92 lines
4 KiB
Perl
92 lines
4 KiB
Perl
.TH Concept "Trade ships"
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.NA Trade-ships "How to use trade ships"
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.LV Basic
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Trade ships are special ships, with a different function than most Empire
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ships. They are in the game only if the TRADESHIPS option is enabled.
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.s1
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Trade ships simulate internal or external trade. In the real world, countries
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make goods that they can make cheaply, ship them somewhere they're expensive,
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and sell them, making a profit.
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.s1
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In the empire version, you make a trade ship, using lots of cm's, and costing
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$2500. You then sail it to a harbor somewhere and scuttle it. You then receive
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money, with a varying rate of return.
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.s1
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The trade ship MUST be scuttled in a friendly harbor that is at least
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2% efficient to make money. (In other sectors,
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it sinks quietly, like most ships) You may scuttle it in either a harbor you
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own, or the harbor of an ally. Pirates who capture a trade ship may also gain
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money from it, just as if they were the lawful owner (although the news knows
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the difference)
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.s1
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The return rate is based on the straight-line map distance from the harbor
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where the trade ship was built to the harbor where it is scuttled.
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.s1
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You have to sail it at least 8 sectors to get any money at all. At less than
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8 sectors, you get nothing, not even your $1750 back. Nothing, nada, zilch,
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zip, nothing. Once you make a trade-ship, you're pretty much committed to
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sailing it at least 8 sectors...
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Currently, the return rates are:
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.NF
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Distance sailed Return rate
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0-7 NO MONEY
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8-13 2.5% * distance
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14-24 3.5% * distance
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25+ 5.0% * distance
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.FI
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.s1
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For example, if you sail the ship 10 sectors from the harbor where it was
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built and scuttle it in a harbor there, you would get 125% of the money you
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paid for it, or $2188. If you sailed it 15 sectors to a harbor and scuttled it,
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you would get 153%, or $2678.
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.s1
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Use the \*Qpayoff\*U command to see how much the trade ship would pay
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were it scuttled in a harbour at its present location.
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.s1
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If you scuttle a trade ship in the harbor you do not own, you get a 20% bonus
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(applied after the value is multiplied by the return rate above), AND the
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person owning the harbor gets 10% of the cash you make as a bonus (the amount
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before the +20% bonus is applied)
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You still get the full amount, but he makes money as well.
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(Peaceful trade enriches BOTH countries more than trading only internally).
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For the devious, no, being allied with yourself does not mean you get +20% when
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scuttling in your own harbors.
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.s1
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For example, using the #'s from above, if you sailed 15 sectors, and scuttled
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in an allied harbor, you'd get $2188 * 1.2 = $2.6K, and your ally would get
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$2188/10 = $218.
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.s1
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CASH GAINED IS ALSO MULTIPLIED BY THE EFFICIENCY OF THE TRADE SHIP.
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So, if you get shot down to 21%, don't expect to get the full amount...
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.s1
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If you capture a trade ship, you are free to scuttle it in any harbor you can
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get it into, receiving full cash calculated normally.
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.s1
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The cash return is multiplied by the efficiency of the ship, so less efficient
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ships produce less money.
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.s1
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Captured trade ships may be scuttled as if they were yours (although you will
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get some bad publicity in the news) Payoff is still based on the distance from
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the harbor where the trade ship was built, not the sector in which it was
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captured.
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.s1
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You can also use the "order" command to set up automated trading routes with
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trade ships and have them navigate and automatically scuttle themselves when
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they reach their destination. See "info order" for more information on this,
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but basically you can do things like this:
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.NF
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Step 1) Make a harbor
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Step 2) Get cms distributed/delivered to your harbor each update.
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Step 3) Find a destination harbor to sail to
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Step 4) build tradeships in the harbor each update
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Step 5) load civs and food on the trade ships each update.
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Step 6) order the trade ships to sail and autoscuttle in the dest harbor.
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.FI
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.s1
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You can then just repeat steps 4, 5, and 6 each update, and never worry
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about your trade ships again. Unless someone starts intercepting them,
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that is...
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.s1
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.SA "payoff, order, Ship-types, scuttle, Ships"
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