Captain Untouchable
Feb 4th, 2014, 02:54:40 PM
Yeah, yeah, I know, another bloody thread from Jace. :rolleyes
Charley and I have been chatting a bit about how trade across the Alliance/Imperial border will/might/won't work. I know Vince, Jenny, and Sarah have Ben, Barton/Jamo, and Elira/Iyar around who may or may not be doing spacer/trader type stuff, and I'm 95.8% sure that there are some other characters who either have transports/freighters, or might logically start doing that because of the Treaty. With Corporate Sector stuff lined up for the Greater Javin as well, there's a lot of potential business-level trade/cargo stuff as well, between Tagge, Shadowstar, Sienar-Santhe, and Valorum in particular.
I've been reading around on wookieepedia lately, and have some ideas / findings I'd like to share. I don't expect us to decide interstellar trade policy or anything like that, but I think it'd be handy to make sure we're all roughly standing on the same square one. :uhoh
* * *
Registration and Licences
Referring to a "registered transport" versus an "unregistered transport" is some catchy scifi lingo. But what does that actually mean?
On the wookieepedia page for Santhe Passenger and Freight (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Santhe_Passenger_and_Freight) (a subsidiary of Santhe Corporation / Sienar/Santhe Technologies), it mentions that almost 15% of the galaxy's passenger liners hail from the Allied Tion Sector. If this were road vehicles, that sounds similar to the idea of having a car with Minnesota plates; if it were planes, that sounds similar to having a tail number that begins with specific alphanumerics to show you that it's from America. Also, Santhe Passenger and Freight adds an extra tier: a truck with Minnesota plates belonging to UPS; a plane with a USA tail number belonging to Delta Airlines.
Star Wars also has commerce guilds, and by virtue of some fluky border placement, two of the biggest - the Corellian Merchants' Guild (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corellian_Merchants%27_Guild) and the Lantillian Spacers' Brotherhood (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lantillian_Spacers%27_Brotherhood) - are on opposite sides of the border. Both guilds offer trade opportunities, repair facilities, loans, etc to their members, presumably in exchange for some sort of membership percentage / fee. In the past, Lantillian has been the one with the strict rules and thus is mostly "legit" traders, whereas Corellian is lax enough to be full of smugglers.
Now however, it might be interesting to see a situation where being registered with / licensed by the Lantillian Spacers' Brotherhood is the equivalent of trying to go through immigration/customs with an Alliance of Free Planets passport. You don't need a "visa" to come into the Alliance because you're already registered with Lantillian; there's an allowance for how much you can bring across the border without paying import tax; it's like driving from the United States into Canada (though maybe without so much apologising). The Corellian Merchants' Guild might have a similar relationship with the Empire. There might be a Hutt commerce guild (the Hutt Cartel, basically?), and/or a Tion Cluster commerce guild too, for those who want a "spacer passport" but don't want to be associated with one group or the other.
Presumably, your ship is "registered" to a planet/sector, while your Captain is "licensed" by a commerce guild?
* * *
Customs and Immigration
There's already been a thread (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?55330-Travel-between-the-Empire-and-the-Alliance) talking about this in terms of passengers, but it applies to cargo and such as well, presumably. The general gist of what has been said so far seems to be: "it depends where you land". You're unlikely to be stopped at a border checkpoint in the middle of nowhere to be boarded and inspected... but when you land, you may have to go through the same hoops and hurdles as if you flew in on a plane. A domestic flight (ie. crossing no borders) might only incur a quick security inspection from a dude waving a scanny thingy around, whereas an international flight (eg. Bothawui to Bespin; Sullust to Eriadu) might require you to provide documentation, licences, visas, be checked against databases to make sure you're not a wanted criminal, etc.
* * *
Imports and Exports
Because of the way the border has been drawn, there are some very interesting import / export opportunities open to spacers (and smugglers). Some of my favourites:
Tion Cluster - the Tion Cluster is not aligned with the Alliance or the Empire, though there's some dispute over that internally. However, it used to be Imperial; so Imperial in fact that the headquarters of the Santhe Corporation and it's subsidiaries (including Santhe/Sienar Technologies) are located on Lianna in what used to be the Allied Tion Sector. The company that produces TIE Fighters and Interdictor Cruisers for the Galactic Empire is surrounded on all sides by Alliance space. Santhe/Sienar does have factories elsewhere (eg. Corulag and Byblos), and the odds of freighter crews being allowed to load up with TIE Fighters and fly through Alliance space is pretty slim... but there might be fairly lucrative trade opportunities for spacers wanting to ship spare parts, components, consumer electronics, and maybe even luxury items (it's a pretty swanky sector) back to the Empire.
Industrial Automaton - aside from discovering that it's Industrial "Automaton" not "Automation" (I feel like I've been living a nerd lie for years), I also discovered on Wookieepedia that the company responsible for making astromech droids is based on Nubia, which is in the Corellian Sector: yep, the same Nubia that designed Padmé's shiny space ships. You can't get much deeper into the heart of the Empire than Nubia, which presents one hell of a problem for the Alliance military, who need Industrial Automation astromechs to keep their X-Wings and Y-Wings in the air. If you're a smuggler and you're looking for something illegal to do that would benefit the Alliance: this might be your commodity of choice.
