Freighter experiencing a 'shortage of money' ?

[X-Me]

Can someone explain this to me?
It happens so rarely that I can't observe things before it does. But if I inspect the freighter after the message, I find inconsistencies between the actual cargo and the cueded orders.

The last time it was with a mining vessel for bulk wares temporarily used to buy and sell Ore. I queued 2 orders, like: buy 15555 ore at -40% and sell 15555 ore at +50%
After the first BUY order was executed, the prices for ore were largely unchanged, so I repeated the sequence: buy at -40%, sell at +50%.

Minutes later, it happened: the freighter's captain called, talking of a shortage of money. When I looked at the freighter, she was carrying 4859 ore. Two orders were left in her queue: sell 15555 ore, and sell 10700 ore (maybe it wasn't exactly 10700).

How could the freighter sell more than she could ever carry?
What happened to the BUY order in between the two SELL ones?
And why was she carrying only 4859 when it had to be 15555?

[pref]

One reason could be that the station got damaged, and lost some of the stock. Then after sales captain had less money then estimated as sales volume and profit was smaller as well.

[X-Me]

It happened again.
Both stations in the zone have 100% scan info.
No wrecks or red ships visible. And no sign of trouble.

I suspect the mass-traffic.
I used to transport illegal goods without buying the licenses for it. Every once in a while my captains would report that the police had them drop the cargo.
In the mass-traffic are also those little enemy ships you can fire at to win a station's favor. Can it be that they hack my freighter -on approach- and steal the money that was reserved when I queued the 'buy' order?

I'm guessing. But it'd explain why the captain has not enough money.

[spankahontis]

You can damage a Capital Traders Containers now? I've seen ships get those sections damaged by Pirate fire.

This destroys the cargo as well?

[Nikola515]

Mass traffic dont do anythin and it is there for show. But player stations will send drones to trade with other stations in the same zone. I havent seen NPC station send drones so cant tell you for sure if they do that.

[X-Me]

Alright, back to the start. What's the cause of the shortage of money?
Anybody else experienced it? Can't be just me...

[TheDeliveryMan]

It's been a while since I last played a heavily trade oriented game, so things might have improved. But back then I'v seen similar issues. A single failed trade could lead to subsequent queued trade orders also failing due to lack of money, lack of cargo space or lack of freight.

I used to transport illegal goods without buying the licenses for it. Every once in a while my captains would report that the police had them drop the cargo.

I can only guess what was happening here. You ordered your freighter to buy, then sell, some illegal goods. Before he was finished you queued another buy order. Your freighter was cought smuggling and had to drop the freight. Then the captain had nothing to sell, didn't make the expected profit and finally had insufficient money to perform the next buy order.

[radcapricorn]

Could you perhaps take a look at this thread? To me, it seems related, and it looks like 4.0 should improve the situation.

[X-Me]

Yes, it's related.
Unlike Saquavin, my problem is occurring with a normal Rahanas (Container).
Like Saquavin, I'm not touching the captain's account.

The problem sparks autonomously. There's no intervention from me, outside the very queueing of BUY and SELL orders as you normally would.
I'd like to provide a savegame to reproduce the problem, but it's elusive, almost sentient: it never occurs shortly after having saved. And it never happens when I'm there. I'm always OOZ when the captain calls.

Anyway, as of yesterday I'm playing with 4.00 RC1, and the occurrence of this problem has increased. Today I've had it 5 times in the same session: 4 times with a Rahanas (Container) and 1 time with a Rahanas (Energy).

I've also had a new problem (related? unrelated? dunno).
By mistake I bought 2 extra Interceptor URV Mk1. I wanted to get rid of them, but the attempt to sell them failed 3 times straight: all 3 times the captain would call me saying "it sounds crazy sir, but they don't want our wares", or something along those lines.
At the 4th attempt I was able to get rid of the Interceptors.