🚀 go-pugleaf

So I've been playing X3 for a while and have mostly gotten over the
steep learning curve. 

Got myself a couple of cargo ships and a bunch of combat ships, but
have mostly been ignoring the story till I get a nice bankroll.

I've made most of my cash in trading using a Vulture with 8000m of
cargo space and a jump drive. I make most of my cash running sunrise
flowers from Spaceweed Drift to Blue Profit and energy cells  back to
Spaceweed Drift.  I average about 250k per trip.

I picked up the Trade Software Mk3 and turned the ship loose in
Empire's Edge to do sector trading. (seems to have a complete
production loop)
That was pretty much a waste of time since he made only 800k in 2
days.
Next I had him jump over to Spaceweed Drift to see if he could do
better as a universe trader in an area where I can make huge cash.
It's still pretty pathetic since I'm only up 300k in the last 24 hrs.

These are the problems I'm running into with the AI trying to trade:

1. It never buys the product with the best profit. It'll buy energy
cells at 17 and sell them at 18 rather than buying sunrise flowers at
5 and selling them 2 jumps away for 34

2. It never fills the ship. It's got 8300 meters of cargo space and
I've never seen it with more than 2500 meters of space. I just watched
it do a 20 minute cargo run with a cargo of 1 warhead. 5 times in a
row. Using 30 energy cells to jump. 

3. It keeps wasting what pathetic little profits it does make on
buying cargo expansion. It's not even using what it's got and it's
added another 300 meters in the last 3 days.  :^(

Does the AI get any less stupid with experience? 
Are there any work arounds to make it less stupid?
I realize you can move the software to another ship without resetting
it. If I move it in a way that deliberatly reset's it, is there a
chance it will be less stupid the 2nd time around?


I figured a big ship would be more profitable even though it's slower.
(63m/sec) Would it work better with a smaller faster ship 3000 cargo
but 100m/s?


Assuming the AI is perma-stupid when it comes to trading, how
profitable are the smaller factories? Perhaps something in the 500k to
1 mil  price range. How much would a TL normally charge to move
something like this?

Is there a better way to make money than trading? Combat's not
profitable since I either lose wingmen or do significant damage to
ships costing far more to repair/replace than I make in bounties.

Any advice would be appreciated.  :^)


Remove nospam_ to reply by email

Jeff H........