satellite trade with caravan

[ReadyMan]

I built a trade commerce satellite, but it wont let me pay for any goods.....so I have no way of purchasing their items.
I must be missing something, because I have 5000 silver, but at the top of the screen it shows no silver at all. Do I have to have the silver in the same room, or ???
Thanks for any help!

[McFuzz]

Yes. You have to have your silver near the trade beacon.

[ReadyMan]

Like in the same room? I built a room just a few squares away from the trade beacon, and put all my silver in there, but it doesnt register.

[DK]

You have to build the trade beacon(it's a different thing, next to satellite comm), then place item next to it(or silver) to trade.

[McFuzz]

Trade beacons don't go through walls.

You can trade any items or silver with local caravans as long as they're in a stockpile, but the range on the orbital trade beacon needs to cover the item if it's to be seen by space traders.

You could do some quick stockpile prioritizing to get it in the right place. But keep in mind orbital traders stay for less than one day. A couple hours at best.

[Geothermal1159]

When you are placing down a orbital beacon a white "field" should show you the range of the beacon, everything within this range is availiable to be offered to trade ships and anything not in range of one of the beacons might as well not exist to the ship traders.

Pro-tip I suggest placing a beacon in the middle of your base even if nothing is in range of it as it will direct where the trade ships will drop pod the stuff you bought from them will land.

[AquaX]

You need a trade beacon in order to get exchange from ships and rewards from quests. It also has to be not roofed so within that detection range, you will lose 1-2 tiles to provide an electric line w a wall.

1 major drawback is that if your trying to sell leather, wool, clothing, etc; they will decay because they would be under an unroofed room. You either have to make a roof until a ship comes, then remove it or turn that storage into a critical when they arrive.

[Boromir]

Originally posted by AquaX:

You need a trade beacon in order to get exchange from ships and rewards from quests. It also has to be not roofed so within that detection range, you will lose 1-2 tiles to provide an electric line w a wall.

1 major drawback is that if your trying to sell leather, wool, clothing, etc; they will decay because they would be under an unroofed room. You either have to make a roof until a ship comes, then remove it or turn that storage into a critical when they arrive.

It works fine with roofed room. You do need additional wall cell to hold the roof in the very center.

[ReadyMan]

thanks everyone! That got it to work. I just made a zone outside next to the beacon and had all silver taken there. Frustrating that I cant have the silver protected....seems like there should be a way to build a vault to keep it safe near the beacon and still be able to use it.

There's so much to this game that is counter-intuitive. It shouldnt have to be this hard with so many things (I'm only a couple of weeks into the game tho, so hopefully it gets easier to figure things out).

Thanks again!

[Emmote]

You do not need to keep it outside. You just have to have the items you want to be able to sell inside the highlighted area when placing a trade beacon. It won't see items in other nearby rooms.

[Vardis]

You can have multiple beacons as well. Nothing wrong with making an internal vault you don't go to often (silver) and having a beacon there, then another where you store trade materials that deteriorate, and another for outside stuff.

[Jigain]

To clarify, back in the day you used to have to keep the beacon outdoors, and any beacon that was indoors just wouldn't show its stuff in the trade window.

This was changed a couple of betas ago, so you can now indeed have indoors beacons, and goods sent down will land in an unroofed tile close to your beacon.

[Emmote]

Originally posted by Jigain:

To clarify, back in the day you used to have to keep the beacon outdoors, and any beacon that was indoors just wouldn't show its stuff in the trade window.

This was changed a couple of betas ago, so you can now indeed have indoors beacons, and goods sent down will land in an unroofed tile close to your beacon.

That's not true. It was always possible to have indoor trade beacons and be able to sell from them.
What did/does end up outside is what you buy from them. They air-drop(ped) in so couldn't land in a roofed area.

[Geothermal1159]

Hence my suggestion to have one of the beacons outside where you want your bought goods to land at otherwise they might land outside of your base if all of your beacons are indoors.

[Jigain]

Originally posted by Emmote:

Originally posted by Jigain:

To clarify, back in the day you used to have to keep the beacon outdoors, and any beacon that was indoors just wouldn't show its stuff in the trade window.

This was changed a couple of betas ago, so you can now indeed have indoors beacons, and goods sent down will land in an unroofed tile close to your beacon.

That's not true. It was always possible to have indoor trade beacons and be able to sell from them.
What did/does end up outside is what you buy from them. They air-drop(ped) in so couldn't land in a roofed area.

Right. After looking into it a bit deeper, it was just a misconception due to the game specifically telling you it needed to be outdoors, while that wasn't actually true.

<ConceptDef>
<defName>BuildOrbitalTradeBeacon</defName>
<label>Build orbital trade beacon</label>
<priority>40</priority>
<alertDisplay>true</alertDisplay>
<needsOpportunity>True</needsOpportunity>
<helpTexts>
<li>To send items or silver to orbital traders, you must build an ORBITAL TRADE BEACON outdoors and place a stockpile of items near it.</li>
</helpTexts>
</ConceptDef>

https://www.reddit.com/r/RimWorld/comments/2y85yy/trade_beacon_needs_to_be_outdoors_and_clothes/cp9lzb6/