Lazy Civilians... They haven't shipped anything in forever...

[Lightning (OP)]

I recently noticed my civilian shipping hasn't been moving anything lately.  They used to, but have stopped for some reason.  I have goods set up to be moved via the supply & demand contracts but nothing is happening.  They even stopped moving colonists.  I've tried clearing the orders but that doesn't seem to help.  Any thoughts or suggestions?

Thanks in advance

[TheDeadlyShoe]

if you have civilian contracts set up on zero-population planets, they'll get all confused and messed up. Clear the contracts and clear all the orders; i think that will fix it.

[Lightning (OP)]

I'll give that a try when I get home. . .  Thanks.

It seems likely that is the cause since when I set up the contracts to establish an automated mining outpost on a Neutronium rich moon about 3 yrs ago, the civies were shipping stuff & they haven't been for at least 1. 5 years now that I know of based on logs and when I discovered it & tried to remedy on my own. 

Seems a bit silly that it would cause an issue though, one would think a contract is a contract as long as it doesn't take them thru contested space.  Though, I have seen them do other silly things like dead-heading when there was stuff to fill the holds on return trips between 2 planets.  Oh well, guess I'll just have to free up some naval freighters to establish the mining colony.

[Thiosk]

if you have civilian contracts set up on zero-population planets, they'll get all confused and messed up. Clear the contracts and clear all the orders; i think that will fix it.

Wow, is that really the key to this problem?
I've been mucking about with this for some time and simply gave up recovering automated mines from such worlds-- I deliver them, and then SM them back to earth when its time to move em.

I will do one of two things in the future:

An orbital hab, or will begin work on my Ultralifter fleet.  Each ultralifter can carry 25 facilities. 

[Marthnn]

I quickly learned that setting supply contracts in unpopulated colonies is quite useless. Even low-population colonies have difficulties with those. This is about the only reason I keep about 20 freighters under my control. But I've never noticed it messes up with other transport.

[Beersatron]

If low population is the reason for Civvies not delivering contracts it is probably because they check for goods to bring back on the return-trip and factor that into if it is worth running.

No/low population centres do not have a lot or a diverse set of trade goods and make for a less attractive run.

[voknaar]

If low population is the reason for Civvies not delivering contracts it is probably because they check for goods to bring back on the return-trip and factor that into if it is worth running.

No/low population centres do not have a lot or a diverse set of trade goods and make for a less attractive run.

Wow steve perfectly emulated real life corporate greed! ..... That's depressing.

[wedgebert]

I've not had problems with low population colonies. However what got me was that I setup a Supply contract on Earth for 10 mass drivers so that I didn't have to think about it later, I could just add a Demand contract on a new world and it would automatically start.

It seemed that all the civilians would orbit Earth trying to find a place to dump the mass drivers instead of doing anything else. As soon as I removed that contract, they started acting normally.

[Lightning (OP)]

Ok. . .  I've tried it. . .  No luck. . .  For some reason I can't seem to clear the orders for any of the freighters. . .  I hit clear after clicking on them and the destination stays. . . 

The colony ships I can vent the colonists to space (clear works), advance the time, the ships get orders to pick more up, they pick em up, & then sit there w/o assigning a destination to drop em off at. . . 

Any other thoughts?

[Marthnn]

From my experience, civilian colony ships pick colonists from a Source, then check for a possible destination. If there are none, they wait for you to set a colony as destination.

Also, DON'T LEAVE USELESS SUPPLY CONTRACTS. Only set as much supply as you want moved right now. My civvies have just fulfilled my terraformer transport contracts on low population colonies, right after cancelling some long-standing supply contracts for mass drivers and sensor arrays in my capital. My guess is those contracts attracted civilian freighters to the capital, even if they couldn't possibly fulfill them. My colonies 2 jumps away had only the occasional trade good freighter coming.

[Lightning (OP)]

I do have several destinations set up for colonists. . .  Do they have a distance requirement too?

As for the freighters. . .  The colony they are headed to has no supply contracts, just trade goods. . .  And I still can't clear the freighters orders with the 'clear orders' button. . . 

[Beersatron]

I do have several destinations set up for colonists. . .  Do they have a distance requirement too?

As for the freighters. . .  The colony they are headed to has no supply contracts, just trade goods. . .  And I still can't clear the freighters orders with the 'clear orders' button. . . 

Civies will only travel 4 jumps away from their current location.

[Lightning (OP)]

Civies will only travel 4 jumps away from their current location.

That fixed the colony ships.  They had no destination in 4 jumps. 

The freighters are still stuck.  They are at their destination, but are not picking anything up.  Still can't clear their orders.  If I could, they have a supply contract available there with a demand contract within 4 jumps. . . 

[Lightning (OP)]

Well. . .  I heavily subsidized em so they would build more ships. . .  They built a new freighter in Sol, destination got set to Earth. . .  The ship never arrives and I cant clear the orders for that freighter either. . .  I've cleared *all* my contracts as well. . .  They don't even ship the trade goods. . .  Looks like my civilian freighters are just broken so I've marked all freighters obsolete till I can get em working again. . .  Long live the colony ships!!! 

I'm still open to things to try and fix the freighters though. . . 

[Marthnn]

Just to be sure, your freighter design have cargo handling facilities? Are they taking forever to load trade goods? Or just have no current orders/destination? I know freighters tend to go back and forth between colonies when they have nothing to do, with "Move to X trade location" and, once they arrive, a pause without order, followed with "Move to Y trade location".

This is precisely the reason why I don't give trade access to NPRs, then their freighters come in my systems and annoy the hell out of me with flickering contacts. At least you can filter that in your events screen...

I find that trade goods is an unreliable income source. In my current game, I get about 275k wealth per year in tax from population. In theory, I could get the same amount in taxes on export+shipping trade goods, if all trade goods were used properly. But since supply/demand of the various goods isn't balanced, I get about 53k wealth at most (20%).


I assume you've made sure the supply contract can be fulfilled (said installation present in the colony), demand contract is in a system accessible by jump gates in 4 jumps at most, and all those systems are safe (no red numbers in the galaxy map). Civvies are usually most diligent to fulfill contracts, and will prefer those to trade goods.

Hope I helped somewhat.