Mk3 Trader, a bug? No…

[Holliday]

I don’t think calling this a bug is fair, maybe a lapse of intelligence. The Mk3 traders are very good at dealing with problems and getting out of trouble. It just seems to befuddle them from time to time.
When a Mk3 trader gets attacked they will jump to safety and call home. I have gotten these messages several times from my traders. First you get the “I just got attacked” message, and then an “I can’t find jump fuel” message. It seems they are getting attacked while buying EC’s to jump with. They then run for cover. The problem is in ever case they still have between 125 and 145 EC’s in their cargo bay, and they are one sector away from cheap (9 credit) EC’s. I have even sent one to the next sector and had them dock at an SPP with 9 credit EC’s and restarted them as galaxy traders. I still get the “I can’t find jump fuel within my range” type message. You have to buy some for them. I usually buy them 333 EC’s because they seem to like that number.
Other than this tiny little inconsistency the galaxy traders are better than owning a station. They make mad cash and take care of their own problems. They can get out of trouble and they will phone home if they get confused. I am basing my current game on them.
I have limited their range of travel through the universe by NOT mapping all of the systems. I have mapped a small part of the X universe and the traders will not get adventurous on their own.

[The_Tigers_Eye]

What level are your traders at? Mine always have around 600 in reserve energy cells (based on Boron TS Dolphin) and a dozen drone fighters which the replenishe themselves. Only once have mine been harased by a pirate and it logged its ID for me... found the ship and its subsequent home base. It would be nice to tell them to only work a specific quardront so they stayed out of sectors my stations would normally dealwith... but all in all I like them.

[johnstrt]

I get much the same problem. It sometimes works just to leave them for a while, but it does seem strange that they can't recognise an SPP when they're sitting in it, or buy their own cells. Still, a minor problem in a great script.

[Holliday]

Level 25. And it really is just a minor thing, but worth mentioning for those just getting their galaxy traders started.

[Remy]

I've got a level 21 trader that i started off in Family Pride, as pre 1.4 it was by far the best sector for mk.3 trading..still is..now i've put the ship on universe trader i've noticed that although my Argon equipment dock is closed to trading to the masses my universe trader still sells heavy weapons to it and he's getting paid for using my money..this must be wrong..my eq. dock is full of ships loaded out with all kinds of stuff..eg 50 125mw shields 60 gamma ppc's that kind of thing, when i use some of the stuff to equip a new ship and forget to put some back in stock along comes the auto trader and uses a niche in the market.. i put 5 million credits in the station when i opened it.. when i looked earlier i had 400k left in it..what am i doing wrong

[Timbuk2]

A question:

I've got seven MkIII sector traders, and after installing 1.4 I swapped two of the more experienced traders (level 10) over to being Universe Traders.

However they are not equipped with jump drives. Will they equip themselves with jump drives after a while, or do I have to do it for them?

[Holliday]

They will buy jumpdrives on their own. You will pay a premium for delivery though. It might have been cheaper to equip them yourself. The jumpdrives are probably on the way now.

[Spitfire79]

A question:

I've got seven MkIII sector traders, and after installing 1.4 I swapped two of the more experienced traders (level 10) over to being Universe Traders.

However they are not equipped with jump drives. Will they equip themselves with jump drives after a while, or do I have to do it for them?

A quote from the MK3 Trader Readme:

Level 8 allows the trader to use the jump drive, if the ship is not equipped with a jump drive the pilot will simply order one as soon as he reaches level 12. If the pilot order the jumps drive the price is 10% higher than the normal price as the drive will be delivered to the trader. You may take this literally as there is an actual ship that delivers the drive to your trader. Of course the risk for the ordered ware is on the buyers' side, so if that delivery service goes "boom" it's your problem.

[Holliday]

There you go.
I forgot about the level 12 thing. Send your traders to get a jumpdrive now, before level 12. You will save the price of delivery, and the risk.

[Timbuk2]

Groovy. Thanks for the info chaps.

[duriel]

I'll add my question to the end of this topic as it relates to the mk3 adn jumpdrives.

