Controlling station trade

Last modified by Sparks on 2023/08/15 17:15

Introduction

The Manager has a menu accessible though the "Restrict trade to other factions" option of their Detail page. It allows controlling whether the station will let other factions trade with it and whether it's assigned ships may trade with other factions. The various permutations are described below. There are no global settings or settings for each individual ships. Therefore they need setting up for each station but the default settings are no restrictions on trade with NPC factions.

Intra-zone trade can take place via mass traffic with cargolifters equipped to stations and in this respect, cargolifters operate like ships assigned to stations. A further nuance to the options outlined below is consider manually fixing a ware's price to something unreasonable (minimum for inputs, maximum for outputs). This allows for a low chance of trading where the deals are only very profitable (e.g. for tricking some money into the system that is otherwise isolated from NPCs in some way).

Trading with NPC faction ships and stations (no restrictions)

Trade restriction settings

Trade with NPC
faction ships

Assigned ships trading with stations

Trade with player
stations' ships

Other factions

Individual wares

NPC stations

Player stations

"No"

"No"

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

"Yes"

No

No

Yes

Yes

 

Trading with NPC faction stations only

Trade restriction settings

Trade with NPC
faction ships

Assigned ships trading with stations

Trade with player
stations' ships

Other factions

Individual wares

NPC stations

Player stations

"Yes

"No"

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

"Yes"

No

No

Yes

Yes

Trading with NPC faction ships only

  • Do not assign ships to the Manager
  • Avoid building the station in a zone with NPC stations your Manager could use Cargolifter drones to trade with via the Mass Traffic Network.

Trade restriction settings

Trade with NPC
faction ships

Assigned ships trading with stations

Trade with player
stations' ships

Other factions

Individual wares

NPC stations

Player stations

"No"
- Do not assign trade
ships to the Manager
- Avoid NPC station zones 

"No"

Yes

n/a

n/a

Yes

"Yes"

No

n/a

n/a

Yes