Star Trades Help Manual

Legality of Commodities

Some of the commodities you will come across in the Kentaran Galaxy are illegal. To check if a commodity is legal or not, click the Depots link on the left nav menu and then select any depot that trades in that commodity.

Buying and selling illegal commodities function the same way as legal commodities, except that there is a risk involved in trading them. The risk varies depending on the Law Level of the Star System (which dictates how strictly or loosely the laws are enforced), and on the skill of your Tactical Officer in slipping past the Law Enforcement, but there is always a level of risk whenever trafficking in illegal commodities. If caught, you will be penalized by the STA.

Because illegal commodities have to be bought and sold in the back rooms and shady establishments, they cannot be traded automatically by ships traveling on a Trade Route.

In addition to legal commodities, the illegal ones come in two categories, Unlawful and Prohibited. Penalties for traffiking in Prohibited commodities are roughly double those for merely Unlawful ones (but then so are the profits for success). Smuggling illegal commodities to stricter locations is the most risky and the most profitable of all.

Penalties for being caught smuggling illegal commodities include fines, arrest and imprisonment of the ship officers (in effect, loss of training because new raw recruits are always available to replace them), confiscation of the cargo, impoundment of the ship, and most importantly of all, loss of your personal Legal Standing.

The STA's fines vary depending on the extremity of the offense and your current Legal Standing. If you are already known to be a smuggler, penalties will be even higher. If your legal standing falls to the lowest level and you are caught yet again, you will be imprisioned in disgrace and your company will be dissolved.

The legality of a commodity may change over time. Such changes will be announced in the Galactic News.

All of these warnings notwithstanding, there is a fortune to be made for the successful smuggler!

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