Commercial Agent

See Also: Traders

Please note: This article is a stub. You may wish to consult the See Also section for a list of more in-depth guides, or consider fleshing it out yourself.

"Commercial Agent" or "CAG" is a feature added by the Bonus Pack to X3: Reunion, Terran Conflict and Albion Prelude.

CAGs buy and sell goods for stations. You assign them by first assigning a homebase and then selecting "Start Commercial Representation" from the Trade menu while Navigation Command Software and Trade Command Software Mk 1 and Mk 2 are installed.

Usage

Equip a TS Transport with the required software, assign a homebase, then select "Start Commercial Representation".

Pilot Levels

Pilots level up and gain new abilities as they do, which means taking training courses. Newly employed pilots are paid no wage. From Level 2 and up, they begin to draw a wage, varying from 20-40 credits per Mizura flown. Pilot levels are shared between CAG, CLS MkI, and CLS MkII pilots, meaning that a CAG can be trained as a CLS pilot, or be switched to a CLS pilot without losing rank.

Apprentice

Pay: Free

New Abilities: Will purchase required goods only.

Courier

Pay: 20 Credits per Mizura

New Abilities: Can now sell station products, and trade with/from Trading Stations and Equipment Docks.

Supplier

Pay: 25 Credits per Mizura

New Abilities: buys upgrades for ship (including Fighter Drones, and Ship Upgrades). Coordinates with other CAGs to prevent things like overbuying of goods.

Trader

Pay: 30 Credits per Mizura

New Abilities: Can use a Jumpdrive and deal with Intermediate Products.

Dealer

Pay: 35 Credits per Mizura

New Abilities: Avoids hostile sectors. Will also sell products to make more credits available to the factory if the factory is running low on supplies and does not already have enough money to buy them.

Major Dealer

Pay: 40 Credits per Mizura

New Abilities: Will repair ship if damaged, and will continue to search for the best deal even after departing the station.

Configuration

Configuration for CAGs is found in two places. The first place is the menu provided to the player when they first click Start Commercial Representation. The second place is through the station or complex menu tree: Advanced -> Command Console -> Any slot -> Administration (Commercial Agent)

The latter provides you with configuration for the stations, complex, and all CAGs.

In the station settings, the player can set the station or the entire complex to Out of Order. The player can also set the prices at which the CAGs will buy and sell products. This is separate from the station or complex prices that any AI may buy or sell at.

In the complex settings, the player can specify which products the CAGs should treat as intermediate product. The player may also set individual stations within the complex to Out of Order.

In the CAG settings, there are several options.

Trader Settings

The player can see statistics about the CAG (e.g., Total Wages, Earnings, Expenses).

• Delete Accounting Information: Deletes pilot data. Will ask for confirmation.

• Take Trainings: If off, the pilot will not gain levels.

• Trader salary: Choose whether the pilot receives salary from the Global or Station Account.

• Agreement with Colleagues: Choose whether the pilot will coordinate with other CAGs.

• Fire trader: Fires the pilot.

• Reassign pilot: Will transfer the CAG pilot to another ship that is dock at the same location.

• Restore Defaults

Ware lists

• Ware list type: Blacklist - Anything added to the list is not handled by the CAG. Whitelist - Only that added to the list is handled by the CAG.

• Ware list: Will let the player select homebase-relevant wares to add to the list.

• Restore Defaults

Exceptions

• Stations: Choose which stations the CAG will not visit during his duty.

• Sectors: Choose which sectors the CAG will not visit during his duty.

• Sector list type: Blacklist or Whitelist. See Ware list type.

• Only trade with satellite network sectors: Yes or No. Whether CAGs will trade in sectors without player-owned satellites.

• Only trade in sectors with a jumpgate

• Only trade with non-player stations: Yes or No. Disable to force CAG to only trade with AI stations.

Trade Duties

• Trade duty: Trader - Buys and Sells as specified. Shopper - Buys as specified. Salesman - Sells as specified.

• Purchase resources: The threshold at which a CAG will purchase a ware, in percentage. E.g., given a station with 10000 energy cell capacity, 80% means the CAG will buy energy cells up until the station has 8000.

• Sell products: The threshold at which a CAG will sell a product, in percentage. E.g., given a station that can produce up to 32 PACs, 50% means the CAG will attempt to sell PACs upon 16 being completed.

• Sell products freighter cargo bay: The amount of cargo required to be filled before attempting to sell a product, in percentage.

• Purchase intermediate products: The threshold at which the CAG will buy intermediate products, in percentage. Remember that the player can manually set which products to consider as intermediate.

• Sell intermediate products: The threshold at which the CAG will sell intermediate products, in percentage. E.g., if the station can hold 1000 ores (which is set to intermediate), the CAG will consider anything over 800 to be excess ore, and will sell it.

• Purchase stations credit balance:

• Quit working in home base: Yes or No. Choosing Yes will stop the CAG without needing to issue other commands (e.g., standby or idle).

• Restore defaults

Station settings

• Trade range: Set the CAG's range of trade. Defaults to the jump range of the station or complex.

• Home sector: Set the CAG'S home sector. Defaults to the sector containing the homebase.

• Restore defaults

Jump Drive Settings

• Jump drive energy: Set the number of energy cells to automatically buy. Defaults to the Number of jumps multiplied by the fuel requirement of the ship (e.g., a TS requires 10 per jump; if set to 20 jump in the command menu, the default for the CAG will be 200)

• Minimum jump range: The minimum number of gates between the current and destination required before using jumpdrive. Defaults to the jump range set in the ship command menu.

• Restore defaults

Automatic Naming

• Renaming settings: On or off. If on, will automatically configure the name of the ship in the property menu.

• Ship number:

• Factory number:

• Restore defaults

Configure Reports

• Promotions: Whether to include promotiots in the report.

• Enemy sightings: Whether to include spotted enemies, as configured in the ship command menu, in the report.

• Acoustic signals at messages:

• Trade log: Whether to track every transaction for the report.

• Analysis to log:

• Restore defaults

Data Storage

• Load data: Load a CAG settings profile.

• Save data: Save a CAG settings profile. E.g., if you have duties set to 80%, 40%, 40%, etc, and you want future CAGS to use the same settings, then you can save the profile with any name, and load it with Load data upon starting CAG.

• Delete data: Delete selected settings profile.

• Restore defaults: Restores all CAG settings to default.

See Also

Official Egosoft Thread (Includes description)