Pre-upgrade values below.

Trade ship Vasari

Refinery ship TEC

I didn't check all three races, but I'd bet they're the same.

One way to look at it is that you're doing triple-duty when you kill trade and refinery ships.
- You gain 50 credits (I'm guessing - the files weren't clear on that) which is not impacted by your own fleet supply ranking.
- The other player loses 50 credits.
- The other player loses any income that the trade ship was generating until their trade ship hub automatically builds another trade ship and it starts its route.

That economy impact can add up.

(You get this info by diving into the Reference modding files that can be downloaded from the Sins main site.)

-- Retro

okay.
Thanks for the tips retroboy.

I've started looking n the .entinty's myself (now that i know that's where you go for that information).

Trade ports have a base incom rate of 1.
They generate up to 5 trade ships. Which respawn in 25 intervals.

It seems like in order for the economic impact to add up, you'de have to be killing trade ships faster than they respawn. They respawn pretty quickly. A strong pirate raid will do this, unless they invest significantly in defenses. Are the pirates smart enough to attack a more vulnerable position if a player fortifies the hell out of their initial target?

But that's all for a different thread.

The main question now is what exactly to trade ships do? How do they generate income? I would think this would be documented in the Trade Ship entity, but I don't see it anywhere. I see they have a cargo of 50 credits. But what does this mean? When you lose a trade ship the killer gets 50 credits and you lose 50 credits? What do trade ships to FOR you? It seems like they're nothing but an exposed risk. How precisely do they generate income? Does the trade route matter? The length of the route, etc? How is this affected by trade pacts?

How much of this carries over to refinery ships?

We have a lot of vague speculation here.

Harassing and destroying trade ships seems like a useful and important tactic, but it's difficult konw you're achieving maximum impact unless you understand exactly what these little buggers are doing.


Some official help with some more details would be very useful.

Thanks.