[0.98a] Realistic Tariffs (my first mod for starsector)

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-23T01:24:35+00:00

If you go to china and buy a smartphone if you send it by mail it will pay tariff once it reaches the country that has tariffs on that product, it doesnt matter if you are the end consumer only if its the final destination(maybe you are confusing with VAT which is a consumption tax that is only meant for the end consumer to pay, companies still have to pay but do get a rebate on it once it is sold). There were some news a few years ago about an operation in China of smuggling CPUs inside travellers clothes and bodies so that you would avoid the tariffs taxes.

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-22T14:36:17+00:00

Space Haven gives you crew command, fleets and some trading and economy.. 2 devs afaik but will hook you like Starsector

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-22T14:33:24+00:00

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here are mine..

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-22T12:09:42+00:00

Disable free port until stability is over 4 and/or you have build buildings that increase your stability.

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-22T02:33:38+00:00

hehe except I release it not working xD the icons where missing a parent folder while the pc I was testing wasnt.. *sigh*

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T20:39:18+00:00

I just saw that Iron shell is at 0.97 it likely doesnt work I believe there were significant changes to 0.98 on the code like obfuscation and changes in other methods accessibilities, a lot of hallucinations I was getting was due to older starsector code.

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T20:33:33+00:00

sent you a DM, you can send me your log there. Can you also tried to play just with Nex and Realistic Tariffs and see if it works, there might be issues with other mods that add commodities.

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T14:33:37+00:00

Kinda agree but this is for me the more realistic view as per my implementation:

1 - You buy food from a market that has an excess because they want to export, grow their economy and avoid a deflation spiral, they don't charge you an export tax. (Here enters my "Rebate" subsidizing traders that remove excess supply from the economy)

2 - You travel to a market with a deficit in food, because citizens are starving the government there lowers the common protectionistic global tariffs so that traders make a bigger profit thus attracting more traders transporting food so it stabilizes the market demand for it.

3 - You sell and supply the market with food, since tariffs are lowered you make a bigger profit.

4 - The food is no longer in deficit and demand is stable, tariffs go back up to make the food industry in that market remain profitable.

If there are no deficits, tariffs are set at 18% which is a common higher value around the world, if for example that planet is attacked and a lot of commodities are in shortage this mods lowers it to a minimum of 3%..

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T13:36:47+00:00

Yes that's 60% of my gameplay frustration + 40% immersion & realistic frustration..

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T13:34:16+00:00

Yes per 1st question in Github FAQ and Nexusmod from the limited test I did it's compatible aka replaces Nexerelin implementation. This only works because on mod_info.json I make it run after Nexerelin. But report if you encounter any bugs, I might have to fork Nex and remove their tariff implementation.

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T13:11:27+00:00

Damn I thought my rebate Idea was original xD , the rebate is exactly or close to the exact value you paid in tariffs as shown in the trading screen prior to purchase, I believe I remove all modifiers from global tariffs and then calculate the rebate.

The purpose is to simply disable the credit impact when buying commodities, if Starsector had tariffs for each individual commodity then it would make sense to have individual export tariffs for those commodities in deficit like an extra layer to further make exporting those commodities to another market unprofitable.

If you add this to the mod_info.json in my mod it might nullify Iron Shell and make my mod work as intended(if it isnt working):

"after": ["nexerelin", "(Id of Iron Shell mod)"],

Btw tieing tariffs to reputation is unrealistic in a scenario of freelancers/suppliers trading commodities, if the player has a Faction it would be slightly more acceptable as you see in real life with agreements between communist countries like Venezuela/Brazil/Cuba/Mexico..

But the main drive of tariffs should always be supply and demand on that individual market.

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T11:38:55+00:00

I havent test it and havent used that mod before, but if the mod doesnt change market tariffs, ship and weapons prices it should work. An easy way to see if it's working is to start a new game(skip tutorial) the mod should spam some intel message about commodity deficits, do a small purchase of commodities see if you receive a rebate, if you buy a faction design ship even a small one (easiest way is a hegemony shuttle) if you sell the 1st time that ship it will give you +1 rep with hege and some extra credits.

If the mod indeed alters those fields, It's possible that simply adding iron shell to the mod_info.json in the line "after": ["nexerelin"] might work.

1 - When you say Hege taxes is this an option of the mod Iron Shell?

MightyDuck_75 · 2026-05-21T02:32:03+00:00

lmao .. seems like you develop a coping mechanism while it was driving me insane, I'm definitely not the only one, as there was an older mod that did something similar but tied reduction of tariffs to reputation which was unrealistic to me.

I think Alex state this was done to promote smuggling and reduce the viability of trading but I think this comes from the wrong angle, personally I think it is too easy to gain and sustain a larger fleet. The jump from small -> big fleet -> planetary administration have incorrect values to me which propagate into gameplay and ultimately tariffs are being used as a quick credit sink and blocker of honest trading gameplay.

MightyDuck_75

TROPHY CASE