Bacta and Kolto - the only planet in the galaxy that makes bacta is Thyferra and, yep, still deep inside Imperial space. As something with purely medical/humanitarian applications, the Empire presumably isn't allowed to "ban" trade in bacta to the Alliance, but they can probably stick some pretty exorbitant taxes on it. Fortunately, there is a (slightly less effective) alternative: during the KOTOR/SWTOR era, kolto from Manaan (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Manaan) was the big thing. Manaan is in that "contested" patch near Zeltros, where neither the Empire nor Alliance has control; running kolto not just to the Alliance, but also to neutral Outer Rim worlds (Tatooine, Ryloth, etc) that are similarly cut off, and even to Hutt Space might be a pretty lucrative opportunity too. Medical supplies to Whitefall and all that.
Tibanna Gas - guns don't work if they don't have this magical mcguffin involved; it's a volatile gas that you transport frozen in carbonite (it's not just for people!), and everyone needs it as a fuel source for everything from blasters to blast furnaces to heating. Bespin, Genarius, Kril'Dor, Rendli, and Taloraan are major sources, all in Imperial space; the Alliance has Ord Ibanna, which is basically Cloud City's run-down older brother that needs fixing up to get back in the game. Like bacta, this is probably a legal but ruthlessly taxed export. If you're wanting an excuse to be at Cloud City though, this is one heck of a reason.
Guns - being an arms dealer in Star Wars is weird. You'd think that it'd be a restricted trade good, but with the number of backwaters and frontier planets with dangerous wildlife you need protecting from, pretty much everybody has and needs a blaster. BlasTech, Merr-Sonn, and SoroSuub are the galaxy's top three arms manufacturers; BlasTech is in Imperial space, SoroSuub is in Alliance space, and no one has ever said where Merr-Sonn is... though given how much stuff they made for Clone Troopers and the Naboo Security Forces I would guess it's somewhere in the Kamino / Rothana / southeast corner of the Outer Rim area. BlasTech mostly just makes stuff for Stormtroopers, but Merr-Sonn (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Merr-Sonn_Munitions,_Inc.) makes a lot of grenades, repeating blasters, and heavy weapons that the Alliance, Imperials, Hutts, Black Sun, planetary militias, and just everybody else will want. If you want a government shipping contract, this could well be it.
Charley and I have been chatting a bit about how trade across the Alliance/Imperial border will/might/won't work. I know Vince, Jenny, and Sarah have Ben, Barton/Jamo, and Elira/Iyar around who may or may not be doing spacer/trader type stuff, and I'm 95.8% sure that there are some other characters who either have transports/freighters, or might logically start doing that because of the Treaty. With Corporate Sector stuff lined up for the Greater Javin as well, there's a lot of potential business-level trade/cargo stuff as well, between Tagge, Shadowstar, Sienar-Santhe, and Valorum in particular.
I've been reading around on wookieepedia lately, and have some ideas / findings I'd like to share. I don't expect us to decide interstellar trade policy or anything like that, but I think it'd be handy to make sure we're all roughly standing on the same square one. :uhoh
* * *
Registration and Licences
Referring to a "registered transport" versus an "unregistered transport" is some catchy scifi lingo. But what does that actually mean?
On the wookieepedia page for Santhe Passenger and Freight (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Santhe_Passenger_and_Freight) (a subsidiary of Santhe Corporation / Sienar/Santhe Technologies), it mentions that almost 15% of the galaxy's passenger liners hail from the Allied Tion Sector. If this were road vehicles, that sounds similar to the idea of having a car with Minnesota plates; if it were planes, that sounds similar to having a tail number that begins with specific alphanumerics to show you that it's from America. Also, Santhe Passenger and Freight adds an extra tier: a truck with Minnesota plates belonging to UPS; a plane with a USA tail number belonging to Delta Airlines.
Star Wars also has commerce guilds, and by virtue of some fluky border placement, two of the biggest - the Corellian Merchants' Guild (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Corellian_Merchants%27_Guild) and the Lantillian Spacers' Brotherhood (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Lantillian_Spacers%27_Brotherhood) - are on opposite sides of the border. Both guilds offer trade opportunities, repair facilities, loans, etc to their members, presumably in exchange for some sort of membership percentage / fee. In the past, Lantillian has been the one with the strict rules and thus is mostly "legit" traders, whereas Corellian is lax enough to be full of smugglers.
Now however, it might be interesting to see a situation where being registered with / licensed by the Lantillian Spacers' Brotherhood is the equivalent of trying to go through immigration/customs with an Alliance of Free Planets passport. You don't need a "visa" to come into the Alliance because you're already registered with Lantillian; there's an allowance for how much you can bring across the border without paying import tax; it's like driving from the United States into Canada (though maybe without so much apologising). The Corellian Merchants' Guild might have a similar relationship with the Empire. There might be a Hutt commerce guild (the Hutt Cartel, basically?), and/or a Tion Cluster commerce guild too, for those who want a "spacer passport" but don't want to be associated with one group or the other.
