Trader
“ Let’s see now, it was back in ’98 when I started. First ship, not much more than a courier, still she was my first love. ‘No Ethics’, that’s what I called her. Stupid name really, must have lost me more business than I can imagine. Still, I made enough on the open markets to buy myself ‘Fruitful Enterprise’, now she’s a real beauty. A hundred light hulls, mark II, I’ll have you know. I tend to run her up from Capellan to Yank and back every month or so. There is a hell of trade in luxuries, I can tell you. Those little pigmies on Utopia, I bet they’re begging for all kinds of Periphery trash, anything you can’t sell anywhere else, dump on this world. My next trip is into the Cluster. I hear that there are new markets springing up all over the place. Now I have AFT backing, I can basically go anywhere, do anything. Ya’see everyone trusts the Association of Free Traders, they just love us, can’t get enough of our freighters. Anyway, it’s been a real pleasure talking with you, see you around next time I’m back in Yank, maybe?”
- AFT captain Johannes Pedersen of the Carrier class Freighter Fruitful Enterprise

Introduction

While it seems intuitive to believe that trade is important in the universe, knowing exactly why it is in the context of the game is something else. In Phoenix, we define trade as two distinct areas. These fall into the demands of planetary populations and the demands of other players.
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Planetary Populations

Planetary population demands covers items that are not necessarily of any use to a player except for the number of stellars they will get when they sell them to a planetary population. Good examples of trade good are luxury goods. This is a generic term for all manner of items from Hi-Fi’s through to pocket communicators. There are more specific forms of trade goods such as Kastorian Delicacies or even Hunting Trophies. As planetary populations are prepared to buy these items, traders will always be prepared to ship them in. As trade with a planetary population can only be achieved through the use of merchandising complexes a trade ship must deal with a starbase on the world. Starship captains cannot deal directly with a planetary population.
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Player Demands

Demands from other players generally include items that are needed to improve their positions. This effectively covers everything needed to build-up their starbases, refit their ships and otherwise fulfil a need they cannot satisfy themselves. A starbase on a world without certain ores for example will have to import them. Due to shipping limitations they may well place the ores on their market buy lists. By the same token, a starbase may be producing an excess of ore simply because the planet is rich in the ore. As such, a governor will place the excess ore on their market sell list.
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Markets

Only starbases are allowed to carry markets. These are lists of items that the starbase is willing to buy and sell. The player owning the starbase will often know which items they are interested in and will tailor their market appropriately.
Each day the website is updated to show the latest public markets, i.e. those markets that players want other players to know about.
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Shipping between locations

Phoenix has the advantage over many PBM’s in that it uses some sophisticated software to plot basic movements. If a starbase is public knowledge, i.e. its location is shown on the market website or it is on the political information archive, a trader can use the ‘move to starbase’ order. This does presume however that the route does not involve wormholes and stargates. If the market is sufficient or the trader has made private deals for a series of runs, there is nothing stopping the ship from being issued with many orders that will keep it occupied for months.
Example
Move to starbase {1123}, Dock {no}
Buy {metals 1}, Quantity {5000}, Private Market {no}
Move to starbase {7762}, Dock {no}
Sell {metals 1}, Quantity {5000}, Private Market {no}
Move to starbase {1123}, Dock {no}
Buy {metals 1}, Quantity {5000}, Private Market {no}
Move to starbase {7762}, Dock {no}
Sell {metals 1}, Quantity {5000}, Private Market {no}
(order format simplified for example)
In this example, starbase 1123 could be in Yank while starbase 7762 could be in Capellan. With only four repeating orders the ship will
· Buy the metals from starbase 1123 in Yank,
· Leave orbit,
· Move out to orbital ring 10
· Make a series of jumps from Yank to Capellan,
· Move to the appropriate orbital quadrant of the planet on which starbase 7762 is situated.
· Enter orbit
· Sell metals to starbase 7762
· Leave orbit
· Move out to orbital ring 10
· Make a series of jumps from Capellan to Yank
· Move to the appropriate orbital quadrant of the planet on which starbase 1123 is situated.
· Enter orbit
· Buy metals from starbase 1152
· Repeat all of this another time.
Obviously a more successful venture would be to try and buy something from the Capellan system to sell in Yank. This prevents the ship from having an empty hold. When combined, two largely unprofitable trips back to back can turn into a lucrative venture.
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How much is something worth

