Trader Games

[madhouse]

What are some good recommendations?

 

[Burning Bridges]

You should have a look at Elite Dangerous.

I am also flipping airplanes in FSE https://www.fseconomy.net/welcome
it's fun because it is a multiplayer economy

All SP based trading games I tried (East India Company for example) were shit. Selling something to a computer is never fun.

 

[asfasdf]

Play Patricians and similar.

 

[good fucking shit happen]

What are some good recommendations?

Capitalism and Capitalism 2.

 

[laclongquan]

Patricians 3 and later on Port Royale 2. Same feel, same(ish) mechanics.

The Guild series is also a good recommendation.

 

[madhouse]

Thanks. I'll write a short review for the titles I try out.

 

[TemplarGR]

Patricians 3 has always been my favourite trader game. Though if you want something modern, i suppose you could try Port Royale 4, it got recently released, just a few months ago. It is essentially the same concept on a tropical setting with modern graphics, though i haven't tried it yet.

 

[Drop Duck]

If space games are fine with you then I recommend X3: Terran Conflict.

 

[Kalin]

Frontier: First Encounters. High Seas Trader is also pretty fun. Heard good things about Machiavelli the Prince but I haven't really played it.

 

[Alphons]

Caravaneer 2 is a trading game inspired by classic Fallouts. Trade anything between old technology and natural resources to slaves.
Build factories, hire and arm mercenaries and establish new trade routes.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Realms of Arkania HD

 

[madhouse]

Heard good things about Machiavelli the Prince but I haven't really played it.

It's decent, but you run out of things to do very quickly. Not much depth or strategy to it. I wouldn't really recommend it unless you really like DOS games.

 

[asfasdf]

Merchant Prince is a great game, but yeah, not very deep.

 

[AgentFransis]

Trade Empires is my favorite. Build massive trade networks in one of the many historic scenarios. Unfortunately it's a bitch to run on a modern system.

 

[Galdred]

There was a similar thread about it, not so long ago. You might find something of interest in here.

 

[Raghar]

Patrician 3 or bust.

 

[Old One]

Escape Velocity.

 

[adddeed]

For space trading the most interesting one is X4 Foundations. Real working economy, no fake crap or things getting made out of thin air. Massive game with many wayts to play it. Its much better game than Elite Dangerous which becomes super boring real quick.
Patrician III and Port Royale 1 (not 2) are great old school period trading games. Lots of features and lots of things to do. Port Royal is like a more action oriented Patrician III.
The Guild 1 and 2 if you want to run your own business/shop. Small scale but very detailed.

 

[blessed king of longing]

Escape Velocity.

The original is really short though, Escape Velocity Nova is where it's at. The creator of EV: Override is remaking the game, could go even further from there https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/cosmicfrontier/cosmic-frontier-override/description

 

[Borian]

Star Traders: Frontiers. It's in the name. I posted my thoughts on it a while back.

Star Traders: Frontiers has a great feel to it because it has a Dune-like world and keeps to a strict feudal atmosphere. The galactic flight map, where you drive your ship around to different systems and planets, plays in a fairly strict manner. You'll have 40-something or more "characters" (the number of which is highly dependent on your ship AND that ship's upgrades. There are many ships and many upgrades) that will sit in your crew list. The point of these characters is to contribute to a perk and skill pool. There are many skills and perks, and each character has access to most of them, so most of your crew should ideally be leveled up automatically - though you can do it manually if you're a psycho. The ship acts like an aggregate of the skills and perks of every single crew member, and it needs them too because skill checks happen every few seconds when traveling - space is dangerous, after all - and upon anything you do, even landing on planets checks your pilots' and engineers' skills and perks for fuel efficiency.
There are three game modes, but perhaps a fourth depending on your opinion. There's crew combat; space combat; flight map and, if you fancy it as major enough, a sort of text adventure. Each mode depends on crew skills. Crew combat is why you manually level up some of your crew. It takes the shape of four of your crew fighting four enemies in a Darkest Dungeon style of encounter. It's rather brutal. Space combat is more of the same, where your ship and weapons, along with the perks of your crew, matter most. Perks are like cards here, where you play them to alter combat. This mode is much easier than ground combat but it's very easy to get in over your head and get caught with your pants down. Space flight is how you get to your missions and trading opportunity. You land on planets and stations, you run into random encounters, you blockade or spy or patrol planets. The text adventure is the precept to all three, and how situations change and get resolved. You choose your actions, you pass or fail skill checks, you make decisions, you do faction stuff.
You have to keep your crew paid and happy. You do that at every landing, usually allowing crew leave to the spice halls (Not-Dune, remember) and paying their wages. If you don't do that, you'll have crew leaving at the first safe port and never coming back.
There's quite a bit to it. I know this can be someone's favorite game but it's a little dry to me. Definitely try it. It's very unique.

Starsector is another one focused on trading, going so far as to progress from a couple lone ships to a space empire.

 

[Norfleet]

Star Traders contains trade, although you will not really be building up a trade empire and the trading is mostly incidental to the gameplay, something you do while en-route rather than as a dedicated purpose unless you're a really boring person, and that says a lot coming from me. The Space Combat is basically shit and boils down to a single meta of "being untouchable", as the damage control model is terrible and amounts to "one of your valuable crewcritters died, you will not be informed of what you lost, and replacing them will likely be a royal pain in the ass, especially since from your perspective, they basically just spontaneously disappeared with no real notification", and thus the only way to deal with it is to make sure you never, ever, take damage.

Starsector is absolutely not focused on trading. In fact, the developer has explicitly stated he hates trading and has designed the game around explicitly crippling attempts to play as a trader. The only way to meaningfully progress through any kind of trade is through smuggling and extortion, activities which will inevitably lead you to violence, which the developer has stated is the intended core of the game, for ships to blow each other up.

In contrast, what I'd call a "Trader" game involves building some kind of financial empire where violence is generally undesired or plays merely a side-role rather than the primary role. The games you mentioned don't feature you building any kind of financial empire and trading plays at best a peripheral role in the gameplay.

 

[AgentFransis]

Starsector is another one focused on trading, going so far as to progress from a couple lone ships to a space empire.

Starsector is as focused on trading as Starcraft is on managing mines. It's a space fleet combat game. The trading system is entirely banal.

 

[Borian]

Thank you. You wrote out everything I should have said, yet was too lazy to do. As was said in the quote, "it's a little dry to me," I haven't even played the game since before October. I played Starsector for a few hours, but it didn't hold me despite being very fun. For people who haven't played it: Here, have this video.

In contrast, what I'd call a "Trader" game involves building some kind of financial empire where violence is generally undesired or plays merely a side-role rather than the primary role.

I don't seek out these games and I barely play them. What comes to mind with this description is a game like the earlier Paradox GSGs - or even as broadly stretched as to reach OpenTTD. This thread has me interested in something more, and you seem to know a lot about this. What do you recommend for good traders, past or present? I've already gathered a couple of the recommendations from both here and the earlier linked thread, like Patrician 3.

 

[AgentFransis]

I played Starsector for a few hours, but it didn't hold me despite being very fun.

Bear in mind that the Starsector early game is pretty shit. It only really gets good once you get a decent ship, a decent sized fleet and a bunch of weapons and systems. Tinkering with ship builds and big fleet battles is where the game shines. If you're inclined you can try the Nexelerin mod that has accelerated start options.

 

[asfasdf]

Starsector is a very good game, but I wouldn't call it a trader game. What passes for trading in-game is very barebones.