Trade & Logistics

This is the foundational design decision that shapes the entire game. Nothing moves instantly. If an alliance needs ammunition on the front line, someone has to ship it there. If a market has a price spike, a trader has to physically haul goods to capitalize on it.

This single rule creates emergent gameplay: trade routes have value, chokepoints matter, supply lines can be cut, and geography is strategy.

Three ship classes specialize in cargo hauling, each with a different trade-off between capacity, speed, and survivability:

• Courier: Small, fast, and cheap. Ideal for low-volume high-value goods. Hard to catch but easy to kill if caught.
• Freighter: The workhorse. Large cargo bays, moderate speed, and enough hull to survive a quick ambush if escorted.
• Bulk Hauler: Massive capacity for raw materials. Slow and vulnerable. Never flies without escort in dangerous space.

Once you discover a profitable route, you can automate it. Assign a transport ship to a route definition: origin market, destination market, goods to buy, prices to accept, goods to sell. The ship will loop the route until you cancel it or it gets destroyed.

Automated routes are efficient but predictable. Smart raiders will notice regular traffic patterns and set up ambushes. Smart traders vary their routes, timing, and escort arrangements to stay unpredictable.

Every jump lane transit consumes fuel proportional to the distance and your ship's total mass (hull + cargo + modules). Heavier loads burn more fuel. Longer jumps burn more fuel. This creates natural range limits, and a fully loaded Bulk Hauler cannot cross the galaxy without refueling stops.

Fuel depots built at stations along trade routes are critical infrastructure. Controlling fuel access along a corridor gives you effective control over that corridor's traffic.

Ships can form convoy groups that travel together through jump lanes. A convoy shares a single warp bubble, meaning all ships arrive simultaneously with no staggered arrivals for ambushers to exploit.

Escort contracts let combat pilots hire out their services to traders. The game tracks the contract: the escort gets paid on safe delivery, and the trader gets a combat-capable ship watching their back. It is a natural profession that emerges from the logistics system.

Where there are trade routes, there are pirates. Raiding is a legitimate gameplay path. Sit on a jump lane exit, scan incoming ships for valuable cargo, and attack the ones worth the risk. Destroyed ships drop a portion of their cargo as salvage.

Counter-raiding is equally viable. Patrol fleets, bait convoys, and intelligence networks all play a role. Alliances that control a region often fund anti-piracy patrols to keep their trade routes safe and attract more merchant traffic.

Certain perishable and volatile goods degrade over time while in transit or storage. Biological compounds, unstable isotopes, and processed foodstuffs all have shelf lives. This prevents indefinite stockpiling and rewards efficient supply chains.

Degradation rates vary by good type and storage quality. Specialized cargo modules can slow degradation, but never eliminate it entirely. The clock is always ticking on perishable freight.