First Factory - yippeeeeee but slight problem :(

chrisallen76 · Post by **chrisallen76** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 17:31

well i finally amassed enough credits to buy a wheat farm!!!

well pleased with myself. I put it in The Wall as i know you can get cheap energy cells there!!

i have 2 x Mecury transports (all i could afford)

one is set to buy energy celkls for the best price, the other is set to sell the Wheat for the best price.

I have no problem with my selling ship, its making me a ton of cash!!!!

problem is my buyer. I have the buying price in the station details set to buy at the lowest price of 12cr. now even though one of the stations in The Wall has energy cells priced at 12 cr my buying ship sneaks off to other sectors to buy them. I tried upping my buying price to 14 for the energy cells but it still wont buy them for 12 cr in The Wall, where my station is!

I the end i went to buy some just so i could get my factory started and it started making wheat and as soon as it did my other selling ship went off and made me no end of cash!! i think in a few runs to Home of Light it's made me a bout 100,000 credits! lurvely.

but my other ship is still yet to return with any energy cells!!!!!!!

is this a bug or do i have a very stupid pilot

Dunners · Post by **Dunners** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 17:33

No your pilot is doing what you ask him. he is off to get e-cells at 12 or under. best buy means he will try to find the cheapest.

If you dont want him to wander off then alter the max jump settings.

Dunners

chrisallen76 · Post by **chrisallen76** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 17:35

but in the sector he started there were energy cells available at 12cr which is what i asked him to get them at!!!

it was a 30 second trip, but he buggered off to ANtigone Memorial, then found there weren't any left and then went to Ore belt.....etc.....etc

Dunners · Post by **Dunners** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 17:37

No. The 12 is the maximum he will buy at. He will wander off to try and buy some at 9 credits.

If I were you i would set the level at 13 or 14 credits. You will still make a stonking profit, and wont have to wait for ages for your trader to get back.

Dunners

chrisallen76 · Post by **chrisallen76** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 17:39

Cheers Dude, i'll give it a go!!

TheMIV · Post by **TheMIV** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 17:51

Stupped pilot.

You can decrease sectors where pilot doing business
in your station setup. They compare all powerplants buying area and then went where is cheapest energy cells.

They not care if somebody buying cells before your pilot is here.

GnatB · Post by **GnatB** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 18:06

His point is that 12 is the cheapest ECells can be bought for, so why is the pilot trying to fly all the way to Antigone when there are ECells available for 12 in the current sector.

And I agree. I've noticed freighters don't seem to care how far away the ECells are. If I had to guess, I'd say the "best buy" checker is starting at the current sector, then going out from there, but instead of checking < current best price, it's checking for <= current best price... which means it always goes after the farthest away best price, instead of the closest best price.

Unfortunately, the "max jumps" setting is of limited much use... since the setting is shared for both buying and selling ships. My selling ships do have to travel to sell their stuff, but my buying ships don't.

PowerPC603 · Post by **PowerPC603** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 18:20

I think it works this way:
When a freighter is given the order to buy something, it starts scanning each sector that you've discovered already, starting with Kingdom End and then goes down vertically, until it reaches the lowest sector (Depths of Silence).
For each sector it processes, the game checks if the sector is within the jumprange of your station and if a station has the required goods onboard for the right price.

Then it moves on to the next column of sectors (Rolk's Drift -> Shining Currents).
If you take the universe map near you, you can see the grid clearly.
Just follow the sectors from top to bottom, left to right.

I've seen my UTs buy energy cells at the right side of the universe (Getsu Fune) and sell them to my complex in Red Light (has buying price set to max and trade with NPCs to Yes).
It can't be that there are no other stations closer to my UT (Getsu Fune) that buy at max price too.
In my case, the UT finds my complex in Red Light before any other fab that's closer to Getsu Fune, because that sector is almost the last sector to be processed this way.

So, in your example, it finds Antigone Memorial before The Wall and sees that this sector is within jumprange of your Wheat Farm in The Wall and that an SPP there sells for 12cr.
The game sees that both requirements are valid (within jumprange and good price) and sends your ship towards that SPP in Antigone Memorial, even when an SPP in The Wall in closer to your fab.

Letho · Post by **Letho** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 18:32

TheMIV wrote:...They not care if somebody buying cells before your pilot is here.

Not right for X3!! If you say 12 Creds they wont buy at a higher price! If the price gets higher they will search for a new fab to buy.

kellog · Post by **kellog** » Mon, 28. Nov 05, 22:12

I setup a wheat farm in Home of light, assigned to mercuries to it and it works fine. I set to buy energy at 12, and sell wheat for 50, and max jump to 4. The factory runs without interuption, and wheat is never in stock because my best selling mercury can sell it faster than it's produced.

This was working so well, I added another wheat factory as a complex, another mercury to buy energy cells, and I still don't have a surplus of wheat.

Make sure your energy buyers have fully maxed out cargo capacity (your selling ship doesn't need it) and all ships have max engine upgrades. Even if your buying ship has to travel 4 sectors over to get energy, so what, he'll be abe to provide energy faster than it's consumed.

egosoft.com

egosoft.com

First Factory - yippeeeeee but slight problem :(

First Factory - yippeeeeee but slight problem :(