Presumably, your ship is "registered" to a planet/sector, while your Captain is "licensed" by a commerce guild?
* * *
Customs and Immigration
There's already been a thread (http://theholo.net/forum/showthread.php?55330-Travel-between-the-Empire-and-the-Alliance) talking about this in terms of passengers, but it applies to cargo and such as well, presumably. The general gist of what has been said so far seems to be: "it depends where you land". You're unlikely to be stopped at a border checkpoint in the middle of nowhere to be boarded and inspected... but when you land, you may have to go through the same hoops and hurdles as if you flew in on a plane. A domestic flight (ie. crossing no borders) might only incur a quick security inspection from a dude waving a scanny thingy around, whereas an international flight (eg. Bothawui to Bespin; Sullust to Eriadu) might require you to provide documentation, licences, visas, be checked against databases to make sure you're not a wanted criminal, etc.
* * *
Imports and Exports
Because of the way the border has been drawn, there are some very interesting import / export opportunities open to spacers (and smugglers). Some of my favourites:
Tion Cluster - the Tion Cluster is not aligned with the Alliance or the Empire, though there's some dispute over that internally. However, it used to be Imperial; so Imperial in fact that the headquarters of the Santhe Corporation and it's subsidiaries (including Santhe/Sienar Technologies) are located on Lianna in what used to be the Allied Tion Sector. The company that produces TIE Fighters and Interdictor Cruisers for the Galactic Empire is surrounded on all sides by Alliance space. Santhe/Sienar does have factories elsewhere (eg. Corulag and Byblos), and the odds of freighter crews being allowed to load up with TIE Fighters and fly through Alliance space is pretty slim... but there might be fairly lucrative trade opportunities for spacers wanting to ship spare parts, components, consumer electronics, and maybe even luxury items (it's a pretty swanky sector) back to the Empire.
Industrial Automaton - aside from discovering that it's Industrial "Automaton" not "Automation" (I feel like I've been living a nerd lie for years), I also discovered on Wookieepedia that the company responsible for making astromech droids is based on Nubia, which is in the Corellian Sector: yep, the same Nubia that designed Padmé's shiny space ships. You can't get much deeper into the heart of the Empire than Nubia, which presents one hell of a problem for the Alliance military, who need Industrial Automation astromechs to keep their X-Wings and Y-Wings in the air. If you're a smuggler and you're looking for something illegal to do that would benefit the Alliance: this might be your commodity of choice.
Bacta and Kolto - the only planet in the galaxy that makes bacta is Thyferra and, yep, still deep inside Imperial space. As something with purely medical/humanitarian applications, the Empire presumably isn't allowed to "ban" trade in bacta to the Alliance, but they can probably stick some pretty exorbitant taxes on it. Fortunately, there is a (slightly less effective) alternative: during the KOTOR/SWTOR era, kolto from Manaan (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Manaan) was the big thing. Manaan is in that "contested" patch near Zeltros, where neither the Empire nor Alliance has control; running kolto not just to the Alliance, but also to neutral Outer Rim worlds (Tatooine, Ryloth, etc) that are similarly cut off, and even to Hutt Space might be a pretty lucrative opportunity too. Medical supplies to Whitefall and all that.
Tibanna Gas - guns don't work if they don't have this magical mcguffin involved; it's a volatile gas that you transport frozen in carbonite (it's not just for people!), and everyone needs it as a fuel source for everything from blasters to blast furnaces to heating. Bespin, Genarius, Kril'Dor, Rendli, and Taloraan are major sources, all in Imperial space; the Alliance has Ord Ibanna, which is basically Cloud City's run-down older brother that needs fixing up to get back in the game. Like bacta, this is probably a legal but ruthlessly taxed export. If you're wanting an excuse to be at Cloud City though, this is one heck of a reason.
Guns - being an arms dealer in Star Wars is weird. You'd think that it'd be a restricted trade good, but with the number of backwaters and frontier planets with dangerous wildlife you need protecting from, pretty much everybody has and needs a blaster. BlasTech, Merr-Sonn, and SoroSuub are the galaxy's top three arms manufacturers; BlasTech is in Imperial space, SoroSuub is in Alliance space, and no one has ever said where Merr-Sonn is... though given how much stuff they made for Clone Troopers and the Naboo Security Forces I would guess it's somewhere in the Kamino / Rothana / southeast corner of the Outer Rim area. BlasTech mostly just makes stuff for Stormtroopers, but Merr-Sonn (http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Merr-Sonn_Munitions,_Inc.) makes a lot of grenades, repeating blasters, and heavy weapons that the Alliance, Imperials, Hutts, Black Sun, planetary militias, and just everybody else will want. If you want a government shipping contract, this could well be it.