.
Q. My BPH Freighters just sit there and do nothing, why ?
A.
There are several reasons why BPH freighters will not buy or sell goods.
- No available goods at the right price at within the Jump limit of the factory.
-No available customers buying at the right price within the jump limit of the factory.
-None of the other threshold requirements are met.
-No Credits available at the factory.
-Another BPH Freighter is already heading for the only factory selling the goods you need.
-Another BPH freighter is alreadying heading for a factory that stocks more goods than your factory currently needs.
-Another BPH freighter already has the goods your factory needs and is heading back home.
-You just chose to put your factory in a bad location.
-Khaak M3's are present in the target sector within 65 km of the center of the sector.
-At level 0 BPH picks the most needed ware to buy. If he has a choice out of more than one ware (because the factory is empty) he'll pick one at random and sticks to it. And when that ware happens to be unavailable within range, it will wait until it comes within range. A solution is to manually supply the factory once, or prohibit the ware temporarily.
Q. Will BPH look at traders from other factories too?
A.
No. BPH will only take into account the BPH freighters from it's home base.
Q. Why does my LVL 7 BPH freighters not use the jump drive I have fitted to it ?
A.
Pilots start learning to use the Jumpdrive at Level 7. So we cannot expect them to be experts until they reach level 8. You should see the pilot using the Jump drive occasionally at level 7 but it is a feature of BPH to make it a rare event.
Q. Where can I find the pilot's level?
A.
Bring up the ship's info screen. The level is shown right behind the pilot's name. If no level is displayed, then:
-The pilot has lvl 0;
-You deactivated the BPH by chosing another command;
-You just moved the pilot to another ship.
Q. How do I move the pilot to another ship?
A.
You can find a full description of the procedure here: http://www.egosoft.com/x2/forum/viewtopic.php?t=55213
Though this doesn't fall within the scope of this FAQ here is a quick step-by-step procedure:
Conditions:
-The ship you are in must be in space.
-The source- and target ships must be in space.
-Both ships must be in "standby"-mode. So issue standby to both ships.
-It is recommended to leave the target ship empty, so no software. Upgrades like engine tunings are ok.
You find the right command in the "special" command menu.
Issue the command. The following input is needed in this order:
-select source ship.
-select target ship.
-select target station, where the swap will take place.
End procedure.
One by one the ships will move to the target station and the swap will be a fact.
After restarting the BPH the level of the pilot will reappear.
For further information, specifically the renaming of the ships please follow the link above.
Q. What happens if the pilot is attacked?
A.
The response depends on the race of the pilot.
In most cases it will flee. BPH pilots are very efficient in getting out of harm's way. Often they choose a factory to hide in.
Q. What determines the race of the pilot?
A.
It depends on where the BPH initially started.
When you start BPH in a Boron sector, you in fact hire a Boron Pilot.
In sectors without a clear owner the pilot will be Teladi.
Uninstall
Q. How do I uninstall the script?
A.
Run the all-in-one installer and unselect BPH. The installer will uninstall BPH for you.
Unfortunately scripts are also saved in savegames. So you have to have a savegame from before you installed BPH to continue without any scriptcode.
Alternatively you could simply stop using BPH.
