Trade
Trade is a means of exchanging goods between planets and stations, with intermediary participants sometimes (but not always) collecting a profit from the process.
Players can participate in trade to earn credits, and making a profit from trade will generate experience as well.
Trade occurs between markets, each of which can be a planet or a station, and its associated station.
Commodities
Different markets produce different Commodities depending on what industries the colony have, which are then exported to other markets that need them.
Locally produced commodities are cheaper and in higher quantity (relatively), and demanded commodities can also often be found, albeit usually at a higher price.
The player can easily use markets to purchase needed supplies, fuel, ships and other items, and similarly sell acquired loot there.
Each market has a specified population, which determines the magnitude of its supply and demand for commodities, and a stability value that represents the amount of factors such as development and law and order on the planet. More stable markets have higher prices and fewer items on the black market.
Goods sold by the player on any market will fill its demands for 120 days and the items available on a market are refreshed every 30 days.
Prices
The per-unit price of a good will rise as more items are bought in a batch, and fall as more items are sold, the latter can be particularly evidently as the units sold starts to exceed the demanded units.
Depending on the commodity in question, the demanded units may be also zero; e.g. many markets will buy metals far below its base value due to not having any demand induced by a Heavy Industry or Orbital Works.
Players can also access the trade menu by mousing over a commodity in the trade menu and pressing F1 brings up a list of the highest and lowest prices available. The player fleet must be in range of a comm relay to access this information.
By monitoring commodity prices in the trade menu, the player can "buy low and sell high" to make a profit and not is as time-consuming as finding trade missions from bars, though the cost of supplies & fuel needed for moving the fleet needs to be taken into account.
Profit
Buying goods from one open market to sell at another is generally unprofitable. This is because every market (except for the Black Market) imposes a 30% Tariff on items bought or sold by the player, making buying more expensive and reducing the gains from selling them. Or in other words, commodities costs at 130% and sells at 70% of the price.
The design intent is to prevent players from finding a single profitable trade route and then farming it continuously.[1] To get around this, the player must take advantage of events and missions, or make use of the black market.
Tips
- Logistical civilian ships with ample cargo space & fuel tankers (e.g. Buffalo, Atlas, Dram, Prometheus) allows the trading of commodities in high volumes, has a great efficiency ratio between space & maintenance/fuel cost and reduces refueling/resupplying stops.
- Buy low priced supplies and fuel when buying/selling other commodities, particularly from markets with the Industry that produces these (e.g. Heavy Industry/Orbital Works, Fuel Production).
- Trading expensive commodities such as: Heavy Armaments, Transplutonics, Recreational Drugs & Harvested Organs will be more profitable while requiring less cargo space compared to something like Ore, though the latter can still be traded profitably.
- Being mindful of the Deficit and Excess numbers, when you press F1 while mousing over a commodity, since they indicate the optimum amount of goods to buy and sell before the commodity returns to a normal price.
- Do be warily that if an excess or deficit has existed for a while, it may be resolved while the player is attempting to exploit it, so it is recommended to keep track of these temporary market conditions at each step, otherwise the player may find themselves with a cargo haul of commodities for a deficit that no longer exists.
- Trading commodities while also completing Delivery and Procurement trade missions.
- A side effect to this method of trading is that if you discover the most profitable procurement trade missions with small and urgent delivery windows, you may have all or a portion of the commodities on hand making these missions easier to complete.
- Using the Transverse Jump ability can save a lot of time traveling to/from markets, and help avoid patrols when smuggling.
- Pirates & Luddic Path markets tend to be the most profitable places to trade:
- They have terrible accessibility due to hostilities with almost all other factions, which results in consistent shortages of a variety of commodities while also having excess commodities being sold at a lower price.
- Due to their general hostile position & behaviour, the player can easily approach these worlds with their Transponder off and access the lucrative Black Market.
Certain systems, due to a combination of Free Port, lack of Patrol HQ and/or Pirate / Luddic Path presence, allows the player travel the system freely with their Transponder off.
- Mayasura: Mairaath has no Patrol HQ to carry out enforcement, while Port Tse Franchise Station with its Free Port & Lost Astropolis cares little about Transponder status.
- Kumari Kandam: Olinadu has no Patrol HQ to carry out enforcement, while Chalcedon & Kanni cares little about local law & order.
- Chalcedon is a cheap source of Crew, while often buying Fuel, Supplies & Heavy Armaments far above the base market price.
- Kanni consistently sells Ore for dirt cheap, which can be then be sold to the nearby Kapteyn Starworks in the Isirah for a pretty penny (though do note the presence of the Military Base on Laicaille Habitat in the same system).
- Al Gebbar: Epiphany cares little about local law & order.
- Epiphany is a cheap source of Crew and will often buy Recreational Drugs far above the base market price.
- Do note that the system lacks a Comm Relay so a player won't have access to the Commodity Trade Screen naturally.
- Magec: Nova Maxios has no Patrol HQ to carry out enforcement, while Achaman Enterprise Station & Kanta's Den doesn't care about Transponder status.