Getting an idea of what something is worth is one of the key points to trade in the game. It is a question of evaluating the cost to produce an item in order to establish the lowest price weighed against the demand for the item in order to establish maximum price.
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Ores

Ores are the simplest to calculate, as good ideas of their mining costs are known. Common ores are mined at rates of about 130mu per complex. As a complex costs $10 stellars to run ($15 per outpost) and it is normally the case that there are usually a few extra complexes in an outpost for peripheral activity, the cost to produce a single mu of common ore is approximately $0.2. This is reflected in the market sell average price on the market website for metals falling around $0.29 once mark-up is taken into account.
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Rare Ores

Rarer minerals however are worth more than common ores for two basic reasons. The first is that rare ore deposits are found in smaller veins and secondly they are harder to find. Smaller veins means that each mine will be able to produce a smaller amount of rare ore per week than it could common or but also an outpost situated on a rare mineral deposit will only be able to utilise a small number of mines on the ore i.e. the deposit will have a lower yield and a small 10% drop. As rare ores are scarce, much more effort has to be used to find their locations in the first place.
As these locations are often backwater worlds, it is rare that the outpost will serve as anything more than a mining operation for the ores. This means that the other complexes located at the outpost are there simply to support the mining operation. All this has to be taken into account when determining the price of the ores. As a consequence the price of rare ores is largely determined by the price markets are prepared to pay. Those with the ore will normally set a market price based on the cost to produce the ore plus a hefty mark-up. If this is the sort of trade you are looking to specialise in, it is certainly best to seek to produce your own ores. See the Explorer profession.
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Constructed Items

Items built in factories have to take into consideration the cost of labour in the construction of the item. The standard base for this is calculated at 50mu production per factory and each costing $10 to run. This works out at $0.2. As a starbase is a much bigger industrial operation than an outpost there are greater issues at hand such as recreation, maintenance, shuttleports, hiports and troops to protect it. As a consequence, it is reasonable to presume that construction cost is therefore approximately three times this (100% for troops and 100% for other complexes). Added to this is the basic cost of the common ore. Overall, it is best to presume that the standard price of a common item, i.e. one made out of common ores and not requiring any technology is $1 per mu. Taking into account that only starbases have production (and these have to be paid for in real money), and a governor will want a reasonable mark-up on all items sold, an item produced from common ores will cost between 1.5 and 3 times its mass in stellars ($).
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Rare Materials

If the item requires rare materials, these will generally figure into the price based on the market value of the rare ore. An honest merchant will simply add the value of these ores directly to the base price of the item.
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Restricted Items

If an item is restricted, by this it is meant that the item requires a blueprint as part of its construction, the builder of the item will also increase the price of the item based on the level of research required to generate the blueprint. The increase in price largely depends on the level of technology required and is often subjective. It is best to negotiate a sale price for these items prior to purchasing them. Restricted items sometimes have a production cost that is much greater than their mass, i.e. it may require 20mu production to produce a restricted item that is only 10mu in mass. Where this is the case the extra production should always be figured into the price of the item, generally at $.6 per mu to the raw cost.
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Trade Goods

Trade goods can be sold to a planetary population from a starbase through the merchandising complexes. Each merchandising complex can sell a maximum of 200mu’s of goods per week. Each planet has demands for goods and a price they are willing to pay for these items. Civilians, i.e. the general population of the world are more inclined to pay over the odds for an item that has come halfway across the universe. There is a simple relationship between distance from the source of the item and the planet where it is sold. This only applies to items that are classed as having an origin. As stated above, luxury goods are a catchall term for fairly standard but nice items. Kastorian Delicacies however can only come from Yank. As such selling Kastorian Delicacies to a planetary population on Utopia in the Capellan system will net more stellars than selling them to planetary populations on planets in Yank.
The value of a trade item can be determined by issuing a tech manual for the item while in a system. This will give the local value of the item, i.e. the standard amount that will be paid by the people within the system for the item.
Below gives some examples of a ship testing the values of Kastorian Delicacies.
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What do people want?

