Shipment

The broker's management window.

A broker is able to send commodities to cities in other solar systems using shipments. Once setup, shipments are automatically fetched from the broker's city and sent to the destination city.

Shipment Scheduling

To schedule a shipment.

Scheduling a shipment is done in the sending city at the broker using the City (F10) window.

There is no limit to the amount of commodities that can be in a shipment. It is only a question of the storage capacity of the destination city.

The shipment can be set to be repeated a specific amount of times, or be continuous.

Shipment Limit

The broker can have a total number of shipments being processed equal to the number of offices the broker building blueprint has.

TEU

Shipments from brokers are packed into TEUs (Twenty-foot Equivalent Unit). There is 1360 cargo unit of storage in a TEU. Delivery value for broker shipments are based on whole TEUs shipped. This is only relevant when the shipment needs to be picked up by an actual spacecraft as part of a shipment delivery mission.

A spacecraft can carry a set amount of TEUs, based on the size of the spacecraft's hold.

Scheduled Shipments

Shipments that have been scheduled will first be filled with commodities from the broker's city. The broker will fetch commodities from connected buildings on its world every minute.[1]

A broker cannot fetch commodities from other worlds when filling their shipment manifests. This means that commodities has to be stored in the city itself, this can be done with warehouses.

Waiting Shipments

Shipment icon.

Once a shipment has gotten the commodities it needs, it is ready to be sent. Shipments are automatically sent out by the broker every 6 minutes.[2]

Delivery Jobs

This section is in need of revision. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. The reason given is: Could use more information about player run delivery jobs.

Shipments that are waiting to be sent out will be available to avatars with a spacecraft as delivery jobs. This works as a way of getting the shipments to their destination faster, and as a way to make money.

Upon delivery the avatar is payed the delivery value as payment, plus a possible bonus if delivered faster than the normal shipment travel time.

Shipments Enroute

The shipments are sent automatically and take time to be delivered. This time is equal to the distance to the destination travelling at 2x lightspeed, which is the equivalent of 5 minutes per parsec.

Once at the destination, the shipment's commodities are added to the storage of the buildings in the city. Any commodities that exceed the storage capacity are lost after attempting to replace inferior quality commodities of the same kind.

Pirate Plunders

Shipments may be plundered if the originating or destination sector has a pirate base. Plundered shipments are reported in the city report's event log of the sending or receiving city, depending on where the shipment is plundered. This also generates a diplomatic incident.

Intergalactic Shipments

Shipments can be sent between differing galaxies. In terms of travel time, this is calculated as the shipment travelling to the core of the origin galaxy, and then from the core to the target system of the destination galaxy.

Trade Agreements

A trade agreement is a special type of two-way shipment. They are best used to setup trade between empires.

Trade agreements function similarly to normal shipments from both sides. Except the shipments will not be shipped until both ends have filled the shipment manifest. Once the shipments are ready at both ends, they are sent simultaneously.

Proposals

To start a trade agreement, first a proposal will have to be sent from one city to the other city. The proposal has to be accepted at a broker in the other city before the trade agreement will be established.

If the creator of the proposal is in chain of command over the recipient city, the proposal will be accepted automatically. This allows for trade agreements to be used as a way of requesting a shipment from another city remotely, by setting the agreement up to only have the other city send something to the current city.

Quotes from patch notes

Related patch notes

Update 2017-03-14 Trade Between Systems: Broker Shipments Brokers can now be configured to send shipments to cities in other solar systems. You will find the controls for this on the city window when you are at a broker. You schedule a shipment of a certain commodity to a specific city. Minimum Q and TL can be applied. The shipment may be filled a specified number of times or it may be a continuously recurring shipment. A broker can process a number of shipments equal to the number of building levels. Shipments are filled on the same six minute interval that brokers import stuff to the city. When a shipment is full, it begins waiting for shipment. Shipments awaiting transport are sent out hourly, if the broker can track more shipments. This interval is roughly one game-universe day. Shipments are en route until they arrive at their destination, speed based on direct travel at 2X lightspeed. A broker can track en route shipments up to the number of building levels. Once full, shipments awaiting transport will continue waiting until something gets delivered, thus stalling the order filling process. When a shipment arrives at the destination, as much as possible is added to the city's stockpile. Excess is lost. Better stuff replaces worse stuff like when stuff is manufactured. Players are intended to be able to pick up shipments awaiting transport but that part is not finished yet. This would enable you to move the materials more quickly and it lets the city fill the orders more frequently. As of this update, automated delivery is in place but you cannot help them. Spacecraft encounters can be generated to coincide with these shipments. This will enable players to notice those trade activities more than they do now. It's very rare to cross paths with a trade ship. This aspect is also not finished; until then you will not see any visible spacecraft as a result of broker shipments. Update 2017-03-31: Broker TL Speed of freight was increased from 2x light speed to 5x light speed, which is equivalent to warp 1. Update 2017-03-31: Speed of Freight Speed of freight is now increased by shipping broker TL, at 5% per TL. Update 2019-04-16: TEU Shipments Broker shipments were intended to be something players could carry. This was never completed. Players can now pick up and deliver TEU shipments. To request TEU shipments, a button was added to the dialog for requesting things for sale. To unload TEU shipments, a button was added to the dialog for offering things for sale. This mechanic may evolve based on actual game experience. At present, there is no cost to pick up a TEU shipment. The delivery fee is based on delivering the package at the estimated delivery time. The delivery fee increases if you are early and it decreases if you are late. 2023-03-15 Refinery, Asteroids, Shipments, Avatar Page Return, Atoms Stop Processing Shipments I created a trade agreement at a broker that should have been automatically accepted. It didn't work. Fixed. I also changed the interval for filling and sending shipments. Shipments are now filled once per minute and they are shipped on six minute intervals when filled. Previously shipments were filled every six minutes and shipped hourly.