Matrix Games Forums

Hi,

I have hard time understanding what exactly is going on with trade. Can you help me fill in the following use cases?


1.) No trade agreement, no commerce centers.

My freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent gets:

My freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent pays/gets:

2.) Restricted Trade Agreement, no commerce centers.

My freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent gets:

My freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent pays/gets:


3.) Free trade agreement, no commerce centers.

My freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent gets:

My freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent pays/gets:


4.) No trade agreement, Commerce centers.

My freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent gets:

My freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent pays/gets:

5.) Some trade agreement, Commerce centers.

My freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent gets:

My freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at opponent's spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter selling 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state pays:
Opponent gets:

Opponent's freighter buying 1000 credits worth of cargo at my spaceport.
My state gets:
Opponent pays/gets:

*looks to devs*

Maybe assume a 50% bonus from the commerce center to make it easy? It's hard to tell if the trade agreement does as the Galactopedia suggests, let alone how it applies.

We tried to look in detail at what was going on with trading from one of my saves that was going big on trade, and... it was confusing. This shows what he found looking at some values, comparing mining stations and the various levels of trade agreements. Trade with other empires was removed to focus on what was going on with just one neighbor, humans.



A single ship making a buy of resources seemed to yield far, FAR more than the value of the goods it picked up. See this save, where a human ship can be observed making a trade that should be earning somewhere around 10k from the sale, instead earning between 75k and 150k, varying between runs of it:

https://wetransfer.com/downloads/bd2c4c ... 710/d84961

The second save is with the mining stations with commerce centers to compare. It looks as if the commerce center does nothing. The trading empire clearly can make lots of income from trade, whereas a warmonger empire doesn't, but these numbers don't make sense.

With some help from 🅠 on Discord, it is revealed that the money is exchanged long before the material is exchanged. A contract is made, money is exchanged, and then a mission for exchanging the material is made. It's difficult to identify when and where this happens without debugging.

So trade works like construction orders, where you also pay up front. Materials go to the reserved pile and failed/canceled orders can be thrown out cleanly.

I'm certain the commerce center also works. You can watch the economy numbers change as you get the upgrade tech.