Trade with NPC stations for profit?

[Hektor Riven]

Greetings, I'm sorry if it may sound as if it's been already asked, however I really wasn't able to find anything interesting, this because trade, in Space Engineers, is actually already a thing, and discussions are usually orbiting around the game concept of trade (buying things a player misses, selling things a player produces).

What I really can't help wondering is if there's a chance to actually trade in this game, by buying low and selling high on various NPC stations.

As far as I managed to understand, there are three kinds of NPC faction in Space Engineers, each offering a different kind of goods.

However, and I'm having a bit of a hard time at discovering this by myself, I really would like to know if, in theory, it's possible to buy low and sell high, actually enabling a real commerce mechanic as we could imagine it.

Thanks in advance!

[Dan2D3D]

Hi, not really, well the prices should change when you start buying/selling and can be lower when a lot in stock but the price should go up if not much for sale, also should go a bit lower with good reputation points (+).

Good Tip
-> 3-4 Trading stations will spawn close to you when Starting on one of the Moons or when getting closer from space, those are good areas to trade very early in survival.

[Jack Schitt]

In the 10 years I've been playing off and on I haven't found a way to do exactly what you're asking, Hektor. I've been wanting the same thing in the game. There is an economy and with the mods below we can produce and sell to NPC's but I haven't ever seen an NPC land at my station to buy or sell.

Modular Encounters System (MES) is a framework:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1521905890

The Trade Operators Coalition (TOC) Faction (an addon for the MES framework) adds trading stations and NPCs:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2966429095

The catch and the thing that bums me out about this is that I've grown out of the combat thing many moons ago, I'd prefer my games to be peaceful and not have to battle too much. The TOC faction's stations sell unique and very powerful gear that isn't in the game otherwise. We need to collect "Research Points" (I think it is, info about it is in the TOC addon description) from other MES addon factions by not completely destroying their ships and stations, infiltrating their ships and stations, and finding the research items.

Therefore in order to buy the stuff TOC has that's cool and powerful we have to battle one or both of these factions in order to get the currency needed to buy the stuff:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=973526550

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1135484957

These mods are extremely well made and work well. This isn't exactly what both you and I are looking for but....it's kind of....there....almost.

[ShadedMJ]

Originally posted by Hektor Riven:

... if there's a chance to actually trade in this game, by buying low and selling high on various NPC stations. ...

I'm giving this a no/yes. No as it is hard in this configuration and requires luck. Yes as I think it _can_ work but requires much more effort that you probably want to put into it.

Granted I don't use it much, but while trying, the buy/sell was always the NPC trying to purchase the things I wanted to keep, and always selling that I had too much of already. Like NPC wanting to buy gold/platinum/uranium but wanting to sell iron.

The economy nature in this game is hampered from the start. Since players can mine stone and get gravel/nickel/iron/silicon for essentially no cost, those items have no value economy wise.

The way I think you can make economy work is something like this: Fly around in your ship, but have a tiny/cheap ship docked that has solar panels and a medical bay. Find a NPC and dock the tiny/cheap ship with it or just landing-gear lock to it and leave it there or nearby. Leave in your main ship. Do this a few times and you will have these little ships on several NPC stations. Get a good selection of stuff to sell. Die and respawn at each of the tiny/cheap ships go to the NPC and check buy prices. Find a good price, die/respawn at your good base, load up a ship and go to the high buy price. This will take a pile of planning and organization and effort but probably workable.

[Hektor Riven]

Thank you all for the information you kindly shared!

As I suspected, the base mechanic of commerce can't be worked out from the vanilla NPC presence in the game world, as the stations will not offer such differences in the prices of their available goods that would justify a real trade action (meaning investing in buying items, traveling, and selling said items for profit).

Producing and selling is still a thing, and space credits will have some uses after all, even if not for commerce.

Thanks again!

[Jack Schitt]

I'm with you, man! I wish this was possible in the game but it hasn't been implemented. The game didn't even have an economy at all for many years until the community asked for it enough that the devs gave in and released the Economy update.

While the CEO of the development team and person behind this game, Marek Rosa, has a side project in advanced CGI (Computer Generated Intelligence) Artificial Intelligence he has stated that Space Engineers is not being considered to have it included.

That really bums me out personally because I'm a huge fan of the X series space games where the primary thing done in that game is economy based buying, transporting, and selling items/game content.

[Jack Schitt]

"I will add"

If we add MES (framework) and ONLY the Trade Operators Coalition (TOC) we can earn space credits by manufacturing and selling items TOC wants to them. I've done that but got bored with it pretty quickly because there isn't much available to do with Space Credits that interests me personally.

I have hundreds of billions of Space Credits from producing items and selling them to TOC in one of my games but I don't have a clue what I can do with all that 'money' besides buy ships from the TOC stations that sell large, expensive items like ships.

A working economy like you and I would like to have, Hektor, is only possible in multiplayer games where the players on the server participate in buying and selling. That unfortunately never happens because the players end up doing combat stuff instead of sticking to the economy plan.

[Hektor Riven]

Originally posted by Jack Schitt:

A working economy like you and I would like to have, Hektor, is only possible in multiplayer games where the players on the server participate in buying and selling. That unfortunately never happens because the players end up doing combat stuff instead of sticking to the economy plan.

Yes, you're right: behind our common desire there's the fact that real commerce happens in multiplayer only, and... Combat, at least the real combat, happens in multiplayer only as well.
Basically, the game is very multiplayer oriented, as its truly easy to fight against the enemies built into the game, which include spiders, wolves, the pirate drones and the environment.

I must say, however, that I experienced some community play and real trade on the HEX Project server from Rebels Games. It's quite nice actually, and the only server where I've got the luck of finding some people actually interacting with each other in the same area.

My original question was because I was about to test a game on LAN with some friends and wanted to go PvE and to have something to do.

Oh well... We'll all join HEX!

[Jack Schitt]

Share the IP:Port for the HEX server please. I wasn't unable to find it using Steam's Server viewer or the in-game viewer. I'd like to check it out!

[Hektor Riven]

Try: 81.21.4.31:27016

For further information, try to see: https://rebels-games.com/

[ShadedMJ]

Something I didn't mention previously....
A "better economy" would be trading with one station to sell an item should change the prices at other stations. But there really isn't internal trade deals or transport going on between stations, so there really isn't a "market".