Trading

Trade drives the galactic economy. Buy low, sell high, build your fortune.

Commodities

Commodity	Base Price	Volatility	Best Strategy
Ore	~100	Low	Steady, reliable profits
Organics	~50	Medium	Good for quick flips
Equipment	~200	High	High risk, high reward
Melange	~5,000	Extreme	Rare, found in dangerous sectors. Class 1 ports buy it; Classes 2 and 3 sell it

Port Classes & Directional Trade

Ports specialize — each class has a fixed buy/sell role per commodity. A port that sells a commodity won’t buy it back, and vice versa. Profitable trade comes from pairing complementary ports.

The classic shorthand is still useful, but read it from the port’s point of view. In player-facing terms:

• if the port buys something, you sell it there
• if the port sells something, you buy it there

Port Class	Sells (you buy here)	Buys (you sell here)
Class 1	Equipment	Ore, Organics
Class 2	Organics	Ore, Equipment
Class 3	Ore	Organics, Equipment
Class 1	—	Melange
Class 2 / 3	Melange	—

Classic shorthand reference:

• P1 · BBSB — You buy Equipment · You sell Ore, Organics, Melange
• P2 · BSBS — You buy Organics, Melange · You sell Ore, Equipment
• P3 · SBBS — You buy Ore, Melange · You sell Organics, Equipment

The Market screen shows what each port offers and wants — only valid trades appear in the buy/sell columns. If a port isn’t selling something you need or isn’t buying what’s in your hold, the Market will tell you.

Player-Built Ports

You can now create a new port in an eligible empty sector and shape your own long-term trade infrastructure.

Build requirements

• 500,000 credits
• 10 Action Points
• You must be physically in the target sector
• The sector must:
  • have no existing port
  • be non-safe (caution or dangerous)
  • not be a StarDock sector

Choosing a port pattern

When you build the port, you choose one of the three classic trade patterns:

Pattern	Buys	Sells
Pattern 1	Ore, Organics	Equipment
Pattern 2	Ore, Equipment	Organics
Pattern 3	Organics, Equipment	Ore

In player-facing terms (the same perspective as the Market BUY/SELL buttons), that means:

• Pattern 1 · SSB — You sell Ore & Organics · You buy Equipment
• Pattern 2 · SBS — You sell Ore & Equipment · You buy Organics
• Pattern 3 · BSS — You buy Ore · You sell Organics & Equipment

The chosen pattern stays fixed as the port grows.

How growth works

New player-built ports begin weak:

• they start at Class 3 quality
• they have much lower initial capacity than seeded ports

As players trade through the port, it tracks cumulative trade volume and upgrades over time:

• Class 3 -> Class 2 at 300,000 total trade credits
• Class 2 -> Class 1 at 1,500,000 total trade credits

Growth improves the port’s quality class (3 → 2 → 1) and capacity, but it does not change the trade pattern you selected. The UI shows these as two separate fields so you can tell the port’s pattern apart from its quality tier.

What player-built ports are for

Player-built ports are best used as:

• custom logistics nodes near your planets
• strategic route anchors in sectors you control
• long-term infrastructure investments that get stronger with use

They are intentionally weaker than seeded ports at first, so do not expect instant top-tier profits the moment you build one.

Owner fee and treasury

Every successful player trade at a player-built port pays a fixed 3% owner fee. The Market shows the gross quote, fee, and final amount before you confirm:

• When you buy, the fee is added to the gross cost.
• When you sell, the fee is deducted from the gross revenue.
• Fees use floor(gross * 3 / 100), so very small trades can round down to zero.

The fee funds that port’s owner treasury. It is not a hidden price spread and does not go to the game operator. The port owner can withdraw treasury credits to their active ship in the same galaxy for 0 Action Points from the Player Built Port panel.

Only player trades create owner fees. NPC trades do not pay the fee. Port growth still tracks the gross trade value, not the owner’s fee income, so a high-volume port can grow quickly without its owner receiving the full value of every trade.

Treasury credits are exposed to successful Rob Credits attempts by Outlaws. A robbery can take only the treasury balance, and owners receive a Captain’s Journal notice when it happens.

Current limitations

• Melange is excluded from player-built ports in this first release.
• Ports grow through normal trade activity, not direct planet-to-port feeding.
• There is no custom naming or destruction/transfer system yet.

Auto-Pilot & Route Scanner

Once you’ve found a complementary port pair, you can automate the trip:

1. Open the Auto-Pilot panel from the sector view
2. The Route Scanner immediately shows the most profitable connected port pairs — ranked by estimated credit return
3. Click Use on any route to pre-fill the Auto-Pilot form with the best commodity pair
4. Run a Dry Run to check the estimate, then hit Engage to execute

The scanner respects directional port rules and factors in current supply, demand, and port class pricing. It checks both directions (buy here → sell there, and buy there → sell back here), ranking routes by total maximum profit.

