Merchant

VISITING STAFF
Merchant	Access: Merchant Outpost, Merchant Vessel Qualifications: You've convinced NanoTrasen Central Command you're worth the docking authorization. Employers: Not defined Supervisors: None Duties: Buy low, sell high. Trade for profits and ensure that your wares or credits aren't stolen. Guides: No external guides.

The merchant is a character who uses his or her credits, contacts and guile to trade with the people of the station and turn a profit. While merchants are not NanoTrasen employees, they are not Antagonists either, and must be sure to conduct their business in accordance with NanoTrasen's Station Directives and Corporate Regulations. Merchants who are found to be in severe violation of NanoTrasen's trust may have their docking privileges revoked. That's bad for business!

The merchant role is not guaranteed to be available in every round. Additionally, characters in the merchant role cannot also be employed at NanoTrasen in a regular station job. To play as a merchant, make sure you've clicked ready at the start of a round, and that you have return to lobby if job is unavailable toggled on your merchant character's occupation selection tab.

How To Run an Honest Business

When you start the round as a Merchant, you spawn at the merchant outpost instead of the station. To get trading, you'll have to acquire goods, load them onto your ship, and pilot it out to the station.

Your Outpost

Take a moment to explore your surroundings:

• You have an office with a shuttle recall computer, a holster to attach to your clothes, and a totally sweet gun a weak energy weapon that you should keep concealed, and use only for personal defense while on the station. You also have access to cryogenic storage and some basic medical supplies.

• Nearby, your bedroom has a mirror that allows you to change your character into a Vox if you decide you want to roleplay a Vox merchant. If you choose this option, there's no going back for the round, so think hard about it first.

• There's a storage room next to your bedroom that contains a hacked autolathe, some metal and glass, and a large amount of randomly generated items. These can be used to barter directly with the crew, or they can be traded/sold to your outpost contacts.

• In the hallway outside the storage room, there's a teleportation pad, a computer that you'll use to do business with your contacts, and a table with several thousand credits on it. This money can be used to purchase items from the crew, or you can deposit it into a remote account to purchase items from contacts.

• Your ship doubles as a showroom, full of display windoors and racks for showing off your wares. The windoors will only open in response to your merchant pass, but any bald assistant can smash them if you let them! In the cockpit of your shuttle, there's a wall recharger for your sweet gun personal defense weapon.

The Merchant's List

Chances are that the items you find in storage aren't the greatest wares. To truly attract the station's interest, you'll want to deal with NPC contacts first.

Your outpost is within teleporter range of numerous traders. To access them, configure your computer by selecting the Merchant's List program. The main menu gives you a number of options, but the first thing you should do it connect the teleporter to the computer with the Connect Pad button. Once connected, you can deposit your credits into a trading account by placing them on the pad and sending them with the Deposit Money button. The amount of money in the account is what you have to trade with your contacts. Retrieve it with Retrieve Money if you want to have spending money on the station.

Once you're ready to trade, Open Communications from the main menu and start looking for deals.

Whaddaya Buyin?

Browse through the available contacts and hail the ones that sound interesting. There will always be a couple of shops that stay within range of your outpost, but many are on ships that will come and go, meaning that business opportunities and inventories change as the round progresses. Once you've hailed a merchant, the following options become available:

• List Goods: Reveals the inventory of the merchant that you can trade for or purchase. Ask Cost will reveal the cost of a specific item, Offer Money will deduct credits from your account and place the item on your teleportation pad if successful, and Trade will send any items of value on the telepad to the contact, in exchange for their item.

• Sell Items: Teleports items on your telepad to the contact in exchange for credits. Note that contacts typically want specific things, and will not buy any random junk. If your pad has unwanted items (or yourself) on it, the transaction may fail.

• Compliment: Transmits a flattering comment. It may be possible to manipulate contacts with a nice word, but too much talking may disinterest them.

• Pay Them To Stay Longer: for every 100cr you spend on this option, a merchant will remain in contact for 1 extra minute.

• Ask What They Want: Contacts may need more than just credits. Some may want to purchase things from you instead, or may only trade in items. This button lets you find out.

• Insult: Transmits a rude comment. It may be possible to manipulate contacts by provoking them, but too much talking may disinterest them.

NPC contacts have different needs depending on who they are. A pizza shop is unlikely to want to trade anything but pizza for your credits, while a Vaurca hive is much more likely to trade in k'ois than a Tajaran shop is. Experiment and hunt for the best deals!