Trade Connection

All connected buildings will attempt share and trade commodities with each other where needed. Processing industries will fetch raw resources from resource harvesting industries, and factories will fetch the processed materials to make their products.

This is all automatic once the trade connection is established, but only within the same solar system. Trade between solar systems has to be setup with shipments or cargo ships.

Connection Types

Trade between buildings requires them to have a trade link connection with each other. There's four different types of trade links:

1. Neighbor connection
   • Two buildings that are within ?m of each other are considered connected.
2. Road connection
   • A road will connect all buildings near it. The throughput of the road is considered a base for all other trade links. I.e. 100%.
3. Sea connection
   • A building connected to a wharf will be connected with all other buildings also connected to a wharf on the same world. Throughput of the Wharf is half of the road's. (50%)
4. Air connection
   • A building connected to an airport terminal will be connected with all other buildings also connected to a airport terminal on the same world. When both cities are located on the same planet, the throughput of the terminal is a third of the road. (~33%)
5. Space connection
   • A building connected to an airport terminal will be connected with all other buildings also connected to a airport terminal in the same solar system. In case of interplanetary exchange, the terminal's throughput is a quarter of the road throughput. (25%)

For the purposes of import calculation, the best available link is always selected.

Fetching

Buildings fetch commodities they need from other connected buildings. This is the same for construction, manufacturing and impoting.

For example: a machine shop producing hammers using metal will attempt to fetch metal from any connected building, be it from a smelter, warehouse or other building.

Waste

A commodity might be wasted when fetched if it fails a quality check.

Importers

Some buildings import specific commodities in order to have them available for sale or to assist connected buildings.

• Airport terminal and capitol will import food and air to support connected population.
• Warehouse will import the one specified commodity type.
• ...

Reservation

In order to prevent cities from losing essential commodities to other cities, buildings in certain environments reserve a minimum stock of some commodities:

• Air, Water - On a world that does not support animal life, a building reserves 13 units per citizen.
• Food - On a world that does not support plant life, a city reserves 10 units of each kind of food per citizen, divided by its food value.