Any good trade tactics/route?

[energyman76b]

Hi,

exactly! I want to start my own mercenary fleet!

Sadly, the good names are all gone (tagon's toughs, pranger's bangers, stuka's stormtroopers)

[klauss]

Amen.

[Elementlmage]

I have found that the best place to do merchent trading is in new detroit, I think its new detroit, might be new amsterdam. But, its the system that has the oceanic planet and the refinery. Refineries pay 11k for specialty wines as opposed to 10K at mining bases. The refineries also have cheap refined fuels in large quantities. Also-please don't "fix" this, if you save and restart the game all planets will start with random amounts of what ever products they produce. So you can stock up on wine and sell it quickly for massive profit.

[Workaphobia]

If only there were more specialty wines available (without cheating ) - I found an intra-system route where I could buy them for a little over 6000 and sell for around 12000.

[XV-745]

I have a program that converts the units.csv file into a cargo table showing the contents of the cargo_import field in a queryable (Is that even a word?) format.

:drools:

So, uh... is this program something you'd exchange for money or some form of contraband?

I tried to get vwcd's tool at...

http://vwcd.homelinux.net:48971/vstradenews

...but the link is dead. I'd be happy as a clam to try either tool.

XV

[XV-745]

I also noticed the cargo replenish "feature". (save + load = replenished stock and missions). Personally, I don't consider it cheating. If nothing else, it makes the bases dynamic. I consider each save/load cycle like spending the night at the base, waiting to see if any new missions come up the next day (we don't have to be flying every second of our lives, do we?).

So, if the devs intend to change the functionality of this (e.g. - if they intend to carry base cargo quantities and mission lists over from save to load), I suggest they add a "spend the night" button (or whatever). It would certainly be more balanced to not completely regenerate the base cargo with every save/load or "night spent" (as it seems to do now), but incrementing and decrementing amounts by some interval and adding one or two new missions (while subtracting a few others) would certainly add to the realism of the game and encourage pilots to spend some quality time at the bases...

XV

[smbarbour]

I have a program that converts the units.csv file into a cargo table showing the contents of the cargo_import field in a queryable (Is that even a word?) format.

:drools:

So, uh... is this program something you'd exchange for money or some form of contraband?

I tried to get vwcd's tool at...

http://vwcd.homelinux.net:48971/vstradenews

...but the link is dead. I'd be happy as a clam to try either tool.

XV

The only thing with this program is that it is Windows only and requires some sort of database system. I'll be happy to post the code I used to split apart the cargo_import column though. (Even if no one else uses VB, the code should be readable to anyone who wants to port it.)

[XV-745]

The only thing with this program is that it is Windows only and requires some sort of database system. I'll be happy to post the code I used to split apart the cargo_import column though. (Even if no one else uses VB, the code should be readable to anyone who wants to port it.)

That would be swell. I use VB (although my VB install is tied to ArcGIS, I don't think it will compile external progs... but I may be wrong). Still, I'd like to see the code, if you get the chance to post it. Oh, when you say it neads a database system, do you mean Corel Paradox or Microsoft Access? Cuz if so, I'm in good shape.

XV

[CoffeeBot]

I'll take the code you used. I hate VB, and I don't touch windows unless I have to. If it's not too complex (which I don't think it is) I'll punch out a web-based front-end, so we don't have to worry about any cross-platform junk.

[smbarbour]

Code: Select all

Private Sub Form_Load()
Dim cn As New Connection
Dim rs As Recordset
Dim rsNew As Recordset
Dim Unit As String
Dim cargo() As String
Dim Entry() As String
Dim i As Integer

cn.Open "Provider=SQLOLEDB.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Persist Security Info=False;Initial Catalog=Test;Data Source=********"
Set rs = cn.Execute("select [key], cargo_import from units where cargo_import is not null")
Set rsNew = New Recordset
rsNew.Open "select * from cargo", cn, adOpenKeyset, adLockOptimistic
While rs.EOF = False
   Unit = rs![Key]
   cargo() = Split(rs![cargo_import], "}")
   i = 0
   On Error Resume Next
   Do
      Entry() = Split(cargo(i), ";")
      If Err.Number <> 0 Then Exit Do
      With rsNew
         .AddNew
         ![Unit] = Unit
         ![Category] = Right(Entry(0), Len(Entry(0)) - 1)
         ![Price] = Val(Entry(1))
         ![price_dev] = Val(Entry(2))
         ![quantity] = Val(Entry(3))
         ![quant_dev] = Val(Entry(4))
         .Update
      End With
      i = i + 1
   Loop
   Debug.Print Err.Description & " - " & cargo(i)
   Err.Clear
   On Error GoTo 0
   rs.MoveNext
   DoEvents
Wend
End Sub

If you know enough about DB programming (only the basics in this case), you should have no trouble changing the connection string for connecting to whatever ODBC datasource you want to use. This code uses the MS SQL Desktop Engine (Free version of SQL Server). The units.csv file was imported wholesale into the units table and a new table consisting of Unit, Category, Price, Price_Dev, Quantity, Quant_Dev called cargo was created for the data to go into.

[CoffeeBot]

I realize I'm not that great of a programmer, but I know enough to read most code...and this doesn't look like your typical code. Looks like I'm going to have fun picking this one apart

Yet another reason I dislike MS.

Edit: I forgot to add, "Thank you." I do appreciate the code.

[smbarbour]

The only thing that is unusual in this code is the split function which turns a string into a string array where each entry is separated by the given delimiter. It is used twice. The first one splits the cargo_import field into individual entries, the second splits those entries into the 5 fields of that entry. If you have any questions about what a specific piece of this code does, just ask and I will let you know.

[CoffeeBot]

Naw, I understood that. I just think it's wierd.

You know...people are afraid of things they don't understand, and all that jazz.

[XV-745]

LOL... It's going to take me a while to figure out how to attach to an external database I think. I downloaded the MS SQL Desktop Engine, but whoo-boy - I'm at the steep end of the learning curve.

So, CoffeeBot, how's that web-based front-end coming?

[smbarbour]

My code actually uses MSDE (SQL Database Engine). The changes you would need to make (other than creating the tables), would be to create an ODBC Data Source, set the Data Source parameter of the connection string to that data source, and change the initial catalog parameter to the name of the database that you are using.

I have the SQL Server Tools at my disposal, so some things are a little easier for me than it would be without.

You should be able to use the visdata program (In the Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\VB98 folder) to issue the necessary SQL commands to prep the database.