Slow Exchanges?

[brookerf]

Does anyone know what exactly is going on with the exchanges? Mine wasn't that slow when I heard people first start remarking about it, but over the last three days, I've slowly been losing money. A normal day with two hauling runs (and the usual factory inputs) usually brings in 4-5 megs a day.

My stats for the last few days (and even doing extra hauling runs to try to keep the exchange from losing groats):

12/8 21, 649,957
12/9 23,994,469
12/10 24,010,342
12/11 23,695,558


Anyone have any insight into the situation or figured out how to make money despite this problem? Am I the only one still having this problem???

[smitty]

Hey Brooke-
I've mentioned and discussed this problem a few times on comms, and i was told that many people have noticed slowness (severe in my case). also, the test team has been alerted.

The reason i've been making very little, or even losing money some days is that people are overfilling my exchange hugely! this is just because it is not eating a lot, and the normal amounts that would be good to have pile up...

Bella is putting new code in this week that is supposed to fix the various problems she introduced trying to get disaffection in correctly- so with some luck the exchange slowness is a side-effect and will be solved as well.

in the mean time, i've stopped all factory production on numazu, and cranked all my spreads up to 40 to attempt to curb the problems. (unfortunately this is one case where discouraging trade might actually help)

[brookerf]

I think I will also stop production in half of my facs. I was talking to Dupree about it the other day...using his exchange analyzer I saw that I had an overfill problem and later noticed it in other commods I produce. Since I have so many of one type, they are overfilling the exchange since its not eating them up fast enough...just like you.

I've noticed a lot of buying and selling on my exchange, and the folks that are doing it are being so nice...only three bays each time. So I don't know if that is really affecting things for me or not. I'll plug Mersun in the system of Yarl. Everything is set to a 6% spread with stockpiles to the max. My alt is very charitable (unlike greedy ol' me) and is glad to accept trade of any kind!

[Dupree]

FYI: I set the max for all defs to 200tns that serves two purposes
1) keeps folks from knowing/unknowingly overfilling by much
2) keeps ME from overfilling by much.

I don't see any point in keeping Defs at anything but a 200tn Max...

[Dupree]

Also I made over 1.5 meg since last night.... maybe the issue is fixed, or maybe I made more than I thought off that Probes and Gens event.

[zr]

Not sure, not been doing much trading (other than exports) this wk.

I keep cereals at 2200, but that's so I can dump stuff in there and not worry about it later---no, I don't know if it helps/hinders progress, but it's something I'm trying anyhow since cereals are so abundant.

[brookerf]

I turned off a third of my factories and I've been making profit again. Don't know if, like Dupree said, the bug has been fixed, or if I've fixed an 'overfilling' problem.

I've said before I don't mind if someone hauls into my exchange...and it would be pretty bold to ask that they don't, since that's part of the game. If I make money off filling deficits, its actually helping me. That statement aside, I watched my exchange a little more closely and found that a frequent hauler has been filling deficits that were fully taken care of by factories. I'm not crazy about that, but like I said, its part of the game, and taking into account people who are playing the game a different way is an aspect of that.

The slower exchange plus the overfill of the merchant/my facs was (I believe) keeping my exchange from ever catching up with itself. I'm glad to shut down a few of the facs for awhile. When the new code is put in to correct the wtg problem, I'll probably have to close even more!

[Dupree]

Hmm Brooke, I put a note on my ex telling folks that they will be exiled for dumping on my facs... However, on first offense I TB and ask them to stop it. I mean not only does that hurt your planet it also hurts the FO if the def is overfilled to the point that the goods are filled to "MAX" when the Factory sells.

[brookerf]

dupree said:

Hmm Brooke, I put a note on my ex telling folks that they will be exiled for dumping on my facs... However, on first offense I TB and ask them to stop it. I mean not only does that hurt your planet it also hurts the FO if the def is overfilled to the point that the goods are filled to "MAX" when the Factory sells.

Personally, I don't like it when anyone dumps on my planet and I think using the Exile feature is one way to play the game back into your favor. There are a lot of ways to control what happens to your planet...expropriating factories, adjusting stockpiles and spread, exiling players that abuse your exchange...and I see nothing wrong with doing that. I would use those options, too...but I'm just saying Fed is a game and part of the challenge is dealing with these situations.

[southgnte]

The best defence I have on people trying to overfill is to have an auto-trigger set that changes all spreads to 40 if the said player is dumping on the planet the commods produced by facs. Then after it shows <insert player name> has left, it checks to make sure they are off planet and spread is re-set to where it was before. I only do this to players that are dumpin on facs.

But unlike most, I dont get much traffic as most of my spreads stay at 40. I fill most my own defs 2-3 times per day. Its a much slower process but it helps me make sure my planet makes the most profit for the buck.

Just my 2 cents.

[brookerf]

Sheesh, Southgnte! That's pretty cool and I'm impressed that you rigged up such a thing. I'm a computer idiot, so I have no clue what goes into making a trigger, but its a good idea and another way to protect your exchange.

[southgnte]

Im from the ole school where macros ran the show. So its just a simple macro in zmud that checks everything. All of my hauling is done via triggers and a macro.. Im just too lazy to do that much typing.

[brookerf]

I remember using macros with Fed when it was on AOL, but I cannot remember for the life of me how I did it. We used to have message boards back then and I'm sure I stole the idea off someone there! I use the F-Keys through Fed II now and that's how I fill my deficits each day. It does the job just as well, except for my one biological run to Sol, which has me up to 22 deaths already!

[smitty]

i won't mention my personal stance on macros... except to say that i can personally see how useful they are but i encourage everyone to keep talking about them to a minimum, as IBgames is *very* against them (in a pretty insane way).

so while it doesn't seem like any IB people read these boards, I still wouldn't want anyone to lose their macros/account/whatever...