Trading & Smuggling
Main Page: Starpoint Gemini
Commodity trading takes place on stations and planets. Various planets and stations trade in different commodities. Planets usually have larger stocks and trade in more commodities than stations, but planets charge a special “Planetary customs fee”. Exact fee depends on the planet in question and size of the ship attempting to land. Every ship has a fixed Cargo hold size. In general, freighter and freightliner classes have larger cargo holds, since their main purpose is trading and cargo hauling.
Commodities[edit | edit source]
Commodities are divided into several categories.
Category | Discription |
---|---|
Ore | Extracted from asteroids by mining. Best selling price is commonly found on refineries. |
Gas | Extracted from nebulas by collecting. Best selling price is commonly found on refineries and
factories. |
Consumable | Trading commodity, most commonly found on planets and stations designed as food factories. |
Material | Trading commodity, most commonly found on refinery stations. Best sold on factory stations. |
Component | Components are produced from materials and other components and as such are generally in
high demand on specialized factory stations that manufacture final products. |
Product | Final products can be sold on most stations and planets and are most commonly sold on factory
stations, but can also be found in large quantities on trade stations. |
A special “contraband” flag can be set on a commodity which makes it illegal
to trade in or even transport through a region. This attribute can change over
time (most commonly scripted as a random event).
While transporting commodities various AI security ships will scan the player and
look through his cargo manifest to see if there’s anything of interest. Pirates
might then demand the player to drop the cargo in exchange for his life.
Security ships might scan and find contraband cargo. They will then demand
the player to drop that particular cargo and pay a fine (fine depends on the
commodity and its quantity).
Smuggling[edit | edit source]
Smuggling is the act of transporting and trading of contraband goods (explained in the “Commodities” section). Smuggling is a good, but risky way to earn Credits, since security ships scan passing vessels in search of contraband. Smuggling chance is calculated each time you’re being scanned by security ships or when attempting to sneak onto a planet. Smaller ship classes automatically have a higher chance of a successful smuggling.
Best prices for Contraband goods can be found on planets, but Planetary
customs perform checks on landing and player can only land on a planet if he
manages to avoid inspection and smuggle the contraband planet-side. If the
smuggling attempt fails, player gets a substantial penalty fee and reputation
decrease.