Need a simple way to create a two way trade between MY stations

[Sesikee]

I've tried several things. I just want to automatically set up a supply both ways between my stations to "basically swap" the materials each station needs. This should be the most basic requirement yet it isn't?!!!!

What's the point of having multiple stations to do its own thing then direct these goods to the stations that I want to build my ships at. I seriously just want to smack the developers upside in the head for not having a simple way of doing it instead of creating some convoluted and elaborated methods for AIs to do its even more convoluted and elaborated trades.

Yeah, I'm whining. Such potential but squandered with so many extremely counter-intitutive actions required.

[Xenomorph]

That way of doing things sounds good on paper, but it's over complicated. You better off building a station in a system with rocks and gas, then keep adding to it, instead of having little things scattered all over.

You can't even start to imagine the micromanagement nightmare you'd create by building multiple small stations all over the place.

[Sesikee]

Perhaps but that honestly makes no sense. The problem with the idea of doing a "super complex" is that it takes forever to complete. Additionally, there isn't a sector that has all of the resources so it's a hit or miss with AI ships to go beyond and mine when needed.

This was all I could find about trading things between our own stations on wiki.

How To Transfer Wares Between Player Owned Ships - Ware Exchange
There will be times when it is preferable for wares or consumables to be on a different player owned ship or station. This can be to free up cargo space for other purposes, stock up a reserve ship for exploration, meet mission requirements or to keep fleets supplied. To transfer wares between ships or stations requires one of the assets to have Cargo Drones before left clicking the asset with the ware to transfer in the Object List or Property Owned menu and then right click a target asset in Map and select the Transfer Wares With action to open a trade menu allowing wares to be transferred between the two ships up to their respective capacities for the ware.

Seriously? It's gotta be the dumbest thing to not be able to set up automatic trades between your own stations. I do like to avoid paying for them when I can get it myself then sell it when needed.

[Ruges]

Go into player information. Global Orders and create a new blacklist. Select trade restrictions. Leave civilian and military ships UNCHECKED. Now select every faction. And name it Self Only Trade or something. Now select your ship you want to trade. Select information and then individual restrictions. go down to trade restrictions at the bottom and uncheck use global settings. Now use the drop down menu to select the Self Only Trade blacklist you created. Then go over to behavior and set them up for distribute wares. select the stuff you want transferd between your station.

any ships you add to the above will only trade between your stations.

I think you still need to go in and put sell orders in the stations you want the goods picked up from. and buy orders on the stations you want the goods dropped off. I usually leave trade open on the selling station so the AI can buy if they want. and on the buying station I restrict trade.

[ExavierMacbeth]

Originally posted by Ruges:

Go into player information. Global Orders and create a new blacklist. Select trade restrictions. Leave civilian and military ships UNCHECKED. Now select every faction. And name it Self Only Trade or something. Now select your ship you want to trade. Select information and then individual restrictions. go down to trade restrictions at the bottom and uncheck use global settings. Now use the drop down menu to select the Self Only Trade blacklist you created. Then go over to behavior and set them up for distribute wares. select the stuff you want transferd between your station.

any ships you add to the above will only trade between your stations.

I think you still need to go in and put sell orders in the stations you want the goods picked up from. and buy orders on the stations you want the goods dropped off. I usually leave trade open on the selling station so the AI can buy if they want. and on the buying station I restrict trade.

Pretty much this.
Couple of Extra notes to go with this that I have seen...
- ALI (Alliance of the Word) has a Wharf in Trinity Sanctum VII, Do Not place a scan sat next to it to update its buy orders. ALI is not avalible as a faction to Blacklist so if your ships see a buy order from it the Ware Distributors (and even Auto & Station Traders) will ignore all travel restrictions to go trade with the station.
- You can pair this with a Travel Blacklist to keep your ships from wandering too far off path. This is helpful if you are trying to get trades between two different systems & getting annoyed with some of the odd flight path choices the AI makes.
- For Distribute Wares, I recommend selecting ONLY ONE were for each Distribution Ship rather than a bucket list like you do with Traders. Unlike a Trader, a distributor will fill its entire cargo hold then keep selling just that ware until empty, pick another ware & repeat. If your station hits capacity before he runs out of cargo he will sit there & wait.

[Sesikee]

Originally posted by Ruges:

Go into player information. Global Orders and create a new blacklist. Select trade restrictions. Leave civilian and military ships UNCHECKED. Now select every faction. And name it Self Only Trade or something. Now select your ship you want to trade. Select information and then individual restrictions. go down to trade restrictions at the bottom and uncheck use global settings. Now use the drop down menu to select the Self Only Trade blacklist you created. Then go over to behavior and set them up for distribute wares. select the stuff you want transferd between your station.

any ships you add to the above will only trade between your stations.

