Trade Operators Coalition

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Introduction

Trade Operators Coalition adds several Economy-Driven Neutral NPC Grid Encounters to your game. This includes Space and Planetary Cargo Ships, and Planetary Installations.

Encounter Information

This table provides information about what to expect with the encounters in this mod. Please note the following may not apply to every encounter. For more information on the attributes, click on the attribute name to view more information on the Modular Encounters Systems Wiki.

[table ] [tr] [th]Attribute[/th] [th]Description[/th] [/tr] [tr] [td]Behavior Difficulty[/td] [td]★☆☆☆☆ - No Challenge[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Grid Difficulty[/td] [td]★☆☆☆☆ - No Challenge[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Environments[/td] [td]Space, Atmosphere, Gravity[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Encounter Types[/td] [td]Space Cargo Ship, Planetary Cargo Ship, Random Encounter, Planetary Installation[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Spawning Conditions[/td] [td]N/A[/td] [/tr] [tr] [td]Special Abilities[/td] [td]Merchant Equipment[/td] [/tr] [/table]

About Trade Operators Coalition

The Trade Operators Coalition is a group of merchants that organized into a formidable economic force in several systems. Their stations can be found on many planets and in outer space. Each station operates in its own territory, so it is uncommon to find multiple stations grouped together in a small area. The stations feature a variety of services, including buying and selling of goods, refueling, shipyard services, and Suit Upgrade Modules.

Merchant ships can often be found wandering various areas. These ships can be approached and they will stop so you may browse the items they have for sale. Cargo Ships also appear near the stations, and will try to deliver additional stock for the station stores - however, pirates sometimes try to attack these ships as well. Defending these cargo ships will often be in your best interest.

Shipyard Services

The stations in this mod offer new economy features in the form of Shipyard Services. This allows players to sell grids that they have majority ownership of for a fraction of their current total credit value. It also offers the ability to repair and construct existing grids (repairs damage / builds projected blocks). And finally, if you have a grid that you've captured with non-majority ownership, you can pay to have the grid fully converted to your ownership. All grids interacting with the Shipyard Services must be within close proximity of the station to utilize these features.

Suit Upgrades

Another unique economy feature introduced via this mod is Suit Upgrades! This allows you to purchase permanent upgrades for your character that offer a variety of advantages. These upgrades include varying levels of immunity to the various Inhibitor blocks that some NPC mods use, passive suit energy recharge while in direct sunlight, and an overall damage reduction modifier.

These upgrades come with a catch though. In addition to be very expensive, they also require special Research Points. These points can be found by infiltrating various NPC ships and stations belonging to Imber, Parallax, Incon, and perhaps others. The Research Points can be downloaded from special terminals found on those grids.

Known Issues

- If trying to scrap-sell a grid with subgrids (connected by rotor, piston, connector, landing gear, etc), I strongly recommend disconnecting those subgrids before processing the sale. Sometimes these grids will despawn with the sale of the parent grid. This is something I'm looking into, and hope to have a more permanent solution for in the future. MES Update 2.69.13 should fix this issue.

- Contract blocks present in stations are not activated at this time. I am hoping at some point keen released some better ModAPI control over contracts like they did with the store blocks in 1.202, which would allow me to do more interesting things with them.

- Some are reporting that the TRADE faction is starting as hostile, which would not be intentional. Keep in mind if you attack TRADE owned ships, your reputation will decrease and you will eventually become hostile (intended behavior). However, if the faction started as hostile for you, try using the following chat command (its not a URL, steam seems to think it is, just copy/paste it) [code]/MES.Debug.ResetReputation.TRADE[/code]. MES Update 2.69.12 should fix this issue.

Special Thanks

Huge thanks to all the station designers who allowed me to use their designs in this mod! These folks built some awesome looking stations for that Economy Station contest Keen ran a few years ago, and I'm grateful I get to put a spotlight on them with this project!

- The Deedle