Trading

Trade Ratios:
Resources	Min Ratio	Max Ratio	(Merchant Ratio)
Ore » Hydrogen	2 : 1	3 : 1	2.5:1
Ore » Crystal	1.5 : 1	2 : 1	1.667:1
Crystal » Hydrogen	1 : 1	2 : 1	1.5:1

You can trade resources with any player, regardless of rank. To trade, locate the traders planet in the galaxy screen, and click the     button on their planet row (in the same group as Attack, Espionage, Transport, etc). When you select the amount you want to trade, you will notice the number is red. In order to initiate a trade, you must select an appropriate amount of cargo ships, and also the appropriate amount of resources you want to receive in the transaction (see Trade Ratios chart at right).

Once you have confirmed the trade, a request will be sent to the other player, who will then need to select enough cargo ships to send their resources.

Also, when you have sent the trade request, the agreed amount of resources and required amount of ships to transport it will become unavailable for further actions till the trade request has either been confirmed, declined or the requesting player has cancelled the request. That prevents you from dedicating resources or ships needed for the trade till the trade request has been confirmed or declined.

Like with all fleet actions in STC, the time given will be one way only. So if it says the trade will take 1 hour to complete, your fleet will be gone for 2. 1 hour to get to the target planet, and 1 hour to get back.

Considerations: <br\> a) Trades between moons are fully invisible to Oracle scans. Trades involving one moon are "halfway" protected, from scans at the moon end.<br\> b) While in "Trade Pending" status, ships are still considered "in orbit" and are still subject to attack as they would if they were just sitting there uninvolved in any action. If the waiting trader is attacked, they will be part of any planetary defense action, and the res contained will be able to be plundered if the battle is lost. It has not been verified, but is assumed that, should the attack destroy the needed ships to perform the transport, that the trade will be canceled, even if the trade fleet and other defending ships successfully defends itself and keeps the res.<br\> c) In the event of an attack, the attacked trader may cancel the trade and FRS the ships and res, or, if the accepting trader accepts prior to the attack landing, then the trade fleet will no longer be part of any defensive actions.<br\> d) Espies of planets/moons with pending trades will show the trade as being present but pending:<br\>

    Moon xxx ‎[xx:xxx:xx]  has:
    
    RESOURCES:
    * ore: 0
    * crystal: 0
    * hydrogen: 0
    
    xxxx'S SHIPS:
    
    SHIPS IN PENDING TRADES:
    * Hercules Class Cargo: 100
    * Atlas Class Cargo: 501
    
    RESOURCES IN PENDING TRADES:
    * ore: 5,000,000
    
    DEFENSES: