Trader

Warning:

This page currently contains some outdated information.

About

Traders are NPCs that can be called via a Computer with a Motherboard (Communication) installed.

They will buy and sell any kind of object with the player:

After the player interacts with a Trader, the game will open a GUI where the player will select the item to buy or to sell.
The same interface is used to tell to the Trader to depart.

Update

Since trading update 5, Landing Pads in Stationeers have changed to give you more choices. Now you can place them on different tiles with different options. The smallest Landing Pad that works is a 3x3 square, and it needs a centerpiece in the middle. When a Trader shuttle arrives, it lands right in the middle of the centerpiece. The Landingpad center has an arrow showing which way the shuttles come and go. It's really important to make sure nothing blocks the arrow's path. That way, the shuttles can move smoothly without any problems. The shuttles usually land and take off at an angle of about 30 degrees.

Once your Landing Pad is ready, you can check the computer terminal to see what size landing pad each available shuttle needs.

There are six types of shuttles, including small, medium, and large ones, with normal and gas options. Shuttles can either use a runway or make a vertical descent to land. Small shuttles need a 3x3 pad, medium shuttles need a 5x5 pad, and large shuttles need a 6x6 pad. Having different pad sizes lets you trade with more Traders who visit your station.

If you want to trade with human Traders, you'll need to create a hangar with air they can breathe. Large shuttles and planes sometimes have human Traders inside. These Traders won't come out and trade unless there's air in the hangar. So, make sure you build a pressurized hangar to accommodate them.

Build Inc (3x3)

Player can buy: Pipe Kit, Cable Coil, Glass Sheet, Plastic Sheet, Steel Sheet, Wall Kit, Steel Frame.

Player can sell: Steel Ingot, Solder Ingot, Constantan Ingot, Electrum Ingot, Invar Ingot, Autolathe Printer Mod, 100 Moles of fuel.

More Ore Less (7x7 - 15)

Player can buy: Iron Ore, Copper Ore, Silicon Ore, Gold Ore, Coal, Lead Ore, Nickel Ore, Silver ore, Oxite, Volatiles, Unprocessed Ore.

Player can sell: Canned Edamame, Canned Rice Pudding, Tomato Soup, Pumpkin Soup, Corn Soup, Fitted-Out HardSuit (Additional Conditions), Hard Mining Backpack.

Green Futures (3x3)

Player can buy: Fern Seeds, Mushroom Seeds, Corn Seeds, Potato Seeds, Pumpkin Seeds, Rice Seeds, Soybean Seeds, Switchgrass Seeds, Tomato Seeds, Wheat Seeds.

Player can sell: 100 Moles CO2, 100 Moles H2O, Potatoes, Wheat, Rice, Corn, Soybeans, Mushrooms, Tomatoes, Pumpkin, Plant Genetic Analyzer.

Requirements

To call a Trader the following things are necessary:

• A Landing Pad area at least of size 3x3. Bigger landing pad = bigger suttles up to 6x6.
• With a Landingpad center. Mind the arrow for the shuttle approach/departure direction. They tend to approach at a 45-degree angle towards the pad.

Directly in touch with a:

• A landingpad Data and Power

Which has a data- and power port. This must be connected with cables to a cable network with the following attached.

• A Computer with a Motherboard (Communication) installed (to call the Trader).
• A Satellite Dish (for tracking the Trader)
• A Vending Machine or Vending Machine Refrigerated.

Then do the following:

• Power everything up, and connect on the same network. When using the Computer, you can select which pad and Satellite Dish you want to utilize. If there is one of each, there is not much to choose from :).
• Track a Trader signal with the Satellite Dish. There are buttons on the Satellite Dish. If you want to go pro, you can automate it using another computer :D!

Gas and liquid

If you want to trade gas or liquid, you can use:

• landingpad gas storage

With an appropriate:

• landingpad gas input
• landingpad gas output
• landingpad liquid input
• landingpad liquid output

Input and output modules have pipe connections with their own volume pump (button) to pump in and out gases. Buying and selling is done per 100 moles.

A landingpad liquid storage does not exist, so probably the landingpad gas storage is used for liquid storage? Please correct this for those who found out.

Do not forget to flush your landingpad gas storage using landingpad gas output or landingpad liquid output if you want to export a different kind of gas.

Make sure the gas temperature in the landingpad gas storage has a comfy temperature between (something please correct) C and ~30 C.

Notes

• For trade a player should have Credit Card in any slot of his character inventory (isn't necessary that is placed in the Credit Card slot of his suit), otherwise any attempt to trade will return an error message with "You do not have enough money to complete this transaction!".
• If a character has more than one Credit Card, the trade will use the last in the inventory order.
• The Traders will buy any item that is placed in a connected Vending Machine or Vending Machine Refrigerated in the same network of the Landing Pad.
• You can connect more than one Vending Machine or Vending Machine Refrigerated connected to the same Landing Pad.
• Traders will refuse to land if there isn't any Vending Machine or Vending Machine Refrigerated connected to the Landing Pad, or if no one is powered.
• Sell prices are always less than the buy value.
• Because Traders buy anything from the player, some items are exploitable to gain big amount of money, like food, or Motherboard (Sorter) (seems to be worth 1500€/$ or more, that is an evident bug).
• Prices of any item depend on the kind of trader.
• Selling a Credit Card to a Trader will ignore the balance within the card. This means that selling a Credit Card with a balance greater than 0 will cause the player to lose money.
• During a storm, Traders can't land or depart.

This is an example of tracking setup with a Integrated Circuit (IC10) code for automate the process.
Alternatively on this Youtube Video there is a good explanation by Saddamo De Beers. (outdated)

Bugs

• The trader will lock and go into a bugged state if you add things to the vending machine after a trader is requested to land. The bug can be seen by the trading GUI not opening (throws a NullReferenceException), save and reload or dismount the Landing Pad (that will make the trader depart) will fix the bug.