I think you still need to go in and put sell orders in the stations you want the goods picked up from. and buy orders on the stations you want the goods dropped off. I usually leave trade open on the selling station so the AI can buy if they want. and on the buying station I restrict trade.

CONVOLUTED BUT OMG, THIS SAVED MY LIFE!!!!! Thank you!

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Originally posted by Ruges:

Go into player information. Global Orders and create a new blacklist. Select trade restrictions. Leave civilian and military ships UNCHECKED. Now select every faction. And name it Self Only Trade or something. Now select your ship you want to trade. Select information and then individual restrictions. go down to trade restrictions at the bottom and uncheck use global settings. Now use the drop down menu to select the Self Only Trade blacklist you created. Then go over to behavior and set them up for distribute wares. select the stuff you want transferd between your station.

any ships you add to the above will only trade between your stations.

I think you still need to go in and put sell orders in the stations you want the goods picked up from. and buy orders on the stations you want the goods dropped off. I usually leave trade open on the selling station so the AI can buy if they want. and on the buying station I restrict trade.

Pretty much this.
Couple of Extra notes to go with this that I have seen...
- ALI (Alliance of the Word) has a Wharf in Trinity Sanctum VII, Do Not place a scan sat next to it to update its buy orders. ALI is not avalible as a faction to Blacklist so if your ships see a buy order from it the Ware Distributors (and even Auto & Station Traders) will ignore all travel restrictions to go trade with the station.
- You can pair this with a Travel Blacklist to keep your ships from wandering too far off path. This is helpful if you are trying to get trades between two different systems & getting annoyed with some of the odd flight path choices the AI makes.
- For Distribute Wares, I recommend selecting ONLY ONE were for each Distribution Ship rather than a bucket list like you do with Traders. Unlike a Trader, a distributor will fill its entire cargo hold then keep selling just that ware until empty, pick another ware & repeat. If your station hits capacity before he runs out of cargo he will sit there & wait.

The last tip nailed it for me, I actually had that issue! Thank you!

[Knightwolf]

Originally posted by Sesikee:

Originally posted by Ruges:

Go into player information. Global Orders and create a new blacklist. Select trade restrictions. Leave civilian and military ships UNCHECKED. Now select every faction. And name it Self Only Trade or something. Now select your ship you want to trade. Select information and then individual restrictions. go down to trade restrictions at the bottom and uncheck use global settings. Now use the drop down menu to select the Self Only Trade blacklist you created. Then go over to behavior and set them up for distribute wares. select the stuff you want transferd between your station.

any ships you add to the above will only trade between your stations.

I think you still need to go in and put sell orders in the stations you want the goods picked up from. and buy orders on the stations you want the goods dropped off. I usually leave trade open on the selling station so the AI can buy if they want. and on the buying station I restrict trade.

CONVOLUTED BUT OMG, THIS SAVED MY LIFE!!!!! Thank you!

Originally posted by ExavierMacbeth:

Pretty much this.
Couple of Extra notes to go with this that I have seen...
- ALI (Alliance of the Word) has a Wharf in Trinity Sanctum VII, Do Not place a scan sat next to it to update its buy orders. ALI is not avalible as a faction to Blacklist so if your ships see a buy order from it the Ware Distributors (and even Auto & Station Traders) will ignore all travel restrictions to go trade with the station.
- You can pair this with a Travel Blacklist to keep your ships from wandering too far off path. This is helpful if you are trying to get trades between two different systems & getting annoyed with some of the odd flight path choices the AI makes.
- For Distribute Wares, I recommend selecting ONLY ONE were for each Distribution Ship rather than a bucket list like you do with Traders. Unlike a Trader, a distributor will fill its entire cargo hold then keep selling just that ware until empty, pick another ware & repeat. If your station hits capacity before he runs out of cargo he will sit there & wait.

The last tip nailed it for me, I actually had that issue! Thank you!

I've been using these same methods for a while and to be honest its kind of fun to set it up this way because you can pretty much make it do what you want it to by utilizing the "blacklist" and "distribute wares" features. Now I am eager to check out the new improvements for station trade in the new beta build.

[Sesikee]

Which station improvement are we talking about as I don't see anything impacting trade or even coming up with a simple two way supplying between stations?

[Sticky]

Build the stations, add what the station needs or what the sector needs. But let the Manager do his or her Job and work that stuff out. With the trade or mining or even the fighters you give them to work with. The Manager will let you know most of them time if their is something they need, in upkeep missions. But things like if your station is full of the resources and products seemly not coming out fast enough. You might just need more storage or another factory added to your station. If your container storage is full you might need more container storage. Keep in mind that stations use supply and demand rates. For example if you had 1000 products ready for sale but you can only hold 1000 the price to buy would be cheap. Or if you had 1000 products but you can hold a million, the price would be high.