A simple rule of thumb is that people always want weapons and modules. No matter what, there will always be construction being carried out in the Peripheries. There will never, ever be a glut of modules. Even if you do not build anything other than modules, you will always make a profit.
What can you do with money?
Money is power; with stellars to spare you can finance many things. First off all there are wages. All crew, troops, employees need to be paid for as do repairs, research and taxes. Many of these running costs are relatively low and are rarely of concern until you control a great many assets.
Other than purchasing items from other players, you can also contact them privately or even over the forum and trade ships, other starbases and many other assets including information. Why spend months GPI’ing a planet when somebody has already done it and willing to sell the data? Again, why explore a planet when teams have already invested in discovering many features that can be exploited through the use of resource complexes.
Should you wish to purchase a few ships directly from the EEM (see FAQ).
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Specialist Ships

Ships have open regions within that can be used to transport items. These capacities are based on the items installed within a ship. A ship for example with cargo bays will be able to carry cargo. A ship with quarters will be able to carry life forms.
Cargo is the general expression for anything non-living. A merchant ship can specialise in moving ores and alloys. As these are simpler to haul than even standard cargo, a ship can be fitted with ore bays instead of cargo bays. These hold more ore than a cargo bay, but cannot carry other cargo items.
Larger ships often have enough install space to install larger versions of the cargo bay. While these can store the same cargo per volume (80% of their size), they do not require extra effort to run. This means that a larger ship with cargo decks and cargo holds will not require substantially more crew to operate the ship. This in turn keeps down required quarters and wages.
A liner, i.e. a ship specialising in the transport of life forms generally uses quarters. As these require complete life support, sanitary facilities and many other features not needed in cargo bays, they simply cannot carry the same amount life forms.
Depending on what is being transported, a good trader will use varying ships. If a trader is going to be transporting vast stockpiles of common ores, they will generally use the largest ship possible, stocked with ore bays, ore holds and possibly ore decks. A trader specialising in super rare ores, may only use a very small ships with a few ore bays. The same is true of other items.
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Trader Starbases

Traders build starbases specifically to exploit the planetary populations. This is done through merchandising complexes. These not only bring in revenue from the planetary population directly. They can be used to sell trade goods to the population. Thus it is very important to select a world where there is a high demand. The demand for trade goods can be determined by issuing an economy scan of the world. Planets with large populations have large demands. Also look at the number of starbases present. It may not be suitable to build on a world that already has a large merchandising base. Contacting the governors of the starbases on the world is a good idea.
Exchanging trade items with the planetary population is achieved using the ‘sell to local population’ order. Be careful to note the limits of the demand. Do not sell more than this if possible as it will result in a decrease in the amount of stellars that they will pay.
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Summary

· Find out where is safe to trade.
· Buy and sell items accounting for distance and stellar return to maximise profits.
· Contact players about private deals.
· Purchase more ships.
· Determine where to build a starbase to maximise trade.
· Seek ways to specialise trade into areas not exploited by others.
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Game Designer’s Notes

Trade in the game is carefully balanced. Many unique items have been added with the option of adding new ones all the time. Worlds have demands and unique items take into consideration. Despite all though this though it is not easy to become fabulously rich without considerable effort. As with all things in the game, it requires communication with other players in order to develop contacts and get the best deals. Many players have three to five year plans, working to long term goals such as getting a starbase with a thousand complexes, or a fleet of a dozen freighters and associated escort ships or even becoming The trader of a certain set of systems. How this is achieved though it really up to each player.
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