Markets & Regional Economies
Markets matter because resources, processing, manufacturing capacity, organization contracts, and player supply are not distributed evenly across Sol. Every order belongs to a specific station, so geography and physical custody remain part of the economy.
Each station has an authored market identity.
NPC market profiles define station-local contracts, prices, quantities, issuing organizations, lore, and any standing requirements. Those authored contracts are designed around nearby resource geography, local industry, research demand, manufacturers, and organization presence rather than one universal market table.
Player contracts reserve real assets before they enter the book.
A resource buy order reserves the buyer's credits. Resource and equipment sell orders escrow the seller's actual goods at that station. Player equipment sell orders represent one exact physical item instance, including its treatment, craftsmanship, condition, and provenance. Equipment buy orders are not currently enabled because equipment is instance-specific.
A trade finishes at the station where the order exists.
Player-to-player fills settle atomically against the shared order. Purchased player goods become local Market deliveries and are claimed into that station's storage. Cancelling an unfilled order returns its reserved credits or goods to the same station custody they came from. Resource sell contracts can also draw from local station storage or ship cargo where the contract supports it.
Some NPC commerce is also relationship history.
Organization-issued NPC contracts can require standing. Supplying an organization's demand or purchasing through its market can become concrete Reputation & Access history, so trade and politics are connected without turning ordinary market use into generic reputation grinding.
You can participate without doing every profession yourself.
A miner can sell raw feed. A processor can buy it. A manufacturer can source processed material. A hauler can connect station inventories. A combat pilot can sell recovered equipment. Because the market is shared but physically local, specialization remains viable without making geography irrelevant.