jpmschweitzerandClaude Opus 4.6
68867894e9
All 36 commodity stubs fleshed out with lore context, production chain descriptions, and economic intelligence briefing voice. Key treatments: fusion_fuel (D-187 8:1 ratio), services (location-bound mechanics), brands distinguished from commodities per D-185. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2.1 KiB
Freight Haulers
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Name | Freight Haulers |
| Tier | final |
| Elasticity | elastic |
| Base Price (Tractus) | 300 |
| Bulk Class | oversized |
| Unit | units |
| Production Ubiquity | concentrated |
| Demand Model | market |
| Commission Certified | Yes |
| Compact Contested | Yes |
| Shadow Viable | No |
| Panic Threshold (weeks) | 0 |
| Description | Commercial cargo vessels. Demand driven by trade volume, not population. |
Freight haulers are commercial cargo vessels at the working scale of Reach trade: gate-capable freighters, system-run bulk carriers, and the orbital-to-surface logistics craft that move goods between planets and stations. Production requires 1.5t of refined metals, 0.5 units of drive cores, and 0.3 units of electronics — the most metal-intensive final good recipe in the catalog. Commission safety registration is required, and the Compact contests this on the same jurisdictional grounds as transport vehicle registration: Commission certification of vessels operating within Compact systems is interpreted as implicit acceptance of Assembly commercial authority.
Demand is driven by trade volume, not by population. A system with high trade throughput — a major transit node, a mineral-export hub, a gate junction — generates freight hauler demand in proportion to cargo flows. A system with equivalent population but low trade activity does not. This decoupling from population means freight hauler production cycles track economic activity patterns rather than demographic growth, and experienced operators monitor trade-volume signals rather than census data when positioning equipment orders.
Concentrated production ubiquity reflects the capital intensity of shipbuilding. Only major industrial systems with integrated metal-to-drive-core supply chains and dry dock capacity operate at commercial hauler scale. Shadow viable is false: vessels require registration for gate transit, and unregistered cargo shipping is impractical rather than merely illegal. Commission registration contestation in the Compact plays out through licensing disputes and fee non-payment rather than through shadow vessels.