I have a level9 universe trader with a jumpdrive. The problem is that i caught it heading to the south jumpgate. I would have thought it would have used the jumpdrive rather than using the jumpgate even if it was only going 1 sector away.

Is something wrong or he still at too low a level to get it right currently.

Neil

[Holliday]

I think I have seen my level 25 traders do the same thing. That is just being pragmatic. You don’t want him out there throwing money away.

[duriel]

Fair enough.

Does it matter in anyway if you set a homebase that only has a buying/selling range of 0.

I was wondering if this limited the universe trader or whether it just gets ignored by it.

Neil

[S VIIC/41]

Once, my trader said it had been attacked in Atreus Clouds by a BORON SECTOR PATROL

I knew people said they weren't as good at protecting ships as they could be, but that's crazy

Probably a stray laser bolt I'd say.

[Holliday]

You better check his "friend or foe" setting to make sure the Boron aren't set to foe now.

[frymaster]

I've got a level 21 trader that i started off in Family Pride, as pre 1.4 it was by far the best sector for mk.3 trading..still is..now i've put the ship on universe trader i've noticed that although my Argon equipment dock is closed to trading to the masses my universe trader still sells heavy weapons to it and he's getting paid for using my money..this must be wrong..my eq. dock is full of ships loaded out with all kinds of stuff..eg 50 125mw shields 60 gamma ppc's that kind of thing, when i use some of the stuff to equip a new ship and forget to put some back in stock along comes the auto trader and uses a niche in the market.. i put 5 million credits in the station when i opened it.. when i looked earlier i had 400k left in it..what am i doing wrong

if you set the buy/sell price in the factory to minimum, they won't sell to you, and in the latest version they won't buy from closed factories either. I quite like this behaviour as it saves me setting ludicrously high jump radii and sending out trader ships with heavy escort for goods - if I want it, I just increase the buy/sell price and my own ship delivers it to me a wee while later

[Darkhold]

Once, my trader said it had been attacked in Atreus Clouds by a BORON SECTOR PATROL

I knew people said they weren't as good at protecting ships as they could be, but that's crazy

Probably a stray laser bolt I'd say.

Was he selling slaves? My Traders seem to all have loose morals I catch them with illegal goods in their holds all the time. One of these days they are bound to be caught.

I've only lost one so far. He managed to crash into a station.....must have gotten suicidal in the vast emptiness of space.

[TerrorTrooper]

Once, my trader said it had been attacked in Atreus Clouds by a BORON SECTOR PATROL

I knew people said they weren't as good at protecting ships as they could be, but that's crazy

Probably a stray laser bolt I'd say.

Was he selling slaves? My Traders seem to all have loose morals I catch them with illegal goods in their holds all the time. One of these days they are bound to be caught.

I've only lost one so far. He managed to crash into a station.....must have gotten suicidal in the vast emptiness of space.

I Read a BBS article about some Teladi who went "Space Mad".
She got herself killed too

[rfoote]

A question:

I've got seven MkIII sector traders, and after installing 1.4 I swapped two of the more experienced traders (level 10) over to being Universe Traders.

OK, I' ve got 9 Sector traders working,all home based at an Ore mine in Buckzoid...this in a v1.4 with no mods.

I also have two dolphins with jump drives based in separate fac's that I use to jump around various sectors selling their products.

If a trader sends in the "I haven't sold all my product and need help" message and you use the trade/sell ware/at wherever command they will hi-tail it to home base! You have to dock at/trade with station. Thus the "profit" ends up in your account rather than their base fac.

The same is true of the dolpins....why? Am I doing something wrong? After this happened 3 times I always dock/sell now.

In line with Timbuk2's message............HOW do you set up a Universal Trader? I can find no option for it. And some of my sector traders have made over 10 mil credits each!

PS: I posted this question earliar to the forum and it got deleted somehow. I know it was there because I checked back and 4 had read it.



rfoote@blackfoot.net

[Holliday]

Have you installed the new glaxay trader script? If so, your traders must be level 8 or better, they must have Fight software I and II (I think), and you should read the readme file.