This small mod adds an interaction option to contact the Shadowy Broker, a mysterious and cocky hacker-turned-financial-advisor that might just help you find profitable trade routes, for a small fee. A smooth and seamless experience, 60% of the time it works every time.
Compatibility
I’m confident you can add and remove the mod without any worry and it shouldn’t conflict with any other mod.
Functional Details
Upon activation of the “Market Analysis” the Broker will return (or not, it depends heavily on market conditions and finances) the most profitable trade available to you between planets considering your available finances, available commodities, deficit and excess stockpiles on various markets. It’s basically an automatic way to look at the resource breakdowns for a small fee. The result looks something like this:
The mod currently sports very basic configurability of the request you can make of the Broker. You can tell him how much cargo to simulate and what percentage of your credits you are willing to invest for the trade (excluding his 5000 credit fee, of course).
Current Plans
– Withdrawal (cashflow conversion) expenses, still at the planning stage
– New option: Loans
– More trade-specific utilities as they become apparent
Changelog
– New Feature: The Broker has access to new software on the mainframe and can now help you find the best market to sell the unwanted commodities gathering dust in your cargo. For an even greater fee, of course.
– Streamlined some interactions
Nice job!
– The Mainframe is now able to take into account tariffs for the units of cargo that have to be bought from tariffed Open Markets.
– The Broker now allows client to specify an approach type (Lawful or Lawless) to filter out specific markets and commodity availabilities depending on the transponder stance you wish to keep.
– Squashed a couple big bugs.
Anyway, thank you for your time, this mod has huge pontential, it’s amazing to have a “consultant” when you’re unsure where to sell your Sto#($, valuable, honest goods.
But as a means of helping out starting the game? it’s pretty nice so far. 
Are your ambitions for this mod only releasing a tool to help guide players find the best deals? or do you perhaps have bigger plans? I do think the Broker could have its own faction, a banking system where players could invest their money, get other benefits with time, take loans, and the consequences of crossing the Broker, like gaining a huge bounty (if using NEX), or thugs after you, being able to work with the Broker, tackle debtors, destabilize and sabotage markets for the Broker’s clients, maybe some new hulls and features, like a ranking system where you unlock goodies as you rise in the Shadow Broker’s ranks, stuff like encrypted boxes you can unlock, influence factions, recruit Agents (if using NEX) I always thought a Central Place like the Prism Freeport should have it’s own faction instead of being Independents, that would be so cool.
There are definitely some good ideas in there. I’m very new to modding the game and to the game itself for that matter so my grasp of its underlying mechanics is still a little up there, but I am definitely looking into some of these. I’m particularly interested in positively influencing development of specific markets, in some way. The rest as well, I have made a list of what I think might fit into an expanded feature set.
As far as factions go, however, I’m not entirely sure the Broker would run his own faction with markets and fleets, as that would expose his activities to way too much scrutiny for a guy who enjoys prosperity specifically because of the shadows he has made his home.
I am rather curious if this ends up fixing the single faction existing, by providing a stock building on planets that can trade on one another that makes profits from the deficits of the planets with lesser resources.
What do you mean? As I mentioned above I’m very new to the game so some nuance is lost on me. I am looking into working more with markets and their surplus/deficit so the more I know about the underlying caveats of the existing mechanics, the better.
Anyway, thank you for your time, this mod has huge pontential, it’s amazing to have a “consultant” when you’re unsure where to sell your Sto#($, valuable, honest goods.
But as a means of helping out starting the game? it’s pretty nice so far.
Thanks. I’m glad you like it. Please, tell me if you encounter any issues with it.
And there we have it Folks, such a huge pyramid, but nawl it’s dead, they call me the text wall exterminator.
Hey, thanks
I guess it does make sense for Broker to not have Markets of his own, existing as a sub-faction, kinda like the Vesperon Combine?
though, I think it is plausible for the Broker to have this own Agency with a set of Fleets of his own, that can help “influence” the market in both lawful and unlawful ways, also working for the Broker as he gives you missions to help tackle debtors, sabotage industry of factions, the faction would simply work as a mercenary enforcer to the interests of the Shadow Broker, not taking part in wars, it could be a well hidden market other factions don’t have ways to interact other than the Shadow Broker’s faction itself which will control the fleets and targets and actions of the faction..
if factions have low relations with the Broker, the broker can give missions to destabilize/sabotage that faction to freelancer agents and give rewards as these freelancer agents rise in the Shadow Broker’s Favor? SB can give these factions until the Faction pays it’s debt and cease hostilities.
it could work in a way the if the Shadow Broker was more than a Consultant but a Banking system as well, where players can take CRED loans, open accounts with interest that increase over time, failing to pay loans can have Shadow Broker debt collectors go after player fleet and colonies and raid it until the debt is paid directly by the player or the value of loot from raids pays it, vice-versa if the player works for the Shadow Broker, and say the hegemony takes a loan and fails to pay, player receives missions to raid a colony, sell the loot, give the SB the creds and get a 30% cut from it.
That would make the Shadow Broker very powerful, the Shadow Broker Agency could be a neutral entity where factions need it to exist for the information it provides, also maybe.. no one knows who the Shadow Broker truly is, they could be contacted via proxies, people representing the Shadow Broker.