Trade Mechanic Public Rules The new trade economy involves a number of goods that are best considered as luxury items desired to various extents by members of each society. The good are measured in macro-units of each good (a nebulous amount that takes up N cargo slots). Price is determined dynamically by a supply and demand model for each society. In this model, all Major worlds within a society are considered linked (the same unit). Each society has three values for each good: Production, Demand, and Stock. Production is how much of the good that society produces at the beginning of each turn. Demand is how much of a good a society will consume at the end of a turn if enough is available. Stock is the current stockpile of the good existing within a society... At the beginning of each turn Stock is increased by Production. At the end of each turn Stock is decreased by Demand or down to zero. The percentage amount of Demand met by each society will have a *significant* effect on that societies Civil Disorder. Price is set by a supply/demand model dynamically. Every macro unit bought or sold changes this price before the next unit is bought or sold. (ie, if you can sell 4 units of Widgets at the same time, however each unit will sell for a different price). When good are bought they are removed from the Market system and exist as cargo in the records of ships. When they are sold back into the Market they reenter the Stock values. A society will never sell its Stock below its Demand. A society will always buy as long as it has any demand for the good at all. Governments may sell into a market but they may *never* buy from a market. Governments may *not* hire NPC merchants to buy/sell to a market. Whether a society is buying, selling, the price of a good, and the legality of a good are all public information. You can view the up-to-date values in the Commodities Market section on HBGNews. Governemnts know their own Production, Demand, and Stock values. These will alsobe accessible on HBG .... ****please only look at your own**** Governments may set the legality of each good within their society. A good can be legal or illegal. Illegal goods are broken down into Minor and Major. Minor/Major is mostly determined by how big of a crime it is and how much it is enforced. When you make something illegal, the punishment and expected enforcement level should be specified. Actual actions within game may alter whether the society considers it Minor or Major. You are free to change the legality of any good in your society that starts as Legal. However, goods that start as Illegal can never be made Legal (though you can fail to enforce it strictly). Trade Routes By establishing trade routes, the merchants of your civilization will attempt to optimize their income by moving surplus goods to your trading partners. They will form convoys to attempt to fill your trading partners' demand. The frequency of convoys will change from the old method Your Trade Income will now work slightly differently. On any turn when at least one convoy from specific route reaches your major world, you receive the next value in the Fibonacci series. Multiple convoys ariving along the same route in the same turn DO NOT pay out more than once or increment the series (though they do deliver their goods). However, a turn of no convoys or the loss of a convoy does not decrement the series. Trade Income represents your government's ability to effectively keep track of this trade and to levy taxes and tarrifs (it gets better with each period of successful trade). You may also set taxes on goods that are sold into your market by independent traders (those not involved in the convoys). The maximum tax rate possible is determined by the average series peg of all of your trade routes (ie. 1 1 2 3 5 8 etc; 2 is value 3%, 8 is 5%. The average percentage of all of your trade routes is max possible tax rate) Minor Planets / Colonies / Resource Farms In addition to Major planets, many minor worlds also have Production and/or Demand values. However, these planets do not contribute to your Society Production or Demand and do not tie into the Major world chain. When you survey a habitable world you can determine what, if anything it can produce. Habitable worlds will only produce if they are colonized. Any population value greater than 0 will produce the same amount, but uncolonized planets never produce. When colonies are founded they may have a small demand, as well. Colonies produce, adding to their own Stock, and consume, subtracting from their own stock, in the same way as the Society market (ie, beginning and end of turns). They also follow the same basic buy/sell rules (ie. will only sell down to their demand, will buy if have demand > 0). Any Production colony must have a flag in the script associated with it describing what type of colony it is at HTS=1. An example script would be: Planet_Bob HardToSee Obvious=Colony_P-Widgets_D-Cogs 0:S 9999 [GWSx2] Population=2. Colony information is only visible to their owners (also located in Private section of HBG) and to visitors at the system (currently email request when at planet). Of course, all private information can be told to others. Blockades In addition to their other effects, blockading a planet now negates that planet's production. If a colony, it simply does not produce. If a Major world, the Production values on all goods are reduced by the percentage under blockade (ie, 1 out of 5 major worlds under blockade, production decreased by 20%) You are also unable to buy or sell at that planet unless you run the blockade (probably in both directions).