How does this trading thing work?

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Wonks
Quiet One
Posts: 51
Joined: Mon Apr 29, 2002 9:06 pm

How does this trading thing work?

Post by Wonks »

If you have tried any trading so far you may have noticed that you can't get exp very easily at first. Overall, the better deal you get at a port, the better the exp you get.

The relative price you are offered for goods depends on 2 things: your relations with that port and the distance value of whatever good you are trying to buy. First I'll discuss relations.

Your relations with the port are figured by adding your personal relations to your race's global relations to that port (remember that you always have 500 global relations with your own race). At around 600 relations the port will start to give you deals where you will get some exp. At 1000 relations, you will always get a perfect deal (and therefore perfect exp) for a trade. To raise your personal relations with any race all you have to do is sucessfully trade with one of their ports. The number of units you buy or sell determines how much your relations go up. Bargaining is a way to get exp (and more cash) without having 1000 relations, but be warned: a rejected trade means 1 turn wasted and you actually lose relations with that race's port.

Secondly, distance: say you bought some nice luxury goods and are looking to make a profit on them. If you sell them at a port that has another port nearby that sells lux, you can't get a very good price for them (and not very good exp either) since you only have to travel a short distance before you can sell. But if you find a port that will buy where the nearest lux seller is 5 or 6 turns away, you will make some big profit and (potentially), up to 6 times the exp.

The same is true for buying goods, but selling is where you get the big money. The system that rates goods by the number of sectors to the nearest place that buys/sells them is called the EXP MODIFIER. When people talk about this they normally say their route is 5x4x3x5x over 5 (for example). This means they are trading at 2 ports and the distance modifiers for the goods they trade are 5, 4, 3, and 5 and they travel 5 turns to get between ports. When someone talks about a "perfect" route, it means all the distance modifiers are the same as the distance traveled. When dealing with perfect routes, the longer it is, the better.

Remember that trading good types are also important when trading for money. Luxuries and narcotics will be a LOT more profitable than food and wood, and they are also not sold by as many ports so are not as common (which means a greater potential for big distance).
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