Not really that bad of micromanagement. Have the default orders be set to dock to the ship. I know stations are cheap/easy to get. I was thinking of loading up the couriers with medical supplies and foodstuff, stuff every station needs in somewhat small quantities then go in a circle around the network.
On the other hand...I wonder how ventures work with a frigate loaded with missile fighters. Another player shoots the frigate then suddenly macross city.
That sounds like a glorious troll...
Also stations are pretty rewarding (in feeling of accomplishment)
I just finished my ~25 million credit Smart Chip factory to supply the galaxy given almost all wharfs/shipyards have deficits in the thousands with at least 2 wanting to buy 100,000 smart chips each.
I made a station with 1 dock (3 medium, 6 small), 1 pier (only a small one with 1 slot), 1 solar panel, 1 silicon refinery, and 20 smart chip production modules (it also has 21 cross sections for connections, 1 solid material storage unit for raw silicon, and 10 small storage units for containers). I am currently kicking out roughly 9,600 smart chips per hour and its making its money back really quick. Roughly 2 million per hour so far and perhaps more in the near future when I add more storage and/or production. That is not including the (small) sales I get from selling excess energy and silicon wafers.
I keep it stocked using 3 mining ships...1 small, 1 medium, and one large miner. The small one ensures it always has at least a little silicon so there is less down time, a medium to help as well, and a large to keep up with the production speed. These 3 are not enough and I am about to add 1 more large miner to see if I can keep silicon from hitting zero during the production cycles.
This should help a lot...because in my galaxy there is only a handful of smart chip stations and each of those stations only has a single smart chip module on it. So I am currently set to dominate that share of the market...
On a different topic though. I found that a really good strategy for auto traders is to set up 1 importer (sell distance 0, buy distance max)* and 1 exporter (buy distance 0, sell distance max)* for each major zone (containing lots of stations and/or the wharf and shipyard of a faction). You could theoretically do this for every sector. The benefit over a trader just wandering about trading is that you will be farming faction favor from each sale and purchase in a focused manner but it also helps prevent sectors from stagnating. I find that some sectors can import everything they need to a point where they purchase practically nothing anymore (when half the galaxy needs stuff they are producing). It seems the developers left the AI universe as a whole to be pretty damn short on needs so the player has ample room to enter markets and make an impact (which is great).
*Make sure the traders are in the zone you wish them to import/export to BEFORE setting the auto trade behavior. Whatever sector they are in when you set the buy or sale slider to 0 is the one that they will be stuck to for that range,.