About trade.

[Poodlestrike]

Can anyone explain the new trade system for me (or direct me to somwhere that does)?

[Poodlestrike]

Nevermind, found one.

[Artemis]

care to share?

[Resok]

Switch to the Trade View (Default HotKey "7" in Starmap" and hit the Question Mark Icon (right next to "Menu") - all will be revealed.

[Llamedos]

just build civ stations and let the civilians deal with building the ships

[Poodlestrike]

Oh, is that what the white triangles are in the trade view? Civilian ships?
and the article was http://sotsii.wikia.com/wiki/Trade

[Rhudda]

First, I would like to recommend the official wiki (http://sots2.rorschach.net) instead of any others, especially for hard data, because that's taken directly from the latest build of the game, afaik. There's also a section on trade there.

Second, a very basic explanation on trade:
For trade to occur, you need to research FTL Economics in the political science tree, build civilian stations (which are unlocked by said research) and either build freighters yourself or invest money in trade stimulus so that civilians build and maintain them for you. The former method gives you greater control, but you'll have to remember to replace any destroyed freighters yourself and the ships cost upkeep. Trade stimulus, on the other hand, relieves you of these worries, but drains the treasury too. I don't know which costs more, tbh.

Thirdly, trade view: The circles at the top show how many goods you could potentially export in that specific system. Shifting the production/trade slider(s) towards trade fills these circles, which means that goods are actually produced. Empty triangles are free docks on your station, small triangles are available freighters.

For more information like megafreighters and piracy, visit http://sots2.rorschach.net/trade

[Artemis]

The official wiki is pretty useless (as are all the others I've found). It has like 3 articles that actually have any flesh to them.

[Poodlestrike]

Yeah, the poor state of the game at launch sort of dampered the community enthusiasm, so material's thin on the ground.

[Poodlestrike]

He is right about the official wiki, though, the trade article's pretty good. What seems to be working is a mixed system of building around half of the frieghters myself (to ensure that I get some income) and spending enough on trade stimulus to guarantee a steady increase in civilian freighters.

[Rhudda]

Originally posted by Artemis:

The official wiki is pretty useless (as are all the others I've found). It has like 3 articles that actually have any flesh to them.

Well, it's better than the others, and as I said, the hard data is imported directly from the game's files, so at least that's reliable.

[Artemis]

Originally posted by Sian:

Originally posted by Artemis:

The official wiki is pretty useless (as are all the others I've found). It has like 3 articles that actually have any flesh to them.

Well, it's better than the others, and as I said, the hard data is imported directly from the game's files, so at least that's reliable.

It is better but it's not entirely reliable as was proven when I had to ask Nextek why the LV tech wasn't showing up for me. The fact Heavy Ship Missiles is an unlinked prereq isn't on there. And anyway it's not hard data I want as much as strat guides or explanations of mechanics. Stuff like the finer points of colonization or what if anything the supply side of ship design does.

[Llamedos]

its more efficent to build them yourself but letting the civs build them sends you goverenment stance to the right.

[Poodlestrike]

Also, I don't think civs build large freighters.

[jp161fi]

Question in regards to strategy may get more answers over at kerberos' own forums, evne though there are quite a few regulars here too nowadays.

Civies do build large freighters, but you have to at least design one first (possibly prototype too, but at least at one point that was unnnecessary). Last I heard, they also build Q-Freighters.

[Nextek]

They will build the newest prototyped freighter design.