- Nova Maxios is a cheap & abundant source of Supplies from its Black Market.
- Kanta's Den often offers cheap Recreational Drugs, along with Domestic Goods and Luxury Goods too.
Market
- Main article: Market
Open Market
All colonies have an Open Market to trade, though would require the Transponder active and relations being above Inhospitable (-25) in order to access, exception for Free Ports.
Military Base
Some markets have a Military Base Market, found only on colonies with a Military Base or High Command, which becomes accessible when relations are at least Favourable (10) and Transponder active.
This market serves as an alternative method of offloading unwanted illegal goods such as Recreational Drugs or Harvested Organs or purchasing more fuel and/or supplies.
A faction commission is required to purchase anything that also requires a Welcoming or higher reputation level, if the faction issues commissions, such as Capital ships and rarer weapons found within the respective faction.
Black Market
The Black Market charges no Tariffs, making it significantly more profitable or cheaper to sell or buy goods than the Open Market.
It also carries illegal goods (like Recreational Drugs or Harvested Organs) and military-grade ships and weapons not normally found on the open market. A lower stability value will make more items available on the black market.
Unlike the Open & Military Market, the Black Market doesn't require the Transponder active to access, and thus is always accessible to the player.
Smuggling
Smuggling (i.e. trading on the black market) will generate suspicion from the local authorities, which can be mitigated by conducting some legitimate trade on the Open Market, or docking with the Transponder off, the suspicion level is visible as a hover tooltip on the Black Market button.
Suspicions of smuggling will cause the player to lose reputation with the faction operating the market, and can attract attention from nearby patrols who will search for contraband.
If the player is caught by one of these patrols (possibly after the patrol demands the player to turn on their Transponder), the patrol will demand a cargo scan, which the following can happen:
- The patrol scan finds nothing suspicious and the player is let go, the probability of which can be increased by ships with Shielded Cargo Holds.
- The patrol scan finds some suspicious cargo and demands an inspection.
- The player allows the patrol to do an inspection.
- The inspection finds no illegal cargo (if any) and some ships loses combat readinesss.
- The inspection finds illegal goods (like Recreational Drugs or Harvested Organs or AI Cores) and confiscates them, patrols will also scan any nearby cargo pods for illegal goods.
- The player fights the patrol, resulting in Hostile (-50) relations.
- 1 SP 100% XP The player convinces the patrol to overlook this incident and not carry out an inspection.
- The player allows the patrol to do an inspection.
- 1 SP 100% XP The player convinces the patrol to overlook this incident and not carry out a scan.
Free Ports do not care about smuggling activity, and any patrol fleets from such markets will not harass the player when their Transponder is off.
Convoys & Disruptions
Trading between the different markets are simulated, and when the player is close enough to the Core Worlds, trade between the markets is physically represented by trade convoys.
These trade convoys can be attacked by Pirates, a hostile faction or by the player, which can result in Shipping Disruption for the destination market, and can also occur from simulation.
The destination market will experience temporary shortages for the commodities carried by the trade convoys, increased/decreased pricing of the respective commodities and a minor accessibility penalty.
A player can exploit a market afflicted by these disruption or Pirate Activity for profit.
Missions
There are two types of trade missions, Delivery and Procurement missions, both accessible via dockside bars. Delivery missions provide a batch of goods that the player must then deliver to a specified location in exchange for a monetary reward; absconding with the goods will result in bounty hunters being sent after the player. Procurement missions require the player to purchase the goods themselves and deliver them as well. Both mission types must be done within a certain time period for a profit and a reputation gain. Failure to make the delivery in time will result in a small reputation loss.
If you are commissioned by a faction, it may periodically go to war with other factions, potentially making Delivery and Procurement missions more difficult to fulfill. Your final destination may have an enemy patrol nearby, requiring your transponder to be on when entering their solar system or, even worse, requiring it to be on to enter a planet/station.
Some missions involves Underworld individuals (Pirates) who requires goods on a planet/station that only accepts fleets with the Transponder turned on. However, the pirate requires your Transponder to be off in order to accept the commodity and hide their identity. In these cases you need to use Go Dark and avoid patrol fleets before entering the planet/station. You cannot enter a planet/station when you are actively being chased by a patrol fleet so you may have to distract them by putting false readings into the local Sensor Array (if one exists).
Faction Relations
Trading with a faction will raise the player's reputation with that faction, but lower it with any enemies of the faction (other than pirates) that are present in the star system.
A higher reputation with a faction will reduce the chances of contraband detection and criminal investigations a player is subjected to, while a lower reputation has the opposite effect.
A faction at Inhospitable (-25) relationship status will refuse to trade with the player or even allow docking for refits/repairs. However, a fleet with its transponder off and undetected by any patrols can sneak in and trade on the black market. Independent, Pirates, Luddic Path as well as some Tri-Tachyon markets (with Free Port) will also allow open market trading if the Transponder is off.
References
