New Cargoes

New Cargoes adds over 100 new trade goods to the 8 galaxies. Each new good is a more specific variety of one of the generic cargoes: valuable to the right buyer, largely worthless otherwise. In addition, a variety of new trading opportunities are available.

New Cargoes is designed to allow other OXPs to add cargoes, traders, and events to the universe as a framework.

Installation

The current version of New Cargoes is 0.8.0. This is a preview and test version. Most of the features are stable and function reliably, but some of the newer features may undergo minor changes before the finished release.

As it is a test release, it will add a lot of messages to your Latest.log. Most of these can be ignored, and will disappear from the finished release.

Download and install in the usual way. Also download and install Snoopers if you don't already have it.

Using New Cargoes

Once New Cargoes is installed, load your saved game or start a new one. If this is the first time you have loaded the game since installing New Cargoes, you should wait around 10 seconds before continuing, to ensure that all New Cargoes data is initialised properly.

At a main station, press F8 three times to get to the New Cargoes trade interface. At a supported non-main station, press F2 then F8 instead. When you have finished, select "Exit specialist cargo trading" to return to your ship.

Buying and selling cargo

Your first option allows you to buy special cargo from the station's market. This will be available in moderate quantities for a set price, similar to the standard trade goods. As usual, you must have room in your hold and enough credits on hand to buy the cargo. It will then appear on your ship's manifest as 1TC of the appropriate generic cargo type. For instance, if you buy "Goat Soup", it will appear as "Food" on your manifest.

The second option allows you to sell carried cargo to buyers at the station. Again, the price is set automatically for this service. Make sure you sell special cargo in this way rather than through the general F8 screen, or you will make a significant loss.

The trick, of course, is to buy the cargo cheaply at a system where it is plentiful, and then take it to sell for massive profits at a system where it is rare but desired. For most goods there will only be a small number of systems in each galaxy that really want to buy them.

Listening to gossip

The third option takes you to the trader bars to gather gossip. Traders are sometimes happy to chat about their recent successes and failures, and intentionally giving misinformation is rare. Do remember, however, that just because one trader made a massive profit taking cargo from A to B doesn't mean you'll automatically be able to do the same. Try to confirm any information you pick up here before acting on it.

Trade deals

The fourth option takes you to the trade floor. In most main stations there will be someone here offering a more interesting deal - an auction, a special contract, a permit to legally carry controlled goods, or something else. Be careful, as not everyone here will have your best interests in mind. Make sure that you can fulfil your side of the deal before signing any agreements.

Detailed manifest

The fifth option shows your manifest in more detail, on multiple pages if needed. The origin of goods you have collected will be shown to aid your memory and help you assess your profit margins.

Contracts and permits

The sixth option shows you details of the contracts you have entered into, any permits you are carrying, and any special regulations applying to trade in this system.

How to trade well

The concise summary:

• Look at as many sources of information as you can about trade goods, and look for patterns in what can be bought and sold where.
• Plan your route in advance. If you don't have a full hold, maybe there's a short detour that would be profitable on the way.
• Get a TraderNet subscription (from the shipyard), and keep it renewed. If you hear about something nearby, act quickly.

More detailed trading advice.

Difficulty

There's no extra combat difficulty directly resulting from this OXP, but if you choose to trade mostly or exclusively in new cargoes, then making a trading profit will become much less reliable (though there are higher profits when you succeed), and may require you to travel through more dangerous systems.

Also, New Cargoes makes a few OXP stations - the ones which are most friendly to Galcop - use Galcop's rules for import and export of illegal goods. This can surprise you even if you aren't carrying new cargoes, so be careful.

New Cargoes for OXP writers

New Cargoes provides a flexible framework for other OXPs to add extra cargoes and trade opportunities. See the New Cargoes API reference for more information.

Quick Facts

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Version	Released	License	Features	Category	Author(s)	Feedback
0.8.0	2012-03-31	CC-BY-SA 3	New cargoes and trade contracts	Activities OXPs	cim	BB-Link