Talk:Lords of Ether (20th Anniversary Edition) Trade

Merchant Marines and Free Trade

When not in use by the Power (ie: under your control) merchant ships can be sent out as “Free Traders”, to go about their own business wandering the Star Ways and plying their wares far and wide. The advantage of this is that they will bring back an automatic amount of Wealth to you at the end of each year.

Basic Return
The basic Free Trade Wealth Return is 0.5 WU/year for standard freighters, 3 WU/year for superfreighters and 10 WU/year for megafreighters. While larger ships are more efficient (from the perspective of the people shipping goods, anyway), they do tend to also be preferred targets for pirates or other nogoodniks.
The amount of Return from Free Trade is also dependent mainly on the capability of the ship in question, from its complexity, to its capacity, weapons, and speed. In the case of Free Traders every +1 return adds 25% to the Wealth Return.

Cruising Speed
Any ship that goes at least 8 cosknots gains +1 Return. If it can travel at more than 12 cosknots it gains a further +1. A free trader that can't even make 2 cosknots instead suffers -1 Return.

Economical
Ships with any form of Sails gain +2 Free Trade Return due to their more economical nature. AI ships do not benefit from this bonus – robotic ships are cheaper to run, but they tend to make poor salesmen, either due to the limits of their programming, or the prejudice of much of the galaxy, where computers are rarely the equal of humans and thus can often be ripped off.

Added Cargo
Ships with one or more Cargo Capacity Added Capabilities gain a +1 Free Trade Return and an additional +1 so long as the ship is getting at least +1 from another source below this one. This does not apply to ships with Specialized Cargo Capacity, as they are usually more limited in utility as Free Traders.

Cargo Handling
Ships with cargo handling - generally hangars, though more exotic modifiers such as assault ships could also count - grant a +1 as the ability to move cargo on and off without the need for a dock berth can be quite valuable. Specialized hangars do apply, though silos (missile specialized hangars) do not - as amusing as the idea of rocket mail might be, it is incredibly cost-inefficient. Hangars themselves do not need to be filled - it is assumed that they will be loaded with cargo tugs and longshoremen mobile suits.

Blockade Runner
Ships with any Weapons Added Capabilities, Defensive Added Capabilities such as Shields, Armour or Stealth, a diguise or with more than one Drive that is not a Sail (Sails are very economical, but not very speedy) also gain +1 Free Trade Return as they are able to perform more dangerous (and thus profitable) runs. This may be taken up to +4 return, if the ship in question is militarized, has a defense and more than one drive system. For these purposes Fast counts as an 'additional drive'. Note that 'Militarized' ships do not count as having a weapon added cap for these purposes, that is rolled into the Subsidized bonus (See below)

Hypertech
Any Cargo or Merchant ship that is made with techmagic or magitech gains a +1 Return due to high tech spiffyness. If it has more than 5 non-slot free Added Capabilities it gains a further +1 Return, and if has more than 8 it gains yet another +1 Return.

Scouts
Having some experienced - or sneaky - crewmembers can help identify the best contracts and the ones to avoid. If a free trader has at least 10 spies onboard it gains +1 returns. If it has a full spy ring (100) onboard it gains +3 and may also engage in some minor espionage along the way.

Subsidized
Some free traders are directly subsidized by their parent government. Any ship with Militarized gains +2 returns as much of its basic operations are paid for by someone with deep pockets. A ship with a geode core (!) is extremely economical (so long as someone else is paying for the atomic fuel rods) and also relatively fast and consequently gains +4 returns

Smooth and Gruff Talkers
If the operator of the Free Trader is undiplomatic it suffers a -2 Returns. If it has tech or magic intolerance it suffers a -1 Returns. If the operators are Diplomatic or have the Bling national trait it gains +2 Returns.

Obsolete/Prototype
Any ship that is of lower Advancement Level than the Power is capable of building suffers from a –2 Return for each Advancement Level lower. Similarly, any ship that is of a higher Advancement Level also suffers a –2 Return for each level higher as running it is much more expensive.

Hunk of Junk
Any ship with Reduced Capabilities gains a –1 Return for each Reduced Capability, regardless of how many Added Capabilities it also has.

Jerry Rigged
Any Ship with an External Added Capability that draws upkeep (so pretty much anything save armour or Wind Sails) gains a –1 Return due to the added cost of running the ship.