where my drones at ?

[Dovahkiin]

i built my first station. simple graphene or whatever its called. i have set drone levels for cargo, def, repair. been running for a few hours but no drones. the rest of the factery seems to be doing well. making a little bit of money. 150 or so people there. thoughts ?

[{DSHE} KILLDOZER]

Originally posted by geneherr:

where my drones at ?

I'm here boy! Gotcha back.

Seriously though, did you give the manager money to get them, and did you build a large dock thingy? I think you need those. The big 3 large dock ones which I've forgotten what they're called.

[Dovahkiin]

i have about 400,000 in both station accounts, and i have a 3-dock-T and a basic doc. my traiders and coming and going. but still no drones. i left it running all night to check and still nothing. here is a station pic https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/942841397812016405/A36116E4393A38B6E5674877E74F89C5E193FAD6/

[Dovahkiin]

and my logical overview.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/942841397812030374/26E99F9FF3795CCB78B46E9DB256353A14D7DA63/

[eMYNOCK]

your station should have generated trade offers for drone materials... (drone parts, smart chips & energy cells).

it is possible that the NPCs will deliver those parts if your station has enough money... (that means it needs to have exceeded the minimum budget).

but i will be honest.. it is easier and faster when you simply pick a transporter.. or two.. and bring the drone parts your self into the station.

[Dovahkiin]

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/942841397812183514/66D3E8EC9677CAEC17E30CDBDAE4B80A1ADCC62B/
in this picture there is no price for the drone components. what does that mean?

[Targa]

Either assign a freighter to your station so the station manager can have it purchase drone components, or in map mode right click your station and look at trade offers to see how many drone components it needs, then send a freighter manually to the nearest drone part station to buy them and transfer them to your station (be sure to use "transfer" rather than "trade with").

I suspect there's no price on drone components in that last screenshot because you have "restrict trade to other factions" checked in your personnel > Station Manager info screen.

[Dr Zoidberg]

I am running into this too. What is the secret sauce? Do they really need a trader assigned? My megastation (10 production facilities, 3 mil hourly turnover) has freighters and money assigned up the wazoo...still no drones. Short of doing manual transfers, which isn't fun since most large ships only carry 10 at a time.

[Dovahkiin]

restrict trade is not checked

[Tashine (Da)]

Can you not just transfer drones directly? I loaded my Mammoth builder with drones from the shipyyard and ordered a manual transfer wares to the factory. I got this far but presumed it had only failed (with a cannot dock type message) due to me not having a pier for docking.

[lock]

Uhh..I found your drones, there were two crates of em, and there were 133 in one crate and I didn't get to the other one.

I ran over the 133 crate one an collected 21 of em, my ship could not get anymore, so i docked an tried to sell them all at over 2 mil...no option in the trade (Argo Equiptment dock) so am going to trt the trading station nearby...

Oh an thanks for those crates!!!

Oh an I do not need them as i kill the enemies and collect their booty!

[Dovahkiin]

Originally posted by Tashine (Da):

Can you not just transfer drones directly? I loaded my Mammoth builder with drones from the shipyyard and ordered a manual transfer wares to the factory. I got this far but presumed it had only failed (with a cannot dock type message) due to me not having a pier for docking.

yup. i finally figured that part out.

[Dr Zoidberg]

Originally posted by Tashine (Da):

Can you not just transfer drones directly? I loaded my Mammoth builder with drones from the shipyyard and ordered a manual transfer wares to the factory. I got this far but presumed it had only failed (with a cannot dock type message) due to me not having a pier for docking.

Ah, you know, I was thinking of just using freighters. Forgot the Mam can hold 100 drones.

[Dovahkiin]

ok, so, i 'think' in order to make drones it needs smart chips/ drone components/ and energy. my factor is a smart chip factory. i had components and energy, and for a period of time my smart chips were just dissapearing after being produce, so appearently it was using them for the components and that is why it was taking a while. had i delivered some to it first then it would have happened right away. that's my theory anyway.

[Revocate]

Yep, manually flew in Smart Chips an Drone Components (already have tons of Energy Cells) and drones appeared right away. Good call guys!

[ADMIRALPAIN]

I didn't have drones on my station for a very long time. My first one is in Argon Prime, didn't have drones until I attached two Smartchip factories, you'll get the blueprints for those in Antigone Memorial. Problem is the drone part factory in Argon Prime needed those to start production.

Atm my station stopped drone production again, don't know if this is becaus I frequently plunder it's account and only leave it with around half a million. Possibly the stations only start building drones if their bank account exceeds the self set optimum - thus meaning I'd have to wait until it has around 12 millions - if your station is underfunded you'll get a minor mission to pump up it's account.