Player-built ports participate in the same route logic once they exist, but because they begin weak, they may need time and trading volume before they compete with the best seeded routes.

You can still configure routes manually — set start and end ports, pick commodities, and adjust quantities. The Dry Run shows you profit estimates, turns needed, and any blockers before you commit.

How to Trade

1. Land in a sector with a port (shown in sector info)
2. Press M to open the Market — it shows which commodities the port buys and sells, with current prices
3. Use the Route Scanner (in the Auto-Pilot panel) to find the most profitable connected port pairs
4. Select a commodity and press B to buy or S to sell
5. Enter quantity and confirm

Pro tip: Port prices change based on supply and demand. A port low on something it buys will pay more; a port low on something it sells will charge more. The Route Scanner factors all of this into its rankings — rescan after trades to get fresh estimates.

How Port Supply Works

Every port commodity has a mode — it’s either selling (you buy from the port) or buying (you sell to the port). Each mode has a supply level that shifts with player activity and regenerates over time.

Buy vs. Sell Mode

	Sell Mode	Buy Mode
What you do	Buy from the port	Sell to the port
Supply means	How much the port has left to sell	How much the port has already bought
Supply goes up when	Port restocks (every 15 min)	Players sell to it
Supply goes down when	Players buy from it	Port depletes (every 15 min)

The 15-Minute Economy Tick

A background tick runs every 15 minutes (alongside NPC movement) that gradually moves port supplies toward their natural state:

• Sell-mode ports restock — supply rises toward the port’s capacity. If a port has been bought out, it refills over time.
• Buy-mode ports deplete — supply falls toward zero. If a port is full from player sales, it gradually sells off its inventory and makes room.

The rate depends on port class: Class 1 moves 50 units/tick, Class 2 moves 30, Class 3 moves 15.

Why You Sometimes Can’t Sell

If a buy-mode port’s supply is at or near capacity, it won’t accept more cargo — you’ll see “Port not buying.” This happens when players have sold heavily to that port. Give it time (or find a hungrier port) — buy-mode ports deplete by 15–50 units every 15 minutes until they have room again.

Price Effects

Supply directly impacts prices on both sides:

• Sell mode: Lower supply → higher buy price (port is running low, charges more). Higher supply → lower buy price (port is overstocked, offers deals).
• Buy mode: Lower supply → higher sell price (port is starving, pays a premium). Higher supply → lower sell price (port is full, offers bottom dollar).

The Route Scanner factors all of this into its profit estimates. Re-scan after trades to get fresh numbers — port conditions change every tick.

Cargo Capacity

Your ship has a maximum cargo hold. If you try to buy beyond capacity, the trade is rejected.

Outlaw Port Crime

If your alignment drops to -100 or lower, the Market gains a dedicated outlaw panel.

What you can do

• Rob Credits — attempt to swipe a chosen amount of credits directly from the port.
• Steal Cargo — choose a commodity and quantity to try to lift from the dock.

What changed about crime

• Ports now show the actual credits on hand available to rob.
• Theft now shows the actual cargo available by commodity.
• Both actions use their own inputs instead of piggybacking on the normal trade quantity.
• Crime pools diminish after successful hits — if you rob or steal from a port, there is less left for the next attempt.
• Cargo you sell into a port can become part of that port’s stealable inventory, enabling the classic sell-then-steal-back outlaw loop.

Risk and heat

• Every port keeps a local heat level for your criminal activity there.
• Small attempts near the displayed safe limit are less risky.
• Greedy attempts increase the bust chance sharply.
• If you get busted, that port locks down crime against you and gives you worse legitimate prices there until the heat fades.

Escalating consequences

• Heat builds faster — each successful crime adds more heat than before, and heat decays slower (5 per hour instead of 10). A single bust leaves enough heat to affect your trading for a long time.
• Repeat busts lock you out longer — the first bust at a port locks you out for 6 hours. A second bust at the same port is 12 hours, then 24, up to a 48-hour cap. The escalation resets if you stay clean long enough for heat to reach zero.
• Post-bust trade penalty — while you are busted, legitimate trade prices at that port are 10% worse. After the lockout clears, a 5% penalty persists as long as you still have heat there. Once heat fully decays, prices return to normal.
• Bust alignment recovery — getting busted pushes your alignment back toward zero more aggressively than before, making repeated crime a net alignment loss if you keep getting caught.

Outlaw tip: Crime is no longer a blind dice roll. Treat it like risk management: watch the available pools, choose your attempt size carefully, and do not overheat a profitable port unless the payout is worth it. Staying clean at a port you’ve previously been busted at will eventually reset the escalation — heat decays to zero and the bust count clears.